Art guild members express themselves in exhibit

Detail is important to Ann McCutchen and Richard Smith. McCutchen, wearing a crisp, white button-down shirt and jeans, her fuchsia lipstick just so, sits beside Smith at the Kennedy-

Douglass Center for the Arts. Smith's Florida baseball cap bears a purple and yellow insignia.

The two artists take very different approaches to painting with a common goal: good art.

Both are hanging their paintings for the Shoals Artists Guild's annual show, "Art Expressions." The exhibit will be on display through Oct. 27.

The guild counts an eclectic group of members: many retirees, single parents, recent college grads and some who travel two hours to attend meetings.

"It can be hard for working people to make a weekday meeting, but being a part of the Guild would be well worth the effort," said Mary Nicely, program coordinator at

Kennedy-Douglass.

McCutchen, chairman of the show and Smith, the guild's president, have painted into their retirements.

Their styles differ as do their artistic journeys.

McCutchen almost mistook her talent for a reprimand when she was a girl. She got called out of class to the principal's office in elementary school to help with a mural in the lunchroom. Years later she's still painting, though she's moved beyond cinder block walls as her canvas.

She majored in art at Baylor University in Texas and worked in commercial art for years before becoming a mother.

Smith grew up in Iowa and was a syndicated cartoonist for Universal Press for seven years.

In caring for his wife, Smith has less time to paint because he recently took over her household chores. When he told a group of women from the guild that chores took away much of his time, "we all just looked at him and said 'so?' " McCutchen said, laughing.

"Join the club," Smith said,

playfully.

Painting is natural for both, in more than one way.

"It's in our blood," McCutchen said, over the hammering that filled the air of the normally quite art center.

"We have to paint and being around other people who love to paint keeps you motivated. You just get excited about it."

Nature often serves as the subject for she and Smith, but in versions as different as a leaf from a petal.

Her oil paintings often feature still lifes and landscapes - white-pink lotuses grow from the corner of "Lotus at Philbrook," inspired by a visit to the gardens of Tulsa's Philbrook Museum of Art. Smith's watercolors conjure voluminous, but delicate turquoise, purple and indigo clouds on a sea filled with sailboats in "The Beach."

Mastering clouds was the subject of a recent guild meeting.

"We have topics on everything from about how to look at the tube of paint and understand what all these little things on the tube mean, to how to photograph your work and how to get better picture to paint from," McCutchen said.

"We usually have a demonstration and teach a little something," Smith said. "We probably have more outside (the guild) people coming to talk."

Art fans can view the fruits of those 69 entries, from about 30 artists, through Oct. 27.

"The works are for sale and are very affordable," Nicely said. "People who enjoy viewing art and those wanting to add to their collection will not be disappointed."

Submissions had to be new, and not products from workshops. There's a surplus of pastel works, likely inspired by workshops from Georgia artist Margaret Dyer and Florence's Elaine Augustine.

But not all guild members are skilled with a brush.

"We have a lot of members who don't paint, who just love to promote art," McCutchen said.

She and Smith enjoy doing both.

Jennifer Crossley can be reached at 740-5743 or jennifer.crossley@timesdaily.com.