Please join us Thursday, March 14th from 5-7pm as Caswell Council for the Arts presents a collection of landscapes by artists Jim Jennings and Brenda Brokaw..
Please come and meet Jim and Brenda and immerse yourself in their artwork.. Light refreshments will be served. All are invited to join us. We hope to see you there!
Brenda Brokaw -
Born in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Brenda’s life as an “artist” began when quite young.
“I was always aware of color, and remember at age 4, crying because my parents chose a floor covering that matched their room, but clashed with mine!”
Having already begun a professional career in another field, Brenda’s formal art education began in 1985 with a drawing and watercolor class at The Torpedo Factory Studios while pursuing an interior design degree.
Brenda explains the desire to groom her artistic abilities: “Having gone to many museums and studying paintings, especially the Impressionists, I wanted to paint, but knew I couldn’t draw! So, in 2012, I allayed my fear of failing and enrolled in a class with Robert Marsh. I have never stopped!!! “
"Simply put, I paint because of color! I find it a challenge to try to capture the beauty of God’s glorious creation in its myriad of colors, forever changing in the elusiveness of light and shadow. It is this light and shadow that provide depth and interest to a work of art. For me, painting is akin to music, in that the harmony and pattern of color and light are like notes, and the spaces between those notes, that create the symphony!"
Jim Jennings - Jim was raised in Danville, Virginia where as a seven year old he would sit on his grandparents’ back porch in Halifax County carefully drawing the images of farmhouses and farm scenery imprinted on the plastic coated table cloth. Drawing and sketching houses and cars is something that stuck with Jim throughout school and college.
In 1969 upon his return from Vietnam, he decided to try his hand at oil painting; other than a few tries at “paint by numbers” in earlier years, he had never painted or had any training in art or painting. His very first 1969 painting earned him a yellow ribbon during Danville’s Festival in the Park painting competition in the spring of 1970.
His painting pursuits “took a back seat” to a career that spanned 27 years. His interest in painting and the love of creating images of nature and landscapes was revived in late 2014. And in January 2015 he began painting with a group of senior painters as they audited the art classes instructed by Professor Robert Marsh at Averett University
Jim’s style has predominantly been painting in a photorealistic manner; recently, he has strayed from that style a few times in order to “loosen up” and offer a more lighthearted product.
Jim and Brenda's exhibition will remain on display in the gallery until April 11, 2019. Be sure to stop in during our regular hours (Tues - Fri. 10am - 2pm) to view the show.