FIRST FRIDAY | March Art Party

The first Friday in March marked the kick-off to downtown Eagle’s First Friday event and opening night for painter Rena Vandewater. The steady stream of art lovers came to see her whimsical and vivid oil paintings.

Art lovers enjoy the March Art Party

Rena shared her inspiration for her pastoral scenes.

“I work very intuitively,” Rena explains. “The painting talks to me the whole time I’m working on it. The patterns and shapes evolve in the process, and although I see the image as a whole, each space has a life of its own.”

Art by Rena Vandewater | In the Land of Milk & Honey

Rena’s work displays a maturity that comes from years of painting while pursing her masters degree in art. Although the scenes depict a playful fantasy land that only exists in her colorful imagination, she is serious about her technique. Rena employs a technique simliar to post-Impressionist painters Gauguin and van Gogh. Cloisonnism is a style of painting with bold and flat forms separated by dark contours. Rena’s show In the Land of Milk & Honey will be on display through March.

Marianne Solberg joined the Gallery in March. Her free blown glass work is steeped in her Scandinavian heritage. “RINGLEIK” is a centuries old Scandinavian tradition were children dance in a circle. This tradition is still very much used today and is a large part of my childhood memories in Norway. “Dancing in Circles” is my inspiration for this series of free blown glass work.

“To create the dancing pattern of circles, I use a technique of painting with the hot glass. The colored glass is my glass canvas and clear glass is the paint, creating playful and transparent designs.”