Local artists’ work to be showcased at Historic Downtown Sikeston art gallery

SIKESTON— On Nov. 9, the Art Spirit Gallery in downtown Sikeston will launch a new art exhibit with a fun meet-and-greet with nationally known and regional artists.  

Lynn Lancaster, co-owner of Art Spirit Gallery, said the art exhibit would be located downtown Sikeston at 114 E. Front St. and will run until Dec. 31. The meet and greet for the art exhibit will begin at 6 p.m. on Nov. 9 and will last until 9 p.m.

Billyo O’Donnell, Don Sahli, and Cleda Curtis are the three nationally recognized artists that will be featured; Lancaster, Tim Breaux, and Marilyn Schwaninger are the regional artists.

Lancaster said the event will have refreshments that will be served to the guests and that the meet and greet is free.

Lancaster said the art exhibit and meet-and-greet are great because they recognize regional artists and provide an opportunity for the community to socialize while meeting such well-known and talented national artists.

National artist O’Donnell, according to Lancaster, is focused on the visual experience, working from life and in the studio to develop the surface quality of a painting that is rich in texture. O’Donnell was raised outside of St. Louis, and O’Donnell received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Missouri State University. He has received numerous awards and honors.

Sahli’s journey to becoming a professional artist began at a young age. Sahli was born in 1962 in Borger, Texas. Exhibiting and selling his work at galleries in Taos, New Mexico, and Texas when he was just 16 years old. He made the dean’s list as a freshman at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, and his work was chosen for the student faculty show. Salhi currently lives in Evergreen, Colorado, where he opened the ‘Sahli School of Art’ in 1995.

Curtis, the other co-owner of the Art Spirit Gallery, was born in Clarksville, Arkansas, in 1939 but grew up in Oran, Missouri. Curtis earned her bachelor’s degree in arts from the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, and she attended graduate school at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. Curtis works in oils, pastels, and watercolors in the classical realism tradition. 

Regional artist Schwaninger, from Sikeston, studied art at Southeast Missouri State University and is known for her relief sculptures that utilize aluminum from discarded beverage cans.

Breaux is an artist, author and pharmacist who lives in Ozark, Missouri and is best known for his integration of science into his method of painting. He is also an outdoor painter dedicated to first-hand observation of nature as a means of painting nature convincingly. 

Lancaster is a Southeast Missouri native, and Lynn enjoys painting to tell a story or evoke a memory. He works primarily with oils and watercolor but also does pen and inks of historical structures, primarily in the Sikeston area. 

Lancaster explained why he chose these three nationally famous painters for the meet-and-greet and to display their artwork. 

“They are each really great artists, and I like their art,” Lancaster said. “Each of the artist’s has great styles; they are all different, and each of them paints different things.”

Lancaster also mentioned how the event is a fantastic but rare chance for the community. 

“These are well-known artists across the nation, and I think it’s a great time for people to get to see specific art that they normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to see unless they went to a big city,” Lancaster said. 

The art exhibit is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Art Spirit Gallery.