In the months after Barbara Gardner’s passing, her children — Mark Gardner, Lisa Keeter and Amy Berry — had the humble, difficult task of cleaning out her Hopkinsville home and preparing an estate.
But in those days, weeks, months of laborious love came constant discovery. Because behind every nook, every cranny, plastered on walls and stashed behind furniture…was art.
The long-time private teacher and successful regional artist had left behind a lifetime of lithograph and its trimmings: small paintings, large paintings, loose frames, mixed media, oil, watercolor, pastel, acrylics.
Berry says more than 200 pieces of art were found throughout the house, and the children, of course, had plenty of pieces gifted to them over the years.
So what do you with someone’s life’s work when they are no more? You honor them.
Through a collaboration with the Pennyroyal Arts Council and the Hopkinsville Art Guild, these 200-plus pieces are going up for sale and auction from 2-4 PM this Sunday at the Alhambra Theatre.
Berry said the proceeds will, fittingly, benefit both the Council and the Guild — of which Gardner was a near half-century member.
While some of the pieces will have a flat, static price beginning at $20 and up, Berry did say a few “premier” pieces of her mother’s collection will undergo silent auction.
And if someone is looking for a particular subject matter, this might be the place. Berry noted her mother painted “anything and everything.”
A life-long Kentuckian and 1981 graduate of Austin Peay State University, Gardner’s memory will further be honored after Sunday, as the Pennyroyal Arts Council has pledged to create a “Barbara Gardner Scholarship Fund” with half of the proceeds from the sale. Graduating high school students in creative fields will be able to apply, as will art teachers looking to fund creative field trips and special projects.
The Alhambra Theatre can be found at 507 S. Main Street in Hopkinsville.
