Award-winning artist Luanne Stone has been selected as October’s featured artist! Luanne’s paintings are currently on exhibit in the NCA Gallery for the first time. She is from Gepp, Arkansas, but her earliest roots are in Chicago. Luanne and her husband left Chicago in 1989 in search of a more rural place to raise their daughter. When they discovered Arkansas around 30 years ago, they never looked back. With the move, Luanne became a farmer, which has been a wonderful life for her ever since.
During her college days at the University of Illinois, Luanne’s strong interest in art led her to become an art major. However, she didn’t want to be an art teacher, and making a living in the world of commercial art seemed too impractical, so she eventually left the University of Illinois for a smaller school where she learned to be a dental technician. She described this as the “perfect career” because she could use her art to create teeth. “It was the perfect mix of art and science and afforded me a terrific career for many years,” she said. “I owned my own dental lab. I think making teeth fulfilled my need to create something. And a realistic tooth created to fill a space in someone’s mouth can be a work of art.” Luanne eventually retired from her dental lab business and just worked on the farm. After her husband passed away, she took up painting again as a way to fill her empty time and deal with her grief. She joined a decorative painting club, where she made a lot of good friends and learned many useful techniques. In this club she also gained experience in many different media and styles, an experience that reignited her love for art and opened up new possibilities. She said, “I still love decorative painting; it has always been a lot of fun. But in decorative painting, you are always painting someone else’s designs, and I needed to go beyond that, so I started taking classes in watercolor- always my first love!” She has had classes with some greats, including: Tom Lynch, Tom Jones, Liam Quan Zhen, Brigit O’Conner, Carl Purcel, Michael Holter, Carlin Holman, and Kathie George. She also has studied with Richard Stephens and Marlene Gremillion, our local favorites. Luanne remarried and gained a son to raise along with her daughter but was able to keep painting and learning. Her new husband worked away from home a lot, and painting filled her life during this time. Luanne joined Mid-Southern Watercolorists (MSW), enrolling in several workshops and entering a few shows. She said “It has been such a thrill to get my Diamond Signature from MSW. I am so proud of that achievement and to have been in shows with so many great artists. If I lived closer to Little Rock, I would be much more involved in MSW.” She is most gratified when a painting sells because she knows someone appreciates her work enough to spend their hard-earned money on something she has produced. Luanne still loves to take classes and workshops and has taught her own classes on occasion. She invests a lot of her time in her three grandchildren now, but she knows a time will come when she will have more time for painting. Stop by the NCA Art Gallery to view Luanne’s work and perhaps purchase a piece!
You are invited to view the North Central Arkansas Art Gallery Exhibit!
The exhibit includes paintings in all mediums, photography, and three-dimensional art, such as bronze sculpture, pottery, stained glass, and fused glass. The art is available for purchase. Art Gallery hours are Tues. through Fri. from 9:00 a.m. -4:00 p.m., though the hours may be extended for special events or conferences. All art is available for purchase. The NCA Art Gallery is located at 110 Lost Creek Parkway in Fairfield Bay. Admission is free and open to the public.For more information about the Art Gallery, contact Conference Center Director Wilba Thompson (501- 884-4202, [email protected]) or NCA Art Coordinator Charlotte Rierson (501-884-6100, [email protected])