Artist Ellen Kelly helped hang the North Central Arkansas Artist League "Sunflower Spectacular" exhibit Monday at the Ozark Medical Health Center. She stands next to her oil painting "Sunshine Basket", which is one of the more than two dozen sunflower paintings displayed. The free exhibit is open to the public.
If you like sunflowers, then you’ll really enjoy “Sunflower Spectacular”, a new art exhibit at Ozark Health Medical Center. The exhibit includes more than two dozen sunflower paintings by 24 area artists, all members of the North Central Arkansas Artist League.
Each piece is unique and original. Sunflowers are featured in vases, in fields, in roadsides, buildings and even in coiffures. One artist used wax as well as paint to get the texture she needed, and another painted each individual sunflower petal and assembled them into a bright three-dimensional collage bouquet. There are rustic paintings on barnwood, abstract intaglios, impressionist watercolors, lush acrylic sunflower landscapes, decorative oil paintings, and more.
Interesting, too, are the titles; only one is called “Sunflower”. There’s “Wild Thang”, “Sun-stenance” , “The Birds’ Surprise Gift to My Garden”, “Kansas Delight” for Kansas’s state flower and “Iowa’s Noxious Weed” as Iowa has proclaimed it. It’s all in the eye of the beholder, and NCAAL members hope all the beholders enjoy this exhibit with an open mind and a carefree heart.
Artists participating in this exhibit are Ellen Kelly, Joyce Hartmann, Pamma Henderson, Charlotte B. Rierson, Pauline Sears, Rosalie Musial, Kathleen Hadley, Jeanne Homuth, D. G. Hendrickson, Louise Shaw, Judy Lebestky, Jan Cobb, Ruby Krimm, Connie Hood, Raylene Finkbeiner, Diana Foote, Jane Huner, Karen Kleman, Mary Shelton, Michelle Bry, Judy Shumann, Bonnie Hookman, Doris Sexson, and Freda May.
The public can view the 39 total art works during normal business hours from now through April. The exhibit is free. Art work is for sale, with purchases helping to support projects by the Hospital Auxiliary. The hospital is located on Highway 65 in south Clinton.
For information about NCAAL call President Connie Hood, Fairfield Bay, 884-3283. For more information about this exhibit, call Hospital Exhibit Coordinator Joyce Hartmann, Choctaw, 745-6615.
