Kalispell painter leads art forum

Painter Sunnie LeBlanc hosts this month’s Crits and Croissants artists forum at the Hockaday Museum of Art.

The forum gives those who create art a chance to have their work reviewed by professionals. Artists 15 years of age and older may bring one or more pieces of their recently created artwork for critique while enjoying coffee and croissants.

This month’s forum takes place from 10:30 a.m. to noon Oct. 13.

LeBlanc paints whatever captures her attention or imagination.

“Life is an ever-refining process,” she says. Her art career has focused on still-life and abstract painting and, more recently, on painting outdoors.

“Now that I am a bit older and a maybe a bit wiser, I consider myself a recovering still-life painter who has found the joy of plein air and landscape painting,” she said.

LeBlanc graduated from Boston University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She had a solo show, “On the Rocks,” at the Bigfork Museum of Art in 2010 and is currently working on a series of historic barns titled “American Castles” for exhibition in 2013. 

When not painting, LeBlanc is a docent at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, and at the Hockaday Museum of Art.

LeBlanc is represented by Samarah Gallery in Whitefish and the Adobe Gallery in Fort Worth. Her work may also be seen at the Fort Worth Art Center.

For the Hockaday’s Crits and Croissants session, LeBlanc will concentrate on composition, color harmony, light to dark value changes and how to add “zing” to a painting.

Crits and Croissants is held every second Saturday of the month from September through May in the Hockaday’s classroom. There is a $5 participant fee for members, $7 for non-members.

The Hockaday is located at 302 Second Ave. E., Kalispell. For more information, visit www.hockadaymuseum.org or call 755-5268.