Exhibit Wall: Wall 3

Untitled, Nancy G. Old, Watercolor on Paper

Bits and Pieces, Christine Flores, Ink on Paper

Rocky Path, Brie Varney, Oil on Canvas

Artist Statement 

I use geometric shapes and lines to explore landscapes and still life subject matter. My “stained glass” approach is locally known and is consistent with my need to rationalize and simplify the world. I’ve always felt the desire to align things—thoughts, ideas, shapes, etc. It is like the satisfying click of puzzle pieces snapping into place when things line up just so. I like to study and find the connections among the chaos of nature and ordinary objects. I encourage the viewer to see these connections by drawing attention to them.

Alone, Shannon Mello, Encaustic, Mixed Media

Violet, Verna Jean Versa, Oil on Board

Artist Biography

Verna Jean Versa came to Colorado Springs in 1943 to attend the Broadmoor Art Academy, studying under Boardman Robinson, following graduating from Cass Technical High School in Detroit.  She briefly attended Colorado College. Verna received a B.A. degree in Art at the University of Cincinnati. Returning to Colorado Springs in the late 1940’s, she taught in the local school system, along with teaching at the Bemis School of Art and Pueblo’s Sangre de Cristo Art Center.

Verna was known for her fine art landscapes in color and black on white, along with fine figure drawings. Her paintings are held in the permanent collection of the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center and the Detroit Institute. Her last exhibition was in 2002 at the Fountain Valley School in Colorado Springs. Verna passed away in 2005.

Untitled, Ida Lee, Oil on Board

Portrait of Mary Howbert & Helen Jackson, Missye Bonds, Oil on Canvas

Untitled, Hazel Abbot, Watercolor on Paper

Artist Biography

Hazel Abbot, born on October 31, 1894, lived until 1903 at a Hudson Bay Company post called Moose Factory, Ontario, and later at Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, where her father was an Anglican bishop. In 1917 she immigrated to the United States to take a four-year course at the Child-Walker School of Fine Arts in Boston. She also attended  the Charles Woodbury Summer School of Painting in Ogunquit, ME.

In 1923, the artist, recently married to Charles Abbot, suffered a breakdown, and despite several moves including five years in Colorado Springs, it wasn’t until 1933 when she regained her health and the desire to paint. Captivated by the scenic beauty around her, she began to paint Colorado landscapes. Soon she broadened her area of view to surrounding states of New Mexico, Wyoming, California, Oregon, and Vancouver Island, BC.

Exhibitions of her work came in the 1930s, with  a show at Wellesley College, MA where she included pictures entitled Raton Pass, Cheyenne Canon, and Rampart Range, Colorado. In 1940 she had her first one-person show, held at the Colorado Springs  Fine Arts Center. Group exhibitions included the Royal Institute Galleries and Royal Society of British Artists, London; Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; and Society des Artistes Francaise, Paris.

The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, which held a retrospective show of Abbot’s work in 1986, owns several of her watercolors.

Hazel died on April 23, 1984.

Untitled, E.B. Rosser, Watercolor on Paper