NEWPORT, N.H. — Spring felt near on Saturday morning as purple, yellow and blue flowers adorned tables inside the Library Arts Center.
The goal was to inspire experienced and inexperienced artists to use pastels to capture the shapes and colors before them in the first of a series of free, drop-in art opportunities the Newport nonprofit plans to host in the coming months. The project was inspired by pastels of blue hydrangeas by Manchester-based artist Susanne Larkham, which are on display in the gallery as part of a group exhibit called “Selections.”
“COVID really put a damper on a lot of things,” Goshen, N.H., artist Heidi Lorenz said in a quiet gallery as she waited for visitors to arrive during the event’s first hour. “We really don’t know what to expect today.”
Lorenz, a former postal worker who has led a weekly open studio group at the arts center for about 15 years, recently became the arts center’s new part-time community arts engagement facilitator. It’s her job to encourage people to try art in varied forms.
In addition to the series of drop-in events, Lorenz also plans to spearhead an effort to restore a heritage mural on Newport Fitness on Main Street, offer art projects during the Newport Farmers Market, and lead field trips to art museums around the region.
Though the open studio she runs restarted last August, it has had to take breaks periodically due to the pandemic, Lorenz said.
“We’re being optimistic that people will show up,” she said Saturday.
The optimism paid off. After the early quiet, people gradually began to arrive around 11 a.m.
“It’s really starting to happen again,” Newport resident Chris Scott, an artist and teacher, said of art programs as she sat at one of the tables, drawing pink flowers with green stems.
Not all those gathered on Saturday were inspired by the flowers. Thomas Luppold, 2½, said, “I’m making a bear” as he drew multi-colored circles on a piece of paper.
Thomas sat with his mother Kate, the arts center’s executive director, who said that given the recent relaxation of mask recommendations by state and federal health officials it made sense to start opening up the center for more community activities. Masks are still recommended inside the arts center and most of those gathered wore them, but not all.
It’s “good to start,” Luppold said of programs like Saturday’s.
At another table, Sunapee resident Betsy Bowen, an elementary school math teacher, said she would like to use her later years to do “something more artsy.”
But she said she lacked confidence in her abilities to draw a flower with the pastels. That lack of confidence gave her fresh insight into how some of her students feel about math, she said.
Lorenz urged Bowen to “ignore your ego.”
“You can’t draw if you don’t try to draw,” Lorenz said. “… Persistence pays off.”
Lorenz encouraged Bowen to smudge the colors into each other using her fingers.
“It doesn’t matter if it comes out awful,” Lorenz said. “There’s more paper.”
As she continued to draw flowers with yellow petals and green stems, Bowen said, “I do like this medium because it’s so forgiving.”
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
