JENNINGS — The Zigler Art Museum, 411 Clara St., will have an opening reception 6-8 p.m. Saturday for “Friends,” an exhibit by six area artists who have different styles of work.

The show will feature Shirley Griffin, Kay Jeansonne, Harold Letz, Juanita Morrow, Mary Oakley and Bhi Wooley.

The show runs through May 26.

Griffin, of Crowley, has been interested in art throughout her life. After beginning to paint in oils, an idea to pursue the knowledge of other mediums including watercolors, pencil and charcoal drawing and more recently pastels was born.

She likes to portray the beauty of nature with color and light, and has won num-erous awards for her work.

Jeansonne’s interest in art began at an early age as she watched her dad paint the wildlife of the rich swamplands of Acadiana.

Her interest in art continued to develop at LSU where she earned a bachelor’s degree in fine art where she studied intaglio, lithography and painting. She later received a master’s from theUL Lafayette.

Her work includes landscapes, figurative paintings in oil, still lifes, figurative sculpture and charcoal drawings. In 2001, she gave up a full time teaching career to pursue her dream of painting full time. A year later, she founded Cottonwood Center for the Arts.

Family outings to the beach and fishing trips along the coast were regular activities that introduced Letz to the natural landscape. Working on his dad’s surveying crew took him to many of the wild wetlands to which he turns for inspiration.

Though he moved to San Francisco in 1975 to study art, opportunities arose to learn jewelry design. He worked in a small lapidary shop learning some of the basics, then furthered his skills in the shop of Walter Kentzler Fine Jewelry in Burlingame, Calif.

Morrow’s creative outlet has always been sewing and fine hand embroidery work. However, her love of drawing and a desire to paint a history of her family culminated in a passion for oil painting.

After studying the works of John Singer Sargent and taking painting classes, she began reproducing some of his works. The Crowley resident is currently painting portraits of women in Acadiana who have made a difference in the community.

Oakley did not begin painting until she retired in 2000. She works only in oils and is well known for her still-life paintings. She is a native of Church Point.

Wooley has been painting and drawing since early childhood. She is primarily a self-taught artist.

Her paintings reflect “a moment in time” which she refers to as “mood paintings.” Her work includes portraits, still life, wildlife, landscape and figurative sculptures. Much of the work is based on the natural world, in painting and sculpture.

The museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1-4 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, call 824-0114 or email zigler-museum@charter.net.

“Vermilion Bay 2010