Artists to celebrate nature at spring show
Yellow House Artists, an organization of artists who work in oil pastels and/or oil stick, present a spring show, "Embracing Nature" at Allen + Pepa Architect Gallery in Batavia.
The show opens Friday, April 24, with a reception from 5 to 9 p.m. The opening coincides with the Batavia Art Walk and Arbor Day. The show will conclude June 1. The gallery is located at 8 W. Wilson St. in Batavia with usual business hours Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (630) 879-8831 to assure access since gallery closings are possible due to outside appointments by their staff.
Yellow House Artists is a group of oil pastelists who promote both their art and the medium. These artists have been painting together at the Fine Line Creative Arts Center in St. Charles and/or the DuPage Art League in Wheaton with artist/teachers George Shipperley and Carol Zack. The group originated with 17 oil pastel artists who had a gallery in a yellow house during the 2007 St. Charles Fine Art Show. It has since grown to about 35 members who are interested in creating and showing their work as well as informing the public about the qualities of this little known medium.
There will be 19 members exhibiting in this show representing 10 different communities. Members exhibiting include Sandy Smith, Janice Rangel, Dianne Petrini, Hollis Levine and Jo Cawthra, all of St. Charles; Fran Stilwagner, Donna Faye Evensen and Mary Enck, all of Geneva; Louise Rand and Deann Alleman, both of Sugar Grove; Ellen Shelhamer and Diane Fliehler, both of Wheaton; Ed and Carol Zack of Elgin; Dotti Matson of Oswego; Lillian Pagni of Hampshire; John Carman of Elmhurst; Carol Gorman of Glen Ellyn and Eve Sofferman of Bartlett. Most of the paintings are for sale.
Oil pastels were developed in the 1940s at the request of Pablo Picasso. He wanted a medium with the qualities of oil but with ease of application and portability. Pure pigment is suspended in inert mineral oil, formed into sticks with a color palette much like oil paint. To the casual viewer the appearance of the round or square sticks may belie the serious artistic application of this medium. Colors can be layered and blended, smeared or smudged, using fingers, some type of tool, or left as applied, all at the artist's discretion. The works are generally framed under glass to protect the surface image.
More information about the group and the medium can be found at www.yellowhouseartists.com.