LITTLE ROCK — Three Garland County artists received awards April 12 during the opening reception for the 49th annual Mid-Southern Watercolorists Juried Exhibition in Little Rock. Two other artists from the Tri-Lakes Edition readership area have works in the exhibit as well.
The exhibit will remain on display in the Trinity Gallery at the Historic Arkansas Museum through July 7.
Donna Twyford of Hot Springs Village received the MSW Gold Award of $1,500 for her painting Cologne Cathedral.
“I am shocked and excited about receiving this award,” said Twyford, who just recently moved to Hot Springs Village from Arkadelphia. “Just being one of 33 artists out of 159 entries to be accepted was a big deal to me.
“I’ve only been a member of MSW for three years,” she said, “and I’ve only been painting for five years.”
Twyford said the idea for the painting came during a Viking Cruise she took in the fall of 2017 to Cologne, Germany.
“I must have taken 200 to 300 photographs on that trip, including the one I used as a model for this painting,” she said, laughing.
“I have enough photos for a painting next year. We have been blessed to travel to some amazing places around the world, and the stained-glass windows of the great cathedrals always leave me with a sense of awe. Standing beneath them and gazing at the story they tell leaves me feeling very small and insignificant in the great scheme of things,” Twyford said.
“Construction on the cathedral in Cologne began in 1248 and was not completed until 1880,” she said. “During World War II, it was severely damaged with 14 heavy artillery shells and over 70 firebombs, yet it still stood.
“This particular window in Cologne Cathedral depicts a great battle scene where the Lord is victorious. The sunlight coming through the window warmly lit the dark, cold stone of the interior of the building. This holds such spiritual significance for us, as we are always able to withstand more than we think through Christ, and the great Light of the World illumines our own dark places.”
Richard Stephens of Hot Springs received the Gloria and Austin Wiggins Memorial Award of $500, donated by the family of Gloria and Austin Wiggins, for his painting Hay Shed.
“My painting is the result of driving down an Arkansas country road and coming upon a structure. Though a little bent over and its bones showing, it is still working hard to protect its store of hay … as best it can,” said Stephens, who is a Diamond Signature MSW member, meaning his work has been accepted into at least five juried events.
“I couldn’t help but think of the farmer/craftsman who built the shed those many years ago,” Stephens said. “Perhaps he, too, is a little bent over and ribs showing through his overalls, but getting up early every morning and putting in a day’s work … as best he can.”
Stephens has won many MSW awards in the past, including the MSW Bronze Award in 2018. He received the Arkansas Arts Council’s Individual Artist of the Year Award in 2018.
Gary Simmons of Hot Springs received the Arkansas Artist Materials Award of $300 for his painting Shady Bank. This award includes a $200 voucher from Art Outfitters Materials and Supplies of Little Rock and a $100 voucher from Golden Artists Colors of New Berlin, New York.
Simmons has been a member of MSW for three years, and a piece of his work has been accepted into the juried exhibition each of those years. He received MSW Signature Membership status with this year’s entry.
“I find a certain mystery and maybe even nostalgia about tree lines and dirt banks along country roads,” he said, explaining his painting in this year’s exhibit. “Maybe it harkens back to my youth, when these small stretches of wildness were an invitation to explore. These banks are often unattended and ignored by everyone, allowing them to create their own world of plant and animal life, a small microcosm of what might be if we left the Earth alone.”
Simmons is nationally recognized as a pen-and-ink artist, but he has turned to painting in the past few years.
“But drawing and the pen are still at the heart of my artistic activity,” he said.
Other local artists with works in the Mid-Southern Watercolorists Juried Exhibit include the following:
• Ron Kincaid of Benton has his painting Boss Lady in the show.
“I was drawn to the scene in my painting by the reflections in the windows and the shadows,” said Kinkaid, who was a commercial artist and custom woodworker before retirement. “This is a scene in Hot Springs, Arkansas, one of my favorite places. I always find something to paint there.
“I’m a Diamond Signature member of Mid-Southern Watercolorists, and this is my eighth time to be accepted in this annual show,” said Kinkaid, who was unable to attend the opening reception. “I’ve won Best of Show in several art exhibits and have been featured in The Art of Watercolor magazine.
Now retired from his custom woodworking and furniture studio, he said he “enjoys watercolor full time.”
“I guess you could say I’ve come full circle,” he said.
• Maureen Rousseau of Hot Springs Village has her painting Herons Paradise Sunset-Lake Ouachita in the exhibit.
This is the first time Rousseau has been accepted into an MSW juried exhibition.
“I am very honored to have had my painting chosen for this exhibit,” said Rousseau, who was unable to attend the opening reception. “I really look forward to getting up to the museum to see the entire show.
“Nature should stir your curiosity and touch your spirit. This Lake Ouachita watercolor, Herons Paradise Sunset, was my effort to capture the peace, tranquility and beauty to share with others.
“I call these breathtaking moments ‘presents in the present.’”
She said a challenge, a different technique and a deadline all stir her creativity. She said retirement afforded her the long awaited chance to dive into the arts as she had always dreamed of doing.
“Relocating to Hot Springs Village was a perfect match with unending opportunities for learning and growing as an artist,” she said, adding that she is not tied to any one medium or technique, “experimenting and diving into all of them.”
“The source that has had the most profound impact on my art is a Facebook challenge I found in 2014, Kitty Harvill’s 52-Week Nature Painting Challenge,” Rousseau said. “Kitty would post a challenge to paint each week from nature, including many threatened and endangered species. This caught the eye of biologists around the globe, who requested that artists help them bring awareness to [the animals’] plights.”
This initiative is now known as ABUN — Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature. Rousseau has painted approximately 200 works for this effort. The paintings are donated to be used by those working to help each species worldwide and are sold as originals, prints, cards, banners and T-shirts.
“Art attracts attention, and whatever I can do to help the endangered and threatened environments all over the world, I do,” she said.
Rousseau said she donated six original artworks to the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs for its fundraiser in April.
The Historic Arkansas Museum is at 200 E. Third St. in Little Rock. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call (501) 324-9351 or visit historicarkansas.org.