Mother Earth Finishing Eden – Anderson

First Friday at Artworks Around Town presents a duo of joyous painters from Ohio.  Kathryn “Kit” Edwards Dailey and Judy Anderson bring fun, color, design and bright light to the Studio Gallery at 2200 Market Street in Historic Wheeling’s Centre Market.  The opening reception will run from 5 to 8 PM this Friday, September 6^th.  The public is invited and light refreshments will be served.  The gallery show artists will be present as will many of the Artworks artists.

Kathryn “Kit” Edwards Dailey has turned whimsy into gold.  Her watercolor or casein paintings are filled with joy, love and humor.  “Plaid Cow Disease” was chosen for the Ohio Watercolor Society Exhibition.  “Cow Out” won first place in the mixed media division of the Foothills Art Festival.  Kit is a painter who gifts you, the viewer with a moment of happiness from viewing her artwork.  Even her titles elicit a smile before the painting is fully comprehended.

Plaid Cow Disease – Dailey

This well educated and trained artist calls herself a “what if” painter not a “what is” painter.  She tells whimsical stories using her watercolors, casein or acrylics on Arches paper or gallery wrapped canvases.  Trained as a teacher at Miami University, she has combined her teaching career with her family’s frequent moves as an opportunity to further her training in her art.  Kit attended classes at the Columbus College of Art and Design and Ohio University through the years.  Then she began to study with some of the most prominent art teachers and art workshop leaders in Ohio.

Judy Anderson’s paintings are bright, beautiful, and full of exuberance.  This artist started her artistic life at the age of seven and continued over the years to pursue her artistic career through all the vicissitudes of life.  When her children were small, she drew with pen and ink.  When her husband was ill, she painted for four or five hours after her care giving duties were finished for the day. She never gave up her art, always adapted her work to her situation in life.

Judy sees herself as an “expressionist”.  Her work is self-described as “mindscapes”.  She uses her surroundings as inspiration only.  The surroundings are a resource for her work, not a religion to be followed strictly. There is no angst in her work.  Judy states, “Paintings are like children, some are easier to raise than others.  All artwork requires orchestration, discipline, and love to turn out well.”

Fan Dance – Anderson

Her illustration career has given her an insight into what is most appealing to the general public and what can elicit a positive reaction from most people. Working in acrylic on canvas, or gouache (opaque watercolors) on paper her goal is to create works of art that evoke a warm lasting response from the viewer.

To make this “First Friday’s” viewing experience even better, the North Gallery will be filled with plein air paintings from this year’s “Paint Historic Wheeling” and also the past seven “Paint Oglebay” events.  The Artworks artists will be showing the best of their plein air work.  The term, plein air means to paint outside in the open air.  This form of painting is difficult to accomplish.  Only the bravest painters take on plein air painting. The results can be both unusual and stunning.

Pleasant Pheasant II – Dailey

Be assured that this show will bring a smile to the face and joy to the heart.  Viewers will have warm happy feelings after seeing this show.  Again, the monthly gallery hop shows at Artworks are free and open to the public.  Indulge yourself in an “art bubble of happiness” on Friday night, Sept. 6^th at Artwork Around Town.

Precision and detail are the hallmark of both the featured July artists, Georgia Dangel and Greg Siegwart, at Artworks Around Town in the Centre Market. The newest opening will be July 5th at the gallery at 2200 Market Street inside the Centre Market. Light refreshments will be provided by the members of the artist co-op for the attendees to enjoy. This is going to be a “cracker jack of a show”. Creativity and painting have been a part of the lives of each of these painters’ families in the past.

Georgia Dangel and Greg Siegwart are both artist members of Artworks Around Town. Both are art teachers and both work in oil and acrylic. There is some similarity in their artwork. Their palettes are similar. A “palette,” in artist terms, means that an artist uses the same set of limited colors over and over in their work. Although Georgia and Greg have similar palettes, their work is not that similar. Georgia tends more toward portraits in almost photographic detail and still lifes in complex detail. Greg is an accomplish plein aire (open air) artist in oil. It is no small feat creating an artwork in one sitting with changing light and arrangement throughout the sitting. Add working in oil paint, which dries very slowly, and you have an admirable and rare skill.

Georgia’s family has a history of supporting her as an artist. Georgia started initially with tote painting in the early 1980s. Later she took Bob Ross classes and learned to mat and frame. By 1993 she was painting on glass for a local glass factory. After the factory closed, Georgia still painted glass and showed that glass, as well as kiln fired glass, lamps, crocks, china, jewelry, and painting at many area artisan shows. She has continued her education as a painter taking many workshops and always trying to improve her technique and style.

Winning a variety of awards in local juried shows, Georgia has earned three Best of Shows (a rare award) including numerous first, second, and third places, and honorable mentions throughout her career. Georgia has a history of teaching adult evening classes at Belmont Technical College, and now, teaching younger students in her studio. She has published a book, Speaking of Art, Artbook I, as well as pamphlets and an article in the “Interactive Artist Magazine” on quilt barns, the quilt squares on barns around the country. She is currently vice-president of the Great Lake Region Artist Group, a member of Monroe Artist, Monroe County, Ohio and Artworks Around Town.

Greg’s great-grandfather, Joshif Siegwart, a Swiss immigrant, painted and inspired Greg to paint as well. Greg loved to oil paint by age 10. Forty years later his experience with oil as a self-taught artist is phenomenal. Oil painting would have remained a hobby had it not been for a debilitating accident in 2000. After that accident, oil painting became a therapy, a vocation, and a talent to share with others. He has been teaching at both the Stifel Fine Arts Center and at Artworks Around Town for the past six years.

Greg has given workshops and demonstrations at The Mon Valley Art Center, Steppingstones Arts Festival, Stonewall Jackson Resort and many others venues. His commission pieces have included portraits, still lifes, wildlife, animal portraits, landscapes, fantasies, and surreal pieces. Greg is one of the only surreal painters in the area. His surrealism is complex and interesting to interpret.

If you like oil painting, you’ll like this show. If you like detail in painting, you’ll like this show. If you like beautifully rendered subjects in almost any subject area, you are going to find this show a real treat, “a cracker jack” sweet show.

To celebrate the sesquicentennial anniversary of the statehood of West Virginia, Artworks Around Town, located at 2200 Market Street in the Centre Market, has created a once in a lifetime show of six celebrated West Virginia artists. As always, the opening of this show is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Marilyn Hughey Phillis, curator of gallery shows at Artworks created this celebratory show to display the work of West Virginia artists and remind the public of the rich history of arts in West Virginia. The show includes Anne H. Foreman, Susan Poffenbarger, Pat Roberts, Robert Wren Smith, Brian Taylor, and Linda J.C. Turner. All these artists are award winners and honored for their individual skill in their chosen mediums including watercolor, acrylics, oil, and mixed media assemblage.

Local artists included in the show are Anne Hazlett Foreman and Brian V. Taylor, both members of Artworks. Anne Hazlett Foreman, well known as an acrylic artist who has illustrated a number of local history books, is also well known for her numerous paintings of dogs and other animals, including cats and birds. Anne is an active reinactor with the Fort Henry Days celebration and other local historical events. She graduated from Mt. deChantal Academy and from Chatham College with an excellent command of her choice of medium whether acrylic or watercolor. Anne has created numerous murals of local history which are displayed at Wilson Lodge in Oglebay Park and at the Artwork’s gallery in the Centre Market.

Brian V. Taylor, also an active member of Artworks Around Town, is a self-taught late developing artist. He completed 13 lessons in pencil and ink with the 12 Famous Artists Course, but was never able to finish the remaining art lesson in 1957. Never daunted, Brian, in 2002, once again entered a correspondence school of art, the Stratford Career Institute, and completed the courses with high honors. Later in 2002, Brian was juried into Artworks. Brian works mainly in acrylic to create mostly landscapes of dramatic beauty. Taylor strongly believes that the artist in his soul will create his artistic character and destiny, according to the vision of the beauty of the Eternal Mind.

From other parts of WV are Linda J.C. Turner, of Jane Lew, a superb watercolorist, Susan Poffenbarger of Charleston, the well-know landscape artist, Pat Roberts mainly a watercolorist who incorporates every medium possible into her work with her “Coal Series” documenting the history of WV coal mining, and Robert Wren Smith, of Vienna, WV who creates superb landscapes, portraits and still life.

Robert Wren Smith is a well schooled and creative watercolorist with numerous prizes and awards from various West Virginia art shows. His boyhood to adulthood love of sketching has continued to develop his skill along with his many courses of study at the Cincinnati Art Academy, Marietta College, and WVU at Parkersburg, where he now teaches. Smith’s current interest is in character studies of people, not the “beautiful people”, but the people with character in their faces.

Robert Wren Smith is always looking for lighting that enhances or presents a dramatic effect regardless of the subject. He believes he improved greatly as an artist once he began to understand the real beauty of light and color. Painting and drawing have always been part of his life’s work and given him a greater understanding of our environment and God’s great creations.

Pat Roberts, daughter of a coal miner, is trying to recreate some of the history of the coal mines and towns that surrounded those mines. She is relying on her skill as a master of many mediums to create this West Virginia Coal Mine Series. She and her husband and four children have backpacked the area of the New River Gorge Canyon to view old coal tipples and the remaining evidence of the coal mining communities in the area of Caperton, Thurmond, Beury and Mann’s Creek.

Linda J.C. Turner is a nationally recognized artist who has been awarded numerous awards for her watercolors in shows in West Virginia and elsewhere.
She has received awards from both the National Watercolor Society and the American Watercolor Society. Throughout her career as artist, illustrator, teacher and business woman, Linda has created watercolors that have been exhibited in many nationally juried exhibitions. Her works of art are included in permanent collection at the West Virginia Development Office in the Capitol in Charleston and in the collection of the University of Charleston in its Woman Artists of West Virginia Collection.

Susan Poffenbarger has provided little information of her work other than some lovely photos of her superb landscapes. She is a Charleston resident and is well known in southern WV for her works which highlight the loveliness of the West Virginia landscape. Her pastels are often devoid of humans but filled with a tenderness and touch of an artist captivated by her surroundings.

This show represents the variety and skill of some of West Virginia’s many fine artists. They are merely a small group who are representing the deep cultural heritage of West Virginia which is filled with a long history of dedicated and talented artists.

The popularity of Photography as a hobby has sky-rocketed since the introduction of the digital camera. Everyone can take a successful photo since the advent of “automatic”. But what happens when the novice ventures beyond the point-and-shoot world that we live in today? A mystery unfolds. A mystery that becomes less and less mysterious through the introduction of knowledge. When the novice obtains that knowledge, through study, research, experimentation and experience he or she rises above the mundane. The ordinary becomes extraordinary. The novice becomes an artist, able to control the camera to create the image that the mind sees. Having the ability to create what you envision and not be bound by the limitations of what the camera chooses to set for an exposure frees the artist to interpret a mood. When snapshots are elevated to images of art, the novice is no longer a hobbyist, but rather an artist. Photography, as a fine art, will be presented to the public at the “First Friday” gallery hop opening at Artworks Around Town on May 3rd. The works of fine art photographers Len Smith and Guilio Cappelletti will be displayed at Artworks Around Town in the Centre Market of Wheeling. The gallery hop opening is from 5:30 to 8:00 in the evening. Light refreshments will be served and the public is warmly invited to attend. Please join us to meet and talk with these two photographers as well as other Artworks artist members.

The 13th Annual Student Art Show of Excellence opens on Friday, April 5th at Artworks Around Town, located at 2200 Market Street in Wheeling’s Centre Market. The Student Art Show honors and rewards local student artists in grades three through eight. The winning students receive a money award, a personalized certificate, and a ribbon. Every participant receives a “ribbon of commendation”. The opening begins at 5:30 and continues until 8PM. The public is invited and light refreshments will be served.

It is quite apparent why the Student Art Show of Excellence continues from year to year. It is because of the young children it touches and how these students are changed when they are recognized and treated as the true artists that they are, no matter what their age. This is further reinforced by the many donors and ribbon/award sponsors that the show is lucky enough to have supporting the student’s artistic efforts.

The majority of prize money for the show is donated by private citizens who support Artworks’ mission and ideas about young artists. This year’s show will be judged by William Hooker and Calvin Matzke.

Schools which have participated in previous years include St. Vincent de Paul, St. Michael Parish School, Corpus Christi School, St. Mary Central in Martins Ferry, Wheeling Middle School, Triadelphia Middle School, Steenrod Elementary, Middle Creek Elementary, Moundsville Middle School, Bridgeport Middle School, Shadyside Middle and Junior High, Mt. de Chantal and now the Lyceum Academy, the Linsly School, the Children’s Home of Wheeling, Sherrard Middle School, Union Local Elementary, Barnesville Middle School, Martins Ferry Elementary, the Cat’s Paw Studio, and Woodsdale School.

This year’s show has expanded into Wetzel County and includes more Ohio County Public Schools. There are 61 awards this year, and with the continued financial help of donors and the local artistic community, The Student Art Show of Excellence hopes to expand and honor many more budding young artists in coming years.

Questions, comments, and/or donor information should be directed to Judy Minder at 304-233-0780 or judyminder@yahoo.com

It is with very sad hearts that the artists of Artworks Around Town gather on February 1, to honor the memory of our dear friend and colleague, Pat Temple. Pat passed away early Monday morning, January 28. A special moment will be observed during the gallery hop to reflect on Pat and the influence she has had on all of us. Even during her illness Pat displayed the positive, matter-of-fact personality that we have all come to know and love. Pat was a leader and mentor to all of us and her beaming face will forever be missed. While her physical presence will no longer be with us, her love of the arts, the written word, nature and life will continue to be a part of our “family” and she will always have an influence on the work that we do. Words do not express the void that the loss of Pat has left in all of our lives. Rest in peace our dear friend.

And now, as Pat herself would have put it, we must carry on . . .

Spring is here! Yes, it is, right here in Wheeling at Artworks Around Town in the Centre Market. The Second Annual Pat Temple Flower Show is displaying its colorful flowers for the month of February to brighten your gray winter days. As usual, the gallery hop is on the first Friday of the month, February 1st, from 5:30 to 8PM at Artworks Around Town, 2200 Market Street. The hop is free, open to the public and light refreshments are provided.

The idea of a bright colorful flower show was the brainchild of Pat Temple, long time Artworks member and prolific photographer. She believed that members of Artworks and their friends, associates, and students could create a collection of colorful floral artwork to exhibit and scare away those winter blues for all of us.

Pat was never a “professional” photographer, but her hobby has turned into an artistic endeavor as she traveled the world. In the past her travels were with her husband and often with her children and friends. Camping throughout the world, she was able to explore the countries she visited on a more intimate basis, which is often reflected in her character filled photographs.

Pat was a public school teacher in the Ohio County school system. She taught English which has helped her in later life to write excellent, clever and intelligent publicity for Artworks Around Town. Ever generous with her time, ideas, and opinions, Pat has contributed much to help Artworks with a variety of projects, lending her valuable time to help other members when they had difficulty fulfilling their obligations towards the Artworks organization.

At 92, Pat was filled with tons of ideas for projects, thus this Flower Show. She was perceptive and seemed to instinctively know what people enjoy and want to see. An avid nature lover, Pat had belonged to the Schrader Nature Center board and numerous committees over the years. She enjoyed bird watching and the annual bird count.

If you want the truth, Pat never minced words and told you the plain truth. She was fearless and was ever willing to voice her opinions. Her knowledge was varied and vast and honored by her colleagues in the artistic and photographic local community.

This year’s second annual Artworks Flower Show will feature the work of many artist members including Liz Neumann, Janet Rodriquez, Lenora Turbanic, Cheryl Joseph, Robert Sako, Anne Foreman, Sharon Hanse, Sandi Ziolkowski, Betsy Cox, Jeff Mamone, Lynne Mamone and others, including some associates and students of Artworks such as Jody Wharton and Judy Minder.

The show is presented to bring some light and color into the viewer’s lives in these colorless days. Come and enjoy the art. Talk to the member artists, photographers, and craftspeople. On February 1st the lights will be on, delectable snacks will be served. Lively conversation and beautiful works of art will be at Artworks Around Town for your pleasure and anti-winter depression purposes. Pat Temple and Artworks members offer this show as an anti-winter blues remedy and gift to you.

In the North Gallery for the month of February the artwork of the students of the Lyceum Academy, under the direction of art teacher, Georgette Stock, will be on display.