Merle Citron

Painter Merle Citron's work in oil, pen and ink, and ink and gouache on paper, can be divided into four major genres. She describes her non-objective work as color and shape in motion "springing across the paper." Georgia O'Keeffe inspired her paintings of human-sized fruits and vegetables. Her third style is landscape paintings inspired by her travels to Southern France and the Canadian Rockies. There are also her figurative paintings, expressing the universal qualities and frailties of being human through people, most of whom are sitting and waiting. She hopes to convey something of the familiar, so that the viewer can identify with these people. The sense of waiting is symbolic of "waiting to become." Most of Citron's subjects are photographed during her trips. Even though teaching puts demands on her time, she always finds time to paint.

Education and Training
Mostly self-taught as a painter
Summit Art Center, Summit, New Jersey, 1972-1973
Princeton Art Association, Princeton, New Jersey, 1975-1977
Workshops, Teacher-Artist Alliance, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, New Jersey, 1990, 1992
Studied in Paris, 1990, 1992, 1996

Teachers and Influences
Citron cites Joseph Smith and Jacob Landon, from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Teacher-Artist Alliance, as two major influences. She is also influenced by Georgia O'Keeffe and Edward Hopper. She admires the work of contemporary Bucks County figurative painters Paul Matthews and James Moon Feehan.

Connection to Bucks County
Merle Citron moved from Woodstock, New York, to Lambertville, New Jersey, in 1978. She exhibits locally in both New Hope and Lambertville.

Colleagues
Merle Citron was associated with a group of women artists called "9 Women." The group was formed in 1978 as a social group for professional growth, and they also exhibited together. Some of the members included the Bucks County painters, Pat Martin, Suzanne Douglass, Nura Petrov, Phoebe Chorley, Ellen Hall, and Annelies van Dommelen.

Affiliations and Memberships
In addition to her affiliation with Artsbridge, Merle Citron has been an auctioneer for the Annual Shad Festival Poster Art Auction in Lambertville.

Major Solo Exhibitions
New Jersey National Bank, NJ, 1980, 1982, 1983
Going Bannanas, River Center for the Arts, New Hope, PA, 1982
The Cafe, Lambertville, NJ, 1987, 1988, 1989
Connections, a Retrospective, Lambertville, NJ, 1994

Major Group Exhibitions
Green Sergents Covered Bridge Association, 1979
9 Women, Stover Mill, Erwinna, PA, 1980
Coryell Gallery, Lambertville, NJ, 1981
Art By Bucks County Women, Bucks County Council on the Arts, Doylestown, PA, 1984
Warmwinds, The Cafe, Lambertville, NJ, 1987
First Lambertville Shad Festival Art Show, Lambertville, NJ
Artful Eye Gallery, Lambertville, NJ, 1989
New Hope Arts Commission, Tastebuds, New Hope, PA, 1994
66th Annual Phillips' Mill Exhibition, New Hope, PA, 1995

Teaching and Professional Appointments
Instructor in English, Ewing High School, Ewing, New Jersey, 1974-present
President, Artsbridge, 1994
Program Chair, Artsbridge, 1995

Major Awards
Third Prize, Franklin Arts Council, 1974
Honorable Mention, Coryell Gallery, Lambertville, New Jersey, 1981
Best In Show, First Lambertville Shad Festival Art Show, Lambertville, New Jersey