Artist to exhibit her flower power

By Kristen Peterson (contact)

Friday, July 10, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Courtesy

"Untitled," 22-by-30 inches, oil on paper, a collaboration by Mary Warner and Helga Watkins.

Courtesy

Screen print by Helga Watkins, "Pollinating Crystal."

Mary Warner is something of a celebrity on the local art scene. She flies under the radar, occasionally emerging and drawing crowds to highly anticipated exhibits.

So popular is her work that a series of smaller and more affordable pieces quickly sold out at the preview of a Trifecta Gallery show one year, leaving latecomers grumbling.

But there’s good news for Warner fans. This month the artist has two shows — at UNLV’s Donna Beam Gallery and with artist Helga Watkins at the West Wing gallery at Rosemary’s Restaurant.

Both exhibits are worth checking out.

Warner captures the behavior and personalities of flowers with such intimacy and depth in her botanical paintings that the work seems almost voyeuristic. Her subjects are playful, independent, tending to their duties.

Sometimes Warner juxtaposes the flowers with architecture in the background, giving us a chance to assess the natural and man-made structures.

Her works are mostly representational and her technique, sensitivity and maturity are what one expects from a skilled artist who has spent a lifetime painting.

Pairing Warner and Watkins at the West Wing was the clever idea of artist Wendy Kveck, who curates the restaurant gallery.

Watkins’ screenprints and designs emit the same intensely organic style as Warner’s paintings. Both teach at UNLV. Warner is an associate professor of painting and drawing; Watkins teaches art and graphic design.

Kveck got the idea of putting together the joint show after seeing Watkins’ work at a juried exhibit at the Las Vegas Art Museum. Warner and Watkins collaborated on some works, merging realism and graphic-style abstraction in works that are stunningly contemporary and traditional.