Category: Featured Artist

Featured Artist… Karin Olah Knowlton!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

KarinOlah AprilBlooms2 KO

April Blooms 2 by Karin Olah Knowlton

It amazes me that someone can use fabric so fluidly that it looks like paint from a distance. Yet up close you have the combination of interesting shapes, where you see through to other fabrics, each and every piece that Karin creates comes together so nicely! She’s such a nice person, you have to read more about her. I included a short blip below, check out her website for more… If you’re in the Charleston, SC area, check out Karin’s work, her show is through December 31, 2012 at the Corrigan Gallery (62 Queen Street)!

Karin also creates some spectacular contemporary pieces, one example below… I love the mixture of different mediums, it makes it so interesting!

KarinOlah UnwindingWind KO

Unwinding Wind by Karin Olah Knowlton

Here’s a blip about Karin from her website, read more  (including a FABULOUS video of her process) by clicking HERE…

Using fabric, Karin Olah works in a manner that mimics the flow of paint from a brush. Intricately cut, placed, and pasted textiles are combined with gouache, acrylic, and graphite to create Collage Paintings that are deep in color and texture. 

From a small-town upbringing in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, her interest in Amish quilts and textile traditions led her to study Fiber Art at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. For several years following art school, Karin managed a textile studio in New York City, developing colors and patterns for clients, including Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren, and Peter Marino Interior Architects. .

Now applying her fabric know-how to the realm of painting, Karin exhibits her collage art in solo and group shows on the East Coast. Her work has been featured in American Contemporary Art, Art Business News, Charleston Style and Design, and Charleston Magazine, on the covers of Charleston Art Magazine, Black and White: Birmingham’s City Paper, and Carolina Arts, and as the image for the 2011 Piccolo Spoleto Concert Poster as well as Charleston Farmers Market 2006 and 2007 posters and street banners. Corporate Collections include pieces in the Carolina Contemporary Collection of MUSC Ashley River Towers, Citadel College, City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs, and Shoestring Publishing Company. 

Karin is a former board member of Redux Contemporary Art Center, Charleston Arts Coalition, and French Quarter Gallery Association. She recently moved with her husband, Craig Knowlton, from Charleston South Carolina, to Boulder Colorado. Karin enjoys dancing to Motown with her newborn daughter, Alison, and chasing prairie dogs with her chocolate Labradoodle, Joby.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

All Images: KarinOlah.com

Featured Artist… Josh Elliott!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments

JoshElliott WinterWillows JE

Winter Willows by Josh Elliott

Josh Elliott is an amazing Montana artist… His landscapes  are magnificent!  The warm and cool colors seem to flow together effortlessly creating a beautiful snowscape! As we near the first day of winter (Friday) I thought this was an appropriate painting… Josh has an excellent website, if you have a minute, check it out!

The painting I initially selected entitled “MATINEE” has already sold, so if you see one you like you better snap it up! Look at the clouds in this painting!!! They took my breath away!

JoshElliott Matinee JE

Matinee by Josh Elliott (Sold)

A blip about Josh from Claggett/Rey Gallery in Vail, CO:

Josh Elliott was born in Great Falls, MT in 1973. He was raised to appreciate art and is a third generation artist. His grandfather studied with Grant Wood and dabbled in all sorts of artistic pursuits. His father, wildlife artist Steve Elliott, gave up a successful career as an ER doctor to become a full-time artist.  Josh’s father taught and encouraged him. Josh learned the importance of painting from life and discovered his passion for painting outdoors. He sees his outdoor paintings as a reaction to what is in front of him, and feels they act as exercise to sharpen his skills. He considers his studio paintings to be a culmination of everything he has learned from painting out, combined with his own artistic interpretation.

Born in Montana, Josh lived out of state for some time but always felt a deep connection with Montana’s landscape and people. Josh now lives with his wife and two daughters in Helena, Montana.

Josh says, “A good painting, to me, is Nature’s truth filtered through the artist.”

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Wayne McKenzie!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments

“Is the Peak Open Today?” by Wayne McKenzie

I know, right!? Utterly Amazing! I love the varying blues in the mountain and sky then again in the shadow of the skiers. The mountain seems so massive and surreal. What a wonderful painting! Wayne’s website is full of fabulous paintings. This is one from the Telluride portfolio, so be sure to check them all out!

I love the skiers in this painting. I admire skiers. Wish I was one. I wasn’t the bravest on earth. I did try downhill skiing as a kid. The tow rope…? A death trap in my opinion, same for the “bunny hill” (do they still call it that?) it’s a dangerous place! Why didn’t that ski instructor teach me to do anything but walk up/down a hill with skis on? Why not teach me that swish back and forth that seems so imperative so you don’t come flying down a bunny hill at 90MPH on your rear with skis dangling from your legs?! Hmmm, I sound bitter. Ha. I’m not, it led me to cross country skiing which I truly loved for so many years. I wish I never stopped!

Ok, on to some info about Wayne! From his website…

Wayne Mckenzie’s art emanates a laid back confidence that is a reflection of his Australian upbringing. With loose brushwork and bold use of color, he brings a unique perspective to the contemporary North American art world. Wayne”s strong sense of design is derived from the Aboriginal art of his native Australia. His paintings are a visual journey that allows the essence of his subject matter to come to life.

Wayne divides his time between his studios in Lake Tahoe, California and Telluride, Colorado, where he participates in the annual Plein Air Festival along side some of the most respected artists in the country. He consistently ranks in the top ten sellers, and in 2009 was awarded third place in the Artists Choice Award. Wayne also participates in the Carmel Plein Air Festival, where in 2010 he received an Honorable Mention.

Wayne has appeared in various publications throughout the United States. He was most recently honored as a feature artist in the hardcover book “Best of Artists-Oil-Global edition” by Kennedy Publishing. Renowned art critic Susan Viebrock, wrote “Anyone who doesn’t love a Mckenzie, must have a low opinion of joy….big personality- big work” and went on to describe his work as having, “a delightful sense of movement, vibration and exuberance.”

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Ezra Katz!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments

Painting by artist Ezra Katz

Ezra Katz. An artist who paints the most delightful paintings! I really do enjoy his style. This is an amazing painting. The wonderful shadows, the light in the distance… the clear crisp of the foreground and the light and  more fuzzy background just makes everything say LOOK AT ME! A great painting!

Here’s a blip about Ezra from his website:

Ezra Katz, born in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1970 and, raised in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, began studying art at the age of seven. Learning from several teachers who would come from Mexico City and stay for the summer at this family home. Katz began with academic art and later studied commercial art when he arrived at the University of Texas in Austin and Corpus Christi. In Mexico, he established himself as an artist.  In the off seasons, Ezra traveled through the United States, painting commissions for private clients. In Cabo San Lucas, Ezra created a following among restaurateurs and hoteliers creating his highly original murals and etchings. Ezra now makes his home in two places, California and Mexico. He delights in the diverse landscapes of the Bay Area.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Eric Aho!

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“Ice Cut” by Eric Aho

Eric Aho. Whoa! I cannot tell you how much time I have spent trying to decide WHICH of his paintings to feature. Each one is so brilliant and unique. “Ice Cut” is an oil painting that almost looks like it could be a watercolor. Eric’s use of color and light is so amazing. His nocturne’s mesmerize me! Everywhere I looked for his work I saw more and more and more and finally decided to go with the very first image that struck me. As simple as it is it just draws you in.

Read a blip about Eric from DC Moore Gallery:

Eric Aho explores extreme conditions of nature in landscape paintings that incorporate traditional representation, gestural abstraction, and implied figuration. The subjects of Aho’s recent paintings—ice floes, forest fires, and snowstorms— recall the immediacy and monumentality of nature. In them, he makes palpable the physicality of mass and texture while directing us to the more intangible qualities of light, movement, and time.

Evoking tectonic sensation on a scale and with a painterly vigor appropriate to the wildernesses depicted, Aho conjures the density and friction of layers of ice, the bracing temperature of arctic water, and the beauty and destructive force of wildfire. In the catalogue accompanying the exhibition, author Bonnie Costello elaborates, “The dynamism of these paintings aligns with their subject matter. Instead of offering abiding geological forms, as a stable theater for variations of light and season, Aho places us deep inside extreme, protean states—in a reality not just leafing and shedding, but burning and freezing.” As representation dissolves into abstraction, these works simultaneously evoke grandeur and moments of intimacy. Aho explains, “I respond to extremes and the tension between clarity and indistinctness, the literal and the suggested, between the knowable and the unknowable. I am curious about the line we are unable to crosseither physically, intellectually, or imaginatively.”

Aho is influenced by the history of painting in surprising ways. His work bridges diverse associations ranging from Courbet to deKooning to Turrell. Costello reveals, “The boreal fires that consume the canvas have an all-over quality that can make one think of Jackson Pollock, but they first burned into Aho’s imagination from a painting by Rembrandt, Rest on the Flight into Egypt (1647), where a tiny camp fire illuminates a circle around the figures who hover in a dark, expansive wilderness.

In earlier work, Aho focused on the landscape of his northern New England surroundings. His current process is a significant departure. Now, personal anecdote, memory, and invention are deliberately introduced into the content and meaning drawn from firsthand experience of the observable landscape. Intervening between the seen and the imagined, Aho explores “how a single painted image can mediate an equivalent level of tension and sensation present in an individual’s relationship to the physical world.” In her essay, Costello concludes, “With Aho, we confront reality not selectively, in discrete, familiar parts, or classical unities, but as sensation, in real time…. Consciousness is in a forest, finding its way, all smear and blur and shimmer. Perception is still happening in the viewing, which demands duration, for the painting is not just the afterimage of an event; it is the event.”

Following studies at the Central School of Art and Design in London, Aho received his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art. In 1989 he participated in the first exchange of scholars in over thirty years between the U.S. and Cuba. His postgraduate work was completed at the Institute of Art and Design in Lahti, Finland supported by a Fulbright Fellowship and a grant from the American Scandinavian Foundation.

Aho’s paintings have been shown internationally in Ireland, South Africa, Cuba, Norway, and Finland. Recent exhibitions in the United States include: Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut; Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire; Portland Art Museum, Maine; Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Maine; National Academy, New York; and American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York. Eric Aho lives and works in Saxtons River, Vermont.

DC Moore Gallery | Eric Aho | Bonnie Costello | 

Check out Eric’s website, it’s amazing! Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Matt Linz!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

“Laundry” by Matt Linz

A wonderfully executed painting by artist Matt Linz. The looseness and the bits of white peaking through I absolutely adore! Laundry… a mundane task, yet Matt captured it and almost made it look somewhat elegant, ha ha… I think that keeping the tighter brushwork on the woman made her *pop*, the looseness in other areas is quite nice. Great work! Check out Matt’s blog, it’s a goodie!

Here’s a little blip about Matt from his website:

I earned my BFA from the College of Visual Arts, located in St. Paul, MN. in 1997. After graduating I began work as a catalog photographer and designer. My two biggest artistic accomplishments have been receiving signature artist status with the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society, and having my work shown in American Artist magazine (Acrylic Highlights). When I’m not working I spend as much time as I can outside and with local artist groups sketching with traditional media. These sketches and other work will be the focus of this blog.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Ann Larsen!

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“Winter Color” by Ann Larsen

This is a beautiful winterscape. Look at all those colors that make up the snow. Just like in real life… snow certainly isn’t all white when you look at it, since reflections and shadows appear as different colors. I love a snowy painting WITH SUN. It just makes everything pop. Nice brushwork and great flecks of light throughout the painting! Her paintings lack the fine details that end up making a painting ‘fussy’. Take a peek, I’m sure you’ll enjoy them!

Here’s a blip about Ann from her website:

Ann is an award winning artist living in upstate New York’s Adirondack Mountains.  Born in Louisivlle, KY, Ann began traveling and living throughout the United States at the age of 18.   After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Central Oklahoma, she and her family moved to Denver, CO where Ann began to focus on her painting and fell in love with the western landscape.   Even though she lives in a beautiful part of the country, where plein air painting is a challenge almost any time of year, Ann also spends time painting on the coast of Maine and throughout the Southwest.   

Ann’s approach to the landscape is to simplify as much as possible in order to create the strongest paintings.  “I want my viewers to know how I felt about a place when I painted it.  I’m not trying to copy what I see nor am I interested in lots of detail.  I want to suggest a subject with the buildup of paint and exciting brushstrokes.”

Northlight Gallery in Kennebunkport, ME states, “Ann’s work exhibits the careful, thoughtful hand of an artist deeply committed to both her medium and her environment.   Ann is able to suggest the power, grace and mood of her subject as she captures the essence of New England in her landscapes and seascapes.”

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Eleinne Basa!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments

“Afternoon Light” by Eleinne Basa

Normally I like to feature a painting that is still for sale. This is an exception. Even though this gorgeous painting has sold, I just had to share it with you. STUNNING! LOOK at that light. Absolutely incredible. That beautiful warm golden light alongside the dark sky is perfection! This painting won the $15,000 First Place Award in the 1st Annual Plein Air Salon Online Competition! Woohoo Eleinne!
The awarding was announced during the 1st Plein Air convention in Las Vegas.

Here’s a blip about Eleinne from her website…

A Classically trained artist, Basa began painting at the young age of 8. Her early training still influences her as it is when she is painting “en plein air’ that she is brought back to a time in her childhood when “painting was pure and comes from someplace deep within.”
Basa’s landscapes allure the viewer to move into the work with their radiant light and luminescent qualities reminiscent of the early Luminists and Tonalists of the American School. She is inspired by painters like Thomas Moran, George Inness and is continually striving to achieve a certain timelessness to her work.

A professional and full time artist since 2004,
Basa participates in several national shows and have been invited to participate in prestigious events such as the Maynard dixon Country show in 2009 . She has also been invited to show her works at the National Arts Club and at the Salmagundi Club in New York, New York.

D. Eleinne Basa lives in Jackson New Jersey with her husband and two children.

Check out Eleinne’s website, see all the amazing paintings…  and I’ll Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Kathryn Turner!

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“Outcrop” by Kathryn Turner

Look how simple and loose this painting is. Why is that so hard I wonder? Kathryn did a wonderful job on this painting. Fabulous brush strokes and that one white wave is INCREDIBLE! I can SMELL the ocean air, ahhh, I can HEAR the waves as they brush the shore. The color of the water… beautiful! Check out Kathryn’s website, it’s a good one!

Here’s a blip from Kathryn’s website:

Artist Statement

The Miraculous Process

My need to create flows from the privilege of participating in the miraculous nature of the creative process rather than rendering some notion of a perfect product. The creative process is a confluence of nature’s inspiration and my personal interpretation of what I am experiencing. I strive to create paintings that record my own experience of the subject’s essential spirit and energy, not an imitation of a fixed surface reality. This process requires my presence, enthusiasm, open-minded appreciation, playfulness, courage and honesty. In this way, creating art is transformative, universal and timeless.

Thanks

When I think of the blessings in my life I feel overwhelmed – I don’t know where to begin to say thanks. This is my humble expression of deep gratitude for teachers who have instructed me, fellow artists who inspire me, and family and friends who support me faithfully as I pursue this dream of being an artist.

Bio

The artwork of Kathryn Mapes Turner has unfolded from the mountain valley of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Here she was born as the fourth generation to be raised on the Triangle X Ranch in Grand Teton National Park. She grew up riding the trails of the valley, learning wilderness lore and gaining an eye for landscape amid what she believes to be the most spectacular scenery on earth.

Turner began studying art in her teens from noted local painters. She then left Wyoming to attend the University of Notre Dame, majoring in Studio Arts. She spent an influential semester in Rome, Italy and then studied at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C. Turner now has a master’s degree from the University of Virginia.

Having been passionate about painting since childhood, Turner is now nationally recognized as a emerging artist. Turner has been awarded with such honors as Wyoming Best Watercolor Artist and was included in SouthwestArt Magazine’s “Annual Profile of Young Artists with Promising Careers.”

Turner believes that growing up in Grand Teton National Park, a place with such dramatic light and dramatic natural composition, gave her an intimate appreciation for art. “I believe the valley of Jackson Hole evokes expression,” says Turner. She now travels all over the world to paint. With watercolors and oil paints, Turner responds to what she sees in hopes of sharing this love of the sublime with others through her work. Turner believes beauty, which can be found everywhere, is a true richness in life.

In addition to her dedication to creating artwork, Turner also owns and operates Trio Fine Art Gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming with fellow artists Jennifer L Hoffman and September Vhay.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Jane Barton!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

“Pit Stop” by Jane Barton

I think this is an incredible painting. Obviously the white box with the word “NEXT” that you see on the image is the only way I could retrieve it. It’s not part of the painting… ha ha. I love the colors, textures and light in the foreground, and the looseness of the background. The car and the people… fabulous. Such a cool old car with the light hitting it oh-so-perfectly! Very nice. And I have to say… I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the license plate… that little blip of orange, WHOA! This piece was one of the juried pieces in the American Impressionist Society (AIS) Exhibition. Very nice work by Jane… check out her work!

Here’s a blip about the artist from her website:

After twenty-five years as a nationally recognized graphic designer, illustrator and portrait artist, Jane Barton is the recipient of numerous national awards. Originally from Chicago, where she studied at the American Academy of Art, Jane holds a B.A. from Boston University. In 1997, after writing her thesis entitled, “Drawn West: Illustrators Who Became Fine Artists,” which included personal interviews with the Tucson Seven and 11 other renowned artists across the country, Jane earned a Master of Art degree from the School of Visual Arts at Syracuse University. Ironically, 3 years later, she, too, joined the ranks of former illustrators who became fine artists. Jane studied plein air painting with such masters as Skip Whitcomb, Matt Smith and Ned Jacobs. She paints on site in both oils and water colors, using these paintings as the basis of larger, studio work. Jane also makes time to teach painting to enthusiastic students of all ages.

Inspired by the Sonoran desert of her home in Arizona, as well as her world travels, Jane enjoys exploring the patterns of light and color she sees in extreme close up as well as distant views of a subject. Her choice of subject is very immediate, whether it is a flower that blooms for only one day in the desert or the colors of a market she is standing in half way across the world. Continuing the legacy of 19th and early 20th century artists of the American West, Jane is intent on preserving the beauty of a changing, vanishing world.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Quang Ho!

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“Daily Sustaining” by Quang Ho

It’s as if you are there, kneeling beside this woman watching her work her magic. Can’t you smell the wonderful food being cooked? Quang Ho captured this in such a fabulous way. Not overworked, with just enough detail to leave the rest to your imagination. A well accomplished artist without a doubt! And versatile, whoa!

Image: AnselAndTheGreatTree.com

Quang illuststrated one of the coolest children’s books I think i’ve ever seen. ANSEL AND THE GREAT TREE is one children’s book that I would love to have in my library. The illustrations are OUT OF THIS WORLD. To me, that’s what makes a children’s book. (Well, the writing has to be there, without a doubt, it has to be a good story)… without those wonderful images a children’s book wouldn’t be a children’s book now would it? I can still remember some of the images in books I’ve read growing up. MAGICAL. The book’s website has a link to purchase a limited edition print of certain images and they are nothing short of amazing, click HERE. Here is one example… Oh! I love it! How would one of these look in a child’s bedroom??!!

Illustration for Ansel And The Great Tree: “Jollyman” by Quang Ho

Here’s a blip from the International Masters of Fine Art website:

Artist’s Biography

Quang Ho was born in Hue, Vietnam. He immigrated to the United States in 1975 and is now a U.S. Citizen. His artistic interest began at the early age of three and continued through his schooling and led him to an exciting and successful painting career.
In 1980, at age 16, Quang held his first one-man show at Tomorrow’s Masters Gallery in Denver, Colorado. The exhibit was a smashing success. In 1982, Quang attended the Colorado Institute of Art on a National Scholastics Art Awards Scholarship. Ho graduated from the CIA in 1985 with the Best Portfolio Award for his graduating class.
In 1982, Quang’s mother was killed in a tragic auto accident, leaving him with the responsibility of raising four younger brothers and a six-year-old sister. After graduating from art school, Ho launched a very successful career as a freelance illustrator from 1985 through 1991. His clients included Adolph Coors Company, Upjohn, Safeway, the Colorado Symphony, and the Chicago Symphony.
Today, working mostly in oils and occasionally watercolor and pastels, Ho’s subject matter ranges from still life, landscapes, interiors, and figurative.
“Subject matter is not really important to me. I can find visual excitement all around me as well as on the canvas – from a knot on a tree to the graceful limp of a flower wilting to a juxtaposition of a few simple shapes and colors…inspirations are inexhaustible.” Quang currently resides in Colorado.

This is one amazing artist. You can feel emotion in his paintings. They are out of this world! Great work Quang!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Louisa McElwain

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“Conference, Earth and Sky” by Louisa McElwain

Louisa is amazing to watch paint. I’ve only seen her on You Tube, but whoa! I bet no one has ever told Louisa to “paint with paint” (I can still hear it now “Barbara… PAINT WITH PAINT”, ugh!), she applies it nice and thick. Her canvases for the most part are quite large, especially for plein air painting. I encourage you to check out her website. She seems like such a cool person!

One of my favorite photos is on the home page of Louisa McElwain’s website, you need to check it out! It’s a photo of several women sitting at a table and it appears they are having the time of their lives, I love it! You may also notice that on the WORKS page of her site, she sells something other than paintings… I’ll let you figure it out ;)

Here is a great YouTube clip of Louisa painting… check out her set up… SO creative!

Here’s a blip about Louisa from her website:

I have lived and painted in New Mexico since 1985, working outdoors under a wide variety of conditions, open to the impulse of changing light, wind, heat, cold, insects, forces of Nature which bring life into my paintings. For me, painting is a dance to the tempo of the evolving day. 

Usually, I paint off the back of a pick-up truck, which gives me access to many wonderful places, and provides a way to stabilize and transport large canvases. Here in the West it seems that the canvas is never big enough. To include my entire field of vision at arm’s length, 60×90 ins. is about right. I paint with knives and masonry trowels, which allows me to work fast. Each painting is completed in less than 4 hours, regardless of size, as permitted by weather and light. 

Painting large canvases outdoors invites another interaction with Nature as, inevitably, insects, particles of plants and soil end up on the painting. I see these as valuable contributions to the work. Sometimes I put little stones, bones or pieces of glass and plants into the paint, in the same spirit as the Navaho weaver who incorporates things into her blanket to bless those who will receive it, and as a way of acknowledging the temporality of things.

My process is an inquiry into sensuous potential of paint. To explore the mystery of sensation, to touch that which is known but cannot be measured, understood yet indescribable; the act of painting is an expression of my connectedness with God and Nature. I am Nature.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Brian Stewart!

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Isn’t this the sweetest painting? This was done by artist Brian Stewart. I love that house… what a wonderful place. A magical green, the light hitting the house, the person on the porch, the gingerbread on the house, the flowers on the porch, it all comes together and makes a very nice painting. I like how Brian has descriptions on his website… here’s the one for this painting (on Brian’s website under “Plein Air”).

Sunday Morning / Nicollet Island
Nicollet Island is an inner city oasis that has many fine, older Victorian style homes. Some grand, some quaint. Loaded with Ginger bread, these homes were in neglect for many years, but in the last few years people have been slowly restoring them to their original beauty. One more reason why the Riverfront is one of the more desirable areas in the Twin Cites. This Sunday morning scene looked like a nice way to start the day. 12 x 9, oil on canvas on board in a turn-of-the-Century style gilded frame.

One more, well, because I think it’s so interesting…

Where Stars Were Made 
This old, overgrown and abandoned motel is on the Pacific Coast Highway in California just as you enter into Malibu. Since the 30ʼs it has been a favorite of fast laners, rock stars and the Hollywood crowd. A trip to the beach wouldn’t have been complete without a stop there. I’m drawn to this kind of subject matter because it is so rapidly disappearing from our landscape and I look at it and think “If walls could talk”. 12 x 16”, oil on canvas on board in a gilded turn-of-the-Century style frame.

I want to go see this in person! Can you imagine fixing these up??! Brian’s description underneath image… I wonder who stayed there? YES, if walls could talk!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

All images: stew-art.com

Featured Artist… Kirk McBride!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments

“Downtown Snow” by Kirk McBride

I love paintings at night (nocturne) with a light on in a house or building. It just warms it right up. The tire tracks in the snow with the moonlight making it glow is wonderful. I think the dark, dark sky is the perfect compliment. Great work Kirk!

I like to check out different artists that I see are at different plein air events around the country, and I’m glad I did! Here’s a blip about Kirk from his website:

“Everything has a moment when light and shadow create something breathtaking to view.” Kirk McBride is constantly looking for those moments to inspire his oil paintings. He travels often and paints a variety of subjects from seascapes to mountains, from city scenes to landscapes, from foreign cafes to interiors of his own home and studio. The light and shadow relationship being the unifying theme that runs throughout his work.

Winning “Best in Show” at the first local art show he entered encouraged Kirk to make painting a lifelong pursuit. He’s been at it for over 30 years now, first part-time in watercolors, and since the late ’90’s, full-time in oils. He has been influenced by a number of painters from the past, including Edward Hopper, Edgar Paine, Emil Gruppe, Frederick Mulhaupt and the Russian Impressionists of the early 20th Century. Kirk graduated from the University of Maryland in 1974 and has studied with nationally recognized painter, and fellow surf industry veteran, Ken Auster.

Travels to Italy, Mexico, the Caribbean, Maine, Colorado and California provide a variety of images for Kirk’s paintings. Kirk often paints “plein air” (outdoors) and uses those small plein air paintings, along with sketches and snapshots as studies for his larger studio pieces. He has been elected an “Artist” member of the Mid Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association. Kirk has been juried into a number of plein air painting competitions and exhibitions where he has won awards. He has been invited to paint in the Laguna Beach Plein Air Invitational three times, has been juried into Plein Air Easton three times and Paint Annapolis five times. His home and studio are on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Give his website a peek! Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Marc Dalessio!

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“Street in Korcula” by Marc Dalessio – Image: Ann Long

First, I want to mention the obvious. The look of my site has changed a wee bit. I think I have made it cleaner and easier to read. You aren’t on the wrong site, it’s me… I’ve just changed things a bit, let me know how you like (or don’t like) what you see! Personally, I love the orange vs. the red… but that’s me! My goal was to make it clear so you can see all that’s going on! Ok, enough admin stuff… on to the post!

Marc Dalessio is quite the artist AND quite the traveler. His website is so interesting, he shows his paintings, gives tips, talks about upcoming workshops (Swiss Alps!), check it out! He’s got lots of cool tips (i.e. what he does with his brushes when done painting). Definitely interesting whether you’re an artist or not! I was reading about where he lives between Florence, Italy (oh!!) and Zagreb, Croatia and travels quite a bit of the time to places all over the world, then I saw he was having a show at the Ann Long Fine Art Gallery (Charleston, SC) for the month of November 2012! So… if you’re in the area, you know where to go to see his work in person! From Ann Long Fine Art:

What’s so fascinating is that for each group of paintings you can see a clear difference in the color palette. For example, Italy the colors were much warmer. Marc has a clean painting style, I don’t know how to explain it… like his brush never gets dirty or mixed with a color he doesn’t want it to get mixed with. Hmmm, must be nice, ha ha…

Here’s a blip about Marc from the Ann Long Fine Art Gallery:

Marc Dalessio, born in 1972 in Los Angeles, California, is a naturalistic painter who at a young age has established himself as one of the foremost plein-air painters working today. 

Marc’s artistic training began at the University of California at Santa Cruz where he majored in biology and fine art. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1992, he moved to Florence, Italy and trained as a portraitist for four years under Charles Cecil at his atelier. Charles H. Cecil Studios is a school of fine art that offers a thorough training in the traditional techniques of naturalistic drawing and painting. Upon completion of his first year, Marc was awarded a full scholarship, and after finishing the full course, he became an advanced painting instructor at the school. 

Articles Featuring Marc Dalessio
American Artist, 12/09 (pdf)

Currently the landscape painting instructor at the Florence Academy of Art, Marc keeps a studio in Florence, Italy but travels for much of the year. Recent painting expeditions have included Greece and Albania, Morocco, Rajasthan, Sicily, Kenya, and the Caribbean. His works are in private collections worldwide.

Did you check out the article that was in American Artist? Very good! – Catch you back here tomorrow!