Featured Artist… Randy Sexton!

On January 30, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist7 Comments

“Peace Hogs” by Randy Sexton

I first saw this image on Facebook. Ahhh, Facebook, gotta love it. It’s the most awesome tool when looking for the latest and greatest art. I love how artists are posting their work, its fascinating!

This is amazing on so many levels. I have always admired Randy’s work. I featured Randy back in September 2012, but couldn’t resist another post… this painting is so full of life. No harsh edges, just strokes of genius smattered here and there and TADA… a painting so fabulous that it takes your breath away! There is so much going on, yet not too much detail. The colors and strokes… INTERESTING. There is so much to see you don’t want to look away.

I love that the info about Randy on his WEBSITE isn’t just a bullet list of accomplishments. I never make it through those… I like to hear the story behind the person, why they paint, how they paint, who they studied under, who they look up to, where they live, about their dog, ha ha… anything other than the regular blah blah blah… Randy’s website is very, very nice, I encourage you to check it out! Here’s a little blip about Randy from his website… for more, either check out his website, or click on the September link above to see more info… Here goes…

“A ‘painters’ painter’, Randall is one of the premier contemporary California landscape painters, also paints still-lifes, figures, and portraits with equal mastery…His work evokes deep feelings, whether it’s the solitude of a deserted street at night or the exultation of a beautiful landscape, each speaks softly to the viewer.”
Jean Stern, Executive Director -The Irvine Museum of Art

Randall currently teaches at Pixar University
Randall was honored with the coveted “Artists’ Choice Award” in Laguna Beach at the 10th Annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Event held at the Laguna Museum Of Art
Randall is proud member of the artist group known as “The Outsiders”

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Paula Frizbe!

On January 28, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

“At the Lake House” by Paula Frizbe

Paula has such a great style. I especially like this painting, called “At the Lake House” – what a dream, eh? Oh, the color of the water, the lake house, and that TREE with it’s quirky whimsical branches. This is a wonderful painting!

Paula has many more, be sure to stop by her website if you get a chance! I see that Paula is a member of Plein Air Painters of the Southeast. They also have a great Facebook page if you’re interested!

Here’s a blip about Paula from the Leiper’s Creek Gallery, located in Franklin, TN:

Paula Frizbe has been a professional oil painter for over a decade. Her career in the arts spans almost 30 years. Her professional career has afforded her painting opportunities throughout the United States and in many foreign countries. She is a signature member of The Cumberland Society of Painters, Alla Prima International and Plein-Air Painter’s of the Southeast. Her work is owned by numerous private and corporate collectors. She is currently represented by several galleries in five states in the south and southeast.
“To me, the whole idea of painting is to respond to and then convey to others my view of the world around me. I find no pleasure in reinventing the world, nor seek a self-fulfilling inward gaze. My joy comes from the pure thrill of adventure.
The world is infinitely complex. The continual hunt for and then surprise finding of her mysteries is my sole motivation.”
Paula Frizbe — Artist statement

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Logan Hagege!

On January 25, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

Cloud Shadows on the Wall by Logan Hagege

I know what you’re thinking… STUNNING! Right? Those dramatic colors and shadows, the fabulous texture makes for one helluva painting! I’m not the only one that thinks so… this painting won the Artist’s Choice Award at the Coors Western Art Show! Great job Logan… it seems that he completes one masterpiece after another.

Here’s a blip about Logan from his website:

Logan Maxwell Hagege is a talented artist who excels in depicting the figure and landscapes. Serious study in art started for Logan when early interest in animation sent him to a local art school, Associates in Art. His interest quickly moved from animation to fine art while attending life drawing classes, and later the Academy`s Advanced Masters Program, which was modeled after the old time French Art Schools where students spent more than six hours per day studying from live models. Logan also studied privately under Steve Huston and Joseph Mendez. This artist has drawn inspiration for his subjects from his native Southern California as well as by traveling extensively to view various landscapes in the American Southwest and the Northeast Coast of the U.S.

Logan finds encouragement and guidance in masters of the past such as Gustav Klimt, N.C. Wyeth, T.W. Dewing and Maynard Dixon. One idea that drives Logan`s work is that evolution in art is never ending. He is constantly challenging himself with new ideas and new ways of looking at the same subject.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist (and SEWE artist!)… Mark Horton!

On January 23, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

On The Road by Mark Horton

Part of the Southeastern Wildlife Expo

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Mark has one cool style. Known mainly for his landscapes they draw you in and capture you. His marsh scenes are an exquisite view of what the Charleston area is really all about. Look at this painting… don’t you feel like you’re about to embark on a hiking adventure in the woods? Whew, I do… I think I burned a few extra calories just thinking about it, ha ha…

On occasion Mark gives workshops, so be sure to check out the gallery website to see when one is coming up. If you’re an artist, I’m sure it’ll be one that you will find both informative AND lots of fun!

The Southeastern Wildlife Expo (SEWE) will be sweeping into town soon. Very soon. Come February 15-17 Charleston will be hopping… even more than normal! People come from all over the world to attend. Read a little more about SEWE from their website… check it out, great photos and information!

Now in its 30th year, the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition has grown to be the largest event of its kind in the nation, attracting over 500 artists and exhibitors from around the globe who present their offerings to over 40,000 attendees. A 3-day celebration of nature that has earned a reputation for excellence, SEWE now hosts the world’s foremost experts in wildlife and nature art, as well as conservation research and environmental education.

Established in 1982, the first Southeastern Wildlife Exposition took place in February of 1983, with approximately 100 exhibitors and 5,000 people in attendance. Its goal was, and is, to produce an event which contributes significantly to the economy while promoting the conservation and preservation of nature and wildlife through its educational outreach programs and its focus on the visual arts.

The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition is a critical part of the South Carolina and Charleston calendar. Run with the utmost professionalism and pride, an effort that began as a small winter diversion has now become the largest annual event to take place in South Carolina and one of the most popular and successful events in the country.

View the 2013 Southeastern Wildlife Expo brochure

Here’s a blip about Mark from the gallery website, I think you’ll have to agree with me that Mark is one accomplished dude… and on top of being exquisite at what he does, he’s a super nice guy. Someone that you really enjoy talking to. Now for the blip…

Mark Kelvin Horton was born and raised in rural North Carolina. After graduating from East Carolina University School of Art in 1983, Horton moved to New York City to begin a career in advertising and design. He carried with him the dream of someday becoming a painter.

Eighteen years of living in New York were spent working as a creative director in various advertising agencies and eventually founding his own design company. Those years also provided an invaluable opportunity for Horton to view and study firsthand the seemingly endless number of masterworks of art in the city’s museums and galleries. Horton became particularly fascinated with the works of George Inness, Herman Herzog, Frederick Church and the tonalist photographer, Edward Steichen. He was also captivated by the realism of John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer as well as the romantic landscapes of the Hudson River School painters. The experience had a profound effect on his artistic development.

During his years working as an artistic director and designer, Horton continued to nurture his “fine art side”, drawing, sketching and painting whenever he had the opportunity. In early 2001 Horton made the decision to devote himself full-time to painting. He left New York City and returned to his Southern roots, moving to Charleston, South Carolina.

Horton is particularly fascinated with the effects of light and weather upon the landscape. He paints beyond a literal interpretation of a scene to portray nature in a way that reflects his own ideas and sensibilities while capturing the spirit, color and changing light of a place.

If you can’t make it to the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, check out the Horton Hayes Gallery website, and if you’re ever in Charleston, SC that is one gallery that you must pop in to. You won’t be disappointed!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Cassandra Gillens!

On January 21, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist4 Comments

A Good Day To Let Go by Cassandra Gillens

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What wonderful style Cassandra Gillens has. She’s been featured in Southern Living magazine. Her paintings are in the 2013 HGTV Dream Home on Kiawah Island… she has made quite a name for herself! Fabulous southern style!

Let me say… thanks mom! For mentioning this artist… good work, keep it up! That’s right, I have help. Do you really think I can come up with all these fabulous artists on my own? Fred is a big help, and now with my moms help I can say “I have people”, ha ha…

Here’s a blip about Cassandra from her website:

Cassandra Gillens is a self-taught artist, residing in the Low Country of South Carolina, an area she cherishes. Born and educated in Boston, Massachusetts, her earliest memories are drawing with colored chalks on the sidewalks of Roxbury; Massachusetts. The memories remain a part of her when she began to paint images depicting her early childhood years in South Carolina. Upon her return, she was moved to paint her visions of the Low Country’s comforting southern culture.

Cassandra is closely connected with the people and culture in this beautiful and historic land; her paintings depict some of her fondest memories as a child, and also of good old southern living and images of various life styles found on the Sea Islands. Her paintings show that love with vivid saturated color and simplification of forms keeping her true to style of fauvism.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Christina Hewson!

On January 18, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments

Great Dane portrait by Christina Hewson

Our Jack Russell “Charlie” likes to go shopping… we often walk behind the house to the shopping center and swing through Antiques of South Windermere, one of his favorite places to visit and then on to Dolittles dog store… Charlie loves to visit with them! On one of our adventures, a while back, we saw these AH-MAZING dog and horse portraits. Absolutely breathtaking… the black and white just added to their elegance. Artist Christina Hewson can really capture the essence of the animal. Each one is so unique and special! She will be at the Southeastern Wildlife Expo February 15-17, so be sure to look for her there!

Check out her website, it’s fabulous, she also has a blog, so give it a peek!

Here’s a blip about Christina from her website:

I was born in Charleston and raised 20 miles north of Charleston in Awendaw. My personal interests include swimming, drawing, piano, math, and science. I have been creating and selling oil and acrylic portraits since the age of fifteen. It is the only job I have ever known. My first year of college was devoted to the study of piano. But, I missed having time for drawing, math, and science. I enrolled in the College of Charleston where I studied all three. It was at the College of Charleston where I discovered my love for ink and brush. I paint portraits of animals and people in which I strive to capture the soul in as pure and simple a style as possible. I prefer to paint in ink or acrylic. I live in downtown Charleston where I feel privileged to practice my art. I invite you to visit my website and blog where I record my artistic journey.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Erik Weisenburger!

On January 16, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

“Night Pursuits” by Erik Weisenburger

(Image via MAINE MAGAZINE)

Note: If you haven’t yet taken the poll on the design of this site, please see the end of this post. Only takes a click to select (or type in your own response) then click VOTE. I don’t know who responds, so feel free to answer how you like, you won’t hurt my feelings! Appreciate your help!

Maine Magazine is a fabulous magazine full of all kinds of great art and design in Maine. This painting by Erik Weisenburger is so cool and different. I love that big moon peeking through the trees. Erik’s art is very different and so interesting, check it out if you get a chance! This painting reminds me of being a kid, maybe at camp, walking through the woods with night approaching, the spooky story telling coming soon, maybe a bonfire and some marshmallows… great painting!

Here’s a blip from Erik’s website:

My current work is a continuation of my exploration into patterns and community, drama and subtlety while creating an image that will mingle with personal memories, including the anthropomorphization of the natural world I encountered as a youth. I have had a long interest in natural patterns, their mathematical balance, mysteries, and symbolic histories. Memorializing the small dramas and peripheral images from my surroundings and interests has been a long running theme in my work.

A series of memorial gardens that pay homage to mentors and influencers to my education as an artist, and paintings based on the history and inhabitants of Graceland Cemetery in Chicago served as a precursor to the images I am creating as a relative newcomer to Maine. Here, landscape dominates my visions: the movement of the ocean, wind, and visiting animals, while my interest in the history of painting and illustration often becomes it’s own source for re-interpreting these observations and events.

I work in a painting tradition used by the Dutch still life artists. Its luminous qualities and history-rich process best allows me to explore and interpret the mingling of memories, monuments, permanence and impermanence.

I am fascinated by our society’s intense efforts to keep death and change at bay. For those that do consider death and impermanence, there is an instinct to keep a foot in the mortal world through monumental and sentimental remembrance–attempts at permanent connection with others. It is my hope that viewers will find a personal meaning in the work, a moment of calm or a stirring of memory.

If you have a second… please take this poll… THANK YOU!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Shirley Novak!

On January 14, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist3 Comments

NOTE: Yep, it’s me again, making changes to the way this blog looks…

Well now that we’ve had a tease of warm weather I’m loving all these bright happy flower paintings! Not that we go lacking for sunshine in the winter, but these are just so happy! I love Shirley’s use of color, how each compliments the next so nicely. Bright, happy and they feel as if they’re moving… dancing perhaps!

Shirley shows her work here in Charleston, SC at the Sylvan Gallery, so if you’re in the area be sure to stop by and check it out, otherwise her website is fantastic!

Read a blip about Shirley from her website, (I LOVE the Calvin Coolidge quote below, ha ha), what a fabulous write up… I love this!

Sometimes I think of myself as Shirley Poppy Seed. I love to harvest poppy seed, their seed pods are like a salt shaker and one of my childhood joys was shaking poppy seed out of their pods. I am still a child in this way, last year I harvested about three pounds of Shirley Poppy seeds, that is approximately three million seeds. I love to share my seeds with fellow gardeners. As I am writing this it is late May and my first Shirley Poppies are bursting into bloom. The Iceland Poppies start their bloom in mid April and bloom best in cooler weather, but will bloom from April thru November. Deadheading is the necessary element in continuing their bloom for so many months.I guess I have always been “garden mad” as the British say. As a child I loved to go to the nursery to buy plants and then bring them home, and create a flower bed and then water it to death. So painting flowers is just natural to my being. Color, intense and delicate color harmony, has always moved me emotionally. My love of flowers and love of color are the passions that drove me to be come a painter. Like Claude Monet said ” I perhaps owe it to flowers for having become a painter”. Since childhood the voice has been loud and clear telling me I must paint.I painted regularly thru most of my youth and young adulthood, and less often during my daughter Natalie’s childhood. In the early 1990’s I could finally focus on my need to paint. I took several painting workshops and knew that I could become a professional if I worked persistently and patiently. This quote from Calvin Coolidge speaks to this…”Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”By the mid 1990’s I was ready to risk everything in order to make painting my life. In 1996 I left my life in California and headed to Colorado to study with one of my workshop teachers, Len Chmiel. I sold a terrific house in a pastoral setting with ponds, creek, 100 yr old trees and views of the White Mountains. I lightened my load of material objects by 2/3, shed my old skin, stepped outside of myself, let go of the outcome and let the universe handle the details of my future. This was January of ’96, I arrived in Denver in a snow storm. I moved into an apartment and enrolled in classes at the Art Students League with a firm belief I would be OK. I must have taken this quote from Thoreau to heart; “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams… live the life you’ve imagined”. Joseph Campbell’s words also gave me confidence during this transitional period of my life. Especially these; “Follow your bliss and doors will open for you”. During these years many doors were opened to me, many opportunities and amazing people came into my life.During the next year I studied with Len Chmiel on a private basis, and also took classes at the Art Students League with Mark Daily. Mark Daily taught his classes to “paint what you love, and let your work become known for this”. For me it was easy to know what I should paint, loving flowers and color all my life. I’ve always been drawn to country gardens and the old fashioned flowers, and decided I had to learn to paint them.

In August of ’96 I took an outdoor painting workshop in Aspen, Colorado. This is where I met my husband Ralph Oberg. Ralph is a very successful landscape and wildlife artist. We had so much in common, we discovered very quickly spending lots of time together was easy, comfortable and natural. Ralph has spent his life hiking and painting the Rocky Mountains west and has a deep love of the wilderness. During the first two years of our time together we made numerous painting trips to most of his favorite mountain ranges. I loved getting to know his world and seeing so much of the western United States, and getting to paint my way through it. We were married in December of 1997 and the next year in May we bought property in southwestern Colorado and built a house and studio. I have been double digging flower beds at every opportunity since. The last three years have been spent building our garden. Ralph has constructed rose arbors, and laid our rock walks and terraces out of Blue Stone, while I have been building the soil structure in our numerous flower beds and filling them with perennials. I have really worked hard and this year it is starting to feel like an established garden.We had a garden cottage built for me to paint in and use as a potting shed. We designed her after some of the adorable New England cottages we saw on a recent trip through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, We named her ‘Poppy Cottage’, she makes a great garden studio.I love reading about the passion Claude Monet had for his garden. Pissarro and Van Gogh were also avid gardeners. My garden gives me great joy and countless ideas for paintings. Each year I let nature have her way and let seedlings sprout in new places and in combinations I wouldn’t have thought of. There are always delightful surprises in every corner of my garden.What I try to do with paint is recreate the joy I experience in my subjects; the flowers that I grow, and the wildflowers in mountain meadows. This quote from Joseph Campbell, “The function of art is to reveal the radiance running through all things”, suggests why I have such strong emotional responses to our natural world.I took plenty of time to develop my process and my way with paint so that I could ‘sing my own song’. I wanted to honor these quotes I happened across “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are” and” What I do is me, for that I came”. This was frightening much of the way and still is at times. Something inside of me keeps telling me to stay on this path. When I am at the easel I try to let the experience happen without forcing anything, and without judgment or negativity. Painting is a huge gift to my life. I love to encourage friends to give it a try, I believe we are all creative at our core. I love helping friends reconnect with their inner child and helping them experience the gift that painting is to me. Click HERE to read more!Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Gay Faulkenberry!

On January 11, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments

“Swirling Tide, Shark Harbor” by Gay Faulkenberry

NOTE: I made a little theme change… let me know if you like it, or if you don’t… I’m trying to freshen things up for the new year… (To comment, click on the LEAVE A REPLY link directly under the title of this post)… happy reading!

Gay Faulkenberry is a plein air painter who has a nice loose style. What a nice peaceful painting! If you can’t make it to the coast, you just need a painting like this to make it FEEL as if you’re there! I love those rocks in the foreground, then the rougher churning water with it’s fabulous colors and finally the distant water with hints of the rock colors. Very nice painting! I enjoy looking through the host of paintings on her website, I think you will too!

Check out Gay’s work, it’s quite impressive. Looks like she’ll be teaching a few workshops this year as well, one in Easton, MD and the other in Italy, more info on her website!

A blip about Gay from her website:

“My love of color inspires me to take on one of the greatest of challenges: painting from life. I am driven to capture the excitement and subtle nuances of myriad reds in a poppy field, the values in a stand of golden aspens, reflected hues in a shadow, or glow of a backlit flower petal. Each of these encounters demands that I see the world with a fresh eye, which is what I hope to convey to viewers.” –Gay Faulkenberry

Gay Faulkenberry has been a force on the American art scene for more than two decades. Known for her impressionistic approach to color and light, she is renowned for plein-air paintings of urban and rural landscapes and for studio paintings of intimate still lifes, florals, and interiors.

“Taking my pochade box outdoors into nature excites me as much as designing a still life arrangement or re-creating the ambience of a room setting. Whatever the subject, I’m inspired by the way light reveals form and essence,” Faulkenberry says. She takes equal pleasure in designing her environment, including the French Cottage-style home and flower gardens she shares with her husband Roger, and her vaulted studio/loft with its ironwork cabling and antique shutters.

A native Oklahoman, where she continues to live, Faulkenberry was raised throughout the West and has traveled extensively in Europe. Her grandmother and “best friend” was a painter and Francophile, who favored the French Impressionists and displayed Taos artists at a lodge she and her husband operated in Northern New Mexico. Luminous color made an imprint on Faulkenberry, who worked in watercolors from childhood through her studies at Southwestern State and Oklahoma State universities. Focused on detailed dry-brush renderings of homes with architectural ornamentation, she first encountered alla prima paintings on several trips to Taos in the late 1970s. Her transition to oils was facilitated by independent studies with Russian master Sergei Bongart. Subsequent workshops with Ray Vinella, Ned Jacob, and Mark Daily refined her skills. “I remain a student of art, always reaching for higher levels of excellence,” she says. “However, it is the artist’s job to discover his or her personal voice in creating a language that communicates beyond words.”

For the past decade, Faulkenberry has been a popular instructor herself, conducting workshops throughout the United States and abroad. As a mentor, she shares her insights and technical expertise in using the eyes, heart, head, and hand in translating the joy of life onto canvas. She also encourages her students to see and study art by past masters, including artists who have influenced her: the bravura brushwork of Nicolai Fechin and John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase’s attention to textures and colors indoors and out, and the “quiet magic” of Emil Carlsen’s still lifes.

Faulkenberry’s work has been featured in leading art publications, and she is frequently asked to jury art shows. Her work is represented in corporate, private, and museum collections across the country. A Signature Member of the prestigious Plein-Air Painters of America since 1996, she served as PAPA president and spokesperson in 2008-2009.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Aaron Schuerr!

On January 9, 2013December 9, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

The Road To Nowhere by Aaron Schuerr

Image: BetsySwartzFineArt.com

I feel as if I’m on this road, walking up this winding hill… I have my lunch in a backpack and a nice cold water, oh and maybe a Baby Ruth, you know, for safety’s sake… *ugh* let me get back on track here… I guess what I’m trying to say is… I feel as if I’m in this painting…

I. AM. THERE. It’s too cool when an artist can make you FEEL something… and this artist definitely makes me feel as if I am there…

The earth is amazing, the colors in the road… fabulous, the beautiful green, the mountains in the distance and THOSE TREES… those nice wild trees… makes this one spectacular painting. This painting is by Aaron Schuerr. Here’s a blip about Aaron from the Betsy Swartz Fine Art Gallery in Bozeman, Montana:

Aaron Schuerr began his art studies at the Art Institute of Chicago and then moved on to art college in Scotland. It was here, somewhat accidentally, that he was introduced to plein aire painting while out painting on the beach with a friend. As he describes “I packed up all my postmodern cleverness and became a landscape painter.” After graduation, he returned to Montana where he married his Rocky Mountain sweetheart. “In many ways, the school of nature was my best training”, says Aaron. These days he can be found loading up his field kit and heading to the Paradise Valley to paint. Working in both oil and pastel, he brings a quiet intimacy and sensitive rendering of light to the varied landscapes of the Rocky Mountain West. “I’m not just trying to paint a pretty picture; I’m trying to tell you what it was like to be there.” Aaron’s paintings can be found in private collections in America and Scotland. He is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America, a founding member of the Montana Painters Alliance, and a dedicated plein-air painter.

Check out Aaron’s website for more paintings! Also check out his blog, he’s got a sense of humor and his blog is a good read!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Cynthia Reid!

On January 7, 2013December 9, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist4 Comments

Flower Mosaic by Cynthia Reid / Image: AddisonArt.com

How’s this to brighten up a dreary day? I love these nice bright colors, it’s so happy! We can’t complain here in Charleston, SC about gloomy weather… we had a day of rain, which was so nice… an all day gentle rain. I happen to love those kinds of days, but from what I can gather I’m some sort of anomaly when it comes to weather… I hear others say WHERE IS THE SUN after a day or two of clouds… I say WHERE ARE THE CLOUDS, hee hee… Fall, Winter and the beginning of spring are what we live for here in Charleston…

Here’s a blip about Cynthia from the Addison Art Gallery website:

Cynthia Reid left a successful career as a physician to pursue a passion for painting that had consistently increased while she was practicing medicine. Her interest in art began when she was young and painted with her paternal grandparents, both of whom were oil painters.

An avid gardener, Cynthia finds inspiration in gardens and in travels throughout the U.S. and Canada. Some of her paintings, especially those featuring poppy fields and lily ponds, reflect scenes from recent trips to France.

In working with oil paints, Cynthia uses a palette knife technique to juxtapose complementary, vibrant colors to recreate the joy, beauty, and textures of the natural world. She believes that painting is about trusting her intuition and the process, while being open to the unpredictable. Her contemporary impressionist style keeps mystery in the painting.

A member of the American Impressionist Society and Oil Painters of America, she has studied with Kevin Macpherson and abstract expressionist, Josh Goldberg.
Artist’s Statement
I paint because I have a passion for expressing the beauty of the natural world. Using a palette knife and oil paints allows me to capture that beauty by recreating nature’s varying textures, color, and movement. These three elements are seen in my recent works — bold sunflowers, vibrant poppies, dancing irises, and waterscapes.

My intention is that each painting allows the viewer to enjoy a sense of being in a particular place. I believe that the viewer completes every work of art and want my paintings to start a conversation.

Now THAT is a love of art! Stop by the Addison Art Gallery website to view more of Cynthia’s work, or stop by Cynthia’s website to see more great work!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

New Site: JamesFitzgerald.org – Monhegan paintings included!

On January 4, 2013December 23, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments

MONHEGAN FISHERMAN by James Fitzgerald

I have to say… James Fitzgerald is one of my all time favorite Monhegan artists. There are many great ones, but his style is so unique and his subject matter always so interesting. It just really makes you want to know more… the stories behind the paintings! It hasn’t always been easy to get a lot of information about James Fitzgerald, but now there is a new website that will be updated regularly. By chance do YOU own a James Fitzgerald piece? If so, please contact them so that they can make this James Fitzgerald Catalog the most current it can possibly be…

We have the James Fitzgerald book which is so interesting and full of stories… I remember the first year we stayed at the Island Inn on Monhegan Island his paintings were hanging in the dining room. I. WAS. MESMERIZED. Stunners every single one of them!

MONHEGAN FUNERAL by James Fitzgerald

Ohhhh, the stories these paintings tell! Here’s a blip about the artist from JamesFitzgerald.org – he led a fascinating life and ran into some pretty cool people along the way!

James E. Fitzgerald (1899-1971) was born in Boston, MA. By the age of four, his artistic talents were recognized, and a studio space was created for him in his parent’s attic. As a child, he would visit his grandparent’s farm in Milton, MA, where he began a lifelong love of painting horses. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1918-1919, he enrolled in the Massachusetts School of Art (1919-1923), and subsequently at the Boston Museum School (1923-24). During semester break in 1923, he shipped aboard the Elizabeth Howard out of Gloucester, MA, initially to paint and sketch, but following a violent storm that left one sailor injured, he joined the crew and learned to jump into the dories for halibut fishing off the Grand Banks. In 1925 he made his first visit to Monhegan, Maine.

In 1928, Fitzgerald sailed as an able bodied seaman on the Dorothy Luckenbach out of New York City, working his way to the West coast. Although he had intended to reach Alaska, his travels took him to Monterey, CA, where he settled, married and built a home/studio. While in Monterey, he became a part of the circle of friends who gathered at the Cannery Row marine biology laboratory of Edward ‘Doc’ Ricketts. The group included John Steinbeck, Krishnamurti, John Cage and Joseph Campbell, among others. During this time, Fitzgerald’s interest in Eastern Philosophy matured, and he brought to his art its principles, seeking to express the inner vitality or spiritual rhythm of his subjects.

Fitzgerald exhibited extensively in California during the 1930s, winning at one point first prize in the California Watercolor Society exhibition. He continued to travel east and paint on Monhegan during those years, and eventually decided to settle there in 1943. Its remoteness led to the dissolution of his marriage, and Fitzgerald, who in the 1940s had exhibited at Vose Gallery in Boston, gradually withdrew from the commercial art world.

On Monhegan, Fitzgerald became part of the year-round community, purchasing first the studio and then the house built by Rockwell Kent in the first decade of the 20th century. As a studio artist, he was seen standing for hours capturing mentally the cliffs, gulls, or fishermen as they worked, returning to his easel to paint. His images of gulls wheeling over fishermen cleaning cod on Monhegan’s Fish Beach have become iconic. In those years, a lasting friendship developed with Anne M. Hubert, who along with her husband Edgar, eventually became his executors and heirs.

For the last 25 years of his life, Fitzgerald visited Katahdin in the off-season to paint, and in the late 1960s he visited Ireland several times, where he died on the Aran Islands suddenly in April 1971. The James Fitzgerald Legacy, a part of the Monhegan Museum, represents the artist’s estate.

And hey, if you are in the position to make a donation to keep the JamesFitzgerald.org site funded, that would be much appreciated as well!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

(Photos: Monhegan Associates Facebook)

Featured Artist… Bill Davidson!

On December 28, 2012December 16, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

Plein air painting by Bill Davidson

WHOA, right?! LOOK at this painting by Bill Davidson. I mean REALLY look at it. The mountains are magnificent, the deep shadows and that oh-so wonderful sunlight hitting in just the right place, the rocks and shore in the foreground is gorgeous against the water. THE WATER. Looks so real I swear I just saw a fish jump! The lights, the darks, the warm and cool the very loose style with which the paint is applied is stunning. This image comes from Bill Davidson’s Facebook page. I look so forward to seeing what’s next! Each and every painting is gorgeous! And lucky you… he gives workshops! So if you’re interested be sure to check out his website or Facebook page!

Bill does show his work at a fabulous gallery here in Charleston, SC – M Gallery of Fine Art check out their website as well, or better yet, if you’re in the area be sure to stop in. That’s one gallery you don’t want to miss!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist James Richards!

On December 26, 2012December 9, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

Gloucester Harbor by James Richards

James Richards has some downright jaw dropping paintings on his website and on his Facebook page. Isn’t Gloucester Harbor absolutely incredible? The looseness of the strokes is out of this world. The colors are out of this world. His ability to get rid of all the unimportant “stuff” in the actual landscape amazes me. He left what was interesting and downright GORGEOUS! It wasn’t easy to choose only one painting, each and every one is so good! I love when an artist posts photos of what they’re painting. It makes them (the artist) kind of like a magician to me. It’s magical how they portray what they see so differently and so much better than it is!

Here is the photo of what James painted (from his Facebook page) – Now do you see what I mean?! Jaw dropping, right? Look how he gave the painting some twists and turns and not boring straight lines everywhere… no little stuff all over the place, oh heavy sigh, I can tell you mine would be quite different… it would be straight lines and all the little stuff, yuck yuck yuck. Why don’t you paint like the paintings you like I wonder? Well, I guess it all starts with picking up a brush… (I hear ya Ken! hee):

I love this little blip about James Richards (from his website):

Every time I go out to paint, I’m amazed at the beauty,
complexity, and originality of God’s creation. Every
day is unique and offers different challenges and
opportunities for the artist. Being true to these
differences, accurately mixing the appropriate color,
value, and relationship I see before me achieves a
result of a certain realness in the painting.
In painting, light is always the main theme of my work.
Light gives form, color, and atmosphere to everything
we see. Without it, we would see nothing.
Thus, as it is in the natural world, so it is in our
spiritual world. Light gives meaning, reason, and
purpose to our existence. In nature, the source of
light is the sun. In our spirit, the source of light is
God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
My entire life has been a search for truth. Until I
learned of Jesus and asked him into my life, I existed
in the darkness of my own interpretation of life. As
Jesus filled me with his spirit, he has filled my life with
the light of God and an understanding of truth.
With this talent God has given me, He has also given
me vision. A vision to see the glory of God in His
creation. This is why I paint.

May God bless you in your journey through life, and
may the light of Jesus shine through you.

What a great guy! Give his website a look and I’ll catch you back here tomorrow!

Artist to watch… and a happy birthday to… JOE FIDLER!

On December 20, 2012December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments

Pretty cool isn’t it? This was done by my dad, Joe Fidler. I love sketches that have some ink and watercolor thrown in to jazz them up! Years ago I gave him a sketchbook for Christmas, he filled it full of wonderful sketches and gave it back to me. PRICELESS! I featured my dad last year with a few more images… he needs a website I think, ha ha… Personally I think he should make cards, they’re just so special! What a neat keepsake from different places you’ve traveled to! Everyone has photos, but how many people have a sketchbook filled with great memories? There’s no limit to what this man can do. He’s so creative and I love that about him! He’s always creating… watercolor, oil, sketch books filled with wonderful creations, beautiful ornaments made out of wood… I remember when we were young he made wine, polished rocks and had a dark room in the basement where he would develop the best photos ever!

This photo (below) was when my mom and dad had just boarded the boat and were leaving Monhegan Island after a visit. I’ll never forget that year. We had a great time and they were heading back… I think that’s the time they saw the whale on the way back to Port Clyde, that’s not something you easily forget!

I just wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! You’re the best! I love you so much and hope you have the best birthday ever!