VCAC hosts jurored show

Jeanne Board, Nevada, stands next to her oil painting that won Best of Show in the Vernon County Arts Council's 2009 Spring Exhibition, held in the former Movie Gallery Building on Austin Boulevard in Nevada. Board said she was surprised to win the honor, because jurors often choose more abstract pieces for such honors, and at first though the juror was indicating a different painting as the winner. Board said the scene is from her days on the farm, and would probably have used a smaller canvas, but another artist had urged her to "paint it big." --Lynn A. Wade/Herald-Tribune

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True to their promise, the council has its first show under way now, since fate and lack of funding left the group without a permanent home.

The temporary exhibition is at the former Movie Gallery building at 320 E. Austin, Nevada. The show, which features selected works of several local artists and from artists now living as ar away as Columbia, Mo., opened on Friday and continues on Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and Sunday, 1-4 p.m. There is no admission fee, and viewers are urged to vote for their favorite for a special award.

Participating artists include Joshua Adams, Columbia, Mo; Jeanne Board, Nevada; Ladine Casey, Nevada; Laura Hicks, Schell City; Linda Thury Rogers, Nevada; Maxine Rader, Lamar; Linda Rinehart, Nevada; James Sextro, Nevada; Cole Vittetoe, Nevada.

Viewers were pleased with the wide variety of works displayed, and with the variety of media used by artists. Works ranged in style from a Picasso-esque musically-themed piece to still-lifes, to portraits to unique and dramatic watercolors on a broad range of subjects to abstract pieces and detailed drawings.

Many of the works exhibited at the show are for sale; those for sale display a price on the title card next to the artist's work.

Earning Best of Show with a painting of two tricycles, Jeanne Board praised the works of others in the show and admits she's both pleased and surprised that her painting was selected as such.

Al Letner, of Pittsburg, Kan., served a juror of awards, and talks of his art in the show program.

"As an artist I find most of my inspiration in the natural world. I have always thought of myself as an organic artist, utilizing natural color and pattern in my abstract work. My love of clay, pottery and sculptural materials of all kinds carries over into my collage and painting...; I have experimented with sculptural materials as varied as cast concrete and polystyrene; welded steel and papier-maché; fiberglass and clay."

Letner has himself exhibited his work locally, and has received awards in doing so for his works in sculpture and pottery.

A retired teacher, Letner keeps a studio at his home near Pittsburg.