Cranberry Artists Network a network of opportunities
MUDDY CREEK TWP — The way Dianne Bauman works involves focus and solitude, with the Zelienople artist’s goal of capturing the look and feel of an outdoor landscape in a classic realism style, “the style of the old masters.”
At the same time, having other artists to paint alongside helps Bauman get motivated. Other painters, she said, can be encouraging and offer good feedback.
The Cranberry Artists Network was born out of this dichotomy and continues to offer artists in the region opportunities to paint in solitude, together.
“The people I paint with don’t paint to sell, we’re motivated to paint,” Bauman said. “I prefer quiet, just because you’re trying to study. When you’re outside and painting, usually there’s space between each other, you’re enjoying the sounds of nature.”
The Cranberry Artists Network is made up of people like Bauman — artists who want to not only create in a group, but display their final products in galleries and markets around the Cranberry Township area.
Noele Reynolds, the group’s president, said she was one of eight people who founded it in January 2014, and the network offers group art-making excursions, regular galleries and biannual presentations by visiting artists.
“Between that and the guest artists, it really gives the true sense of the word ‘network,’” Reynolds said. “We have a monthly newsletter, members-only shows, so we have a lot of opportunities for members.”
Artwork by members of the network was on display at the Gardner’s Farm and Greenhouse in Muddy Creek Township. The greenhouse played host to the network’s annual spring greenhouse show, and the artists set up the display for an open house event on Saturday, April 26.
Reynolds said the network tries to get completed art in places where they will be seen by the public, so the greenhouse, the Cranberry Township Municipal Center and other area locales may be populated by artwork made by group members.
Patrick Gardner, an owner of Gardner’s Farm and Greenhouse, said the business was happy to host art by the network. It already welcomes craft vendors regularly to sell at events and on weekends.
“We are getting more events here,” Gardner said. “It promotes the greenhouse and all the vendors are local, so it helps them, too.”
Reynolds said the morning of April 26 that several paintings had already been sold, although she and the artwork would be there until around 4 p.m. that day.
While not every piece of artwork at the event is for sale, Bauman said people even just asking to buy a painting is a flattering reflection of an artist’s work.
“It's humbling that people are sometimes willing to spend hundreds of dollars, sometimes over $1,000 — it's motivating,” Bauman said.
Before the network formed 11 years ago, Reynolds said, there was a gap when there was no group of its kind in the Cranberry Township area. Reynolds, a retired art teacher, said she knew others then who traveled to Pittsburgh or elsewhere to attend artist workshops and gallery opportunities. Some also found artistic connections in Butler with the Associated Artists of Butler County.
Now, the network provides outlets for creation regularly in Cranberry.
“I think we struck gold because we were coming in at the right time,” Reynolds said. “They had to go everywhere but Cranberry. We filled a void when they recognized that that was something they didn't have.”
Bauman said the network offered a good way to get acquainted with other local artists when she moved to Zelienople a few years ago. Also a retired art teacher, Bauman said she had always wanted to travel to paint, but her school schedule made it a little difficult.
Now she gets to live out a few more of her artistic dreams.
“I loved my job. I wanted to travel and paint, but with teaching it was kind of hard to do,” Bauman said. “We go out every week to paint somewhere in the area — Slippery Rock, Moraine, Butler.
“We’re going to Succop (Nature) Park, which is beautiful. I do portraits, still life, and now I’m doing a series on ravens.”
In addition to working alongside other artists, the network hosts meetings twice a year, which typically include a demonstration by a traveling artist. Reynolds said she has learned from visiting artists, who also usually do a talk with their demonstrations.
“I love the demonstrations by someone who is a professional,” Reynolds said. “I am a ceramic artist and it’s always interesting to see how other artists work their craft.”
Bauman commented that she and other artists she has met through the network share an appreciation of art for art’s sake. She said the network and other community art-based groups offer opportunities to get involved and empower artists to try things.
“When you go outdoors to paint, you’re just being,” Bauman said. “You’re enjoying the sound of the birds and the wind — sometimes it blows a little too hard and blows your canvass off, but you’re in the moment.”
Bauman said the network provides her and other artists with opportunities to be artists, and encouraged other people with that creative itch to check the group.
“It’s something I have to do,” Bauman said about painting.
For more information on the Cranberry Artists Network, visit its Facebook page, or its website at cranberryartistsnetwork.com. Its next exhibit, Martinis with Monet, will be on display from July 9 to Aug. 21 at the Cranberry Township Municipal Center, 2525 Rochester Road.
