Art in Community: A Still Life Challenge
This January, artists in the Painting & Drawing Community Art sessions at Rumriver Art Center launched a shared challenge: New Year, New Challenge!
Ten artists stepped outside their usual creative rhythms to try something new.
Each artist brought in three objects. Together, the group mixed and matched items to build a collective still life. From there, they photographed their compositions and began the process of interpretation—each artist creating their own unique piece from a shared starting point.
Take a Look
We’re excited to share a collection of these finished pieces below. Each piece is rooted in a shared experience, yet uniquely individual.
To push the challenge even further, artists limited their palettes to just three colors.
Artist Dianne Novak, described her colored pencil process as layering yellow first, then adding blue over it to create green—an intentional and thoughtful way of building color with limited materials.
Stepping Outside the Comfort Zone
Community Art classes are typically open studio-style—artists bring their own projects and work at their own pace. This project, however, was an optional invitation to stretch creatively.
Many of these artists often gravitate toward landscapes, so still life offered a new kind of focus: composition, lighting, color relationships, and detail.
And just like that, a simple prompt became a meaningful exploration.
A Range of Mediums, A Shared Experience
The final works reflect a beautiful range of styles and materials, including:
- Oil pastels
- Colored pencil
- Acrylic
- Oil paint
- Watercolor
While each piece began with the same objects, no two turned out the same. Each artist brought their own perspective, process, and voice to the work.
Participating artists include: Deanna Asp, Linda Boyer, Lynne Forbragd, Greg Gilborn, Dianne Novak, Tony Novak, Bill Ohland, Mark Sawyer, Holly Willis and Anita Kahl.
A Continuation of Creative Growth
If this spirit of collaboration feels familiar, it is.
Last year, this same group explored a shared “sailboat” theme in their exhibition—another opportunity to learn, experiment, and grow together. (You can revisit that show here: Art in Community: A Showcase of Rumriver Studio Artists.)
This still life project continues that tradition—creating space not just to make art, but to challenge, support, and inspire one another.
At Rumriver Art Center, community art is about more than just creating—it’s about connection, growth, and the courage to try something new.
Looking for a creative community to be part of?
Join our Painting & Drawing Community Art group Wednesdays from 9 am–12 pm for open studio time. It’s free, thanks to our generous donors.
And coming this May… They’ll head outdoors en plein air for a fresh creative challenge.
Here are examples of the photographs and arranged objects the artists could use as their reference.