"Conversations With my Watercolor Box" - Exhibit by 2017 A.R.T. Artist Glenda Drennen!

Artwork ©Glenda Drennen

 

"Conversations with My Watercolor Box",  an exhibit by Glenda Drennen is now showing at the Witter Gallery in Storm Lake, IA. 

 

A native from South Dakota, Glenda Drennen was a former public school music teacher.  She then began to paint with Watercolor after leaving her teaching career; through her found passion, she has been awarded many memberships like the Iowa Watercolor Society, Watercolor Honor Society, and Iowa Artist. A number of her award winning paintings have been exhibited in corporate and private collections across the States and abroad. Drennen’s Studio - Watermark Studio, is located in LeMars, IA. 

 

Glenda's work is both colorful and whimsical. Her work is very dreamlike and attractive to the eye. Drennen uses her wonderful imagination of storytelling to create her paintings, being inspired from a variety of stories and events in her life.

 

The exhibit will be showing through August 26th - be sure and not miss this wonderful showing!  For more information contact the Witter Gallery in Storm Lake at 712 732-3400.  The Witter Gallery is located at 609 Cayuga Street in Storm Lake, IA.

2016 Artisans Road Trip Artist Pam Harp at the Le Mars Art Center in August!

Artwork ©Pam Harp

Local watercolor artist, Pam Harp is excited to present her first solo exhibition, "The Earth Laughs in Flowers" A Collection of Floral Watercolors by Pam Harp. Her work will be on display at the Le Mars Art Center for the month of August. The public is invited to meet the artist at a gallery reception on Thursday, August 4 from six to eight p.m.

Pam is a Contemporary Realist fascinated by the intricate detail she observes in her floral subjects. From the lacy petals of a peony to the folds of a rose, her tightly rendered watercolors capture their exquisite beauty.

Pam's passion for flowers inspire her watercolors. "Have you ever stopped to really take in the amazing detail offered in a flower garden? It seems the closer you look, the more you see. It's my hope to capture that detail in a way that allows you the opportunity to enjoy that incredible array with me."

Pam Harp is an Alton based artist whose work is currently represented at the Le Mars Art Center as well as the Summerwind Gallery in Arnold's Park. Two pieces of her art have been juried into the 2016 Iowa State Fair in August, and she is among the artists selected for this year's Artisans Road Trip, an open studio tour of Northwest Iowa artists on October 8 and 9. 

Her work has also appeared at the Orange City Art's Regional Exhibition at the DeWitt Theatre Arts Center at Northwestern College, an  A.R.T. Group Exhibition at Witter Gallery in Storm Lake and The Denver Discovery at Highlands Ranch Mansion in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

For more information on the exhibition, contact Judy Marienau at 712-546-7476 at the Le Mars Art Center - www.lemarsarts.com.  Artisans Road Trip information can be found at www.artisansroadtrip.com.

"COWGIRLS" Exhibit Coming to Arts on Grand!

The Cowgirls are coming!!!  Carol Herdin, Mona Majorowicz and Barbara McGee have been talking about putting this show together for several years and it is finally ready to hang at Arts on Grand in Spence, Iowa.  Barb is a member of the 2015 Artisans Road Trip!

 oil painting - ©Barb McGee

  watercolor painting - ©Barb McGee

These two paintings were completed by Barbara McGee in the last month, and Barb gives us a little insight and look into the process she used working on these two paintings - one is oil and one watercolor but they were both painted with only three colors, blue, red and yellow plus white for the oil painting.  This was an interesting exercise, in which McGee learned that there is a limitless number of colors that can be created from these three colors.  The oil painting was started first, it is a very tight, precise panting that required a large range of colors and values. She was surprised to find out that almost every color mixed required varying amounts of all three of the colors plus white for the lighter values.  The watercolor was started on a Wednesday in August and was framed and hung on the wall the next day.  It didn't turn out at all as she had intended but when it was done she was happy.  The watercolors were mixed in the same way as the oils except that no white is required because the paper works as the white.  After doing two full paintings in this manner McGee is taken with the simplicity of working with fewer colors.  

The exhibit runs from September 1 through 26th with the opening reception on Thursday September 3rd from 5:30 to 8:00.  The reception is free and open to the public - come meet the artists and take in this fun show!

"COME TO MY WINDOW" - Solo Exhibit by Anita K. Plucker, 2014 Artisans Road Trip Artist!

"ONE WITH NATURE"

watercolor ©Anita K. Plucker

"COME TO MY WINDOW" is a new solo exhibit by Anita K Plucker!  The exhibit will be held at the Nobles County Art Center, 407 12th St. in Worthington, MN.
 

"FROM MY KAYAK - TRUMBULL  LAKE"

watercolor ©Anita K. Plucker

"This exhibit offers insight as to what matters to me....what is important to me....and what inspires me to create my watercolor paintings and colored pencil drawings,"states the artist.

"ADAPTATION - BULLFROG"

 watercolor ©Anita K. Plucker

"At the top of the list is nature, all forms of it. I am in awe of nature and am grateful for the wonder I feel for it. When I am immersed in it, the real me rises to the surface and life's chaos melts away..... for a while. Nature literally reveals and soothes my inner spirit. I especially love the peacefulness of being out on the water in my kayak. Usually with camera in hand, I am able to capture scenes of nature up close. For the last five years, these outings have led me to create a body of work titled, "From My Kayak"., focusing on the designs, the patterns and the textures created as nature and man play with the surface of the water. I find myself almost constantly looking at my world through an invisible viewfinder, studying and analyzing the light, the shadows, the composition, all of which triggers something inside me to consider what I am seeing as a painting or drawing."

Exhibit Opening & Artist's Reception: Sunday, June 1, 2-4 pm

Art Center hours are 2-4:30 weekdays.

2013 Artisans Road Trip Artist Barb McGee

"Resurrection!!!"

watercolor - ©Barb McGee

Every artist has their methods of working and dealing with the creative process each day.  Here we visit 2013 A.R.T. artist Barb McGee dealing with the daunting process of "revisiting" a painting she had set aside at some point in time - and come out with positive results!

"I was digging through a pile of old painting the other day and stumbled upon this one.  I call this pile my bone pile, you know when a painting just didn’t make me happy when I was done with it that is where it goes.  Well, for some reason I pulled this one out of the pile.  I took it to my painting table and tweaked on it for about two hours.  Most artists know what it means to tweak.  It means to go in and enhance some areas and maybe soften some others.  I this case I went in and deepened the color in the throat of the lily and deepened the blue gray shadows on the petals.  After I had finished the flowers I went to the background and totally reworked it.  Because the painting is watercolor I was rather surprised at how easy it was to move the dark green around.  I lifted some of the paint to form leaves and I blotted some of the areas so that it created a dappled look.  Now I have named the painting 'Resurrection!!!' because it was indeed resurrected from the bone pile. "

Thank you for visiting the artists of the 2013 Artisans Road Trip!  Time is beginning to draw near - its only 5 weeks before the A.R.T. weekend!  Be sure and put us in your autumn trip and weekend plans - the 10th Anniversary of the Artisans Road Trip! 

A.R.T. Artist in Richeson 75 Figure/Portrait 2012 International Competition

"Sojourners" 

watercolor © Judy Thompson

Even though the studio tour part of the 2012 Artisans Road Trip is behind us this year, the artists of the Artisans Road Trip work through the year with A.R.T. as a group, doing exhibits and meeting to work on activities for the coming year.  Another part of being a participant in the organization is being showcased in our blog, letting everyone know what our artists are up to "throughout" the year. Here we learn about 2012 Artisans Road Trip artist Judy Thompson and her participation and acceptance in a recent competition.  

Watercolor artist, Judy Thompson, had the honor of taking part in the Richeson 75 Figure/Portrait 2012 International Competition.  Her figurative piece, Sojourners is one of 75 pieces of art which was selected from several hundred entries, including entries from four continents in a variety of mediums.

Jack Richeson& Co. is a leading manufacturer and supplier of high-quality art materials. As part of their mission to support the visual arts community, the Richeson School of Art & Gallery and the Richeson75 International Art Competitions were created. The Richeson75 Competitions are meant to offer a venue in which established and emerging artists may show their latest, best work to a wide and appreciative audience.

You can see Judy’s work and the complete exhibition online at Richeson 75 Portraits.

Be sure and check back again for more about the artists of the 2012 Artisans Road Trip - throughout the year!

2011 Artisans Road Trip Artist - Glenda Drennen

Our Artisans Road Trip artist spot light this week is on Le Mars Watercolor artist Glenda Drennen.

The allure of watercolor captivated Glenda Drennen from the moment she first tried it nearly 30 years ago. A former public school music teacher, Glenda's love affair with this medium began when she married and left teaching. She is a seasoned artist who has earned signature memberships at both the state and national level in both the Iowa Watercolor Society and the Watercolor Honor Society, Springfield, MO and is a member of Iowa Artists.

"St. Joe's" - Watercolor

©Glenda Drennen

Earlier in her life as an artist, painting hundreds of commissions - usually house or business portraits - was a mainstay in her career. While she now accepts few orders, a recent commission painting, "Old St. Joes - Midnight Mass," was particularly successful. The painting featured a historic church that will soon be razed, and sold at auction at a Pheasants Forever fund raising event for $10,000.

"Too Many House Plants" - Watercolor

©Glenda Drennen 

Glenda uses the unpredictable nature of watercolor to advantage, and her energetic paintings often include surprises and reflect her sense of humor. She prefers to work from her vivid imagination, using little if any source material. Most paintings are started with little if any idea of a subject. Her work has evolved into a strong personal statement that is increasingly abstracted and subjective. While she honors and practices the time-honored tradition of transparent watercolor, she also embraces the use of other water soluble media and collage to broaden the creative possibilities. Her work is complex, rich with texture, and shows a maturity of creative expression.

"Tattered Veils of Fall" - Watercolor

©Glenda Drennen

 
"Tattered Veils of Fall" was one of two of Glenda's paintings recently published in an online  cyberbook, "Walk Into Abstracts 2 - How did they do that?" by Sue St. John. The book features images and single page descriptions of the working process for the work of 26 artists.

Ms. Drennen will be showing her work at A Piece of Work in downtown Spirit Lake during the Artisan Road Trip. Until then, some of her work and her blog (under "news") can be seen on her website www.glendadrennen.com

Be sure and check back again for more news from the 2011 Artisans Road Trip - thank you for visiting!