Painting

HARRODSBURG — A long-established and well-known maker of water tanks and other storage facilities will soon be opening up a division headquarters in Harrodsburg. Louisville-based Caldwell Tanks has purchased the former Jeff Sachs auto dealership building just north of town on U.S. 127 and is converting it to headquarters for Caldwell Coating Division. Terry Currens will be the new facility’s director of coating, while his brother Keith Currens will serve as superintendent of field crews.

Winchester Public Works employee Lee White moves slowly down Boone Avenue spray painting yellow "no parking" paint on the curb near Hampton Avenue. The city is painting curbs throughout Winchester, a chore made much easier with the curb painting machine, which allows the operator to ride while working.

Starry Night Studio returns with another one-of-a-kind piece, this time turning a local icon into collectible piece of art.  “New Look for Old Centre” was created just for SNS by Laura Clay, our new education coordinator, also a Centre College graduate, who will lead the class Monday evening. “We wanted to develop a painting that celebrated Centre, and what better than Old Centre itself?” Clay says.  Clay points out there is usually some difficulty in creating an architectural painting.  “I wanted to develop a piece that was easy to replicate, fun to paint but also maintained the essence of Old Centre.”  The painting is almost a caricature of the building, a little off-centered, accented with dark outlines and gold highlights that give it a cartoon-like appeal.

Barb Hitchcock did not begin painting until she was 50 years old. You don't have to be an artist since childhood to pick it up, she says.  Hitchcock plans to prove that to her students in a new class incorporating pastels in landscapes, which begins April 19.  “It's fun, colorful, creative and easy for beginners,” she says.  She considers pastels to be very forgiving, with corrections easy to make. To Hitchcock, art is about opening eyes to see things differently.  “After studying it, students no longer see brown and green trees.

Amanda Wheeler and husband, Ben, were totally surprised at their artistic skills. After attending the Community Arts Center's first Starry Night Studio of the season, the couple now has two new paintings - which they plan to frame and hang side-by-side in their home.  They photographed each other, proudly displaying their individual reproductions of Van Gogh's “Starry Nights” - the namesake of the studio event which has been gaining attendees...

Elizabeth Thompson has been a visual artist for as long as she can remember - ever since the 15-year-old Danville High School student was a little kid. "I've always loved drawing," says Elizabeth. "I like to think up an image and share it with people. " Elizabeth works primarily in acrylics and colored pencils, and likes to draw animals - even magical animals, such as unicorns. "It always seems like animals can do so much more than people can do," Elizabeth explains. "And fantasy and fiction are some of my favorite things in the whole world.

A rain storm did not stop the presentation Wednesday of an original oil painting to McDowell House and Apothecary Shop. The painting by the late local artist Louise Wilson Wilkinson depicts the arrival of Jane Todd Crawford to Dr. Ephraim McDowell's house on South Second Street on a snowy day in December 1809. "Neither rain, hail nor snow prevented us from delivering this painting," Harry Nickens, president of the Ephraim McDowell Health Care Foundation, said as he and Barry Michael, president of the Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center made the presentation.

Garden jewels, birdhouses, bird baths and garden totems all are parts of Cynthia Carr's "Garden Essentials" exhibit at the Community Arts Center. The glazed ceramic garden accessories are enhanced with rustic and unique items she has collected over the years. Carr is founder of Crosswinds Pottery on a small farm in remote and scenic north Mercer County. She mixes her own clay in an old dough mixer and fires it in a large propane kiln she built herself. The outdoor-themed exhibit also features watercolor paintings by Carrie Lantz of Frankfort.

The students are painting all over the walls. And that?s just fine with the teachers. Students at the Bruce Hall Day Treatment program recently painted a mural inside their building. Since the first of June, the 14 students of the summer session have worked with Berea artist Alfredo Escobar to create a mural across three walls, each with scenes in varying sizes that display a motivational message in images and words. Against the background of the dull, pale yellow wall, the largest mural shows fantastically colored tree roots reaching out toward each other with small hands.

Grand Hall: "Fabric: An Obsession" By Corrie Lynn Johnson Singleton If family is the center of all happiness, then the works of local artist Corrie Lynn Johnson Singleton are happily delightful. In a sense, Singleton was originally the artistic black sheep of her family. Growing up in Illinois, she was surrounded by a family of women who were expert sewers and able to express their ideas through their fabric creations. But unlike the women in her family, Johnson's abilities stemmed from an older generation of artistic talent.

Saturday, if you walk through downtown Danville, you will glimpse several people, paint and brush in hand, seated in front of various buildings and homes as they try to capture some of Danville's finest scenery. The group, Plein Aire Painters of the Bluegrass, will be exhibiting at the Community Arts Center in June and July and are looking to create some Danville-specific art for the exhibit. Plein Aire, pronounced “Plain Air,” is French for “out in the open.” As the name implies, Plein Aire paintings are made outside in one sitting - this painting technique poses a unique challenge for artists because they need to capture the essence of a place quickly, racing against the moving sun as it changes the scene in front of them.

Last April we moved into the former bank building in Paint Lick and began to “de-bank” the building so we could create an arts center. On Oct. 5 of last year we officially opened the center and began a whole series of arts classes, workshops and events in many arts areas, including painting, clay, weaving, music, basketry, writing and more.   Many of the people in this area participated in these activities and benefited from them. All through the months they have been here, not only participating, but encouraging and supporting our efforts to bring the arts to Paint Lick and surrounding communities.

Story and photos by JENIFFER¿BRUMMETT jbrummett@amnews.com PAINT LICK - Yvonne Davis sits down at the grand piano in a shop area next to the tea room of the facility. “What shall I play?” she asks. Ummmmm ... “Moonlight Sonata”? Yvonne Davis laughs and asks for a selection that isn't quite so old. “I'm a jazz pianist,” she notes. Nina Simone? She seems both surprised and delighted by the choice and chooses “I Loves You Porgy” from “Porgy and Bess,” a song that was on Simone's album “Little Girl Blue.” Her fingers trip lightly over the keys, stroking them lovingly as she performs.

PAINT LICK - A new exhibit called “Images of Paint Lick” is set to be mounted next month at Paint Lick Community Arts Center. With the theme being Paint Lick and its history, the center is looking for historical paintings, old photographs, picture albums, old historical objects and artifacts that can be put on display for the show. Anyone who has these items or knows who has them, call Rickie Collett at (859) 792-4715 or Jane West at (859) 925-4241. Collett and West are the co-curators for this exhibit.  People who have these items, bring them to the center between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Feb. 4 or 5. The show will be hung Feb. 6.  The exhibit will be three days only, Feb. 7 - 9. Contributed items can be picked up after 4 p.m. Feb. 9.  There will be an opening reception for the exhibit 5:30-7 p.m. Feb. 7 with dulcimer music and refreshments.

PAINT LICK - The Paint Lick Community Arts Center will offer two classes to give area residents the opportunity to hand-make hearts for valentines for Valentine's Day. The first is a “Learn to Tat” class, set for 2-3:30 p.m. Jan. 24, 31 and Feb. 7. Students will use the lacemaking technique of tatting to make hearts for valentine cards. Tatting is a fairly new form of lacemaking; it developed in the mid-19th century and was beloved by Victorians. In this three-week class, participants will learn the basic techniques and will tat one or more hearts in time for Valentine's Day. The instructor is Debbonnaire Kovacs, featured artist in Berea.

PAINT LICK - The Paint Lick Community Arts Center will host an installation of quilts done by local residents in January. The exhibit runs through Jan. 26. The opening reception for the “Paint Lick Quilt Show” will be from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday at the center. Everyone is invited to view and enjoy the quilts and meet the quilters or owners of quilts done by others in the past. Refreshments will be served in the tearoom and porch while The Pilot Knob Boys perform. This will be the first quilt exhibit at the Paint Lick Community Arts Center and will represent quilt-making by people who live primarily in the Paint Lick and Garrard County area.

For several years Tim Bess had been encouraging his wife, Danville artist Anne Crawford, to do a painting based on the tradition of Kentucky basketball. Last summer she found herself considering the best way to portray the deep tradition of UK basketball in an original oil portrait. “Her artistic, creative mind went to work. She then invited our family to share ideas, to discuss the painting, to conduct research, and to take a close look at all that is encompassed by UK basketball's tradition throughout the decades,” said Jean Crawford Griffin, Anne's sister.

The fire hydrant painting project is reaching completion, and the Arts Commission of Danville/Boyle County couldn't be happier with the results.  This is a special thank you to all those community members of all ages who took time from their busy lives to put stars and stripes or swirls on hydrants all around town. Thanks, also, to Woody Ball and the Danville City Fire Department for guidance and assistance in readying the hydrants.   Here's a big round of applause to DecoArt, our corporate sponsor, who supplied the paint, the designs and the instructions for this project.

Eight-year-old Dorian Welch was so focused on his sidewalk rendition of northern California's Golden Gate Bridge that he failed to notice he was nearly out of blue sidewalk chalk. “Man, I'm almost out of blue,” Welch said with his brow wrinkled with concern. Welch was among the more than 70 people who turned out for the inaugural Creative Art League (CAL) of Jessamine County's Creative Paint Out on the courthouse lawn Saturday. Event organizer Constance Grayson said the turnout was overwhelming.

There is a new art league developing, and the group is introducing itself by launching the inaugural Creative Paint Out at the Jessamine County Courthouse this Saturday. The fledgling group, Creative Art League of Jessamine County, Inc. (CAL), is making its mark in the community by hosting an free-for-all event that encourages all level of artists and lovers of art to attend. No matter if you are an artist who would like to display your work for others, a budding artist who would like to meet other artists and learn new techniques or just a patron and appreciator of the paints, there will be a place for you at Creative Paint Out, CAL founder and president Constance Grayson said.