Review

"Sycamore at Sedona," Pastel.

Jennylynne Gragg

8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Lee's Summit City Hall
220 Green St.
Lee's Summit, MO
816.969.1000

Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday
Runs through: Oct. 15

Artist's site: http://www.jennylynnegragg.com

It's difficult, often, to sum up an exhibition in one word. But in this case, one word — organic — keeps pushing to the front of the pack.

Perhaps it's the subject matter in Jennylynne Gragg's oils and pastels, which are on display at Lee's Summit City Hall until mid-October.

Gragg favors scenes from nature, as in Sycamore at Sedona (pictured above), as well as emotionally intimate portraits of people and their pets. Her paintings and pastels strike a balance between realism and Impressionism, conveying both a sense of that which is being depicted and Gragg's own feelings about her subjects.

Beyond that, in continuance of the "organic" theme, she creates her works in the locations she depicts across the Midwest, the Great Plains and the Southwest.

My pastels and oils are an impressionist view of how I see the world, writes Gragg, who is largely self-taught (yet another organic process). Whether creating plein air paintings or portraits from life, I strive to relate the emotion of the moment.

(Gragg does make one notable exception to her in-person rule, both for an understandable reason and for a good cause. She is the founder of the Grateful Hearts Project, through which she and other volunteer artists provide painted portraits — free of charge — to the families of military personnel from Kansas and Missouri who have died in the Iraqi and Afghan wars.) 

The Lee's Summit show itself is also organic in that it will change over the course of its three-month run, as pieces sell and as Gragg creates new ones. Repeated visits, then, are likely to yield new views — and new chances for viewers to develop an organic chemistry with Gragg's work.

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