Lillianne Bowersock

Ona, West Virginia


Lillianne is known for her large florals and stately old homes.
Cats In the Window

“The Red Umbrella” is a total departure from what is expected of her. Even though it is a painting of a couple huddled under and umbrella walking in the rain, it has a light, airy feel. Lillianne’s use of negative space denotes a new maturity in her work.

With a few basic shapes and implied lines she draws us into the scene. The waves lap at the walkers’ feet, and the viewer gets a sense of the scene.

Winter Is Not A Slow Time for Art for the Artists of the Renaissance.

   

           It has been a busy winter for gallery artist Ron Haeberle. In December he submitted two pieces for the West Virginia Division of Culture and History "Inspired - Historic West Virginia Buildings and Structures". Returning from a Christmas vacation he learned both had been accepted. These were delivered at the last moment. The opening was more elaborate than for the previous show. While it was a great honor, both were purchased for the WV collection on opening night. This is exciting and satisfying, it is also a bit sad. One was the painting of the Johnson Memorial Church, which was featured, in the Gallery's Blog. We have to say sadly; because the painting was so fresh it had not been show in Huntington at all. We never got the chance to hang it in the Renaissance Gallery! Luckily Ron has prints!

The Renaissance Building
R. Haeberle

          Coincidentally, Tamarack has scheduled an architecturally based show for this winter as well. This is a members show and He have selected four pieces which I will deliver this week. These include a very early work depicting the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans based on a photo by his son and three from the Huntington series. One of these is hot off the easel - the old Huntington High building - now the Renaissance Center, home to our own Renaissance Art Gallery.


           Finally, Ron delivered 30 or so works to the French Art Colony in Gallipolis Ohio recently. He was invited to put together this solo show late last year and it is a real honor to participate in this gallery's annual schedule. Ron now realizes he has almost nothing left that he would willingly show. His walls at home are bare - embarrassingly bare. He now feels the need to get to work!


The schedule for Ron's shows are:

WV Dept. of Culture and History - WV Culture Center - Charleston: Current until midsummer in the Commissioners Gallery/

Tamarack - Architectonic - Tamarack Gallery -Beckley WV: Opening Feb 13. Running til April 9, 2011.
French Art Colony - Gallipolis Ohio: Opening Feb 4. Running til Feb 27, 2011


He will have a solo show at the Renaissance Gallery in June 2011.

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Round & About
Fern Christian

          Ohio University Southern in Proctorville, OH will host Fern Christian in a solo show at opening Feb 10, 2011. So Fern has been working in her James River Studio getting ready for this show in addition to teaching her own painting classes at the Renaissance two days a week.

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          Bruce and Lillianne Bowersock have been invited by Ashley Home Furniture Store in Barboursville to hang an exhibition in the front glassed-in area of their store. Ashley Home Furniture will have an opening artist's reception on Sunday, March 7 from 5-8 pm at the store. Bruce and Lillianne’s work will hang for two weeks there. The manager felt that if people had access to original art right at the time they are buying furniture, it would make sense and be a big asset to them. Everyone is invited.


          Lillianne was invited to show her “Cats in the Window” series at the Red Caboose located in the new Huntington Visitor's Center where Heritage Station is. She will have two sizes of prints and her note cards available for sale there. There is a Grand Opening on Thursday, March 3 from 4-7 p.m. Everyone is invited to meet the artists. It will be a great place with an old-fashioned bakery right outside the door of the Red Caboose! Stop by on the 3rd!

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          Robbie Poore is gearing up for this one-man show in April 20111 at the Renaissance Art Gallery.. This will be our first show with the newly remodeled gallery. Already this is drawing some excitement.

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          Drawing has occupied Susan Tschantz most of this winter, both teaching her drawing classes and doing a series of drawings. Giving in to the weather, she has been doing a series of winter snow scenes, in graphite, charcoal and more. You can see her progress in her Starrpoint blog.


          She has also been working on doing effective drawings with simple shapes.

Long Shadows
S. Tschantz

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          And all of the Artists of the Renaissance are preparing for the Spring Fine Arts Exhibition, “Parks & Recreation” May 2011.

Lil Has Gone to London

Lillianne Bowersock

Lillianne Bowersock, one of our more active artists, has gone to London, English to visit her children and grandchildren. They presently live there, and Lillianne has not seen them in several years. Now that she has retired from her teaching job, she is taking the time to visit them.

The gallery will miss her, but all of the members of The Renaissance Gallery are happy that she has this chance to go, and know she will come back to use full of excitement because of her journey.

Lillianne came into the gallery all excited, and a little ashamed, She is deserting us just when the 10Th Annual National Miniature show is opening!

Oh well, we will solder on without her this year, but next year, Lil!

In a whirl, she had to get things organized, packed, etc. As she has several health issues to deal with, it did take some doing, but Lil is nothing if not resourceful!

So after a lot of rushing around, Lil made her flight.

Lil, being the outgoing, friendly person that she is, got into a conversation with her seat mate, who, as it turns our, keeps a blog.

I could not write a better, more flattering and honest a bio of this outstanding artist if I worked all night. It is something we tend not to write about ourselves, but it does not make it less true.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kari-stoever/720-saturdays-and-a-silve_b_772336.html

God's Fingers

Read this blog entry and see if you don't think Lillianne is an outstanding person, not just an outstanding artist.

We tend to think of people in terms of their art. She is an artist, a watercolorist, etc. or think about individual works. but you cannot forget that artists are people first. And have lives that should outshine their art.

THE BIG BOOK OF DRAWING AND PAINTING THE FIGURE




As the instructor for our figure classes at Renaissance Art Gallery, I use this as a reference book. First of all because of the scope of the book, how other cultures depicted the nude, I likes to refer to this book during my classes to show how other artists have handled the same problems that we are tackling from prehistoric times until today. This is only one of the reference books I use. I try to introduce my students to as many Figure drawing books as I can so that they can become more knowledgeable and well-rounded as the course progresses.

This definitive book offers help with Drawing the Nude, and the author describes the representation of the human figure in prehistoric times up to the 20th century. The Nude: The Ideal and the Real is introduced in the next chapter. There has always been a desire to depict the human as a more idealistic form than it actually is. Next ,the author refers to the Canon, the basic proportions of the figure, to the modern idea of artistic anatomy. The Artistic Study of the Nude, where the reader will learn techniques, tips and tricks and will see pictured an artist sketching a live model is addressed next. Next, Choosing the Model, he talks of poses, lighting the model, etc. The Art of the Nude: Composition, an introduction to composing with the figure deals with the backbone of any drawing. Last, the reader will be introduced to Color and the Nude, the Process of Painting the Nude. This rounds out the entire 192 page book.

The Big Book of Drawing and Painting the Figure was published by Watson/Guptill Publications in 1995. You can probably purchase this book at Borders or on Amazon.com.

~Bruce Bowersock

The Artists of the Renaissance Art Gallery give this book 5 Stars.

NEWS FLASH: Bowersocks are home and glad about it!

The Bowersocks just returned from a month-long vacation. Now, don't get the wrong idea. Part of it was visiting family, but I must say that Bruce has a really wonderfufamily. Reconnecting after 3 years was a good thing. Lil surprised Bruce with a 2-night stop at National Harbor, a new WyndhamVacationResorts property right across the river from Historic Alexandria, Va. Spending two whole 7 hour days in the National Gallery of Art was nothing but fabulous. Bruce was like a little kid as he tried to suck in all the wonderful and precious paintings and sculptures on display.


We were both inspired at this point, but another treat was on the way. We sketched, biked, walked, photographed and just basked in the glory of nature spread out by God for all to see and enjoy.


While we were on our trip, we had a wonderful to talk to our two friends with doctorates and brainstorm about new ways to make this art business work. So now we are on a wild ride to writing a book....Bruce's book. More about this as it progresses.