Visual Art League of Lewisville

A native Texan, Jo Williams spent her childhood growing up in rural North Texas among the woods and prairies. “Although I love to travel and paint the more exotic scenery of mountains, desert, and ocean, I still love to paint the gentle scenery of my native area.” Williams has painted a gamut of subjects including florals, figures, abstracts, and landscapes. Williams has lived in Denton, Texas for thirty years where she is very active in the arts community. She has a degree in art education from the University of North Texas and has taught public school art. She has been teaching privately for about twenty-five years and currently teaches classes at the Center for the Visual Arts in Denton. She also taught community education classes for the University of North Texas for many years and teaches workshops throughout Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. She is teaching a workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico this month. In addition to teaching, she gives demonstrations for area art organizations and judges regional art exhibits.

Williams has been a signature member of Southwestern Watercolor Society since 1992 and a signature member of Artists and Craftsman Association since 1987. She is also a member of the Kingston National Registry of Who’s Who in America. Her work has been exhibited in numerous regional and national juried exhibitions. She has won a number of awards including Best of Show in the Texas Neighbors Art Competition in Irving and the North Texas Area Art League Annual Juried Exhibition 2000 in Denton. She has had several solo exhibitions including invitational exhibits at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, the Center for the Visual Arts, Denton, Texas, Texas Woman’s University, and the University of North Texas Student Union Building.

Her work is included in many private collections and public collections including Raytheon, Ben E. Keith Co., Denton Publishing Company, City of Denton, and the Greater Denton Arts Council. Williams’ paintings may be viewed on the web — the web site might be down already. For the November 2 meeting, Williams will bring a small printing press and will be demonstrating monotypes using a press. There may be an opportunity for a few of us to print something in conjunction with the demonstration, depending on our time constraints. Vote early! And, be sure to attend this meeting with Jo Williams at 7pm, at the VAL Art Center.

Insets – Watercolors by Jo Williams:

1. Afternoon at\_Cimarron II, 15 x 22 (top)
2. Among the Cattails, 22 x 30
3. Caddo Reflections, 15 x 22
4. Caddo Enchancement, 22 x 30

A presentation by JoAnn Vincent on the works of the Russian Impressionist, Sergei Bongart. We invite you to join us for this presentation on October 5 at 7 p.m. Sergei Bongart is considered one of the most influential artists and teachers of the 20th century. His legendary painting workshops were attended by the elite of artists currently working in America today. His work has the emotional quality of Russian Realism tempered by the light and brilliance of Impressionism. He has been described as “flamboyant, colorful, an ardent spirit, a poet, now sensual, now spiritual.” His work is in prominent museums, and has received many awards, including a Golf Medal from the national Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Sergei Bongart (1918-1985) was born in the Ukraine, and studied art in his native city of Kiev, as well as in Prague, Vienna and Munich. In 1948, he emigrated to the U. S. and spent much time painting in California. In addition to a slide presentation, a photo album of his work will be shown so everyone will leave feeling like they know the artist. Also, information is available about the new release of a book written about the artist by Mary Balcomb, for those who are interested in learning more. It has gotten rave reviews.

JoAnn Vincent, VAL member will be giving the presentation on Sergei Bongart. JoAnn has been interested in art all of her life it seems. She started working with oils in high school and began selling paintings in 1975. JoAnn attended 3 colleges for art classes, including the Valdes School of Art in Santa Fe and has attended several week-long workshops at such places as the Hill Country Arts Foundation. She has studied with internationally known artists Kevin McPherson and Joe Anna Arnett, also Ann Templeton, Lee Rommel, and several others. JoAnn’s introduction to Sergei Bongart came from a friend and artist, Marilyn Yates, in Santa Fe. She studied with artist and teacher, Van Waldron, in California for 7 yrs. Van was slated to become a teacher in Sergei’s schools of art in Idaho and Santa Monica, CA.

He took lots and lots of slides and photos of Sergei’s work to study his methods. He sent some of them to Marilyn and she in turn sent me (duplicates). JoAnn remembers, “One day I said to Marilyn, I think I have enough information to do a demo on Sergei.” and her friend sent her even more information plus two tapes on him. “Now I could hear him speak with his Russian accent and felt like I knew him better. He was a great teacher and a fascinating man and I feel he deserves to be remembered. It’s been an intriguing walk through his life with all of this information on him. I hope our members and friends will enjoy the journey from Russia to America as much as I have.”

Featured on the top-left are two of Sergei Bongart’s works: “Girl with Red Shawl” and “In the Galleries”. The image on the top is a detail of “Russian Shawls”.

Mary Ellen Wehrli will be giving a presentation on “Marketing Art” on September 7 at 7 p.m. at the Lewisville Visual Art League Center. Her presentation will include different ways to market your art and to make contact with people and including different examples. As part of her presentation, she will show us a retrospective of her art life that will include a 1969 painting that started a company she developed.

A native of San Francisco,Mary Ellen Wehrli began herformal art studies at San Jose State College and the College of San Mateo. She has received many awards in both abstract and representational art and has been selected to show in juried shows throughout California. She has been a member of the San Francisco Women Artists, the Marin Society of Artists, the Terra Linda Art Association, Art-A-Fair Festival of Laguna Beach, and the Seal Beach Art Association. She has also served as the Fine Arts Supervisor for the Orange County Fair and as the Fine Arts Coordinator for the Los Angeles County Fair in 1990, 1991, and 1992.

Her paintings are found in many private collections throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Many of her commissioned pieces are also found in business and public settings throughout California including the Alcoa Building in San Francisco, the Bank of America Building in Anaheim, the Art-A-Fair Festival Building in Laguna Beach, the City of Santa Paula, the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, and the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona.

Visit Mary Ellen’s website

Mary Conn Baker became well-known in the Houston area while living in Spring in the 80’s. Noted for her water colors of antique teddy bears and toys, she operated a successful business as Mary Conn Baker Originals. In 1982, she had a trunk showing in the children’s departments of the Foley’s Houston area stores of her water colors and costumed bears.

During a trip to Europe, she visited numerous bear factories and sketched and painted representative examples of each. At the renowned German toy maker Steiff factory, she presented Hans Otto Steiff with water colors for his personal collection. Other of her works are with Joan Fontain and Eudora Welty.

Her husband’s job transfer took her to Jakarta, Indonesia, for 1989-1992. Included in a wealth of painting experiences was the teaching of art to a number of local and ex-pat children. Mary designed, printed, and sold numerous greeting cards for charity in Jakarta; an activity greatly appreciated by the local government.

She has continued with private lessons taught in water colors, acrylics, and pencil.

Her special joy has been making one-of-a-kind greeting cards. For the past 31 years her friends have looked forward to receiving their unique Christmas greeting.

Kenna Gallegos will be the Visual Art League’s speaker on June 1 at 7 p.m. She will be speaking on some of the techniques used by a paper artist and will show some of her pieces. She will focus on collage and using handmade paper and marbled paper in painting, and also 3D work. She will emphasize different ways to use paper in art. Additionally, there will an opportunity for hands-on projects for people who wish to try some of the techniques.

Kenna says that this quote from an unknown author has been the basis of her creative energy since childhood. “What I am today is God’s gift to me, and what I am tomorrow is my gift to God.” Additionally she says, “Each moment spent planning or executing a creative project is a time of joy for me.

Whether the beginning place is one of humor, of nature, or of the human condition, it is a place of unity and harmony – equal in import and result. It is with this underlying sense of wholeness that I exist and create.

My works, therefore, are eclectic in subject matter and format. They explore the limitless boundaries of mediums and style and express, hopefully, the inherent joy that I feel for the entire creative process.”

“Paper is my passion. I make it, marble it, fold it, mold it, cut it, and paint on it. Aside from scenic subject matter (especially trees), most of my work begins with either a humorous theme or nature or the human condition. Artist books hold a special fascination for me and I am continuously exploring new concepts in creative bookmaking.”

Kenna has been a working artist since 1960. She is an instructor and art therapist. She has shown her work in different venues from craft shows to juried exhibits. She had an award winning paper sculpture in Denton’s NTAAL Show.

She currently teaches in-home art classes as well as piano and voice. She also is a portrait artist and works in pastels and watercolor. You can visit Kenna’s web page.

Kenna will be presenting an enthusiastic program full of ideas; don’t miss it. The Lewisville Visual Art League Center is located at 701 South. Stemmons Fwy., #115 in the Lewisville West Shopping Center. Additional hours are 1-4 pm, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.