By EMILY SMITH

BCFM Intern

This Saturday, Aug. 22, the Boyle County Farmers Market will be hosting even more local artists and craftspeople. The guest artists and craftspeople will be displaying and selling their work ranging from jewelry to woodworking to canvases and one-of-a-kind works in stone and glass. The market will be open from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at Constitution Square Park.

Luanne Lyons is one of the artists you’ll find at the Boyle County Farmers Market on Saturday. She said she’s learning about herself as she discovers her “hidden talent” of painting tree silhouettes.

“Almost sixty two years old and I had not a clue that I could draw a tree.”

She usually paints these trees on smooth rocks, which she finds all over the area in rural Boyle County where she lives. Some weeks, though, you may come across a painted mushroom or slab of wood that she’s painted. The rocks and other pieces of nature that she uses for a canvas come from Herrington Lake, to her sister’s backyard and everywhere in between. 

One time, Lyons said she told her friend that she’d haul off a truckload of rocks where that her friend was going to turn into a flower garden. Only after she had made this promise, Lyons said realized she would only get about three good, smooth rocks suitable for painting out of the load. But being a woman of her word, Lyons said she loaded every last rock into a truck and hauled them off. 

At Lyons’ well-shaded table at the market, you can find her signature symbol: a silhouette of a tree painted with a rhythmic pattern of multicolored dots flowing between the branches. These flowing dots feel “natural,” she said. 

And she loves to experiment with different color patterns — most of her work has color that really pops.

Lyons’ mother said she must have been a crow in some past life because she is so attracted to shiny things. You can see this in her art as she uses bright colors and coats the rocks in a clear shellac to give them their own shimmer.

If you look closely, you’ll find her initials “LL” on every piece, but they aren’t easy to spot. Sometimes a patron can’t see the letters until Lyons points them out.

Lyons said she has enjoyed spending time in nature as she familiarizes herself with the shape of trees, and hunts for special rocks just waiting to be painted. 

When admiring or purchasing Lyon’s art, know you’re supporting a genuine, authentic character. 

“I’m straight up me,” Lyons said. 

She added that she feels good knowing her art will live on when she passes someday. “I’m really doing something.”