Copious Notes

Lexington Opera House, watercolor 19 X 30 in. Oppegard says, “arrived while show was on with intention of getting shots of patrons leaving. So I went in and sat on the stairs and watched the last 20 minutes of “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” By Sandra Oppegard. Artwork photos by Mary Rezny.

Lexington washes across the walls of Cross Gate Gallery this month in streams of watercolor, forming images of Cheapside, the Lexington Opera House, Al’s Bar and many other familiar locations rendered in dreamy impressions from the brush of Sandra Oppegard.

“There was one lady in here who said, ‘You make Lexington look like Paris,’” Oppegard says, leading a casual tour of her exhibit, Landscapes and Townscapes. She quickly steers toward a painting and says, “I think she was referring to the old Metropol at dusk, because that has a kind of Parisian feel.”

Watercolor artist Sandra Oppegard’s “Landscapes and Townscapes,” on exhibit through Nov. 25 at Cross Gate Gallery. (c) Herald-Leader staff photo by Rich Copley.

In her image, the restaurant, which was in the building now occupied by The Village Idiot pub, is framed by lights and occupied by a reveling crowd.

Others have told her that she makes Lexington look fabulous.

“To me, it looks that way,” Oppegard says. “That’s the thing about someone coming in from another area: new eyes.”

Oppegard, 71, was born in Cincinnati and then began moving west, eventually settling in California. Her love of art coincided with a love of horses. She was encouraged through art classes in high school to go to art school and attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. From there, she went on to a 23-year career as a freelance illustrator based in Southern California with a list of clients that included Max Factor, Redken, Mattel Toys and Baskin-Robbins.

In 1974, she married Thoroughbred trainer Victor Ellis Oppegard. The couple moved to Montana in the 1980s and Lexington in 1999.

“I even got an assistant trainer’s license in California,” Oppegard says. “I got to saddle horses at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park. I learned things that were very handy to me getting commissions to paint horses and selling work because it’s very authentic. I really know what’s going on. You can tell if an artist knows horses or not.”

“Jazz Players” (Jazz at the Library. Group from Columbus, Ohio: Eddie Brookshire Quintet – Eddie is on bass and Jack Novotny is on sax.)
Watercolor, 12 x 15 in.

While working in California, Oppegard met Cross Gate Gallery owner Greg Ladd and he started buying her work. In 1994, she visited Lexington for the first time and says that’s when she and her husband first considered moving to the Bluegrass. An added draw was family that had moved to Northern Kentucky.

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