A touch of his brush

Pictures of people and buildings often intrigue oil painter Walter Hurlburt, who applies his own spin to them with his brush and brilliant colors.

A photograph of a woman wearing a black hat in a newspaper ad for instance caught his eye. So he created a painting based on it, but he changed her hat to reddish orange and brought out the blue in her eyes by painting her blouse a vivid turquoise.

“One little thing you change and it adds just enough to make it different,” he said.

The Burbank Senior Artist Colony resident was also inspired to paint a landscape of a grain elevator in Canada after seeing a picture on the Internet, he said.

“They are very imposing and architectural works of art,” he said.

Both paintings will be displayed at the San Fernando Valley Art Club’s exhibition “New Beginnings” opening Jan. 9 at the Creative Arts Center Gallery in Burbank.

Hurlburt has been a member of the organization for two years. He’s shown at the Creative Arts Center Gallery before with other groups like the Burbank Art Assn. He will also be displaying two works of art each month for a year at the Viva Gallery in Sherman Oaks.

There will be 65 paintings in the show at the Burbank Creative Arts Center, said Dori Marler, president of the San Fernando Valley Art Club.

“I like the way they do the hanging,” she said. “The artwork shows well. Everything is grouped together so there is some continuity and the lighting is beautiful.”

In this exhibition there will be abstracts, portraits, landscapes, seascapes, figurative, still life and animals, she said. The mediums include sculpture, pencil drawings, pastels, watercolor, acrylics, charcoal and oil paintings.

Hurlburt has been painting since 1995 and has always preferred oil for his medium, he said.

“It’s easy to correct things,” he said.

When choosing the colors he’ll use for a subject, Hurlburt pulls out all his tubes of paint to make a perfect selection.

“I like to use bright colors,” he said.

He believes an artist can always learn something new so he continues to take classes at the Brand Library Art Studios with teacher Betty Woodhull, he said.

“I’m inspired by what the other artists are doing,” he said. “We critique each other’s work, and it’s very helpful.”

Woodhull is impressed with Hurlburt’s recent works, she said.

“He’s been doing a lot of Canadian grain elevators and doing a nice job of it,” she said.

“He uses very bright, vivid, lovely colors. He just does a really good job. I’m really proud of him.”