By Georgia Thelen
Review Writer
Janice Price has been a Lake Orion resident for over 30 years and is now making her debut as the Orion Art Center’s Artist of the Month.
Price paints large canvases of modern landscapes. Her current medium of choice is acrylic.
Price mainly paints obscure nature scenes, saying they look “almost like you’re squinting or there was a heavy mist that rolled in.”
She recently sold her largest commissioned piece of art since being named the Artist of the Month. The painting was a landscape of Coquina Beach, her favorite beach to go to when she used to live in Florida.
Price recollected the crystal clear blue water and the mollusk shell formations that are shaped like rocks, the coquina’s, while painting the scenery.
“I’ve been painting all my life, really,” said Price.
Fresh out of high school, Price was studying art at Oakland Community College when she got offered an apprenticeship in wood model-making at General Motors. From there, her engineering career took off.
Now being retired for a handful of years, Price has recently gotten back into her art interests and taken on a new role as the Executive Director at the Orion Art Center.
“I’m just so happy I can continue painting,” said Price. “I was getting worried because I kept painting and painting and all of a sudden I had paintings everywhere. I mean, you can’t just stack them on top of one another.”
On top of her new role at the Art Center and being named the Artist of the Month, Price has also been appointed as the Orion Art Center’s Artist of the Year.
Price will be recognized for all three of her achievements thus far in the year at the Orion Art Center’s 28th Annual Gala, “Night in Paris” on March 25.
“A Night in Paris… I have to get up and give my thank you speech. I’m so over the moon excited,” said Price.
The annual Gala is the Orion Art Center’s largest fundraiser of the year, many funds going towards the center itself and also the summer festival, Dragon on the Lake. This year’s Gala will be held at Paint Creek Country Club.
Price’s paintings will be on display through the end of March at the Orion Township Public Library, 825 Joslyn Rd. To contact the Orion Art Center, call 248-693-4986.