Get Ready for a FABULOUS 2014-2015 With CCAG

We will be posting the itinerary of the 2014-2015 year soon.   The plan is to have mini-workshops and painting fun before the meetings and also a learning and artful hands-on lesson after the meeting.  We are trying to pin down exciting new weekend workshops throughout the year, too. 

Be sure to attend the first meeting on Monday, September 8th at the Shelter House in Legion Park in Sidney, NE.  It will be a carry-in dinner and the program will be "Make Your Mark" by Cindi Egging.  We will have Election of Officers that evening, too.  Hope you all can and will attend!  It looks to be a fun, uplifting, and educational year!

More information to come later...................  

Association of Nebraska Art Clubs Top Twenty-Five Artworks at Library

The top twenty-five artworks of the Association of Nebraska Art Clubs (ANAC) Annual Conference are on display now through September 11, 2014 at the Sidney Public Library in Sidney, NE.  These Top 25 Artworks will travel throughout Nebraska during the upcoming year.  A watercolor painting titled "Amherst Market" by Cheyenne County Art Guild member Nancy Dee of Haxtun, CO, won an Award of Excellence and is in this ANAC Traveling Show.   Nancy is also a member of the Art Society of Ogallala. Best of Show was won by Howard Kaye of the Lincoln Artists Guild with his watercolor painting titled "Outside the Tent". 

Nebraska is the only state that has an association of art clubs and the Cheyenne County Art Guild is one of the participating art clubs and also is one of the largest art clubs in the ANAC.  The 2014 ANAC Conference was held in June in McCook, NE, and since then the Traveling Show has been in Ogallala and Oshkosh. 

There are nineteen two-dimensional artworks in watercolor, mixed media, photography, oil, acrylic, and even steel.  The six three-dimensional artworks are in pottery, gourd art, hand-carved wood, and resin.  The public is encouraged to view this very fine display of original artworks rendered by very talented Nebraska and regional artists. 

Thursday Thoughts

A painting begins with a basic idea.  A series of lines take their place on a white canvas and paint is applied filling the blank whiteness.   Light is intensified by dark, the idea takes form and shape. 

It's fascinating how an artist brain works to enable the transformation of thought energy into a tangible piece.  The art is an extension of the artist - the two forever joined through the link of mind and hand.  When you look at a piece of artwork you see the soul of the artist.

August Artist of the Month: Pat Meick

Cheyenne County Art Guild member Pat Meick of Gurley has been chosen Artist of the Month.  Meick’s favorite media is oil painting, but she is an accomplished award-winning artist creating artwork in various media.  She enjoys working in pencil, colored pencil, watercolor, pastels, and experimenting with any media. She has found it very interesting and challenging to find the technique and results of the different media.  Therefore, she has enjoyed taking many workshops and trying the warm, cool, lights, darks, blending, and mixing – all evolving to come together to make a picture of her own.

 

Meick has served as Vice-President and Treasurer of the CCAG as well as served on various guild committees throughout the years.  In addition she has benefited the Gurley community with her interest and skills as well as served on the Gurley Centennial Committee and instructed and encouraged the Girl Scouts from Gurley with their yearly special art project.

 

Her artwork has been on exhibit and won awards at various art shows including the Cheyenne County Fair, Holyoke, CO Art Show, Carnegie Art Center in Alliance, NE, the McCook Community College Show, McCook, NE, Scottsbluff Art Gallery, the Association of Nebraska Art Clubs Conference, the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum Art Competition, the Yuma Art Show, Yuma, CO, the CCAG Spring Art Show in Sidney, NE, and the Crane Trust Visitors & Nature Center, Alda, NE.

  

Pat Meick’s oil painting “Golden Grain and Cloudy Skies”, depicting wheat harvests remembered from 25 years of harvesting grains, is one of the first paintings she ever painted many years ago and is on display at the Sidney Public Library.  The public is encouraged to view this fine artwork.  In addition more of her fine paintings may be viewed at the Cheyenne County Community Center through September 8, 2014.

September Meeting Fast Approaching!!!

Looking for a group of extraordinary, artistic, fun people to share ideas, techniques,
and fellowship about art?  Then you are in the right place.  The first meeting of the CCAG is fast approaching.  We meet the second Monday at 7:00 at the Cheyenne County Community Center from September - May.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR:  First meeting will be September 11.  Check back for more details.

Ron Nordyke - July Artist of the Month

On display at the Sidney Public Library and the Cheyenne County Community Center until Aug 10^th are paintings by Ron Nordyke of Chappell.  Some of the paintings at the Center are from a series of “hand, quilt and sky” pieces called the Time-Life Quilt series.  Each painting expresses a time of day which coincides with a time of life.  For example a 6:00 a.m. sky and the hand of a newborn on a baby blanket quilt.  A 9:00 p.m. sunset with the hand of a his 84 year old Mother-in-law on a “States Quilt” with her hand across the Nebraska block, a state where she was born and raised.  Her hand showing the signs of a life of endless working, cooking, loving, writing, washing, serving, dancing and somewhat reshaped by the presence of arthritis.  This series of paintings appear to be landscapes.  

 

"Life's Little Ups and Downs"

As a small child all Nordyke dreamed of being was an artist.  After graduating with a BFA from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Ron spent over twenty years in the upholstery business with his wife Dianne.   In 1992 he began a new career teaching Art for the Chappell Nebraska Public Schools giving him incentive and more time to paint.   Since then he has focused on painting many subjects, commissions, and murals mainly in acrylics.

     Recognized regionally for his “Landscape Quilt” paintings Ron Nordyke is continually using the juxtaposition of objects and ideas to create visual metaphors in his works.   Whether he’s working with his art students on a community project, on a commission, or his own work,  he’s searching for “meaning”.   A love of art has kept him searching and creating with his hands since he was a small child.   His works don’t actually fit into any category. He enjoys the awesome beauty of a sky, a landscape, a face, or just something old, weathered, and worn.  In some ways they are a lot like the quilts he paints; a little piece of this and a scrap of that.  Just as quilts are laid out in patterns of simple repeating shapes, his art has some of these themes that reoccur regularly,… and life is a lot like that.  Looking for ways to visually express the overlapping of the “natural” God-created world and the “man-made world” fuels his artistic fire.

   Like a composer of music he’s looking for that “hook” that will cause you to look and think deeper.  In his own words, “I like to think I’m portraying our common  heritage by way of visual images.”  Many of these ideals are universal: the value of  hard work and fine craft; the virtue and strength of character that comes from age; the freedom and energy of youth; the awesome regenerating power of faith; the magnificent beauty and diversity of creation; even the thoughts and emotions linked to images from our collective past.  He uses common ordinary objects and presents them in thought provoking compositions creating visual metaphors.  In addition to Ron Nordyke's display of artwork at the Sidney Public Library and the Cheyenne County Community Center more of his artwork can be viewed at rnordyke.com.

CONGRATULATIONS CCAG MEMBER NANCY DEE!!!!

CCAG MEMBER NANCY DEE WINS 2ND PLACE IN INTERNATIONAL SHOW

"Morgan County Angular Moment"  (Pastel Painting)

The Mile High International Pastel Exhibit recently informed Nancy Dee of Haxtun, CO, a Cheyenne County Art Guild member, that her pastel painting "Morgan County Angular Moment" received a 2nd Place Award in the 10th Annual Mile High International Pastel Exhibition being held at the Denver Public Library in Denver, CO.   Dee's artwork was also chosen by the Denver Public Library's graphic designer to be one of four displayed on the "poster" for the event.

In addition three important milestones are happening concurrently with this show in Denver.  This year is the 10th Anniverssary of the Pastel Society of Colorado (PSC) hosting the show, the 20th Anniversary of the Pastel Society of Colorado, and the 125th Anniversary of the Denver Public Library.  Because of all the anniversaries, the PSC askedd several of the previous judges of this show to display a painting as part of the exhibit.  These past judges are a "Who's Who" of celebrities in the national pastel painting world according to a press release issued by the Pastel Society of Colorado.

The 10th annual Mile High International Pastel Exhibition is on the seventh floor of the Denver Public Library in the Vida Ellison Art Gallery.
Gallery hours: Mon - Fri, 10 AM - 5 PM, Sat. 9 AM - 5 PM, and Sun. 1 - 5 PM.  Nancy Dee said,  "If you get a chance, this is a great show (to see) and if you have any interest in pastel, don't miss it."  The show closes August 30, 2014.

The Cheyenne County Art Guild congratulates Nancy Dee on this fine award and accomplishment!  For more information about the Pastel Society of Colorado go to www.pastelsocietyofcolorado.org.  To see more of Nancy Dee’s work go to www.frenchmancreek.com.