Watercolors by Mary Lee Reineking (Almond, Wisconsin)
With
Sculpture by Gene Reineking (Almond, Wisconsin)

With much excitement and anticipation, The Alexander House Center for Art and History in Port Edwards announces a new summer exhibit, “Aqua – Lithic” opening Friday, July 8 with a reception from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The show will feature two artists from Almond, Wisconsin; Watercolors by Mary Lee Reineking and Stone Sculpture by Gene Reineking.

The artists will be present at the event and refreshments will be served. The exhibit will continue through August 23, 2016.

Mary Lee Reineking enjoyed a 34 year long career as a public school speech and language pathologist, but she had always loved art and had spent thousands of hours over many years at art exhibits, street fairs, and gallery visits with her artist husband, Gene. In 2008, she made the decision to delve into art-making for herself. A logical direction to pursue were watercolors, as she had always been drawn to them. Since then she has taken many classes and workshops, watched DVDs, devoured books written by wonderful artists, and became generally enamored with her second career.

Her painting style reflects her love of vivid colors and elements of negative painting techniques. She chooses representational subject matter but describes her work as expressive realism.

She is a member of Q Gallery Artists Cooperative in Stevens Point and a studio artist on the Hidden Studios Art Tour.

Her work was featured at Q Gallery Artists Cooperative in 2014 during the exhibit “Mary Lee Reineking and Friends: Watercolor Invitational”. It has also been included in various other Q Gallery exhibits as well as juried exhibitions at Riverfront Art Center, Stevens Point.

She has watercolors in the collection at Marshfield Clinic-Stevens Point campus, had work displayed at Sentry’s @1800 Gallery and in Culture and Agriculture 2015 at New Visions Gallery in Marshfield.

In 2016 she and her husband Gene had a two-person exhibit, Flora and Fauna, at The Lucille Tack Center for the Arts in Spencer.

For more information and to see examples of her work, go to www.hiddenstudiosarttour.com or look under member artists at www.qartists.com.

Gene Reineking’s career in the visual arts spans forty years including studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point working under Richard Schneider, this prepared the artist for an eighteen year career as a stoneware and porcelain potter. It was followed by ten years as a wood turner and maker of fine wooden boxes. The past fifteen years have been spent exploring sculpture in stone and wood. Presently, sculpting in stone, the artist’s work is informed by the close study of the hawks, herons, and other animals that make up the majority of his portfolio. Living with many of them on a daily basis, he sees the intimate moments in the lives of his subjects.  In bringing the public close up views of Mother Nature’s wild children, the artist celebrates the falcon, the tundra swan, the horse, and their grace,  power, and beauty.  He portrays his subjects with sparse, clean lines that allow the color and   visual texture of the materials to support the designs. Alabaster and  soapstone are the artist’s preferred materials. Both are soft enough to be worked primarily with hand tools. This makes for a slow, studied work pace with minimal noise, allowing him to contemplate his next moves. He is currently a signature member of The Society of Animal Artists and a  member of The National Sculpture Society.

In 2015 Gene’s work was shown at:    Art From the Back Forty Portage Center for the Arts, Portage, WI,   Arte de Avian Tubac Center of the Arts, Tubac, AZ and at Birds in Art Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI.  His work is also part of many public collections which  include:   River Valley Bank Wausau, WI,  International Bank of Amherst Amherst, WI,  Rehabilitation Hospital of Wisconsin Waukesha, WI,   Marshfield Clinic Wisconsin Rapids and Stevens Point, WI,   and Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum Wausau, WI

Gene will have a piece of sculpture in The Birds in Art Exhibit at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum in Wausau,WI this fall. He will also be doing an artist in residency at the Woodson in November of 2016.

GENE REINEKING  RED SKY STUDIO   Almond, WI  redsky@uniontel.net

The Alexander House, 1131 Wisconsin River Dr., is sponsored by the Alexander Charitable Foundation, and is open Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. or by special appointment. For more information, please call 715-887-3442, visitwww.alexanderhouseonline.org or search “Alexander House Center for Art and History” on Facebook.