LITTLE ROCK — Two relative newcomers to the art scene from the Tri-Lakes Edition coverage area are among the 30 artists whose works are included in the 58th annual Delta Exhibition on display at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock. Anne Greenwood and Lawrence McElroy are among those chosen few.
Greenwood, 39, of Hot Springs submitted her work for the first time this year and was juried into the exhibit. McElroy, 60, of Alexander submitted his work for the second time, but the first time he submitted a painting to the Delta Exhibition was 37 years ago — and it was accepted.
McElroy’s large oil on canvas, Portrait of Gabriel Sword, received the Contemporaries Award of $250, which was selected by the Contemporaries, an auxiliary membership group of the Arkansas Arts Center.
His acceptance to the show, and the award, came as a surprise to McElroy.
“I didn’t expect that,” he said. “I haven’t painted anything in 37 years. I entered a painting in the 22nd annual Delta and was selected for that show, … but that was in 1979.”
McElroy does have a background in art; he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Memphis Academy of Art in 1978.
“When I was painting in 1979, I was 21,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was looking for. I did not have a whole lot of life experience.”
He gave up painting at the time and found his way into the medical field. He is a former director of echocardiography at Arkansas Heart Hospital.
“I resigned last October to paint full time,” he said, noting that he always knew he wanted to return to art. During the time he was still working, he went to graduate school and received a Master of Arts degree in museum studies from Johns Hopkins University in 2013. He now operates his own production studio, American Museum Revival, where he works in fine art, illustration and museum consulting.
“This is a gentleman I encountered in Little Rock,” McElroy said, pointing to his work in the Delta Exhibition. “He was very shy … homeless … standing on a corner. I struck up a conversation with him and asked him if I could photograph him. I took several reference photographs. I paid him, so he was happy to do it.
“This painting is a composite of photographs. I came up with it in my imagination. I encountered him in 2006. It’s been rattling around in my brain for 10 years.
“For me it was about the change. The sign — ‘change’ — is not just about him asking for a handout; it’s a message. I got the message. I changed.”
Greenwood, too, has taken a change in her life, from teaching art to making art full time.
“I worked for 10 years at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs,” she said. “I taught art and English.
“I am honored and delighted to be chosen for the Delta. This is the first time I have entered and the first time to be included.”
Greenwood titles her two selected paintings, which are both watercolors on boards, Ecosystem and Stag Beetle Specimen.
“These pieces are inspired by my interest in natural history,” she said. “I find the history of the study for the natural world quite fascinating.
“The insect and animal life in my works comes from the area around my home in Hot Springs. I do keep a small specimen collection of insects and moths from our property, which is heavily wooded and tucked up next to North Mountain. I often work from my collection and am an avid gardener, which is where I find much of my inspiration.”
Greenwood said the Stag Beetle Specimens piece “does include an exotic species, the stag beetle, because it is a species that has been painted by artists interested in the natural would dating back to Albrecht Durer’s well-known study of one.”
Greenwood received a fellowship from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.
“I am a recipient of the Crystal Bridges Reese Fellowship for integrating art history into nonarts curriculum areas,” she said. That fellowship is available to high school teachers.
Information on the Crystal Bridges website, crystalbridges.org, shows that Greenwood used illustrations from the library’s collection of early-American natural-history books to tie into a variety of lessons on world history, American history, British literature, American literature and biology.
Originally from Fayetteville, Greenwood has a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree in English literature from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
“I am now taking art classes at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock,” she said. “I have taken a change in direction.”
The 58th annual Delta Exhibition, which includes works by artists from Arkansas and surrounding states, is on display in the Jeannette Edris Rockefeller and Townsend Wolf galleries at the Arkansas Arts Center, Ninth and Commerce streets in Little Rock. There is no admission charge. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. The gallery is closed Mondays and most holidays.
For more information, call (501) 372-4000 or visit the website arkansasartscenter.org.