Visual Arts | Animals, rainbows and vibrant colors prominent in exhibit

Half of the pictures in the current McConnell Arts Center exhibit are of animals such as giraffes, moose, owls, elephants and ducks. The other half are lively pond scenes of fish.

All these depictions of Earth’s creatures are by mother and son Betsy and Derek DeFusco.

Betsy, 73, has been a painter for 30 years and before that, an illustrator. She lives in German Village and maintains a studio Downtown.

Derek, 47, works at Open Arms Health Systems where he happily says that he gets “paid for making art.” Derek was born with Klinefelter syndrome, similar to but much less familiar than Down syndrome. He graduated from Upper Arlington High School and now lives on his own, albeit with daily assistance, in a house in Upper Arlington.

About 15 years ago, Betsy gave her son — who adores videogames and Bigfoot lore — some art supplies for Christmas.

“He kind of turned up his nose and then he started using them,” she said.

Now he draws animals and landscapes with colored pencil on paper. He says that when he is making art, he “goes to a different mind — and it feels good.”

For the first time, mother and son are showing their works together in a public exhibition. “Family Colors” continues through May 13 at the McConnell Art Center in Worthington.

Derek’s works are full of bright colors and cheer. His favorite zoo animals — a moose and a giraffe — have individual portraits, as do an owl and “Bigfoot in the Woods.” (Derek claims to have seen Bigfoot a few years ago and, every year that it is held, he attends the Bigfoot Convention at Salt Fork State Park.)

Rainbows figure into a number of Derek’s works, he says, because “rainbows are lucky and have a pot of gold at the end.”

Using the two fish ponds at her home for inspiration, Betsy has created a series of oil paintings — vibrant scenes with multiple, transparent fish shapes overlapping one another. Some of the scenes also include small birds. Her paintings are filled with motion, as if a teeming pond has been caught in freeze frame. Each has many complementary and contrasting colors.