A quartet of artists who exhibit at The Loft on Main, 112 E. Main Street, in Morrison, IL, discussed their creations and answered questions, on Thursday, March 7, 2019, beginning at 7:00 p.m. They shared how they became makers of art and their techniques. Left-to-right are Sharon Boyles, Vernon Schaver, Lloyd A. Beckman, and Andrew Holt.
Lloyd A. Beckman, from Sterling, IL, worked as a boom crane operator and enjoyed hobby woodworking. After his retirement in 2000, “I became more serious” about it, he stated. Primarily he creates objects via wood turning, using a lathe, but does “some flat work. Wood is readily available” as a medium, allowing him to create various utilitarian and decorative objects. He discussed bowls, platters, containers, and “Southern baby rattles with black-eyed peas in them.” He illustrated worm holes that add to the interest of a round box, but the lid also was intriguing, due to the round inset of speckled wood. Beckman adds touches of exotic woods to enrich pattern, texture, and color. He sources wood locally and via the internet. Once he wanted to dry wood that would become Christmas ornaments/finials, so he put it into the microwave oven. Soon the house was filled with smoke! “Now, I dry it on defrost,” Beckman said. He also exhibits at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA; a gallery in Kewanee, IL; The Next Picture Show in Dixon, IL.
Sharon Boyles, of Morrison, works in fabric, Elmer’s Glue, and card stock. She creates attractive, intricately designed, fabric pictures, resembling ancient Roman Tesserae, ie., mosaics. “I had a supply of card stock I wanted to use up,” so she began the art form in 2018, by cutting narrow strips of fabric into tiny pieces. “I always liked colors and stared at stained glass windows,” she remembered. Using fine tweezers, she swipes a small amount of glue onto individual cloth pieces,then and places them onto the card stock background. She explained, “I have ideas in my head,” and she lays down the colored bits to form the evolving design. Boyles has pieced quilts in the past, but that involved much larger fabric pieces than her recent art. Her originals–except one purple iris–sold out quickly. That “fabric painting” is unique, due to layering of fabric pieces to add depth. It belongs to her husband, Dave. Recently, Boyles designed monochromatic, concentric-circle designs; framed originals and prints are for sale. Originals of all her creations were copied digitally and printed as sets of note cards. Each box displays a variety of images.
Andrew Holt, of Morrison, is the latest artist to bring art to The Loft on Main. In 2005 he was graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an Emphasis in Painting. He is also the gallery’s only portrait artist. Barely visible in the top photograph are faces painted on small rocks, as are a pair of tiny, white terriers. Often, his subjects are animals. Five songbirds await an impending storm. A large Siberian Husky peers from atop a nearby display cabinet; it might be familiar. The painting was in the window of Holt’s studio, at 206 E. Main Street, Morrison. Painting are applied to painstakingly-prepared, primed, unframed blocks. Ned J. Nesti, Jr. remarked about Holt, “His gift is to add personality to animals. His skill is to adjust the proportions and put parts together” in his compositions. Holt does not draw or sketch, he just paints. “I like to do as much work with the brushstrokes as I can. I pull a lot of imagery from the internet, rearrange what was done, and change the perspective.” An example is the diptych–two related paintings–of birds shown behind the artists. He combined images of five individual birds; inserted plants and the impending storm; thus created “the new look.” Holt takes commissions for portraits. Additionally, three people agreed “he’s an excellent [painting] teacher!”
Vernon Schaver, of Fulton, IL, is shown beside his 2018 installation of nine watercolors. He came late to art production, beginning in college with one painting and one wood carving course at Augustana College, Rock Island, IL. He found his passion and switched his major to Art and Elementary Education. At Augie he took an acrylic class with a visiting University of Iowa instructor, then switched to watercolors. “I like the way it [the paint] flows.” Schaver taught art for 14 years at Riverbend School District (Fulton, Garden Plain, and Albany, IL.) He retired in 1994 and then worked 20 years with a builder as a carpenter. “I do everything by hand; I don’t use power tools.” He carves wood to exhibit at The Loft on Main and “teaches art once in a while.” Schaver discussed painting techniques he employs. “I go out into the country to take photos. I usually keep a camera in the car” to capture scenes to paint. He sometimes uses a dark background so flowers pop out. “I like to play warm and cool colors off each other and let one color dominate.” He uses different types of lines and value, the amount of light and dark, to achieve contrast. He does “maybe one or two paintings a week, but sometimes not for a couple months.” Schaver controls the entire process when creating art. He recycles antique photo frames for his paintings and makes the double mats. He does not “do people”–or rarely will. He made a painting each Christmas of a friend’s children. Schaver’s new endeavor is reminiscent of early painting studios that employed batteries of talented artists across the United States, to add watercolor to black and white prints. These were sold as original watercolors. He takes black and white drawings and paints them in watercolors. Sometimes, he will add a “remark,” a tiny inset drawing to the art piece, or put two-to-three photos into one painting. Vern Schaver is a talented multiple media maker of art.
