A Hopewell Borough resident took home a big prize at the 2024 Mercer County Senior Art Show. Claude Herzberg won first place in the “nonprofessional oil painting” category, but his painting “Storm Coming” is far from amateur.
The Mercer County Senior Art Show
Each year, County residents aged 60 or older are invited to submit artwork to the Mercer County Senior Art Show, hosted by the Mercer County Office on Aging and the Division of Culture and Heritage. This year, professional juror Tricia Fagan selected the winners from 136 entries. The show runs through September 9 at The Conference Center at Mercer on Mercer County Community College’s West Windsor campus and can also be viewed on the County of Mercer website.
All first-place winners from the County show will advance to the New Jersey Senior Citizen Art Show, which will be held in October.
A Journey from Science to Art
Claude Herzberg and his wife Phyllis Brown have been residents of Hopewell Borough for more than 30 years. Herzberg is a retired professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University he taught thousands of students over 41 years and published extensively in peer review journals.
“But my first love was art,” Herzberg shared with MercerMe. “When I was young, I would go feral during trips to the lakes and mountains in western Canada where I was born and raised. As a university student, I did geological field work in northern and western Canada. I have always had a spiritual connection with nature, and I discovered that art and science are just different ways of experiencing its beauty and mystery.”
Inspiration from Nature
While Herzberg paints primarily non-site-specific landscapes, he shared that he takes inspiration from Hopewell’s surroundings.
“I try to capture the awe and wonder I feel for nature, using sky and clouds around Hopewell as inspiration and my memories of landscapes of Canada,” he shared. “My landscapes are all about how light illuminates sky, standing bodies of water, trees, grasses, and wildflowers. I discovered that the spiritual power of light is enhanced by contrasting it with dark shadows in clouds or the shade in meadows and woodlands. All these things I have learned from my almost daily walks in Hopewell Borough Park.”
To view more of Claude’s artwork, please visit his website https://www.claudeherzbergart.com.
Explore the Winners of the Mercer County Senior Art Show
Listed below are the individuals who were awarded first, second, and third place, as well as honorable mention in their respective categories.
NON-PROFESSIONAL
Acrylic
1st – Charles Fox, Hamilton
2nd – Janis Sawicke, Lawrenceville
3rd – Rochelle Clerkin, Hamilton
HM – Judy Kolpack, Hamilton; Edie Multop, Hamilton; Frank Redondo, Hamilton
Craft
1st – Frank Castellana, Princeton
2nd – Ted Sikorski, Hamilton
3rd – Douglas Watt, Hamilton
HM – Loreta Macaraig, Hamilton; Josephine O’Halloran, Ewing
Digital
1st – Stephen Heringes, Hamilton
2nd – Joel Finger, Pennington
Mixed Media
1st – Eugenia Travers, Trenton
2nd – Andrea Pitluk, Princeton
3rd – Alison Young, East Windsor
HM – Joseph Kvarta, Trenton; Eleni Litt, Princeton
Oil
1st – Claude Herzberg, Hopewell
2nd – Andrew O’Connor, Trenton
3rd – Ramani Dahanayake, Princeton Junction
HM – Eileen Galton, Princeton; Meera Pradhan, Princeton
Pastel
1st – Susan Tsui, Hightstown
2nd – Barbara Brown, Ewing
3rd – Sandra Acosta, Ewing
HM – Doris Dopkin, East Windsor
Photography
1st – Rebecca DePorte, BEST IN SHOW, NON-PRO, Princeton
2nd – Patrick Compagnucci, Trenton
3rd – Holly McDonald, Robbinsville
HM – Sari DeCesare, Pennington; Elliot Gordon, Princeton; Ellen Mondschein, East Windsor
Sculpture
1st – Kay Chen, East Windsor
2nd – Stephen Brown, Hamilton
Watercolor
1st – Cecilia Hetzer, East Windsor
2nd – Katie Hammer, East Windsor
3rd – Rita Cleary, Ewing
HM – Victoria Mark, Ewing; Michele Martin, Robbinsville; C Wyluda, Pennington
Works on Paper
1st – Barbara Bingham, Pennington
2nd – Sulhiniso Rahmatullaeva, Lawrenceville
3rd – Samita Bhatia, Princeton
HM – Earl Brancolino, Hamilton
PROFESSIONAL
Acrylic
1st – Jane Conlon Goble, Lawrenceville
2nd – Arcelio Brignoni, East Windsor
3rd – William Plank, Lawrenceville
HM – Ruben Macaraig, Hamilton
Craft
1st – Deb Brockway, Hamilton
2nd – Barry Hantman, Ewing
3rd – Sue Chiu, Lawrenceville
Digital
1st – Maia Reim, BEST IN SHOW, PRO, West Windsor
Mixed Media
1st – James Dashcund, Hopewell
2nd – Helene Plank, Lawrenceville
3rd – Sheran Boddie, Lawrenceville
Oil
1st – Karen Brodsky, Princeton
2nd – Lori Langsner, Princeton
3rd – Zakia Ahmed, Princeton
HM – Nora Ananos, Princeton; Younghee Chung, Princeton; Robert Lowe, Trenton
Pastel
1st – Margaret Kalvar-Bushnell, Princeton Junction
Photography
1st – Diana Frost, Princeton
2nd – JJ Raia, West Windsor
3rd – Jill Mudge, Pennington
HM – Jack Kosowsky, Hamilton
Sculpture
1st – Leslie Binswanger Siegel, Lawrenceville
2nd – Caryn Newman, Ewing
Watercolor
1st – Margaret Simpson, Hamilton
2nd – Alexandra Indara, Hamilton
3rd – Sara Hendrickson, Ewing
HM – Lynn Cheng Varga, Hamilton
Works on Paper
1st – Terry Goldstein, East Windsor
2nd – Eleanor Dock, Ewing
3rd – Frank Pastore, Hightstown
HM – Orlando Loaiza, Hightstown
HM – David Potts, Hamilton
Congratulations to the winners!
