Artist Reception will kick off new Art Exhibit at City Hall on October 21

The City of Chesterfield will be hosting an Art Exhibit at City Hall, located at 690 Chesterfield Parkway West, beginning October 3, 2016 through December 30, 2016.  The exhibit will be on display in the City Hall lobby, Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm (excluding holidays) and will feature two-dimensional artwork, including mixed media, paintings and photographs from established regional artists Adrienne Patel, Billyo O’Donnell, Charles Dana and Tito Gay and sculptor, Joy Beckner. A guided tour of the Art Exhibit will be offered on Tuesday, October 18 at 10:00 am. The tour will cover general overviews to in-depth explorations of the current exhibit and will last between 45 to 60 minutes.

Chesterfield Parks, Recreation & Arts will host an Artist Reception on Friday, October 21 from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm in the multi-purpose room at City Hall. The reception will offer an intimate setting for art enthusiasts to meet the artists and an opportunity to discuss the inspiration behind their artwork. The event is free to attend and light hors d’oeuvres and cocktails will be served. To RSVP for the reception or sign up for the tours, contact Sukanya Mani at 636.812.9523 or smani@chesterfield.mo.us.

Adrienne Patel is a watercolor and mixed media artist who explores luminosity, space and spirit through the ebb and flow of water, color and textures on paper. Adrienne’s interest in art began when she was a child growing up in South Carolina. Adrienne graduated from Fisk University with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts. At Fisk, she received the Hines-Brook Award for outstanding student in Art. She attended Skowhegan College in Maine and Cranbrook Academy of Art. Adrienne graduated from Peabody College with a MFA in Art and worked towards her PhD in Art Education at Illinois State University. Adrienne’s paintings are an inspirational springboard. The organic shapes, vibrant colors and bold textures reflect her exploration of new perspectives. For more information, visit www.adriennepatelfineart.com.

Billyo O’Donnell’s childhood was spent west of St. Louis often making elaborate sculptures from pond mud for his brothers to smash. At the age of 18, he had an epiphany during an accident guiding him to pursue his love of painting. Earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, he found work as a staff artist at Maritz Motivation for 12 years, while receiving many national and international awards for his paintings. He has received the highest awards at many of America’s prestigious plein air invitationals that often included many of America’s top landscape painters. In 2014, he was voted into the prestigious Plein Air Painters of America by its members. He has received the highest award an artist can be given in the State of Missouri the “2012 Independent Artist Award” Missouri Arts Council award. But, he takes the greatest pride in having been honored at the Governor's Mansion in Jefferson City for an unveiling of a selection of his 115 paintings in the book, "Painting Missouri," authored by Karen Glines - depicting the 114 counties in Missouri and the city of St. Louis, which is currently on display at the downtown library in Kansas City. For more information, visit www.billyoart.com.

Charles Dana is a photographer who retains the vision of youth, but now has been tempered by time.  He lives in St. Louis and photographs the elements of nature (plants, flowers, insects, spiders, etc.) that abound in the city parks, vacant lots and gardens near his home. He has been involved in photography for over 40 years and made the traumatic change from film to digital photography about four years ago. He misses the magic of the wet darkroom, but finds processing images on the computer to be liberating, substantially less time consuming and allows for additional time to be devoted to exploring and recording the nuances of nature. For more information, visit www.charlestdana.com.

Joy Kroeger Beckner is inspired by sensuous shapes of skin, bone and muscle. She models clay into classical forms, which are then cast into bronze. She is thrilled to make something move in-the-round bringing smiles, giggles or tears to the eyes of those who see and touch her work. She first showed in a national competition in 1996. She has earned awards at the National Academy Museum, the National Sculpture Society and the Society of Animal Artists. Her bronze dachshunds have earned numerous awards, including six Best-in-Shows. Art Show at the Dog Show sponsors purchased one for the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog. Joy attended Washington University School of Fine Arts in her hometown, St. Louis. For more information, visit www.joybeckner.com.

Tito Gay pursued her studies at the National Academy School of Fine Arts in New York at the urging of St. Louis artist, Fred Conway.  While at the Academy, she worked closely with Raphael Soyer, Louis Bouche, and Robert Philipp, and was twice awarded the Julius Hallgarten Prize. Gay's work has been exhibited nationally with the American Artists' Professional League Grand National, the American Watercolor Society, and the Audubon Artists. In 1997, with the winning of the Knickerbocker Artists' Award, Gay became a signature member of the one of the country's oldest and most prestigious artists' societies in the nation. She was given the title Distinguished Artist of the St. Louis Artists Guild having participated in more than forty juried exhibits. For more information, visit www.titogayportraits.com.