Heartland Art Guild, miniature show gives Parker resident motivation to return to her art

Deborah Arnold, a multimedia Parker artist, entered a miniature water-color wash drawing of a horse and newborn foal (second from the top at right) in this year's Heartland Art Guild miniature art show. She recently joined the guild as a way to meet fellow artists and renew her interest in creating art. (Photo by Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)

By Roger Sims, Journal staff

linncountyjournal@icloud.com

PAOLA – With the annual Heartland Art Guild’s annual miniature show wrapping up on this Friday, July 24, Parker artist Deborah Arnold said she is happy to have the opportunity to participate.

Her postcard-size, light watercolor-wash portrait of a mare and a newborn foal was something she created years ago, but it fit the size requirements of the miniature show, which has nearly 200 miniature pieces of art on display at the Miami County Historical Society on 12 E. Peoria, just off the square in Paola.

Some of the miniature art works on display at the art show. (Photo by Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)

“I’ve been an artist most of my life,” Arnold said

She joined the guild after moving down to rural Parker from Bucyrus a couple of years ago. She said she has always made art but drifted away from it. Joining the Heartland Art Guild gave her motivation to “get back into art,” as well as the opportunity to meet people with similar interests.

She has had a lifelong love of horses and many of her paintings are of horses, including a large painting she sold to a veterinary practice. She also likes to do portraits of her own horses.

This figurine, with the stand and plaque, was created for a customer. (Submitted photo)

Much of the work she does now with horses is custom desktop model horse figurines that she models after an owner’s horse that has placed well in a show. She purchases stock figurines from Breyer, and using a knife and epoxy to remove unnecessary parts and reshape the figurine to match the body and coat characteristics of the owner’s horse.

That includes using paint to not only match that coat of the horse but give it textures as well.

This pastel by Arnold was sold to a veterinary practice. (Submitted photo)

“It’s so lifelike, it look like it could walk right off the stand,” said Deborah’s husband, Bill.

The miniature show runs through this Friday, July 24. Hours of the museum are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.

Arnold also makes jewelry, like this piece, using repurposed turquoise from watchbands, which she says are not used much anymore. One of her necklaces took a blue ribbon at the Linn County Fair and sold to a woman in the metro area for $500. (Submitted photo)