The June 30 Marion Art Center exhibit opening of “Coastal Vision X 2” was as glorious as a perfect summer day. Works of art by two local artists, Sarah Brown and Heide Hallemeier, inspired by the summer season and coastal images, were paired with floral arrangements, created by the Marion Garden Group, that were breathtaking to behold.
While it was a bit difficult to maneuver around the intimate gallery spaces due to the overwhelming turnout for the opening, clearly those in attendance felt it was triumphant.
Sarah Brown has been creating art since she was old enough to hold a crayon, and over the decades that have since passed, she has produced hundreds of paintings as well as been a teacher of the craft to many others.
“I’ve been painting for over fifty years,” Brown said. Beginning first with watercolors, she now works in pastels that she finds “exciting” while being a “very forgiving” medium, she explained.
Pastels, Brown said, are raw pigments suspended in a neutral medium. The resulting rich colors of the pastel solids are vibrant while also allowing the artist to apply the paint thickly, giving the finished works depth. Her themes of boats racing across the water in full sail, landscapes, and even farm animals are all drawn from the local area where Brown has lived and worked for many years.
Brown studied at DePauw University in Indiana and then spent two years in France at the Fontainebleau. She’ll resume art classes in her Marion studio this year.
Heide Hallemeier loves watercolors, saying, “It excites me to see where the water goes. It is difficult to direct water, but seeing the color float on the water and how the light plays on it … it’s thrilling…. There are happy accidents.”
Hallemeier was born in Germany but has lived in this area for years. “I love living here,” she exclaimed. Her enthusiasm is reflected in her works that represent her vision of sailing, water in movement, and coastal scenes.
She was educated at the Art Academies in Vienna, Austria and she worked as a graphic designer in Germany. “My parents encouraged me to study graphic arts,” Hallemeier shared. “They wanted me to have something I could work at to support myself.” Now she paints for the joy of it. Hallemeier lives in South Dartmouth.
While the themes the two artists shared were similar, the finished works demonstrated their unique styles and paint choices. While pastels gave Brown’s works contours where light can move across the surface shading the images, Hallemeier’s watercolors capture light in the fluidity of the paint itself. Needless to say, both mediums produce amazing results when executed by masters.
And speaking of masters, the floral arrangements accompanying the paintings were equal to the task.
Again, this year the Marion Garden Group members arranged flowers in new and truly fanciful ways, creating not only a complement to the works of art on the gallery walls but creating art itself.
One of the more imaginative arrangements was done by Ashley Briggs. Briggs used flowers to depict a painting on canvas with a painter’s pallet and brushes – truly inventive.
Also providing floral interpretations were pieces created by Terry Aufrane and Bronwen Cunningham, Suzie Kokkins, Judy Hagan, Michelle Russell, Kitsie Howard, Connie Dolan, Diane Kelly, Bobby Faller, Kym Lee, Lynda D’Amico, and Tommie Desmond. Desmond said that the majority of the flowers came from the arrangers’ own gardens.
“Coastal Visions X 2” will be on view at the Marion Art Center until July 29.
By Marilou Newell
