Allgood’s whimsical work on display at Charles City Arts Center

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Iowa City artist Chloe Allgood hopes the people of Charles City will find the joy in her creations.

“I want people to feel happy and enjoy what they see,” she said. “I want them to enjoy art and like art.”

Allgood is the featured artist for the month of June at the Charles City Arts Center. Her collection of watercolor and acrylic paintings is entitled “Charmed Circle” and will be hanging on the CCAC walls through June 28.

The CCAC is hosting an opening reception for Allgood today (Friday) from 5-7 p.m. Art patrons are welcome to meet Allgood, peruse her work and enjoy some hors d’oeuvres and other refreshments.

“Charmed Circle” features paintings Allgood has created in 2022. She calls the work “whimsical” and says the paintings are of people she has known throughout her life doing various activities.

“That’s my friend doing yoga, that’s my friend’s mom when I was little at a picnic,” she said, as she pointed at different paintings she was hanging on Thursday. “That’s my youngest son eating dinner when he was little; this is my friend Matt Brown hanging out by the pool.”

Allgood is an Iowa City artist who works in photography, sketching and painting. She studied art, photography, darkroom developing and techniques at the University of Iowa.

“My art is influenced and inspired by nature and by my surroundings,” she said. “I paint at least four or five paintings a week.”

Allgood, age 50, also paints flowers and landscapes, and often has shows in Iowa City. She has paintings hanging at different businesses in the town.

In fact, she has another reception in Iowa City at the same time she will be at the reception here in Charles City. She said her husband will represent her at that show.

“I love it here,” Allgood said of Charles City. “I come for the Christmas show, but I really love when I get to do my own whole show. It’s really exciting.”

Allgood had a show in Charles City in April of last year, although that reception was held by live stream due to COVID-19 precautions. That show consisted mainly of her bird paintings, and was entitled “A Bevy of Peeps.”

“What you have at the arts center in Charles City is so unique, I really appreciate that,” Allgood said. “Not a lot of other small towns have something like that. It’s really amazing, and I love that I get to be a part of that.”

Allgood said she paints portraits of people off photographs, and with birds, she researches the species. She said sometimes she paints them abstract, and sometimes she attempts to duplicate their natural shapes and colors.

She grew up in Iowa City, and her father was a photographer and introduced her to the medium. She said she spent much of her youth in a darkroom developing film, and photography led to an interest in sketching, painting and other art forms.

When she isn’t painting, she has taught English as a second language and has also done website work and graphic design work.