Skip to content

Getting To Know You; Adalyn Boutcher

Hancock County High School Senior Adalyn Boutcher competed at the 82nd Annual State Beta Convention held in Lexington, KY on January 16th and won First Place for her acrylic self-portrait in Painting, Division II. She is now eligible for the National Beta Competition to be held in June in Louisville.

Adalyn is an outstanding local artist and specializes in life-like portraits. “Ever since I can remember I’ve always been artistically inclined,” she said, “but it really happened for me in 2017. I remember coming home from school one day and just sitting down and drawing a self-portrait.” She has been practicing diligently every day and working independently to improve on each of her techniques until mastering them.

She said her main mentor in art has been her high school art teacher, Greg Tate. “He has been one of my top supporters,” she said. She met him in 2019 when she had entered into the Hancock County District Art Show at the public library with a piece she did of the character Jeremiah Valeska, “The Joker” from the Fox TV series Gotham and won first place in the middle school category.

On her first day of school at HCHS, she said she looked at her schedule and art wasn’t on it. She walked to Mr. Tate’s room and asked if he could help. He not only made sure she got into an art class for her freshman year but, recognizing her exceptional talent, placed her in Art II with juniors and seniors.

Adalyn said she had mostly worked with acrylic paints as her medium of choice but in the last two and a half years she has started experimenting with latex acrylics and has progressed into oil paints. She also enjoys doing charcoal and pencil sketching. On one series of drawings she used dried and pressed flowers in the background for an accent of color. “I recently did a watercolor piece and it turned out pretty well considering that’s not my top medium,” she said.

She has the option to enter the same piece or create a new one for the National Beta Competition this summer and said that she will most likely enter the same self-portrait. “But if something hits me, then I’ll probably make a new piece,” she said.

In her junior year she entered her painting of Josh Kiszka, singer for the Michigan rock band Greta Van Fleet, and won Third Place at the State Beta Convention in January 2022. She has participated in the Beta Club for one year at HCMS and at HCHS for her junior and senior years.

Adalyn has enjoyed singing in Musical Theater at HCHS and was a member of the Hornet Marching Band Color Guard starting her eighth grade year. During her freshman year the band won State for Class A. Her junior year they qualified for the state competition and won fourth place.

She graduates in May and has been accepted at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Georgia as well as University of Kentucky but says she is leaning toward UK. She is still deciding and said she is happy to have good options. She is set on majoring in art and says she’ll definitely be taking some business classes as well, in order to learn how to make a business of her own.

She intends to explore many different mediums before settling on one career path with her art, she said. She has been experimenting with stop-motion animation, clay, jewelry-making and crochet. She started learning to crochet in December and is already making clothing and blankets. She has also painted scenes on canvas shoes for different people with themes they chose. Adalyn said she may create an Etsy shop soon. There is no limit to her creative hobbies and her family is very supportive and encouraging with all of her endeavors.

She has done commissioned artwork for different people in the community and family members. She did 2 engagement portraits, one for her first cousin and one for a lady in the county who gifted the painting to her son on his wedding day. Adalyn’s grandfather asked her to sketch an 8 x10 of her great-grandmother, Frances Louise “Panky” Boutcher, from a wallet-sized photo of her when she was 16 and it will remain a family treasure for years to come.

Her very first job was as a part-time caricature artist at Holiday World during the summer before she started her sophomore year. There were crowds of people who came through that summer and she gained a ton of experience on the job. One of her favorites was a caricature she did for a husband & wife and their young daughter where they had requested she turn them into mermaids.

Adalyn’s aunt & uncle own Magnolia Coffee & Co. in Cannelton and she’s been working there for over a year now as a barista every Saturday. She said they’ve been encouraging her to make prints of her artwork to sell in the shop. She has already made and sold over 30 hemp bracelets there. She also started working part-time in July at American Eagle in Owensboro.

Tell City Regional Arts (TCRA) Association is currently holding their 2023 art exhibition and Adalyn just submitted a few of her pieces this week. It will be open to the public for viewing all throughout February, with a ceremony-opening gala on Saturday, February 11th. She’s submitted the self-portrait that won her first place in the beta competition as well as 3 pieces she created through her AP Art class – oil, latex acrylic and water color. Those three are paintings of her interpretation of some of her favorite songs. She will be creating 15 pieces in that series altogether for the class and the theme she chose is “How I visualize music.”

She has created 2 series, paintings and drawings, on the band Greta Van Fleet. “I actually did a drawing of Danny Wagner, the drummer, and posted it on my Instagram art account. He noticed it and liked it,” she said. She also depicted a song by Stealing Oceans and band members messaged her and said they were “blown away” by her ability and loved that their music inspired her. She did a portrait of the lead singer of The Velveteers, Demi Demitro, as well and said she was honored to be recognized twice by the members for the portrait and another piece she created based on their music.

Adalyn is the daughter of Matthew & Shannon Boutcher and the granddaughter of Judy Powers, Jim Boutcher and Prissy Boutcher, all of Hawesville. She has three brothers: Andrew, Jack and Henry.

By Jennifer Wimmer

Leave a Comment