Bella Vista Arts Council to recognize area artist Allen
The Bella Vista Arts Council will honor Norie Allen as the January 2019 Artist of the Month.
Allen will be honored at a public reception at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 9, at the Wishing Spring Studio behind Wishing Spring Gallery, 8862 W. McNelly Rd., Bella Vista.
Allen has been a painter since the age of 7 when she trained in Sumi painting in her home country of Japan. She was taught by a monk in a Shinto Shrine. She studied oil with Helen Van Wyk, watercolor with Betty Schlemm, Frank Webb and Ralph Smith.
Allen’s art collections have been at the Bristol Museum of Art, Bristol, Va.; Osage Terrace of Bentonville; Dillard’s Company’s Art on paper; Reynolds & Reynolds of Richmond, Va.; and the Bristol-Myers Corp., Cape Fear Hospital in Fayetteville, N.C.
While living in Fayetteville, N.C., she studied pottery. Allen also studied in Baltimore, Md., at Baltimore Clay Works.
Allen and her husband Bill moved to Bella Vista from Baltimore in December 1998. She joined the Village Art Club of Bella Vista, as well as the Fly Tyers club. Her hobbies are fly tying, fishing and cooking. Her passion is pottery.
Her pottery can be found at Wishing Spring Gallery in Bella Vista, where she continues to create new and interesting pieces from clay.
The Bella Vista Arts Council, an advisory board to the City Council, was created by the City Council in February 2016 to help promote the arts in Bella Vista. The board established an Artist of the Month program in which selected artists and their work will be showcased to the public. Three volunteers serve on the selection committee.
The committee chooses each month from qualified artists, who must be residents of Bella Vista and have their work displayed somewhere in the city. Showcased artists will have their work displayed at the Artist Retreat Center and, during the month they are recognized, the work will be on display in a location around the city, such as the Bella Vista Library or Historical Museum.
To submit your name or other nominations for consideration, contact Parnell at the Artist Retreat Center, 479-268-6463, or email artscouncil@bellavistaar.gov.