MARCIA EVANS ON LINCOLN

When I dropped in at Marcia Evans Art Consulting Gallery, 8 East Lincoln, to see the current exhibit, I blinked with pleasure at the large abstracts glowing on the walls. These acrylic paintings by BJR, BRIAN REAUME, are vivacious yet sedate, and their color intensity is warm, not hot! --- Here are beautiful, if not provocative, contemporary paintings.

The artist employs, if loosely, a range-of-colors-and-geometric aesthetic which is "Now" yet "Classic." BJR is a self taught emerging artist with a Masters in literature, and the titles of his paintings describe a mood, an inner journey:

• My idea begins with a story. . .
• Brand New Wish. . .
• This space was designed around me. . .
• I was just going to. . .
  

BJR is quite a facile painter; he knows about hues and layers. He knows how to make colors and shapes dance! His no nonsense abstracts reveal a lively spirit, and his work is decorative in the best sense of the word. His large paintings are perfect for various offices and corporate sites and for many gracious living spaces.

DAWSON KELLOGG, Professor of Art at CCAD, is the glass half of this show, GLASS & CANVAS. Kellogg's tall vessels, at least the ones at "Marcia's," average around 18 inches tall and have a classic urn-like shape. Of translucent glass, they usually emphasize one radiant color, one clear glass tone, so to speak, which has been augmented by compatible hues, chromatic blurrs and shapes, within. Deep blue, for example, enhanced by various blue and purple swirls within. Kellogg, like Reaume, is a Now-yet-Classic master.

The opening reception for Glass & Canvas included live jazz and hors d'euvres, and was quite well attended. THE EXHIBIT CLOSES SEPTEMBER 30.

Next up at Marcia Evans will likely be a SALON show with works which may or may not include paintings by one of Marcia Evans' most sought after painters, JOHN DONNELLY, Professor of Art at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Donnelly's zany and flowing interpetations of everyone and everything --- from Marilyn Monroe to Mona Lisa to a rooster crossing the road --- I think I saw that --- present the hallmarks of a strong and practiced painter!

LINDA WESNER's* colored pencil renderings of rural Ohio have won top national awards. In an inimitable understated (Wesnerian) way, they're breathtaking!

Donnelly and Wesner are but two of the many fine artists who have been exhibited by Marcia Evans. Marcia Evans moved from Granville to her current site, 8 East Lincoln almost two years ago. She has been working successfully as an art consultant for twenty years. She has a diamond cutter's eye for choosing art and art objects from the Mid West and nationwide. She and her gallery can be summed up in a few words. --- New York sophistication with an (Ohion's) - hard-cider-zing!

CAROL PHILLIPS WITT lives in Granville, Ohio, and her smallish, sun-toned, nature-informed "plates and vessels of pressed clay" are to die for.

MARCIA EVANS is open 11-5 Tuesday-Saturday and by appointment. 614-298-8847.

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*note: Linda Wesner's colored pencil renderings will be on exhibit at Ohio Wesleyan's Richard M Ross Art Museum in Delaware, Ohio, thru September 21st.