Harlin Board Of Directors Issues Call For Submissions to 47th Annual Fall Art Show

The Harlin Museum of West Plains, MO is set to host its 47th Annual Fall Art Show this year and is calling for art submissions from all Ozarks regional artists. Entry dates for the show’s juried competition will be Friday, October 7th and Saturday, October 8th from 12pm-4pm at the museum. The show’s entries will be on display in the museum’s Hathcock Gallery, October 10th – November 6th, 2022.

Categories and divisions for this juried competition art show will include Fine Arts (2D & 3D entries) for adult and  youth divisions, and Digital Arts (Still or Animated) for adult and youth divisions.  The show’s final categories will be determined by the entries received.

All entries will be evaluated for design/composition, technique/skill of construction, presentation, and creativity/originality. Entries must meet given guidelines and pass jury standards for acceptance into the competition portion of the show.

Guidelines for entry, as well as entry fee amounts and other pertinent information, can be found below.  All other inquiries should be emailed to the museum at or relayed via telephone at (417) 256-7801.

Call For Submissions: Artists To Enter “Our Ozarks In Art Multimedia Show” With 2022 Theme Of Ozark Waterways

The Harlin Museum of West Plains, MO will be hosting its annual Ozarks-themed multimedia art show, Our Ozarks In Art, and is calling for competition submissions from all forms of artists– painters, photographers, sketch and graphic artists, sculptors, and model-makers, craft artisans, etc.  All forms of photography and fine art are eligible for the competition.

Entry dates for the show will be Friday, August 19th & Saturday, August 20th from 12 pm – 4 pm at the museum, located at 405 Worcester Ave. in West Plains, MO. Entries must meet the given guidelines for acceptance into the competition portion of the show. The show’s final categories and prizes to be awarded will be determined by the actual entries received.

Entry fees are $5.00 per entry, with a cost break of $20.00 for five entries–four entries, plus one for free! Entries will be evaluated for artistic quality, integrity, technique, and presentation, as well as how skillfully they represent the Ozarks” by conveying through art the essence of the 2022 theme, which is Ozark Waterways.

The show’s entries will be on display to the public as an exhibit in the museum’s Hathcock Gallery, beginning Friday, August 26th, 2022, and will run for a 3-week engagement, ending on Sunday, September 18th. 

Those who are interested in entering the competition can find entry guidelines and other pertinent information on the museum’s website at https://harlinmuseum.com/programs/art-show-competition-guidelines/2021-our-ozarks-in-art/  or on flyers that are available in the museum’s lobby. Any questions regarding eligibility or other inquiries can be emailed to the museum at or you may contact the museum directly at (417) 256-7801.

 

2022 Ozark Heritage Exhibit, Featuring L.L. Broadfoot’s Work, On Display Through August 14th

Members of the community can now view the Harlin Museum’s Ozark Heritage Exhibit featuring L.L.  Broadfoot’s Pioneers of the Ozarks, a collection of art by the accomplished late Shannon County artist.

Broadfoot is best known for his enigmatic people, places, and traditions of the Ozarks region, while also offering a firsthand narrative in his writings that often accompanies his works.

One such narrative on display at the Harlin Museum, 405 Worcester St. in West Plains, accompanies a portrait of Katherine Burk, who was born Feb. 13, 1829, in Timber, Shannon County.

The woman, 111 years old at the time, raised in the Ozark hills was known as the oldest person in the area, according to Broadfoot.

“I have smoked an’ chawed terbacker ever since I wuz a little girl, an’ I don’t believe terbacker hurts a body either, if they use it right, but the way young people use it nowadays, I think it hurts ‘em,” Broadfoot quotes Burk as telling him. “They sit around, suckin’ cigarettes and draw the smoke down in their lungs, an’ soon they get to coughing’ an’ wheezin’ in their lungs like a pig that’s sick with cholera, an’ their health is gone an’ they die young.

“My pappy an’ mammy smoked an’ chawed too, but they smoked a clay pipe like I do, an’ we never smoked or chawed nothin’ only what we raised ourselves.

“I reckon I’m ol’-fashioned an’ foagy, but I believe the ol’ way of life is best.”

She went on to describe her beliefs regarding what some might call superstitions, calling into question the popular definition of “witch.” She told Broadfoot she believed in moon signs and witches, and that once, folks considered her to be a witch — adding, “Lots of people don’t know what a witch is.”

“If you don’t know, I’ll tell ye,” she said to Broadfoot. “A witch is an ol’ person — usually a womern, with humpback, an’ goosenecked with long chin an’ nose, with stringy, frizzlie hair, deep wrinkles in her face, an’ her eyes as glassy an’ glairy as a dyin’ calf’s eye, an’ sets aroun’ or snoops aroun’ an’ says nothin’ to nobody, an’ has the power to send their spirit away to work around the homes of others an’ do things.”

She said the reason why the witches don’t say much is “‘cause their mind an’ spirit is allers away somewheres else,” and the powers of witchcraft are reserved for those women at least 70 years old.

She told of the troubles she’d seen caused by witches: knots tied in horses’ and cows’ tails, feathers plucked out of a rooster’s tail. To stop such incidences from occurring, her family had a tried and true method, she averred.

“The witch usually has a rabbit to carry her spirit here an’ there, doin’ devilment, an’ we watched our chance to shoot an’ kill the rabbit, or we didn’t kill the rabbit, we would keep our minds good an’ strong on the person we though wuz the witch while we stuck a dishrag full of pins an’ throw it in the fire an’ burn it, or take a ball of yarn an’ pierce it with a darnin’ needle with our minds concentrated on that certain ol’ witch,” she explained. “We would get ‘em that way.”

Broadfoot was born on Sept. 10, 1891, in a log cabin home high in the hills of Shannon County along the wild and rugged Current River near modern-day Eminence, to James Henderson Broadfoot and Elizabeth Henry Cagle Broadfoot.

His parents came to Missouri early on in their lives from the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and homesteaded a 40-acre tract of government land in the Ozarks, full of heavy timber and underbrush. From this wilderness, they procured their living and raised their family. Lennis, or L.L., as he would come to be known in his later years was one of 13 children.

From an early age, he loved creating art and aspired to become an artist, but he was discouraged both at home and at school. According to the artist, he persisted and developed his talent at every available moment by keeping his pockets filled with paper — sketching home scenes and neighbors who would sit around the fireplace and swap tales of the old days. However, from a very early age, character studies were his specialty.

His need to create art inspired him to travel after his mother died in 1909, when he traveled across the U.S., headed west, and worked as a cowboy while practicing drawing portraits along the way. In 1912, he married his first wife, Mary Ethyl Randolph, also from Shannon County, Missouri. They had four sons — Lindell, Dane, Carmel, and Verril — before divorcing in 1933.

For 20 years, Broadfoot did odd jobs and never abandoned his love for sketching. He settled in Great Falls, Mont., for five years and met well-known western artist Charles Russell, who encouraged him to pursue his artistic talent. Broadfoot enrolled in the Federal School, Inc., a correspondence art school, later known as the Art Instruction, Inc., and then worked as a commercial artist in southern California during the early 1930s.

It was from his studio in Pasadena, Calif., that he decided to return to the Ozarks in November 1936, determined to complete what he saw as his life’s work: character studies of the Ozarks pioneers and capturing the region he knew and loved through his art. He drew scores of Ozarks natives and hill country activities while recording stories about each one, such as Burk’s narrative about witches, in the written word.

He describes the purpose of his volume of work: “to preserve a true picture record of the pioneers of the hills, their strange customs of living that are so rapidly vanishing, and a life that is so different from anything known to modern folk, that it should be educational, especially to the younger generation who know nothing of the joys and hardships of primitive ways.”

In 1944, Broadfoot found a publisher for “Pioneers of the Ozarks,” a book featuring 88 charcoal drawings and accompanying stories featuring people of the Ozarks. Shortly, thereafter, he attempted to publish a second book, “Stoney of the Wildwoods,” which was a work of fiction based on the real-life man, Jess Thompson, who appears in the “Pioneers of the Ozarks” series.

The story follows the fictional protagonist, named Stoney, who is known for his uncanny abilities as a stone-throwing-marksman on his adventures throughout the wild Ozark hills. Unfortunately, the book was never published in the author’s lifetime. The manuscript, and its accompanying artwork, are now a part of the Harlin Museum’s permanent collection of Broadfoot works.

In 1935, while in Cheyenne, Wyo., Broadfoot met Elva Etta Brown from Kirksville who became his constant companion. They later married on June 22, 1943, and settled in February 1944 in Salem, Dent County, where they opened the Wildwood Art Gallery in their residence.

Broadfoot spent the rest of his life promoting and exhibiting his artwork at his gallery in Salem, as well as at nearby Montauk State Park and in St. Louis. He fervently searched for a home for his art, lobbying the Missouri State Park Board and the National Park Service, with hopes of keeping the entire collection together and establishing a permanent gallery in the Ozarks region.

His considerable efforts towards the creation of the Ozark Scenic National Riverways, including his correspondence with Congressman Richard H. Ichord and Senator Stuart Symington, were largely motivated by his search for a permanent gallery for his work.

Broadfoot died March 17, 1984, and is buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Salem. In 2005, Broadfoot’s son, Dane, donated the Broadfoot collection of over 200 works of art, along with original manuscripts and Broadfoot’s collection of personal correspondence to the Harlin Museum in West Plains, where it currently resides on rotating display.

The Harlin Museum will have Broadfoot’s Pioneer of the Ozarks available for the public to view during business hours, noon to 4 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays, until August 14th.

Harlin Museum Announces Winners of 2022 Photography Show Competition

The Harlin Museum would like to announce the winners of their Photography Show Competition for 2022, which is currently on display in the museum’s Hathcock Gallery through Sunday, May 29th. The generous sponsor of the prizes awarded to this year’s competition winners is West Plains Savings & Loan, one of the museum’s most ardent local supporters of the arts in the Ozarks, which is located at 417 Broadway in West Plains.

The photography show includes forty-four combined competition entries from both youth and adult divisions, divided into five categories: Color Photography, Monochrome (black & white, sepia and other neutral-toned, etc.) Photography, Altered (photos that have been altered in a significant way using computer software or editing programs) Photography, Photo Collage (entries comprised of multiple photos), and something new for this year’s competition—a theme category—of Pet Photography.

 

The top prize of the competition, the Best of Show award, has gone to a color photo entry titled The Station, an image of a transit portal’s linear ceiling architecture overlooking a station busy with the bustle of people below and a distant focal point at the other end of the structure, making for a striking photographic image, taken by John Fenske of West Plains, MO.

 

In the color category, which was the largest category of the competition with a total of twenty-five entries, first place has been awarded to Back Porch Tulips, a still-life image of barely open red tulips in a clear glass vase by Kelli Albin of West Plains, MO. The second and third place color category ribbons were both taken by Marc Brannan of West Plains, MO for his entry Like A Rainbow Tonight, a nighttime image of an arched bridge overhead that is alight against a midnight blue sky, and for his entry No Title, Just Peaceful, which is an image of a low-water crossing looking down a deserted country road completely overgrown with swaths of unknown greenery in the distance. The Honorable Mentions of the color category have been awarded to the color entry titled Sector 7, an urban nightlife image also by John Fenske of West Plains, MO, and Ruby’s Sheep, an image of pastoral bliss featuring fluffy sheep set against a multicolor sky by Kelli Albin of West Plains, MO.

 

For the Monochrome Photography category, first place has been awarded to the entry titled Sleeping Oaks, a view of towering bare-limbed trees shot from below in a striking black & white image, entered by Allen Hampton of West Plains, MO. Second place is awarded to Randy Connell of West Plains, MO for his entry titled Alien Scream, a 30-second exposure that created a wispy, smoke-like image with black, white, grey, and gold hues.  The third-place ribbon is awarded to Kelli Albin of West Plains, MO for her entry Free Time, another serene but striking black & white pastoral image combining a flock of well-wooled sheep against the wooden grains of a cluster of old felled trees.  Honorable Mentions go to Terry Hampton of West Plains’ entry titled Crossings, a neutral-toned image of a rustic walking bridge amidst a forest, and Down On The Farm, the black and white photo of a farm dog with a jaunty hat by Hallie Horne of West Plains, MO.

 

In the Altered Photography category, first place has been awarded to Marc Brannan of West Plains, MO for his high-contrast image of a colored American flag set against a black & white fence post and field, titled Focused On Reverence. The second-place altered category award goes to Allen Hampton of West Plains, MO for his vividly colored image of the fuchsia pink bloom known as the Bleeding Heart, or Dicentra – Queen of Hearts. The third-place ribbon for the altered category goes to T. Fenske of West Plains, MO for her macro photography entry, It’s Not Bubble Wrap, a crosshatch image of identical rows and columns of circles in hues of blue and white that beg the question, “what is that?”. And, the Honorable Mention winners of this category are Into The Light, an image of a greenery-lined indoor path entered by Terry Hampton of West Plains, MO, and Cold, an icy closeup image of corrugated metal entered by T. Fenske, also of West Plains, MO.

 

The Collage Category only received a single entry, Emerging, which featured four identical floral images in varying colors entered by Terry Hampton of West Plains. Categories with only one entry do not declare a winner due to the lack of a competing image.

In the Youth Division, which had two entries, first place has gone to Anna Temple’s entry, Sweet Dreams, a lovely black & white image of a roly-poly English bulldog’s sweet sleeping face, and second place has been awarded to the entry titled Into TheThick Of It, a color image of a Lego-sized toy man set to embark upon an adventure into a thicket of green growth entered by L. J. Temple. Both youth entrants are from West Plains.

Finally, for the new-this-year theme category of Pet Photography, first place has been awarded to Anna Temple’s entry, Sweet Dreams, with second place going to Kelli Albin’s color entry, Gracie Mae, an intriguing facial close-up of a grey-haired feline with amber-colored eyes, and third place has been awarded to Down On The Farm, the black & white photo entry of a farm dog in a jaunty cap entered by Hallie Horne of West Plains, MO. Honorable Mentions for the pet category go to the colorful image of a playful Jack Russell titled Trooper taken by Randy Connell of West Plains, MO, and Best Buds, an image of a couple of cuddling felines taken by Kelli Albin, also of West Plains, MO.

 

The winners of the final award of the show, the People’s Choice Award, will be decided by the public through votes placed at the museum gallery and through online voting on Facebook, which begins on Friday, May 13th on the Harlin Museum’s Facebook page (@HarlinMuseumWP). Voting ends at 2 pm on Sunday, May 29th and the winner will be announced shortly thereafter.

 

The Harlin Museum is located at 405 Worcester, West Plains, MO 65775, about a block southwest of the downtown Court Square. The museum’s hours of operation are now Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (12 pm – 4 pm). Questions may be directed via email to or by phoning the museum at (417) 256-7801.

Winners of Harlin Museum’s 2022 Spring Art Show Competition Are Announced

 

The Harlin Museum would like to announce the winners of their Annual Spring Art Show Competition for 2022, which is currently on display in the museum’s Hathcock Gallery through Sunday, May 1st. The generous sponsors for this year’s competition awards include West Plains Savings & Loan and West Plains Bank & Trust, two of the museum’s most ardent local supporters, who donated a collective $400 to reward the show’s winners and support the arts in the Ozarks.

 

The show includes twenty combined competition entries of oil, acrylic, and watercolor paintings, graphite drawings, and mixed media pieces—some presenting a more realistic representation of their subjects with others displaying fantastic abstract and fantasy themes that excite the mind. It is the portrait of the lady, in a style very realistic and portrayed in great detail, that has earned Best of Show. The entry, an oil paint-rendition of a lovely silver-haired elderly woman in a complimentary silver frame, is titled “Mo-Mo” and was painted by the talented artist, Bonnie Heenan, of Gassville, Arkansas.

 

The show’s entries were divided into the three categories of drawings, paintings, and mixed media, earning a total of fourteen awards for area artists.

 

In the drawings category, first place has gone to, Last Turkey Season, another realistically-drawn portrait—this one of a seemingly-pensive man in a curve-billed cap with his hand resting at his chin as if he were in a thoughtful repose—done in graphite by Bonnie Heenan of Gassville, AR. The second and third place drawing category ribbons were both taken by Ron McGarry of Willow Springs, MO for his entry Galway Girl, a black & white graphite portrait of a woman standing in an ivy-covered stone archway, and for his entry The Pinnacle, a graphite landscape of a curving cove with a water-lapped shore of boulders and forest undergrowth in tones of black, white, and grey.

 

The paintings category consisted of twelve pieces in oil, acrylic, and watercolor mediums. The first place in this category has been awarded to the already-two-time winner Bonnie Heenan of Gassville, AR for her entry Champion Of Time—an oil painting of the metallic mechanical inner-workings of an almost futuristic-looking timepiece. Second place has gone to the dream-like watercolor of two fish swimming amidst a swirling, blue-tinged current set against a stone-filled riverbed in Swimming Upriver by Marie Ann Robinson of Willow Springs, MO. And third place is another claimed by Bonnie Heenan of Gassville, AR for Car Show Stopper, an oil painting featuring a classic roadster in shades of crimson and cadmium yellow. Honorable Mentions in the painting category have gone to Dusk Approaching, an acrylic entry of moody florals by Angela Bullard of West Plains, MO, and to the mostly blue, squiggly-lined abstract by T. Fenske of West Plains, MO titled Came Back Home.

 

In the category of Mixed Media, first place has been awarded to the talented Ann Kulpa of Cabool, MO for her high-contrast abstract collage entry, House By The Duck Pond. The second-place mixed media award also goes to Ann Kulpa of Cabool, MO for her other vividly colored abstract entry, High Steppin’ Joe. The third-place ribbon for mixed media is awarded to Akasha Davis of West Plains, MO for her fantasy-themed entry, Cherry Blossom Dragon, a piece depicting the crest of a fine blue waterfall flowing through a soft pink cherry blossom forest with a silver metallic dragon flying overhead. The Honorable Mention winner of this category is the red-hued abstract entry, Under, by T. Fenske of West Plains, MO.

 

Finally, a special Young Artist Appreciation certificate is being awarded to young Vale Fenske for his entry, Handiwork, a modern-feeling piece featuring a black hammer on a yellow background matted in white and framed in a simple black frame with crisp corners, for being the only youth entry to this year’s competition.

 

The winner of the final award of the show, the People’s Choice Award, will be decided by the public through voting at the museum gallery and through online voting on Facebook, which begins on Friday, April 22nd on the Harlin Museum’s FB page (@HarlinMuseumWP). Voting ends at 2 pm on Sunday, May 1st and the winner will be announced shortly thereafter.

Call For Submissions: Harlin’s Annual Photography Show Entry Dates Coming Up April 29th & 30th

The Harlin Museum of West Plains, MO is set to host its Annual Photography Show Competition for 2022 and is calling for photography submissions from all of the Ozark’s regional photogs—both amateur and professional. Entry dates for the show’s competition will be Friday, April 29th, and Saturday, April 30th from 12 pm-4 pm each day at the museum. The show’s entries will be on display in the museum’s Hathcock Gallery, from May 6th – to May 29th, 2022.

Final categories for this competition show will be determined by the entries received; but general categories will likely include Color photos, Monochromatic photos, Altered photos, which are those that have been edited post-process w/ digital software or other means of photo manipulation to create an artificial image,.and Collage pieces, which are any entry consisting of multiple photos arranged as a part of a larger piece to portray an overall theme, statement, or intent.

There will also be a special themed category that will receive its own special award; the theme of this category will be:   * Pets *

All entries will be evaluated on their individual application of Technical Quality, Composition, Lighting, Presentation, and  Creativity / Impact.

Entries must meet the given guidelines for acceptance into the competition portion of the show. Guidelines for entry, as well as entry fee amounts and other pertinent information, can be found below.  Entrants may submit their entry form online at https://harlinmuseum.com/events/events%20&%20activities/entry-dates-2022-photo-show/ or fill one out on the day of entry.

All other inquiries should be emailed to the museum at or relayed via telephone to show organizer Vicki Warren-Martin at 870-706-7863 (text or call).

Call For Art Submissions: Harlin Museum’s Upcoming Annual Spring Art Show

The Harlin Museum of West Plains, MO is set to host its Annual Spring Art Show for 2022 and is calling for art submissions from all Ozarks regional artists. Entry dates for the show’s competition will be Friday, April 1st, and Saturday, April 2nd from 12 pm-4 pm each day at the museum. The show’s entries will be on display in the museum’s Hathcock Gallery, from April 8th – to May 1st, 2022.

Final categories for this competition art show will be determined by the entries received; artists can enter any kind of Fine Art piece, including Paintings (oil, watercolor, gouache, acrylics, ink and wash, tempera, or encaustic paints), Drawings (charcoal, chalk, crayon, pastel, pencil, or pen & ink), Printmaking pieces (woodcuts, stencils, block print, scratch art, engraving, etching, and lithography, or screen-printing, foil imaging, or giclee prints), and Sculpture ( bronze, stone, marble, wood, clay, metal or 3D print), as well as mixed media entries and Digital Art (Still or Animated). Any type of 2D or 3D art is eligible.  All entries will be evaluated for design/composition, technique/skill of construction, presentation, and creativity/originality by three individual judges..

Entries must meet given guidelines and pass jury standards for acceptance into the competition portion of the show. Guidelines for entry, as well as entry fee amounts and other pertinent information, can be found below.  All other inquiries should be emailed to the museum at  or relayed via telephone to show organizer Vicki Warren-Martin at 870-706-7863 (text or call).

Winners of 2022 Harlin Museum Fiber & Textile Arts Show Are Announced

The Harlin Museum would like to announce the thirteen winners of their 2022 Fiber & Textile Arts Competition Show, which will be on display in the museum’s Hathcock Gallery through Sunday, February 20th.

The winner of the award for Best of Show goes to the entry titled Stack & Whack, a vibrant quilt of the pattern by the same name in various shades of blues and greens by May Schmitt of West Plains, MO.

In the Textile Arts category, which includes quilts, quilt collage, applique, etc. entries, 1st place has been awarded to Alma Pruett of Cabool, MO for her brightly-colored quilt featuring fabric hexagons in contrasting reds & blacks, titled Hexagon Stack & Whack. The 2nd place award goes to the Art Deco-inspired quilt that features central panels of the Parisian cabaret, Moulin Rouge, on the front and a back pieced with a fabric line commemorating the 1964 movie, “An American In Paris”, titled Ooo la la/Deco Days In Paris, entered by JoAnn Hereford of Ava, MO. This quilt will be raffled off in October 2022 to benefit the Ava Art Guild—raffle tickets are available at the Ava Art Gallery in Douglas County, MO.

And the 3rd place award in the Textile Arts category goes to Library Raffle Quilt, a handsome quilt with 25 central squares filled with different geometric shapes in shades of red, white, grey, & black created by Calico Cabin Quilt Sewciety of West Plains, MO.  This category also incudes two Honorable Mention awards for Stained Glass, a quilt in rich purple, pink, blue, and green hues, and Red, White, & Black Hunter Star, a quilt in the pattern of the same name featuring eight-pointed stars in a black & white polka-dot fabric, both by Alma Pruett of Cabool, MO.

 

 

The Fiber Arts category this year includes entries of knitting, crochet, embroidery, wool felting, and macramé. The awards for 1st and 2nd places go to the crocheted afghans, The Greatest of These, and Richards War Room, both examples of mosaic crochet created by Michelle Kennedy of West Plains, MO. The 3rd place award goes to Macramé Bracelet entry by Cherry Taber of West Plains, MO, a lovely piece with rich browns and beige & rust-colored stones. The Fiber Arts category also includes one Honorable Mention award, which also goes to Cherry Taber of West Plains, MO for her playful knitted character doll holding her very own fuzzy friend, titled Miss Poppet & Her Teddy Bear.

 

 

And, in the final category, Mixed Media, which is comprised of entries that feature multiple forms of textile/fiber artistry, 1st place has been awarded to Elizabeth Rodriguez of West Plains, MO for her entry, Attitude, a framed quilted and appliqued piece featuring a vibrant fabric rooster. Bonnie Bainbridge of West Plains, MO took 2nd place for her quilted, appliqued, and embroidered winter wall hanging titled, Merry Merry Snowmen. The 3rd place Mixed Media award goes to May Schmitt of West Plains, MO for her entry, Sewing Tote Bag, a lovely yellow fabric tote bag created by the artist and embellished with appliques and embroidery in a sewing motif.

 

 

The winner of the final award of the show, the People’s Choice Award, will be decided when voting ends at 2 pm on Sunday, May 20th. Votes for this award can be cast by visiting the museum in person or checking out the Harlin Museum’s Facebook page (just look for our 2022 Fiber & Textile Arts Show photo album on our page and click “Like” on your favorite to vote).