Photo from Roxanne Ando The whimsical watercolors of Silver Spring painter Roxanne Ando will be featured in the Montgomery Art Association's MAA Gallery inside Westfield Wheaton Mall for the month of February.

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Roxanne Ando believes that “buy local” shouldn’t be a motto used only at farmers’ markets.

The same holds true inside the Westfield Wheaton Mall, where Ando and dozens of other members of the Montgomery Art Association put their work up for display and sale inside the association’s gallery space — the MAA Gallery.

“We’re all local artists so we try to say ‘buy locally, it’s not just for groceries,’” says Ando, 58, of Silver Spring. “Even if people just come in to look, we hope they enjoy it and get something out of it.”

As the featured artist for the month of February, Ando will have the opportunity to display 16 of her Chinese watercolor paintings at the MAA Gallery. The Montgomery Art Association opened the venue in late 2010 and allows its members to rotate a few pieces of their work throughout, while the featured artist is chosen randomly. The association takes a percentage of the profit from any art sold, and requires its members to take turns working inside the retail space.

Ando began painting eight years ago when she began talking classes from Helen Sze McCarthy at the Montgomery County Department of Recreation. As a Japanese American, she found Chinese watercolor paintings a good way to connect with her Asian heritage.

“I’m still taking classes, I still feel like I have a lot to learn,” she says.

Ando’s artwork focuses on the delicate floral images and whimsical landscapes common in traditional Chinese watercolors. Much of her work evokes the Four Gentlemen — or four plants that make up the core of Chinese brush paintings: orchid, plum blossom, chrysanthemum and bamboo. Each plant also relates to a basic brush style used in the art form.

As is tradition, Ando signs her work with a chop, or a stamping of red ink created with a rock. The seal she uses represents her last name in Japanese kanji characters, and means peaceful wisteria.

Ando joined the Montgomery Art Association a year ago as a way to improve her visibility locally and improve her marketing skills. She previously sold her work in the online artisan marketplace Etsy.com, but working in the gallery has helped her gain a deeper appreciation of the effort that goes into being a working artist.

“It is the business side of arts, which is usually a challenge for most artists,” she says. “We like to think of ourselves as creative.”

The Montgomery Art Association provides a way for local artists to work together in a collective, while pooling resources and creating opportunities they could not get by working separately, Ando says.

“Nobody is going to see and buy my work if it’s sitting at home in my closet,” she says. “The gallery is really an opportunity for an artist like myself.”

ccalamaio@gazette.net

The Montgomery Art Association’s MAA Gallery is open from noon to 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and from 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays at Westfield Wheaton Mall, 11160 Veirs Mill Road, Wheaton. A reception for the February show featuring Roxanne Ando will be held Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Call 301-842-7046 or visit www.montgomeryart.org.