Show Preview | Oil Painters of America

Fredericksburg, TX
RS Hanna Gallery, August 17-September 19

D. Edward Kucera, Water for One, oil, 9 x 12.

This story was featured in the September 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art September 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

WITH ITS DEDICATION to preserving and promoting excellence in representational art, Oil Painters of America has long stood out as an organization of some of the finest artists working today. The group’s reputation for excellence is upheld each year in its National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils, widely regarded as one of the premier fine-art shows in the country. OPA calls upon its members to submit their very best work for consideration, with only a small percentage of those works being accepted. “That means,” says OPA’s president Suzie Baker, “the show is always exceptional.”

And “exceptional” is exactly how Baker describes the collection on view in OPA’s latest national show. Postponed for several months due to public health concerns, the long-awaited exhibition opens on Monday, August 17, at RS Hanna Gallery in Fredericksburg, TX. A blind-jury committee employed a rigorous rating system in its review of more than 2,000 submissions, whittling the entries down to a stunning assembly of 200 paintings by Master, Signature, and Associate members. As Baker puts it, “For collectors, we have vetted the very best of what is being produced across the North American continent.”

: Robert Johnson, Peony Celebration, oil, 14 x 24.

: Daud Akhriev, Light of Villa Vitalba, oil, 20 x 24.

: Roger Dale Brown, Sunlit Cedars, oil, 28 x 40.

If that isn’t enticement enough, this year art lovers have the option of visiting the show in person or online on the gallery’s website, where all works are on view and available for sale through the duration of the show. To protect the health and safety of its members, OPA has incorporated other virtual components, as well. The group is hosting and broadcasting its awards ceremony via Facebook Live on Thursday, September 10, at 6:30 p.m. Central time, and its Wet Paint Competition and annual convention also take place online. The show itself hangs for a month, says Baker. “There’s something for everyone,” she adds, from works in “the vein of photorealism, down to pieces that are very fluid, Fechin-esque, and impressionistic.”

The subject matter is equally diverse. In WATER FOR ONE, Master member D. Edward Kucera pays tribute to the equine and the western landscape upon which it roams. Kucera was inspired to paint the scene while visiting a ranch, where a small herd of horses caught his eye, their bright reflections rippling on the surface of a pond. After exploring the composition’s beautiful design, viewers may notice a subtle detail that gave Kucera his title: a lone horse at the very edge of the pond, preparing to take a drink of water.

: James Tennison, Useless Bay Coffee Company, oil, 24 x 36.

: Kathy Anderson, Black Swallowtail and Rhododendron, oil, 18 x 24.

: Jan Peng Wang, Spring Light, oil, 21 x 19.

Similarly, an eye-catching scene inspired Master member Daud Akhriev’s THE LIGHT OF VILLA VITALBA, a work the artist created while painting en plein air at a northern Italian villa. “The light is what originally attracted me to this view, along with the pattern of the red-and-white floor,” Akhriev says of the villa’s interior, a dazzling example of Renaissance architecture. There’s an “invisible magic” to this piece, as well, notes the artist: As he worked at his easel, a British musical ensemble was rehearsing nearby. “While I painted, I was accompanied by a live Haydn string quartet!” says Akhriev.

On the whole, the show’s collection of poignant artistic expressions, painted with a level of care and skill for which OPA members are known, leaves one with the impression that each painting contains its own invisible magic, and that—if you look closely—you’ll feel it, too. —Kim Agricola

contact information
www.rshannagallery.com