Art Professor's Work Earns Award of Distinction

Lebanon, IL (09/28/2018) — Amy MacLennan was awarded the Anonymous Award of Distinction for her pastel painting, Bend, North of Lebanon, at the 7th Annual Wabash Valley Exhibition at the Swope Art Museum, in Terre Haute, Ind. MacLennan is an associate professor of art at McKendree University and director of the McKendree Gallery of Art in Lebanon, Ill.

Her award-winning work, a 17 x 23.5-inch pastel on paper, was completed in the fall of 2016.

"Plein air painting is one of my passions," said MacLennan. "That winter I was working on pieces for a couple of group exhibitions by the Midwest Paint Group: Winters Work, at Knox College, and Voices of the Prairie: Midwestern Art, Poetry, and Song.

"My practice was to drive out to one of the triangle intersections north of Lebanon and set up my easel on the triangle between the roads. I find the landscape around here very rhythmic and beautiful, and those spots provided a panoramic view. I could turn my easel one way in the morning and another way in the afternoon and make a completely different work. Honestly, there's nothing I like better than that solitude and intensity of looking."

MacLennan is a member of the Midwest Paint Group.

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