The exhibit Joe Dudley Downing 2000 will be displayed through July 23 at The Kentucky Museum. Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for children and free for children under 8. Sunday admission is free. Museum hours are from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. each Tuesday through Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. each Sunday. Reservations are required for group tours. For more details, contact the museum.

Joe Downing seems like the consummate artist. Sitting among the 80 pieces of his artwork that are being displayed at The Kentucky Museum, he expressed his joy that everything was in a good spot to be shown. They make the space look like it had been created for the art, he said of the museum staff. I dont think of the opening of the exhibit as the day people come and see it, but the day I see the painting in a new situation for the first time. I feel like everything has been justified. I feel blessed that the show is here. And where better to display a Downing exhibit than Western Kentucky University? The Hart County native, who now lives in France, is the brother of former Western president Dero Downing. We get special consideration through the family connection, said Earlene Chelf, marketing and special events coordinator of University Libraries. Its a labor of love for us. We want to show his artwork in an exceptional light. Hes had two other exhibits at The Kentucky Museum and hes been pleased. Clad in dark blue corduroys, a gray shirt and a green-striped cardigan accented with an aqua ascot, the artist sat on a stool Friday and told stories behind some of his artwork. Take the pieces that are made from doors and French roof tiles, for example. Im not the first artist to paint on French roof tiles, but they call out to me, Downing said. Theyre appealing and they take paint well. It refreshes me for easel painting. Another work got its name, As Ever Was, from a friend in Kentucky who described someone as the nicest man as ever was. I like to hear the sounds of Kentucky … the accent, Downing said. But the small phrase titles a large piece. The canvas used for As Ever Was was so large that Downing had to have a wall knocked out so it would fit in his studio. It let some light in, he said. (The painting) was a physical feat to pull off. Even the tall wooden stem that centers the piece Herald, Speak of the Days has reason behind it. It was part of a Christmas tree in Menerbes (France), Downing said. Such details dont sound like they come from a man who didnt aspire to be an artist as a child growing up in Horse Cave. I didnt know painters existed, Downing said. We had two framed objects on the wall. I had no way to connect them to the living person who executed them. It wasnt until he went to Chicago to study optometry that he found his true calling. I went to the Art Institute and felt like my life was beginning in a whole new way, he said. I knew right away that I wanted to paint. I felt like Id been waiting all my life. Downing continued to take optometry classes while taking art classes at the Art Institute on nights and weekends. But after completing his optometry course in 1950, he moved to Paris and established his art career. Now, despite decades of living in France, Downing has not forgotten his roots. He said his home city of Menerbes, France, is similar to Horse Cave. Its a farming population of 1,000 people, he said. I never did not feel at home in Menerbes.