Monday's Internet Edition, May 12, 2008.
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- The Stanly Arts Guild is sponsoring a new art exhibition featuring artwork by Donna Whitman of Thomasville.
Her paintings will be on display throughout the month of March in the lobby of the Agri-Civic Center in Albemarle. The Center is located on Hwy. 24/27. The hours for viewing are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and whenever events are being held.
“I am so excited that the Stanly Arts Guild invited me to display my artwork and I hope some Thomasville residents will make their way down to view the display this month,” Whitman said.
She began painting in 1985 and is self-taught in several mediums. In 2004 she saw a Batik painting featured in an art magazine, located the artist from Ohio and took a class from her to learn the Batik style of watercolor painting on Ginwashi paper. She was hooked and is almost obsessive about painting with this technique.
Gary, her husband, occasionally has to call her in from her studio at night when she’s lost all track of time.
She recently won “Best in Class” in Mixed Media, Professional Division in Lake Placid, Fla.
Whitman enjoys teaching this method of painting to small groups when she’s not in her studio getting ready for an art show. Her husband does all of the matting and framing.
“The framing materials are so significant to presenting the piece.” Whitman said. “We make a good team.
“Batik watercolor on handmade paper is so different than watercolor on other surfaces,” she said. “You never know where the fibers will take the color so you just work with it. If you painted the same painting over and over it would never turn out the same. It’s so unique and a lot of people think its fabric when they first see it. The final step that gives it that batik look is done almost the same way cloth is done. You never know what you have until you open it up.
“This style of painting is not new but there are very few artists who paint like that. It does present some challenges whether you have an art education or not, you cannot be prepared but there aren’t any mistakes.
“It all works out in the end and I find it fun, relaxing and intriguing.”
(March 14)