Lakeland University has a wide range of talents for students to excel in and this Art Exhibition was the highlight of one of those talents.

The Art Exhibition ran from Mar. 26 to Apr. 23 at the lobby of Bradley Theater and those pieces stood out for every reason that they should have. They were handpicked to form the professors that taught them how to do those different pieces, and they thought that the pieces that were chosen, were special in their way shape, or form.

Talking to two different students whose pieces were in the Exhibition, Abby Baumgartner, was one of those students. Baumgartner explained her piece as, “a master copy, which is basically to create a copy of a professional watercolorists’ work. I chose to do Carolyn Brady because I love her style and colors. I also like the piece itself because I love flowers.”

Baumgartner had to be careful in the way that she did this piece because she had to follow the artist’s style herself and think like that artist. Baumgartner also explained that if she could change one thing about her watercolor painting, it would be to make the colors pop more than they do now because she explained that, “with watercolor, it is difficult because the medium is somewhat muted colors.” That is hard to master but Baumgartner took her chances and created a piece that copied the work of Carolyn Brady and was shown to all the students on campus.

Another student was Elizabeth Roe, who is known on campus for her painting and drawings. This is not the first time Roe has been to the Art Exhibition, and since Roe is a senior, she got her little exhibition. She was able to show off her work for her four years at Lakeland.

Roe had to explain that her paintings had different inspirations to them and it is because, “My mood influences the subject matter I want to paint, for example, if I’m feeling excited or happy I like to paint abstract and if I’m feeling stressed out or calm I like to focus my attention on realism. I am influenced by many Renaissance artists, as well as the people and environments I surround myself with.”

What some people may not know from Roe and her pieces is that if she were to make a mistake in the piece, she would simply fix the mistake, or she would adapt the painting to the mistake that was made. She does not think that there truly is anything called a mistake because she explained that it can always be fixed or rearranged to make the painting.

The last thing that Roe had explained was how long the pieces she worked on took, and she said” my abstract paintings were the quickest to finish as I didn’t have to be precise in details with them. They took maybe two weeks’ worth of classes. The realistic portraits/landscapes take much longer as I’m kind of a perfectionist! Pallas and the Centaur as well as Lady with an Ermine took the most time -probably a month or more. I like to spend a lot of time outside of class working in the studio on my paintings.”