Water + COLOR Exhibit by Cindy Turner at The Artist Within

The Artist Within will feature the watercolors of Cindy Turner during September. There will be an opening reception First Thursday September 4th from 5-8pm. Her show will remain up through Sept. 27, 2008.

People often ask the rhetorical question....if you were to suddenly go blind, what would you miss most? Without any hesitation, Cindy Turner would answer that after the faces of her family, it would be color and its many shades, hues and intensities.

As an art major at BSU in the 1970's, she took a required Color class and it changed her way of looking at color forever. Until then, she had never really given much thought to color. She took it for granted like many other people do. This artist never knew to look beyond the crayon box to see that shadows are rarely ever just plain black.

Suddenly she noticed that a brick house under an orange tinted streetlight isn't brick red at all, but instead, it is a really neat shade of purple. Cindy says, "We are taught as children that black is black and then wonder at the many cool and warm shades of black at the paint store!"

She has taken this love of color and paired it with her beginning attempts at watercolor to create her first one woman show that is aptly titled Water + COLOR. Cindy goes on to say, "I have always loved watercolor paintings, but until I started doing paintings of my own, I never knew that I could pair my love and my bold use of color with a medium that is usually handled in a more delicate way. I love the results and hope that those who see my paintings will love them too!"

Cindy earned a BS degree in Visual Communications from Ball State University in 1979, but has spent much of her adult life working for University Libraries at Ball State. A Delaware County native, she has lived here most of my life. She did not dabble in the local art world until recently, but now that she has, she's hooked!

Cindy admits that she has always loved watercolor paintings and that she has purchased many books trying to teach herself to paint...with no success. According to Cindy, she is like many others who have tried and failed, always ending up with a very wet piece of paper with lots of runny brownish paint on it. In 2004 her husband gave her watercolor lessons for Christmas and in January of 2005, she took her first watercolor painting class from Brian Gordy. She took her second class with him that spring and would still be taking classes with him if he were still teaching. Cindy is quick to point out, "Brian is a wonderful watercolorist and a wonderful teacher and I feel very lucky to have learned what I have from him."

Brian Gordy encouraged Cindy and the others in the class to show their work and encouraged them to enter competitions.

Cindy has done this from the very beginning and considers it to have been a truly growing experience for her. Her paintings have been exhibited locally at Gordy's Fine Art Framing and at Minnetrista where she recently won an Award of Merit and the People's Choice Award. Cindy has also shown work at the Indiana State Fair. Originally she entered the non-professioanl division, but now has work in the professional category.

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