Gallery hosts street dance, art show Saturday night
TEXARKANA, Ark. — Anyone who enjoys country music and seeing great musicians in art should get to 1894 Gallery Saturday night with the band Relentless performing and a “Music Legends” art show starting.
The 1894 Gallery hosts a street dance with Relentless and an opening reception for local artist Eileen Stearman, whose renderings of famous musicians will be displayed. It’s free to attend.
The 1894 Gallery’s Georgia Hubnik says old country and western artists like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings are portrayed in the art, which consists of black
and-white watercolor works. The exhibit runs through the end of December.
The gallery’s 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. event Saturday includes a first chance to see Stearman’s art there, plus hear Relentless perform live outside on the dock area. Olive Street in front of the gallery will be blocked off for the festivities.
“There will be a lot of room, a lot of space for social distancing. They don’t have to worry,” Hubnik said. “We invite everyone to bring their lawn chairs, ice chest if they want to and certainly their friends, and just hang out, look at the art, enjoy the music, maybe do a little two-step and just have fun with us. It’s a family affair.”
They aim to do something to celebrate downtown, she said, and they like country music. She’s had a front row seat for all the new downtown activity there from the 1894 Gallery, including the reopening of The Flying Crow.
“It really helps to coordinate and work with other groups because the more that you’ve got going on, the more interest it will draw and more people will come downtown,” Hubnik said.
She said the gallery has expanded with an artist’s space on the side and separate galleries, plus building owner David Peavy opening up the second floor with an event space named Studio 71.
“People love the old movie posters and the ’70s stuff,” Hubnik said.
She said signed, limited-edition prints and T-shirts of Stearman’s work will be available at the reception.
Stearman hails from Texarkana, Texas, but she’s an Austin native whose artistic talents were influenced at a young age by her mother and an uncle. After retirement, she’s devoted more time to her art.
She’s a member of the 4 States Regional Art Club, Southwestern Watercolor Society and MidSouthern Watercolor Society, according to her artist’s bio. Her work was chosen to be part of the Women in Watercolor International Juried Competition.
In her artist statement, Stearman says she listens to instrumental music while creating her art, which transports her to “another place in time.” In addition to watercolors, she employs pencil and watercolor in her work.
She writes, “I paint and draw to fulfill a lifetime yearning to create art. I try to create art that can connect me with something I have seen, felt, smelled, heard, touched or a memory … The music and its peacefulness shapes my art with color, design, patterns, shape, light and a little humor depending on the tempo of the music.”
On Facebook, find her art at the E Stearman Art page.