How to go
What: “Capturing Likenesses: Portraits by Eunice Bronkar”
Where: Springfield Museum of Art, 107 Cliff Park Road, Springfield
When: Through Sept. 28; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 12:30-4:30 p.m. Sundays
Admission: $5 nonmembers; $4 museum members; ages 17 and younger admitted for no cost
More info: 937-325-4673 or www.springfieldart.museum
Looking at a painted portrait is one thing. Looking inward to capture the person in the portrait is what Eunice Bronkar does.
The Champaign County resident said she’s lost count of how many portraitures she’s done in oils, pastels, watercolors and silverpoint since the early 1960s.
“Capturing Likenesses: Portraits by Eunice Bronkar” celebrates her lifelong fascination with portraitures, with around 40 on display in the Springfield of Museum of Art’s Halley Gallery through Sept. 28.
“It’s not an easy subject to begin with,” said Bronkar, who is retired from Clark State, where she was an associate professor and head of the commercial art program. “It’s different from a photograph. I work from what I know and try to capture the uniqueness of individuals.”
It all began for Bronkar as a sixth-grader at the former Grayhill Elementary in Springfield. Teacher Miss Mull liked Eunice’s painting of a boulder on the campus and displayed it, encouraging Eunice’s artistic aspirations.
In high school she sketched classmates and pictures from magazines. Bronkar began formal training at Wittenberg in the early 1960s under Ethel Cook, whom Bronkar called the biggest influence on her work, and eventually earned degrees from Wright State University.
Considering each portrait takes an average of 50 hours shows Bronkar’s dedication. She’s taken up to 160 hours, but said even 4-inch-by-6-inch or 8-inch-by-10-inch portraits can take at least 15 hours.
Her work is also on display elsewhere. Her portrait of former Springfielder and 4H pioneer A.B. Graham and his granddaughters hangs in Springfield’s A.B. Graham Building, and her portraits of two past presidents of the Daughters of the American Revolution are in Washington, D.C.
Bronkar also paints landscapes, which she considers a “relief” from portraitures, but that doesn’t diminish the desire.
“I have a deep appreciation and respect for the individuals I paint,” she said. “Painting brings me peace.”
The Springfield Museum of Art is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 12:30-4:30 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $5 and $4 for museum members; ages 17-under are admitted free.
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