Welcome the return of spring! In that spirit Gallery Moab is featuring the exquisite bird and floral scratchboard art of Guest Artist Kathy Grossman. Originally a cartoonist and black-and-white illustrator, she reminisces, “I’ve always had an eye for lines … as my earliest memory is staring from my crib at cardboard cutouts of Little Bo Peep and a couple of sheep my mom had tacked onto my bedroom wall. For the last several years, I’ve not only been helping raise actual ewes and lambs with my partner, artist JC Borders, but I’ve also been exploring new media of pastel, watercolor, and scratchboard.” Since taking art classes at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, she is now using techniques she learned there to depict the flora and fauna of our Colorado Plateau landscape.

Describing her process, Grossman says, “My scratchboard pieces start as black-inked Masonite boards coated with fine, white Kaolin clay. With a special scratching tool, I scrape away the ink to reveal white lines and cross-hatched blocks of fur, feathers, and wood grains. Then I use watercolors, acrylics, or inks to bring out the colors of the subject. The work is quite intensive, and each piece can take months to complete. I thrive sitting at the table in my studio producing lines upon lines upon lines bringing out of the shadows magnificent condors, wrens, kinglets, doves, hummingbirds, and burrowing and great horned owls.” All are invited to a reception for Grossman on Saturday March 12, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Our featured gallery artist, Barb Gregoire, creates engaging ceramic pieces expressive of the geologic forces that created our remarkable landscape. “As a child, my father’s work as a geologist in Wyoming exposed me to the subtle colors and rich textures of crystal patterns in rocks,” she explains. “This is what I try to create in my glazes, knowing that pottery owes its existence to those mysteries locked inside the earth … Using actual fire in a reduction atmosphere comes closest to simulating geologic process. Lucky for me, it only takes hours instead of eons.”

Gregoire took her first ceramics class in 1977 at the University of Wyoming. Determined to learn from the best, she traveled the country taking classes and workshops from masters of the art. She ran the ceramics department at Colorado Northwestern Community College and founded Desert Sun Ceramics Studio here in Moab, which she later sold to pursue her changing path as an artist, What hasn’t changed is the enchanting nature of her pieces, each one worth turning over in your hands for the tactile experience alone. “Using fire, water and earth to make art brings me great comfort about my place in the universe,” she says. “If others can feel this quality in my pottery, then my work is complete.”

Come enjoy Gallery Moab’s wide selection of original fine art and artisan crafts. Our talented local artists work in many different mediums, and each has a unique vision and personal style of expression. One of the gallery artists is always on hand to answer your questions and help you find the perfect gift or memento of your visit.
Open Sunday 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.; Monday to Thursday 12 noon - 4:00 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 12 noon - 7:00 p.m. Call 435-220-0891 and we will gladly open by appointment during other hours.

Gallery Moab LCA 59 South Main Street #1, Moab, Utah 84532 • 435-355-0024
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