Butterflies, balloons, fishes, town scenes, group logos, houses, dogs, dragons, birds, flowers, words, bridges – you name it and it’s probably gracing an artistically painted bench somewhere in Vienna right now.
The non-profit Vienna Arts Society has set out 40 such benches for its second-ever “Take a Seat Vienna” fund-raiser. VAS held its inaugural bench initiative in 2019 – in honor of the group’s 50th anniversary – and it received broad public acclaim, but could not repeat the fund-raiser during the pandemic.
Group members set out the benches in late April, said Lu Cousins, director of the VAS Art Center. This year’s benches are larger and heavier than those used in 2019. This may provide at least some deterrent against theft, which was a problem four years ago until the group took extra security precautions.
“They’re completely different,” Cousins said of the benches. “The wood is cypress. They have much more heft to them.”
Vienna artist Ralph Reinecke, who designs furniture for churches and synagogues, hand-built the benches and held them together with wooden dowels. Each bench is branded on the back with his stamp.
Some VAS members painted their benches with intricate scrollwork using the “Zentangle” method. Doré Skidmore, who is a woodcarver, carved deep letters into the armrests of her bench.
There are 140 artists who belong to VAS and 38 of them painted benches for this year’s project. Two artists took on a pair of benches each.
“They took them home and worked on them for three and a half months,” Cousins said. VAS did not give the artists any stipulations for their benches, so they were able to let their imaginations run freely, she said.
“They gave us an idea, then we matched them with the sponsors,” Cousins said.
To help the creations stand up to the elements, VAS members varnished most of the benches with clear Miniwax Helmsman Spar Urethane. According to the company’s Website, the coating blocks ultraviolet light to prevent fading and has special oils that allow the finish to expand and contract with temperature fluctuations. Some of the benches could not be varnished because of the painting materials used, however.
Artist Kimberly Stein’s “Fire Breathing Dragon” bench looks like a Chinese painting, with a blue dragon writhing over the seat and onto the bench’s back. Stein heightened the three-dimensional, S-shaped serpentine effect by adding curved sections of wood to the bench’s top and front panel.
“More than anything, I wanted it to be approachable from a distance,” she said. “I needed it to be graphic, bold and unexpected.”
The artist also incorporated the Asian concept of duality and balance, yin and yang, by having the masculine dragon on the bench’s front and a more feminine floral design on the back.
Stein belonged to VAS a decade ago, but her membership had lapsed at the time of the last “Take a Seat Vienna” initiative, so this was her first bench-painting attempt.
“I took on the project and I’m glad I did,” she said. “It was a lot of fun. It was challenging. It’s all three-dimensional and you’re working in weird spaces. But more than anything, it was coming up with an idea that I could translate, to create something that all ages would like, not just adults.”
VAS president Carolyn Modugno’s bench, “Midnight in the Garden,” depicts koi fish and turtles in a pond, with lotus plants rising toward a night sky and a full moon in the background.
“Last summer, I went to Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens – I’d never been there before – in Anacostia and I started making a lot of drawings and taking a lot of photographs,” she said. “I got all excited about the plants.”
Modugno drew her design for each bench section on tracing paper, then taped the drawings with graphite paper underneath over the respective areas and transferred the design to the bench.
This brightly colorful bench, covered in acrylic paint after application of a priming layer, also was Modugno’s first. Painting its wooden surface was a different experience from what she’s used to, the artist said.
“It has a totally different feel,” she said. “I usually paint on paper or canvas. I have not been experimental on other kinds of materials, so this has been a real learning curve for me. But it was fun.”
Participating artists loved Reinecke’s benches and many left sections uncovered so the wood would show through, Modugno added.
After displaying the benches over the summer and fall, VAS will auction them off later this year to raise money for the group’s programs. For more information about the Vienna Arts Society and its bench fund-raiser, visit viennaartssociety.org.
