Lee Farrar Bailey to Perform, Floral Art Class, and Our Anniversary Celebration

Fall is officially here, and so is the excitement for upcoming events at the arts center. We kick off things with a great concert featuring opera singer Lee Farrar Bailey. He will perform on the Padgett Stage inside the arts center on Sunday, Oct. 12, from 4-6 p.m. Tickets are per person. Reserve your seat at https://square.link/u/0Wh885hz, in person at the arts center, or by phone at the number at the end of this article.

Lee Farrar Bailey

Lee Farrar Bailey has performed his entire life, making his operatic debut at age 7 with the Seattle Opera Company. Since then, he has built a career as a featured soloist and in leading roles with professional opera, musical theatre companies, and numerous symphony orchestras, including: the New Orleans Opera Association; The Louisiana Philharmonic; The San Antonio Symphony; Alamo City Opera; The Mississippi Symphony; Summer Lyric Theatre; and the Jefferson Performing Arts Society in New Orleans, San Antonio, Houston, Los Angeles, and at Carnegie Hall in New York City, to name just a few. Lee has performed leading roles in “La Bohème,” “Oklahoma,” “Into the Woods,” “Grease,” “Man of La Mancha,” “Camelot,” “Oliver,” “Will Rogers Follies,” “Chicago,” and “Ribas-Dominicci” in addition to hundreds of other works. Lee also trained with Metropolitan Opera principal coach Joshua Greene as Wagnerian Heldentenor, following in the footsteps of his late father and world-renowned dramatic tenor Dennis Bailey.

Lee is a recording artist with five albums and one on the way, plus he continues to tour concert halls and performing arts centers in support of those works. He is also a published composer and original singer-songwriter and enjoys performing those works in various venues and churches. Lee now resides in Mentone with his artist wife, Sarah Mills-Bailey and their daughter. In Mentone, Lee is running his performing arts instructional studio, Lookout Broadway, and is developing a full professional repertory theatre company and a musical theatre summer camp workshop.

Floral painting by Lucy Thomas

Acrylic Painting Class

We also welcome artist/instructor Lucy Thomas to Mentone for a two-day acrylic painting class November 8 and 9. Tuition is $195, and the class is limited to 10. A supply list will be emailed to registered students. At press time, only one spot remained available.

In the “My Five Favorite Flowers: Florals and Negative Space” acrylic painting class, Thomas will show students how she paints florals in a loose, expressive style. Students will paint some specific flowers that she likes and also work from small fresh flower arrangements. “We can also use our imaginations to add any finishing touches. I primarily use a technique called negative space painting. So, I’ll show you how to do this as we paint our florals,” Thomas said. This is not a class on realistic painting and drawing ability/experience is not necessary.

About Lucy: Lucy started painting at 47 after a discouraging medical diagnosis. Before long, art became her full-time job. Since then, her work has been in galleries across the Southeast. She teaches at the Huntsville Museum of Art, Revelry Fine Arts in Nashville, and online through her website. She lives in the Nashville area with her husband, Garner, dogs and cats, and a tortoise named Steve.

Save the Date

The arts center will be celebrating its fifth anniversary of operation in the Chuck Sennett Center for the Arts building on Wednesday, Nov. 19, starting at 5:30 p.m. We will be joined by the staff of Elevation Bistro as they also mark their fifth anniversary. Look for more information in the November issue of The Groundhog.