Senior class of painters showed at Art Association

KENT — Every Thursday morning, year round, about 10 to 12 senior painters gather at the Senior Center for two hours of painting. The group is officially known as the Monday Morning Art Group. Member E.J. Johnston said even though they moved their weekly painting classes to Thursday mornings, the members decided to keep the original name.The oldest member of the group is 93-year-old Marie Camp. All are Kent residents.The art group is about more than just painting. The members also heartily enjoy companionship and many laughs as they concentrate on their work.Teacher Connie Horton helps the members learn new painting skills and to complete their individual projects.The members who attended the painting class on March 8, were excited about having some of their art exhibited in the Kent Art Association’s student art show from March 10 to 18.Bonnie Fremgen said many of the group members, but not all, also paint at their homes.Members of the group painted a large mural of the Kent Falls State Park waterfall on a wall of the Kent Senior Center. It took about three weeks to complete that project.On that afternoon, Jacque Petersen was working on a landscape of mountains southwest of Las Vegas, Nev., where she grew up. She was painting from memory.Fremgen was busy painting a scene of a country church in Vermont. “We have a home there,” she said of her choice of subject, that is why I selected this view.” She is painting the church both from memory and from a photograph she took of a favorite view.E. J. Johnston, creating a lighthouse on her canvas, was asked where the building was. “Imaginary,” she said succinctly.Pat Gallagher prefers to do portraits. As a way of refining her technique, she copies portraits she finds in art museum catalogues.Camp was engrossed in painting a farm scene. When asked how she chose her subject, she said, “Because my late husband was a farmer.”All the artists were painting in watercolor. Some had extensive brush collections with them. Members of the Monday Morning Art Group are Holly Adams, Camp, Beth Dooley, Dorli DiGregorio, Fremgen, Pat Gallagher, Horton, Johnston, Petersen, Margaret Solomon, Arnold Valentine and Alice Wolfe.The Kent Art Association is located at 21 South Main St. (Route 7). For information on the Kent senior art classes call Park and Recreation at 860-927-1003.To learn more about the Kent Art Association, go online to www.kentart.org.