Though there’s a light, fresh blanket of snow, water is running in the streams. There are frequent snippets of bird song as Buddy and I run along the creek each morning. And, that’s the sun sending shafts of light through the bare trees- just a bit earlier each day. There’s nothing like an Iowa winter to spark an attentive interest in the subtlest encroachments of spring. Intimations of seasonal changes are perfect subjects to accompany this post about the work of Stan Fellows and another new artist at the gallery.
Chickadee / Stan Fellows / 9″ x 12″
Stan can paint anything, and his facile handling of watercolors lends to the birds that he often depicts a life-like immediacy that has won those pieces an enthusiastic following. In an artist’s talk that we’ll be hosting on Thursday, March 4, Stan will discuss his work and paint right there while we’re talking!
In the “It’s a small world” category: Marvin Bolotsky, a New Yorker and former photographer for the United Nations, provides to me an exquisite array of etchings by Eastern European artists. A connoisseur of intaglio prints, Marvin got into a conversation with an artist at a print show, who was showing some beautifully developed etchings of birds and trees. He encouraged Ladislav Hanka to “get in touch with Priscilla Steele in Marion, IA.” At that point in their exchange, Ladislav responded that he had been raised in said Marion, IA, after his parents emigrated from Czechoslovakia in the 1950’s. Adding that he “has fond childhood memories of his Iowa upbringing”, Ladislav described how his parents found work in Cedar Rapids’ Czech community.
Nesting White Throated Sparrow / Ladislav Hanka / Intaglio Etching
We exchanged e-mails in which images and exclamations about curious coincidences overshadowing our artistic experience flew back and forth. And, this past week, a generous selection of Hanka’s etchings arrived. His delicately drawn, but bold compositions combine evidence of the action of the acid on a metal plate in tandem with sensitively observed subjects from nature. I thank Marvin for dropping this former Iowan back into his hometown, and hope that you’ll stop by to see Ladislav’s marvelous intaglio work.