Galveston Art League Gallery features Friendswood artist

Janie O’Farrell, a longtime art teacher as well as a busy painter, is the March Featured Artist of the Galveston Art League. About a dozen of the Friendswood artist’s finely detailed paintings – often executed on vintage materials – will hang in the league’s gallery, 2117A Postoffice St. in Galveston, from Feb. 27-March 29. Gallery hours are noon to 6 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 6-9 p.m. during ArtWalk on March 7.

     O’Farrell’s love of art started at an early age. While in elementary school, she was awarded a scholarship to Glassell Junior School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. 

     After graduating from Baylor University in Waco with a bachelor of fine arts degree in studio art, O’Farrell became an instructor at Glassell Junior School. She taught drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture to 4- to 18-year-old students there for about 20 years. She also has taught outreach classes at various hospitals and senior centers in Houston. 

     O’Farrell loves many media and would be hard-pressed to choose a favorite. “Whatever media I’m currently working in intrigues me,” she says. Her current fascination is painting landscapes and objects from nature in acrylics. O’Farrell likes to capture the essence of a landscape or object in her artwork, and she has painted many murals in schools and restaurants in the Friendswood area.

     She gets excited about using acrylics for images on salvaged ceiling tiles, roof tiles and wood. O’Farrell enjoys breathing new life into these aging objects. Some of the wood that she uses has come from the Galveston Historical Society’s Architectural Salvage Warehouse. 

     “The most challenging thing to me about painting is when I paint on reclaimed wood or tin is deciding what to paint,” O’Farrell says. “I have to live with the vintage object awhile until I can envision my subject matter.”

     Her artwork is featured in private collections in Texas and Louisiana, and she sells through the Galveston Art League Gallery. O’Farrell is a professional member of the Art League. The all-volunteer league offers memberships of various levels to artists and non-artists, and the tax-deductible memberships are crucial to the financial support of the nonprofit organization. To find out more about the league and its memberships, please visit www.GalvestonArtLeague.com and click on “Join.” 


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