League promotes Conway artists
CONWAY — For almost 40 years, the Conway League of Artists has been encouraging people to develop and explore their artistic side. Susan Peterson, league president, said she exemplifies the league’s ability to build confidence in new artists.
“I am a retired teacher, and I have no art training,” she said. “I needed something to do after I retired, and I started taking workshops through the league. I’m still exploring my art. If there is something else new to do, I’ll do it.”
Peterson said membership in the league has grown since its establishment in 1973 to include about 80 members. The league is now exhibiting its Spring Show at the Faulkner County Library. The show, which is open to artists residing in Faulkner, Perry and Conway counties, exists to “bring art to the community and give artists a chance to display and sell their work,” Peterson said.
On Saturday, the league held its first Studio and Gallery Tour, a “self-driving” tour of member artists’ studios.
“It is a way to recognize the talent that exists here,” said Lois Giorgis, a league member since 1982. The studios of both Giorgis and Peterson were featured on the tour, which Peterson said allows participants to see the artists at work and learn more about how art is created.
Giorgis, an Illinois native, studied art in high school and college and had been artistic ever since she could “pick up a crayon,” she said. “I’ve been getting awards and selling my work for about 50 years.”
She said she began painting with oils when she was 17 years old at Oak Park-river Forest High School near Chicago and earned a scholarship to study art one summer at the University of Denver.
“Mostly I learned by doing,” Giorgis said. “I recently started sculpting alabaster rock, which was new to me. People asked me where I learned to do that, and I just thought, ‘If the cavemen can do it, so can I.’”
Giorgis said she kept doing art when she moved to Arkansas in 1982.
“I wanted to find a group,” she said. “We learn from each other. We bring paintings to our meetings and critique them. Artists have always formed groups.”
She said the league holds workshops that allow artists to learn and grow.
Peterson said she has been a league member for six years, but now loves doing paintings and pottery.
“I learned watercoloring in workshops,” she said, “and I take pottery lessons through the Arkansas Arts Center.”
Both women have won prizes and sold their art through such venues as the league’s annual spring and fall shows. In addition to the creative act of “turning nothing into something,” Peterson said, both agreed that their biggest thrill comes when people show their appreciation of the artists’ work by purchasing it.
“We like hearing ‘oohs and ahhs,’” Peterson said, laughing.
The league promotes and teaches work in a variety of mediums. The Spring Show features photography, acrylic, oil and watercolor paintings, ceramics and 3D art. Giorgis said she has enjoyed watching many artists grow by taking league workshops and exhibiting their work. Eventually, she said, artists feel compelled to display their work.
“When you paint all the time, like I do, you want to sell it,” she said. “You’ve got to get all those paintings out from behind the sofa!”
She said she particularly enjoys painting portraits.
“When my kids were little, I did their portraits, and then our neighbors started wanting me to paint their kids’ portraits, and pretty soon I developed a list of kids,” Giorgis said. “I did small portraits in pastels and started out selling them for $15. That was about 60 years ago.”
Peterson said she remembers one of her earliest sales.
“I was just honored that someone liked it,” she said.
She said it is important to stay motivated in order to create works of art.
“It is so easy to just sit in front of the television. It takes perseverance to learn how to throw a pot on a wheel. You have to have the determination to start something,” Peterson said.
“It does take a certain belief in yourself,” Giorgis said. “Once you have that confidence, you are like the Little Engine That Could.”
The league’s Spring Show will be on display in the Faulkner County Library through May 30. The league meets the second Wednesday of each month at the library, 1900 Tyler St. For more information, visit www.conwayleagueofartists.org