Her painted items and canvases will be on display during the Arts Off 84 Art Crawl, Labor Day weekend.

Artist Connie Kuhn, of Backus, displays some of the colorfully painted pot lids that she designed.

The art crawl expanded from what was the Lake Ada Art Crawl to a much larger event incorporating more than 50 artists from Pine River to Longville along Highway 84.

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 4; and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 5.

Pick up a copy of the Echoland-Piper Shopper this week for an event map and directory of artists.

Kuhn and husband, John, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, have had a place on Lake Ada for 40 years.

"As long as I can remember I've been creating art," Kuhn recalls.

She began marketing and selling her artwork as a young woman.

Artist Connie Kuhn painted these adult loons and their chicks.

She enjoys painting on old items like antique chairs, lids and even an old toolbox.

Acrylic paint is the paint of choice for her colorful creations.

"I like it because it's fast and dries quickly," she said.

And, it doesn't have the smell that oil paint does, so when she's painting inside there aren't fumes to contend with.

She's expanded her artwork into painting on framed art canvases. One in particular depicts a loon and chick floating on the water near a lily pad. One summer Kuhn asked her grandsons to bring her a lily pad from the lake to use as a model.

Although she has a number of loon paintings, her favorite things to paint are chickens. Tan, buff and black and white chickens adorn a pot lid she painted and a series of orange pumpkins with curly vines decorate three more lids.

Another type of artwork Kuhn enjoys is designing and making fine jewelry out of antique buttons. The necklaces take a lot of time to complete and are very intricate.

Kuhn took some art classes while in college at the University of Northern Iowa.

And, there are other artists in Kuhn's family. Her daughter, who lives in Washington State, is artistically talented, and Kuhn's 23-year-old granddaughter "kind of shows me up," Kuhn laughed.

The things she sees inspire Kuhn. Sometimes all it takes is a car trip past an old barn or interesting landscape to spark her imagination. "I think 'Oh, I'd like to paint that,'" she recalls. "You never know what will inspire you...those scenes you don't capture, sometimes you never forget," she said of missed opportunities to photograph scenes for a painting.

Kuhn sometimes buys things that she can use for visual reference and incorporate into her paintings. Items that catch her eye just might become part of a painting.

And, spending the summers in the north woods means that she can just pop outside for inspiration. If she wants to get the subtleties of a pine branch, she can see one in person.

Painting is a special activity for Kuhn. She doesn't keep track of the time it takes her to complete a piece.

"I would like to paint everyday but life interferes," she laughed.

Kuhn has participated in the Labor Day weekend art crawl all three years its been held. "It really has been fun and a lot of people come," she said of the experience.

Kuhn will be at Site No. 5, 711 12th Ave. N.W., Backus, the home of art crawl organizers Larry and Sherry Chapin.