Local students have once again joined top young artists from across the Natural State for inclusion in the "Young Arkansas Artists" exhibition.
Annually, the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock stages an exhibit to celebrate these artists, who are elementary and secondary school students. A selection of their work also tours across the state for display at other venues, including Texarkana's Regional Arts Center. Texarkana students are regularly included.
And two budding young Texarkana artists, Milaha Walton and Amy Kolar, now have beautiful still lifes displayed for the touring exhibit, which is now up in the ArtsSmart Lower Gallery at the Texarkana Arts and Humanities Council's RAC until Dec. 21.
Milaha, who was in fifth grade at the time her work was chosen, is represented by the mixed media "Shades of Blue," an Honorable Mention winner for her grade. Amy, a sixth-grader when her work was selected, is represented by the mixed media work "Picnic at Grandma's." Both students studied under local art instructor Jeannie Knod Edwards while making these works.
Milaha has only been an artist for a year, but her mother, Renettia Keel, will proudly show the ribbons she's already won for her art, including for the TRAHC Juried Student Exhibition, Four States Fair and Midsummer Art Show in Ashdown.
Her "Shades of Blue" shows great skill in something mentioned in the title-namely, shading. Both artists depicted a scene with tea kettles and teapots on a table with a tablecloth and background.
"I was trying to make it look more detailed so I put the black glue around the edges and then to make the shadow, I put the white pastel and then put light pastel to make the shadow. And I put black pastel on one side. I was trying to make it look like it's a grandma's table," Milaha said.
Milaha worked on shades of green and blue, too, also making a black pastel shadow. Squiggly lines added texture for the tablecloth. She took exacting care to get the glistening right on the handles. There's a definite 3-D effect she creates.
Dr. Becky Black, TRAHC's visual arts and community programs coordinator, says of their art, "It's phenomenal. Both of these young artists are well beyond their years. Their technique is amazing. Their use of color, complementary colors and this monochromatic, is just amazing." She's impressed.
"And I'm very proud to display them," Black said.
Typically, Milaha enjoys drawing objects and faces. "I like colorful things. I love to draw. I don't just like doing pastels. I like to paint and do other things. I like unique things and I love colors," Milaha said.
Her teacher taught her to embrace mistakes. "I learned that you can make your mistakes into better things," Milaha said, pointing to an area where she "messed up" a bit. But it looks like steam coming from the kettle, so it works.
She's happy to be included in this exhibit. "I'm very proud of her. It runs in our genes," said her mother.
Amy, who now studies with Georgia Hubnik at 1894 Gallery, said Edwards encouraged her to pick something from a box to draw. Amy discovered flowers that reminded her of the ones growing in her grandmother's garden.
She figured out a good way to get the round shapes right, and she also figured out how to make the tablecloth look real, which it does. "I worked on that for a long time," Amy said. She used blue at the edges of objects to make them stand out. She worked with pastels and glue.
Her color scheme? "Because I like bright colors, so I decided that I would make them really bright colors so it would stand off on the background," Amy said. That background is a mix of aqua and charcoal. As for mediums, pastels are where it's at for her.
"They're easy to use, and I like how they're always really bright colors," Amy said. She also likes acrylic paints and depicting flowers, working from photographs. She, too, is a relatively young artist, studying it for about two-and-a-half years.
Said her mother, Rachel Kolar, "She's always loved art, though." When Amy was little she always wanted to work with her colors and paper. "She was the easiest kid because that is what she wanted to do." And the mixed media work in the show, that was one of the first she made while studying with Edwards, her mother said.
"I'm really happy. If you'd asked me two years ago, I wouldn't think this would happen," Amy said. Although she's modest, her work's also been shown elsewhere at the Four States Fair, Pioneer Days and at the Cossatot Arts and Crafts Association art show in King, Ark.
To see these talented young Texarkana artists' work, visit the Regional Arts Center.
(On the Net: TRAHC.org.)