Artist Cynthia Brenneman’s fascination with art started at a young age and has never wavered, even as she served her country in the Navy.
“My mother loved to sew,” Brenneman of Carson City said. “One of my earliest memories was standing in my crib, holding an afghan of many colors that my mother had made. I don’t sew like my mother, but I love fabric. Fabrics creep into my paintings.”
This month, Brenneman’s exhibit, “The Fabric of Life,” opened the Nevada Arts Council’s Legislative eXhibition Series (LXS) inside the Nevada Legislative Building. Throughout the 2019 Legislative session, the works of six Nevada artists will be featured. Brenneman’s work was displayed through Feb. 4-22.
Brenneman’s exhibit features encaustic paintings, a technique which involves the use of heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The resulting liquid or paste is then applied to the canvas to create the artwork.
“Encaustic painting has allowed me to complete my vision and capture my mother’s love of fabric and sewing,” she said. “I paint the everyday scenes of life around me expressed in the bold patterns of color that only encaustic paints can conjure up.”
Brenneman has a degree in fine art from Rider University In Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The daughter of a Navy father, she enlisted in the Navy and served a 20-year career that included assignments in Spain, California, Virginia and Florida.
She has been a professional artist for more than a decade and has received numerous awards for her paintings. She and her husband, Steve, own the 140-year-old Bliss Mansion in Carson City’s Historic District and she manages the Carson City Arts and Culture Coalition’s website.
She has also served on the Board of the Capital City Arts Initiative and has managed three Arts Coalition artist projects – a 50 –foot photo banner displayed in downtown Carson City, a painted parasol project with a Nevada Day Float, and a painted mannequin project.
As an arts advocate, her primary goal is to involve other artists in citywide projects.
Managed by Nevada Arts Council, the Legislative eXhibition Series (LXS) Gallery space is located on the first floor across from the Caucus Deli in the Legislative Building, 401 South Carson St., Carson City. Since 1985, LXS has displayed artwork by 140 Nevada’s visual artists during the biennial legislative session.
Guy Clifton is with the Nevada State Museums, Nevada Arts Council and Nevada Indian Commission