By Page H. Gifford
Correspondent
Fluvanna Art Association’s (FAA) held its annual spring show April 26 celebrating its 50th anniversary and artists throughout the area with a reception and show titled Then and Now.
Fluvanna native Windy Payne, a member since 1975, summed up the artistic drive that has kept the FAA flourishing saying, “anyone can paint but a true artist cannot survive without creating art.”
The show featured new works by members and an accompanying artist’s statement about their artistic journey. Susan Edginton came a long way from growing up in the Midwest, drawing on sidewalks with chalk and painting watercolors on her mother’s typing paper. Like fellow artist William Snow, who was an accomplished graphics artist, they both shared the challenges and frustration of watercolor. Nowadays, watercolor artists, embrace watercolor and have learned how to manipulate it to their advantage.
“These days, my work is all about capturing a moment through painting or photography,” said Edginton. Photography led her to the world of show dogs, and commissions painting dogs. “Watercolor remains my go-to, pen and ink, and colored pencil.” Her painting titled Griffins caught everyone’s attention at the reception with her subtle blend of colors and exquisite details.
She added, “That early love of creating has stayed with me and continues to shape the way I see the world.”
The FAA as a collective group of artists has changed as much as the artists themselves have. Fifty years ago, artists sketched or painted, mostly still life’s and landscapes. Fifteen years ago, an evolution of styles and mediums began to take shape, changing the group. Some opposed change within the group, including not allowing photography and later computer-generated images. This was seen as not pure art. Today, FAA welcomes all artists of all skill levels.
Jim Wilkin, a woodworker whose current work is a sculpture of delicate curled wood that takes on a life of its own in its subtle movement in stillness. Jim’s early work showed painstaking detail in his pen and ink drawings but he had always worked with wood as a hobby. Now retired, he devotes his time to refining his craft into an art form.
“Each piece of wood was alive at one time, breathing in its own ways. And for me there is still life in it,” he said. “My goal is for each piece of wood that I use to inspire me to create shapes and forms, turnings, sculpture, and pieces of furniture, that allow the wood’s natural beauty to be seen, touched, and appreciated by all who look at it.”
Bev Bowman loved oils and painting landscapes in her early days but once she studied botanical drawing with Lara Gastinger she found her niche. Bowman’s steady hand and attention to detail show in the delicacy and realism of her work.
Former art teacher Alyce Walcavich says her serious artistic style emerged in graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University. She developed large paintings and drawings that were photo-realistic in style. Her subjects are close-up still-life images with materials and clothing.
“I tried to incorporate rich colors, textures, and patterns within the work using an interplay of warm and cool passages. The larger size of four feet by seven feet surfaces engages the viewer to explore the rich passages of color tones and textural patterns.”
Teaching photography at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts influenced and changed Walcavich’s approach to making art. Progressing through different photographic processes, her art evolved into surrealism where realistic images were juxtaposed in unusual ways. She adds that Photoshop allowed her to experiment with distortions, effects, and textural changes.
Today she says her style can be “roughly defined as Magic realism: a style that blurs the lines between the ordinary and the unusual and is characterized by the use of bright colors, dreamlike imagery, and the unexpected juxtaposition of elements.”
“I want the viewer to explore the spaces between the real and imagined, and to create a sense of wonder and mystery within the real world.”
Other artists in the show, including Mary Volin, a fiber artist, showed off a different side with a stunning 3-D abstract. Duffy Dillinger’s 3-D abstract, unlike her more offbeat, humorous work, featured attractive symmetry. Page Gifford departed from her figures and zentangles to create a fun collage of memorable Hollywood movies and icons. Bill Snow, once again traded in his landscapes for a figure of a woman holding a chicken.
All the art shows the development and expression of each artist and in each statement the progression of how they saw the world in the past to how they see it in the present.
The show will be at the Fluvanna County Public Library until June 20.
