Conway League of Artists board meeting is the first Wednesday of each month at 6:30pm. Members are welcome to attend.
Leslie Collier, President
Art has always been there for me and is an essential part of who I was, I am, and will be. I have drawn and painted for as long as I could remember and took art classes throughout school. I attended Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, AR and graduated with a BA in art education. I have taught elementary art for eight years; four of those years were here in Conway.
Currently, I am working with watercolor and have been taking Shelia Parson’s watercolor class for the past three summers. I am drawn to this medium because it challenges me, and I have yet to discover all its possibilities. Although I do focus on realism within my work, I also want to capture the emotion and atmosphere of my subject matter and creatively convey that to others. Aside from watercolor, I have also worked with acrylics, printmaking, and charcoal.
Carol Ebinger, Vice president
I am a Second Act artist. I did a little painting, mostly folk art, before I was married, had a family and working full time as a school counselor. One of things I decided to do upon retirement was start painting again. About four years ago I began taking classes at the Arkansas Arts Center. I worked in oils at that time and continued to do so for a couple of years. My instructor at AAC said the better you can draw the better your painting will be – so I took those words to heart and took drawing classes at UCA.
I joined CLA a little over a year ago. At one of the first meetings I attended, I met Sheila Parsons. She told me she was teaching watercolor classes and I decided to give it a try. I haven’t looked back since. It has been a wonderful surprise finding an unknown talent and running with it – this is my Second Act!
Richard Talley, Membership
Richard Talley is married to artist Sheila Parsons. After spending over 15 years in the Information Technology field, he is semi-retired and the Executive Administrator for Sheila Parsons’ Art-Ventures LLC. He has travel with Sheila on many of her workshops in Europe, Mexico, and the United States.When he is not busy helping Sheila, he enjoys driving his Mazda Miata sportscar.
Susan Peterson, CommunicationsAfter retiring from teaching in higher education in 2004, Susan started doing artwork. She first took a watercolor class with Sheila Parsons and studied oil and acrylics with Steve Griffith. She now spends her time painting (acrylic is now the preferred medium) and creating pottery, hand built and wheel thrown. She is represented at Carmen’s Antiques in Conway. She is a former president of CLA.
Don Byram, Member at Large
Raised in a string of small southern towns, Don is the child of a Circuit Riding preacher and a nature loving mother. Both his artistic eye and feeling for the moment is a tribute to the endless human stories he grew up seeing, hearing and living with these two sensitive people. His love affair of creating with the camera began in college and while interrupted with a couple of careers, has now been back in full force for over 20 years. The closest he has to a physical location he calls home is Conway, Arkansas which he has now returned to after 16 other stops in between.
“A good story, like good art, engulfs the reader and makes them feel. Through the combination of composition, color, and light, endless stories can be told that, hopefully, will make the viewer, simply feel. My goal is to take a photo, and turn it into a story the viewer can read and feel.”
He uses the camera lens to expose and embrace the beauty and rhythmic patterns we often overlook in our daily rush of life. With the composition of the raw image as the plot, he fleshes out the storyline with color, texture and tone to bring the emotional qualities he senses in the image. He always prints on canvas, because canvas has physical depth, and his use of a giclee matte finish enhances this effect. His images are archival and since he doesn’t need to use glass, hanging them in well lit areas is ideal because there isn’t any glare.
He prefers the use of vintage/antique and repurposed frames. Don owned a custom framed shop for 8 years and is a firm believer of matching the character of a one of kind frame with the essence of what he discovers in his images. Many times he will discover the frame first at a vintage or thrift store, and then spend considerable time making sure he has the perfect image for the frame. The end result is each piece having an exclusive feeling and telling its own unique story for the viewer.
Don embraces the Georgia O’Keeffe quote: “I have found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way-things I had no words for.”
Art has always been there for me and is an essential part of who I was, I am, and will be. I have drawn and painted for as long as I could remember and took art classes throughout school. I attended Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, AR and graduated with a BA in art education. I have taught elementary art for eight years; four of those years were here in Conway.
Tim Donar, Member at Large
Tim Donar is a published author and photographer specializing in landscape, commercial and aerial photography. Capturing the never before seen perspectives and sharing his passion in every photo. Tim’s book, “Arkansas State Parks” features aerial photography of all 52 Arkansas state parks and is the first published book dedicated to the state parks and the first using aerial photography. For many years Tim has provided fine art printmaking services on watercolor, canvas, and a metal surface.
Tim resides in Conway Arkansas and works as a solution engineer in the Vertica data analytics software group, a division of HP. Responsibilities include programming and development of demos. Through data visualization and finding effective ways to communicate complex information to sales and customers Tim has created a number of award-winning big data illustrated infographics.
Pepper Henthorne-Adams, Historian
I received a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art with an emphasis in drawing in 1996 from University of Central Arkansas. I enjoy drawing and photography.
Chantal Danyluk, Show Chair
After receiving a BA majoring in both Computer Science and Studio Art Chantal Danyluk started working full-time as a software engineer while also trying to engage in the local artistic community as much as possible. Part of her college experience included helping set-up and take-down shows for the art department. She joined the CLA in July of 2019. Her work in oils primarily features both figures/portraits and explores themes of identity and emotion. Her primary focus right now is to gain an audience for her work because she understands how important it is for artwork not to exist in a vacuum.
As show chair, her responsibilities include communicating with members, organizing pick-up/drop-off from members, ensuring the show display looks professional, and making social media post advertising future shows. If you have questions or concerns about the Spring/Fall Show, her preferred method of contact is through email. Expect delays in response Monday/Friday during the workweek.
