By JANET McGREGOR
Contributing Writer

For those with an artistic talent - whether it is in arts, crafts, music, theater or other cultural arts - Fayette County has a lot to offer. The following series of articles highlight some of the opportunities and some Prime Timer's who are involved in the arts.

Cynthia McMorries - Painting

Cynthia McMorries has been dabbling in the arts for at least 30 to 35 years.

Her interest in painting began during a two-year stay in Italy. She and her husband enjoyed touring the various museums of Europe.

While wandering through the many excellent museums, Cynthia grew curious as to what made a painting good, aside from the fact that someone “just liked the way it looked.” She decided to take a painting course, thinking it might help her appreciate art more. She is still painting.

Oil is her medium of choice. She downplays her talents, in spite of requests by others to buy and display her work. She mostly paints still life and landscapes although she will occasionally do an abstract.

She laughs and says, “If something doesn't turn out well, I punish it and put it in the basement. Later I might resurrect it and see if I can fix it. If not, I'll scrape it off and paint over it.”

She says painting is a form of “self-therapy” and recommends it to others, saying they would benefit from “trying to catch something on canvas.”

She notes, “It's good to get involved with painting. When trying to get something within yourself on canvas, you don't think about the problems in life. You forget everything.”

When she first moved to Peachtree City 27 years ago, Fayette County did not have an active art association. She joined the Coweta Art Association and is still a member. She continues to take lessons and speaks highly of instructor Tom Powers, the founder of the well-known, and well-attended, Powers Crossroads Fair.

McMorries is one of the original board members of the Endowment Committee for the Cultural Arts (ECCA), where she continues to be an active board member. She feels strongly about the arts.

“I think sports are great; I've been a sports lover all of my life,” she said. “However, there are more kids in school involved in the arts - band, music, dance, theater, painting - than in sports. Cultural arts are very important to people. Unfortunately, the funding for the arts is substantially less locally than it is for sports.”

She continued, “I think it's a part of mankind to express ourselves - whether through art, dance, theater or some other creative outlet.”

While McMorries doesn't pursue sales or work to seek out opportunities to exhibit her work, she has displayed her work at Wesley Woods, libraries in Peachtree City and Newnan, local restaurants and elsewhere. She also donates her work to the ECCA for auctions and sales to assist in fund-raising to support local arts.

Her work will be on display at the upcoming ECCA membership party in September.

ART Box Inset:

For those interested in finding out more about local art associations and other ways to get involved in the arts:

Endowment Committee for the Cultural Arts - 770-631-2302 Cynthia McMorries - 770-487-8321

Silvia Feenaghty .770-487-1005

Fayette Society of Fine Arts, Gloria Solly - 770-460-1390 Newnan-Coweta Arts Association, Barbara Scruggs - 770-583-2093

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