Artists receive recognition at exhibit in LR

Karlyn Holloway of Austin received the Best of Show award in the seventh annual Arkansas League of Artists Juried Exhibition with her watercolor Sometimes It Happens.
Karlyn Holloway of Austin received the Best of Show award in the seventh annual Arkansas League of Artists Juried Exhibition with her watercolor Sometimes It Happens.

— Several artists from the Three Rivers Edition coverage area entered work in the seventh annual Arkansas League of Artists Juried Exhibition at the Butler Center Galleries, but only one came away a big winner.

Karlyn Holloway of Austin received the Best of Show award and $1,000 with her watercolor Sometimes It Happens.

“I was very lucky to have been able to visit Italy a few years ago. While in a small village, this man happened to come and sit on this bench; he seemed very preoccupied,” she said.

“This was a perfect example of being in the right place at the right time. … The light was beautiful, and the man seemed to be quite a character. I took his photo,” Holloway said.

“This was painted from a photo,” she said of her award-winning painting. “I had to paint him. I titled it Sometimes It Happens.

“I feel like this painting was a gift.”

Not only was the painting named Best of Show in the Arkansas League of Artists’ annual juried show, the work also received the Mid-Southern Watercolorists Best of Show Gold Award in March 2015.

“I’m very excited to have won Best of Show in the Arkansas League of Artists’ show,” she said. “I have been part of the Arkansas League of Artists for about 20 years, and it is a wonderful group to be part of.

“I hope people will visit the galleries at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and see the painting in person. I am represented by this gallery, so I hope they will look for my other artwork in the gallery.”

Holloway said she is a full-time artist. She has an Associate of Fine Arts degree from Arkansas State University-Beebe. She has also taken art classes at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

She is a signature member of the Arkansas League of Artists.

Signature Membership is achieved with the acceptance into at least two juried art exhibitions held for ALA members.

Joe Lampo, director of development and external relations for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock College of Arts, Letters and Sciences, judged the Arkansas League of Artists show.

Two other local artists received awards in the show.

Ed Rhodes of Jacksonville won $200 and a second-place ribbon in the abstract/modern category of the show with Cosmic Wrap, which is a digital, original, giclee print.

Rhodes is the current president of the Arkansas League of Artists and a signature member of the organization. He is a Navy veteran and a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a degree in fine art with an emphasis in painting.

Shirley Homsley of Cabot received an honorable mention award in the portrait/figure category with her oil painting Decatur Street Mime. She has another oil painting in the show — The Guardian.

Homsley is a past president, current board member and signature member of the ALA. She studied art at UALR and has done independent studies at the Arkansas Arts Center. She has also taken numerous workshops across the country, including studies of the old masters with Frank Covino of Vermont.

Other area artists with work in the ALA show include the following:

• Suzanne Brugner of HeberSprings has an acrylic painting she titled Outlander in the show.

Brugner has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She taught art for two years before leaving to work in an advertising art department.

“I left the art world for many years, returning to it in 2010,” she said. “I enjoy painting different subjects, but I paint mostly landscapes.”

In addition to the Arkansas League of Artists, she is also a member of the Arkansas Pastel Society and the Mid-Southern Watercolorists. She displays, paints and sells her work at Co-Op Art in the Tanglewood Shopping Center in Little Rock.

• Mary Ann King of Romance has two oil paintings in the exhibit: Natural Bridge, Eureka Springs and Dogwoods.

She describes herself as a realist painter and works exclusively in oils, acrylics and watercolors. Her favorite subjects are landscapes, flowers and wildlife.

King is a signature member of ALA. She is also a member of the Creative Arts Society and the Searcy Arts Council and is listed in the Arkansas Arts Council’s Arkansas Artist Registry.

• Charlotte Rierson of Fairfield Bay has a watercolor titled Beckoning in the show.

“This painting beckons us to come into the painting, stand on the bluff and look all around at the wonder of it all,” Rierson said of her work in the ALA exhibit. “I tried to depict with my watercolors on paper the many scattered thoughts about how this all began.”

Rierson has a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from the University of Central Arkansas, where she majored in art education.

She is a signature member of the Arkansas League of Artists, president of the North Central Arkansas Artist League, past president and signature member of the Mid-Southern Watercolorists and a member of the Conway League of Artists.

The Arkansas League of Artists is a statewide organization with membership open to all

visual fine artists, art enthusiasts and supporters of the Arkansas artistic community. Members must be an Arkansas resident and at least 13 years old.

The group meets at 7 p.m. the last Tuesday of the month, except for November and December, at the North Little Rock Community Center, 2700 Willow St. in North Little Rock. The next meeting will be Aug. 30.

For more information on the ALA, visit www.arkansasleagueofartists.org or ALA’s Facebook page.

The Arkansas League of Artists Juried Exhibit will remain on display until Oct. 1 at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, 401 President Clinton Ave. in Little Rock. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call (501) 320-5790 or visit www.butlercenter.org.

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