Seniors organize art show

COEUR d’ALENE — Painting seniors from Lake City Center are looking for support, and they’re hoping to find it during the center’s first art show and sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 17 at 1916 N. Lakewood Drive, Coeur d'Alene.

“It’s not the money, it’s the approval of someone who likes your work,” painter Greg Thornton said Friday, during a painting workshop. “And nothing inspires you more than having someone that likes your work.”

Thornton paints with Yuki Sacra, Shirley Collinson, Clifford Banks and anyone who joins them, at a twice-weekly artists workshop at the center. Artists bring projects to work on, now with the goal of finishing them for the show. During the workshops, the artists learn from each other, though no one really teaches.

The “class” provides them with a community, and since Saturday, the opportunity to sell their work.

“We’re all our own worst critics,” Thornton said.

He enjoys the workshops for an opportunity to hear compliments from his fellow painters, to get an outside perspective on his work and just to be together.

“I consider these guys my friends,” watercolor artist Banks said. “We talk, ya know. We can communicate our feelings to and with each other. Painting gets me in a peaceful frame of mind. Then, I can speak more freely.”

Banks is mostly an abstract painter, though he’s currently working on a painting of an iris.

“I’ve got post-traumatic stress disorder, and painting calms me,” he said.

It's a condition Banks has struggled with since his time in Vietnam, where he served as a Marine. He’s painted on and off since he was a young boy.

Thornton started painting with acrylics around 2012, sometimes landscapes, pictures of his grandchildren and other things that bring him joy.

Collinson likes to draw, but she was inspired to paint landscapes after seeing so many wonderful paintings around her during the workshops. She’s taking up acrylic and picking up techniques from being around other painters.

Sacra has worked with acrylics for years and likes to paint birds, capturing their fierceness.

Sacra is small, at just around 5 feet tall, but mighty, according to her painter friends.

“She’s the one that put this whole thing together,” Collinson said.

When Sacra asked Lake City Center administrative director Marlys Silva to host the center’s first art show, it was a no-brainer.

Hosting the show is a win-win for Silva, because artists will donate portions of the proceeds to the center, seniors will get to display their work and the community will get to meet the artists.

“Hopefully we get enough foot traffic so they can sell some of their paintings,” Silva said.

Sacra wins because she loves to see people around her doing well, and she loves to make things happen.

“If something needs to get done, she’ll do it,” Collinson said.

None of the painters know what to expect from the show, but they look forward to it. They’ll get to meet people, talk about their work, and see people’s faces when they like something they made.

“That’s why we do this,” Thornton said.

Workshops from 9 a.m. to noon Mondays and Fridays at the Lake City Center and are $1 for members or $2 for non-members.