Glenda Goertzen
Prince Albert Daily Herald
Kathleen Dvorak’s A Walk Through the Countryside is the featured exhibit in the Grace Campbell Gallery, located at the John M. Cuelenaere Public Library.
The exhibit opened Aug. 27 with more than 50 acrylic paintings of landscapes, rural scenes, birds, and animals on display.
“I mainly just did it for fun and to stretch myself a little bit and to share it with everybody, that’s all,” was the artist’s humble explanation for her first public show.
Dvorak and her husband Michael, who provided the framing for her works, are retired and live near Spruce Home north of Prince Albert. They spend much of their time exploring the countryside that provided the inspiration for Dvorak’s works.
Dvorak first developed an interest in painting by watching art shows on PBS. She eventually joined an online art school to increase her skill. Now, 15 years after her first exposure to art shows on public television, she is ready to enjoy her own public show.
Dvorak said the piece she enjoyed working on the most in this exhibit was Elsa, which features her granddaughter. Above it hangs Eight Gables, a piece she admits challenged her skill with perspective when she tackled the gables of the abandoned house.
“That was inspired by the barn we used to have on our homestead,” she said, pointing out her largest work to date, Dad’s Barn. “It’s changed a bit, but that’s what it started out as. I’m working on an ocean with a boardwalk going out which, again, is challenging with the perspective, so it’s fun, to do something different.”
While she enjoys the challenge of painting figures and buildings, most of her pieces feature birds, butterflies, dragonflies, wildlife, landscapes and a variety of Saskatchewan skies.
“I do a lot of birdwatching and so birds are kind of my soft spot, but it’s all mostly just scenes around home, things I’ve seen around home. I take pictures of stuff and then work from there,” she said.
Dvorak makes use of apps where communities of “citizen scientists” help her identify the flora and fauna in her photos.
While she has tried sketching and watercolour, her preferred medium has always been acrylic. Her style is marked by delicate lines and sharply defined foreground figures. Her backgrounds range from gentle pastel tones to dramatic storm clouds.
Anyone who would like to purchase one of Dvorak’s works can contact her at 306-941-0130 or 306-922-5085.
“I do have them for sale. I just did [the exhibit], though, to just put myself out there and join the art community rather than just be isolated, doing it by myself,” she said.
The exhibit runs until Sept. 24 in the Grace Campbell Gallery.
