Lakescapes & Fantasy-A Mother & Son Art Exhibit. March 15-April 12, 2007 at the Historic Belknap Mill gallery on Beacon St. East in Laconia. Marian Federspiel, the computer art & design teacher at Laconia High School, exhibits her digital art with her son, Jake Manley. Vibrant serigraph-like images of the Lakes Region & intricate fantasy worlds & game art on display. Opening reception March 17 5pm-7:30pm. Meet the artists. Light refreshments served. www.belknapmill.org  603 524-8813

Bright clear colors and the ability to do endless revisions are a couple of the attributes of digital drawing that attracted Marian Federspiel and her son, Jake Manley. Both of them worked in traditional painting mediums before being hooked by computers. The intensity of the colors as dots of light on the screen, the fluidity of the line, the immediacy of your hand’s movements being converted to visual imagery, and the ease of reproduction are powerful incentives to use a monitor to draw on instead of a canvas.

Federspiel’s and Manley’s work will be shown in the Historic Belknap Mill gallery on Beacon St. East in Laconia from March 15 until April 12. A reception open to all will be held Saturday, March 17 from 5:00 pm-7:30 pm where you can meet both artists and view their unique work. Light refreshments will be served.

 Federspiel has been drawing since childhood. She graduated from the University of Connecticut with a BFA in painting. She was a designer and art director in advertising for 20 years before earning an MEd from Lesley University. She then moved to the Lakes Region and has taught computer art and design in the Laconia school district for the past ten years. It was her work as a designer, a field that has embraced computers totally, that introduced her to the world of digital art and the possibilities that lay in computers.

Her work is mostly inspired by the beauty of the region, primarily the ever-changing color and light of the lakes. Working digitally gives a unique look to her lakescapes. The images created on the computer have a fresh, unlabored graphic look reminiscent of silk-screened images.

Children’s book illustration is another love of hers. She writes and illustrates stories of her own as well as collects books for children. The exhibit only shows her digital work, mostly images of lakes, but some of her children’s illustrations are included as well. Some of the work overlaps, such as her drawing entitled Fishing Derby. This large drawing shows Meredith Bay during the annual ice fishing derby, a lakescape that is also illustrative and is intended for a scene in a children’s book.

Her lakescapes are carried by the Gallery at Mill Falls in Meredith and can be viewed there year-round. Her work can also be viewed on her website: http://www.mfederspiel.com

Her son graduated from Inter-Lakes High School in 2003 and recently finished his studies at Williams College from which he’ll receive his BA in May. He currently works on campus for the Office of Information Technology. Manley draws much of his inspiration from fantasy literature and games – in particular role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, with several game articles published in nationally distributed Dragon Magazine. His work in the exhibit includes a large detailed pen and ink fantasy land entitled New Estasia which he describes as both a journey and a self-portrait, which “blends the urbane and supernatural with a careless disregard for reality.” Other work includes a series of digital illustrations for a fantasy card game and sculpted figures.

Digital painting and drawing is an emerging art form. The artist uses traditional painting techniques--the computer does not generate the art from a model. A mouse or a stylus on a graphic tablet instead of a brush on canvas is used as the medium. Federspiel and Manley use Adobe Illustrator, a graphic software program to create most of their images. There is an erroneous impression that “the computer does the drawing for you.” It does not! The artwork is an original construction (drawing) “from scratch” and is not the digital manipulation of photographic images. Sketches are usually drawn from life (when possible) with a pencil before being translated to the computer medium. Manley feels comfortable drawing directly to the screen which probably comes from growing up with computers. Federspiel came to computers much later in life but has found that the computer allows the artist to easily manipulate compositions which encourages experimentation and allows one more freedom.

The exhibit is engaging for all ages. Children will delight in the fantastical and rich story drawings; teens will particularly enjoy the intricacies of the fantasy and game art; and adults will appreciate the beauty and colors of the lake drawings. Come to the opening reception on March 17; talk to the artists; learn more about this new medium.

Click here to see photos of the exhibit.