Deanne Lemley

Guest Speaker, May 20

Deanne Lemley, now a resident of Eastern Washington, ran a private art school in her Redmond studio for 25 years and taught classes in watercolor and oil for thirty years. Hundreds of painters, including many EAFA members, learned their craft from Deanne. She is an energetic painter, bringing a physical exuberance to the act of painting. The freshness and expressiveness of her personality shows up in her paintings. Her focus on teaching: good design/composition, then values, then color.

"Painting is like building a house," Lemley says, "You can’t put up the walls without the foundation, and you can’t paint the light before you’ve settled on a design, and you can’t paint the details before you’ve laid down the underlying abstractions. Indifference can ruin a painting."

In the beginning, Deanne had some greatteachers, like Bill Reese, Jerry Stitt, Rex Brandt, and Sergei Bongart. Bongart taught her how to become aware, really see and remember visual nuances. "We all see details", Lemley says, "but it’s the planes of light, alone without any details, that can be so descriptive in a painting." Deanne Lemley paints in the impressionist tradition, not providing every detail in her artwork. The eye of the viewer has room to interpret various spaces, using their own imagination. She likes to invite viewer participation in the artistic process. "Cameras", she says, "have no heart or soul. If a painting is too detailed, you may as well have a photograph."

"It has been my experience to take the photograph of whatever I am attracted to, develop the image, and then wonder why I took the picture in the first place," Deanne says. "This is not to say the photograph is worthless, to the contrary, it can offer stimulation and information to augment the sketch for later painting in the studio."

Deanne Lemley is a signature member of the American Watercolor Society, National Watercolor Society, and Northwest Watercolor society, among others. Her paintings have appeared in many regional, national, and international shows. She has also exhibited at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, and Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, AZ among others. She resides in Kennewick, WA.

More Art in Kirkland

A new teamwork approach by the City of Kirkland, the Kirkland Cultural Council and the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce has been born with the formation of the "Artilization Team". Local artists and businesses are working with the "Artilization Team" in this new effort to bring more art into Kirkland’s downtown core by utilizing empty storefronts. Transforming empty storefronts into galleries goes by different names in different cities. In New York, they’re call "pop-up galleries" and in San Francisco they are "phantom galleries." The end result is a win for everyone involved with positive results in increased business and an awareness and appreciation of the importance of local artists to a city's economic vitality.

Watch for Kirkland's latest temporary pop-up store called the Art Shop. Located at 122 Central, the Art Shop opens April 30 with a gala reception at 5:00pm. This shop joins Kirkland’s first pop-up "HAS", the Kirkland Art Center's retail store that has become a new staple at Parkplace Mall. The HAS store opened this past December and features art by Kirkland Art Center members and teachers. If you are interested in learning more about this "Artilization" project, contact Kathy Feek of the Kirkland Cultural Council at kathy@feekcorp.com.