Notable Indiana Portrait & Landscape Painter Brings “Sand And Sea” To Athens Arts

Tom Slack is an acclaimed Indiana artist who resides in Greenwood. In addition to maintaining a popular blog about the painting life, Slack shows widely in all kinds of venues, has won numerous prizes, and is especially noted for his portrait and landscape commissions. This will be Slack’s first exhibition in our region. Don’t miss this chance to see this gifted Indiana painter here in Montgomery County starting on July 20.

Opening on Thursday and continuing through September 9, Slack’s exhibition “Sea and Sand” is proudly brought to downtown Crawfordsville by Athens Arts. Athens Arts is located at 216 E. Main Street (across from Little Mexico) and visitors may see the show anytime between 10-6 Thursday and Friday or 10-2 on Saturdays. Athens Arts is free and open to the public. An Opening Reception for Tom Slack’s “Sea and Sand” will be held on Friday, July 28 from 6-8. The public is warmly invited to see the work, meet the artist, enjoy light refreshments, and hear local guitarist Rick Pack play.

Tom Slack holds a BA in painting and drawing. That sounds modest enough as a starting point for this award-winning professional artist with over 25 years of experience being represented in galleries, doing commissions, and teaching art classes and workshops. What sets Slack apart and makes his work so sought after (He does portrait and landscape commissions throughout the US, Great Britain, and Japan.) is his attention to the human figure in natural settings. Since the late ‘90s Tom Slack has had one-person shows in over 20 galleries and other venues such as the Hilbert Circle Theatre in Indianapolis. His work has been in many more juried shows and group exhibitions. He is sought after as a judge for juried art shows.

To take a look at Slack’s portrait gallery online is to get a strong sense of why his work is so highly regarded. Seeing the 16 faces represented is like walking into a room of the most vibrant people you think you must already know. Whether we look upon a serene woman’s sunlit face under a straw hat or at an elegant grandmother smiling “straight into the camera,”; or, at a hard-bitten country woman with ruddy cheeks and sun-squinted eyes, or a socialite with high cheekbones, her chin resting in her elegant hand, you’ve met these people before. That teenager with a blonde mane of hair is maybe the daughter of the serious man holding his cello. This effect is arresting. Because the portraits are so alive and full of light, the people portrayed seem to be guests at the very best party where they are being entertained by “The Balladeers,” a couple in sunglasses belting out tunes at a summer festival. Can you hear them?

Strong artists do magic the rest of us can only marvel at. Tom Slack gives us a clue to his signature technique for both landscapes and people: “Whenever we look at anything we are drawn to what glows versus what is flat. The shiny reflections in wet roads, sunlight through flower petals, the highlighted colors that are more easily seen and the halo on an edge of a silhouette are all examples of ‘glow.’ Rather than concentrate on the actual objects, I create a feeling or atmosphere and then work the representation of the items in afterwards. I have attempted to portray this ‘glow’ in my paintings.”

This is a talent, rarely achieved, especially when applied to the human face and to landscapes too. Imagine having your ‘glow’ painted by an artist who sees your light before he sees your features or sees the actual things that surround you.

For this show Slack brings to Athens Arts a wonderful collection of full length human figures in bathing suits and shorts at play along ocean beaches. To see these oil paintings is to be transported to the shore with its immensity of horizon, sky, and sea. The wash of waves becomes audible as you look at the fisherman in “Casting” and watch the guy in shorts and ball cap rear back to throw his line out: underfoot the grit of sugar sand. You too breathe in the sting of salt.

Don’t miss the chance to see this evocative, expert work. “Sea and Sand” will remind you you’re alive. Slack’s work will be for sale. All exhibitions and receptions at Athens Arts are free and open to the public.