In the gallery April 21 – May 21, 2017
Artist Chris Thomas has been painting for more than 35 years. Originally from Saint Cloud, MN and living in Sauk Centre, MN most of his life, Chris is no stranger to small town life, the subject of many of his beautiful landscapes. There is Minnesota charm infused into every painting, truly appreciating the churches, trees, lakes and gardens that make up his subjects.  Chris often travels to Iowa, so you'll also find a few familiar images including Amana and Racoon River park. He joins us at Art Day for portrait sketching.

Chris has a bachelor's degree in art from St. Cloud State University and is a lifelong learner in art and art history through books, museums, drawing sessions and workshops. His work shows expertise in oil paint and a keen eye for light and color and a beautiful composition.

christhomasartworks.com

Excerpts from Larry’s Artist Statement, which you can read in full in the gallery…

Art has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I’m a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, where I majored in graphic design with a minor in photography. After college I worked as a graphic designer with the Des Moines Public Schools for 35 years. During this time I won over 130 awards in graphic design at the state and national level.

Since retiring I have turned my attention toward watercolors. Wherever I go, I carry my camera and many of these photos turn into the canvas of my imagination. I am fascinated by color and light. I use these two elements as my inspiration to create paintings that lean towards realism

In the past few years, my work has been juried and accepted for exhibition at the Iowa State Fair Fine Arts Show, the Watercolor Society Art Shows, Des Moines Woman’s Club Art Exhibitions, and exhibited at Barnes and Noble, Scottish Rite Park and more. I am a signature member of the Iowa Watercolor Society.

Contact me at casteklar@msn.com

Please stop by to see his beautiful paintings in person!

ARTIST STATEMENT: "I have an eye for details.  And whether I am doing something or observing something I attend to them.  Stepping back and noticing details sometimes allows us to look at things anew.   It has been said that once we have named something we no longer see it.  We create a general concept, a shorthand identification of something and then we stop appreciating its uniqueness and we don’t notice if it has changed.  

The images in this show vary from easily recognizable details to ones that are no longer a picture of a thing which we have given a simple label.  I invite you to notice not only the images but also yourself and how you interact with them.  Notice if you look at the titles and if you do look consider if or how it shapes your perception or reaction to each image."

– Kerrie Hill, Des Moines, IA
kerriehillphotos@gmail.com

A group art exhibition celebrating the champions and the fiends from comic books!

Featuring the works of...
D. Ryan Allen
Steve Baier
Michael Bennett
Jordan Denato
Lena DeGregory
Maddy Fusco
Will Grant
Chris Moore
Mario Mora
Nick Pendleton
Shawn Palek
Tony Sims

While studying Graphic Design, Melissa took an introductory class in Drawing, where they often sketched using charcoal pencil. One of their
assignments was to find something unique to draw on that was not
currently in the classroom. This idea sparked inspiration for Melissa and she has continued to draw with charcoal on various found pieces of paper, such as maps, sheet music and book pages. Her subject matter is  a variety of ideas that she finds enjoyable to draw and that contain lots of contrast, suitable for the medium of charcoal.

Melissa enjoys getting her fingers dirty and is pleased with how the pieces turn out, so she has continued her art process. She was honored to be chosen as an Emerging Artist for the internationally known Des Moines Art Festival for two years and has received great feedback from that experience.

She creates art as much as she can while caring for her 'on-the-go' one year old son! :) We hope you enjoy seeing her work here in the Urbandale Art Gallery and visit her website to learn more, buy a piece or order custom artwork.

www.MelissaRenea.com

Husband and wife team artists and gallery owners, Shawn and Misty Palek, are sharing some of their vast library of artworks with us this summer! We hope you can stop by to see their work in our gallery, but if you miss it, you can always visit them in their gallery in the East Village: Palek Studio, 506 E. 6th St., Suite 200, DSM, IA 50309. And if they inspire you, Palek Studio is a great place to go make art yourself!

Judith Eastburn's exhibit is an exquisite collection of gelatin silver prints on fiber-based paper. They are printed from negatives in the darkroom, not digitally. This means that the image is extremely permanent and 100 years from now it should look the same as it does today.
For questions or orders, contact JLEastburn@gmail.com

Artist's Statement:

"I believe we are profoundly affected by the landscape of our childhood. It establishes our sense of space and how we fit into it, and we recognize as familiar those places encountered later in life which resemble it. I was born in Iowa, and grew up in the southeast corner near the Mississippi River in an area of limestone bluffs and wooded ravines. Visits to my grandparents meant drives to central Iowa through gently rising and falling open fields. These are the landscapes which serve as my point of reference when I photograph in other parts of the world. I think Iowa and its openness made me aware of the horizon and sensitive to smaller variations in the land’s surface."

-Judith Eastburn

View her photography on her website here...or visit the gallery today!

18 Women and over 50 pieces of art grace our one small gallery this February! We hope you come take a look. Show will be displayed through the month of February, 2016.