Wendy McWilliams. Her paintings are so full of life. Abstract and with amazing color each painting makes you smile. Take time to read the titles of the paintings… such creativity! Ha ha…
Also, saw this on her Facebook page:
A Girls Gotta Do What A Girls Gotta Do by Wendy McWilliams
A Girls Gotta Do What A Girls Gotta Do is the perfect balance of WOW for me. The bright happy pinks and reds with that wonderful splash of creamy buttery yellow across with the dark accentuating each stroke. Very nice!
Read a great post (Q&A) about Wendy from The English Room – Love it!
From Wendy’s website:
I am an abstract painter that works from intuition and emotion. I create one of a kind paintings and every single one contains a piece of my world and my life experience.
Mark Bailey. I think there is a great style to this artists paintings. Lucky for us one of the galleries that represents him is located near Charleston. If you’re in the area, check him out! Anyone who has been to the wonderful resort called The Sanctuary will immediately recognize it in this painting. Exquisite rooms one after another, each so grand. Mark captured that perfectly!
This painting is available at the Wells Gallery located at The Sanctuary Resort on Kiawah Island in SC.
Mark Bailey was born in 1982 into a family of art appreciators who encouraged creativity. He began to draw at a young age and went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree of fine art (BFA) from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Bailey’s paintings record his diverse surroundings in an abstracted, painterly fashion, from people he meets to ordinary things he sees around him. His cityscapes and urban interiors reproduce the glow and bustle of city life, while his portraits might suggest a compelling story behind every face. – Liz Greenfield, ArtistADay.com
“Fabulous abstract renditions of urban scenes. The intrigue is heightened by a style that is all his own.” – InformedCollector.com
Mark Bailey is a member of the American Impressionist Society and Oil Painters of America.
Laura Robb. Art that catches your eye. It’s different. I love Laura’s style. Her backgrounds are stunning, which really adds to the painting. A nice mixture of painterly and abstract. It’s a fabulous combination.
Are you an artist? Do you admire Laura’s style? She’s got some great workshops coming up in 2015, check it out!
Sunflowers by Laura Robb 20×11″ Oil on Linen
Sunflowers… ahhh, they look so easy. I remember the first time I attempted to paint a sunflower field. Whoa… nightmare! I admire anyone who can paint sunflowers, especially with a twist!
Laura Robb grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and entered Art Student’s Academy there at the age of sixteen. In 1974 she moved to New York City to study with Michael Aviano. After returning to the southwest she studied drawing with Ned Jacob and received critiques from Richard Schmid. Since moving to Taos, New Mexico in 1986, Robb’s art travels have taken her to France, Spain, Guatemala, and across the United States. She has exhibited in numerous group and solo shows and her paintings have received many awards, most notably the John F. and Anna Lee Stacy Scholarship.
Sunlight and Snowcaps by Cynthia Rosen | 24×32″ Alkyd on Panel
Cynthia Rosen. I love her color palette and bold layers of paint. The texture is fabulous, the color is brilliant, the composition is nice, what more can you ask for? I especially like the bits of light playing off the shadows, nice!
At High Noon in the West by Cynthia Rosen | 12×9″ Oil
At High Noon in the West is one of the many paintings in her special sale that’s going on right now. I think it’s AH-mazing! Take a peek, they’re fabulous and very well priced!
Cynthia is also an excellent writer… check out her blog, it’s very insightful, and I love the way she writes (like she’s talking to you). It’s very engaging!
I embarked on an art career at a fairly young age securing connections with a number of galleries in NYC, Philadelphia, San Francisco, North Palm Beach and elsewhere, with works in both corporate and private collections, only to later turn my life towards raising a family and teaching. During these years my creative urges found outlets though theater work and fundraisers. I have recently returned to art professionally.
Where I once was a non-objective painter, I have jumped feet first onto the scene painting representational images. This portfolio represents a return to my love affair with paint and the constant growth and changes inherent in the creative process.
Where my own search will take me is yet to be seen but can be tracked on my website. While it began with the natural progression from designing and painting theater sets to executing murals, it has since turned to the immediacy of plein air paintings. I have recently incorporated a studio component as my works are creeping up in size, “Old habits die hard”. So goes the process of making art.
Time will tell where these travels will take me so please return occasionally and feel free to touch base via this website and or the blog that is in it’s infancy.
Shanna Kunz. Stunning. Grand. I see this painting with the beautiful sunlight hitting the trees, the gorgeous snow that crunches at your feet and I just want to take a nice walk through the woods (with a thermos of hot chocolate!)… when a painting evokes a feeling, it’s done its job! Shanna has gorgeous paintings, you must check them out!
Read a bit about Shanna from her website (click HERE to read in full!):
As a contemporary landscape painter, my work is a conscious play of mood, light and color, but as a naturalist raised and rooted in the diverse landscapes of western America, a painting means more than that to me. Each location is an encounter with the land, the trees, and the waters that have always given me a sense of connection and order. When a location intrigues and inspires me, I will paint the scene into a series using a range of keys or themes, experimenting and searching to learn more about the natural threads that tie the landscape together with complexity, subtlety and⎯more importantly⎯balance. I look for new ways to express spatial relationships and distance with layers of paint, brushwork, gradations, and diffusions of light. Hopefully, my study of the landscape will bring me somewhat closer to an honest translation⎯of both soul and land⎯as I push color and value into new compositions and continue a lifelong effort to communicate the emotional connection I feel with my environment.
Libby Terrace by Jason Saunders – 16×16″ 1st Place Winner at Plein Air Richmond 2014
Jason Saunders. Incredibly talented guy as you can tell by the first place ribbon from Plein Air Richmond this year. No easy task! Great composition on this piece, interesting and utterly amazing! Check out Jason’s blog as well, it’s full of great info and lots of wonderful photos!
Mrs. Martin’s Garden Roses – 16×16″
Jason’s roses are amazing, as seen in this painting! I also love the square canvases that are all the rage right now. It seems like a modern twist to a classic.
Jason Allen Saunders began his formal studies at David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. There he obtained a strong foundation of painting, under the watchful eye of his teacher, Dawn E. Whitelaw. During and shortly after college, Jason travelled to study with three of the countries most treasured artists: Everett Kinstler, Matt Smith, and Scott L. Christensen. The instruction given by these three men, was the bridge, Jason had been searching for.
Currently, Jason lives and paints primarily in the beautiful hills of middle Tennessee. Jason’s paintings are highly sought after by collectors throughout the world. His paintings are described as honest, peaceful, and emotional. Jason takes pride in the pureness of his craft, only painting from life and memory. “The process is as important to me as is the finished painting.”
Brad Holt. Dazzling! Ahhh, can’t you feel the warmth from the sun… nice, very nice. Even the shady area has an intense warmth to it that is fabulous. Very nice!
Whaler’s Cove – Monterey by Brad Holt 9 x 12″
Nice movement in the water, along with the reflections… what stands out to me in this painting is the sun on the rocks, I love that. This painting makes your eye dance around, from the foreground to the cove, up to the funky cool tree, to the distance, the water, and then the sunlit rocks. At least that’s where my eyes travel! Nice touch with that bit of purple… love it!
J. Brad Holt grew up in Cedar City, Utah. He is a graduate of Cedar City High School and Southern Utah Universtiy. He spent childhood summers working on his grandfather’s ranch in Orderville, Utah, hauling hay and punching cows. At age seventeen he joined the Utah Army National Guard where he served for the next twenty years as a member of HHB 2/222 FABN. Brad is a musician specializing in Early Woodwinds. He spent several seasons as a musician/performer with the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, Utah.
Brads desire to become an artist began with a childhood facination with the images of the surrealists, particularly those of Yves Tanguay. Eventually he was mentored by the renowned landscape painter Jimmie Jones, who was a friend of the family. Jimmie gave him a lot of old paint and brushes, taught him how to stretch a canvas, and showed him how to lay out his palette. Brad recalls: “Raw Umber and Ultramarine were the core of Jimmie’s palette, and they remain the core of mine to this day. They allow a subtle interplay of temperature in the underpainting.”
Brad Graduated from Southern Utah State College, (now SUU), as an Art Composite Major. He studied under Tom Leek, Arlene Braithewaite, Glen Anderson, Nina Marshall, and Spike Ress. After college he shifted gears and studied Early Music performance practice, and Lutherie. “I guess it’s just something I had to get out of my system. For years I strove for an ever more perfect illusion of reality, and the closer I came to that ideal, the more empty and tedius the exercise became. When I returned to painting I realized that I had to let paint be paint. Landscape painting is not about a perfect portrait of a physical place, it is about the eye, the hand, and the mind of a confident observer. The paintings that I admire are those in which the artist has enough confidence in his own vision to allow bold elegant brush artifacts remain. They serve as a visual testimony to the joy of the process. I do not want to leave my viewers exhausted with a labyrinth of detail. I want them to feel the joy that I feel when I stand before nature with a brush in my hands.”
Brad has taken First Place in the Everett Ruess Plein Air competion in Escalante, Utah in 2006. He twice recieved the Artist’s Choice Award and was Featured Artist in 2012. He has been an artist participant in the Zion Plein Air Invitational: In The Footsteps of Thomas Moran, since its inception. Brad has participated in numerous juried exhibitions and invitational shows including: The Springville Spring Salon, The Southern Utah Invitational, The Sears Dixie Invitational, Art for the Parks, and Land of Contrast: The Dixie National Forest Service Show. He has been published in Poulton and Swanson’s: “Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts, and ” The Gallery: Antiques and Arts Weekly.”
Richard Lindenberg. A truly talented painter. Country Road is a beautiful painting… I love the shadows in the road before it bends… he gives a nice sense of distance with this painting. Very nice!
Richard’s description of this painting: Created at the 2014 Sonoma Plein Air Festival. Out Western Ave. in Petaluma.
Afternoon Light by Richard Lindenberg
Just. Look. At. This. Light. Pretty fabulous isn’t it? I am always drawn to paintings with light… that fabulous light!
Richard’s description: Went out to China Camp State Park to paint the waters edge late in the day… and saw this beautiful backlit stand of trees on the shoreline.
Read a bit about Richard, from his website, to read in full, click HERE:
My truth lies somewhere between a life well lived thus far… and the dreams of what can still be.
The discovery and joy of painting came to me quite late in my life path, but not unexpectedly. Landscape photography was my chosen creative medium for thirty years after attending Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara. Large, medium and small format cameras… using primarily black and white images and the magic of polaroid transfers on watercolor paper. Most of my adult career was spent as an entrepreneur importer and graphic designer. Then in 2006 I became more heavily involved in the art industry as the product manager for Savoir Faire, the exclusive importer of Sennelier fine art materials where the history from the French manufacturer opened my eyes to the impressionist era and to art materials in general. In 2010 he joined with Plein Air Magazine as their Marketing Manager.
In 2001, after taking a painting class in soft Pastels to enhance my Polaroid transfers…I was swept away by the possibility of actually being able to paint. After years of painting landscapes in pastel, my passion now is painting the landscape en plein air exclusively with oils.Painting is a friend that always brings me great joy and peace. I paint primarily because it constantly allows me to open my heart. The little moments looking out a car window at an extraordinary sight, or seeing the way a strip of late afternoon light streaks across the meadow. If my paintings can allow the viewer access into a world that is always present, but often taken for granted… then I have contributed something.
Thomas Torak. STUNNING! I love this guys style! This painting reminds me of being a kid trying to capture lighting bugs… ahhhh the memories! Just look at how magical those stars are? Radiant and like jewels in the dark sky.
This is what Thomas had to say about his nocturne series that he did… beautiful words!
Starry Night was one of 21 Nocturnes I painted for a solo show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA. The exhibit was a tribute to the music of Chopin who wrote 21 nocturnes for solo piano. Starry Night was the final piece in the series, a quiet moment to let the exhibit drift off into sleep.
Studio Interior with Nocturne by Thomas Torak
It’s pretty cool to get a glimpse into the artists’ studio… where a gorgeous nocturne is being painted. Very clever!
Read an excerpt about Thomas from his website: Click HERE to read in full; interesting reading, you’ll want to click! Then while you’re there check out the many beautiful paintings!
Thomas Torak is a modern master painter working in the classical tradition. His paintings are known for their breadth and luminosity, rich color and lively brushwork. In the fall of 2008 he was hired as an instructor of portraiture and figure painting at the Art Students League of New York. His paintings have been recognized with the American Artists Professional League Medal of Honor at their 66th Grand National Exhibition; the Audubon Artists Gold Medal of Honor at their 59th Annual Exhibition; the Allied Artists of America Silver Medal of Honor at their 93rd Annual Exhibition, the Academic Artists Gold Medal at their 61st National Exhibition of Contemporary Realism and the Honor Award for Oil at the Academic Artists Association’s 50th and 54th National Exhibitions, the Frank C. Wright Medal of Honor at the 2005 American Artists Professional League Summer Members Exhibition and Best of Show at the 8th Annual National Small Oil Painting Exhibition in Wichita, KA. He has received the top awards at the Salmagundi Club in New York at their Thumb-Box Exhibition and a special members exhibit of Flowers. His painting, The Artist, was purchased by the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, LA for their permanent collection.
Thomas began studying at the Art Students League of New York in 1974, studying the first year with Robert Beverly Hale and the next seven years with Frank Mason. Under Mason he learned not only the art of painting but also the craft. He prepares his own canvas, mediums and varnishes and uses only hand ground paint, often grinding the colors himself. A difficult and time consuming task, abandoned by most contemporary artists, but vital to the quality of his work. The methods and techniques he employs are those of the Old Masters but his paintings are decidedly contemporary. Many of his still lifes contain timeless subject matter such as fruit and flowers, but in others you will find more modern objects such as pizza, comic books or baseball mitts. Landscapes are often inspired by walks near his Vermont home or a stroll along the Maine coastline.
Mary Jabens. She’s got a great eye. My favorites are her clouds. They are magnificent! Her colors are fabulous, composition is interesting and ooh the little touches like the cloud break in the sky… makes this a stunning painting!
I’m telling you… Mary is an artist who’s work you need to check out… before her prices go up… up… UP!
25 Minutes to Rain by Mary Jabens
You can see the rain in the distance, yet still see some of that wonderful light… makes for a beautiful, moody painting!
Being creative has always been a part of my life. Different mediums, subjects, places, people and events continually give me inspiration. My passion is Plein Air painting. Living in Southern Utah provides a lifetime of subjects that are irresistible to my desire to paint! Trying to replicate nature in painting is a challenge: Warm and cool, light and dark values, soft edge versus hard edge- all the elements that make a great painting outdoors are a paradigm to me – one not existing without the other. Merging these elements together is my challenge. To make the results dynamic is my goal.
For more information regarding Mary’s thoughts and views on plein air painting check out the article (Clouds for Clouds’ Sake) by Bob Bahr for Outdoorpainter.com in June 2014!
Patricia Canney. She has some interesting work out … she’s painting dresses, all kinds of dresses. Beautifully! Hey, if you were getting married, wouldn’t it be cool to have a painting of your dress in the store window? Take a peek at Patricia’s paintings, very nice! She’s in several galleries, below is a Q&A from the Abend Gallery in Denver, CO.
Patricia is in the process of creating a new website, so be on the lookout! For now you can continue to use this site as well as Facebook and Pinterest!
I also like this one from the study/sketch section of Patricia’s website, the bright happy color really pops:
When people ask, I say, “I paint dresses and garments and stuff!” Garments, dresses, costumes, hats and shoes appeal to me as variations on figurative work. They are portraits without the figure, embodying the essence of a person or dream. I love that each viewer can read their own story, memory and emotion into the painting.
I like small scenes of people, places, garments and quiet moments that are loose and alive with color, connecting it all with places and times. I am drawn to that certain kind of light that captures the unguarded moment and captures both the “now” and “forever” on canvas.
Lately I have been assembling still life arrangements of garments, shoes and hats on hangers, dress forms and coat trees in my studio. They hang from the walls, drape on chairs and get moved around with the light. I paint them from life and photograph them in morning or golden late afternoon light. It’s great fun.
I use my graphic design background when composing a painting. Childhood memories of my parent’s small town café inform paintings of restaurants and interiors. Paintings of garments and shoes remind me of my grandmother who worked as a tailor in a men’s store….or of my mom who taught me to sew.
The Abend Gallery in Denver, CO wrote a Q&A with Patricia, I love knowing who artists have taken workshops with, as well as who inspires them!
Is my work more about realism or abstractionism or combo?
It’s a combination…a bit abstracted in the paint quality but aiming for realism of the emotion. I’d like to achieve the truth of a quick sketch, quickness and light , in the larger pieces.
Studied with?
Kim English was my first workshop teacher and the artist whose work always inspires me. I have also studied with, Peggi Kroll Roberts, Maggie Siner and others.
Inspired by?
All the above and more. Kim English for his amazing skills and sense of light. Paul Oxborough, a modern master. Nancy Franke, with her lovely ease of paint. Dan McCaw inspires me with his unwaivering curiosity and daily challenges to himself.
Of course, inspired by…
The classic, three…Sargent, Zorn and Sorolla
My work in the future?
Always working toward painting effortlessly (with precision)…or to appear effortless!
What would I say to a viewer?
Thank you for stopping for a look. I want every painting to live in a “good home”…like the “foster children” they all are!
What do I want the viewer to take away?
Enjoyment. I hope the viewer can imagine a story or bit of a story in the paintings.
How has my work changed over time?
I hope it has improved. So many ideas and not enough time to grab them all and get them down!
Favorite medium?
Oil on canvas but I’d like to improve my skills with acrylic, just for fun.
Zoey Frank. Wow! Stunning? Right? I love her work. The texture to it… and the background of that wallpaper? Mesmerizing! Zoey is one who can take an every day subject that most people wouldn’t think of painting and she can make it extra special!
Pink and Grey by Zoey Frank 36×30″
See what I mean? The colors, the textures… so nice! I am a fan!
Zoey Frank was born in Boulder, Colorado in 1987. She completed four years of classical atelier training under Juliette Aristides at Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, and received an MFA in painting from Laguna College of Art and Design. Zoey has received numerous honors and awards, including an Elizabeth Greensheilds grant in 2013, the Artist’s Magazine All Media Competition Grand Prize of 2012, the Hudson River Fellowship in 2012, scholarships from the Albert K. Murray foundation, the Stacy Foundation and the Art Renewal Center. Her work has been featured in Fine Art Connoisseur, International Artist’s Magazine, Artist’s Magazine, and Southwest Art among other publications. Zoey works from her studio in the Bay Area.
Casey Childs. What amazing work! This painting is brilliant. It shows all the stuff that’s used to get us to look like natural beauties, ha ha.
I love Casey’s paintings, his subject matter is different, which I appreciate so much. The light on her face and hand makes her come alive. The finish on the walls, the door, the mirror… all brilliant!!
Check out more of Casey’s work, I didn’t want to spoil it for you! One fabulous painting after another! Casey is represented by Principle Gallery here in Charleston, judging by the Gallery ID for this piece (it ends in CHS) I would think it’s right here in Charleston, SC – something I didn’t realize when I started writing this!
Read a bit about Casey from his website (and check out more paintings):
“My work as a whole encompasses an exploration of the human experience. My interest in the people around me comes from the idea that we look at people every day, but we never really stop to SEE them. In every painting I strive to capture the beauty, variations and complexities of the human form. The goal of my portrait work is to capture the soul of the individual–not just their likeness. I’m inspired by the figurative works (to name a few) of Sargent, Fechin, Thayer, Caravaggio and John Giarrizzo. John, my art professor at Northwest College, instilled in me a great love of art and an immense desire to create it. His work and ideas have found their way into mine. I see my work as a self-portrait in that the subjects of my paintings are all a part of me, each painting a learning experience and an exploration of myself as an artist.”
The Bannister (2014) by William Wray – 21.5 x 21.5″ Oil
Hey! A special note: My blog looks a bit different, and you may see some ads appear. Let me know what you think! Also, the name of my blog now matches the address http://www.artfoodhome.com I just moved my name underneath it where art. food. home. used to be…
One more note… to comment, just click on this icon (its located to the right of the title of the post):
Ahhh, this is one amazing painting. The light, depth… the wonderful dark areas that make the light areas just really stand out… stunning in every way. William Wray has the uncanny ability to take a subject, from super hero to bannister and make it one heck of a painting! Check out his work at WilliamWray.com – his Superhero series never fails to put a smile on my face. The urban landscapes are moody and incredible… the abstracts – WHOA! Check out all of his paintings, I truly believe this man can paint absolutely anything!
William Wray has lived in California most of his life and studied painting at the Art Students League in New York.
Making his living as a cartoonist who specialized in painted subjects, he spent many years coalescing a eclectic array of art styles, ultimately finding his voice in a contemporized reflection of traditional California regional painting that focus on humble subject matter rarely considered as fine art.
Wray blends traditional skill sets of realism and the sheer energy of abstract expressionism in an ongoing evolution to find the balance between two seemingly unrelated styles. Wray has challenged himself to create a brand of realistic expressionism he hopes to use a bridge into the customarily circumspect contemporary art world.
Hey! A special note: My blog looks a bit different, and you may see some ads appear. Let me know what you think! Also, the name of my blog now matches the address http://www.artfoodhome.com I just moved my name underneath it where art. food. home. used to be…
Lori Kiergaard. Wow… the way she can paint light in the darkness is incredible, she has a way that just makes it glow! I have a few more favorites… Train Station and Dinner at John’s, but you’re going to have to check out her website to see them ;) hard to pick just a few!
Wonderful work, a nice variety, the bar interiors with the reflected lights all over, really quite wonderful… wonderful city scenes and a few interiors as well! All are very nicely done!
Lori paints a wide variety of subject, from still life to cityscape, figures and one point perspective interiors and landscapes. Lately she has enjoyed working on a series of bar paintings. “I believe that people leave something of themselves on the things that they create, the things that they love and the things that they use. The ghost of a moment becoming ghosts of many moments. That is what I try to paint. You can see the way it thrills, when light falls on this ting or that, filling the moment with memories or hope”.
EDUCATION
Mostly self taught, I have had many teachers along the way. I have also studied next to some amazing and well known realist painters, my animator husband and one very special comic book artist. I had a lot to learn when I started painting, and still do. The best thing about being a painter is the opportunity to continue learning and growing for the rest of my life.
All images via Kiergaard.com, used with permission from the artist…
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