'This is a fun show' Collaborative exhibition focuses on color, light and outdoors

Dec. 3—BEDFORD, Pa. — A collaborative collection of art is showcasing the region's natural beauty through the creative vision of four artists.

"Color, Light and the Outdoors," an exhibition of friends and family featuring the works of Kevin Kutz, Sandra Jackson, Eddie Mitchell and William Pfahl, is on display through Feb. 5 at Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Bedford, located in the Anderson House, 137 E. Pitt St.

The paintings offer viewers a visual journey, capturing the subtleties of color, light and texture illustrated in the houses, fields, flowers and trees within their works.

"It was a journey for the artists to come together with their art, and they have a lot of good energy," said Christi Draves, SAMA- Bedford site coordinator.

"Their pieces really vibe together. They talk about color, light and the outdoors and they all hit the nail on the head."

The exhibit includes 58 mixed media pieces in multiple mediums.

"You'll see a lot of oil, watercolor, acrylic, ink and pastel," Draves said.

"This is a very complex and versatile show with the mediums. They all play with shadow and light, and with some you can see the dynamic contrast. They all have an enjoyable, playful nature."

Kutz used to work mostly in plein air, but changed his mode of painting after cancer treatment.

He worked in other mediums and took on several years of commission work, including a painting of Dr. John Anderson, which currently hangs at SAMA-Bedford.

Kutz was given the ability to use a large Victorian home as a studio space and produced 40 new pieces, which were shown during a special one-day exhibition in 2021.

He has earned acclaim for his impressionistic paintings depicting the region, and "his work is a biography of southwestern Pennsylvania."

"Kevin is a Bedford artist, so he paints what he sees," Draves said.

"There's a lot of locals in the area who he would talk to when he was on the move and he's painted them."

Jackson is originally from the North Side of Pittsburgh.

She attended The Cooper Union and lived and worked in New York City and Europe.

"We try to perceive with our limited skills the depth of creation around us," she said.

"A painting is perception filtered through the mind of another, combined with the happiness of mechanical making," she said.

"Through these media and ranges of seeing, we may hope to learn something of the mind and nature and wonder."

Jackson resides in Ligonier.

"A lot of her work is landscapes and there's a creative playfulness," Draves said.

"She dabbles with paint, and it plays with your mind and it's engaging."

Mitchell is captivated by light and color, which is appreciated in his paintings.

He identifies light as extravagant joy and ingratiating optimism. He also is enamored with the magic of color, which enhances the play of light and intensifies the feeling of cheerfulness and delight.

Mitchell earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts at Cleveland Institute of Art and has had a studio for more than 35 years.

He has taught college art courses for the past 28 years at Lakeland Community College and Cleveland Institute of Art.

Mitchell has been represented in galleries throughout Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania and works for numerous prominent public locations.

"You wonder how he does the shadows because it's like they are moving and you can feel the air and the light," Draves said.

"It's almost warm when you look at it."

Pfahl is a plein-air painter who works with oils and pastels.

Residing in the Pittsburgh area, he is best known for his cityscapes and landscapes of the region.

Pfahl earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts at Rhode Island School of Design and studied in Rome and Florence, Italy, during his senior year in college.

He also earned a teaching certificate in art education through Elmira College and has studied figure and portrait art in Philadelphia and in Pittsburgh from Studio Incamminati instructors.

Pfahl enjoys painting from life and believes his work has a narrative that speaks to people's powerful relationship with nature and the environment. He believes he has accomplished a deep appreciation of the world when he paints it.

"He has classic images of town with classic-looking buildings, and they're very clean," Draves said.

For the exhibit, pieces are intermixed, allowing viewers to see the flow of the work.

"Some were more of an outdoor gardening area, and there's some that have different buildingscapes that look like a city or a town," Draves said. "This is a fun show. You can't go in there and not be wowed by it."

To celebrate the exhibition, an opening reception was held Friday.

Museum hours are noon to 4:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays.

Admission to the exhibit is free.

For more information, call 814-589-3020 or visit www.sama-art.org.