Meeting Augusta Tabor!

Mary Jane Donohue as Augusta Tabor

A large group of about 30 people gathered at our Art Center on Friday to enjoy a wonderful presentation by storyteller Mary Jane Donohue. Performing in costume, she took on the persona of Colorado legend Augusta Tabor giving historical information and personal recollections of this well-known character. We learned a lot about Augusta - her marriage to colorful figure Horace Tabor, their life in Leadville and the mining towns of Colorado's early beginnings, the birth of their son and her later life as a single woman. There was a lot more to Augusta Tabor than just her relationship to the scandal caused by her husband's association with Baby Doe. She was a strong woman with a sense of adventure, willing to endure hardships to forge a life for her family. Never faultering from her character, Mary Jane "became" this interesting woman for her presentation. The recounting of historical figures is part of a program sponsored by the Colorado Humanities. We have used their performers in the past - most recently with a program about Eleanor Roosevelt - and they are always wonderful. The attendees were glued to every word and had lots of questions to ask "Augusta" at the end.

Mountainside Art Guild Members' Show

Susan Gordon assists members of Mountainside Art Guild as they check-in their work

MAG President Carolyn Tegeder visits with members Nancy Brunskill and Lynnette Kupferer as they wait for the results of the jurying.

Juror Lori Williamson visits with First Place winner Susan Gordon about her award winning entry.

The atmosphere was upbeat when Mountainside Art Guild members delivered their work for their annual members' show on Saturday. Susan Gordon was in charge and she had things well-organized for check-in. Nearly 80 works covering a wide range of media and artistic style are included in the show. Some well-know artists entered work this year including Cal Johnson, Sandy Danley, Lynnette Kupferer, Cindy Ahrenkiel, Kate Cissell and Marcia Brill as well as some newer member artists such as Myrlynne Sjogrn, Kay Cassa and Laura Shreck. We are always happy to see the return of this group each year to the LAC Art Center & Gallery - they are fun, energetic and very talented...and a pleasure to work with! Hope you can join us on Sunday, April 10, 2:00-3:30 for their opening reception.

Congratulations, Susan, on your First Place watercolor painting!

Music and Art - A Great Combination

On March 24, the Arts Council tried a new program - and it proved to be a really wonderful evening! The idea came from Melinda Fiscus our events coordinator - the concept was to gather a small group of people at a private home for an intimate visit with a performer. For this first time, we were fortunate to work with talented and gracious musician Elizabeth Hicks-Kimmey. A group of about 14 guests gathered at the home of LAC's Artistic Director Kathy Berls to enjoy dessert and learn all about the many different types of flutes. Liz performed a variety of music on different flutes along with providing lots of information about this particular instrument. Her warm manner was matched her skills as a very incredible musician. Everyone went home at the end of the evening with a feeling of friendship and enrichment. Hopefully, this will be the first of several such events. (Be sure to visit Liz's website.)

The week also included the second of our open critiques since we've moved them to Monday afternoons. Another big group brought in their work to be critiqued by a lively gathering of artists, skillfully led by talented artist and instructor June Davis. It's wonderful to see so many different styles and hear the thoughts of so many different artists. From a large oil painting by Anne Mann to the imaginative compositions by watercolor artist Carla Stoltzfus, we looked at just about everything imaginable. This free event sponsored every other month by LAC is a treat for the eyes and the brain. Hope you can join us in May for the next one!

Moderator June Davis leads the group in a critique of an oil by Ann Mann

And a watercolor by Kate Cissell

The critique group!

Juror's Comments - Award Winners for “Colorado’s Best”

Many thanks to our juror, Mark Silvers, for a wonderful exhibit and inspiring award winners. The following comments were submitted by Mark and we again thank him for taking the time to express his observations.

Best of Show : “Backlit”, acrylic by Shizuko Barbara Hanson
A very beautiful watercolor showcasing the transparent and translucent qualities for which watercolor is admired for. The negative shapes of the background are perfectly balanced. The attention to detail and variety of edges completes the excellent orchestration of colors, values, edges that make this watercolor a beautiful work of art.


Second Place : “Lilies in the Light”, oil by Kathy Berls
This oil painting has a perfect composition arrangement of positive and negative shapes. Every shape of value and color is part of a beautiful arrangement. The slightly stylized realism exhibits interesting brush work and the almost sculptural modeling of the shapes gives the painting a solid well balanced sense of space.


Third Place : “Autumn Spree” , watermedia by Ellen Masters
This painting is a feast of impressionistic of colors and brush work. The abundance of calligraphy like brush strokes moves the viewers eyes gracefully throughout the painting. What could have been chaotic and busy is instead an expression of well balanced serenity and peacefulness.


Merit Award : “Boy Toys” , pastel by Ginger Lecher
For such a cute and sentimental subject this is a very well composed painting. The pattern of dark value shapes moves the viewer’s eye through the painting creating an interesting framework for the colors and lighter values of the figures and their environment. Ginger expertly answered the question, “what is light doing?”

Merit Award : “Victor Victorian, Colorado” , pastel by Karen Hall
The abstract compositional qualities of this painting are great even without knowing the subject matter. A well designed arrangement of values, shapes and textures. Then when you notice the light capturing a figure in the window a whole new sense of mystery and intrigue is added to a great work of art.

Merit Award : “Brass Ensemble”, oil by Susan Becker
This is a beautiful painting of exquisite attention to detail. Susan is obviously a master of realistic painting techniques. The compositional arrangement of the light and dark values perfectly balances the play of cool and warm colors. The handling of reflections and light is expertly accomplished.


(PHOTO UNAVAILABLE)
Merit Award : “Hot Tomatoes” , watercolor and marker by Carla Stoltzfas
This is a great contemporary visual statement of a common subject. The painting displays a strong design of colors and shadow shapes. The reflected color in the shadows adds an interesting interplay of warm and cool colors. A great painting by an artist who has helped the viewer stop and notice the beauty of art in everyday life.

Happenings at LAC

Collection of new work by Co-Op Gallery artists

Things have really been exciting at the LAC Art Center recently! We have had a tremendous response to our annual sale of art supplies and art work - both from donors and shoppers. You may have noticed how much good publicity we got for this fund raiser. It was a win-win situation for everyone - people brought in just about everything imaginable to donate and shoppers left with wonderful items purchased for the amount they could afford. LAC made over $1,200 which will really help support our activities this year.

Collection of new work by Co-Op Gallery artists

Classes are in full swing with good enrollment for all of them. Despite the "iffy" weather on some days, students were eager to get back to work and visit with classmates. The Open Studio on Monday is becoming increasingly popular with new and returning artists; today was especially fun with the addition of two high school girls who came in to draw and visit on their President's Day holiday. It's a delightful mix of ages, media, and degree of expertise.

The Co-Op artists brought in new work over the weekend - providing a fresh new group of paintings on display. Jane Dorsey's inventive collage of ghostly images is a real attention getter - and it has already sold! This is Jane's second sale this week, the other being a large abstract acrylic piece. We have welcomed a new glass artist, J Bisant, who has some lovely sandblasted pieces for sale. Sales have been good in the downstairs gallery with jewelry, glass, mosaics and note cards taking the lead...but sales of wall hung work are going well also. Special congratulations to Loraine Miller on selling her large watercolor of Taos and to past member Bill Leonard on the sale of his iris painting.

Mixed media painting by Jane McFadden Dorsey

Finally, the first discussion group of the year was very interesting and well attended. Several new people came for the discussion of finding inspiration and overcoming dry spells. Artists who create regularly are an extremely well informed, inquisitive group. Everyone agreed the key is research - no matter what kind! Know your subject, be interested in a variety of things, watch and learn - all the time! Many keep extensive photo files; others rely on getting out, observing, looking. Inspiration can be found by working with other artists...in classes & workshops, in small groups, with friends or through books, videos, or attending art exhibits. Sometimes trying a new medium or combination of media, using a new color, finding a new brush - doing something that takes you out of your comfort zone can help overcome a lack of ideas. Always be looking ahead to the next piece. As Courtney remarked during the discussion, there is no such thing as failure! Everything just leads us to the next work.

Glass by new artist J Bisant

Next up....the results of our first big juried show. "Colorado's Best" arrives upstairs this weekend!

Valentine's Event

Thanks to Kathy Berls for the article and Lynnette Kupferer for the great photos!



Valentine's Day is always special for the Lakewood Arts Council! Each year, we plan a different kind of event and it is always one of the most popular things we present. This year's celebration brought a capacity crowd as we enjoyed music performed by "West Side Winds", a trio of talented ladies from the Lakewood Symphony.








Guests enjoyed a delicious array of tea sandwiches, chocolates and tasty treats (thanks Loraine Miller and Barb Tobiska for your contributions). Friends gathered for good conversation as they enjoyed the performers' music - a perfect mix of classical selections and familiar popular tunes. The weather was perfect and everyone was in the right romantic mood for a cozy afternoon. We even had two people celebrating their 47th wedding anniversary a day early - congratulations Mary & John Edgar!





For those who want to hear more from our musicians, they perform with the Lakewood Symphony at the Lakewood Cultural Center. Their next concert is scheduled for Thursday, March 3. Check out their website at http://www.lakewoodsymphony.org/.

Two Fun Events

Thanks to Artistic Director, Kathy Berls, for the following article and pictures! Thanks to Lynette Kupferer for the Jeffco Library event photos!

Nancy Whitsel and Stacy McKenzie from Jefferson County Libraries

What fun to bring two new events to our list of activities this past weekend! We really have such a fun, creative, nice group of people in our organization. On Friday, the presentation by volunteers from the Jeffco Libraries brought a small but attentive group to our Art Center. Human Resources professional Nancy Whitsel and Library Program Coordinator Stacy McKenzie told us of the many opportunities provided by our local libraries from book mobiles that travel to local retirement communities to ways to download books on your Kindle. The group attending was knowledgeable and interested in the topic - they came with questions and left with amazement over the many free programs offered. It was a wonderful session, made all the more fun with tasty treats provided by Barbara Tobiska (we all want to know how she makes those delicious sandwiches on round bread!) We hope to do a follow-up to this program in the near future as it is such a great addition to our literary arts program. The program is offered free to any organization, so contact your library if you belong to another group who might be interested.

Stacy McKenzie presents information about Jeffco libraries and services

A very different kind of gathering took place the next day. Approximately 17 LAC members and friends gathered at our first Orientation Meeting. Following a warm welcome by President Cindy Haase, we all had fun with a version of "20 Questions". Each person was encouraged to provide two questions to be answered by Artistic Director Kathy Berls and President Cindy. It was a lively round-table discussion with everyone joining in with their questions and observations - and some great new ideas. How nice to be part of a group who knows how to laugh and have a good time - no matter what the topic. We got to know each other better and to learn a little more about the Arts Council, its origins, events, and method of operation. New friendships were formed as people stayed after the session to enjoy more coffee and refreshments and to share more ideas. There was a wonderful feeling of comraderie and excitement as we all learned more about each other and of the many opportunities the Arts Council provides. Certainly the main message that came through was that none of us can do without the arts! Our Community Art Center is just the place to discover your hidden talents and passions.

Board members Warner Reeser and Marje Walsh visit with new LAC members Mariposa Marangia and Dan Martinez and their friend Jean before the LAC Orientation Meeting began.

President Cindy Haase welcomes about 17 guests to the discussion group on Saturday.

We're looking forward to seeing you at a future event - maybe it will be the Valentine's Tea scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 13th??