The Town Talk from Alexandria, Louisiana • Page 23

C-3 r. Town Talk, Alexandria-Pineville, Friday, July 6, 1984 Hard Work Goes Into 'Effortless' Look i if f'r really "affect me little once I close the door of my studio." Besides, he said, his art is different from that of his father, who taught him as a teen-ager. "I think a lot of people think of the name 'Wyeth' and they think of open fields and weathered barns," he said. "But I never painted a weathered barn people just get conditioned" Asked what his father thinks of his work, Wyeth smiled and said, "That's for him to say." Wyeth said he doesnt think ahead to viewers and exhibitions when he paints. He just toils to capture the "definitive" image of his subject whatever it may be.

"I get so excited," he said. "I still am under the illusion that I'm going to get the definitive view of what I'm painting. But afterwards you have great reservations especially when you look at them a year later. You say, 'What was in my head He said having an exhibition is a terrifying experience. "You're sort of standing there naked," he said.

"Sometimes you feel a bit of a jerk it can be painfuL" Wyeth, who paints 40 or 50 pieces a year and works virtually every day, said he has to push himself. "Painting is not an easy process for me," he said. "It can be technically difficult It's inconceivable to me that someone can say they can relax when a person with a jack-o-lantern on his head. His love of nature is depicted in 1975's "The Islander," portraying a proud ram surveying the ocean from a grass-covered island cliff. Wyeth, who lives in Wilmington, DeL, and summers on Maine's spectacular Monhegan Island, says his prediliction for nature and animal scenes is a reflection of his environment "You work with what you know best" he said.

"If I had been brought up in Manhattan I would probably do taxicabs and street lights." He says Monhegan Island alone provides him with an endless subject matter. "If I could live and paint for four lifetimes, I still wouldn't scratch the surface," he said of the material at Monhegan for an artist to capture on canvas. Wyeth's father, now 66, is best known for "Christina's World," a painting of a young girl in a sea of wheat that is among the most recognizable of American artworks. The younger Wyeth whose grandfather was a famous illustrator said being a painter in his father's shadow has been a mixed blessing. "It has its benefits," he said.

"Clearly there's an accessibility. You get to meet people and doors are open that otherwise might not have been open. But there's the great drawback of your work being endlessly compared to your father's." He said such comparisons By Ed Uoq PORTLAND, Maine (UPI) -Artist Jamie Wyeth, scion of America's most famous painting family, says he cant understand how anyone can say they relax when they paint That's because Wyeth, son of Andrew Weyth one of America's foremost living artists and a representational artist himself puts his soul into his work in a frenzy of enthusiasm. The results are most pleasing to the eye. "Jamie Wyeth: An American View," a new exhibit of 32 of his paintings, opened recently at the Portland Museum of Art and it shows what a delightfully eclectic artist he is.

It features portraits of John Kennedy, pop artist Andy Warhol and a local man Wyeth met along the railroad tracks in Chadds Ford, where he grew up. It also includes seascapes, amusing paintings of jack-o-lanterns and studies of animals. They all share a look of effortlessness. Wyeth, 38, says nothing could be farther from the truth. "I drain myself," he said of his work.

"And the only one (painting) that really counts is the one I'm working on. I get so excited that's the only thing that exists at the time." He scoffs when asked the theory behind his work. "I try not to theorize what I'm saying the painting is my statement" So in 1965's "Draft Age" depicting a rebellious-looking young man in leather coat and sunglasses one can see how Wyeth was affected by the Vietnam war era. His playful mood is evoked in 1972's "Pumpkin Head" featuring "Precisely," acrylic on paper, is among Leslie Louisiana State University-Alexandria Bolton Elliott's paintings to be on exhibit at the Library Thursday through Aug. 9.

LSUA Library Announces Exhibit Lizards will be the dominant motif in Leslie Elliott's paintings to be exhibited at LSUA's Bolton Library Thursday through Aug. 9. Ms. Elliott, curator for education at The Alexandria MuseumVisual Arts Center, uses lizards instead of human figures in her work. The artist's paintings are narrative in nature, drawn from experiences in her life.

The story line of a painting is usually indicated by its title. The exhibit will open at a 9 30 a.m. until 11 30 a.m. coffee Thursday. A graduate of Louisiana State University, Ms.

Elliott has taught print-making, painting, drawing, graphic design and art education at her alma mater and at University of New Orleans. She has also taught for the Baton Rouge and Calcasieu arts and humanities councils. Ms. Elliott's prints and paintings have been exhibited nationally in juried, group and one-person exhibitions. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the El Paso Museum, the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, LSU and the Louisiana Division of the Arts.

Viewing hours will be 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Both the opening coffee and the exhibit will be open to the public. 'Great Art Belongs to the Public' Melendez' acknowledged still life masterpiece.

Winter Vacations From 2 Weeks To 3 Months Featuring THE CONCORDE (The Ship Of The Year) Visit 4 Continents and Explore 25 Exotic Ports The Linskys never consulted an expert again, relying on their own eyes. Some of her auction triumphs now on display at the Met are one of Carlo Crivelli's finest madonnas, the first portrait painted by Peter Paul Rubens, a rare Francois Boucher landscape, and Luis Franciscan Sale! HILL-HARRIS Lee at 13th ficiency expert one walk through a plant I noticed little things that could be improved that would earn my year's She believes that an unerring eye for detail gave her an innate advantage as a collector, especially of beautifully proportioned examples of Louis XV furniture. "If something was one thousandth of an inch off, I'd know it," she said. "I never bought a fake." Mrs. Linsky bought her first painting when she was 25 and began collecting Faberge art objects in the 1930s.

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tor chiUlren Stride-Rite, Little (xifHzio, Jumping Jacks. For men Florshiem Dexter. ORIGINAL. LADIES' By Frederick M. Wlnship UPI Senior Editor NEW YORK (UPI) A Ukrainian immigrant who was brought to the United States when she was 6 months old sits in her palatial Fifth Avenue apartment and muses on her new role as one of the the Metropolitan Museum's great patrons.

"Anyway you look at it, it's fantastic," said Belle Linsky, a small but commanding white-haired woman of 79. "I'm very pleased because my collection is now where it belongs. Great art belongs to the public." Mrs. Linsky was too ill with bronchitis to attend any of the events marking the Met's opening of the Jack and Belle Linsky Galleries to the public June 21. She will see the installation for the first time when her doctor permits.

A series of intimate, silk-walled rooms with finely detailed woodwork house the collection ac-. quired by Mrs. Linsky and her husband, who died in 1980, over a period of 50 years. It includes Old Master paintings, bronze sculptures, French 18th century furnishings, European porcelains, and the work of goldsmiths and jewelers. These have been conservatively valued by experts at $60 million, making it one of the largest gifts ever received by the Met, comparable to those of J.P.

Morgan, H.O. Havemeyer, and Robert Lehman. The gift left Mrs. Linsky's apartment almost empty, although she has retained some favorite paintings and antique furniture. "I should have kept more," she commented.

"But the collection became too much of a responsibility, keeping it cool and keeping it humidified. I'm too old to bother with all that nonsense. So instead of living in 14 rooms, I've closed some of them off." Jack Linsky's family also emigrated from the Ukraine. They were penniless and he got only a fourth grade education. In his 20s, he invented and began manufacturing the Swingline stapler and later acquired Wilson Jones, the nation's largest looseleaf paper company.

Mrs. Linsky was his business partner in both enterprises. In 1970 they sold Swingline to the American Tobacco Company for $210 million. Mrs. Linsky was Swingline's ef LADIES' MEN'S Buy One Pair Of Sale Shoes at the CHILDREN'S Regular Price Get a Second tT of Sale Shoes up to Equal Values for Only li LARGE GROUP HANDBAGS INCLUDED SHOE STORES BZZ9 i I BIG I SALE THERESA'S DRESS SHOP l( Villi RatUJJ aiexandria mall HD3CB320'20 in the centre all sales final N0LAYAWAYS m-hm mmw wt.fatji.ionu5-473i NO RETURNS.