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.

"Art-Mileage"

It's August already...What's your total "art-mileage" so far this Summer?

My summer is just flying by and before it vaporizes all together I'm going to take this opportunity to stop a few moments, literally...my grandboys are content and playing this moment...and think about what my intentions were for painting this summer.  What were yours?  

We traveled to the mountains for our yearly family time the first of August and I did get the opportunity to paint one morning at Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) near Estes Park, CO for a couple of hours--thanks to an exploring son and reading husband!  Of course, it was beautiful, but having just one morning there felt like I had a ticking count-down clock right behind me.  I could just feel the apprehension building to the point when I would be jolted back to reality by that alarming bell and have to call it a day!  Do we ever get enough time to paint?  Never, I would say!

So the next logical question is how do I make more time for painting?  I have tried various ideas in answering this question throughout my life...some have worked better than others depending on my circumstances.  First, I never leave home without my "art bag."  Depending on where I'm going, the contents vary from a the simple art book or magazine of what I am currently reading, notebook and pen, to a mini-sized watercolor painting setup.  With this art bag, I have traveled to hundreds of baseball games (three boys explains it all), taken a few airplane rides, waited for a few appointments or people or rain delays, even driven a harvest grain cart, etc. all very contentedly with my art bag.  This art bag definitely does not make up for a few hours in RMNP, but looking back at all those "waiting" minutes, they have added up and have taken me further down the "art-mileage road" than without it.  So maybe, I'm doing OK...getting where I want to go.  What ideas have worked for you?