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Fall colors featured at Winds

By Pamela Dillon, Contributing Writer 3:51 PM Friday, October 16, 2009

Vibrant, multi-colored leaves are falling down in Yellow Springs. But it’s not just an outdoor autumn scene; they are also falling inside The Winds Café on Xenia Avenue. To be more specific, the fall foliage is featured on Lee Funderburg’s 23 paintings that are currently gracing the restaurant’s walls.

“Maple Tree With Falling Leaves” is a large-scale oil painting that took Funderburg 100 hours to paint.

He prefers to finish a painting quickly, however. He averages around 40 hours for each work. Like “Blue Heron and Fallen Leaves,” that is featured in an antique doorframe. Funderburg puts as much thought into the framing of his works as he does for the paintings themselves. One of his great finds is a Newcomb Macklin frame that was carved in Chicago in the early 1900s. The antique, gold metal gilded casing enhances “Bluebells, Blackbirds, and Locust Tree.”

“Many of the frames used in this show are antiques or hand-carved,” said Funderburg. “They exhibit a level of beauty, charm, character, and craftsmanship that sadly makes no sense to produce today and aren’t found in contemporary frames.”

Funderburg lives on a 100-acre farm in Yellow Springs that has been in his family for more than a century. It’s a horse-boarding farm surrounded by the beauty of Glen Helen. Inspiration for creating scenic landscapes is all around him.

He likes to use small brushes as a sort of palette knife to dab on thick concentrations of oil paint. In this exhibit, he’s also presenting three watercolors covered with museum-quality glass to cut down on the glare.

“For the most part, people are very enthusiastic about these exhibits we’ve been showing since the café opened in ’77,” said owner Mary Kay Smith. People just love this show, and it looks great in here. It’s very familiar; they see the scenes around town.”

Funderburg studied printmaking and painting at Ohio University. He worked at Tyler Graphics in New York for 20 years. The business printed for some well-known artists such as Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, and David Hockney. He moved back to Yellow Springs in ’97.

“I like being under the radar, keep it small time as a midwestern artist,” said Funderburg. “Even when I was in New York, Ohio was still home.”

Contact contributing arts writer Pamela Dillon at pamdillon@woh.rr.com.

How to go

What: “Falling Leaves” by Lee Funderburg

Where: The Winds Cafe, 215 Xenia Ave., Yellow Springs

When: Continues through Nov. 15

Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday

More information: (937) 767-7862 or visit www.windscafe.com

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