Carolynn Burns loves drawing, loves color and loves scuba diving in the Caribbean. She put them all together for her latest exhibit in the Beverly J. Corcoran Gallery at Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium.
The show, which includes raku pottery by Alan Kirby in the wall display cases, will run through the end of November.
Featured are colored pencil drawings of tropical fish and plants, along with some photographs.
“This is my fifth or sixth exhibit here, and the first time I’ve included prints in my show,” Burns, said. “We’ll see how that goes.”
She said that she tries to go diving a couple of times a year.
“I do a lot of art between dives,” she said.
She said that she has always done some form of art.
“Color and creativity have always been a large part of my life,” Burns said.
She tried painting in acrylics and watercolors, and did some landscapes, but just didn’t find them completely satisfying. Then Burns discovered colored pencils.
“Colored pencils have allowed me to combine my love of drawing with my love of color,” she said. “I find a finesse and definition with pencils that I don’t find in other media.”
Burns has been earning honors for her work. A piece called “Hen and Chicks II” was chosen for the 2009 Colored Pencil Society of America International Show, and “Hen and Chicks I” is currently in an art show at the Spiva Art Center, Joplin. “Crab,” a drawing of a fiery red crustacean, received an award for best use of color in the fall 2008 art show at Crowder College.
Burns has also won honors at the annual Bourbon County Arts Council Fine Arts Show and in shows sponsored by the former Pittsburg Arts Council.
She signs all her works with a distinctive design that reflects her love of sea creatures. It uses a sea horse for the capital C in Carolynn.
“I was looking through a book of design once and saw the Deco sea horse,” she said. “I thought it would make a C.”
Burns said that in several previous shows she teamed up with Lucy Silliman, who provided her award-winning quilts for the display cases. Both women have been active in the Little Balkans Quilt Guild, and Burns has also done beading, soft sculpture dolls, enameling and basket weaving.
She went to school in Miami, Okla., but has been in Pittsburg since 1972. It wasn’t such a big step to move here, she said, because her folks are from Girard. She and her husband, John, have a farm south of Pittsburg.
“Right now we’re doing some remodeling in the house, and I’m doing a lot of mosaic work,” Burns said. “There’s going to be a shower with an underwater theme, and a mosaic of a blue heron and water lilies behind the fireplace.”
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Carolynn Burns loves drawing, loves color and loves scuba diving in the Caribbean. She put them all together for her latest exhibit in the Beverly J. Corcoran Gallery at Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium.
The show, which includes raku pottery by Alan Kirby in the wall display cases, will run through the end of November.
Featured are colored pencil drawings of tropical fish and plants, along with some photographs.
“This is my fifth or sixth exhibit here, and the first time I’ve included prints in my show,” Burns, said. “We’ll see how that goes.”
She said that she tries to go diving a couple of times a year.
“I do a lot of art between dives,” she said.
She said that she has always done some form of art.
“Color and creativity have always been a large part of my life,” Burns said.
She tried painting in acrylics and watercolors, and did some landscapes, but just didn’t find them completely satisfying. Then Burns discovered colored pencils.
“Colored pencils have allowed me to combine my love of drawing with my love of color,” she said. “I find a finesse and definition with pencils that I don’t find in other media.”
Burns has been earning honors for her work. A piece called “Hen and Chicks II” was chosen for the 2009 Colored Pencil Society of America International Show, and “Hen and Chicks I” is currently in an art show at the Spiva Art Center, Joplin. “Crab,” a drawing of a fiery red crustacean, received an award for best use of color in the fall 2008 art show at Crowder College.
Burns has also won honors at the annual Bourbon County Arts Council Fine Arts Show and in shows sponsored by the former Pittsburg Arts Council.
She signs all her works with a distinctive design that reflects her love of sea creatures. It uses a sea horse for the capital C in Carolynn.
“I was looking through a book of design once and saw the Deco sea horse,” she said. “I thought it would make a C.”
Burns said that in several previous shows she teamed up with Lucy Silliman, who provided her award-winning quilts for the display cases. Both women have been active in the Little Balkans Quilt Guild, and Burns has also done beading, soft sculpture dolls, enameling and basket weaving.
She went to school in Miami, Okla., but has been in Pittsburg since 1972. It wasn’t such a big step to move here, she said, because her folks are from Girard. She and her husband, John, have a farm south of Pittsburg.
“Right now we’re doing some remodeling in the house, and I’m doing a lot of mosaic work,” Burns said. “There’s going to be a shower with an underwater theme, and a mosaic of a blue heron and water lilies behind the fireplace.”
