Art Group Celebrates ‘The Power of Color’
The Fayetteville Observer, Fayetteville, NC
November 12, 2004
By Melissa Clement, Staff writer
George Gensic created ‘‘Out of the Blue,’’ a portrait of his daughter, Michelle, using heavy strokes with a palette knife, her face in half shadow. It won first place at the Fayetteville Art Guild show, ‘‘The Power of Color’’ on view at the Fayetteville/Cumberland County Arts Council.
A little over a year ago, the 54-year-old artist decided to pursue a second career as an artist.
While owning a sheet metal shop in Fort Wayne, Ind., he helped college art students work with their sculpture and painted as a hobby.
‘‘After 34 years of doing the same thing, I made the leap,’’ he said. He and his wife, Trisha, researched locations and chose North Carolina for its beauty and support of the arts. They settled in Durham after Trisha found a job. Now, George sees his family off to work in the morning, and he goes to work painting in his studio. He also takes art classes.
People’s choice
Shannon Fisher captured the People’s Choice Award for a photo transfer print taken from an old photograph at her grandparents’ 1953 wedding in Germany. It shows a young army master sergeant in uniform and his bride leaving the formal ceremony. Fisher used a soft cranberry color for the background and overprinted a square around the bride and groom in a lime green. Fisher is a recent graduate in art from Fayetteville State University and now teaches art in the Cumberland County Public Schools.
Other works
Leslie Pearson’s two oil paintings gave me a sense of place. ‘‘LaLa Lodge, Jenny’s Day’’ is a depiction of a lake lined with trees just as the sun is setting and producing a vivid blue sky and reflection on the lake. Her landscape ‘‘Live Oak at Bray’s Island, SC’’ catches the peacefulness of the island in midday. Pearson is a professional artist with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Southeast Missouri State University and a master’s degree in museum studies. While she was a photojournalist for the Army, she and her husband were stationed on different bases, and they met at unique settings that inspired her paintings.
Bob Schwiezke’s ‘‘German Brown Trout’’ -- in subtle pastel tones showing a fish on the hook -- is a quiet gem. I liked ‘‘Gloria Ulu’’ a stark self-portrait created in acrylic on sandpaper, a combination I’ve never seen before. It was quite effective and unusual.
Tokue Mason captured a perfect orchid in lavender and cerise watercolors against a dark background.
When an art show is steeped in paintings of landscapes, flowers and portraits, I seek out ones that tell a story. Such a work is Marilyn Peterson’s ‘‘Tamale Makers.’’ Peterson and her Mexican husband lived in Mexico for five years while she soaked up the culture, took photograhs and painted. When her husband, who is an engineer, got a job in Laurinburg, she began to paint some of the scenes she recalled. One was a birthday party in which she observed the making of tamales under a palm-thatched shelter.
The oil painting shows three women forming the tamales while two men work with corn on a printed yellow tablecloth.
A pot boils in the foreground and hidden between trees are bottles of alcohol.
The show at the Arts Center at 301 Hay St. will be on view through Nov. 19.