The Harbor Gallery at the Nature Center of Cape May is pleased to announce their featured local artists for the month of June. John King and Janet Payne will display their works for the entire month of June, with an opening reception to meet the artists on June 2nd from 4-6pm. Light refreshments will be served.

John King is a local photographer who enjoys capturing the beauty of the cape island ecosystem. His love of the Cape May community and wildlife began at a young age with visits to his grandparent’s house on the bayshore. An internship with the Nature Center of Cape May during his college years further stoked his interest in outdoor education as well and coastal ecology. As a current elementary principal and real estate salesperson, John finds calmness and serenity in walks through our local trails and beaches with his camera looking to capture the beauty that surrounds our home town. He lives in Cape May with his wife Sarah and daughters Sianna and Maggie. When he is not working or traveling to one of his daughter’s soccer or lacrosse games he can be found surfing or fishing. All photos were taken with a Canon 5d Mark ii camera with various canon lenses.

Janet Payne is a local artist and jeweler. Janet spends hours each morning, walking the beaches of Cape May collecting sea glass for her jewelry. Inspired by the natural, ocean worn textures of driftwood she finds on the beach and the incredible beauty of morning’s first light, Janet creates her seascapes. Using acrylic paint, she gently coaxes the natural seascapes out of these pieces of driftwood, which are then framed with bits of dune fencing which she also finds on the beach. Along the way she picks up beach trash. She creates fanciful fish out of the plastic collected from the tide line. Janet was inspired to start picking up beach trash after seeing micro plastic on the strand line of a beach on Maui when she was there for the birth of her grandson over seven years ago. “I want to make sure that all of our grandchildren have a beautiful beach to enjoy and explore. I hope that my fish can be a conversation starter about our use of single use plastic and hopefully bring about some changes in our everyday use of plastics.” Explains Janet.

For more information please contact Nature Center of Cape May 609-427-3045. Art lovers are encouraged to come and meet artists at the Nature Center of Cape May from 4-6pm on the first Friday of the month and then head over to The Gallery at Ferry Park for their artists’ opening reception which runs from 5-7pm on the first Friday of the month as well.