Fine Line’s Third Exhibit to Open

Watercolor by Jessica Keller Lilegren.

Fine Line Designs Gallery has announced its third exhibit of the 2009 season, which will run from Thursday, July 9 through Tuesday, August 4. The featured artists for Exhibit III include pastel artist Diane Arenberg, watercolorist Jessica Keller Liljegren, oil painter Deb Mortl, and glass artist Joshua Rodine. The public will have a chance to meet the artists at the opening reception for the show, which will take place Thursday, July 9 from 4 – 8 pm.

Diane Arenberg first picked up pastels while visiting Amsterdam in 1990 – and it took her almost two years before she had the courage to actually use them. Once a few sticks were peeled and broken, however, she was off and running. She loved the immediacy of making marks with the pastels and the vibrancy of the colors. Arenberg’s work for the Fine Line show represents the three inspiring places she’s traveled to in the past year – Door County, Northern New Mexico, and the Italian region of Tuscany.

Oil painting by Deb Mortl.

Taking her inspiration from what she calls “the chugging, groudhog-day-ness of daily life,” Jessica Keller Liljegren creates watercolors out of the wonders of unplanned events. A lone chair is often in the forefront of her paintings, representing a feeling of being present – and birds are also used as symbols of the “creative epiphanies that tug at my sleeve.” Liljegren says, “The motifs that often show up in my paintings come from something as simple as sewing dresses for my daughters or as intense as dealing with a friend’s tragedy.”

Deb Mortl’s oil paintings are inspired by many things – but mostly, it’s the view from her studio. “The color palette of the prairie changes daily, and the way the light interacts with the layers and textures never gets boring,” she says. She also loves how the prairie and farm environments divide into small panels of “design” – whether the divisions come from a line of trees, plantings of crops, or even a telephone pole.

Glasswork by Joshua Rodine.

Joshua Rodine uses glass as his medium because he “loves the pureness of it – the translucency, the colors, and the way it can be worked with fire and gravity. It’s a medium with endless possibilities.” Inspired by his surroundings in his home in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, Rodine is fascinated by the ancient forests with all of their flora and fauna, and finds that the microscopic patterns, rhythms, cycles, and colors that exist in these things often make their way into his work.

Fine Line Designs Gallery, located on Highway 42 in North Ephraim, is open daily from 10 am – 6 pm and on Sundays from 10 am – 5 pm. For more information call 920.854.4343 or visit http://www.finelinedesignsgallery.com.