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Arts council presents 'Expressions in Color'


CHAMBERSBURG - “Expressions in Color: Paintings by Sasha Coleman Arnett and Marti Griffin Yeager" opens Friday, September 2, with a First Friday meet-the-artists reception from 5-7 p.m. at The Council for the Arts, 81 North Main Street, Chambersburg.

“Light, color, sky - as a natural light photographer by profession, I am constantly taking these three things into consideration when observing my surroundings," said Arnett, of Chambersburg, in a press release announcing the new show. “If you take a second and really 'see' the sky ... you realize there are so many colors all blended perfectly together. They create a mood, a feeling - some a bit brooding, some light and carefree. They create a vibrancy, an energy that I can't help but paint.”

Arnett, who has worked as a commissioned artist, illustrator and muralist for the Michigan Department of Agriculture, paints primarily in acrylic, but she also includes rock salt and alcohol paints in some of her work. “These have allowed me to manipulate the colors and textures even further,” she explained. “The alcohol paints create an intense wash of color, and the salt creates small textures, and from different perspectives, actual sparkle to the painting itself. I want to bring the sky to life - to bring it to the canvas!”

Yeager is a full-time artist living in Fayetteville. Her most frequent medium is oil, but she also works in acrylic, pastel, watercolor, and drawing media, and, as a member of Penn’s Woods Printmakers, with several printmaking techniques. “As a child, I spent an inordinate amount of time drawing, coloring, and painting,” she said. “My high school had no studio art, but in college I finally got the chance to take a painting class, and ever since then I’ve been engaged in a lifelong process of learning and growing as an artist.

“Because I don’t like to limit my options for artistic expression, my style varies widely,” Yeager said, “from fairly 'realistic' to completely abstract. My favorite subject is people, but I also love doing landscape, flowers, still life; no matter what the subject, the task is pretty much the same - try to bring together color, shape, values, to make a work that is visually pleasing, or interesting, or exciting; but ideally, I would like for my art to express something of the ineffable mystery and wonder of life.”

The show will be on view through October 28. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, or by appointment. For more information, call 717-264-6883 or visit www.councilforthearts.net.