From December 5 through the holidays, stop by ORUUC to walk through the gallery to view works by Curt Imerman. Curt considers himself to be a “self-taught” artist. He started drawing with pencil and paper at an early age. Curt’s early interest in drawing lead to a career as a Mechanical Designer for a major U.S. crane manufacturer. While designing cranes, Curt’s drawing talent was called upon to prepare conceptual drawings of various lift crane designs.
Curt became a member of the Art Market Gallery (AMG) in downtown Knoxville in September 2020. His artwork is on display, he is active on committees, and is currently a member of the AMG Board of Directors.
Curt’s main focus in art is drawing weathered barns he finds from his travels across the Midwest, Kentucky, and Tennessee. He has over 200 pen and ink drawings of barns he keeps in a hardbound journal. Curt has titled the journal “Palaces on the Prairies”. His goal is to publish a book containing his drawings of old barns. Curt states, “Barns are disappearing from our country’s landscape at an ever-increasing rate. Barns are a part of our Americana. The book is my way of memorializing and sharing my fascination of old, weathered barns with people.”
Curt’s early pen and ink drawings were drawn using a quill type pen and ink from a bottle. Curt made drawings of mushrooms, fruits, animals, and barns. As time went on and the advancement of technical ink pen design improved, Curt was able to perfect his techniques for producing fine line drawings and more detail. Curt uses the fine tipped pens as a brush than an instrument to draw lines. As the tip of the pen wears away from use, it will produce lighter and finer lines, allowing different effects. The different effects from the pens allow Curt to produce less intense (lighter) lines for shading and drawing of wood grain with the pens.
By using colored pencils to his drawings Curt’s artwork “jumped” off the paper. That’s when Curt’s art took off. Curt now adds color to all his artwork, from birds, to plants, to barns, and more.
Curt’s attention to detail comes from his career as a mechanical designer. Curt’s includes a lot of detail in his drawings. The detail is what makes Curt’s drawings unique.
The ORUUC Gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on Sundays. Please note that the church will be closed for the holidays Tuesday, Dec. 24 until Monday, Jan. 6. For more information on displaying your works at ORUUC, please contact Nancy Starr at starroakridge@gmail.com.
The ORUUC Gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, and on Sunday mornings. For more information or to find out how you can become an exhibitor, call 865-483-6761 or email communications@oruuc.org.
