MARION — Soft pastel landscapes, watercolor paintings, drawings of trees and paintings of small town stores lined the walls of the Marion Art Center on Saturday, Jan. 4 in preparation of the center’s annual Winter Members Show.

Twice a year, members of the Marion Art Center can showcase their artwork, with the winter showing set to open Saturday, Jan. 11 in what is also the center’s first show of the year.

“It’s a way to support our members,” said Jodi Stevens, the center’s executive director.

The only prerequisite for taking part in the show, Stevens said, is to be a member of the center.

Members can also only submit a maximum of two pieces created within the last five years that haven’t been shown before.

Unlike other shows that often feature the work of one or two artists or follow a certain theme, the members shows are open to “all different types of media,” Stevens said, adding that she would “love to see more 3D work, if possible.”

This can cause some difficulty when it comes to arranging the artwork, which will occupy all wall space in the center, on both the first and second floors.

“Our exhibitions committee does a really good job of curating and kind of laying out the show so that it looks great for our guests,” Stevens said.

Stevens said that around 70 artists usually participate in the members shows, which usually feature over 100 pieces but sometimes more than 150.

“It’s a nice opportunity to see a lot of different work together in the same space,” Stevens said.

Stevens, who has been with the center for a little over six years, said that it seems like every year the artwork “just gets better and better.”

“Not only has the quality of the work improved, but we definitely have a lot of new members participating,” she said.

The shows give members the opportunity to become more confident in their work, Stevens said.

“Maybe they have a sale or maybe they get lots of good feedback from their colleagues when they’re showing in a gallery,” she added. “So it’s a great opportunity, not just for established artists, but for new artists as well.”

Donna Pauldin, of Mattapoisett, first participated in the center’s members show last year after she began dabbling with watercolors and decided to participate again this year.

As a self-described amateur and someone who doesn’t sell her artwork, Pauldin sees the members show as the “perfect venue.”

“To be able to present something and have fun and [have] people hear my story and what my artwork’s about is really what is fun,” she said. “And I’m sure everybody here has a story behind their artwork.”

Pauldin paints with watercolors and gets her inspiration by “getting into nature.”

One of her featured paintings in the show comes from a photograph of Weeki Wachee Springs, which she took when she was in Florida for her daughter’s birthday.

“All my stuff has to do with colors, and I love the blues, greens and the yellows, all those positive colors, and I try to get that into my artwork,” she said.

Carol Bliven, of Dartmouth, has taken part in the members show for several years. 

This year, she’s showing two of her soft pastel landscape drawings of a Dartmouth beach and Acadia, Maine.

A retired art teacher who has participated in art shows in Westport, with the Cape Cod Pastel Society and with the Art Drive, which is an open studio tour, Bliven said she likes to participate in the members shows because “this is what keeps the arts alive.”

“I think it raises awareness in the community of the arts,” she added. “I think it also established, or re-establishes, the value of the arts in the community and beyond.”