As a child, Little Rock artist Rebecca Thompson didn't draw or paint.
"I tried to draw horses, but I'd tear 'em up. I didn't think I could do it," she says.
A few decades had to pass before she realized she was wrong.
"I was fired from my job at the Governor's Mansion some 20 years ago," she says. "A friend asked me to take a drawing class with her at the Arkansas Arts Center. 'What else do you have to do?' I didn't think I could draw a circle. I thought you had to be born an artist.
"Tricia Palmer was the teacher. I picked up a pencil and, with her guidance, discovered I could draw. The fear was taken away and I was hooked. Then I wanted color. So, in my early 50s, I decided to enroll at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and study art. I never went back to a real job."
Thompson, an accomplished artist with a strong French impressionist and fauvist influence, has a new show of 48 pieces at Eastern Arkansas Community College in Forrest City. It hangs through Jan. 5.
Fauvism is distinguished by bold brush strokes and unnaturalistic, often vivid colors. Think Henri Matisse and Andre Derain. (One of the meanings of the French word "fauve" is wildcat.)
"No one had a more beautiful line than Matisse," Thompson says. "When I was at UALR, it was so nourishing; I got a lot of self-confidence, a feel for what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it."
Thompson's show at Forrest City came about because the school's art gallery saw her work in an issue of the magazine Arkansas Life.
"I had about a year to get ready for it; the 48 pieces there are mostly work from the past two years, but there are a few earlier works, too," she says.
When she walked into the gallery after everything was hung, Thompson says, "It was like being in your favorite place in the whole world with your best friends and wanting to laugh, have a good time, celebrate. Sharing my work, people seeing my work feeds me so much."
Known for elegant and lush landscapes as well as insightful figurative scenes, Thompson says she is inspired by watching people interact.
"I love to catch people in a pivotal moment. I like to sit quietly, as unobserved as possible, and observe as much as I can. My paintings start with a lump in the throat and I know I have to paint that scene."
Thompson's work is carried by Greg Thompson Fine Art in North Little Rock, Dolores Justus Fine Art in Hot Springs and galleries in Maine and Mississippi.
"As soon as I saw her portfolio, I was blown away," says Greg Thompson. "She is an impressionist painter but her work is very unique, in subject matter and her choice of color palette. She takes what she does seriously and it shows in her determination and focus. She has gone from a hobby painter to somebody who has a voice and a distinctive style that is pleasing to the eye."
Rebecca Thompson also has created a free slender catalog of her artwork, which is available at the exhibition and at Greg Thompson Fine Art.
"Rebecca Thompson: Common Ground," through Jan. 5, Art Gallery, Fine Arts Center, East Arkansas Community College, 1700 Newcastle Road, Forrest City. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-noon Friday. Info: (870) 633-4480, Extension 352, eacc.edu.
ICONS
It would be hard to imagine a more appropriate art show for the Christmas season.
"Sacred Images: Icons of Sylvia Inzerella" is hanging at Argenta Gallery, 413 Main St., North Little Rock, through Dec. 23. A self-taught artist, Inzerella lives and works in Lafayette, La., and creates icons inspired by Greek and Russian Orthodox religious images. She has been studying icons for 16 years.
In a news release for the exhibition, Inzerella says: "The goal of the iconographer is to convey the awe-inspiring qualities of the invisible and the divine. The figures in icons cast no shadows, the light comes from within. It is not the artist's intention to force an emotional response. There is a conscious effort to avoid movement. The icon is silent, no mouths are open nor are there any other details which suggest sound. The faces rarely express feelings; rather they suggest virtues such as purity, serenity, patience in suffering, mercy, compassion and love."
"Sacred Images: Icons of Sylvia Inzerella," through Dec. 23, Argenta Gallery, 413 Main St., North Little Rock. Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Info: (501) 225-5600, argentagallery.com.
Style on 12/09/2014