Steve Wariner’s Paintings Featured In New Solo Exhibit At Monthaven Arts & Cultural Center

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Steve Wariner will have 60 of his paintings showcased in a new solo exhibit, “The Flip Side: Paintings by Steve Wariner,” at the Monthaven Arts & Cultural Center in Hendersonville, Tennessee beginning this month.

The exhibit, which runs June 21-July 26, will feature Wariner’s works in oil, acrylic, watercolor and mixed media, spanning more than 30 years. An opening reception for “The Flip Side” will take place from 2-4 p.m. on June 21 which is open to the public, and Wariner will be on site to discuss his paintings. He will also present a Heritage Music Series concert at 6 p.m. on June 25.

“We are thrilled to introduce Steve Wariner’s paintings to our community at Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center,” says Cheryl Strichik, the MACC’s executive director. “I am proud to say that this will be the most prominent display of Steve’s artworks since his 2013 exhibition at the Tennessee State Museum.

“Happy New Year, Dad”

“For me, painting has always been a kind of therapy,” says Wariner. “It’s my sanctuary and escape. I’ve been drawing and painting for as long as I’ve been making music. They both go back to the beginning. I learned a long time ago that you have to write 50 songs to get 10 good ones, and the same is true of painting.”

Wariner has been painting since he was a child growing up in suburban Indiana. He was inspired to paint by his brother David, a gifted professional artist known for his book and album cover illustrations. Even as a youngster, Wariner was attracted to watercolor and his style is loose and spontaneous, resulting in images he refers to as “washy.”

His preferred subjects often reflect the people and places he has seen during his many travels as a musician, as well as rural landscapes, seascapes, portraits and guitars, and even family and musicians, like the watercolor “Happy New Year, Dad” depicting his father’s band onstage at the Noblesville American Legion, ringing in 1963. He resisted painting in oil for years, but in 2020 began to experiment, and he now works in multiple mediums, from oil to encaustic.

“Purple Presence”

Lorie Hollabaugh
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