Newsmakers 2016: Aaron Horrell

Aaron Horrell, age 64, has been an artist for nearly his entire life.

"I started painting in high school and actually gave away the first painting I did in 1970," he says.

He continued to paint and create art even after a stint in the Navy Seabees.

"I was in the construction battalion," he says.

For the past five years, Horrell has owned and managed the Painted Wren Art Gallery at 223 S. Plaza Way in Cape Girardeau. He also is a long-standing member of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri and the Cat Ranch Art Guild in Marble Hill, Missouri. He has been juried in twice to the Best of Missouri Hands, a Missouri Artisan Organization that honors some of the best artists in the state.

Aaron HorrellLaura Simon

Horrell started a project at the Painted Wren called Paint for a Cause.

"I kept thinking, what can I do as the manager of an art gallery to help some needy causes in the area," Horrell says. "I knew I could donate a painting, but that wouldn't really get the public awareness (for those organizations) that I was wanting. I kept mulling it over, and finally came up with the idea of printing one of my photos or prints in black and white and having it stretched across a canvas. People can come in and for a $1 donation, they can paint on the canvas for a little while in a real art gallery setting."

Horrell's first Paint for a Cause painting and all its donations, including a list of the people who painted on the canvas, went to the Safe House for Women. It raised more than $400, with 246 people painting on the canvas. Paintings and donations have since gone to other charitable organizations including St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Watkins Wildlife Rehab in Sedgewickville, Missouri, and the Easter Seals chapter in Cape Girardeau.

Horrell and fellow artist Barb Bailey collaborate on the Paint for a Cause paintings and several other projects.

"We paint and sell minis, which are 6- by 8-inch paintings that we do together," Horrell says. "We may have five or six going at a time, and I'll paint on one for a while and then move on to another, and Barb will do the same."

The minis are used as illustrations for a children's book series created by the two artists.

"We have also created two adult color books under the fictitious author's name of Alison Barbaron," Horrell says. "They are called 'Coloring Books for Kids of All Ages, Volumes One and Two.'"

Horrell also writes a weekly column for the Southeast Missourian newspaper titled "Through the Woods."