116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
New Cedar Rapids art exhibit honors the human form through the eyes of local artists
Cedar Rapids Drawing Group pays tribute to late model
Sep. 30, 2023 6:00 am
CEDAR RAPIDS — A new exhibit at the Cherry Building’s Schwartzkopf Gallery is helping the public explore the beauty of the human body in various poses and mediums through the lens of seven artists.
About 70 sketches and paintings done in charcoal, acrylics, oil paint and more by The Cedar Rapids Drawing Group over several years showcase observational art inspired by weekly modeling sessions. Through lines and brush strokes, the group comprised of dozens of members ranging from hobby to professional artists gives insight into the fluidity of the human body — and what, exactly, holds it together.
The work, selected over years of sessions that the group started in the 1990s, also dovetails progress made by members in the parameters of observational art over time.
“Observational art is drawing from life. Largely, it became prosaic. But what is true is that you can better adapt to what is naturalistic, and at the same time have freedom in interpreting what is naturalistic without letting your ego impose stylistic choices, because those are arbitrary,” said member Priscilla Steele, who has 23 works featured in the exhibit. “These are the things we look for in people working with us — their progress.”
If you go
What: Honoring the Human Form exhibit by the Cedar Rapids Drawing Group
Where: The Cherry Building, Schwartzkopf Gallery, at 329 10th Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids
When: 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday
Cost: Free
Details: The exhibit includes about 70 pieces by artists Jeff Allen, Cameron Johnson, Kathy Schumacher, Thomas Gruis, Janelle McClain, Dennis Naughton and Priscilla Steele. The exhibit runs through Oct. 31. Various art on exhibit is also available for purchase.
What you’ll learn and see
Whether it’s a collage, a grayscale sketch, a charcoal drawing or an oil painting, even those who have lived in bodies their whole lives can learn something from the models who pose for the drawing group every Sunday and Tuesday.
Small, intimate pieces with a flat, colorful style contrast large scale charcoal nudes. Nearby, six historical but mostly unknown African Americans receive their time in the limelight through vibrant oil colors for their role in fighting for abolition and civil rights. Across the wall, more images memorialize the poses from a late Wellman model that can no longer be recreated in the flesh.
“It’s truly an opportunity to come and study the human figure, see how it’s put together, and interpret that in your own media or your own mind’s eye,” said artist Janelle McClain. “We are all incredibly different.”
All of the works display a diversity of perspectives that converge over dozens of points on the body. For visitors getting more acquainted with the local art scene, the exhibit brings a kaleidoscope of styles demonstrating the diversity in local art.
“There might be some surprises for the public that comes in and has a preconceived idea of artists in the area,” McClain said. “I think the surprise of the talent that is out there and the diversity of the approaches to the same model is fascinating.”
For artist Priscilla Steele, observational art and the sensitivity it elicits is an exercise in meditation. For artist and spectator alike, the exhibit is a chance to learn.
“I think meditation has a tendency to trigger you into exploring things you otherwise might not get to. Because of the variety in this show and the freedom or mark making, I believe if you walk into this show and don’t think that life drawing and drawing from life are the sexiest things on the face of the earth, you’d have to be pretty insensitive,” she said. “It’s great for people who want to find their way because of the variety that’s there, not only in interpretation in what the artist is looking at but also in the media applied.”
For artists Cameron Johnson, colored pencils bring a new dimension to nude figures on grayscale paper. With an emphasis on depicting the form with accurate likeness, backgrounds are filled in with bright color to bring the figure forward.
Though he enjoys drawing from memory, observational drawing brings new efficacy to depicting life around him. His work, with a penchant for bright colors that make colored pencils look almost like paint, is influenced by contemporaries of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.
“Your mind plays tricks. You draw it the way your mind takes in the information,” Johnson said. “If you’re not observing details and how it’s built, your mind takes details away.”
While most of the gallery is peppered with bare bodies in various poses, some find more intimacy just in the face. Artist Kathy Schumacher’s selection of six oil paintings, each 24 by 30 inches, honors little known African American activists who played an important role in civil rights and abolition movements from the 1830s to the 1960s.
Each realistic portrait painted from historical photographs displays some of the boldest colors in the exhibit, depicting a halo over each woman who didn’t receive recognition during or after her lifetime. Here, she wanted to make their names as identifiable as a first look at their faces, for many.
“We’ve all heard of Sojourner Truth or Rosa Parks, but these are people who were dedicated … but we’ve never heard of them,” said Schumacher. “When I go to drawing group on Sunday, I usually draw just faces. You can learn a lot about somebody by looking into their face, their expressions, their eyes.”
McClain, whose work focuses on the whole movement and direction of a body, analogizes the naked form in artistry to the importance of anatomy in medicine.
“It’s important for an artist to know how a body goes together if you want to draw people in a realistic manner,” she said. “The same way that a doctor needs to study the human body to know how to treat you.”
Honoring one of their own
Wellman model Kristina “Kristi” Collora Pearson, who appears in many of the works and has a wall dedicated to her at the exhibit, was more than a body to draw for some of the artists at the Cedar Rapids Drawing Group.
With a more athletic body than many models, Pearson had an artist’s intuition that translated to new dimensions on paper. The artist, who died in an Aug. 7 car crash at age 30, is remembered not just for her form, but for the spirit she imbued at weekly drawing sessions.
“You’re using the model, and oftentimes, it’s not about them. It’s about how they serve the role and the artist, getting in front of the artist what they need to communicate — what the model has to offer and what the artist can communicate through the model,” said Steele. “She could read people like nobody’s business, so she knew when she was engaging a drawer.”
Comments: (319) 398-8340; elijah.decious@thegazette.com
Daily Newsletters