The Life and Art of Kay Aclin

Mar 1, 2014 | People

[title subtitle=”WORDS: Anita Paddock
images: courtesy Kay Aclin and Jeromy Price”][/title]

A cold wind is blowing when I leave the warmth of my car and walk up the sidewalk to the front door of an artist I’ve long admired. Kay Morgan Aclin is an award winning watercolorist whom I’ve known since we were young mothers, traveling the state, taking our children to tennis tournaments. In those days, I had no idea of her artistic skills.

Kay answers the door, smiling that beautiful wide smile of hers I recall so well. Dressed in jeans and a red sweater, with her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, no one would believe she has children in their early fifties. We sit at her kitchen table, reminiscing about the good old days of sitting in lawn chairs, sweltering under a summer sun, watching our kids on the court.

Kay has lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas since 1971, arriving here with her husband, Dick, who is still practicing pediatric medicine. They both grew up in Hot Springs, and they married in 1961 while he was still in medical school.

Deeply rooted in Arkansas, her maternal grandfather owned a cigar store on Spencer’s Corner in Hot Springs, where the Blue Moon Art Gallery now sits, and where Kay is the featured artist for this month.

“Our family was surrounded by art,” Kay says. “My mother was years ahead of her time as an artist. She was fashioning twigs and dried flowers into art pieces long before they were being sold in little exclusive gift shops.” Always encouraging her daughters with praise and devoted interest, her mother remained instrumental in their developing talent. She and her mother’s pals are often the subject of Kay’s watercolors.

Kay and her sister, Carol, who at age twelve was the youngest member of the Artist Society of Hot Springs, began drawing as children. “That was fun for us,” Kay says. “We’d sprawl across the front porch with our papers and pencils and crayons and be perfectly happy. I guess I thought everybody could draw because I never felt like I had any kind of special gift,” she remembers. “It was just a part of me. I also loved to dance, and I took lessons in ballet.”

After her husband graduated from med school in 1963, he was stationed with the Air Force in Biloxi, Mississippi. Kay taught at a local art center. “I taught Folk Art and also sold gift items such as boxes and note cards at gift shops that catered to tourists. I was happy to sell my artwork, but I always counted myself blessed that I didn’t have to depend on it as a sole means of support. I’ve been very, very lucky.”

At first, Kay painted in both oils and watercolors. “I discovered that I liked watercolors better, and that it was hard to jump back and forth. I liked the spontaneity of watercolors, its looseness.” She likes a variety of subjects, including landscapes and figures. Only recently, Kay has found an interest in abstracts that have ultimately brought her joy and a new circle of admirers.

Her work has been hailed as spontaneous and diverse, with exciting contrasts and colors. As a member of the National Women in the Arts and Mid-Southern Watercolor Society, her work is in permanent collections at the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock as well as RAM, the Regional Art Museum in Fort Smith. Her art has been exhibited in the Governor’s Mansion and featured in a book celebrating Arkansas authors.

Kay has passed on her love of art to her grandchildren. As soon as they arrive for visits, they want to go upstairs to her studio. They have their own areas to work in, and they are careful to not intrude in their grandmother’s space. In 2005, grandchildren Katherine, Sarah, and William Aclin had their own showings at the Center for Art and Education in Van Buren. They prepared their artist statements, with then eight-year-old William saying he “loved to see his accidents turn into surprises.” Eleven-year-old Katherine said “art was freedom for her imagination,” and Sarah, nine, thought of “art as an adventure.”

Kay finds happiness in teaching art, particularly to children, whether it’s on an art excursion to the Janet Huckabee Nature Center or teaching in a summer art camp. She recently presented a watercolor portrait to Fort Smith’s Ballman Elementary, depicting schoolchildren sitting in a circle with books in their laps. “It was so much fun,” Kay says, “watching those children picking out which child looked the most like him or her. I think it’s essential to introduce children to the arts. The more they see, the more they will say, ‘I can do that, too.’”
My personal favorite is the one that hangs over my fireplace, depicting a woman in a library surrounded by books. Kay gave me that picture during a sad part of my life, and it has always brought me happiness, which is what art should do.

Kay’s favorite quote is one by Einstein that says “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”

She believes an artist must be aware and willing to experiment. She talks about a group of artists on a bus tour while traveling in Italy. It was raining when they arrived at a village church, and only four people were willing to risk braving the downpour. The priest saw them and took them on a special tour up into the floors where tourists had not been allowed. He showed them works of art that were hundreds of years old and had never been seen on public display.

Kay smiles her biggest, her best. “I was one of those tourists, and the moral to that story is something every artist should heed,” she explains. “Don’t be afraid to get out in the rain.”

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Kay is the featured artist for March at the Blue Moon Gallery, located at 718 Central Avenue in Hot Springs. Visit their website bluemoonartgallery.com.

Do South Magazine

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