A.R.T. Artist Spotlight - Mary Ortner

Diptych: "Thunderclouds Over Fairview Bonanza"

©Mary Ortner

This week's 2010 Artisans Road Trip artist is Mary Ortner from Odebolt, Iowa.  Mary gives us  some insight into her work and background!

"Although I was born in Iowa, and raised on a square-country mile, most of my adult life was spent in DC and New York.

That trek half-way across the country was driven by the same youthful curiosity that had spurred exploring every inch of that one-square mile called home.  And it would be in those nascent experiences that a buffer would be found against the maddening city-crowds whose cold indifference seemed but to rush through her canyons of concrete and steel.

I was in my late twenties before the artist within began budding.  Inspiration -- rooted in those home-grown experiences -- was abundant.  But I was also self taught and often heard that without "proper" artistic credentials, I couldn't be taken seriously!

Encouragement from certain of the, then prominent, Washington Color School, kept me from feeling like a snow cone in the middle of the Mojave!  Within a year, I began showing my work.

In the interim since, I've come to discover that what moves my hand across the canvas is not the face of nature, but that which lies behind it.

Currently -- and between the raindrops -- I'm challenged to write a draft-text for a children's book based on a series of collage inspired by what I call -- E.T. moments!  This little character popped into my head, but thereafter, took on a life of his own -- creating his own adventures.

Those adventures inspired a following whose interest, in turn, inspired thoughts of doing a book.

And his name?  It was found in the bosom of the night sky along with the steps back in time to the youthful memories of being sprawled upon the grass, gazing into the star-filled sky, wondering who might be gazing back at me -- and now I know!"

Be sure and pay a visit to Mary's studio and the studio of other artists the coming weekend of October 1st through 3rd for the 2010 Artisans Road Trip!!!

Hope to see you then!

Those Dreaded Comissions

"Hot Rodder"
(watercolor)

This Artisans Road Trip blog features Barb McGee, a painter whose studio is located in the Ridge and Tallgrass region of A.R.T. - in Peterson, Iowa. Barb's favored mediums are watercolor and oil, and her subject matter is generally western in theme, and (although not limited to) equine.

"Megan's Painting"

(watercolor)

Barb is speaking today on her views of commissioned works:

"There are two sides to every issue and the same is true of commissions. Almost every artist I know hates to do commissions and they growl the whole time they are doing them. Because of the type of work that I do, it seems that I am blessed with a number of them. I have devised a plan that sometimes works well for me and my client. If it is at all possible, I will go and take my own photographs of the subject. I will usually take twenty or thirty shots and then all we have to do is download to their computer and choose which one we want to use for the painting. This method gives both of us input into the painting but allows me to feel like it is my own creation.

Kathy's Folks
(watercolor)

On the other side of the coin are the commissions that drive us all wild AUGH !!! Here are three different pictures of my dad's dead horses can you do a painting of them??? Of course all of the snapshots are from 20 ft away and none are really what you would call attractive and one of them is turned in the opposite direction, what do you do then? PUNT, IMPROVISE, then I praise God that when it is done, they will come and get it and give me a check. It won't be collecting dust in the gallery for the rest of my natural life. Yeah for commissions?????"

"Alexis Foot"
(watercolor)

You can see more of Barb McGee's artwork on her art websites - McGee Gallery & Framing, and Horses by McGee.

Stop back on occasion and see what the artisans of A.R.T. are up to, their thought process, or typical day in the studio or in the field!