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Henry County Arts & Crafts Guild

Area artists to converge
on winery for fall show

Newcomers, veterans
to exhibit at Smith-Berry

By Helen E. McKinney
Contributing Writer


NEW CASTLE, Ky. (September 2005) – It’s not unusual for Kathy Wariner to pack a sketchbook under her arm wherever she goes. Having grown up on a farm in Indiana, animals, plants and occasionally people make up the array of natural subjects she prefers for her watercolor artwork.

Kathy Wariner

Photo provided

Kathy Wariner in front of
one of her paintings.

Wariner sketches a subject in ink, then fills it in with color. “I’m not a traditional watercolorist,” Wariner said.
Wariner majored in fine arts at Indiana University Southeast. She first went into mechanical drafting but after taking a fine arts class, “fell in love with it,” she said.
Having lived in Tennessee off and on for years, Wariner finally relocated to Pendleton, Ky., a year and a half ago. There, she sought ways to become involved in the arts, locally.
From the moment Wariner heard about the Henry County Arts & Craft Guild, she was immediately interested. She and her daughter, Jessi, were juried in and will participate in the upcoming sixth annual Henry County Arts and Craft Guild Fall Show from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sept. 24.
There will be more than 25 artists and special events associated with the show, which will be held at the Smith-Berry Winery on Hwy. 202 in New Castle. The winery is located on a small family farm, which until a few years ago was a traditional cattle and tobacco farm. The owners diversified it by transforming it into a grape growing, wine-making business.
Admission is free from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. After 5 p.m., an admission is charged for an evening concert by John Berry and the Outliers, who will perform their own brand of honkytonk country music.
The guild was invited by winery owners, Chuck and Mary Berry Smith, to hold their annual art show at the winery, said guild president Sharon Silvers. “The location and atmosphere will be ideal with the art theme,” she said.
The guild was formed six years ago with the goal of showcasing local artists and their works. Of the guild’s 28 members, 25 will participate, along with a few invited guests. Silvers said the show is a way for patrons to see Henry County’s artists and their creative ideas.
Wariner, 43, has participated in similar shows in the past, and has held three one-woman shows of her own. She sells prints of her artwork because they are more affordable than the originals, she said.

Kathy Wariner's bunny

Photo provided

One of Kathy Wariner's
paintings of a bunny.

Her prints of various animals hang at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville, Tenn. In a juried show of about 500 entrants, Wariner was in a group of 20 artists whose artwork was chosen to hang in the children’s rooms at the hospital.
Wariner will be joined by Tony De Caro, another artist new to the Henry County Arts & Crafts Guild. De Caro has his own business, Iron Leaf Forge, from which he fashions hand-forged items.
De Caro “will make anything anybody wants, as long as it’s not too big to handle,” he said. He does a lot of commissioned work and when creating a piece, “Customers give me a lot of freedom.” De Caro will go so far as to visit a customer’s home to get a feel for what he wants.
De Caro, 51, said he enjoys the collaboration of working out details with his client, and makes a lot of sketches before actually beginning a piece of artwork. “Iron is amazing,” said De Caro. The idea of a hard solid piece of iron changing into a piece of artwork that is alive, is part of the appeal for De Caro.
His fascination with iron began as a hobby while he continued his full-time job as a message therapist. A discussion with a client one day about what to do with the client’s hand-painted tiles from Portugal led De Caro to craft them into a table.
Working with iron is the “single, most creative thing I’ve ever done,” said De Caro. He uses a lot of different mediums before actually working with the iron. De Caro said he likes to ad glass to the pieces he crafts, fashioning items such as kerosene lamps.
Originally from Miami, DeCaro moved to Henry County in 1981. He said all of his artwork is custom made and the cost is one-half to three-fourths the price charged by downtown Louisville forge crafters.
De Caro will have hand-wrought items such as fireplace pokers, shovels and fire screens at the art show. Other artwork on display will include wooden bowls, handcrafted furniture, primitives, paintings, baskets, and painted gourds.

• For more information contact Sharon Silvers at (502) 845-4560.

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