Putting on a show

Jacksonville artist shows work at Little Rock venue

Sandra Marson of Jacksonville has approximately 30 abstract paintings on display at the Cox Creative Center in Little Rock. She calls this one Dream Weaver.
Sandra Marson of Jacksonville has approximately 30 abstract paintings on display at the Cox Creative Center in Little Rock. She calls this one Dream Weaver.

Like many retirees, Sandra Marson of Jacksonville must wonder how she ever had time to work.

Marson, who just turned 71, retired several years ago and immediately began another career — that of a full-time artist. She joined the Mid-Southern Watercolorists and has never looked back. She is also a member of the Arkansas League of Artists, the North Central Arkansas Art League, the Missouri Watercolor Society and the Arkansas Arts Council’s Artist Registry.

Currently, she has a one-woman exhibit at the Cox Creative Center in Little Rock. Titled Art by Design, the exhibit features approximately 30 pieces of her art, which she describes as “non-representational.”

“It’s mostly all abstract,” she told visitors who stopped by to see her work Sept. 11 during the 2nd Friday Art Night event that is held monthly by galleries and museums in the downtown Little Rock area.

“My paintings are based on the formal elements of design with emphasis on color and shapes moving in space,” she said. “Strong value changes and texture are used to increase contrast.”

The paintings are, for the most part, watercolors on paper.

Marson said she works intuitively.

“I’ll start painting and then change things,” she said with a laugh. “Sometimes I will

entirely rework a painting before I am finished with it. I’ll go with one color or design and add to it until I decide to quit. Sometimes I will use rubber stamps for texture or make my own stamps and use them,” the artist explained. “In this one (Dream Weaver, shown in photograph), I added texture by using bubble wrap. I painted the bubble wrap and used it as a stamp to add the texture.”

A native of Jacksonville, Marston graduated from Jacksonville and immediately started a career with First Electric Cooperative in Jacksonville. She retired in 2008 after a 36-year career with the utility.

She retired as a senior distribution designer.

“I told them where to put the power lines,” she said.

She raised two sons — David Chamblee and Carl Chamblee — before she went to college, working at First Electric while she was in college. She graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a minor in art.

Marston said she took every art class she could while she was in college.

“I don’t see myself as a self-taught artist,” she said. “I read books and take workshops. And now, I spend most of my time creating art.

“I always strive to paint abstract images in a new way that is pleasing to the eye and evokes an emotional response, rather than a pre-conceived concept by formula,” she said.

The widow of Rex Marson, to whom she was married 14 years, she now cares for an ailing mother. She also spends time with her four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Although Marson’s exhibit comes down at the Cox Creative Center at the end of this month, she will be involved with another show there — the Mid-Southern Watercolorists Special Open Membership Exhibit, for which she serves as chairman. That exhibit will open Oct. 2 and continue through Oct. 31.

Marson also has five paintings on display in the North Central Arkansas Art League at the Fairfield Bay Convention and Visitor Center and one on display in the Delta des Refusés exhibition at the Argenta Branch of the William F. Laman Library System, 429 Main St. in North Little Rock.

Marson’s work in Art by Design may be seen on the third floor of the Cox Creative Center, 120 River Market Ave. in Little Rock, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 1-5 p.m. Sunday. There is no admission charge.

The Cox Creative Center is part of the Central Arkansas Library System. For more information, call Marson at (501) 918-3039.

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