Featured Artist… Kim Lordier!

On May 13, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist3 Comments

The Sun’s Embrace by Kim Lordier / Image: KimFancherLordier.com

Isn’t this a fabulous pastel? That horse is absolutely magnificent! The sun and the dark greens… whoa! (Pun intended)… Kim has an interesting story, read on…

Read a blip about the artist from her website:

Native to the San Francisco Bay Area and a graduate of the Academy of Art University, San Francisco CA, Kim Lordier combines keen observation and sensitivity to her award winning landscapes. After college, Lordier flew for a major air carrier, experiencing many domestic and foreign locales, while keeping up with painting and portraiture. After the events of September 2001 she turned to painting full time.

“There is nothing like the inner peace that comes from working from life, exploring the way the sun can transform an ordinary object into something stunning. I want you to see the beauty in what we pass by everyday, and acknowledge the importance of open space in our lives.”

Inspired by the turn of the century California Impressionists and Tonalists, Kim paints in the plein air tradition. Fascinated with California’s unique atmospheric qualities, Kim strives to capture the beauty, depth and energy of the land and sea. She is currently a Signature member of the Laguna Plein Air Painters, the Pastel Society of America, a Distinguished Pastelist in the Pastel Society of the West Coast, and Artist Member of the California Art Club.

Also, check out this article, When to Be Critical, When to Let Go written by Steve Doherty back in 2007. So much great advice!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Casey Baugh!

On May 6, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist3 Comments

Dusk by Casey Baugh – {Image}

S T U N N I N G. The eyes have it. She has incredible eyes… the light, the perfection in this painting is unbelievable. Artist Casey Baugh has a way with a brush that is truly breathtaking! Even the way he signs the painting could be described as nothing short of ARTISTIC! I encourage you to check him out… he’s got a great website and is represented by several galleries including The Haynes Galleries.

There is a fairly short YouTube video with a slideshow of some of his paintings… wow!

A blip about Casey from the Haynes Galleries website:

American, Born 1984

Although largely self-taught, Casey Baugh completed a four year apprenticeship in representational painting with renowned Vermont artist Richard Schmid. For the past two years, Baugh’s work has won the People’s Choice award and first place honors at the Portrait Society of America, as well as first prize awards and honorable mentions given by American Artist magazine. His work has been shown in exhibitions including Art Hampton, Art and Antiques, and the Salmagundi Club in New York City. He is currently teaching figure painting at the Townsend Atelier in Chattanooga, TN, and is featured with Richard Schmid in the recently released DVD, The Master’s Portrait.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist: Susan Headley Van Campen!

On May 1, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

Peabody House on March 8, Late Morning by Susan Headley Van Campen – Image: Dowling Walsh

When I received this art card in the mail from Dowling Walsh I was blown away. As simple as this is, it has everything in a painting that I love. The dark against the light, the warm lights on inside the house, a sky that is exactly the color it should be for this painting. It is perfection. Don’t get too excited… it’s also sold! I try to feature work that is still for sale, but had to show you this one… Love it!

Lucy on the Couch, April by Susan Headley Van Campen – Image: Dowling Walsh

You must check out the rest of her work. I didn’t feature any of the landscapes (and there are many), so that you would have the opportunity to look through and see which one you like the most. A gal can only make so many decisions this early in the morning!

Susan has her own website, which features some neat watercolors and a few of the landscapes that you’ll see at the Dowling Walsh website. Check them both out… and I’ll catch you back here tomorrow!

Read a blip about Susan from the Dowling Walsh website:

Susan Van Campen’s plein-air oil paintings are renderings of Maine in all its seasons. Susan paints in oil with the confident brushwork of a watercolorist, achieving bold impressions of Maine’s landscapes. These small impressions capture big moments – rapidly changing weather, vast landscapes, dramatic shadows, and heavy clouds. This exhibit celebrates Maine’s iconic landscape.

Susan Van Campen received her certificate of fine art from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadephia, PA.

“I like to paint what I see that strikes me at the moment. Things that don’t last long – like flowers and skies, water, the sunrise, clouds, approaching storms, a dandelion, an open tulip just before the petals fall off – a poppy bud before it bursts … as simple as possible, without laboring. I am trying to capture the color and shape the first time, that’s all.”

Susan Headley Van Campen and her family were interviewed by Britta Konau in the Free Press in March 2012: http://freepressonline.com/main.asp?SectionID=61&SubSectionID=172&ArticleID=18050&TM=52610.34

Susan was featured in Maine Boats, Homes and Harbors magazine’s April 2010 issue. Follow the link to read, “The Art of Flowers” by Carl Little: The Art of Flowers

Featured Artist… Dan Graziano!

On April 26, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments

There is a great little restaurant in town called Fast and French… they also go by Gaulart & Maliclet French Café (and G&M for those of us who can’t pronounce it). It’s a favorite by locals and tourists alike. It’s tucked away on Broad Street and the food is as fabulous as the atmosphere. If you’ve been there before you will recognize this painting done by artist Dan Graziano. He captured it perfectly! (Something to peruse… Fast & French’s MENU)!

While Dan was in Charleston he painted some fabulous paintings. Dan is represented by the Sylvan Gallery… pop in, say hello and take a look! So many fabulous paintings… I’m just going to tease you with one! If you don’t live in the area (darn it!) check out the SYLVAN GALLERY website!

Here’s a blip about Dan from his website:

Dan Graziano’s artistic vision began taking shape in the 60’s, during America’s explosive political, cultural and artistic awakening. His first formal training focused on advertising and illustration, but a career opportunity in architecture and urban planning altered his original direction.

When he returned to painting, he was drawn to the rich complexity of the urban landscape – inspired by Edward Hopper and other urbanist painters. As an accomplished blues guitarist (his other great passion), he found the city streets, time worn buildings and multiple layers of decay and repair a visual parallel to the spirit and culture of the music.

During a brief residency on the East Coast, his paintings quickly evolved from inner city streets to expanses of fields, farm houses and other pastoral and “Americana” subjects. It was here that he began showing his work in galleries and juried events while deepening his involvement in plein air painting. He continued his art education through workshops with Ken Auster, Randall Sexton and Tim Horn.

He now makes Castine, Maine his home – capturing rugged coastlines, historic villages and picturesque landscapes from New England to the low country of South Carolina.

“I paint the places and environments I find interesting in my everyday life. I look for unique compositions which involve dramatic contrasts of light, shadow and perspective. I continue to be intrigued by the urban landscapes of inner cities – their active streets, time worn buildings and multiple layers of decay, renewal and adaptation – that proudly display the effects of age and use, which I see as testaments to strength, character and authenticity in contrast with modern society’s demand for newness, imitation, disposability and easy duplication. I am also drawn to the unique natural beauty of New England, encompassing its historic towns, picturesque harbors and enduring maritime legacy. My work is influenced by the American realists such as Eakins, Sargent, Hopper and the three generations of Wyeths”.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Chad Smith!

On April 22, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments

Maroon Street Poppies by Chad Smith

Oh, I am loving these pops of orange against the green… fabulous! I ran across Chad’s work on Facebook and was loving every single piece… I was having a horrific time trying to find one image that I really loved on his website because each and every one is just so wonderful! On Chad’s website, when you click on PORTFOLIO you’ll have some options. Maroon Street Poppies is located under FIELD WORK TEST. If I ever complete a painting that is close to being as fabulous as this is you will hear me yodel from a mountaintop somewhere. Ha ha… not kidding! I love light in a painting and this is just so perfect… Check out his work, I’m sure you will love it as much as I do!

I really like it when artists share who they’ve studied with. Kenn Backhaus and Marc Hanson… whoa! I love their work! They’ve both “got the eye”… and they can transform a canvas into what they see which is breathtaking and ALWAYS a treat! Oh, and you can’t forget about Mother Nature…! Painting plein air is challenging to say the least. You have got to be organized and pretty quick at what you do… no time to dilly dally when the sun moves at such a fast pace (which you would never realize unless you’re trying to paint and the shadow that was once there is now quickly gone)!

Here’s a blip about Chad from his website:

Chad Smith’s (b.1970) most influential instruction came through private full-time atelier study with Douglas Flynt via Jacob Collins and the Water Street Atelier. Smith has studied plein air and studio landscape painting with Kenn Backhaus and Marc Hanson. Smith previously studied classical academic drawing and painting concepts with Frank Covino, Don Maitz and David Meo. Smith has also studied figure and animal drawing with famed Disney animator and teacher Glenn Vilppu and Joe Weatherly. He graduated with a BA in Drawing and Painting from the State University of New York and is presently finishing graduate MFA work at the Academy of Art University.

In addition to gallery work, commissioned studio work, and plein air events, Smith now spends his time with the greatest teacher of all outdoors painting from life “en plein air.”

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… John Murray!

On April 12, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments

Oranges by John Murray

Spectacular painting! I love the rich texture, the deep colored background with the orange slices just popping right out at you! You can almost feel how juicy they are! The table… oh, is that a fabulous old table! This painting is sold, but check out John’s website for even more fabulous paintings!

Here’s a blip about John from his website:

John Murray is a contemporary artist who works primarily in oil. His subject matter includes figure, landscape, still-life and portraiture. Inspired by the classical masters as a boy, his traditional training and artistic development has lead to work of quality. His paintings carry an appealing sense of clarity and color. Murray was educated at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia. In 1991 he studied at the John Michael Angel Studio in Florence, Italy. Upon graduation, he became one of four banknote designers at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where he drew presidential portraits and worked on currency designs for 16 years. In 2005, he decided to leave the Bureau to pursue his art career full time. The same year, as a faculty member at the Corcoran School of Art, he won a grant from the Corcoran to do post-graduate work at the Repin Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 2001, his wife Lena, a Russian artist, founded the Bridgeview School of Fine Art in New York. John Murray is a co-founder and guest teacher at the Bridgeview School. Since 2005, John and Lena have been organizing summer master classes for American students in St. Petersburg, Russia at the famous Repin Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

John has exhibited in many venues including the International Art Expo in New York City, the Strathmore Museum in Bethesda, Maryland, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he won Best of Show Alumni Award in 2002. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland and teaches drawing, painting and sculpture at the Corcoran School of Art while continuing to paint. He is represented by Nichols Gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia and Newman Gallery in Philadelphia.

Check him out if you get a chance! Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Christine Sharp!

On March 29, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist2 Comments

Yakima Canyon Spring by Christine Sharp

Christine’s art is different. I like that! The colors are vivid, the content not cluttered with detail. It seems to be the most simplified version of what she’s seeing. The colors and subject matter make for fabulous and interesting paintings! I urge you to check out her other pieces!

Here’s a blip about Christine from her website:

Chicago native, Christine Sharp moved to Seattle in 1978 to complete her Master’s Degree and teach at the University of Washington.

Sharp is a renaissance woman, having reinvented herself several times. “My friends say I am like a curious cat with many lives,” says Sharp. So far she’s thrived as a nurse/family therapist, college teacher/researcher, entrepreneur, documentary writer/producer, CNN news director/investigative reporter and for the past 12 years a respected fine artist.

“While some may see my choices as random and disconnected there are interesting links,” says Sharp. “I started out in the health and healing arts and gradually moved into the literary/visual arts . I’ve never been afraid to learn something new and seek out the best teachers to show me the way!”  Along the way, Sharp’s picked up some of the nation’s top awards for her writing and directing. In 1990 Sharp won the coveted Peabody Award and the Gold Medal in the New York Film Festival for her documentary “BACKHAULING” on unsafe trucking practices that aired on MacNeil Lehrer NewsHour.
 
 After sharing the Peabody stage with luminaries like Ted Koppel, CNN’s Boys from Bagdad, Ken Burns and David Lynch, Sharp was recruited by CNN to pioneer the first Northwest News Desk. She investigated/directed news coverage of all the major stories of the 90’s…from Clinton, Gore, Dylan, Santana, and the Queen…to Harding, Simpson, Lewinsky and Unabomber. Sharp told the world the news of the day through her unique lense.

Then following a brush with death from a misdiagnosed genetic blood clotting disorder, Sharp put down pen and camera and picked up the brush. “I always loved to draw and paint but thought I’d wait until I was in the rocking chair to get serious about art. I’m so glad I started a bit earlier to pursue this path. No one knows how much time they have here!” says Sharp.   

Sharp began her art career tackling WATERCOLORS and studied with some of the best artist/teachers like Eric Weigardt, Charles Reid and Zolton Szabo. Sharp earned her signature status in the NWWS, Northwest Watercolor Society, in 2012.

Sharp began painting in oils in 2010 after studying with renown master Ned Meuller. She enjoys Plein Air painting for inspiration but prefers to paint her carefully designed oils in a larger format in her studio in Kirkland,Washington. Sharp is a juried member of the Oil Painter’s of America. Her work is widely collected by corporations and private collectors.

Sharp has been in numerous national and international art shows and galleries. She writes for Artist Magazine and is the founder of the annual Kirkland Artist Studio Tour.

Currently Sharp is exclusively represented by LISA HARRIS GALLERY, one of the oldest and most respected gallery in Seattle, Washington located in Pike Street Market. CONTACT/DIRECTIONS

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Craig Mitchell!

On March 13, 2013December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

Jewel of the High Country by Craig Mitchell

Impressive, right? This is a good size painting, 36 x 48 and just fabulous! I love the brilliant blue sky, the stoic trees, the light on the rocks and the movement in the water that you can hear if you sit still enough.

I featured a cool artist (Tom Hughes) on Monday, (what a nice guy by the way!) and as I was looking at his website, specifically his LINKS (I love when artists post links to supplies they use, art they appreciate, and blogs they read, so thanks for sharing, Tom)! This is how I ran across Craig Mitchell.

Here’s a blip about Craig from his website:

“My father was a fisherman. In teaching me to fish he also gave me a great appreciation for the natural world. Virtually all of my paintings begin as plein air studies used as reference in the studio. Nothing can substitute for painting on location where the colors are true and my view of the earth is unfiltered. Inspiration comes from extended trips into remote wilderness areas of the West where I experience a spiritual exchange within a pristine environment. As a contemporary impressionistic painter, I balance the respect of nature’s conventions with my own interpretation of hue, composition and unity expressed in a fluid painterly style. I also give a nod to the past in technique and other time-proven principles and traditions that transcend artistic genres as a sound foundation for artistic innovation. My personal goal is to explore the process of creation, to engage the viewer in looking and therefore seeing; to capture a transient moment in time and place that eludes us in a busy world.”

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… Aaron Westerberg!

On December 14, 2012December 9, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART1 Comment

“Intent” by Aaron Westerberg

This painting, “Intent” has been awarded Finalist in the Raymar Juried Competition. I wish I was as eloquent as Michael Godfrey, ha ha… I totally agree with his comment – you have to wonder! At first you think she looks like a “nice girl” until you see what’s in her hand… is she going to go edge a patch of unwieldy grass growing over and spilling into the driveway, or is there a small tree that needs removing… or…. EEEEEEk! Intriguing works of all kinds are on his website… check it out!

Judge’s Comments: I was drawn to this work by the subtle use of complimentary colors of the background in contrast to the model’s coat. It is simply composed in a very shallow space and exhibits technical mastery of the medium, but it goes further. I was so captivated by the beauty of the work that I initially missed the fact that the young woman is holding a hatchet. I laughed. This detail totally changed my thinking about the piece. What is she about to do? – Michael Godfrey

I highly suggest checking out the HOW TO DRAW tutorials that Aaron has posted on his blog! What fabulous information! A great blog full of so much good stuff!

Here’s a blip about Aaron from his website:

Native California Aaron Westerberg grew up in San Diego. It was a class in Traditional life drawing that drew him to continue his Art training. He studied with Jeff Watts and later attended the California Art Institute, where he taught and expanded his focus to include the works of nineteenth century American and European Masters. Aaron feels a connection to these great painters of form and light. In his paintings, he strives for elegance and timelessness while striking a balance between classic techniques and contemporary subject matter. Currently Aaron lives in Santa Clarita with his wife Jennifer and four children Stella, Lucy, Violet, and Sen Sei.

Aaron Westerberg is a member of the Oil Painters of America, the Portrait Society of America and The California Art Club.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Featured Artist… Ezra Katz!

On December 10, 2012December 8, 2013 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!

On December 5, 2012December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

“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 December 3, 2012December 8, 2013 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!

On November 30, 2012December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

“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… Kathryn Turner!

On November 26, 2012December 8, 2013 By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured ArtistLeave a comment

“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!