Artist 'faces' her fans at meet and greet
BY CHRIS MURINO Staff Writer

"Faces on the Newshour"

SOUTH BRUNSWICK - People were everywhere, even on the walls, at the South Brunswick Senior Center.

Some people were lounging. Some people were following artist Edith Neimark around as she talked about her work. And some people were indeed on the walls, drawn by Edith herself, in her exhibit entitled "Lotsa People," to be shown at the Senior Center through March 28.

On Monday, Neimark held a meet and greet, talking about her drawings and walking through the gallery with a group of about 20 onlookers.

"I like drawing people and I don't have a lot of people around to draw, so I sit in front of the t.v. and I draw the talking heads," Neimark said as she looked at one of her drawings, which features, literally, a variety of heads, including Bill Frist, among others.

The showing was sponsored by the South BrunswickArts Commission, which chooses a new artist to feature there every three months.

Sandy Behrend, an art teacher and painter herself, is a member of the Arts Commission and is in charge of choosing the artists to be on display.

"Her details are wonderful," Behrend said. "She really gets the person's character. We never had somebody who kept her exhibit to just people."

Neimark is sometimes inspired by people on television, sometimes by people she sees on the streets and sometimes by things she sees in photographs and in magazines. However, she says she is inspired by nothing.

"I just do it," Neimark said. "People who like to draw are probably born with this drive to do it. I started out drawing beautiful princesses. They happened to have yellow hair, blue eyes and lots of freckles, so you can guess who I was drawing."

A

lthough she says she is not inspired

by anything in particular, her favorite artists are Henri Matisse and Albrecht Durer.

She has received awards for her work from the New Jersey Senior Citizens Art Contest. She received first place in the state for a pastel portrait she did in 1997. Last year, she received an honorable mention in Middlesex County for her pencil sketches called "Faces on the Newshour."

What Neimark most likes to draw are children. There is a section of children at the exhibit. Whether it was a young German boy and his dog, her young ex-neighbor, Natalie, or her great nephew Derrick, the children were always drawn with obvious detail and affection. She said she uses primary colors for children because she feels that is appropriate for little kids.

"He was a gorgeous little kid with great big eyes," Neimark said of Derrick. "Now he's a big, lumbering teenager."

Sometimes she draws children outside, at a pool for instance, but it is very difficult.

"Kids don't sit still, so I have to do quick, active sketches," she said.

She does draw many subjects in person though, during life drawing classes or otherwise. She spoke about one drawing of a woman playing scrabble at the Princeton Senior Center.

"This woman is a killer," Neimark said. "She would come up with the most bizarre words. When I showed it to her, she got very annoyed and said, 'My nose is not that big.' I tried to fix it, but I made it more messy."

She said some people are easier to draw than others and that Hilary Clinton and JohnMcCain give her a difficult time. Bill Frist, on the other hand, is quite easy.

She said she'll be in various meeting groups and often breaks out a pad and pencil to sketch those in the audience. Afterwards, she just throws them in a drawer somewhere.

Neimark said her favorite medium is oil pastel.

"It's basically a high-grade Crayola," she said. "Nobody seems to like it. I find it easy."

Neimark went to college at Skidmore for art, but never really pursued it as a possibility for a career.

"I thought I could never make a living doing it, so I didn't even try," she said.

Instead, she became a psychologist and a professor at Rutgers University. After she retired in 1991, she got back to drawing a lot more.

"She clearly loves to do it," Behrend said.

Her advice to one person during the meet and greet, on how to draw people:

"Look really carefully. Really see what's there."