By Herald Staff

JASPER — The Krempp Gallery at the Jasper Arts Center will present the artwork of oil painter Betty Beshoar of Frankfort, Kentucky, and potter Monte Young of Jasper during the month of November.

Beshoar’s landscape paintings are an expression of her emotional connection to nature.

“I am a self taught artist and am attracted to the visual vocabulary of the deep woods. I use painting as a means of becoming awake in the wild”, Beshoar said in a press release.

Living on the Elkhorn Creek near Peaks Mill, Kentucky, she has spent many hours near water, wandering the woods and working as a professional aquatic biologist. This familiarity launches many of her paintings.

“My interest in the arts began with fiber art, spinning, weaving and knitting," Beshoar said. "Once I retired as an aquatic biologist, I started oil painting in earnest. I feel a connective thread between my fiber work, painting, and collaging. The tactile qualities of collage and fiber work are somehow echoed in the thick layering or my paintings. My plein air paintings are used as field studies for future works in my studio."

Beshoar studied at Artists' Attic in Lexington, Kentucky; attended Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina, the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and the Three Pines Studio in Cross Village, Michigan.

Young was introduced to making pots at 13. Now, 45 years later, he is still in love with the process, the product, and most of all the use of handmade pottery in his day to day life.

Since graduation from college with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in the mid 1980s, Young has relocated his family to five states with at least a dozen different homes. Regardless of their life situation, he had always maintained a pottery studio and continued to make pots.

“The intention of my pottery is to make well-made traditional forms for daily use which function well and feel good in the user’s hands," Young said. "I want my work to offer rich earthy tones which I hope to achieve through minimal slips and glazes which we fire in our cross draft wood kiln two to three times each year.”

The exhibit will be in the Krempp Gallery from Nov. 4 to 25. Due to COVID-19, there will not be an Opening Reception.

The Krempp Gallery, located in the Jasper Arts Center adjacent to the Vincennes University Jasper campus, is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. School groups, clubs and students are welcome. Admission is free.

For more information, call the Arts Center at 812-482-3070.