NEBRASKA NEAR AND FAR

LANDSCAPE AND OILE PAINTER BEN DARLING AND COLORED PENCIL ARTIST ANN DARLING

SEP 19 - OCT 28

Bio: Ann Darling is a lifelong resident of Sidney NE. During her career as an art teacher she has pursued drawing in colored pencils. Her choice of subjects have focused on the smaller aspects of the sights of the high plains. Her work focuses on the textures and coloristic possibilities of flora and the geological and anthropologic forms that present themselves across the high plains.

Bio: Ben Darling is a true son of the Great Plains. Born in Kansas and raised in Iowa and Nebraska, few artists know the length and breathe of Nebraska as well as he for he has painted landscapes in every region of the state and served numerous artist-in-residence stints in schools and communities throughout the state through the Nebraska Arts Council.

The Darlings currently live and create these and other images of the great plains from their home in Sidney Nebraska.

Ben Darling Artist Statement:  Recently I’ve been more focused on the art elements as they express themselves in vistas of the great plains, from the Missouri River valley to the Bighorn Mountains. Color and texture, rhythm and repetition as they play across the spaces of the plains are the driving interests of the paintings presented. Coupled with the sense of a home landscape, I hope these paintings provide the viewer an emotional as well as intellectual experience.

Ann Darling Artist Statement: My most recent work has been focused on the colors and textures I find in the close up inspection of the trees, plants and rock formations we find in our outdoor hikes. I enjoy exploring different techniques and color combinations in colored pencil to portray interesting shapes and textures that are found in a viewing space just a few feet or inches from my camera. While I find some colors in nature compelling just as they are, I have also experimented with how layers of color blend to depict the play of light on my subjects. When choosing a subject it is often not the obvious "pretty" things I see but the seeds, husks, bark, and rock surfaces that provide the most challenge for me to draw.