SEPTEMBER 8 • 2022 | 57

hours a day painting. I also do 
a lot of looking [for ideas to 
finish a piece].
“Harriet’s been doing this 
for a long time, and she’s total-
ly suited to encouraging peo-
ple. She’ll be instructive if you 
want that. She provides an art 
venue where people can expe-
rience their artistic selves.
”
Anne Olender, a Royal Oak 
resident active with Temple 
Emanu-El in Oak Park, start-
ed with the class in 2016 and 
attends once a week. 
“This is a lovely place to 
start painting,
” she said. “You 
can get as much or as little 
instruction as you want, and 
it’s a lovely group of people. 
The artwork that’s produced is 
wildly different, and you can 
learn by looking at what other 
people are doing.
”
Olender paints realistic 
images — gardens, children, 
dogs. She will go on trips, 
take pictures and reproduce 
what is shown in the pictures. 
Although she has been draw-
ing, the painting started with 
this class.
Olender and friends go to 
Charach exhibits, but this will 
be the first time her work is 

appearing.
“It feels great to be one 
of the people displaying,
” 
Olender said. “I looked for 
paintings I had that were done 
and took them over to the 
gallery. I’m looking forward to 
seeing them on the wall.
”
Beth Dzodin-Fuchs, a resi-
dent of Lathrup Village and a 
member of the Congregation 
for Humanistic Judaism of 
Metro Detroit in Farmington 
Hills, submitted 15 paintings 
to be shown for her first 
exhibit. She works with acrylic 
paints, and some of her work 
is political, such as three paint-
ings involving the Statue of 
Liberty.
A retired theater teacher, she 
began attending classes regu-
larly more than a year ago.
“Painting brings so much 
enjoyment and creativity,
” 
Dzodin-Fuchs said. “I love 
color. When I’m looking at the 
canvas and seeing bright colors 
and the emerging of an image 
and/or a feeling or an idea, I 
become enamored of what I’m 
looking at. It’s exciting when 
I’m looking at something and 
say to myself, ‘Did I do that? 
Did that come out of me?'” 

Artwork by 
James Britt

“USING PAINT TO BRING 
THINGS TO LIFE ON CANVAS 

IS A MAGICAL EXPERIENCE.”

— JAMES BRITT

September 17 
/ 
18 
/ 20

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