A painting by Sandy Hall, a Greenfield artist and retired art teacher. Hall is the guest artist at the Southside Art League in October, showing a collection of paintings in the Off Broadway Gallery.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
GREENFIELD — The landscape upfolds like a dream.
Ethereal colors fill the canvas, from the shades of green of the forest to the delicate pastel hues of the sky to the shimmering silver of the water below. Church steeples and red brick buildings rise in the distance.
From her spot near Brookville and its nearby lake, Sandy Hall captured the beauty and tranquility of the scene — an opportunity afforded her as a plein air painter.
“I love being outdoors in the elements. I love the change of seasons. I love capturing the light, if I can — it changes pretty quickly,” she said. “And there’s a lot of problem-solving. You’re trying to get that idea captured in a brief time.”
After a career teaching art to students throughout Greenfield, Hall has also embraced her own creativity and talent as an artist. Her skill and eye for detail are on display throughout the month of October at the Southside Art League in Greenwood.
Visitors to the league’s Off Broadway Gallery can peruse a collection of Hall’s work in a variety of media, from oil paints to collage to acrylics.
As the guest artist this month for the Southside Art League, Hall wants people see her appreciation for the core elements of artistry in her paintings.
“I hope they see that I have a love for color and light, and that I just want to create and express my ideas,” she said. “I hope my work prompts a reaction — tells a story and if they’re drawn to it, they want to ask me more about it.”
Hall’s life has been immersed in artistry, from her time as a young girl where her mother encouraged her to express her creativity. But it seemed her life would take her a different direction from art; enrolling in Purdue University, she originally intended to major in math education.
But a particularly tricky chemistry class set her on a path towards art education.
“My mom suggested I take something that would help free your mind, and I haven’t turned back since,” she said.
Hall finished her time at Purdue with degrees in visual art education and math education. She was hired to be a teacher at Greenfield Central Junior High School, where she balanced the opportunity to impart technical skills while also inspiring countless students to explore their own artistic voices.
She found that the junior high age group was ideal for her approach to teaching.
“I get all of the students, not just the ones who want to take it,” she said. “So I can plant some good seeds and teach them that creativity is beyond just making art — that there’s creativity in a lot of different professions.”
Hall never set aside her own artistic endeavors, either, but when she retired from Greenfield Central in 2013, she took advantage of the added time to explore different styles and approaches. From her space at Studio 12A inside the Bradley Hall Event Center, she works from her own photographs and ideas gleaned from her own experiences traveling all over teh world.
“I’ve traveled a lot and experienced some wonderful things that have helped inspire me to think outside the box and do something different,” she said.
She’s also nurtured a passion for plein air painting, or painting outdoors in the open air.
Hall participates in a variety of art organizations, including Indiana Plein Air Painters Association, Hancock County Arts, Upland Plein Air Painters, Watercolor Society of Indiana, Riley Old Home Society, Friends of T.C. Steele, Richmond Art Museum, Pendleton Artists Society, and Art Education Association of Indiana.
Her “Nine Little Goblins” display is featured each fall on Riley’s Greenfield boyhood home, with a panel along the Riley Arts Trail honoring her in 2025. She received the 2024 People’s Choice Award at Morean Iconic: Paint St. Pete plein air event at Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Hall’s involvement with a wealth of art organizations led to the chance to show at the Southside Art League, which she has been familiar with in the past.
“They’ve been a part of our art gallery here [in Greenfield], so I’ve seen them at paint-outs, and they asked me to judge their member show in the spring,” she said.
The exhibition features a wide variety of work, mostly paintings in oil and acrylic. She may also include some drawings, she said. Hall’s paintings will be on display through Oct. 30.
IF YOU GO
Sandy Hall exhibition
What: A guest showcase of oil and acrylic paintings, as well as other works, by Hall, a retired Greenfield art teacher.
When: Through Oct. 30
Where: Southside Art League Off Broadway Gallery, 299 E. Broadway St., Greenwood
Gallery hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday
More information: sandyhallartist.weebly.com
