Renaissance by Renee Emanuel

Renee Emanuel. Wonderful paintings. I am enthralled by her still life paintings. I love this tablescape. This painting would brighten up any wall, wouldn’t it?

Zinnias & Plums, Owls Head by Renee Emanuel

I think the looseness in this painting is so wonderful, the perfection of the shadows, wonderful colors in the bouquet and the great lime colors of the leaves. Not to mention a beautiful view out of the window!

Read Renee’s Bio and be sure to check out her website:

Renée Emanuel, a native of Northeast Pennsylvania, graduated summa cum laude from Marywood University with an MFA in Painting. She creates colorful paintings in acrylic, watercolor and casein that celebrate her strong connection to the land and the still life objects that evoke an interior landscape. 

She also loves to share her passion for painting with her students. For the past six years, she shared a director position at ArtWorks Gallery and Studio in Scranton PA with her husband and fellow artist Bill Teitsworth. They both have been inspired by the ArtWorks special artists who they mentored in watercolor and acrylics. Currently, she co-teaches plein-air workshops with Bill in Pennsylvania and in Rockland, Maine. They’re planning to offer more opportunities this coming year at their studio in Moscow. Additional information with Bill on their classes and on her work can be found online at www.etstudioart.com. (Click HERE to read the Bio on Renee’s website in full)!

If you’re in the Pennsylvania area be sure to check out Renee’s work at the Misericordia Unviersity – The Pauley Friedman Art Gallery through April 23, 2016!

A GOLDEN MOMENT

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
T. S. Eliot 

Whether it’s the tapestry of the natural world that calls her, or the beautiful patterns and relationships in her still life, Renée believes that painting can be a meditative state, opening up to both observed reality and her inner landscape. She feels that the image that is created from a point of stillness is transformed by that experience into something new. Paintings for her remain in flux and are characterized by the addition of objects, patterns and aspects of nature that sometimes appear in her work without premeditation on her part. A certain synchronicity seems to happen and the right combination of “stuff” comes together to express something that she often finds surprising.  The artist echoes the words of the painter Grace Hartigan, “I cannot expect even my own art to provide all of the answers –– only to hope it keeps asking the right questions.”

This exhibit is a survey of still life done over the course of the past 16 years with an emphasis on more recent work. Selections of cherished objects sometimes make repeated appearances and claim a kinship with the natural world she explores in her landscape painting. The promise and perfection of eggs, birds, feathers and shells evoke her love of nature. She’s becoming more and more interesting in bringing the outside in and the inside out, and in marrying still life and the landscape. She painted still life on the rocks at Lucia Beach in Maine and feels it’s a direction she’ll continue to pursue.

About her work she says, “It’s a great blessing in my life. It’s helped me to face cancer last year. I want to explore things that are essential, elemental and magical through my work. It feeds the soul… It’s what keeps me painting, still!

Pretty cool that Renee shares her studio with her husband, Bill Teitsworth (hence the website ETStudioArt.com)!

All images via ETStudioArt.com, used with permission…

Images are not for reproduction, they are property of the artist.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Apple Tree by Elise Schweitzer  29×22″ Oil

Elise Schweitzer. Wow. Elise paints with joie de vivre! Her paintings are fresh and lively. This apple tree painted against a strong blue sky is mesmerizing. Everything about her paintings from the composition to the fabulous colors just makes each and every painting STUNNING!

Skydiver Landing by Elise Schweitzer 108×72″ Oil

Elise paints a story. Her skydiver series is remarkable. Different landings, each unique. Just look at how much is going on in this painting. I could look at it all day. Oh the stories I could come up with! Great movement from each and every person. I am blown away!

There was a fabulous interview done by Painting Perceptions with Elise in 2013. Click HERE to read it! Fabulous!

Read a bit about Elise, and by all means, check out her website:

Elise Schweitzer is an Assistant Professor of Art at Hollins University. She received her MFA in Painting at Indiana University Bloomington in 2009 and her BFA from University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 2006. 

In her exuberantly large paintings people instigate or react to actual and metaphorical upheaval. “Parachute Suite,” her most recent complete body of work, depicts a moment of crisis when a skydiver crash-lands in a contemporary backyard. The action plays out through multiple canvases, showing the moments before, during and after the crash. A woman rushes to help, and a man searches the sky. Other characters bundle away the parachute or attempt to fill it with air. People react with frivolity, concern or irritation, and like a Jungian dream, all the characters are forms of self-reflection. 

Images and Bio via EASchweitzer.com, used with permission…

Images are not for reproduction, they are property of the artist.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

The Office by Jeff Bye  20×32″  Oil

Jeff Bye. I could look at his paintings forever. Jeff has a unique ability to portray everyday scenes with a splash of the abstract! There is so much to look at in this painting and every bit of it is so well done. Stunning!

The Pantry by Jeff Bye  17×20  Acrylic

Another favorite (and let me tell you, there were many – it was a dilemma trying to pick two!) is The Pantry. I love the angles, the strokes, colors, light, subject. Check. Check. Check. Another fabulous painting!

On Jeff’s website the paintings are separated into categories, here is a quick run down of some of the categories… be sure to check it out!

Urbanscapes: These paintings show the grittiness of city living, you can feel the flow of traffic, noise, and true living…

Airports: Jeff captures the hard-to-believe act of flying with perspectives on the ground and in the air, from in the plane and outside of it. Each is fabulous and makes you want to hop on the next flight!

Narrative: These paintings have depth and emotion.

Rail: Jeff captures one of the older and efficient forms of transportation depicting true authenticity of the surroundings.

Animals: These paintings show animals with a sense of their reality.

Read a bit about Jeff, from his website:

Jeff is originally from Long Meadow, Massachusetts. From an early age, he showed a talent for rendering still lives and landscapes. Because visual communication always interested him, he decided to pursue art after graduating high school.

Jeff entered the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) for his undergraduate studies, where he discovered his passion for the human figure. Jeff spent a year in Rome, Italy through RISD’s European Honors program where he studied classical art and architecture.

After RISD, Jeff continued with his graduate studies at the New York Academy of Figurative Art. His formal education exposed him further to the works of artists like Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard and Lucian Freud, whose styles influence his work to this day. Also while in New York, he was able to focus his attention further with the figure while taking advantage of New York’s vast cultural resources.

Jeff currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He is part of galleries in NY, Boston, & Maine. His works have been exhibited nationally and internationally and is part of collections all over the world.

All images via JeffBye.com, used with permission…

Images are not for reproduction, they are property of the artist.

Catch you back here tomorrow!