Viva Art on Exhibit in Belton
The Viva Artists are a group of artists who began painting together several days a week at Viva Wine Bar in downtown Anderson in 2019. They painted when the wine bar was not open. The group consists of six Anderson Artists Guild members: Ann Heard, Deane King, Rosemary Moore, Polly Richardson, Diann Simms and Sue West. They work in a variety of mediums: oil, acrylics, collage, and watercolor.
By early 2020 several of them had diversified into other mediums and found it advantageous to have a space where spills did not matter quite so much and also to have a place to leave supplies from week to week. Consequently, they began painting at the Anderson Arts Center on Mondays while retaining their original name: Viva.
“Then the pandemic hit and we all withdrew to our homes or other arrangements,” said Simms. For instance, Richardson and Simms, traditional watercolor artists, began painting in Simms’ garage as they experimented with acrylics and collage.
Their persistence has paid off with a show at the Belton Center for the Arts featuring the work of all six Viva artists. The show opened with a reception on July 18 and will run through September 4. All items are for sale.
Pictured above, from left to right, are top row: Cottage Lupines by Sue West, New Harbor by Polly Richardson; middle row: Chair in White by Deane King, Sunflowers in an Artist’s Studio by Diann Simms; bottom row: Spring Flowers by Rosemary Moore, Red Amaryllis by Ann Heard.
For more information, visit https://www.beltoncenterforthearts.org/exhibits.