Featured Artist for April 1998

Featured GiveAway by Ginnie Conaway Silk Soft 22" x 15" - 1997 Watercolor on Paper Valued at: $700

Chris Clegg Peterborough, United Kingdom

Ginnie Conaway was born in 1949 in Baltimore County, Maryland. She has always been interested in art and uses transparent watercolor to express her love of natural subjects in contemporary realism. Whether directing your eye into the center of a flower blossom or capturing the memory of a beloved pet on paper, her strong sense of design and bold colors make you take a second look. Born in Maryland's farming country and an avid gardener, Ginnie has an intimate knowledge of her subjects. Many of the florals she paints come from her own gardens. The years she's spent showing dogs has educated her eye to the tilt of an ear or the shape of a canine eye. She started painting pet portraits in oils, but soon switched to faster drying acrylics as the commissions started to back up. After being introduced to the excitement of watercolor, she now works almost exclusively in that medium. The play of light or the nuances of portraying a white on white flower make each painting exciting. The challenges of working in watercolor and the sense of discovery in the process maintain the appeal of the medium. Ginnie exhibits in many invitational and juried shows each year and her works are in many private and corporate collections. She takes part in outdoor art festivals along the Mid-Atlantic States where she enjoys meeting the public. She is a member of numerous artist organizations, but devotes most of her energies to the Delaware Foundation for Youth in Art where she is the director of the annual September Spirit of Art Festival.

Ginnie even offered to do a custom pet portrait for the April GiveAway but then what would happen should someone win that doesn't have a pet ! So we opted for a floral watercolor that she is known to produce from the beauty of her garden. She does not paint people--only dogs, cats, horses, and even birds. Our supervisors really squawked about that !

Ginnie is definitely a morning person and is most creative at this time. However, since she has a full-time day job, she doesn't really get to be creative until dinner time on most days. When she's up against a deadline, she'll often work till late in the evening. Usually, at that point, she's in the final stages of a painting where she feels the brain doesn't really have to be in gear. She tries to do the planning and design for a new painting early in the day. Once the painting is drawn out and she's decided on the values and color scheme, the actual laying on of the paint goes more freely if her brain is lightly engaged in another activity. She listens to audio books while she paints which helps her avoid becoming too tight and fussy. She finds that she needs a fairly large block of time to really get into painting. Grabbing an hour here and there doesn't work for her, nor does trying to paint when she's upset or under outside stress. This past year, she became the director for a new outdoor art festival, and the concerns of organizing a national show from scratch really cut into her creative time. Her seven young grandchildren also cut into her productive time as Grandma's nerves just aren't up to painting after one of their visits. Her husband, Woody, (who I might add was quite helpful and patient in emailing images) tells her to "just go upstairs and paint!" but she says it just doesn't work that way. Her most productive time is when she takes a day off from her regular job, and she's the only one at home. She believes that art is a solitary vocation.

		The excitement of spring in Free Fall, with its' new growth, warm breezes, and colorful blossoms always finds her in search of new material to paint. These fresh white azalea flowers were dancing in the breeze with the joy of the season. The challenge for her was to capture the almost transparent quality of the blossoms and still portray their energy and freedom. The gold stamens add a lyrical touch.
	FREE FALL, 1997 Watercolor On Paper, 11x15" $400

	Occasionally a painting seems to paint itself, and such was the case with Tessa. Ginnie says; "I never met the dog, but the owner understood my instructions perfectly and sent me some great photos to work from. When she received the finished portrait, she called me in tears, she was so pleased. I could hear the dog barking and children's voices in the background. The owner ran a child's day care center and the Boxer was the children's favorite play mate."
		Tessa, 1995 Watercolor On Paper, 15x18" Commissioned Pet Portrait

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ginnie uses transparent watercolors on acid free watercolor paper. Her florals are done on Arches 140 or 300 lb. cold pressed paper which allows her to apply frisket and scrub sections as needed. Most of her florals are created by glazing, the layering of thin washes of transparent colors over previous layers. She explains that glazing is a way of building up vibrant clear colors while still letting the white of the paper sparkle through. She feels that it is important that the under layer does not 'lift' or dissolve and mix with the next layer of paint which could create muddy colors.

Her pet portraits are done on Bockingford paper which have lifting qualities that allow her to make corrections by removing color. The drawback with this paper is that it is very soft and can't be scrubbed or frisketed. Even applying tape to the edges to hold the paper to the drawing board will damage it. She's ruined more than one painting by dropping something on the Bockingford paper and putting a mark or crease in it which attracts the paint and makes a dark mark, always just where you don't want it! She chooses her pigments for their light fastness and permanency. Unfortunately, she says, watercolors have acquired a reputation of not being as permanent as oils or acrylics, but great advances in the pigments have been achieved within the last few years. Her paintings should last way past her lifetime without her many patrons worrying about keeping them out of the sunlight or away from artificial light.

When asked to create a portrait of someone's pet, she always tries to find a way to express the uniqueness of that particular animal. She has many stories about owners and working with animals and finds it always interesting to say the least. She's had many exhibits since the early 90's and listed below are her exhibits from 1995 to the present.

		Cosmos are one of her favorite flowers and one of the few annuals that she grows. The simplicity of the shapes and the clear colors combined with the fern-like foliage allow her to create interesting compositions, and she's painted them many times. Her paintings tend to be "high key", meaning that they usually contain bright light colors as in COSMIC ENERGY (Among the Cosmos) . The backgrounds are often dark for added contrast to the main subject – the flower.
	COSMIC ENERGY, 1997 Watercolor On Paper, 22x15" $700

	One of the advantages an artist has over a photographer is the ability to compose and edit a composition. These are three of her own dogs painted when she was still working primarily in acrylics. The red Doberman was deceased many years before she created this portrait, but she was able to use old photos to include him with her two current dogs. The one in the middle is a Whippet, a small version of the greyhound, and she says the black Dobe at the top, although nine years old, is still as bratty as she appears in this painting.
		The Crew, 1992 Acrylic On Canvas, 20 x16" The Artists Own Crew Portrait

EXHIBITION LIST

JURIED EXHIBITS

1997	Artists' Guild of Delaware County; Springfield, PA Baltimore Watercolor Society Regional; Baltimore, MD
1996	C.C.A.A. Open Juried W/C & Sculpture Show; West Chester, PA Art League of Del Co. Show, Wayne Art Center; Wayne, PA Maryland Art League, Regional Show; Baltimore, MD Camden Co. Cultural & Heritage Center; Camden, NJ C.C.A.A. Open Juried Show; West Chester, PA Art League of Del Co. Show, American College; Bryn Mawr, PA 6th Annual National Juried Exhibition; Havre de Grace, MD DFYA Small Works Exhibit; Wilm, DE
1995	5th Annual National Juried Exhibition; Havre do Grace, MD Gallery 50, All Media Miniature Show; Bridgeton, NJ Art League of Del Co. Show, American College; Bryn Mawr, PA Art League of Del Co. Show, Wayne Art Center; Wayne, PA C.C.A.A. Open W/C & Sculpture Show; West Chester, PA

		Light seems to radiate from the center of this double daylily, ONE A DAY, and gives this wildflower a presence that can't be ignored. The complexity of the structure and the hot colors dictate a close-up approach. The watercolor medium allowed her to play with the background, contrasting the softness against the forceful shapes of the blossom.
	One A Day, 1997 Watercolor On Paper, 15x22" $700

	ANGEL'S TRUMPET portrays white flowers which is always a challenge. To demonstrate the structure without loosing the luminosity is a fine line to walk. In this painting of Datura, the round shape of the blossoms contrasts nicely with the directional thrust of the foliage. The common name of Angel's Trumpet is also interesting as the seeds of this plant are very poisonous.
		ANGEL'S TRUMPET, 1995 Watercolor On Paper, 11x15" $400

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