May 18, 2003
Sipos’ paintings get real without flinchingBy Lucinda Breeding / Arts & Entertainment Editor/ Denton Record ChronicleBeverly Sipos finds that galleries prefer her
The Denton-born artist delighted yet another juror with her unflinching gaze at real people in the 35th Annual North Texas Area Art League Juried Fine Arts Award Exhibit. The show’s name is a mouthful. The painting that won the show’s grand prize, Ms. Sipos’ oil painting "December — Lake Ray Roberts" is an eyeful. In the painting Ms. Sipos completed a year ago, her daughter, Juli, seems unaware of her mother’s gaze. Her eyes and her mind are occupied by her children. Some artists try to dress things up in their paintings, as if to flatter their subjects or their own idealistic view of them. Not Ms. Sipos. Her brush shows people for who, what and where they are. "Preciousness is not my thing," said Ms. Sipos, who moved to Argyle last year and quickly became a familiar face within the art league. "I’m not really into sentimentality. I paint people I know. They aren’t portraits, though. It’s seeing people interact that gets me interested. Picasso said figures are among the most powerful images you can use in art. And they do intrude upon your space in a way that landscapes don’t." Ms. Sipos was born in Denton. Her father was killed in World War II when she was only 2 years old, and she grew up on her grandmother’s farm, which was located between Sanger and Bolivar. One of her earliest memories is of scribbling on the porch of the farmhouse with chalk. She was destined, it seemed, to record the world she saw, as she saw it. At the time, Denton schools didn’t have an established art program. It wasn’t until her last two years of high school that art classes were offered. She got her first set of paints in grade school, though, and was already painting. She sold her first paintings in high school. "I don’t really care about the selling part of it. Never did. I probably should," Ms. Sipos said. "I just want to paint." Her oils aren’t totally driven by intuition. She often splices photographs together to create a scene, and uses a computer program to organize her ideas in grid form. The blend of mathematical meticulousness and her own quirky way of seeing the world makes for paintings that are somehow intimate, yet disinterested. She never seems to judge her subjects. In "December," which won the $1,000 Greater Denton Arts Council Award, Ms. Sipos recalls that her daughter was thrilled to have access to the Texas sun. Juli Sipos lives in Illinois, where spring and sunlight are protracted occurrences. "She said she wanted to go back to Illinois with some sunshine on her," Ms. Sipos said. In the painting, Juli Sipos is rendered with bare limbs, and they are pretty sun-starved. But the painting also communicates that the sun, the water and the sky were partly responsible for her free and easy demeanor. Over the years, the Sipos children — her son, Eric, lives in Greenville — have been a presence in their mother’s paintings. Her home studio is idyllic, with lots of light and abundant surrounding. Along with art, Beverly Sipos and her husband, Les Sipos, an ardent supporter of her work, have filled their backyard with flowers, vegetables and all sorts of green things. They built an island in their backyard pond, where their pet duck, Tucker, suns next to a turtle. Jurors are drawn to her figures, but Ms. Sipos said her surroundings are evidence that she enjoys her landscapes, which are in demand in the Edmund Craig Gallery in Fort Worth. "I do like doing the landscapes. I love nature. I also love the figures but they never sell," she said. This isn’t the first time the artist has taken a title in the art league’s juried show. She won an award last year and was named Artist of the Year at the league’s last meeting. When he selected this year’s exhibit, juror Don Schol, a sculptor and University of North Texas professor, told the viewers that he chose work that spoke to him, as did Beverly Sipos’ work. "The different levels of artistic accomplishment represented, in my opinion, all speak from the heart of each artist," he wrote in juror’s statement. Ms. Sipos’ painting will remain on exhibit in the Meadows Gallery at the Center for the Visual Arts, 400 E. Hickory St., through May 22. Gallery hours are 1-5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is free. For more information, call 940-382-2787. LUCINDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877.
Beverly Sipos Name: Beverly Sipos |
