The Kenai Art Center is hosting its May opening reception Thursday evening with a new exhibit — “Open Watercolor.”

Melinda Hershberger, a local artist, organized the show. She said she admires the array of different paintings at the center.

“There’s such a wide variety of artists and quality of work there,” she said Wednesday. “I’m hoping that the public will really enjoy the diversity.”

From outdoor scenes to pieces featuring the human form, the show covers multiple themes in more than 40 pieces.

Hershberger has been working predominantly with watercolor for the last 15 years, she said. What makes the practice different from other kinds of paints is how it behaves.

“It is that fluid medium that goes wherever you put water, or whatever the gravity situation is,” she said. “Watercolor is different in that it doesn’t really have the same kind of binders as other paints.”

There are a lot of ways to execute a watercolor, too.

“There are so many versatile ways of using it, applying it, working with it, and playing with (it),” Hershberger said. “So there’s always something new. It’s just very, very versatile.”

The reception is open to the public from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Kenai Art Center on Thursday. Patrons are encouraged to park outside the center and on Cook Drive, not in the Peninsula Oilers Baseball Club bingo hall parking lot.

The watercolor exhibition will be on display through May 28, from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Reach reporter Camille Botello at camille.botello@peninsulaclarion.com.

Prints are featured in the “Open Watercolor” show at the Kenai Art Center on Wednesday, May 4, 2022. (Camille Botello/Peninsula Clarion)