March in Alliance Art Gallery will be filled with the creations of our 20 local artists and our guest artist Amanda Pendergrass.

Amanda grew up in an artistic family in Wisconsin with parents who always encouraged her to produce art. Her mother is still an active fiber artist working primarily in batik. Amanda and her husband lived in Oklahoma until he took a job in Cairo Egypt. While there he encouraged
her to take an art class where she worked primarily in oils.

After three years they returned to the United States and the first place of business she entered was Alliance Gallery when they were across the street from their current location. She continues to visit often and is excited about showing her work in the gallery. When asked what
her favorite media was she couldn’t answer. She loves so many but right now she is very enamored with printmaking after taking a class at Culver Stockton with our own Peggy Ballard. She is showing a variety of works in a variety of media that include paintings, monoprints and her clay additive sculptures.

Amanda recently gave birth to her third child and is excited to be getting back to producing her art. She is currently on maternity leave from teaching art at St. Francis School in Quincy. March ushers in Spring and also the start of our Spotlight artists of the year.

This month is one of our newest members, Martha Adrian. A lifelong resident of Hannibal, Martha’s work is a mix of Hannibal scenes old and new and still lifes.

As a child, Martha never thought of herself as an artist and it wasn’t until she had her family raised that she started taking art classes with local art teachers. After trying a variety of media she decided that acrylic and oil paint were her media of choice but feels that she is just now starting to figure it out. Many of the gallery artists have told her she will never really figure it out and that there is always something new to learn or try.

Martha continues to take classes mostly on line and often watches YouTube videos. She usually keeps 6 or 7 canvases prepared so when she finds the time and inspiration she is ready. Like many artists she is constantly critiquing her work and lines her pieces in process below her
tv screens so she can study them. Her new work is fresh and exciting and full of color. Come meet Amanda and Martha and many of the gallery artists and hear the artists’ talk at 6:00 pm on March 9 th during the Second Saturday event from 4:00 to 7:00 pm and sign up that
day for the art giveaway at 6:30.