“It can be an artist or someone else. Last year, we had a psychologist who talked about how the brain works during the creative process.”
Members have also taken a field trip to muralist Kent Twitchell’s studio, said Hansen, a Burbank resident.
“He painted the huge mural of the Los Angeles Philharmonic members on a building in Downtown Los Angeles,” she said.
Membership is drawn from Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, but there are a few members in other parts of the country. The group also is involved with philanthropic work in the arts.
“We organize fundraisers for scholarships for merging artists — students,” she said.
“We gather art materials and give them to disadvantaged children.”
As chairwoman of the Burbank show, Hansen said she found the venue, produced the rules for submission and secured juror John Zarcone, a life-drawing instructor at Glendale Community College.
This year the submissions are wide-ranging.
Moody abstracts, realistic figure and landscape paintings and everything in between — including oil, acrylic and pastel — are included, she said.
Nine paintings received awards.
Overall, all the paintings winning prizes were original in their composition and use of color, Zarcone said.
Artist Nessa Cooper’s piece, “Red Truck,” won the Women Painters West Award, which came with a $500 cash prize.
“This painting had all those things and a poignancy I responded to,” Zarcone said.
“The red truck is parked on a city street against a background of misty, rainy conditions. Somehow it’s very poetic.”
Before Zarcone was asked to serve as a juror for the exhibition, he said he had never heard of Women Painters West.
“I was surprised by the level of sophistication when I saw the website and when I judged the show,” he said.
