Hot Springs Village artist wins award in Mena show

Marlene Gremillion of Hot Springs Village won the Van Wolf Arkansas Artist Award in the third annual Art of the Heartland National Exhibition at the Mena Art Gallery. She won the award with this watercolor, Melon Glow.
Marlene Gremillion of Hot Springs Village won the Van Wolf Arkansas Artist Award in the third annual Art of the Heartland National Exhibition at the Mena Art Gallery. She won the award with this watercolor, Melon Glow.

— Local artist Marlene Gremillion has won an award at a national competition in Mena in Polk County.

She received the Van Wolf Arkansas Artist Award in the third annual Art of the Heartland National Exhibition, which opened Oct. 7 at the Mena Art Gallery. She received a $1,000 award for her watercolor Melon Glow.

“I am so pleased to be honored with this award and to be displaying with such wonderful works of art,” she said. The exhibit, which is a project of SouthWest Artists Inc. of Mena, includes works in oil, watercolor, acrylic, pastel, colored pencil, pen and ink, and graphite.

The exhibit will be on display through Oct. 29 at the Mena Art Gallery, 607 Main St. in Mena. There is no admission charge. Arkansas artist George Dombek of Fayetteville was juror for the show, which includes works by more than 40 artists. A total of $9,000 in awards was given.

Gremillion said the painting is of Sadie, who is a granddaughter of one of her husband’s cousins.

“It happened at a family reunion in Louisiana a few years ago,” said Gremillion, who is married to Ric Gremillion. “Sadie would eat the watermelon; then the flies would aggravate her, and she would jump in the little pool, then go get more watermelon. The sun was just right to make the melon glow on her cute little cheeks.”

GremilIion said she tries to do something creative every day but sometimes lags behind.

“I have been accepted into the Arkansas Pastel Society Seventh National Exhibition that opens in November in Little Rock,” she said. “And I have entered the Mid-Southern Watercolorists’ 48th annual Juried Exhibition, but they have not announced those that got in yet. That show will be in March, also in Little Rock.”

Gremillion said the Arkansas Pastel Society exhibition will open Nov. 10 at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in Little Rock, and the opening reception is set for 5:30-7:30 that evening during the Second Friday Art Night. The show will continue through Feb. 24.

Gremillion is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and is a registered nurse. She is retired and devotes most of her time to painting and teaching workshops.

She is a signature member of the Mid-Southern Watercolorists in Little Rock and the Louisiana Watercolor Society. She is also a member of the Arkansas Pastel Society, Brush Strokes in Hot Springs Village and the Ouachita River Art Guild in West Monroe, Louisiana, and is the founder of the Ouachita Mountain Polymer Clay Guild.

For more information on Gremillion’s work at the Mena Art Gallery, visit menaartgallery.org or call (479) 394-3880. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; 12:30-4 p.m. Sunday; and closed on Monday.

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