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Joann Caldwell will tell you straight out that being an artist isn't for the timid of heart. Or at least it shouldn't be.
"I don't do this to relax," the septuagenarian tells a visitor to her Spring Hill home. "Creating art is an emotional process. You can't be placid; you can't be afraid to be bold."
Caldwell admits she maybe takes the creative process a bit more seriously than she should. However, her work reveals the intensity of her lifelong love affair with a canvas. Caldwell's watercolor creations are brash and unapologetically expressionistic, filled with the ardent brush strokes and aggressive waves of color that command the viewer toward the inner spirit of the subject.
"I want my paintings to breathe life," the artist said. "They need to speak and to emote and to tell people how incredible life is."
True. Many of Caldwell's images depict family members and loved ones. The walls of her home are filled with the faces of children, grandchildren and parents, and, of course, her late husband, Harry.
One vivid portrait of Harry Caldwell expresses the deep love they shared and the pain that still lingers after his death last year from Alzheimer's disease. Using snapshots from a family photo album, Joann Caldwell processed the images through heavy washes of watercolor and textured them with applications of an acrylic plaster called gesso. The layered hues blended to create a three-dimensional-like effect that leaps forth.
"I've been using the technique for a long time, and I experiment all the time to find the color and depth that suits me,'' Caldwell explained. "I consider art an ongoing process that never stops."
This weekend, Caldwell will have a booth at the 22nd annual Hernando County Art, Craft and Music Festival in Brooksville. Although she has lived in Spring Hill for the past 25 years, Caldwell was absent from the art show scene for the past few years as she tended to her husband's illness.
"I'm much more selective now, and I'm thrilled that one of my favorite shows just so happens to be a few miles from my house," she said.
Caldwell, who earned a master's degree in art at the University of Illinois, never much cared for the business side of painting. She loathes the idea of having to attach a price tag to something she put her heart and soul into. Still, she is a noted regional artist who has earned numerous awards of distinction and won Best of Show honors at the 2000 Disney Festival of the Masters art show.
Among the completed works she plans to bring to this weekend's festival is a collection of equestrian paintings she has created in recent years. Caldwell admits to a fascination with horse racing and has sought to capture their strength and speed, at the same time focusing on their grace and amazing physical poise.
"I've always envisioned the feet of racehorses to be like those of a ballet dancer,'' Caldwell said. "Sure, not everyone grasps things the way I see them, but that's part of the territory of being an artist. You learn to live with it."
Logan Neill can be reached at lneill@sptimes.com or 352 848-1435.
IF YOU GO
The 22nd annual Hernando County Art, Craft and Music Festival, sponsored by the Hernando County Fine Arts Council, will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Tom Varn Park, off W Jefferson Street in Brooksville. Admission is free. Call 797-7042 for more information.
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