Weihua Zhu

Weihua Zhu

zhukee1@gmail.com

Weihua Zhu was born and raised in China, and later moved to Japan. She now lives in Columbia, USA. These experiences laid the basis for her lifelong concern with cultural diversity. She first discovered her God-given talent when she won an art award in 7 years old. Her mediums includes watercolor, ink and acrylic on canvas. Much of her work revolves around figure work, animals and Chinese characters. She exhibits her artwork in Columbia Art League, Memorial Student Union and The Montminy Gallery.

Artist Statement: I am seeking my inner bridge between the Western and Eastern. I have practiced Chinese calligraphy since childhood. By using acrylic paint as medium, I try to talking about a correlation between stories and symbols, a try to expressing my abstract language on the canvas.  I understand my own traditions and reconstruct the relationship between myself and the contemporary world. It takes me a lot of visionary strength to enact words that evolving into a mountain scape, evoking parallels with Classical Chinese landscape painting in pen and ink. The simplicity of technique and arrangement allows my paintings to achieve an abstract and pure visual effect.  My artworks are seen as a compensation, poems of homesickness.

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David Moreno

“As my artist statement explains, my work is utterly incomprehensible, and therefore full of deep significance.” Calvin & Hobbs

My mom said that I was an easy birth, even though I was born with a pencil in my left hand.  I must have been 8 or 9 years old when I became conscience of my desire/ability to draw and create. I use the word “create” because at that young age,  I must have felt a need to create something, anything and with whatever I had available, be it pencil or crayon to make small drawings. In junior high and being a young boy from the Detroit, Michigan area I would draw cars and re-design and modify plastic model car kits.

In high school, I had several drafting (mechanical drawing) classes. This was way before computer aided drawing (CAD),  I found that drawing mechanically or free hand was a real fit.  I also began to take my artistic drawing more seriously by taking drawing classes at night at the local community college. I was born to draw!!

Like so many things, life got in the way of the art. It was not until my mid-twenties, when I married my wonderful wife and entered the University did I again, find my love of art by way of design and architecture. Architecture gave me that drawing/ creative release.

 At one point we lived in Cleveland, Ohio, and again I was taking night classes but, this time oil painting classes.  This art program included a nighttime program at the Cleveland Museum of Art that allowed artists to be classified as a “Copiest”. As a Copiest you were able, during certain Museum evening hours, to set up easel and paints and stand immediately in front of a Masterpiece and copy the Masterpiece. Truly a privilege. I have made several reproductions of Edgar Degas and one of Albert Besnard and of Picasso. 

 I begin each painting by drawing the subject in detail with pencil or a brush with very thin gray paint before adding any color.  This underpainting establishes the light, values and tone of the painting.

After 45 years in architecture, design and construction, I have retired and really begun to spend more time drawing and painting in earnest. For the larger paintings, I often build my own wooden frames and stretch the canvas. The subject matter for a painting is varied and pretty much whatever strikes my fancy. This year I plan to copy several of John Singer Sargent’s paintings and perhaps dabble in some abstract work.

Jared Van Cleve

I studied and earned my art degree at Missouri Western State College as well earning a Master of Arts at Columbia College. Since then, I have worked on my own, building the style you see today. I enjoy participating at various art fairs throughout Missouri as well as gallery exhibits. A few of his most recent solo exhibits were in sunny San Diego, CA, Moberly Area Community College (MACC), and Solar Gallery in Columbia, MO. You can also look for my work at the Annual Boone County Art Show in Columbia, MO.  

A goal of mine is that my passion for natural beauty be seen throughout my work. Transforming landscapes, far and up-close, into stunning interpretations of bold color, playful rhythms and raw emotional impact is key. The idea is for the painting to be done “right the first time” without re-working and blending. I create my oils in thick layers, often displaying texture you will want to touch. Most of my work's inspiration is within a few miles of my home. 

Open impressionism would definitely be the umbrella of which my work rests under. A few artists that inspire me are contemporary master, Erin Hanson, Cezzane, Van Gogh and contemporary Canadian painter Julie Burke.

You can contact me for pricing on originals, prints, and even custom pieces. 

Best

https://jwvstudios.weebly.com/

Instagram: @jwvstudios

Laura Kay Weatherspoon

Laura Kay Weatherspoon

Dare to be different! Life is simply amazing and I love to share the way I see the world through my artwork. I feel so blessed that I get to wake up each day and do what I love to do.

I was raised in the small farming town of Troy, Illinois. Growing up, my grandmother and mom would tell me stories about how I would sit at the living room window for hours and draw the birds long before I was even in school. Although I did a lot of drawing when I was young, it was the day my dad took me to a local art store that I was bit by the bug. That day, my dad bought me my very first box of prismacolors. I would sit around and draw for hours on end with that first box, mainly of horses from my imagination. That following summer I received second place at the Madison County Fair in Illinois, for a mare and foal drawing I did with that first set of prismacolors. From that day on, my dad would always say, “You need to be a freelance artist when you grow up.”

And well, here I am. I graduated from William Woods University, Summa Cum Laude, with a major in Equestrian Science and a minor in Art Education. I now own a studio in Fulton, Missouri where I have two kilns, a pottery wheel and all my painting supplies.

I love hiking, biking, running, camping, sailing and riding my horse. I also enjoy traveling or any activity that gets me outside in the fresh air where nature can inspire me. My camera usually accompanies me everywhere I go, as I am always looking for the next great photo opportunity for something I can take back to my studio to paint or sculpt.

My passion lies mainly with clay and ceramics. I use water based clays for throwing on the wheel, as well as hand building and sculptures. I use oil based clays in preparation for bronze sculptures. However, my passion for art goes far beyond the limits of cay. I enjoy doing palette knife paintings with my oil and acrylic paints. Another favorite is painting with my watercolors. The transparency of watercolors captured my imagination the first time I used them and I have loved them ever since. Stippling is another form of art I enjoy, and I find the end resulting immensely rewarding considering the hours spent in one project.

I want people to feel inspired by my work. God has blessed me with a talent and I want to use that talent to make other people smile. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a vision of mine come to life on canvas or in my hands with clay and have people look at it and smile.

Contact me about commission work.

contact:
E: Laura Kay Weatherspoon

Still Life with Fruit

Dog Portrait

Ceramics

Goose

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Margaret Leslie Utterback

Margaret Leslie Utterback

"There are moments in our lives,
there are moments in a day, when
we seem to see beyond the usual.
Such are the moments of our greatest happiness.
Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom.
If one could but recall his vision by some
sort of sign. It was in this hope
that the arts were invented.
Sign-posts on the way to what may be.
Sign-posts toward greater knowledge."
Robert Henri; The Art Spirit

Today the sky is absolutely cobalt above, fading to pale rose madder at the horizon. I yearn for a stick of pastel with the same sense of blue, a sense of endless atmosphere. And one that would tell of the warmth or coolness of the breeze as it moves around me. And a stick of pastel that would generate the radiating sunlight, at dawn, at noon, or dusk. Today the objects in front of me are composed of a silent history. And again, I yearn for a stick of pastel that would tell it's tale, complicated with it's "self" and mine and another and another. The reality is that no single stick of color can replicate the beauty of nature or the complexities of a relationship. To copy is impossible; the attempt to copy is mundane. A painting is an image; a combination of the reality, the painter, and the viewer. And the reality is fleeting, instants of impressions, transmitted from the eye to the brain and translated in minute portions of time. The translated image of the painting only carries the "sign" of the artists visual "language," in hopes of a non-verbal communication and a connection with a reality.

contact:
E: Leslie Utterback
Tel: 573-445-2189
W: www.ottercreekstudio.com

Waterplay

pastel
19x25

The Chosen Path

pastel
16x20

Convergence

pastel
25x19

Rocheport Elevator

pastel
12x19

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Jennifer Slouha

Jennifer Slouha

Jennifer Slouha is a self-taught artist living in Holts Summit, Missouri.  Her preferred mediums are professional grade colored pencils, graphite pencils and acrylic paint.  These media allow her to pursue a passion for realism and fine detail.  Her process involves the use of rich tonality and perspective.  Jennifer starts with researching the subject and begins forming the composition.  Then she creates a simple line drawing and begins building depth until the image takes form. Each colored pencil drawing requires from 30 to 100 hours to complete.

Jennifer enjoys creating highly technical pieces and continually works on improving her skills.  She specializes in commissioned photorealistic automotive artwork but also creates art in many other subjects such as pets, wildlife, cityscapes, and portraits

She is a member of the Columbia Art League in Columbia, Missouri and participates in the Community Exhibit Program, exhibiting her artwork throughout the city on a rotating basis.  She has also been accepted into Capital Arts Gallery in Jefferson City, Missouri, the Art House Gallery of Fulton, Missouri, and the Lake Fine Art Academy & Galleria in Osage Beach, Missouri for representation.  She was commissioned to create a series of automotive artwork for Missouri Auto Auction in Columbia, MO.  Her artwork has won awards and been published numerous times.  She has also been the sketch artist for an episode of the Travel Channel’s television series “The Dead Files”.

contact:
T: 573-397-3573
W:www.jenniferslouha.com

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Eric Seat

Eric Seat

by Lindsey Howald
with permission of the Columbia Daily Tribune

Eric Seat is a different kind of illustrator.

In a career field increasingly populated by graphic designers toting Macbooks, he works with traditional media - acrylics, oils, board. He holds texture and stylistic exaggerations to be as important and inspiring as the meaning of the text his work is meant to highlight.

And while the great illustrator Norman Rockwell created warm and fuzzy family scenes, Seat's portraits are delightfully eerie.

"I would like to think of it as more of a fine art," Seat said of his work.

The 27-year-old earned his bachelor's degree in communication arts and design from Virginia Commonwealth University. After attending the Illustration Academy, a workshop that features, among others, Kansas City's Mark English, Seat came away inspired by illustrators who had moved the genre from magazine pages to art gallery walls.

That's why, when Seat moved to Columbia from Leesburg, Va., he landed in an art gallery. This is his fourth month in the city, and he recently joined Columbia Art League and staffs the gallery once a week.

His portrait of Michael Moore, the filmmaker who made a name bashing President George W. Bush in films like Fahrenheit 9/11, also appeared in CAL's "Politically Speaking" exhibition. "It was a little portrait I did for my portfolio," he said. Asked if it lends some insight into his own political leanings, Seat stepped around a firm answer.

"I don't necessarily do portraits of people I like," he said. "I just thought I'd do it for my portfolio since he's in the public eye a lot. I was definitely interested in having political beliefs" portrayed in my artwork "a while ago, but not so much now."

While he might be hopeful about linking illustration with fine art, Seat depends on assignments from publications. Therefore his portfolio is ultimately designed to market his drawing talents. Inspired by the exaggerated caricatures of Philip Burke and grotesque figures of Lucian Freud, Seat's portfolio contains recognizable subjects such as Moore, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kurt Vonnegut.

"For illustration work, it definitely needs to be an image that fits the needs for the publication," he said. He must be doing something right: His work has received awards from the Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts magazine and Print magazine.

He moved away from the busy sprawl of the Washington, D.C., bedroom community with his retired parents. Talented but shy, he's still struggling to find his footing.

"You know, finding work in illustration is certainly a slow progression for me," Seat said. In Virginia, he produced work for Military History magazine and taught occasional illustration workshops while working part time in a frame store. He's currently working on a series of illustrations for Read magazine, depicting George Orwell's Animal Farm for middle school-age readers.

Eric Seat selected for international
illustration competition
in New York City
(Feb. 2010)

contact:
W: www.ericseat.com
Tel: 703-727-5372

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Amy Schomaker

Amy Schomaker

Amy Schomaker’s love of texture and form are apparent in her diverse use of handmade paper, painted paper and low-relief dimensional collages and paintings. 

She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1990 concentrating in oil painting and printmaking. A St. Louis native, she now considers Columbia Missouri her home. 

Amy is continuing to learn new techniques and applications in papermaking as a member of the Fiber Arts Study Group through the Columbia Weaver’s and Spinners Guild. Her work can be seen in a variety of locations throughout Columbia in the Art League’s Community Exhibit Program.

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A medley of artwork lines both walls like playful sentinels. These are the colorfully manifest creations of Columbia artist Amy Schomaker, bringing life and light to the otherwise gray corridor of Boone County Regional Hospital. Bold acrylic paintings, silkscreen prints, delicate torn paper collages, and painted paper creations hang neatly, side by side. She holds no objections against exhibiting early work alongside her latest creations. “Art doesn’t have an expiration date like milk,” Schomaker contends. 

Schomaker pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in oil painting as well as printmaking at the University of Missouri in the late 1980s. Additional art making techniques were acquired throughout the four years Schomaker spent teaching art to middle school students and the influences she encountered as a member of the Columbia Weaver’s and Spinner’s guild. Schomaker attributes much of her artistic growth to Leandra Spangler, a mentor and friend, who set inspiration in her to continue developing as an artist.

Although Schomaker’s artwork has many influences, the most essential influence is her own: and it proves to be the single tie that binds the variety of art forms together. Each work embodies Schomaker’s veneration of nature and her playful dance with unconventionality and inventiveness.

“You don’t have to color inside [the lines],” Schomaker insists. She allows this concept to trickle over into her paintings which are layered, folded, cut, burned, or torn to effect multi-dimensionality. Variations on these techniques encourage shadow play arising from the surrounding light situations to pass through the artwork, resulting in many transient impressions of the painting. 

Organic elements enter into Schomaker’s hand painted paper modeling and collages. She adds cooked down plant fibers to her handmade paper before “combing” distinctive textures onto each paper sheet. Her paper works are a continuation on the theme of mingling actual and applied perspectives and are what she describes as “low relief sculptures.” 

Schomaker regularly participates in quarterly community exhibit programs, Fiber Arts tours, and regional art exhibits. She has her sights set on expanding her audience and will undoubtedly continue developing and applying new techniques in her art forms as life itself unfolds alongside her.

by Lindsey Cole

The Fiddler

paper mâché

Chasm

acrylic on canvas

Reaching for the Sun

acrylic on paper
collage

Paper Lantern

Paper ornament/lantern
handmade paper
with block printed symbols

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Randy McDermit

Randy McDermit

I am a local Columbia artist who has spent the majority of my life in or around Columbia. Most of my work has been with acrylic paint; however, I’ve also worked with charcoal, pastel, and pen and ink. I began college as an art major at Columbia College, but after two years I changed my major to psychology and transferred to MIZZOU. I didn’t pick it up again until after I graduated, moved to St. Louis, and started working for the state of Missouri. In St. Louis I moved into a studio apartment and started doing charcoal drawings, posting them all over my walls. At that time I wasn’t concerned with a finished product. I just attacked the paper with aggression and vigor and then set it aside to start another one. I didn’t show them to anyone for months, but steadily I felt I was making progress. Eventually I started working in bits of color using pastels until I developed a love of color.

My early work was almost exclusively charcoal and pastel and greatly shaped the development of my style. I always enjoyed the feel and expressiveness of charcoal and pastel. My application was loose, physical and cathartic. Whether it was the medium that drew me to my subject matter or the other way around, I found satisfaction in depicting simple, dramatic gestures, figures and faces. It was more about capturing the intensity of a single moment rather than complex narratives or concepts. When I made the gradual transition from pastel to acrylic, I brought with me the same approach. The translation has produced some interesting results, and those early days continue to influence my direction. When I get off track, I always go back and do a few charcoals to reconnect.

I have always found the task in every artwork is to bridge the elements of connection and conflict. I feel like if I am authentically connected and present everything else will fall into place. The older I get, the more I trust my intuition. I trust that if I am fully engaged in the process of self expression, a truth will reveal itself. Not every truth, but a truth nevertheless.

contact:
W:artaccidental.blogspot.com
Tel: 573-424-0216

Mechanical Romance

Floral Arrangement

Tattoo

The Tower

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Kay McCarthy

Kay McCarthy

I can't remember a time in my life when I was not drawing, painting or working on an art project. Graduating from the University of North Dakota with a bachelor's degree in fine arts I soon found that my love of the arts would take another turn. I started with an administrative career in non-profits which ultimately translated into arts administration. Now retired from the City of Columbia's Office of Cultural Affairs, I spend as much of my time as possible doing what I love best...painting my favorite subjects, people and dogs, from photographs in my home studio. Nothing is more satisfying than using the medium of watercolor and seeing an image emerge to tell it's own story.

One day's happiness often predicts the next day's creativity. - Teresa Amabile

Little Ballerinas

Sand Shadows

Daddy Strong

Dear Sheyanne

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Hope Martin

Hope Martin

Hello, I'm Hope Martin, a wildlife & nature artist in Columbia. I've been exploring art in soft pastels for over 10 years. Formerly a graphic designer, a desire to be with my kids drew me away from the corporate world. Exploring outdoors with them revived my love for art and nature. My art now intricately captures the colors and details of the world around me. The process of creating art is a heartfelt expression of my connection with nature's beauty. Through my artwork, I aim to share this wonder and inspire others to see & explore nature.

My medium of choice is pastels. I also use black ink with watercolor and sometimes instant coffee.

contact:
573-239-5606
www.hopemartinartist.com

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Bill Manion

Bill Manion

Returning to regular work with brush and pen has been an experience to which I have long looked forward. Now time and a fun place to work give me the opportunity to try styles and combinations.

I don’t have any rules going into a painting or a cartoon. Sometimes I have an idea of what I want but most of the time I just let the abstraction happen or the humor of the character build. I love the shape of bottles and vessels and work these into much of what I do. I am interested in cartoon outlines and the flows of abstract. All figure paintings start with a cartoon. Under all paintings somewhere there is an abstract. Some of my work blends the two. As an abstract grows with layer after layer of color I begin to see a form or a shape, or I will sketch out a form and begin, looking for the energy of color that makes a work pop.

Works of art should brighten and highlight every wall, so I like to play with color. I am not afraid of color, especially the deep hues and tones of red and its compliments. A blend of red and yellow, wet into wet, makes me smile. A black and white painting or drawing can gain dimension with that splash of color that gives it life or makes a mood. I love watching how light changes through a wine bottle. I love the colors of sunsets over the water. I will keep trying to capture those colors, tones, humor, moods, and the great feeling of forever sunsets that a work of art brings to me and to others.

Designs, cartoons, and the love of fine art has been a part of my life since high school. The dream of learning to draw and paint showed in air brushed T-shirts in college. Later, a cartoon, “Catch Pen,” laughing with the Cowboy life by “Billy Bob and friends,” was in rodeo news and horseman magazines for several years. A time to get serious with a business career delayed regular art work for several years. I continued to study with artist friends around the country while building a major art collection and working with art support groups in several cities. Moving back to Missouri with a fun studio overlooking the Lake of the Ozarks, I have returned to drawing, design, and movement of color. Paintings have placed in juried shows along with character development and design for commercial operations.

in studio with Mystique

Bill Manion

Summer Beach

Chateau Mouton Rothschild

Bacigalupi Vineyards

Shudda Hadda Chardonnay!

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Sharyn Hyatt

Sharyn Hyatt

Sharyn received her undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia, her Masters of Fine Arts from Clemson University, and has studied and traveled in Europe. She has taught art at the secondary and college levels, has published in several journals, and has work on the cover of three books. Hyatt's work can be found in numerous public and private collections including the Asheville Art Museum, Southwestern Bell of St. Louis, Boone County National Bank, the University of Missouri Hospital and Clinics, the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, and the collection of August Busch Jr. In addition she has shown in numerous group shows as well as in 14 solo exhibitions.

For the past 25 years, Hyatt has considered her most creative endeavor to be teaching and she has had the privilege of working with more than 2,000 emerging young artists. Sharyn feels most comfortable with the titles "teacher" and "mom" but as of 2008 could be found edging back into the art scene.

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Kerry Mulvania Hirth

Kerry Mulvania Hirth

Kerry Hirth uses her synesthetic experience of musical harmony as color to create visual music in vibrant linear patterns. Her work captures the complexity and richness of musical patterns, and explores the ways they point to the source of music in life experiences. By engaging the colors of real and enchanted landscapes, her drawings of music gain a unique sense of time, place, and the extraordinary relationship between music and the natural world.

Kerry Hirth was born in the Midwest and currently lives and works near Columbia, Missouri. Kerry's work has been presented in gallery exhibitions nationally and internationally, as well as closer to home. She collaborates with musicians, with noteworthy local projects including a live demonstration with the Missouri Symphony Society orchestra, creating backgrounds for live performance at the MU School of Fine Arts, and the permanent installation of a large scale work in the atrium of the Bond Life Sciences Center. Kerry's approach to music and visual art has been shaped by her unique academic background, which includes studying music, philosophy, and computer networks. Kerry works full-time as an artist in her studio "Mount Erebus Workshop" adjacent to her home, where she lives with her husband Andy Hirth.

contact info:
W: www.kerryhirth.com

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Jan Hager-Klein

Jan Hager-Klein

I’m a listener and a watcher...have been all my life. My professional life took me to 11 countries in Europe, Asia, all over the USA as a Human Resources manager, a counselor, and college professor.

Now I’m in Missouri and have enjoyed painting for the last 14 years, alone or with friends on destination painting experiences. Italy has called us twice; Hopetown, Bahamas was a great alone get away; and Carmel, California calls again and again. I’ve taken classes at Webster University and private lessons with Dong Feng Li, Billyo O’Donnel, John Porter Lasater IV, Qiang Huang, and with Ruo Li.

I paint because I like the process. Each painting is like a puzzle that I slowly put together whether is it a landscape, city scape, interior, or abstract. I come from painters with a mother, brother, and a son who all make their living as painters. I grew up with my mother - Helen Hager - painting to classical music when I got home from school. The smell of turpentine and open windows back then was a peaceful happy time.

I hope you enjoy my work.

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Cynthia Durost

Cynthia Durost

I paint because I am struck by the multitude of colors and sights of Nature. I paint as a form of meditation releasing my energy, joy, sadness, or love. I paint as an expression of my relation to the whole, to Nature. The browns, blues, ochres, reds, purples, blacks, and yellow are so vivid; even the snow presents color in reverse. I also have a longing for the space of Nature: the sky, the water, the trees, the rocks opening up. I see the relationship between forms and space - two trees stand juxtaposed leaning and finally encircling each other, two friends. I want only to keep recording my feeling in the natural space. The best of my painting experience exists in my being present spontaneously painting with the flow of water and color.

Sometimes, I paint a scene over and over, later to learn a message exists. In New Mexico, for instance, I paint a mountain scene again and again, later to learn Zuni women ascend the heights of this mountain to gather a ceremonial flower which grows only on this mountain. I am drawn to certain places, the fields and marshes and woods of New England, the canyonlands, rivers, and mountains of New Mexico and Arizona, the islands of Cape Verde, or the rainforests of Costa Rica. There is for me a connecting force between mind and Nature, a play of consciousness and spirit. I acknowledge land and wild animals, and especially the space without the importance of humans. The artist in me follows instinct and intuition, is connected to all peoples, crosses all boundaries, is open and searching.

I also believe firmly in sharing and passing on the tradition and experience of painting and being an artist. In this exchange with many others, I continue to learn and grow and play.

contact info:
T: 573-355-2294

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Nancy DeClue

Nancy DeClue

by Lindsey Howald

Although her content can vary from meditations on religious texts to vibrant abstracts from nature, Nancy DeClue’s work is consistently alive. The beauty of her painting is that while deeply influenced by the innate ebb and flow of nature’s energy, it seldom depicts the very landscape that inspired her. Rather, it is the fuel of conceptualism that drives her work, and the way it is translated onto the canvas often seems completely separate from the moment that inspired it.

“The work takes on its own life,” she says. “Like going from air to a molecule, it’s an evolution.”

DeClue, born in 1954 in Jefferson City, originally came to the University of Missouri to get her art history degree: “I was going to be the best damn curator ever,” she laughs. However, practicality called, and DeClue put this dream aside to begin what would be a lifelong, devoted career in nursing. Currently a nurse at the Missouri Cancer Associates, DeClue admits, “It has turned out that I do love it. But it’s not my passion.”

Like all true artists, DeClue cannot remember a time in her life she wasn’t creating. She began to pursue her work in earnest in 2002, when complications from a neck surgery forced her to slow down life’s obligations, allowing her art to flood in. In 2005, she was selected for an intensive period of study at the prestigious Santa Fe Art Institute. For two months, DeClue lived and worked in community with other artists in art-infused New Mexico, which helped her develop her own personal style.

“I didn’t realize until several years ago that all people didn’t see the world the way I did,” she says. “It was like an epiphany – I realized that what I do is truly different.”

DeClue’s lack of formal art training has both its advantages and disadvantages. Though she admits she sometimes gets in over her head with a project, never having learned the limitations of certain media allows her to work purely from the visions that appear in her head. As with Small Wonders (upper right), the 2005 work to thank for her acceptance to the Santa Fe Art Institute, DeClue had never been warned a 48”x54” linoleum block print would be an ambitious project, and therefore didn’t think to shy away from it. Small Wonders, which is a cry for this culture to reverse its de-mystification of Nature, now hangs in DeClue’s downtown coffee haunt, Lakota.

Rather than settling for representation, DeClue entreats viewers to enter her state of mind. In a recent multi-media collage series she has nicknamed The Word (bottom right), she writes or pastes text from altar prayers, a German Bible and other cultural religious influences, creating chaos from structural antiquity. By forcing these concepts to collide, she disrupts the mutual exclusivity these old religions have claimed.

“The concept is, God is God,” she explains. “What is the difference between religions? Why are we pointing the finger and damning one another? There is a universality here.”

Freed from the burden of defining her work in art historical terms, DeClue allows her art, simply, to be what it is. When asked about her influences, she shakes her head firmly. “I look at all other work, and there’s nothing I find that I don’t like. I take every opportunity to see every piece of art I can.”

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Artist Statement

‘the image chooses the artist’, Evri Kwong to myself, 2005.

The ‘image’ has always chosen me. It can be triggered by a dream, a concept, an event, a social reality, a tiny bloom, an insect with gossamer wings-something touches my soul.

The ‘image’ or idea stays with me. It gestates. It then chooses a medium. It grows in intensity until I have to let it out. The resulting work or works often take on a life of their own. Almost self determined.

This is how a series or large piece is conceived. This is my motivation-love colored with passion.

My thirty plus years as a nurse, and especially my years in oncology, place these constructs within my unique life experience and philosophy.

Deep respect and acute appreciation for all forms of life are interwoven with spirituality. Often a statement of society and its ‘norms’ or direction (especially when childishly self-serving) are veiled in my pieces. It is what drives my production.

Sometimes-sheer breathtaking beauty is the muse.

Sometimes-the attempt to grasp quantum mechanics. Perhaps-music, or the laugh of a child.

ART IS THE REPRESENTATION OF PASSION.

Contact:
T: 573-590-0162

Small Wonders

(detail)
Santa Fe Art Institute residency
signature piece

Ann's Vision Epiphany II

detail

The Word V

detail

The Word V detail

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Janet Bratcher

Janet Bratcher

I am a self-taught artist. I am motivated by self- teaching, and there is no better way to learn than to figure things out on your own. I am finally at a point in my life where I would like to turn my passion into more than just a hobby seen only by my family and friends. 

As long as I can remember I have been interested in the avenues of creativity. I have journeyed down many of these paths from painting, sculpture, quilting, beading and needlepoint. After years of picking up and losing interest in different mediums and craft projects, I finally feel I have found an art form that engages me. I found a style of my own. My style is inspired by the traditional impressionists. 

My medium of choice is oils pastels and India ink. I have a good eye for detail and love to show great textures and colors. I like to work in stages, starting by breaking up the surface into large general shapes and values keeping the painting abstract. This gives me a basic road map. I keep my attention on the entire surface and try not to get too picky on any single area.

contact:
Tel: 573-999-9811

Old Lock

Red Chair

The Chair

Angel

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Jamie Carey-Humphreys

Jamie Carey-Humphreys

I first discovered my God-given talent when my parents moved my two sisters and me from the big city to a horse ranch in Fulton, Missouri. I remember my parents giving me an oil painting set for Christmas when I was 8 years old. I clearly remember the excitement of opening my first tube of oil paints and squeezing it onto my pallet. I will never forget the feel of the rich, thick paints as I brushed it onto the canvas. The smell of the oil paints when I walk into my studio is as pleasing and comforting as the smell of fresh-baked oatmeal raisin cookies!

In school my favorite classes were art, home economics and drama. I think that they were the only classes in which I received As. I have furthered my art education by attending several drawing and painting classes at William Woods University in Fulton. I took what I had learned and produced workshops for the public on Intro to Oil Painting. I find I really enjoy teaching and helping others to learn how to paint. My future dream is starting a children's art camp.

I have received numerous awards in local, regional, and state competitions. My biggest honor was to be chosen one of Best of 50 for the Missouri State Fair Competition. I'm on the Board of Best of Missouri Hands, and a member of both the Columbia Art League and the Jefferson City Art Club. I do commissioned portraits in oil and graphite, murals, and logo designs. My style is realism. I tell my clients that I'm a photo realist. If they can get me a photo that is clear, and I can see the detail of the eyes, then I can produce a live spirit in the painting. I can create that image on my canvas. When I paint, I am passing on the spirit of that subject and recreating it on the canvas. When painting a portrait, I do the eyes first. If they don't sparkle back at me, there is no reason to continue.

My family is made up of four boys and five grandchildren. (It's great being a grandma!) The boys have their own lives now, and my husband, John, and I own and operate Kingdom of Callaway Vineyard and Studio from our family farm in Fulton.

contact info:
T: 573-220-3319

SEC-UM

Gathering of the Mornings Feast

Bill Moore's Dogs

Bill Moore in Africa

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Renate Brady

Renate Brady

Born and raised in Frankfurt, Germany, Renate now lives in Columbia, Missouri where she maintains her studio. "There has always been a desire within me to be creative, whether I was painting or designing a logo or corporate image."

Renate earned a Bachelor of Science degree in arts and graphic design from Columbia College, where she studied under Professors Sidney Larson and Ben Cameron. After a long career in commercial art, she decided to fulfill her dream and devote more time to her paintings, focusing on both regional and international subject matter, and allowing herself to appeal to a diverse audience.

" I always loved the feel of paper, and choosing to paint on paper rather than canvas was consequently an obvious decision."

Her mediums includes pastels, watercolor, mixed medium, acrylic, pen and ink. Color, whether brilliant or subtle, is the element that drives her to create paintings with feelings and sensations, with vibrant and bold colors. Her work reflects nature in natural and abstract forms where she experiments with surface quality in color relationships and simplifying reality to slight abstract forms. All works make an open statement to the viewer. She has received numerous awards in many juried and invitational exhibits, local and regional.

contact info:
W: www.renatebrady.com

Bed and Breakfast, Southern Italy

Lily Pond

Angels Wings, St. Albans, Missouri

Colorful Fields, Holland

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