“Nature’s Rhythms” with Sid Freeman and Wanda Wood

The Jerome Artists’ Cooperative Gallery is pleased to present member-artists Sid Freeman and Wanda Wood in their featured artists show currently on view at the Jerome Co-op.

With her masterful use of calligraphy and watercolor, Sid Freeman executes the most engaging works on watercolor paper stretched on canvas stretchers. These complex works of art are inspiring and intriguing to any visitor standing in front of her original work in person. Sid’s interest lies in researching subject matter and color. She points out that three of her paintings in the show are based on limited color palettes where she used complementary colors only. This makes for an unusual range of color and value in the finished work.

As Sid describes the development of her art into its current state of combining calligraphy and watercolor, she states, “I have been doing calligraphy since 1981, which, in short, means ‘lettering by hand.’ All my works in this show are calligraphy, but where the ‘words are doing their meaning.’ This is a form of poetry called, ‘Concrete Poetry,’ something that I did not know I was doing until a friend shared a book with me of the same name. This led me to an internet search for more information on Concrete Poetry, but from the scant information I could find, it turns out that those who are doing it now are either using type (instead of calligraphy,) or are grade school students learning it as a form of painting! What I love about Concrete Poetry is that it does not have to be translated: in that sense, ‘it is what it is, in concrete.’ It is visual as well as verbal. My thought is that when the work is hand painted, lettered and colored as I do it, it is something more, so I refer to my work as ‘Image Poetry,’ for myself, and for the grade school kids who are learning!”

Wanda Wood is a master of many trades. Her primary focus and forms of painting throughout her career have been oil and pastel. With a yearning for change, basketry of many forms has made its way into her repertoire of experiences along with references to woven textiles. Wanda’s landscapes of Arizona and the West, as well as her depictions of locations in Europe, are true to life in subject, coloring, and the feelings representing the various locations. Granted, she has visited all these places, and she creates her works both from memory and from life. “After the Sunflowers” is an oil painting done after returning from a trip to France.

The Jerome Artists’ Cooperative Gallery is open daily, except Tuesdays, from 10 am to 6 pm. The show runs through July 28^th. The Jerome Co-op is located on the ground level of the old Hotel Jerome at 502 Main Street in Jerome.

928-639-4276   www.jeromecoop.com   info@jeromecoop.com 

Currently accepting artists applications for membership.