Winter weather never dampens the spirit of the RAL Art Center, where you will always find beautiful art to brighten even the shortest days of winter. This month two accomplished artists are featured in the Gallery Windows with an array of snow scenes to view.
Barbara Kershner will be one featured artist in the Gallery Windows. An accomplished watercolorist, her style includes both realistic and impressionist elements, fine detail as well as loose brushwork. Barbara works almost exclusively from her own photographs, from which she takes and combines elements from several views of a subject to create a painting that expresses her own vision. Barbara enjoys painting a variety of subjects with a snow theme or background. Her featured painting, Heavy Snow, beckons the viewer to venture down a snowy lane through the woods for a wintry stroll. A ‘pop’ of red in the cardinal keeps the scene warm and cheerful. Photos that she has taken have inspired her other paintings, including one with a blue heron in the snow, and another featuring her grandchildren when they were young in front of their granddad’s barn.
Barbara is a retired teacher and the current president of the RAL Art Center's Board of Directors. Although a life-long lover and dabbler in art, she began painting seriously when she joined the RAL Art Center in 2004. At first self-taught, she has since studied with excellent watercolor instructors through the many Art Center workshops. Barbara is a regular exhibitor in the Gallery, and over the years she has received numerous awards for her paintings.
For Kimberly Johnson painting has been an inseparable part of her life since she was young. Her original teacher was her grandmother, an accomplished artist and friend. Kimberly works in oils and paints in a representational and impressionistic style and is known for conveying the moods of the sea and the snow. Her seascapes and snowscapes capture meaningful, sometimes mysterious, moments that represent memories for the artist and which Kimberly hopes is shared by the viewers. “All of my snowscapes remind me of walks in the snow…”, comments Kimberly. “Snow invokes thoughts of cold and childlike thrills and the warmth that follows. It is a form of meditation to walk in the snow, but also to paint it. Snow reveals nature’s, and occasionally our, secrets.”
Her curiosity for the world and love of the written word led Kimberly to a more formal education in English. She worked as a freelance writer for the Washington Post and other publications before pursuing art. A relatively new exhibitor at the RAL Art Center, she has also shown her work in different venues in Virginia, Maine and St John, USVI.
Written by Ellen Huddy
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