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Columbus, Ohio USA
Art: Elizabeth Ann James, Columnist
email eannjames@gmail.com
May 2008

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Studios on High
An exciting art blend

Times Square #4, by Ryan Orewiler, 31 x 24, oil on canvas.

Seventeen artists currently exhibit and sell their art at Studios on High, 684 N. High St. Some move away and new ones arrive, but a core of artists remain, and their works are constantly on exhibit. If you drop in, one of them will greet you, and one or two will likely be happily at work on site.

Judy Hoberg’s critters are, possibly, the most popular pop art creations in Columbus! Hoberg is a highly skilled ceramicist and sculptor. She has the gift of making outdoor creatures that are super-lovable, funny, and realistic. Her fired clay critters – for indoors and out – are usually big enough to see from the kitchen window, yet small enough to peer over a garden bench. Their eyes are buttony, their tails are curvy. The goofy “stacked” raccoons are a hit and so are the new hedgehogs. Both new critters are fired brown clayish in color. Thus, they appear, well, real, yet imaginative.

Judy says, “I’d never seen a hedgehog until I went to England and Spain, and they’re a riot. You see them at the side of the road all the time. They’re big enough to see and not big enough to be a nuisance.”

Marty Husted is new to Studios, but not new to the Columbus art scene. Her illustrations for children’s books are a delight. You can see them online. Her mixed media collages consist of fanciful landscapes – lanes, trees, streams, and magical houses – that dance in the bright hues of her own patterns. Husted is an imaginative artist, and she seems to do collage the real way, by cutting up her own paintings and patterns. The collages resemble excellent and charming paintings, because in a way they are!

Naichuan Peng’s watercolors on rice paper are delicate, soft, and large, and they include a knock-out punch. The artist knows how to use red, be it on cardinal feathers or a calligraphic dab or beautiful red flowers. She knows how to paint in layers, in washes, on rice paper, and I certainly don’t know how she does it! The lovely images seem to have emerged from a dream of tradition, yet, they are delightful and contemporary.

Ryan Orewiler is a Columbus College of Art and Design graduate who lives in German Village and has work in numerous public and private collections, including Leigh Gallery in Chicago. Orewiler’s paintings stem from his own photos, ambitious and fresh. The artist is not afraid to use bright industrial colors. His large city scenes, often complex, form a panoramic whole while the eye travels from section to section.

One of his best known series – of Times Square in New York – includes over 40 paintings, all of which have sold except for one, Times Square #4, which is displayed at Studios on High Gallery. This work is one of Orewiler’s major efforts.

A long painting, oil on canvas, 31 x 24 inches, it depicts the famous square in broad daylight, with passersby in a variety of attire, rushing and pausing while the light changes. They’re on the go in the hub of America. One woman, who resembles a medieval nun is standing in Times Square. “And she really was there,” explained Orewiler. “I try to capture a split second in time, an interesting figure or suble interaction.”

Glass doors and windows blink, as do a multitude of actual signs. Yellow and red cars and trucks – there are a million vehicles in the naked city – and they were “really there.” Here are walls once traversed by Superman at a single bound. Above our heads? – the TV news and, of course, the space where the ball descends on New Year’s Eve.

By tilting a light pole “just a tad,” Orewiler has manipulated perspective, allowing the viewer to sense the rush of wind among high buildings. This artist has “covered” cities, their rivers and lakes, in Europe, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. He is good at including people in his urban scapes, and he understands shadows and light. Here in Columbus, he painted great scenes with the Smith Brothers Hardware Building and the Wonder Bread sign in Italian Village. His American Gothic and Mona Lisa, are sites familiar to Short North habitués. In Broad Street News, a big bright painting, a fire hydrant and newspaper boxes almost march off the canvas.

Orewiler is quite a strong painter, adept at the panoramic and colorful. His scenes in German Village, and, yes, in Indonesia and other exotic sites, often reveal his gift for simplicity, and for the play of light on warm, soft, colors.

Tom Harbrecht is a marvelous plein air painter who appreciates rural beauty and small towns. He says that he sketches and paints outdoors as much as he can. His preferred medium is oil and his paintings tend to be large. He’s an impressionist for Now, although he admires Corot, Van Gogh, Hopper, the Hudson River School guys. “So many have enriched us,” he says.

Harbrecht understands light, no matter where the sun is. If you were born in Ohio, or almost anywhere, you will recognize Mulberry Street, a painting 36 x 26 inches. In it, simplicity reigns. A specific light from one part of the sky falls obliquely to form a square on the concrete drive. Two buildings nestle against each other. The smaller leans into a tall square edifice which might be a feed store, or might not. The weathered buildings show traces of blue, dark green, yellow. There’s an alley space in the middle, and beyond that a low slung building that might be a car repair, or a doctors office. But that doesn’t matter. Not on Mulberry Street. We see no cars or people, but there is a kind of hill, maybe a covered mine, behind the buildings. Roof Tops is another great Harbrecht. View of the Olentangy is a large three-panel oil painting that rivals the best river studies anywhere. On its surface we can float backward, not caring whether the white splotches on the water are stones or lilies. Harbrecht values simplicity and knows how to paint water and light.

Harbrecht is a Columbus College of Art and Design graduate and holds a master’s degree in physical education. He was once a Naval Officer in the U.S. Navy SEAL Teams, and he can play the bagpipes! In 2003, he participated in the Paint Ohio Project for Ohio’s Bicentennial, and his work is included in the book The Land That Is Ohio. His art is featured at Studios on High and at the Bridgette Turner Studio and Gallery in Clintonville. Although he lives in Worthington, Harbrecht’s second home is Pomeroy, Ohio, where Mom and Dad lived, not far from Mulberry Street.

Art by Harbrecht and Orewiler will shine in any venue. And there is so much to see at Studios on High, such as “Originals by Sue.” Sue Quellhorst started knitting in college when she knit her future husband a pair of argyles. Now her handknitted fashions are fabulous, and she’s an incredible source of knitting knowledge. Sculptor Denise Romecki’s Trickster looks suspiciously like a fox, but his human feet show under his swaggering robe!

Studios On High is open every day at 686 N. High St. Call 614-461-6487.

www.lizjamesartscene.blogspot.com
email eannjames@gmail.com

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