Views of the Midwest

The beauty, atmosphere and allure of the Midwest are depicted in paintings included in a new Cape Girardeau exhibition.

"Five Views of the Midwest" opens with a reception tonight at Gallery 100 at the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri. The Visual Arts Cooperative also opens a new exhibit at the Lorimier Gallery.

Landscape artwork is often part of juried shows, said Chelsea Bowerman of the Arts Council, but seldom is an entire show devoted to landscape paintings.

The oils and watercolors hanging in the gallery include images of barns and fields, and storm clouds rolling through the skies. The five artists in the show display images from Missouri, Illinois and Kansas as their own interpretation of the region's landscape.

Work by Jeff Aeling of St. Louis, Tim Anderson of Chicago, Ahzad Bogosian of St. Louis, Michael Dubina of Bloomington, Ill., and Jeffrey Vaughn of St. Louis is exhibited in the gallery.

Vaughn will attend the opening reception and will speak about his work.

Anderson likes to explore the shapes and forms found in landscapes. His painting "West" shows the swirl of highways and roads he saw from a plane window as it headed west from St. Louis. "It's a very sculptural thing they do" as the roads loop and circle together, he said.

He photographs irrigation lines and crop circles from the sky when he flies. Taking photos helps put himself back into the scenes when he paints. Anderson said he tries to treat landscapes the same as he does paintings of the human form. "I want to get something down that's really gripping and interesting and keeps you looking at it and thinking about it."

The artists admit being drawn to the drama found in landscapes where the scenery can change with the seasons or the sky can transform within minutes as storms approach.

Fellow painter Ahzad Bogosian said he's most influenced by the "sublime qualities and spiritual essence that exists within the Midwest landscape."

His works show the hills of Missouri, the farmlands of Illinois and the woods of Wisconsin.

Bogosian tries to create a sense of timelessness. "You don't know if was painted last week," he said. "I try to freeze time in my paintings."

He admires many of the 19th century landscape artists and the timeless vistas they created. Many of his paintings are scenes people say they've just never paid attention to before. Many people say the landscape of the Midwest is boring, but he sees more, he said. "It's a romantic idea."

And through that romanticism, he can dictate the mood of his paintings, Bogosian said.

The tranquility and serenity first drew Dubina to landscape art. His father helped develop his love of the land. Dubina's parents immigrated to the Midwest after life in the Ukraine. Stories of their homeland, told with a romantic flair, piqued his curiosity, the artist says.

"The seasonal change of spring, summer, winter and fall provide me with an endless array of variations for oil and watercolor," he said.

The exhibit will be in Cape Girardeau through Jan. 31.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126