“Out of Town” at In-Town is the feature show for October. Jennie Kirkpatrick invites you to travel visually to some of the scenes and subjects that caught her eye while traveling. Meet the artist and enjoy the company of other artists at the opening reception Friday October 7, 5pm - 8pm at 26A Frazier Avenue.

A departure from the still life subjects of recent years, Jennie chose a personal challenge of landscapes in acrylic on canvas. Another favorite subject of longstanding has been genre’ scenes. People in their everyday activities became popular , particularly in France, when artists dignified the work of ordinary people in paint, a trend away from portraits of prominent people and religious or mythical subjects . Along the way the artist found a shepherd with his dog and sheep, a groundskeeper pruning roses and some agricultural landscapes.

‘Art has played a major role in my life from early childhood. In fact, an early memory of a cousin who played with my watercolors and got green in the yellow pan is still a running joke. “ Teaching, first in public schools and later on the University level was followed by a business of murals and wall finishes for a number of years. Returning to her roots in the fine arts, watercolor and acrylic paintings dominate. “I am enjoying the use of acrylic as I like to layer colors for a richness of texture and color. Even painting with a knife gives a painterly textural buildup of paint which allows the colors of lower layers to peek through. Acrylic dries much faster than oil and is more forgiving, so I can move fast and think slowly to change the composition when I feel it needs improvement. The more I learn, the more I realize there is to know .” This thirst to keep learning finds this artist in different workshops and thumbing through bookshelves of books. Some paintings in this series are done from watercolors painted on location in Italy, others from the midwest and some from short drives into the countryside nearer to home. See the show and try to pinpoint the locations.