Women’s art has cachet and character with a healthy dose of attitude

When you think of ladies with attitude, does a particular name come to mind? A relative? A performer? A former girlfriend? Yourself? The one that got away? The one you wish would get away?

Nearly every woman photographed in “Vanity Fair” magazine seems to be a lady with attitude. So did most of the women painted by John Singer Sargent. Lady Mary of “Downton Abbey” has more attitude than most.

When I heard about the latest exhibit in a community art gallery in Henderson, it was the name of the show that grabbed me: “Ladies with Attitude.”

So I trekked to the Henderson Multigenerational Center at 250 S. Green Valley Parkway to check out the gallery. If it was awful, I wouldn’t write about it. Fortunately, it wasn’t. It won’t put the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art out of business, but I enjoyed the 29 oil paintings of women by 18 artists, all but two of them women.

Oil is not my favorite medium; watercolors are. (I took a watercoloring class and painted a leaf. When finished, it resembled an Oriental shoe. The teacher suggested I learn to draw first, but I wanted to skip that step. Big mistake.)

The exhibit opened last Monday and runs through March 22, so there’s plenty of time to drop by if you’re in the Henderson ’hood.

Kathleen Gannon, who told me about the show, had two pieces exhibited — “Always the Ballerina” and “Gianna’s Apprehension.”

The ballerina was based on a friend in a kitchen in the attitude pose. Yes, that really is the name of a ballet pose. She’s balanced on one toe with her leg behind her, one hand holding a frying pan, the other a spoon.

Her friend, Gannon said, “is always a ballerina, even when she’s taking care of her children, even when she’s cooking.”

Gannon’s second portrait was of a young woman in a white dress. I took her for a nervous debutante, but Gannon said that was not her intention.

“I was looking for a dignified look,” Gannon said. “And she developed an expression.”

Gannon said the woman could have been apprehensive about marriage.

An art appreciation student from the College of Southern Nevada arrived, assigned to review the show. I asked which ones she would want to take home. She picked Gannon’s ballerina and Sun-Jung Choi’s portrait of a South Korean queen called “Silent Strength.”

She didn’t want her name used, but the student liked the humorous aspect of the ballerina and the questions raised in “Silent Strength.” What was this woman sitting in her finery doing? Was it a ceremony?

Most anyone can organize a show for the gallery, said Debra Haskell, a Henderson spokeswoman for Parks and Recreation. The first show began in March 2004, and there is a one-year backlog of scheduled shows. The contact for the gallery is Ellen Virden at 702-267-2141.

In this case, the show is a product of recreational painters of mature years who gather once a week to paint under the informal guidance of art teacher Lois Payne. Their concept of “Ladies with Attitude” gave them the theme they wanted to unify the show.

Most of the women in the paintings share one similarity — they look straight on, unflinching and unwavering. They seem able to take whatever comes their way, some with a threatening attitude, some with bravado, others with an attitude of fun. There were cowgirls and showgirls, singers and tennis players.

It’s not a juried show, but from the perspective of a woman whose leaf looked like a shoe, it’s admirable work.

The ladies offer a break from reality, a chance to use your eyes and your imagination, a chance to think about attitude.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at 702-383-0275. She blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison.