The upcoming show, “Microclimate,” by Don Meyer will be on display in the Steckline Gallery from March 30 to April 20.
The exhibit will open with a Final Friday showing beginning at 5 p.m. and ending at 7 p.m. March 30. An Art for Lunch event will be held at noon Tuesday, April 3.
A native of the countryside of upstate New York, Meyer traveled to Kansas to earn his degrees. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Arts from Emporia State University, and a Master of Fine Arts from Kansas State University. His work has recently been showcased at the Emporia Arts Center and North Topeka Art Center.
His love of art began with drawing cartoons when he was 8 years old. At age 15, his parents bought him pastel and oil wash and that was when he began to develop his artistic skill. One of the artists he found fascinating and who made an early impression on him was the 19th-century French artist Edgar Degas, whose art was a part of the Impressionists.
While pursuing his undergraduate degree he would often take a camera with him on walks, snap photos of people, and create large realistic drawings. Meyer engaged in crafting realist drawings and pastel and oil wash abstraction art.
His upcoming gallery, “Microclimate,” is abstraction art. On his website, he states, “Line and color, the basics of visual expression, occupy a central place in my work. Early on, pastel and oil wash were my primary materials; vehicles toward an abstraction that allowed the inherent beauty of these materials to interact.”
Meyer said microclimate, in gardening terms, is an isolated climate like a greenhouse. He loves to garden and that is partly where the inspiration for these pieces came from.
“My inspiration develops with my ideas,” said Meyer. “I start with a small, loose painting of the subject, then I transfer to a large 50-inch by 60-inch canvas.”
He described the process as having a conversation.
“The picture talks to me and then I start improvising with color and lines. It looks loose but it’s a step by step process.”
Currently, Meyer lives in the old Boston Grange Hall that was built in 1919 as a meeting hall for farmers and their families.
He hopes to open a gallery in the Boston Grange in the near future.
