Meet the Artist - Irene Farmer
 Irene Farmer’s acrylic painting, “Ladies of the Dawn,” is the official poster art for PCA’s seventh annual “Seniors Celebrate the Arts” celebration. Set against a vibrant orange and red background, the brightly colored work portrays four women rejoicing as the day breaks. In the foreground, a child stands with one of the women, who is encouraging him to celebrate the beautiful dawn, Farmer explains.
“Ladies of the Dawn” join 32 other outstanding works by senior artists on exhibit during May at Rembrandt’s restaurant, 741 North 23rd Street, in Philadelphia’s Fairmount section. The exhibit at Rembrandt’s is one of three such displays highlighting this year’s “Seniors Celebrate the Arts” festivities. For more information about these exhibits and other special arts activities, click here.
All the women in “Ladies of the Dawn” are based on one model who Farmer observed during a class at the Cheltenham Art Center two years ago. Farmer made a number of sketches during the class. The painting evolved over the course of months, with Farmer reworking it a number of times in her studio at home until it felt right.
 “Ladies of the Dawn” depicts an imagined scene from the Caribbean or Africa, places the artist had never visited before she created it. She says that her specialty is portraits of people and of animals, painted for both her own pleasure and on a commission basis.
Farmer began these artistic pursuits by accident. During the 1980s, she was asked to lead her pottery class at Philadelphia’s Jardel Recreation Center after her art teacher retired. The request included teaching a painting class there as well. “In the beginning, I had five painting students, and they taught me,” Farmer remembers. “Later I caught up to them.” As her interest in painting grew, she honed her skills by reading up on art techniques and “picking up a class here and there” at various community art programs, including one at the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill. She went on to teach art to elementary school students at the Maternity BVM School in her Northeast Philadelphia community. Now retired, Farmer says she looks forward to devoting more time to her personal artwork and to taking on more commissioned projects.
Her advice to an aspiring artist? “Enjoy it, that’s the main thing. Sit back, start to relax, and let your creativity and imagination flow.”
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