Category: ART

Artist to watch… Jack Goldsmith!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

There is a fabulous artist that I found on North Water Gallery’s website. I haven’t been to that gallery… yet. North Water Gallery is located in Edgartown, MA. I love this artist’s style, a bit like Charles Sovek, and I thought the world of that man! (Let me just note that I wrote that BEFORE I read the “blip about the artist” whoa!). This is artist JACK GOLDSMITH. I love how he says he refuses to labor over a painting! I wholeheartedly agree. The best paintings (to me) are the ones that happen quick and loosely. That is exactly what I love about his paintings! I found a blip about him in Cape Code Life:

Jack Goldsmith boils his words down to their essence. He credits his polished verbal skills to his 40 years of art direction and design in Manhattan. What he doesn’t take credit for is how he gets to the heart of the matter of ethereal subjects in spot-on fashion, whether he is expressing them in words or acrylics.

“Once I come upon an image I want to paint, I like to attack it and do it quickly,” Goldsmith says. “I refuse to labor over a painting.”

Goldsmith’s canvases are vibrant glimpses of life in all its nuances of light, color, and feel. Perhaps owing to his early career in art direction, the Osterville resident speaks frequently of “staging” his art. The Kite Flyers features one of his favorite subjects, Cape Cod’s ocean edge. “I like to paint children on the beach,” he says. “I also like to paint the beach with nobody around. It all becomes kind of a stage.” All of his pieces, including his still lifes, are arranged almost like choreography, to render a very natural experience.

Goldsmith was trained in the 1940s at the Syracuse University School of Fine Arts and the Rochester Institute of Technology School of Art and Design, before starting his career in art direction and teaching at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan. As Goldsmith succinctly says, “My life has always been holding a pencil or a brush.”

Finally, he came home to a life of fine art when he and his wife moved to Osterville in 1993, drawn by good friends and the Cape’s renowned light. Among his influences are the 19th-century Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla and the late Cape Cod artist Charles Sovek, as well as members of the French Impressionist School.

Although his paintings are filled with highlights, shadows, and other subtleties, for Goldsmith it all goes back to first blocking the painting with brush on canvas. “It’s the most crucial part of the painting for me,” he says. “If you don’t design it well, you’ll struggle.”

I am a fan. What else can I say! Check them out by website or a visit! Catch you back here tomorrow!

Artist Ken Auster’s book: Intellect and Passion!

On By Barbara StroudIn ARTLeave a comment
Image: ThomasReynolds.com

Artist’s books are becoming more popular in gallery after gallery that I visit. What better way to get your collection of paintings out to people who admire your work? Hey, if your wall space is limited, just remember you can pile a coffee table high with books, AND they look equally as good stacked on the floor! The painting on the cover is entitled ELECTRIC COMPANY and it’s one of my favorites! It’s the reds that do it for me, it’s vivid and sharp. I love it! If you’re in San Francisco pop into the Thomas Reynolds Gallery and take a peek at Ken’s work! If you’re interested in a book, click HERE, the book is $35 and is signed by the artist.

Here’s a blip from the book:

‘A Turning Point in My Life’
ONE DAY I WAS INVITED to go out with a few friends and paint on location at a local beach. Using an old easel and a few tubes of oil paint left over from college painting classes, I set up and started painting what I saw. The experience was a turning point in my life. Here was the bare bones of art — no process and minimal equipment, just a burst of passion and paint, with immediate results and gratification. It just happened and it was beautiful.A year and probably 200 paintings later, I was ready to get feedback from people other than my friends. I looked north to San Francisco. For me, San Francisco has always been a kind of Disneyland for adults. My first adventure there was in 1967 during the Summer of Love. There’s still a Jefferson Airplane poster on the wall in my studio. So during another trip to the happiest place on earth, I thought I would stop at a few galleries with some transparencies and see if I could get some response from the big guys. I didn’t ask to exhibit; I just wanted their opinions of my work. Surprisingly enough, most took the time to look and I got consistently positive responses.The last stop on this spontaneous gallery tour was the Thomas Reynolds Gallery, in a classic Victorian flat a few steps from Fillmore Street, a series of small rooms showing mostly small paintings, each one hanging with room to breathe. I presented my slides — and the owner wanted to see more. It was at that moment I realized that a good gallery was really interested in my work. A few weeks later we scheduled my first show. My original vision was to paint landscapes of Northern California — trees, rocks, ocean and hills, but no city. That first show sold out. So did the second and third. It was the mid-90’s at the height of the plein air painting renaissance and I was right in the middle of it all, painting many of the small towns along the California coast. I won top prizes at the plein air events that were cropping up, and the surfer-turned-painter story was picked up by several art magazines.

Then came another moment that again changed my direction as a painter. I was driving in San Francisco on California Street late in the afternoon heading into the belly of the city — a straight shot downhill punctuated by intersections and cross traffic with red taillights glued loosely together at the bottom. I stopped at a red light and just stared for a moment at this incredible concrete grand canyon. I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures, circling the block and hoping to hit every red light. Everywhere I looked was a painting. Artists are always looking for the moment that is the catalyst for the next painting — that flicker of gold. I had found the mother lode.

— from Ken Auster: Intellect & Passion

Artist to watch… Tollef Runquist!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment
Image: DowlingWalsh.com

Tollef Runquist is an exquisite artist represented by the Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland, Maine. His bright, contemporary style is refreshing. This painting is entitled LOOK  30 x 48. LOVE. IT! LOVE the bright pop of red against the great blue water… wow! If you’re in the Rockland, ME area I encourage you to stop by the Dowling Walsh Gallery (then pop over to Atlantic Bakery for a chocolate croissant, or they’re mushroom soup, or a cookie, or… or… or…. OR pop across the street to the Farnsworth Museum!), it’ll definitely be worth your time. They represent some FANTASTIC artists!

Here’s a blip from the Dowling Walsh Gallery website:

Artist’s Statement

Painting is for me an undertaking of appreciation and inquiry. It is a means by which to engage the beauty and mystery of visual experience in an ongoing dialogue. This is a widening puzzle; as I partake in this conversation it continually refreshes itself, revealing unexpected angles and new understanding. I feel no particular loyalty to realism or my own past work. I set to draw out a particular vision as long as my experience with it is visceral, attentive and useful. I try to encapsulate the fullness of my experience of a moment; weight and stillness, burning edges, massive, calm. These move me towards a particular subject, I try to paint and honor them, and then move on.

Some visual artists who have affected me deeply have been Richard Deibenkorn, Monet, De Kooning, Gauguin, Bonnard, Rothko, Sargent, Gordon Grant, Gerhart Richter, Hopper, Homer, Klimt and Egon Scheile among others. I have been drawing and painting as long as I can remember. I received a B.A. in studio Art from Dickinson college in 2002 and have since been continuing my education through creation.

Another blip from the Dowling Walsh website:

Tollef Runquist will have a solo exhibition at Dowling Walsh Gallery from Friday, September 2nd through Sunday, September 25th with an opening reception on Friday, September 2nd from 5 to 8 p.m.

Tollef Runquist has been featured in Maine Home and Design Magazine’s April 2011 Issue. Click the link below to view the feature:

Tollef Runquist MHD_0411_CurrentWork_-Tollef

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Artist Carol Marine… House lost in Texas fire, can you help?

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, THOUGHTSLeave a comment
Image: Chron.com

I know Carol Marine through her wonderful blog (Carol Marine’s Painting A Day) and Facebook. By now most of you have heard about the devastating fires in Texas… It has destroyed nearly 800 homes and displaced countless people. Artist Carol Marine and her family recently found out from a neighbor that their home was completely destroyed. Absolutely. Nothing. Left. Ugh. The good thing is that Carol, her husband and her 6 year old son are all OK. Her husband was brilliant in thinking to drive both cars, one with the camper… so they are set up in a park until they can determine what to do next. Fire insurance is great, but the benefits aren’t instant. It’ll be a while… It’s hard to imagine losing everything. I don’t know Carol personally. I know a lot of people who DO know her. From what I’ve always heard, she is just the nicest person, willing to help anyone at anytime.

Image: http://carolmarine.blogspot.com/

Carol has many friends. She is a fabulous artist. What more can be said? How about… would you like to buy a painting OR contribute to a fund set up to help out?  Artist Frank Gardner has several of Carol’s paintings at Galeria Gardner, he is waiving his portion of the sales so that 100% of the purchase price goes directly to Carol. Another good friend of Carol’s has set up an online fundraiser. Can you help?

Here is a small portion of the entry, click HERE to be taken directly to the online fundraiser page.

They had good insurance, but it will take time for that to all kick in, so I’d like to help them in the meantime.

Please consider making a donation below to help them get back on their feet.

It’s true, the most important thing is that they’re safe. They are my family and I love them all dearly. But my heart aches for everything they lost – all the mementos, all the memories, their sense of sanctuary.

Thanks for your help. And please say prayers for everyone that lost their house, dear pets, or is still in harm’s way.

With love,

Jennifer

We all need to help each other out when we can… if you don’t have extra money right now, a prayer, a good thought, any positive energy sent Carol’s way would be most appreciated.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Artist to watch… Peter Kalil

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment
Image: AddisonArt.com

I think this is such a sweet painting, entitled AN ARTIST’S GARDEN, this painting was done by Peter Kalill. I love that little splash of bright light on the bench beside the flowers, the sunlight grass and the color of the sky! Peter is a fabulous artist from Cape Cod. You can see his work at Addison Art Gallery, he was part of the PAINTAPALOOZA artists a few years back in Port Clyde, Maine.

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

Peter Kalill was born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts. He began his first formal studies in art at Providence College in Rhode Island. In his third year of college, he studied painting, drawing, and art history in Florence, Italy. Peter returned to Providence and earned a B.A. in drawing in 1995.

After his graduation, Peter moved to Cape Cod and continued to learn all he could about painting. He combined his passion for art with his interest in travel, and spent many winters traveling to Honduras, and Guatemala and all over Mexico. It was on a trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where he befriended landscape painter Frank Gardner, who introduced him to plein air painting.

Upon returning home from his second winter in San Miguel, Peter was accepted into Addison Art Gallery, in Orleans, MA, where his first show in the U.S. was a great success. Peter’s work has attracted the attention of many collectors throughout the U.S. and Canada, and has been featured in many publications including Cape Cod Life, Cape Cod Art Review, andAmerican Art Collector magazines. His work has been exhibited in the Cape Cod Museum of Art, and at juried shows at the Copley Society of Art, and The Guild of Boston Artists.

Peter Kalill lives on Cape Cod with his wife Kathleen, and their daughter Violet. He continues to travel to San Miguel and places throughout the U.S., Mexico, Europe, and Canada in search of great places to paint.

If you aren’t near Addison Art Gallery in Orleans, MA, check out their website, it’s a good one! If you are near them… Go visit!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Artist to watch… Shannon Runquist!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment
Image: HortonHayes.com

Shannon Runquist always paints the neatest subject matter. Regular everyday things come to life with her paint brush! This painting is entitled HOW ‘BOUT A HUG? Here’s a blip from the Horton Hayes Gallery :

Shannon Runquist was born is Savannah, Georgia and has spent most of her life in the South. She has lived on St. Simons Island, Georgia and currently resides in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and spends summers on Cape Cod. Spending time near the shore, she has developed a great love for coastal regions and the elements that define them. She has painted and studied in Europe, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

Runquist has participated in many national and international exhibitions including consecutive years at the Salmagundi Club in New York City and the Salon International. She enjoys traveling and painting en plein air as well as working in her home studio. Her paintings hang in both corporate and private collections in the United States and abroad.

Artist’s Statement: “I would like for my paintings to convey a timeless aesthetic. They are often an extension of an emotion at the time I am painting but I hope my work remains ambiguous. I paint what is familiar to me, what I have collected or a place I have been. My favorite paintings are ones that tell a story but leave a little mystery for the viewer.”

Hey, if you get a chance, stop in the gallery… and if you aren’t in town, check out their website. It’s a gallery full of amazing artists!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Artist to watch… JB Boyd!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment
Image JBBoyd.net

JB Boyd, an artist that shows such an interesting perspective on this painting… Kind of like when you’re a kid and you’re  sprawled out on the grass watching the clouds in the sky… I love when paintings take on a new angle, something different. The way the yellow “pops” against the darkly shaded tree trunks and brilliant blue sky. JB Boyd is an interesting and accomplished  young artist represented by Robert Lange Studios in Charleston, SC. Check him out if you get a chance!  Here’s a blip about the artist on the gallery website, there’s more, but you need to see his work to appreciate the words! Catch you back here tomorrow!

Boyd currently lives and paints on Goat Island, a barrier island on the outskirts of Charleston, SC. Boyd is a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, has shown his work across the United States, and has been collected around the world. Boyd recently received the Michael and Donna Griffith Lowcountry Artist’s Award.

Please visit www.robertlangestudios.com or call for more information 843.805.8052. 


Artist to watch… Frank Bruckmann!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment
Image: http://fbruckmann.com

What a unique story this artist has! Meet Frank Bruckmann. I first ran across this artist when searching for blogs about Monhegan. I found one called MONHEGAN SOJOURN, it was fabulous, not only did it showcase Frank’s art, but it included stories and pictures of Monhegan Island, a great love for many of us! I see that since the family has moved off the island they have started another blog (click HERE), more great art, stories, etc. I urge you to check it out! Also check out the artist’s website! The featured painting is entitled FROM WHITEHEAD and can be found on the artist’s website under the MONHEGAN tab!

Here’s a blip from Frank’s website:

Frank began his studies at the DuCret school of Art in New Jersey, and then took classes at the Art Students League in NYC. In Paris he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and spent nearly a decade in France and Spain, copying the masters in the great museums, and painting landscapes in the cities and countryside. 

Now a resident of New Haven, CT, Frank has found endless subject matter for landscapes in New England, but periodically packs his easel and travels farther and wider in his VW camper. 

How exciting is that? Check him out! Catch you back here tomorrow!

Artist to watch… Philip Frey!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments
Image: CourthouseGallery.com

Really, what can be more exciting than finding artists that are new to you?? Philip Frey is an artist from Ellsworth, Maine. He has some fabulous work, very exciting! Philip (one “L”) has a fabulous WEBSITE and lists all the galleries (with links!) that he’s affiliated with. This image came from the Courthouse Gallery website, it was painted this year and is entitled “Evening Light, Stonington”. If you get a chance check out his other work!

Here’s a blip from the Courthouse Gallery website:

Philip Frey is inspired by color and how he can use light and color to recreate Maine’s incredible landscape. His unique style has emerged over the last decade with recent paintings becoming more realistic. Throughout this evolution, Frey has continued to use strong, vibrant colors.

Frey’s sense of color stems from an interest in Fauvism, a major avant-garde European art movement in the 20th century. Henri Matisse, who Frey credits as a major influence, embraced this expressionistic style characterized by vivid, exuberant color. Other European artists, whose work Frey admires, include Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Edouard Manet.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Artist to watch… Dee Beard Dean!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments
Image: KarenHagen.com

What a wonderful painting of King Street in Charleston, SC. You can feel the hustle and bustle. If you haven’t heard of Dee Beard Dean I urge you to check out her WEBSITE. She’s a magnificent artist with a great website (oh so important)! She’s in many galleries, the image above is from the Hagen Fine Art Gallery and Studio located at 27 1/2 State Street in Charleston.  She offers workshops all over the country… check her out!

I’ll catch you back here tomorrow! If you get a chance, check out my photo blog!

Artist to watch… Andrea Peters!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment
Image: GleasonFineArt.com

Now this is an artist that makes a statement! You can recognize her paintings quickly… no guessing if it’s Andrea Peters or not! Andrea has her work at Gleason Fine Art in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. If you’re in the area, stop by, say hello and check out her work… while there also check out Kevin Beers, I’ve mentioned him before, but he’s worth mentioning again!

Here’s a blip from Gleason’s website…

With her bold, brushy landscapes, Andrea Peters is one of Gleason Fine Arts most recognizable artists. She is a keen observer of the landscape around her. From her cove in East Boothbay, Maine, she paints the views surrounding her home in each season: her flower garden, the shores edge, waterfalls, and blueberry fields. Her paintings are composed for maximum expression. “I push beyond the obvious,” Peters says, and in doing so she creates a seismic shift in the way we see the landscape. The result is a visual extravaganza. To see more, click HERE.

Stop by my photo blog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com – catch you back here tomorrow!

Artist to watch… Cleber Stecei!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment
Cleber Stecei - Nice Day

Can you imagine having this much talent at such a young age?  I’m sure some of you can, but whoa… this guy is good. So many fabulous peaceful works. Check him out, he’s at Addison Art Gallery in Orleans, MA. Here’s a blip from their website.

Born in Brazil in 1976, Cleber Stecei began experimenting with abstract painting as a teenager. After arriving in the United States at the age of 19, he became inspired by the beautiful New England scenery and has since excelled in landscape painting.

Stecei’s work is done both from photographic references and on location (en plein air), allowing him to respond to the effects of natural light and atmosphere.

Stecei is a member of the Cape Cod Art Association and his work has been awarded numerous times, including a Best in Show. Since showing at the Addison Art Gallery, his work has enthralled collectors as well as judges and has been featured in respected regional and national art publications.

“A Master in the Making…represented by one of the Cape’s most prestigious galleries, Addison Art in Orleans. Cleber Stecei paints weekly with the highly regarded Cape artist Paul Schulenburg, and is encouraged by other stellar colleagues, including Rick Fleury and Joan Brancale.

Stecei’s reputation as a landscape artist has been rising like a mellow tide that is still building. His work has been noted in several national art publications and his paintings are in collections country-wide. Stecei’s talent, age, and new presence in the market have thrust him to the heady upper echelons of the art scene—all in less than 18 months.”
—Mary Grauerholz, Cape Cod Life, July 2011

 Check out his other work! I look forward to seeing his work in person one day!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

 

Artist (woodworker) to watch… Paul Baines!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment
Image: http://www.paulbainesfinewoodworking.com/

Look at this stool. It’s a work of art no doubt, but do you want to know the most delightful thing about it? It’s COMFORTABLE! What? Yep. It’s comfortable beyond belief. This is high quality furniture and I think the prices are so reasonable. The first time we sat on one of these stools was at the Port Clyde General Store. There are a variety of finishes for the seat and the legs for you to choose from. A variety of heights among other beautiful furniture… it’s truly worth checking out!

These stools are made by Paul Baines Fine Woodworking. These are called Cathance River Stools and they are absolutely beautiful! Click HERE to read the story behind them. There is a Web Store as well as an actual place to go see, touch, sit… Here’s a blip from their website:

My shop is located in Bowdoinham, ME 04008. We are open from 8AM – 5PM. If you are ever in the neighborhood, give us a call at 207.571.8280, or please stop by!

Catch you back here tomorrow! If you get a chance check out my PHOTO BLOG!

Rembrandt and the face of Jesus exhibit… Paris, Philly then Detroit…

On By Barbara StroudIn ARTLeave a comment
Head of Christ, Rembrandt, mid 1600’s

Rembrandt and the face of Jesus… what a facinating exhibit that will be! It’s been in Paris, is now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (through October), and then to Detroit Institute of Arts in November. If you’re near any of these locations stop in, I think it will be an exhibit you won’t want to miss! Here’s a blip from Philadelphia Museum of Art:

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) is universally acclaimed as the greatest master painter of the Dutch Golden Age, the 17th-century efflorescence of art in the Netherlands. Thanks to an inventory of his home and studio conducted in July 1656, we know that Rembrandt kept in his bedroom two of his own paintings called Head of Christ. A third painting—identified as a “Head of Christ, from life”—was found in a bin in Rembrandt’s studio, awaiting use as a model for a New Testament composition. Today, seven paintings survive (from what was likely eight originally) that fit this description, all painted by Rembrandt and his pupils between 1643 and 1655. Bust-length portraits, they show the same young man familiar from traditional artistic conceptions of Christ, yet each figure also bears a slightly different expression. In posing an ethnographically correct model and using a human face to depict Jesus, Rembrandt overturned the entire history of Christian art, which had previously relied on rigidly copied prototypes for Christ.This exhibition, the first Rembrandt exhibition in Philadelphia since 1932 and the first ever in the city to include paintings by the Dutch master, reunites the seven paintings of this exceedingly rare and singular series for the first time since 1656. Of these portraits, three are being seen in the United States for the first time. Complemented by more than fifty related paintings, prints, and drawings, Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus allows visitors to consider the religious, historic, and artistic significance of these works. Objects of private reflection for Rembrandt, the paintings in this exhibition bear witness to Rembrandt’s iconoclasm and his search for a meditative ideal. In addition to major paintings, many of the selected drawings in this exhibition have been rarely exhibited or lent owing to their light-sensitivity and fragility. Indeed, never before have so many of Rembrandt’s finest paintings, etchings, and drawings that depict Jesus Christ and events of his life been assembled for an exhibition. Organizers and SupportThis exhibition is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. In Philadelphia, the exhibition is made possible by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Montgomery Scott Fund for Exhibitions and by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Additional support is provided by Carol Elizabeth Ware and the Marian S. Ware 2006 Charitable Lead Annuity Trust and by generous individuals. Funding for conservation was provided by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

 Curator

Lloyd DeWitt • Associate Curator of European Painting before 1900 Location

Dorrance Special Exhibition Galleries, first floor Itinerary

Musée du Louvre, Paris • April to July 2011
Philadelphia Museum of Art • August to October 2011
The Detroit Institute of Arts • November 2011 to February 2012

 Catch you back here tomorrow!
Image: http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/409.html?page=1

Leonardo da Vinci – Vitruvian Man

On By Barbara StroudIn ARTLeave a comment
Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci, 1490

Leonardo da Vinci was one smart cookie… that’s my opinion. I mean the man was a brilliant artist as well as an inventor?? I’m sure you’ve seen this drawing some time in your life?? He drew it in the year 1490. If you would like to read more detailed information on this image (fascinating!), click HERE for a great link to Stanford with lots of interesting info…

This image has mostly been related to health and fitness or the medical community. Here’s a blip from ArtQuotes.net

The Virtruvian Man has also been referred to as “Canon of Proportions” or the “Proportions of Man”. The image and accompanying text of the Virtruvian man displays the understanding that Leonardo had of the proportions of man. The artist used the theories of the Roman architect Vitruvius, calculating the proportion of the perfect male figure. The text above and below the drawing is written in Mirror writing by Leonardo.

Text from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
From the roots of his hair to the bottom of his chin is 1/10 of a man’s height; from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head is 1/8 of his height; from the top of the breast to the roots of the hair will be the 7th part of the whole man. From the nipples to the top of the head will be the 4th part of man. The greatest width of the shoulders contains in itself the 4th part of man. From the elbow to the tip of the hand will be the 5th part of a man; and from the elbow to the angle of the armpit will be the 8th part of man. The whole hand will be the 10th part of the man. The distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose and from the roots of the hair to the eyebrows is, in each case the same, and like the ear, a third of the face.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Image also via ArtQuotes.net