Team Kentucky Gallery – Spring 2022

I grew up in Berea, Kentucky, and currently reside in Louisville. I began painting in oils in 2009 when my father-in-law, Gerald Marx, gifted me art supplies and lessons from a local art studio. Since then, I’ve studied oil painting in various art studios in the Louisville area.

My painting, Good Morning, was painted from a photograph that I had taken while caring for a family’s farm. The horse would meet us at the gate every morning eagerly waiting for her breakfast and a piece of peppermint candy.

In this portrait I painted of my four year-old granddaughter, Ruby, I wanted to show the little beauty that she is.

For this painting, I worked from a photo Ruby’s granddad had taken after our first trip back to the library when Covid restrictions were eased early in the summer of 2021. I was sitting across the table from her, reading one of the many books we had brought home to read during her lunchtime.

On that day, we had finally gotten to go to “story-time” at the library where her granddad and I had taken her since she was just a baby. She was almost three years old when Covid shut everything down. Ruby was so excited to get to go to the library again. Her mother had put her hair up and she wore her special little purple dress.

Ruby has always loved hearing stories, and stacks of book-reading was what we did on the many days we watched her when mom and dad were at work.

And so in this painting, here is Ruby, deep in thought, as she listened to yet another story.

I am a lifelong Kentuckian, growing up and residing in Louisville. I have been an artist my entire life. After graduating from Berea College with a degree in drawing and sculpture in 1986, I was hired as a staff artist working as an illustrator at the Courier-Journal and Louisville Times. I stayed there for ten years, leaving to raise our four children. They were my inspiration for much of the artwork I would then create for many years to come.

I have been painting for many years, concentrating mainly on my love for animals. This portrait of my granddaughter, Ruby, was my first painting of someone I know so well. I wanted to “illustrate” or show everyone the beautiful little face of an age of innocence, without so much care but for the stories so many good books can fill her mind with.

My drawings and acrylic paintings are journeys to show more than the images they are. My goal is to be there in spirit as I create, becoming part of the animal or person’s personal space.

For more images of the work I do, please visit my website: monicawbarnett.wordpress.com.

"In my family, our tradition is to arrange our first Saturday in May around watching the Kentucky Derby together. From hearing “My Old Kentucky Home” to seeing the elegant Derby hats to choosing my favorite horse (based on its name and saddlecloth color,) I am always excited for such a happy Kentucky day. This watercolor and graphite picture was inspired during the 2021 Derby when I was amazed to see four horses running in a perfect diagonal pattern. During my next art lessons, I set out to draw a similar scene. "

Nancy Bruner is 11 years old and in her 5th year of art instruction from nationally renowned pen and ink artist Pem Pfisterer Clark. Since she was old enough to hold a crayon, she has loved to express her creativity through art. She is a 6th grader in Henderson, Kentucky. Nancy is especially honored that her work is hanging at the Capitol in Frankfort because her maternal grandparents, who were long-time Kentucky state government employees, met at the Capitol in 1964.

On the surface, my subject matter is the landscape: the textures, shapes, colors, and patterns created by the natural world. But rather than attempting to render what I see, I allow the painting to become an abstracted impression of the landscape. Overlapping layers and textures allow remnants of early mark-making to peek through, alluding to the evolution and development of the natural and man-made world.

I believe this constant evolution is a reflection of us as humans: Adapting, eroding, growing—unruly, imperfect, never truly arriving, but having more depth, character, and resilience having endured.

Hills of Kentucky is a piece that evolved over several months throughout the pandemic while the world around me – my business, my family, adjusted and habituated to a new normal. The layers of paint peeking through indicate what came before and hints at the fact that this too could change at any given moment.

Cat Crawford is a wife, mom, yogi, business owner, and artist residing in Louisville, Kentucky.

Dreams With Wings is a nonprofit organization in Louisville, Kentucky, that serves adults and children with intellectual/developmental disabilities and Autism. This piece was created by a collaborative group of artists at our adult-based Enrichment Center. We strive to create work that is a sensory experience for both the artist and the audience. This piece in particular was produced during our studies of landscape, surrealism, and fantasy art. We wanted to create work that would transport it's viewers to an imaginative setting during a time in history when that was not always possible in real life.

Dog Slaughter Falls is a much-photographed water fall. It is a 15-foot waterfall a little over 2 miles in on Dog Slaughter Trail #414 in the London Ranger District near Corbin in Kentucky. It is a wide stream which presents as a falling sheet of water. The trail itself is rocky amidst an overhang of rhododendron and hemlock. Once you emerge from the trail and see the falls, it can be a stunning sight.

I have hiked many of the iconic trails in Kentucky. This work was inspired from the many reference photos taken of this sight. It is oil on canvas 39’x39’.

One of my greatest joys is to enter my studio and be drawn into the subject on my easel. My other works consist of inspirations from nature with a smattering of portrait, still life, and even a bit of impressionism.

I am a Louisville-based artist who works in mixed media and watercolor. I created this painting of a weeping cherry tree because of the dual symbolism. Traditionally, the weeping cherry tree represents both joy and sadness. This refers to the hope and beauty of spring, mixed with the sadness of fleeting life in nature. To me, it’s a reminder to nurture life, appreciate the comfort of happiness, and live presently.

As a student artist, the university facilities are essential in my creative process of creating ceramic arts. In mid-March 2020, Morehead State University sent their students home to prevent further spreading of Covid-19. Being sent home meant I would no longer have access to the proper tools such as kilns and pottery wheels to create ceramic art. I felt stuck. I missed the feeling of clay in my hands. To continue to create art, I channeled my love of ceramics to other mediums. Rib illustrates reflections of my hand holding a rib, a tool that is commonly used in ceramics. My hands had become so comfortable holding this tool. Being able to recreate that comfort in a different medium brought me hope to get through the pandemic. This piece has also inspired a passion for the charcoal arts.

www.sinclairemarie.com

I am a native of St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. I developed a love for art early on while observing my father who was an artist and sign maker. After spending 6 years in the US Army and 25 years as an Auto Worker, I rediscovered my love for art in 2012. I am a self-taught artist. However, I spent 6 months developing oil painting skills with Schrodt Art Studio and attended several courses including drawing and perspective with Preston Art Center, both in Louisville, Kentucky, where I currently reside.

As a new artist I find myself continually learning and evolving. While some of my most recent interests involve nature up close, I am also very interested the everyday life of the islanders, most specifically those whom I am closely related to and who have lived in St. Croix all their lives. I am also inspired by the stillness of nature and the presence of humans in it and how they achieve a perfect balance with it by taking just what they need to make a living as depicted in Fisherman at the Pier. This special moment was captured in photography on one of my annual visits there when my mother and I stopped by the pier to watch the fishermen arrive after a full day of fishing. I am honored that I can share this small portion of my island to my home here in Kentucky.

Most of my paintings are of the Kentucky landscape. However, during the early months of the current pandemic, I was drawn to stay at home and paint interior scenes. I had in the past done a few quick studies of various scenes in my house, but now had reason to stay in to do more completed works. I had been interested in the morning sun as it filtered through vertical blinds across my house plants. Thus, the paintings Morning Sun #1 and #2 were conceived and completed with those thoughts in mind. I would like to thank Team Kentucky for accepting Morning Sun #1 for this exhibition.

I have always enjoyed doing visual art, and my main avenues are in painting and drawing. My education in Art was at Eastern Kentucky University, Morris Harvey College, and the Art Academy of Cincinnati. I was fortunate to study with many wonderful artists at those institutions. Now that I am retired, I have more time and energy to devote to my artworks.

Until I moved to Kentucky, I did not realize how beautiful Springtime can be. Various shades of green, hundreds of wildflowers and profuse fragrances abound. Springtime in Kentucky imparts a feeling of peace and renewal.

A love of the outdoors is evident in my representational and semi-abstract paintings. Divergent shapes in nature provide inspiration to create with watercolor, pen and ink, collage, and monoprints.

I am a juried and exhibiting member with the Kentucky Guild of Artisans and Craftsmen and the Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea, Kentucky.

Deep roots in southeastern Kentucky – Knott County – in collaboration with the soul-stirring beauty of nature inspires my Hills of Home series. Working with needle, nylon thread and Czech glass beads, I utilize the Ndble beading stitch which originates from the Ndbele people of South Africa.

I have had the good fortune of being raised in the beautiful hills of southeastern Kentucky, Knott County. Generations of my mountain ancestors created works of art. Some were works created from necessity and others were created just for pleasure. This craft tradition continues and has defined my life. For more than 45 years I have created art professionally. Through experimentation, I have mastered a variety of beading techniques from diverse cultures around the world. I am honored that my art has been added to numerous museums, public and private collections.

Lora Gill is an artist and librarian who lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky. She was born at Ft. Knox and was raised in Germany and Radcliff, Kentucky. She interrupted her studies at the University of Kentucky to join the Army and then returned to Kentucky to get her master’s degree in Library and Information Science. During her time as a grad student, she worked in the Special Collections Department of UK’s library, where she was exposed to some of the original plates of Audubon’s Birds of America. From here a deeper appreciation of the avian world combined with her desire to explore the nature of human femininity led her to create her Featherbrain series.

Lora is a self-taught artist who has been creating works for the past twenty years. She has been a part of two of Lexington’s public art projects, the Dynamic Doors and the Book Benches. Her bench is currently on display in front of the University Press of Kentucky. She has shown her artwork in various venues and is continuing to grow and expand her Featherbrain series. She works primarily with acrylics, but also enjoys illustration and mixed media.

Being a librarian and an artist allows Lora the joy of indulging her creative mind in multiple settings. She hopes her artwork can convey the interwoven beautiful simplicity and deep complexity of femininity while emphasizing a hopeful vision of life as represented by the avian friends that embrace her canvas.

The message I wanted to get across with Valkyrie II was a sense of hope, enchantment, and bliss. If you look, the background is pretty much a desolate wasteland, but despite the landscape’s hardship, the composition is taken over with this glowing beautiful flowing dancing figure that completely distracts you from the ruins. Throughout this pandemic, we all need something (or someone) truly beautiful to help get us through it. And if we’re lucky, this something could also provide us a sense of hope and even excitement for the future.

It is the quiet places that capture my eyes as much as my heart. They come into view while hiking the wonders of forests, fields and waterways. What is directly seen in nature is my best teacher. I have had a lifelong love of artistic expression and nature. I earned a master’s degree in art therapy and have been a therapist for 35 years during which time I have continued to create my own art. By allowing the landscape to inform me I hope my work taps the quiet places within you.

I am thankful to have called Kentucky home most of my adult life. Art has been a life-long passion to which now I devote the majority of my time. Recently I have been concentrating my creative energy on developing mixed media pieces that contain abstract collage elements.

I have long been inspired to pursue artmaking from childhood memories of my grandfather painting in oils. This piece is one of a series in which I reinterpret a portion of his painting of Diamond Rock Octagonal School House, Chester County, Pennsylvania, using my own abstract, mixed media style.

www.judyhowerart.com

This painting is from a self-portrait series that came about after a lot of soul-searching, introspection and whining while being locked up during Covid. I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'm getting old (not really though…well, yes I'm really old, but I'm not really coming to terms with it) and have been thinking a lot lately about life and death and living and trying to avoid things that lead to death. The tools in these works function both as a metaphor for being vulnerable to outside forces, obstacles to overcome, threats to my health, inconveniences to live with, as well as a display of my awesome tool collection.

I graduated from EKU with a BFA in Fine Arts & Graphic Design. But as time would have it, life sometimes gets in the way. I found I needed to work rather than pursue the dream.

It had been well over 10 years since I last picked up a brush. With the announcement of the Team Kentucky Gallery, I found myself aching to paint again. It's been an interesting journey filled with excitement, angst, and a lot of telling myself to get out of my head and just paint. This is what resulted.

It’s so fitting that the brilliant cardinal is our state bird.

Cardinals have long symbolized fire and light in the midst of darkness, hope in the midst of despair, messengers from loved ones lost. They are signs of promise and guidance, life-force, passion, love, and devotion.

This is our rebirth. Kentucky will rise from the ashes.

"...hope, can wing her way through the desert skies, and still defying fortune's spite; revive from ashes and rise." —Cervantes

I am a woodworker and furniture maker from Louisville, Kentucky. I received my BFA in Woodworking and Furniture Design from Murray State University and my MFA from the School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology.

My current work is a study of pattern and color using wood veneer. Using remnants from much larger veneers used to make furniture and cabinetry, I am constructing patterns and designs to create larger compositions. Inspiration for this work comes from the way quilt makers create elaborate quilts out of the smallest pieces of fabric. By varying the direction of the wood grain, the compositions change subtly as light illuminates the different wood pieces when viewed at different angles.

During the COVID-19 quarantine in Spring 2020, I picked up art as a casual hobby, as I was no longer able to participate in all the activities of my sophomore year in high school. I found creating artwork very rewarding, and as a way to be connected to other artists around the world also in isolation. Since then, I attended the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts during the summer of 2021. I am currently a high school senior with plans to study art in the future. Living in Midway, I am surrounded by horses and natural beauty at all times. Inspired by the horse industry in Kentucky, I aspire to capture a moment in time in the life of a horse.

Shawn Marshall is an award-winning artist and visual arts teacher who resides in Louisville, KY. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky, College of Architecture (92), and Cornell University (96), where she received a Master of Architecture with a Minor in Fine Art. Currently, she teaches visual arts and architectural design at North Oldham High School.

Though her training is in architecture and sculpture, Shawn Marshall is a self-taught painter and mixed media artist. Her focus is on the natural world and its universal meanings. When working in a more representational way, the emphasis is on the horizon, the point where the known and unknown meet, beckoning us to continue moving forward with a sense of wonder and hope. Marshall’s abstract work explores our impact on the environment through an overhead lens, viewed like unearthed excavations of city and/or garden ruins. Though worn and rough, with imprints and patterns left from human imposition, beauty still exists. As we explore the weathered layers, we come across remnants known and unknown, manmade and natural, leaving us with a sense of wonder about the past and hope in the future.

To see more of Shawn Marshall’s work, visit her website at shawnmarshallart.com.

For me, it has always been difficult to make interpersonal relationships with other people. My struggle with making these social connections are in part derived from my inability to trust and are also rooted in my fear of loss and rejection. From this understanding of my own personal loneliness is what inspired me to create a body of work that draws attention to the epidemic of loneliness. Much like the works of Edward Hopper, I wanted my artistry to embody the feeling of solitude. My own difficulties with feeling alone made me think about loneliness on a larger scale and how feeling alone can affect anyone. Loneliness in the modern scene, is not just when a person is isolated from society. Loneliness is now an emotional state of feeling apart from others without necessarily being physically alone.

Modern loneliness can appear in crowded rooms, in close friendships, and places of work. This is the point I am trying to make within my paintings. Some of the figures in these paintings may or may not be communicating with each other; however these figures are not making eye contact or communicating with the viewer. This leaves the viewer feeling isolated and unsure of their relationship with the figures within the painting even though the cropping of the paintings suggests inclusion. Thus, attempting to make the viewer question their own loneliness.

I believe we all have a deep spiritual connection to nature. The rich, magical environments, animals, and figures I depict in my paintings come from my need to honor and understand that connection. An intimate relationship with the environment is built into our psyche and it is my hope that my paintings will help stir a response to that connection. Everything in nature has a story that needs to be heard.

I spend much of my time in direct observation of my subjects. I am inspired by explorations of the many beautiful nature preserves in my area and places traveled as well as the beauty of the garden surrounding my central Kentucky home. I am always seeking out the native wildlife and flowers to photograph for reference and study.

As I weave my photographs and observations into visual stories, I want viewers to feel the mystery and magic of ordinary things, and maybe, in some small way, help nurture a consciousness of care, connection, and commitment to nature and to our environment.

Hidden in Plain Sight was inspired by the many beautiful blue herons that I have seen on my travels and hikes around Kentucky.

Often we miss seeing these shy birds because they are camouflaged in plain sight among the reeds and grasses of creeks, ponds, and lakes.

Inner Glow II is one of a series of magnolia paintings that I have completed over the past few years. I find inspiration in nature and I particularly like painting flowers. These paintings are usually close-up views that explore the interaction of light and shadow and celebrate the changing form of a flower as it opens gradually. Magnolias are particularly interesting since the light and shadow vary based on the position of the bloom among the leaves and branches of the tree and the since each bloom develops over several days.

In addition to studying light and shadow, I enjoy experimenting with the use of color. I often choose colors that are more intense than those found in nature and I work with color to help create dimension and depth.

I started painting as an adult and have studied drawing and painting with several artists in Louisville and at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. I have participated in a variety of group exhibits in Kentucky and am a juried member of the Louisville Artisans Guild. I have been an educator for most of my professional career and enjoy painting in my free time.

David Morsman studied Art & Art History at The University of Louisville and has shown in various venues around Kentucky, including the Mellwood Arts Center and the K.M.A.C. Museum. His work can be found in corporate and private collections around the world.

Website: davidmorsmanart.com

This painting honors the memory of the late Nick Coleman, a Henry County farmer who worked his farm in Sulphur almost exclusively using draft horses. Winchester artist and former Herald-Leader writer Kevin Osbourn met Mr. Coleman through author Wendell Berry in 1992. Osbourn wrote a story about him after watching Mr. Coleman harrow a field with Belgian horses weighing 1,800 pounds each.

Mr. Coleman farmed the same way his grandfather did a century earlier. He spent much of his time ministering to members of the Children of the King Church in Bedford, which he started with six people and nurtured to more than 200 people at the time Osbourn met him.

Using draft horses, Coleman said, was tied to his faith. “It has to be biblical,” he said. “I have to be a steward of everything God gave me. My life. My land.”

To care for his land, Coleman’s fields were carefully terraced, and ponds were surrounded by thick stands of grass. Crops were regularly rotated. On the day Osbourn interviewed him, Coleman recalled a day when he was just 6 years old and his father left him alone to handle a team of hulking Belgian horses for the first time, all by himself.

Osbourn never forgot Mr. Coleman. This painting is dedicated to his memory and the beautiful way he lived his life.

The legend of Big Lex is one of a Kentucky-bred horse who grazed happily on so much bluegrass that his coat eventually turned bright blue. Big Lex has become a symbol of Lexington, my home for 45 years. I come from a creative family, and I learned early on to value the sense of freedom and the soul-feeding quality of expression. I am mostly self-taught, learning from experimentation, family, and through a few OLLI classes BC (before COVID). My painting is primarily in watercolor; a medium that allows for loose flow and happy accidents that often inspire a more interesting composition. Thank you for the opportunity to show Big Lex.

Growing up, both sets of my grandparents lived on farms: one in Harrison County, one in Fayette. Planting vegetables and tending them through the summer until harvest was a way of life. Apple trees and cherry trees shared their fruit as well. All kinds of trees provided recreational climbing opportunities to sit and observe wildlife. A love of trees developed, the gnarlier the better.

The progressive beauty of the redbud, as depicted in Four Seasons, is different than a lot of trees. Their colorful leaves show themselves in the spring when the brilliant blossoms fade. The rich green leaves grace the limbs in summer. In the fall, the heart-shaped leaves flash a cheery yellow before departing the twisted sinewy branches for the winter.

In the Thoroughbred industry, all foals share the same January first birthday each year and are born as close to that day as possible. “I prefer to imagine foals in green grass and sunshine as opposed to cold Winter skies and frozen fields. I strive to transport the viewer into the painting, to absorb the experience as a part of the painting. The foal doesn’t worry about work schedules, healthcare, bills, etc.; the foal enjoys the feeling of warm sunshine and soft clover.”

Salina Ramsay is a Licensed Clinical Therapist, lifelong horsewoman, Kentucky Colonel, and sporting artist. In 2010, Ramsay’s 14k gold pin is featured prominently in the 2010 Disney Secretariat movie.

To see more of her work, please visit salinaramsay.com.

There is something romantic about the look of vintage cars and old buildings, something beyond the nostalgia they often come to represent for the viewer, their classic shapes, the time period they cannot help but symbolize. For me, Pikeville, Kentucky, circa 1940 presents a moment in time, a moment when the things we appreciate about the world we live in first drew my attention to the wrinkled black and white photograph I used for inspiration. Do not mistake the presence of the modern pandemic world in this moment from the past. The past and the present are connected in mysterious ways.

I paint with a group of plein air painters out of Danville, PAACK (Plein Air Artists of Central KY) and on my own closer to my home of Greensburg in south central KY. I enjoy painting old Kentucky buildings such as the old country stores and old farms. I feel an urgency to capture these nostalgic if not historic structures before they are erased from time and memory. I did this painting of the historic Penn's Store, located outside of Gravel Switch. It is the oldest country store in America under continuous operation and ownership by the same family since 1850.

I earned my BFA in Painting from Indiana University at Bloomington. I worked as an airbrush artist on the beach but left to get a more stable job as a Cincinnati Police Officer. Though I was born in Cincinnati, both my parents are native Kentuckians, their families migrating to the big city for a better life and more opportunities than the dying coal mining jobs offered. My husband, also a retired police officer after 26 years, and I have a small farm in Green County with a couple horses, 4 dogs, 4 cats, and a parrot named Tango.

I have been fortunate during the pandemic to continue to work in my studio/gallery every day. As I finished my 2019 commissions during the spring of 2020, I tuned in daily for the Governor’s COVID update. The idea for this painting was inspired by the announcement of The Team Kentucky Gallery. Over the years my artistic passion has focused on the Thoroughbred and the American Saddlebred, both breeds have a long history in Kentucky of which I am quite proud, as I too have a long history here, with roots going back to the settling of Graves County.

Visual art has a long history of using symbols to tell a story. I do not. This painting was started during the Kentucky Derby season and for me it seemed fitting to let this event tell the story of the pandemic.

Some of the symbolism will be obvious. Other symbols may not be as obvious and may even be an accident since everyone will have their own perspective when viewing the painting. It is my intent that the viewer will find meaning and hope. I believe, just like in horse racing, people are hopeful for a safe trip and a win, I recognize there are a team of people that are a part of getting a horse to the winner’s circle, even if they can’t get close enough to smell the roses or get to be in the historic photograph. From the winner’s point of view though, these team members are the most important to the outcome of the race.

Connie Sandusky is an expressionistic style painter working mostly in acrylics, inks and using a variety of mark making tools. Her work is largely inspired by nature- animals, skies and flowers often appear even in the most abstract pieces. Less interested in copying what she sees, her work is about capturing the essence of an idea- through colors, shapes and a trail of expressive marks.

In Painted Ponies, the horses and the land go together in a way meant to say something fundamental and authentic about the American landscape -conjuring images from the wide-open West to the Eastern Kentucky mountains.

Connie is an active Kentucky artist- showing at Gallery 104 in LaGrange, AC Hotels and Alley Gallery Louisville and a variety of other community projects and private commissions.

If you’d like to see more of her work, or get in touch, you can easily find her at: ConnieSanduskyStudio.com, or on Instagram or Facebook @ConnieSanduskyStudio.

Since childhood, I have had a love for creating art and for nature, especially trees. Under the canopy of sprawling branches is the place I still most feel peace. I find each tree has a “personality.” Shaped by weather and animal activity, each has a story to tell. I try to capture that in my paintings.

Harrods Creek Reflections was born from a walk along Kentucky’s Harrods Creek toward the end of a beautiful summer day. A large tree standing in the shade exudes strength and vitality while nearby branches seem to stretch out toward the light reflected in the creek. This painting is the nexus of a series on which I am working, Many Beautiful Lives. The series title is inspired by the musings of author Maria Popova.

Before concentrating on painting full-time, I owned and managed a graphic design studio in Louisville, Kentucky. I am thrilled to have more time to spend on my art and in nature.

kathiesauer.com

I create art that is bold and exciting. I am on an art adventure, exploring and experimenting with acrylics, inks, watercolors, drawing mediums, glass and photography.

I have been creating my entire life concentrating on interior design and functional art. I have discovered a latent talent in 2D visual art in the last few years and have been pursuing that with joy and passion. Using varied substrates such as metal, wood, canvas, textiles and paper, my expressive abstract paintings and photography are the sum of details captured from texture, color, light, air, fire, and dimension.

Inspired by the other than life paintings of Gerhard Richter, I call my style of painting Abstract Retrospective. Each layer builds upon the previous layer as time, moments and memories build a life. The top layer is the present, with accidental optical incidents into pockets of the past revealed under layers. We are not only the person in the present, but our past experiences make us who we are. I welcome you to explore and find yourself within the depths of my art.

My Goldfinch print is based on an educational bird mural that I did in 2020 at Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve. The nature center was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so I worked in solitude every day. I couldn’t see my parents during that time, so I sent a picture to them every time I finished a new bird. It sparked conversations and kept me connected to my parents, especially my dad, who was an avid bird watcher. We lost my dad in September 2021 to a heart attack. In honor of him, I submitted my Goldfinch print for this exhibit. I hope I made him proud.

This painting, like many of my works, depicts a harmonic existence of a diverse culture. The Luncheonette was my pandemic painting. It was originally a watercolor and I wanted subject matter that I could work on for an extended period to keep me going through lock down. I had taught art in a fairly diverse school for twenty-four years and was impressed by how the kids managed to get along, for the most part. There was a safe feeling in my art room where kids sat with other students they would not normally encounter, from students that were moved to the area to escape gang activity to the most advantaged students who came in from private schools to have a high school experience. There was a sense of exploration as they shared their backgrounds through discussions when making art.

I always felt that this was the most successful integration they would ever encounter, probably due to their youth and not totally ruined by adult prejudices that could influence them later. In all my figurative paintings there is a mix such as this between races, cultures, wealth and poverty. I want to show people doing what can be achieved and many times is achieved on a daily basis.

It was a bright, sunshiny day when we set sail from Newport to Martha's Vineyard. Several hours later, we were motoring in a dense fog and, finally, had to be rescued by the Coast Guard.

I am a Frankfort native, who always loved to draw and paint. I studied art at Newcomb/Tulane and UKY.

My work has been juried and purchased by several institutions. Until COVID, I was a partner in an art gallery in Lexington.

"This portrait is of my wife's grandfather, Buddy Pearcy, that I painted in 2001, when he was 74. Buddy was a retired farmer and an avid fisherman. When his wife, Joyce, died in 1992, he moved into his remote cabin by the Green River so that he could spend his time fishing and hunting. Buddy and the river were so connected that I felt it was important to have the river in the background. He was also well known in the area for hosting fish fries. He would cook for his church, the truck dealership where he purchased his truck, the telephone men who fixed his phone line, and also for the hospice workers who had taken care of his wife. This portrait was displayed at his funeral in 2018 to show the essence of the man he was."

An eye for detail combined with a desire to maintain freshness and spontaneity have led Chris Thomas to his current style of painting. From childhood, Chris exhibited a great interest in drawing and began developing his skills in watercolor. In 1992 Chris attended the Art Students League of New York City where he learned to paint in oils. After his time in New York, he spent the next three years studying the masters, learning their techniques and developing his own style. Chris has made his living as a professional artist since 1995. Chris’s beautifully rendered oil paintings have led to enthusiastic interest by many private collectors around the country. His work has been included in a number of corporate collections, the Evansville Museum of Art in Indiana, and has also been featured in several publications. Chris offers workshops, online critiques, weekly classes in his studio and he currently resides in Kentucky with his wife Shakira. More of Chris’s work can be seen at www.christhomasfineart.com.

Valerie Timmons was born and raised in central Kentucky and received a BS in geology at Western Kentucky University and a JD at the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. Her first foray into the visual arts occurred when she received a Polaroid Swinger for her 11th birthday, and she has loved photography ever since. Most of her pictures these days are of the critters roaming and flying around her home just north of Louisville, Kentucky, where she lives with her husband and their rescue dogs.

She took some group painting lessons in 1995, then struck out on her own. When the opportunities presented themselves, she took painting, photography, art history, and arts administration courses at the university level. Her painting work was juried into the Kentucky Crafted Program in 2021.

The inspiration for this painting comes from great blue herons eating my poor goldfish from my backyard pond in Lexington. Kentucky. In my urban neighborhood, we are lucky to have a huge variety of birds from turkeys, great horned owls and dozens of robins and cardinals. I loved painting the heron to try to appreciate my “enemy” and memorializing the poor goldfish.

Facts about Great Blue Herons from the University of Kentucky:

• Herons are found all over Kentucky and in large nesting colonies (heronries) found in western Kentucky.
• They are top predators in the aquatic food web.
• They eat mostly small fish, also dragonflies, grasshoppers, aquatic insects, crayfish, frogs, salamanders, lizards, snakes, turtles, birds.

AND they consume backyard goldfish.

After years of teaching art in public schools, I am now a full-time artist and watercolor workshop instructor. I alternate between landscapes and other subjects, including still life, flowers, and the occasional portrait, making each day in the studio feel new and exciting. I find myself drawn to exploring the region where I live and traveling to adjoining locations to see how the landscape changes. I intend to render these places, such as Prudy Hill, in a way that resonates with my experience of that environment. Through this process, my watercolor landscapes might reveal a sense of atmosphere, wonder, and sprit to those who see them.

Painting for me is storytelling in a single frame. I consider myself a mark maker and a colorist. My goal is to elevate ordinary images to become icons on canvas. Old John Riley is a figure study, a crouching character who could be found on any Saturday in rural Kentucky when farmers come to town to trade.

While I have always been a painter, graphic design, illustration and teaching allowed me to earn a living and raise a family here in my native state. Originally from Hopkinsville, I graduated from the University of Florida and worked in San Francisco, Jacksonville, and New York before finally settling in Louisville in 1977. I have also taught in the Artist-in-Residence program for the Kentucky Arts Council; at St. Francis High School, Louisville; and in the graduate design program at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia.

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Dena K. Vitale is an artist working in a sunny, second-story studio in Prospect, Kentucky. Her landscapes are dedicated to reminding people to appreciate and safeguard nature's beauty.

Painting came to me late in life, discovered after a lifetime of engineering and technical drawings. Living on the prairies of Nebraska, my favorite subjects of water, trees and rocks had to give way to windmills, barns and haystacks. But then retiring to the mountains of Kentucky made my dreams come true, with its forests, limestone cliffs along the rivers, so many landscapes waiting to be painted. Water, trees and rocks just belong together, and discovering Cumberland Falls has given me so many interesting scenes to put on canvas. Every visit presents a different mood of the river, and with the forest's ever-changing pallet of colors, there is an endless supply of views to capture. Here, looking back from the walking trail, the quiet forest in its summer colors contrasts with the turbulence of the water as it roars over the edge in clouds of spray and vapor to the placid pools sheltered by the rocks and boulders below.

Janet Wozniak is currently teaching Art at Tate’s Creek High School in Lexington, Kentucky. She has been an art instructor there for the past 35 years and had prior taught 2½ years at Saint Paul’s Catholic School in Lexington.

Ms. Wozniak has numerous group and one-person art exhibitions to her credit, while instructing students in Art I, Drawing I & II, Beginning Pottery, Pottery 2, and Computer Assisted Art.

Frozen Winter Mill is a white chalk drawing that reverses the drawing process of where you do not draw the dark values, but you focus on the lightest to medium values, thus allowing the black paper to show your darker values. Use of overlapping subject matter in the drawing demonstrates internal depth and by focusing on texture, imagery of a frozen mill comes to life in this drawing. Light application of color to the water and mill additional brings movement to this ice-covered image.