Did you feel a tug, just now?

Better if we don't unravel it . . . 

IMAGE: Many thanks to The Earth Friendly Family, via QuotesGram, for this beautiful image!

Art Fair Delights: Phil Schmidt and Denny Dowdy

I recently found a couple of talented watercolorists at the 53rd Mid Winter Art Fair at the Ward Parkway Shopping Center in Kansas City, MO.

This year's Mid Winter Ward Parkway Art Fair was well-attended.

Phil Schmidt and Denny Dowdy both have been painting for several years, and neither is a stranger to Kansas City or this show. Both are masters of their demanding medium, and both have excellent websites where you can see much more of their work (see embedded links). 

Denny Dowdy's V-Highway Creek brilliantly demonstrates his command of the transparent watercolor medium.

Not surprisingly for watercolorists based in the Kansas City area, both men have been attracted to natural subjects. Dowdy seem more attuned to natural landscapes and river scenes. 

Same Creek-Different Place gives another virtuoso demonstration of Denny Dowdy's mastery of watercolor.

Schmidt is more drawn to wildlife (though natural beauty-spots form the background for most of his paintings).

Phil Schmidt captures a blue heron and its riverbank home, in his luminous painting Invasion of Privacy.

Schmidt's love of flying things extends beyond birds. He also has an entire collection of aviation subjects. 

Watch Your Six is a great example of Schmidt's aviation imagery, and also demonstrates his ability to compose dynamic action.

And you'll miss a treat if you don't also take a good look at Schmidt's nautical subjects. 

Phil Schmidt's flair for the dynamic surfaces with gusto in Hold on Tight.

Dowdy prefers subjects that move around less. In addition to his paintings of natural subjects, he also offers thoughtful images that turn relatively mundane architecture into objects of interest and beauty.

In Balconies, Dowdy uses rhythm and skill to portray a mundane subject in a pensive, lyrical way.

Asymmetrical balance and well-chosen details give Dowdy's Missouri Farmhouse an almost mystical feel.

As noted above, both painters have excellent websites with large galleries of images to explore. Both also exhibit their work in shows all over the Midwest. Please consult the calendars on their websites for more details.

IMAGES: The photo of the crowd and artists' displays at the 2016 Mid Winter Ward Parkway Art Fair is by Jan S. Gephardt (taken 2/14/16). Many thanks to the Watercolors by Denny Dowdy website for the photos of his paintings, and to the Phil Schmidt Watercolors website for the photos of his paintings.

Look Closely

I've always been fascinated with the very small, in nature. 

A somewhat bigger grid than mine was!

When I was in seventh grade, I created a miniature "dig" on one square foot of my back yard, using sewing pins and thread to create a one-inch grid, as I'd seen archaeologists and paleontologists do in books. 

As I recall, my excavation yielded some empty snail shells, rocks, broken toy bits, and that's about it--but it was a fun project for a summer afternoon (so sue me--I'm a nerd). 

Macro Moss: Photo by "Celine"

In high school I did a Science Fair project on moss, rocks, and wood as seen through a magnifying glass.  It didn't win any prizes, but it was visually interesting, and for me visually interesting is always a high value.

Anyone who's looked at my artwork probably is sitting there saying, "well, duh, Jan!"

My point in this post is that from time to time I plan to share images in this space that focus on the very small, and the beauty that can be found in looking closely at something. In that vein, I'll leave you with a photo of the starfish species Patiria pectinifera,by Alexander Semenov.

Alexander Semenov's cool starfish closeup . . . one of them, anyway.

Semenov's work was featured last February in a Smithsonian article.  If you like this, you may enjoy Semenov's website, too.

Photo Credits: Many thanks to Native American Net Roots for the image of the grid on the archaeological site, and for the moss image by "Celine" on the Stayton Daily Photo site. The Alexander Semenov photo of the starfish is from Smithsonian.