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Kenan exhibit features Wheatfield artist

by jmaloni
Fri, Apr 13th 2012 02:20 pm

The Kenan Center in Lockport will host an exhibit featuring Wheatfield resident Jody Ziehm, along with fellow watercolor painter Kathleen Giles.

The show, "Two Visions: Giles & Ziehm," opens April 15 with a free public reception from 2 to 5 p.m., and will run through May 13 at the Kenan Center House Gallery, 433 Locust St.

Ziehm is a watercolor artist whose vision of her surroundings is seen through the pigment in her palette. Vivid color is hallmark of her work. Her decision to paint and exhibit in outdoor festivals was the catalyst of her career.

After she took home a ribbon in her first show she was "hooked." Since then she has traveled across New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida, winning awards.

Ziehm teaches weekly classes at Partners In Art in North Tonawanda, and at the Amherst Museum. She has been invited to demonstrate and teach workshops for many art associations. Ziehm found, through teaching, she has learned so much about her own painting.

"Great things happen when you are surrounded by people with a common love ... watercolors," she said.

Basically self-taught, Ziehm believes experimentation is vital to the development of "your style."

Kathleen Giles, a Gasport resident, has been painting for 21 years. She paints with transparent watercolor in a style she calls "romantic realism." Her work is defined by strong values that result from subjects bathed in light and the intricacies of the color-filled shadows. Her ability to successfully depict a wide variety of subjects from portraits and pub scenes to landscapes sets her work apart.

Giles has won numerous awards including a Best of Show at the Lewiston Art Festival. Giles has been teaching watercolor to adults in Lockport for 17 years.

"My art has become such a part of my life that there is no longer a distinction between the beginning and the end of the creative process. Seeing shape and noticing value and color subtleties is constant for me," she said.

For more information, call 433-2617 or visit www.kenancenter.org.

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