By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
Like the spring season itself, Cerulean Gallery's latest exhibition will be blooming with color and vivid imagery.
An Eye Full, featuring works by six Texas artists, opens with a 6 p.m. Friday reception at the gallery, 814 S. Taylor St. (inside the Canyon Exploration building). The show, which will hang through May 3, will include a range of works in oil, pastel, acrylic and ceramics.
"We've got tons of art in this show," said Caroline Kneese, the gallery's founder and director. "It's a headturner, for sure. ... There's a lot for the eye to take in."
Two of the artists — Bonnie Siebert, who divides her time between Texas and Europe, and Trudy Kraft, an Amarillo native who studied in Japan and now lives in Philadelphia — work in smaller formats, though Kneese said their work is no less eye-catching: "They draw your eye in," Kneese said.
West Texas native Shannon Pierce's paintings feature "big, bold, very colorful, jewel-toned landscapes," Kneese said. "There are bold — in some cases, unrealistic — colors in her landscapes." Pierce's ceramic sculpture work, which is more abstract in nature, also will be featured. "I love the juxtaposition of the realistic subject matter of her landscapes with the abstract 3-D sculptures. I think it's a nice tension," Kneese said.
Robin Hazard, who lives in Rockport and studied at Southern Methodist University, also paints landscapes, but her approach, while also colorful, is more abstract, Kneese said. "Her palette is so bright it's like they vibrate off the canvas," Kneese said. "It blinds you in a way, but in a good way."
Davd Zane Williams, who worked as a ranch hand in the Panhandle and now lives in Dallas, creates energy and movement in his paintings by applying thick strokes with the palette knife. "His subjects mostly are buildings, like a refinery or a grain elevator that are functioning and creating energy, and the way he applies his paint ... is bringing out the energy that these buildings would be creating," Kneese said.
And Monahans painter Shay McAnally, who uses the pseudonym "Pono," brings a new style to the gallery, Kneese said. "The imagery is very jarring — extremely bold and graphic," Kneese said. "I want to jar people, get them out of their comfort zone so they don't assume that I'm just focused on selling the pretty art."
A portion of sales at the opening reception will benefit Colorful Closets, a nonprofit organization that collects, organizes and distributes clothing for in-need students in Amarillo Independent School District.
Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and by appointment on Saturdays. Call 806-576-0063.
The following is a selection of the work on view:
Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and on Facebook.
