Step into Moana Nursery this month, and you might be surprised at what you find. As part of Reno’s Artown festivities, the nursery is hosting a series of artist receptions.
“I just came in for some plants, and look at all this art! Now I’ll have to come back,” commented a woman holding an armful of flowers.
The artists’ subject matter may be similar—in keeping with the venue, floral themes dominate the exhibit—but the media range from watercolor to digital photography.
Natalia Tikhomirov’s watercolor paintings, lush and richly detailed, are beautifully realistic. “Single Pink Rose” uses bright, lustrous color and white highlights to perfectly render the curling, paper-thin petals.
Working in a variety of media, Richard Sheriff creates lively, large-scale floral still-lifes. Simplified geometrical shapes and firm lines give his work a stylized, pop-art feel. In “Cowboy Daisies,” Sheriff layers oil paint on the canvas like frosting on a cake. Vivid red petals in a purple vase jump out from a cool, white-grey background.
Diane Atherton creates art from digitally enhanced photographs. She brings images together into a collage and applies a variety of effects and color washes. The result is striking and dramatic. “Spicy Lotus” portrays a partially opened lotus blossom against a vivid, crimson background. The saturated reds and yellows are warm and inviting, well-suited to the exotic subject.
Some of the most unusual pieces in the show come from Betty-Ann Beaulieu, the first artist to be featured in the reception series. Beaulieu has worked in watercolors, pen-and-ink and pastel. She is currently focusing on painting ceramic balls. Working from photographs, Beaulieu pencil-sketches designs onto the balls and then hand paints them. Fired three to five times to enrich the color, each ball takes about five weeks to complete.
Beaulieu’s ceramics find their inspiration in a previous interest: Christmas ornaments. The Peggy Award-winning artist has donated her talents to many charity events over the years, including painting ornaments for the St. Mary’s Christmas fund-raiser. Finding that she enjoyed working on a spherical “canvas,” Beaulieu began painting on the ceramic balls, which are about 6 to 11 inches high.
Raised in Connecticut, Beaulieu trained at an art school in Salisbury, England. A graphic artist for many years, she was reluctant to make the transition to computers, preferring more hands-on methods. Beaulieu, a longtime Nevada resident, recently opened her own studio and considers herself fortunate to be a full-time artist today.
Her commissioned pieces have focused on everything from golf to Santa’s elves, but many of her clients request pet portraits. Her interest in painting pets made her a perfect candidate to be part of another Artown event: Paws in the Park. On July 13, Beaulieu drew portraits of people’s pets in pastels.
When meeting with clients, Beaulieu looks through photos, asks about the pet’s unique traits and creates what she calls a “storyboard,” a series of narrative images about the pet.
“This one liked ripping presents open,” Beaulieu says of a Doberman-themed ornament. “So I painted him under the Christmas tree with paper in his mouth. He also liked to sleep with a teddy bear and sing along with music.”
Beaulieu’s spheres and ornaments and the works of 10 other artists will be on display at the nursery through the end of July.