Posted on July 21, 2011
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Posted on July 18, 2011
Elizabeth Wolf is painting birds these days. The prolific Eureka Springs artist said she paints whatever moves her, and two winters ago, birds caught her attention.
Wolf lives on 70 wooded acres a few miles outside of town, and there are birds galore for her to capture in watercolor.
She also travels extensively, and her show at Eureka Thyme Gallery in early August will present birds of the Ozarks, as well as feathered creatures from other places.
Wolf is an animated painter, often completing a watercolor in several hours, although she explained it might take days of thought and visualization before she even touches brush to paper.
“I like to add a lot of detail to the birds,” she noted, “but I’m not a photorealist.”
The birds are clearly identifiable, but the backgrounds tend to be abstracted or impressionistic. Her love of color is evident.
Although she is currently favoring watercolor work, Wolf also paints in oil and acrylics, and said she is leaning towards expressing herself in oils, because she feels she can express herself in so many different ways with oil and acrylic paints.
“Watercolors come easy to me,” she said, “Oils present a depth of study. I like watercolors for when I’m traveling, as they are light to carry and quick to execute.”
The August show will introduce the public to her many original bird paintings; Eureka Thyme, the EureKan Art Gallery routinely carry her giclée prints. She also has a display at Flint Street Little Chapel and will have a show of her European paintings at Main Stage this coming Fall. She carries many original and giclée prints at her Dragonfly Studio, located at her home. Wolf also has many of her images printed as large greeting cards, which are suitable for framing.
Wolf was known for years as a fabric artist, and she said she still creates scenes in fabric – stitching, painting, sewing and adding beads as the mood strikes and the image demands.
Wolf came to art almost by accident after years as a professor of botany and microbiology. She had planned to become a doctor, but life circumstances intervened and she ended up teaching instead of pursuing a medical degree. When she needed to find a new place to live she “threw a quarter at a map. ” It landed on Northwest Arkansas, she said, and so she came here after a living for a year in Mexico.
Her first Ozarks venture was Cedar Wolf Garden Center, which Wolf said was the second retail organic greenhouse in the United States and a success. But after a fall from a high roof broke her arm in five places, carrying and lifting pots and bags of fertilizer became too difficult. Wolf decided she was ready for a different line of work.
Her two grown children suggested she try art, reminding her she had always been a creative maker of things when they were growing up.
“I strongly questioned that idea,” she said. “It scared me to death.”
But after three days of intense introspection, Wolf decided to go for it, and in 2000 she took an art class that she said “set her on fire to paint.”
That year she also experimented with cloth doll making, and created a character named Madame LeDue, an apple-cheeked character Wolf describes as a gypsy doll.
Madame Le Due became the subject of many of her paintings, and Wolf said the doll is painted as a character who goes around the world doing as she pleases, having fun.
Wolf not only paints, she gives art lessons because she wants to share what she has learned and because she loves teaching.
Wolf’s Arkansas Bird show runs from Wed., Aug. 10 to Aug. 17, at Eureka Thyme Gallery. She said she will have painted at least 20 original pieces by the time of the show, featuring chickadees, quail, roadrunners and goldfinches among others, but does not yet know how many will be on display.
She will be at the gallery Saturday afternoon, Aug. 13 from 1-4 p.m. and again during the Gallery Stroll, 6-9 p.m. to talk about her work.
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Posted on July 9, 2010
(EUREKA SPRINGS, AR) – “Sacred Grove,” a layered acrylic on canvas by D.G. Womack, has been declared the winner of the People’s Choice Award at the 1st Annual Eureka Springs Invitational Art Show, hosted by the Queen Anne Mansion House Museum.
Womack’s winning painting was among over 50 creations by Eureka Springs artists entered in the show. Over 900 visitors attended and had the opportunity to vote for their favorite work of art. The exhibit was produced by the Mayor’s Arts Council and ended May 31.
Mayor Dani Joy presented Womack the $1,000 first prize check at the mansion Wednesday afternoon. “We’re extremely proud of the amazing talent of the artists who live and work here,’ the mayor commented. “Eureka Springs is truly blessed in that regard.”
Rachael Moyer, director of the Queen Anne Mansion House Museum, agreed. “The out-of-towners who came through the exhibit were almost unanimous in their astonishment that all of these incredible pieces were created by Eureka Springs artists.”
At the presentation Womack discussed how she achieved the 3-dimensional effect. “I started working on this last November,” she began. “To get the textured feel I would paint, say, a flower. Then I had to wait until that dried, and then add another layer. If you repeat that process often enough the paint begins to build up, and eventually you get that texturing.”
According to Womack she had a passion for art early on. However, she put off that interest to begin a career as a petroleum geologist, working on oilrigs. “I had to pay the bills,” she remarked. After being laid off in “the recession before this one,” the Oklahoma native resumed painting and has been “pursuing it in earnest for the past ten years.”
Often referred to as “Mid-America’s Art Capital,” Eureka Springs is home to more than 300 working artists. It was chosen again last year as one of America’s top ten small market arts destinations by AmericanStyle magazine.
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