Visual Arts Gallery to feature miniature nocturnal watercolors by Arthur Barnes

Release Date: 8/24/2006. Expired: 10/14/2006

Miniature nocturnal watercolors by Arthur Barnes will be displayed in the Visual Arts Gallery of The Renaissance Center in Dickson Sept. 1-Oct. 14.

An opening reception will be 6-7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 1. The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public.

An upstate New York native, Barnes has had little formal training. He studied art under artist/teacher Juanita Greene Parks for a year in 1982.

“The fundamentals I learned under her helped me to better grasp all that I had learned on my own up to that point,” Barnes said.

Parks had studied under several famous artists including Reginald Marsh and Robert Brackman. Brackman was perhaps the last living artist to have studied under Robert Henri, the leader of the Ashcan School. So Barnes considers himself a fourth-generation Henri student.

“Every artist is always a student. Every artist, I believe, is largely self-taught,” Barnes said. “They just use different tools to learn. The tools used may be schools, teachers, books, museums, art exhibits, other artists and the experience of creating itself. My teacher used to say, ‘You learn to draw... by drawing.’”

Barnes’ unique use of glowing light sources within his nocturnal watercolor paintings creates a signature look for his pieces. On display in this exhibit will be current works as well as paintings from his past “nocturnes” series.

“Half of our lives are spent in the absence of daylight. For the most part the beauty and wonder of night goes by unnoticed and unappreciated,” he said. “Often, the darkness is written off as black or gray and uninteresting. It’s my hope that my art can help people to see... to see that the night is in fact a world of color and beauty. Many of the scenes that I have created art from would make boring pictures in the daylight. It is the magic of the night, with all its mysterious light and shadows, that gives the subjects their enchantment.”

To view works by artist Arthur Barnes, visit www.arthurbarnes.com.

For more information on Barnes’ exhibit of nocturnal watercolor paintings, call (615)740-5600.

The Renaissance Center is a fine arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Visual Arts Gallery page for more about the gallery.

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