The Art Guild at Fairfield Glade announces the March 1st opening of its first solo-artist exhibition to be held at the Plateau Creative Arts Center, 451 Lakeview Drive, Fairfield Glade, TN.  The show features the work of Pleasant Hill figure artist Herbie Naumann.  Her theme of “Life is a Carousel” is reflected in each of the forty or so pieces of the series.

 A master at endowing her figures with liveliness, she combines wit and wisdom in an amusing concept of the carousel as a metaphor for human experience.  The original idea focused on traditional carousel mounts — both horses and menagerie animals. However, her imagination could not be bound and she soon expanded her artistic sensibility to welcome all creatures, each in turn proclaiming — You pay your money, you pick your mount, you take your ride.  Life is a carousel.  The drawings may be viewed purely as fun and whimsy — or as a tantalizing temptation to interpret the why of each combination.

Naumann has resided in Tennessee for over seven years.  Previously, as Adjunct Professor of Art, North Central College, Naperville IL, she taught both figure and beginning drawing.  She was a founding member of, and participant in, eight exhibitions with the unique group know as The Four Drawers.  She has garnered awards in numerous juried, group and local art league shows.  She lived in Japan for a number of years, where she coached a women’s college art club in the north of the island nation and taught a drawing workshop in the southern region for three years.  Overall, she has had five one-person exhibitions in Japan and thirteen solo shows in Illinois and Tennessee.

Naumann speaks of her work as drawings.  Many of them are in the medium of pastel and might be considered pastel paintings.  However, she explains her technique is that of drawing.  The color, often brilliant, is routinely used directly as the drawing medium.  She also works in ink and in mixed media.  Essentially self taught, her major artist mentors have been Toulouse Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Egon Schiele, and Horst Janssen.

Several appearances by the artist will grace the exhibition. A meet-the-artist reception will be held on Sunday, March 15, at 3:00pm which will begin with a short Gallery Talk by the artist on the creation process of this series.  The reception, with light refreshments, continues until 5:00pm.

On Friday, March 13, at 10:00am Naumann will present a lecture entitled Figure Drawing Techniques.  This 2-hour plus session features an extensive slide presentation of her drawings which she uses to illustrate methods in the process of drawing the human form. The lecture session will touch on set up, media, and tools for accuracy (measuring, foreshortening, and awareness of negative shapes). Interspersed in the lesson are compositional hints on employing principles of design (especially those of repetition and contrast), value as a means to depth, and the tricks of overlap, broken lines and open composition. Pre-registration with fee ($10.00 for the public, $8:00 for Art Guild members) is required. 

The exhibition of “Life is a Carousel” opens Sunday, March 1, and will hang through Thursday, March 26, at the Plateau Creative Arts Center, located at 1451 Lakeview Drive, Fairfield Glade, TN. The gallery is open Monday thru Friday from 10am until 2pm and Saturday and Sunday from 1 pm until 4 pm.  The public is invited to participate in these opportunities, any of which offer exciting and challenging art experiences. 

For more information on registration and fees for the lecture, please contact the Plateau Creative Arts Center at 931-707-7249.  To learn more about the Art Guild at Fairfield Glade, please visit the website at http://www.artguildfairglade.net. The Art Guild at Fairfield Glade is a not-for-profit 501(c) (3) organization and is an equal opportunity provider.