NEWPORT — Several artists from the Tri-Lakes Edition coverage area will be featured in the sixth annual Delta Visual Arts Show on Saturday in downtown Newport.
The event is presented by the Blue Bridge Center for the Delta Arts. The show will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a reception held from 4-6.
This year’s show features 180 artists from five states and 60 Arkansas communities, featuring primarily artists who grew up in the Delta, live or have lived in the Delta or who produce Delta-themed work. The visual art covers a broad range of media, including pottery, painting, jewelry and sculpture.
Local artists include the following:
• Freda Angeletti of Benton
“This is my second year to be a part of the Delta Visual Arts Show in Newport,” Angeletti said. “It is very well organized with considerations for all the artists.”
Angeletti works mainly in watercolors, but she also enjoys working with acrylics, oils, pastels and hand-built pottery.
“At the show, I will also have [works created with] a new medium — alcohol ink,” she said. “I have used the alcohol ink to create friendship balls or glass ornaments that are painted on the inside, and a couple of other art forms.”
She also will present a workshop for adults at Saturday’s show.
Angeletti is a member and signature artist with the Arkansas League of Artists, and a member of the Mid-Southern Watercolorists and the Saline County Art Guild.
• Matt Coburn of Benton
Coburn has participated in the show since its inception six years ago.
“It’s by far the best event I know of,” Coburn said. “Jon Chadwell (director of the Newport Economic Development Commission, one of the show’s sponsors) has done gigantic things for Newport. He is a good guy.”
Coburn said he is mainly a landscape artist.
“That is my passion. I love doing them,” he said.
“I also love my flag series,” he said, noting that this year he has worked on a series of American flags rather than the Arkansas flags he has done in the past.
In addition to creating art, Coburn also gives private lessons and presents workshops across the state.
Coburn has commissioned works throughout the United States and as far as New Zealand. He is a member of The Art Group of Maumelle that recently relocated its gallery and studio to the Pleasant Ridge Shopping Center in west Little Rock. He is also a member of the Arkansas League of Artists.
• Lois Davis of Alexander
Davis is a pastel artist, as well as a ceramic artist working in raku pottery. She also makes jewelry. She has participated in the Delta Visual Arts Show for several years.
“I will be bringing wall hangings, vases and jewelry to the show this year,” she said. “I will also be bringing some of my smaller pastel paintings. I enjoy both the mediums of raku pottery and pastels because both are so colorful.
“Raku began in Japan,” Davis said. “It involves removing the pottery from the kiln at about 1,800 degrees, putting it in a reduction chamber to remove all the oxygen and then re-oxidizing the piece. The raku process creates beautiful metallic colors. Each piece is one of a kind because of the actions of the smoke and fire.
“Inspiration for both my raku pottery and my paintings are often found in nature,” Davis said. “My husband laughs because he often finds me lying on the ground taking a picture of a pine cone, rock or flower to use in my work.”
“Both my pastels and pottery were juried into the show,” she said.
• Sarah Johnson of Benton
This is the first time Johnson will participate in the Delta Visual Arts Show.
“My interest in art was sparked by elementary school teachers years ago, and I have enjoyed painting and some teaching since that time,” she said. “My favorite subjects are portraits and still lifes. Watercolor and oils are my preferred media.”
Johnson will take a variety of paintings, both watercolor and oils, to the show.
“My style ranges from realism to abstract,” she said. “I love experimenting with media and methods. My latest work features several small abstract pieces that I create from watercolor paintings that didn’t quite meet my expectations. I like to look for patterns in them and enhance them with collage or gel pens.”
Johnson said she looks forward to meeting other artists and “seeing what’s new and selling.”
• Amber LaRue of Benton
This is LaRue’s second year to participate in the Delta Visual Arts Show. She is a potter.
“I am looking forward to the show,” she said. “The show last year was good. I enjoyed all the people. The children would come up and ask me, ‘What are you doing?’ and ‘How do you do that?’ It was a lot of fun.”
She will bring a variety of her pottery to the show. She will also demonstrate making impressions in clay.
LaRue has taken private lessons in Benton, as well as classes at Garland County Community College and the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View.
• Joe Martin of Benton
Martin will be making his second appearance at the Delta Visual Arts Show this year. He works in clay sculpture, creating mainly faces and heads.
“I am very excited about participating in this year’s show in Newport and will be presenting all new work,” Martin said. “The bulk of my pieces are heads, both realistic representations and whimsical characters, that are often inspired by interesting faces and photos that have impressed me over the years.”
Martin will do a live demonstration at his booth, creating a piece that he will bring back to next year’s event. Among his work on display will be the whimsical head he made during last year’s demonstration.
Martin will also present a Sculpting With Clay workshop for children ages 4-8.
“It is always a high point for me during the festival,” he said.
• Tansill Stough of Hot Springs
“This is my second Delta show,” Stough said. “The first show I participated in was in 2011. I wanted to return again not only to show my paintings but to visit with artist friends and see their fabulous work.”
Stough said her work has developed toward impressionistic abstract, but lately it has turned realistic.
“After having surgery on my foot, I was unable to produce abstracts because of the amount of movement, paint slinging and standing it calls for,” she said. “I set up a little studio at home and began working on what I am showing at the Delta show and have enjoyed every minute of it.
“Being an artist is a decision I dedicated myself to just four years ago, although I’m told by close friends and family that is what I’ve always been. I truly believe it was just pure tenacity that lead me to this point. I have a studio-art degree, but I actually started painting 10 years ago for an emotional and creative outlet. It’s a challenging profession that changes with time. There is always something new for me to learn.”
For more information on the Delta Visual Arts Show, call (870) 523-1009.