Midland Art Council's July 4th holiday show calls for entries
MIDLAND – Kevin Yackmack’s paintings of trains are so realistic that people think they’re photographs. The Independence Township resident will be a featured artist at the 17th Midland Arts Council Summer Gallery over the July 4th holiday.
Evelyn Adams, president of the Midland Arts Council, said other area artists are invited to submit up to three works, framed and ready to hang, to the juried art show, with entries due June 21. Viewings will be free from June 30 through July 5 in the Atrium of the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center in Midland.
All entries are to be delivered to the front of the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center, between 5 and 7 p.m. June 21. Opening reception and awards for artists and guests will be at the Center from 7-9 p.m. June 29.
The show will be open from 6 to 8 p.m. daily from June 30 to July 5, except for July 4, when it will be open from 1 to 7 p.m.
The exhibition is open to two-dimensional works by all visual artists 17 years and older. The work must be original and not previously shown locally. Work must be ready to hang, not exceeding 36 inches in width or height, and weigh less than 50 pounds. Artists may enter a maximum of three pieces, $10 per piece, $25 for three. Patrons will be directed to the artist for purchasing works.
Adams, arts council president, can be reached at 724-643-9968.
Featured artist
Largely self-taught in art, Yackmack, a Fayette County native, has translated the precision and attention to detail required in his former accounting career into unique watercolor and pastel paintings of railroad subjects in and around western Pennsylvania.
“Some would say, ‘That’s not art. He’s just copying pictures.’ I try to capture the spirit of the photo at a specific moment and location in time, not copy it,” he said.
He wants people to feel like they are standing by the tracks with the train heading by them. He does not believe his paintings fall into the “photorealism” school because he may change the background and detracting minor elements.
Yackmack’s technique is mainly watercolor wash with applied pastel, pen and ink. “Watercolor is extremely difficult to control,” he said. “I could never get that detailed look with watercolor alone.”
Born in 1962, he loved trains from an early age. When his dad took him on fishing trips in the mountain valley streams of the Laurel Highlands and West Virginia, all was fine, he said, “until the first train came along and I said the hell with fishing.”
His train paintings are based on actual photos, mostly of first- and second-generation diesel locomotives operating in the period 1965-75.
Yackmack said he always obtains permission from the photographer.
Other source images were his own, taken as a young man walking railways with camera in hand, seeking to capture the beauty and power of those engines long before he thought of making them into paintings.
He will not sell his railroad originals, but does sell prints, mainly to rail enthusiasts. He does sell watercolor and pastel landscapes and will accept commissions.
Yackmack was working toward an accounting degree at Waynesburg College when an instructor’s raves for his work in an elective drawing class made him decide to change his major to art.
He said his parents’ reaction was less than positive: “Over my dead body!” was his father’s comment.
Yackmack has no formal training in art, but did take community classes in watercolor and pastel techniques taught by local artists Doug Brown and Carol Volz Begley. He has not involved himself in the arts community. His art is personal and idiosyncratic.
“It’s something I’m just wired for,” Yackmack, a retired financial controller, said.
This article originally appeared on USATNetwork: Midland Art Council's July 4th holiday show calls for entries
