NORA OTHIC Animal Show
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art
Nora Othic: Animal Show
June 7th - July 27th
Nora Othic is considered one of the top regionalist painters in the Midwest. She builds on a legacy from her artistic predecessors such as Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton and the WPA artists from the Depression era, all known for celebrating rural America.
Othic moved to Marceline, Missouri when she was 7 years old and still lives on a farm today. Her rural experiences form and sustain her work as an artist, with numerous museum and gallery exhibitions in the Midwest to her credit. Her paintings reflect her lifestyle and focus on the ordinary aspects of life, exploring relationships between people, animals and the environment. Her straightforward depiction of the everyday approaches the heroic.
Othic has felt an important connection to farm animals since childhood, seeing them as a bridge between humanity and the natural world. Every year, she travels to the Missouri State Fair to take reference photos for her paintings. Not only are the animals (prime examples of their breeds) available for close-ups; they are shampooed, brushed, clipped, and polished to perfection, so that her paintings of them become iconic as well as descriptive.
Othic’s paintings and drawings of horses, roosters, pigs and rabbits are in a class of their own. While Othic often shows humans in action, completing a task or caring for an animal, her animals are presented in stillness, tranquil and dignified, each a blue ribbon winner. She is a sympathetic and keen observer and clearly sees each creature as a unique individual and nowhere is this more apparent than in her portraits of rabbits. Elizabeth Kirsch has said of Othic’s rabbits, “Not since Albrecht Durer has any artist seemed to care as much about these gentle creatures.”
Four Seasons Suite: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, oil on canvas, 60” x 24” each.
Three Sheared Sheep Oil on canvas
24” x 36”
Top: California Rabbit on Pattern Oil on canvas
11” x 14”
Bottom: Lounging Rabbit Oil on canvas 11” x 14”
Fluffy Rooster Oil on canvas
20” x 16”
Two Men Grooming a Sheep Pastel on paper
21” x 27”
Top: Tri-colored Rabbit Oil on canvas
14” x 11”
Bottom: Rabbit on Red and Ochre Oil on canvas
16” x 16”
Two Belgian Mares Oil on canvas
36” x 36”
Woman, Man, Three Horses
Pastel on paper
29” x 37”
Boy with Livestock, Oil on canvas, 48” x 72”
Top: Dwarf Rabbit Oil on canvas
8” x 10”
Bottom: Fawn Colored Rabbit Oil on canvas
8” x 10”
Orange Rabbit on Green Oil on canvas
14” x 11”
Red Hen Oil on canvas
12” x 15”
Sumatran Rooster Oil on canvas 20” x 24”
Top: White Rabbit on Red Oil on canvas
10” x 8”
Bottom: Shy Rabbit Oil on canvas
10” x 8”
Chunky Rabbit Pastels on paper
10” x 14”
Young Bull Oil on canvas
30” x 36”
Tall Spotted Rabbit Pastel on paper
14” x 11”
Two White Goats Oil on canvas
24” x 36”
Gypsy Horse Oil on canvas
32” x 36”
Three Men, Two Horses, Dog Pastels on paper
29” x 37”
Hen on Blue and Celadon Oil on canvas
16” x 12”
Yellow Horse Oil on canvas
30” x 42”