Nationally known and respected artist, Betsy Cox will present a collection of work never previously exhibited.  The Studio Gallery at ARTWORKS around town will host a Retrospective of her two-dimensional work for the months of February and March.  The student side of the North end will continue to exhibit works by Gallery members depicting beautiful winter scenes.

Cox is most recently known for her work in ceramics.  She has earned many awards in local as well as national shows.  This Retrospective Exhibit reveals another aspect of her talent not usually seen.  There will be almost 40 year’s worth of paintings starting with an acrylic still life done in 1972.  There will be florals, still lifes and landscapes painted in various mediums including pastel, acrylic, oil and watercolor.  She has worked with clay prints and encaustic in addition to more traditional forms of expression.

She grew up in a family that was immersed in artistic expression of one kind or another.  Her mother and brother did leatherwork, her father liked to draw and work in mosaics and her sister painted.  Her mother’s Austrian side of the family boasted sculptors.  Needless to say, Betsy has come from a long line of creative and innovative artists.

The Retrospective promises to reveal many layers of skill Cox has honed over many years of practice and experience.  Betsy’s love of nature and her keen eye for detail are evident in everything she does, whether in clay or paint.  Betsy’s ceramic items are available for purchase in her permanent space at the Gallery.  She sells note cards as well as her originals.Visitors are encouraged to view both exhibits six days a week, Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.  ARTWORKS around town is located in Wheeling’s Historic Centre Market.  ARTWORKS is a nonprofit charitable and educational organization that operates a Gallery and Art Center for the benefit of the artists and general public of the region.  Anyone interested in becoming a member, please go to the website: artworksaroundtown.com for information and an application.

As we look outside our windows these days, we are well aware winter is still with us.  Snow scenes also abound inside on the panels at the north end of ARTWORKS around town.  This month, members of the Gallery are presenting their favorite winter paintings.  Snow is one of the most difficult things to render in any medium and the members of ARTWORKS have done a beautiful job in oil, pastel, acrylic and watercolor.

January provides an excellent opportunity to visit the Gallery now that shopping pressure for the holidays is over and there is more time to browse.  Karen Catlett’s stunning watercolors are in place for the entire month in the Studio Gallery.  If you missed them in December, you still have a chance to view and buy them.  Karen’s work is sought after by collectors, both nationally and locally.  She has captured nature with detail and color masterfully rendered.

Members of ARTWORKS have given us a varied array of beautifully painted and photographed scenes.  Many of the artists have work displayed on the walls of the student section including, Larry Travis, Sandy Hadsell, Janet Sheehan and Eric Dye among others.  Visit the Gallery daily six days a week from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. to see a stunning collection of unique pieces of artwork, photography, prints ready for framing, ceramics, knitted items, note cards, greeting cards and jewelry.

Located in Wheeling’s historic Centre Market, ARTWORKS is a nonprofit, charitable and educational organization that operates a Gallery and Art Center for the benefit of the artists and general public of the region.  Artists wishing to join ARTWORKS may find information and an application at the Gallery’s website:  artworksaroundtown.com .

December at ARTWORKS will feature the works of skilled watercolor artist, Karen Catlett in the Studio Gallery.  In the student section, pieces by members of ARTWORKS will be on display.  While Covid 19 safety measures are still in effect, an opening reception will not be held but visitors are welcome to view both shows during business hours six days a week.

Catlett is a celebrated watercolorist whose works have won awards locally and nationally.  Her love of nature is obvious in her skillful treatment of the living things around her.  She captures birds, flowers and landscapes with sensitivity and a keen mastery of design and color theory.  Her show title is “Watercolor Memories” and she has thirty new paintings to exhibit.

She has conducted numerous programs and workshops across the country for art leagues, civic groups and technical colleges.  Catlett is a member of both the West Virginia and Pittsburgh Watercolor Societies and has been a contributing member at ARTWORKS for two years.  She sells her originals, prints, note cards and her unique woven jewelry at the Gallery, located in the historic Centre Market.

The other side of the north gallery will display works by members of ARTWORKS around town.  Look for winter inspired works done by artists including, Sandy Hadsell, Janet Sheehan, Greg Siegwart, Giulio Cappelletti and Larry Travis.

December is a perfect time to visit ARTWORKS to view fresh work by the area’s most talented artists.  The Gallery offers original paintings, photographs, prints, stained glass, carvings, soaps, woven items, ceramic pieces and unique jewelry items found nowhere else.Celebrate the holidays with ARTWORKS around town, located in Wheeling’s historic Centre Market.  Hours are from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday with closing at 6 p.m. on Fridays.  Anyone interested in becoming a member of the Gallery, please go to the website for details and an application: artworksaroundtown.com

“Introduction” Anne Foreman

“Something Old, Something New” the March 2017 show at Artworks around town opens on First Friday, March 3, at the Centre Market Studio Gallery. The show is open to the public from 5:30 to 8PM.
The title of this show came from the musing of one of the participating artists and longtime member of Artworks, Anne Hazlett Foreman. Exhibiting along with Foreman is another longtime member of Artworks, Lenora Turbanic. The new artist on the scene is Jes Reger, a young watercolorist.

“Gold Finch” Lenora Turbanic

Lenora Turbanic also works in watercolor but in a different style than Jes. While Jes’s work is mainly a loose wet style with details in a more detailed dry style. Lenora’s watercolor work is mainly a more controlled style emphasizing watercolor’s delicacy and softness. Anne has painted in watercolor, but has worked more in oil and acrylic lately.

Anne is well known for her portraits of Early American re-enactors and many of her ancestors. She has joking said, “I’ve sold my grandparents, my parents, my uncles and my cousins to complete strangers.” Most of those paintings have depicted her family years ago in nostalgic scenes. Anne has also created murals of the history of Wheeling for Wilson Lodge at Oglebay Park and at the Centre Market in the Artworks Gallery. Some newer paintings of Anne’s portray her young grandchildren. Anne is know locally for her numerous paintings of dogs. Her animal paintings have memorialize a number of local well loved dogs as well as her own Newfoundlands and her favorite pug, Tank.

“Orange Rose” Jes Reger

Lenora has painted a variety of animals as well, along with numerous scenes of flowers and flower gardens. She has painted chimps and giraffes, cats and birds, and a good many trees in landscape scenes. Lenora has taught watercolor for years in private and small group lessons to children and adults. “To see a student’s face light up when looking at something they painted, Lenora remarked, is the reward of teaching watercolor painting.” Why does Lenora paint? “I paint when it becomes too painful not to”, paraphrased from the book ART AND FEAR. That remark will resonate with many

“Rose’s Magic” Anne Foreman

an artistic person or lover of the arts.
Jes is just getting her “feet wet” in the exhibiting of her art work. A recent graduate of WLU she is an art instructor at both the Oglebay Institute Stifel Fine Arts Center and the Anchor after school program at Madison School. She has recently begun instructing workshops in watercolor at The Cat’s Paw Studio. This show is her first exhibition with so few artists. While Jes finds her art as a form of expression, many of her pieces of artwork have a mystical dreamy unformed quality to them. She paints things that make her smile and has “a passion for capturing the essence and beauty of the world around her”. Her paintings have a spontaneous quality that defies definition.

“Mike’s Pond” Lenora Turbanic

This show will be new work from the “older artists” as well as new work from the “new artist”. It will be a treat to the eye and imagination of the viewer who finishes every work of art in their mind and eye.

“Bandit” Jes Reger

Egrets Waters Edge – Rettig

“Local Watercolor Masters” is the featured show for February 2017 in the Studio Gallery at ARTWORKS around town. It has been curated by a watercolor instructor and artist at Artworks, Wheeling attorney, Janet Sheehan. All First Friday shows at Artworks are at the Centre Market Gallery, 2200 Market Street, from 5:30 to 8:00pm. The public is invited to come and browse the galleries and see the three new shows. In the North Gallery, the “Friends and Family” show will be displayed along with a fresh grouping in the North Corner Project.
Janet Sheehan, the curator for this show is also one of the participants along with two other Janets, who are also watercolor painters, Janet Hart and Janet Rodriguez. Joining the three are Jennie Siebert and Bill Rettig. This show features a variety of ways watercolor can be used to create some exceptionally skillful and beautiful artwork.
Watercolor has a firm and extensive artistic following in theWheeling area. Exceptional local watercolor instructors and visiting workshop presenters have been enthusiastically received in this area. For many years Janet Rodriguez and Bill Rettig both taught watercolor painting at Artworks and at the Stifel Fine Arts Center.

Geranium – Hart

Janet Sheehan now teaches watercolor at Artworks. Janet Hart is a watercolorist and pen and ink artist designing a number of well know greeting cards of Wheeling’s Victorian architecture and of the Centre Market. Jennie Seibert, well known as a local realtor is a creator of many “wet watercolor” works using techniques she learned from local watercolor instructors Kathy Thompson, Janet Rodriguez and Bill Rettig. Jennie is an excellent example of what a serious local watercolor student can create studying with our Wheeling area watercolor instructors. Bill Rettig, transplanted master watercolor teacher from Pennsylvania, has taught watercolor techniques at Artworks, the Stifel Center and in many local workshops. He is a proficient creator of works shown in corporate and home venues in the area and outside.
These five area watercolorists create a show of varied ways that watercolor can be used to

Untitled – Seibert

create atmospheric pieces that exhibit the spectrum from “dry work” to “wet work”. Dry work is detailed and exacting and usually opaque. Wet work uses the technique of floating watercolor pigment in a prearranged but not precise pool of water. It’s a tricky way of creating artwork. It’s also chancy in that sometimes the intended result is not what the artist was working towards. That’s the beauty and fun of creating any artwork. Each piece of artwork has a life of its own. The artist may begin with one intension and the finished product may not be what the artist intended but a completely different product which the art work itself has decided to become.

Blue Herron – Sheehan

Each artist has their specific reason for using watercolor. They love the color, the movement, the idea that it doesn’t take that much equipment, it isn’t “messy” like oils or pastels. Janet Hart even loves the “wet dog” smell of wet Arches watercolor paper.
Wheeling has some skilled painters and artists. LOCAL WATERCOLOR MASTERS is showcasing five of the best in the field of watercolor.

Falling Waters – Rettig