Published: March 22, 2009 11:43 am      

Art guild sends two

Local artists chosen to exhibit in Texas art show for second year

DUNCAN — Duncan artists Leigh Ann Vinson and Jolene Loyd Forbes were chosen to exhibit their art in last year’s Red River Valley International Juried Art Exhibition in Vernon, Texas.

They were so thrilled with their selection that they repeated it this year. Though the exhibition draws hundreds of submissions each year, only a few artists are chosen to be featured, so it’s an extra-special honor for them.

Forbes’ selections are “Santa Fe Light” and “White Flowers.” Vinson’s are “Glorious Larkspurs” and “Wait Up.”

The two women are not new to the art scene. They are both members of the Duncan Art Guild and they have been featured as the guild’s artist of the month in The Duncan Banner.

Forbes teaches a beginners art class each Monday evening, with four to six students each week. As a teacher, she draws on the knowledge she gained in art classes at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma at Chickasha.

Although she’s also busy selling real estate, she tries to make time each week to paint with Frankie Anthony of Ninnekah and Paige Barth of Chickasha. She and Vinson also get together to paint as often as their schedules will allow.

“My mentor is Kaye Franklin, and I just finished a workshop held in Duncan with her,” Forbes said. “In August, I went to Guatemala for two weeks with her to study and visit some of the sites there. I came back with some plein air paintings, one of which is hanging in 50 Penn Gallery,” she said.

She also has work on exhibit in galleries in Duncan, Marlow and Oklahoma City.

Vinson’s work was shown in the 2007 Murray State College art show, and at the “Prissy Ladies’” exhibit in 2007 at the Old Bank Gallery.

She enters several juried art shows each year, and will be featured in the Leslie Powell Gallery in Lawton in November.

She, too, has painted with Kaye Franklin. Her trip with Franklin was to Canyon De Chelly, Ariz. She has also taken workshops with Franklin, Leonard Wren and Gay Faulkenberry.

“My mentors are Marty Childers and B.J. Archer,” Vinson said.

This is the eighth exhibition to be held at the Red River Valley Museum. Hollis Howard, of Sterling, will be the awards judge for this year’s show. Howard holds a master of fine arts degree and has been an art instructor at USAO. His work has been accepted in several prominent national juried art shows, including the prestigious American Watercolor Society Show in New York.

The exhibition will open May 1, and will be on display through June 19. The Red River Valley Museum promotes and supports excellence and diversity in arts education.

The museum is free and open to the public from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.