An open house reception for artist Steve Champine, of Howard, will be held from 1-4 p.m. June 14 at the Mielke Arts Center, N5649 Airport Road, Shawano.
Several of Champine’s watercolor paintings will be on exhibit in the lobby gallery through the annual art fair July 27 at the park.
Champine is paralyzed from his shoulders down. He was injured in a fall from a deer hunting tree stand in 1995.
Prior to the accident, Champine was a professional motorcycle racer. When not traveling for races, he enjoyed hunting, fishing and being outdoors.
Introduced to oil painting in high school, “I quickly realized that this was an avenue that allowed me to stay in touch with the places I had traveled to and the people I had met along the way,” he said in a press statement. “Painting these memories became an outlet that brought much enjoyment.”
Following the accident, Champine feared he would never again put brush to paper.
“In an instant, my life had changed forever,” Champine said. “With no hand dexterity or movement below my chest, my racing days were over, and so, I thought, was my ability to paint.”
For three years he didn’t even try to paint. That changed when his 3-year-old daughter put a brush in his hand while playing with a kindergarten watercolor set. And that’s all it took.
“I was able to paint her a small picture,” Champine noted. “She congratulated me, and I set off on a mission to paint her a complete picture! It was at this moment watercolor entered my life, and I have never looked back.”
Although the spinal cord injury makes it more difficult for him to control his strokes, he and his dad found a way for Steve to paint again using PVC pipe.
Champine said he wants to help others experience nature through his paintings.
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