GREENVILLE – Spring’s glorious hues failed to make an appearance Friday evening outside, but Bear’s Mill made up for it with the artist’s reception for the “Spring’s Glorious Hues” exhibit filling the warm wood interior with all of the colors of the rainbow and beyond.
The mill kicked off its latest exhibit featuring the paintings of Donna Pierce-Clark and the glass art of Jack Pine. Pierce-Clark was on hand to share some information about her artwork. Pine was unable to attend due to a conflict in his schedule.
Pierce-Clark hails from Springfield, Ohio, and was an art teacher at Sidney High School before going on to teach art at the Hayner Center in Troy.
She has a blog, newsletter and website online.
“Color was always hard for me,” she said. “That’s why everything is so colorful, because I’ve really, really worked hard.”
“I started in oils a very long time ago and loved it, developed allergies to it, and had to go to watercolor and acrylics,” Pierce-Clark told the mill guests.
“What I learned in watercolor was, if you put them all together, all three colors, you get brown, and it’s pretty ugly,” she said. She went on to demonstrate the principles of transparency and glazing for combining layers to create a variety of colors. She contrasted that to the effect of using opaque paints in her work.
She has since gone back to oil painting and has incorporated the techniques she learned in watercolors using transparency in her oil works.
The exhibit features Pierce-Clark’s floral collection, in honor of the theme, but she said she is inspired by waves and water in most of her work.
“I paint because of movement,” she explained. “What love about movement is waves, water, that’s my inspiration.”
Pierce-Clark said she has an upcoming exhibit in the fall at the Hayner Center that will feature her work inspired by water. She said she has purchased a 3-foot-by-5-foot canvas that will be the centerpiece of the exhibit.
“It’s just going to be the ocean, right in your face,” she said.
In his absence, Bear’s Mill Executive Director Marti Goetz spoke on the work of Jack Pine.
Pine is from Circleville, Ohio, the home of the largest pumpkin show in the nation, where “pumpkin is king,” Goetz said.
He went to Ohio State and made glass art his focus. He now has a glass studio near the Ohio State University campus and the state fairgrounds.
Pine incorporates glass and metal to create his distinctive “webbing” effect highlights the depth of the glass and creates layers of color and form.
He is known for his glass pumpkin sculptures and also creates a variety of vases, fluted bowls and hummingbird feeders using the technique.
His work is also to be featured during the Dayton Art Institute’s Oktoberfest.
Goetz also took the opportunity to introduce the new gallery coordinator, Jan Roestamadji, who comes to Bear’s Mill after years working at the Arts Depot in Union City, Indiana. Roestamadji also is an artist, focusing on fine art jewelry, fine art photography, glass and mixed media.
More about the current featured artists on exhibit at Bear’s Mill can be found on their websites at www.donnapierceclark.com and www.JackPineStudio.com.
