VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The CHI Mercy Health Art Gallery is pleased to announce the new exhibit of multimedia pieces by Sharon Linnehan. The Gallery is located in the hallway between CHI Mercy Health (Mercy Hospital) and Sanford Health (clinic).

Linnehan has recently returned to Valley City after her retirement from teaching at Erskine College in Due West, SC.  She was the Chair of a small art department where she taught a variety of art history, drawing, painting, printmaking, art appreciation, English, and special topics courses including travel courses. Prior to moving to SC she taught at Dickinson State University and was the Director of the University’s Art Gallery. She holds a MFA in Printmaking from UND, Grand Forks, a MA in Art Education from Michigan State University, East Lansing, and a BFA from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN.
She has had one person exhibitions in ND, MN, MT, SC, GA and has participated in group shows in those and other states as well as in Barbados.

Linnehan recounts how she painted one of the pieces (Sunflowers II). “The yellow petals on sunflowers grown for their agricultural oil content are pretty for about a week to ten days before the petals start to fall off.  This means that at the most I can paint only one oil painting of blooming sunflowers per year. Because this is a plain air painting, that is totally painted outside, in front of the particular sunflowers depicted, I need to work very quickly because conditions are changing very rapidly.  Cloud patterns change in the sky about every five minutes. The heads of the sunflowers grow larger visibly from day to day. Also because I’m painting outdoors my palette is smaller than the palette I use in the studio. Hence my brush is loaded with more paint when I work outdoors than when I am working in my studio.

Various insects such as beneficial bees try to gather nectar from the centers of my painted sunflowers while I am working on the painting. They don’t know the real flower from the virtual one.  I find this interesting. I try to shoo them away or if need be rescue them if they get stuck in the gooey oil paint.

The site of this landscape is on a farm five miles southeast of Valley City that used to belong to the John Gassmann family.  At the time this painting was made I lived in the country on that farm. Most of her current work is in mono type or colored pencil drawing.

Linnehan’s studio is at 123 Third Street NE in Valley City. If you are interested in purchasing any of Sharon’s work, contact her at 701-741-2307.