We want to celebrate the natural beauty of our environment, and the interaction we have as human beings as part of nature with our surroundings. Appreciating, interacting and changing our environment is the inspiration for our work".
Here are four women celebrating the natural beauty of our environment, our surrounding and how they might affect us. Here are works by Lynn Zwern, Jennifer Polnaszek, Helen Green and Pat Molina and their interpretation of the Great Outdoors.
Helen Faythe Green
I love nature and have Inspirations from things I see every day. My mother, Jan Herring, was a well known painter and teacher. I studied under her for many years and have a degree in art. My studio is open by appointment and I have work at the Old Bakery & Emporium I also exhibit work with Waterloo Watercolor Group in Austin".
Helen Green works in acrylic, watercolor and mixed media and is inspired by a multitude of subjects including family and the fauna and flora.
Helen Faythe Green's painting is an expression of her love of color, line, and pattern. Her lifelong passions for her family, her art, and nature have informed and inspired her artistic creations. Helen currently lives in Austin, Texas.
Helen's website is http://www.helenfaythegreen.com/about.html
Pat Molina
It was the summer of 2019 and my Alaska travels brought sights of beautiful vistas softened and sometimes hindered by forest-fire smoke. Many of the paintings I have in this show are dedicated to that experience. Alaska was beautiful. The day I saw Denali at a distance, I was overwhelmed with the massiveness before me. Just a simple range of mountains, no big deal, except that it was so far away and still rising upwards. That was the day that the smoke had moved off only to return a couple of days later. It was also one of the hottest days that Alaska had ever witnessed, glaciers melting fast and flooding low-lying towns".
Pat works in watercolor on arches. She is inspired her travels to national parks and other wilderness areas. In 2015, Pat started teaching weekly watercolor classes at the Lamar Senior Community Center in Austin TX. In 2017, started teaching at the Riverside Rehab Center, Austin.
Art enriches the spirit and mind, and warms the soul. Painting in watercolor or any water media is a process of letting go; allowing water to seep into the fibers of the paper as it dries, then as the paint begins to settle".
More of Pat's art work is on her website https://www.artbypatmolina.com/
Jennifer Polnaszek
We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates… 'Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.' - Junichiro Tanizaki. My work is informed by the relationship between shadow and substance, shape and form, light and dark, value and hue. My primary focus is the human form, the outward expression of attitude and emotion, that magic thread that connects us one to another".
Particularly drawn to the human form and to documenting the human experience through her work, she is influenced by both a love of biological science and anthropology.
Jennifer Polnaszek’s art life began when she was a child, but it took a back seat to other academic and professional interests for many years. She came to Texas from rural Wisconsin where she worked in the medical profession as both a physician assistant and a registered nurse.
In addition to participating in numerous exhibitions in the Austin-San Antonio area, Polnaszek has received awards for oil painting at the Southwest School of Art and at the Round Rock Arts Imagine and BIG exhibitions at Texas State University. She has received awards for watercolor at the Coppini Academy of Fine Arts, TWS, and Waterloo Watercolor Society. She has been featured in the publication SPLASH 15.
More of Jennifer's art is on her website http://www.jenniferpolnaszek.com/
Lynn Zwern
I rely upon intuition to guide me through the many surprises encounterd while painting on Yupo. Sometimes I am able to create what I intended to paint. Many other times, I just paints with the “flow”. Presented here is the "Great Outdoors".
Lynn Zwern (lynnzwern.com) fell in love with the freedom of painting with watercolors on Yupo many years ago. Yupo is a unique alternative to traditional art papers. It's a synthetic paper made of polypropylene plastic that is tree-free and recyclable. The plastic is a slippery surface that makes it difficult to control the painting process. The looseness of the watercolors as they flow over the paper seems to give them a mind of their own. Lynn relies upon her intuition to guide her through the many surprises she encounters while painting on Yupo.
Painting in this loose and flowing style suits her personality. She lets the imperfections become a part of the process. The more you look at her paintings, the more you see. Lynn uses her background in Art Therapy to enrich the lives of those who are overlooked.
"I bring the gift of art to those seeking a new means of self expression and self esteem."
Giving back is important to. She shares her love of art as she teaches classes for the homeless, seniors, Alzheimer patients, and adults with special needs.
Lynn's art is on her website https://www.lynnzwern.com/index.php