The New York Figurative Show
The Salmagundi Club, New York City salmagundi.org
January 10–28, 2022
Brandon Soloff (b. 1973), “Cassandra,” 2016, oil on canvas, 31 x 25 in.
The Salmagundi Club is opening 2022 with “The New York Figurative Show,” highlighting the human form in all its permutations.
Presenting an array of works in various media, including drawings, paintings, photographs, and sculpture, this display explores the range of figurative practices thriving in artists’ studios today.
The competition was open to both Salmagundi members and non-members working worldwide, be they established or emerging.
The selections were made by members of the club’s art committee in collaboration with guest adviser Patricia Watwood.
The awards jurors will be artists Max Ginsburg and Colleen Barry, who will present a $4,000 first prize, a $1,500 second prize, a $750 third prize, and a $500 award from Vanessa Rothe Fine Art (Laguna Beach).
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MARY PETTIS (b. 1953), "Quiet Beginnings, Dance of Spring," 2017, oil on linen, 24 x 36 in., private collection
There is a lot of superb contemporary realism being made these days; this article by Allison Malafronte shines light on a gifted individual:
A painting by MARY PETTIS (b. 1953) invites us to linger and become lost in the beauty of what she has captured on canvas. She has made a name for herself in the landscape-painting community through soulful, nuanced portrayals of nature painted both outdoors and in the studio. Although the artist travels widely in search of such scenes — China, Russia, and most of Europe — she is equally satisfied with her Minnesota surroundings.
Pettis’s training began through the influence of Richard Lack’s atelier in Minneapolis and of Daniel Graves (before he founded the Florence Academy of Art in 1991). She also studied with Hungarian painter Bela Petheo (1934–2017) and was strongly influenced by Russian art as well.
Studying with the Wyoming artist Jim Wilcox, who taught her to paint wet-in-wet from life, inspired in Pettis a new passion for plein air work. Her subsequent instructors have included Kevin Macpherson, James Shoop, Zhang Wen Xin, and Jove Wang. Along the way, Pettis learned that technique alone, without contemplation and content, is empty.
A fine example of such contemplativeness is “Quiet Beginnings, Dance of Spring,” a studio piece created from a 16-x-24-inch plein air sketch. “This scene is just steps from my studio door, and it is one of my favorite motifs,” Pettis explains. “On this particular day, the warm spring air was calling the new grass through last year’s ochres so quickly I could barely keep up. I could smell the moist earth, and each time I looked, the sky became more dramatic. My humbled thoughts were ‘How can I share this extraordinary beauty without overstating it?’ All I know is that when I paint a scene close to my heart, from life, something deep inside me resonates, and I am able to recall and expand on that memory more profoundly in the studio.”
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Western Art > “Back-Tracking in Memory” by Nancy Cooper Russell tells the story of the endearing, gifted cowboy artist, Charles M. Russell.
Charles M. Russell on Monty (or Monte), Utica (1886); Photograph by Townley & Runsten, Mandan, D.T. PETRIE COLLECTION.
Nancy Cooper married Charles M. Russell in the little town of Cascade, Montana, in September, 1896. She was eighteen, effectively an orphan, and he was thirty-two, a former cowboy from a good family in St. Louis struggling to make his living as an artist. She would be by his side for the rest of his life as his wife, cheerleader, and extraordinarily capable business manager.
When he died in Great Falls, Montana in 1926, shortly after they celebrated their 30th anniversary, Charlie Russell was at the top of the heap, an American original world famous as the “Cowboy Artist.”
A few months earlier Nancy had written an acquaintance who remembered her from her hardscrabble youth in Helena, “Yes, I am, or was, the little girl you were talking about, way back in ’94. . . . I, as you know, married the only Charles Russell in the world and my life has been very full of romance, which they like to make moving pictures out of, only mine happens to be real.”
Charles M. Russell, “When Wagon Trails Were Dim,” 1919; Albert K. Mitchell Collection, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (1975.020.5) “They had a hard time crossing the Crazy Mountains, for the wagon trails were very dim and rough, and one of the horses was played out.”
She realized that with Charlie’s passing, it was up to her to keep that dream alive by keeping him alive for the public, through exhibitions showing his genius with a brush and modeling clay and through books that revealed the man behind the art: “Trails Plowed Under,” a collection of his rangeland stories; “Good Medicine,” a compilation of his inimitable illustrated letters; and a biography, “Back-Tracking in Memory,” that would tell the story of the endearing, gifted man she had known intimately for half his life.
Nancy worked on the biography until her death in 1940 without ever quite finishing it. Tom Petrie and Brian Dippie have collaborated on bringing what she did finish into print, with sidebars, photographs, and artwork to amplify her text.
“Back Tracking in Memory” is available at local bookstores and gift shops, through online retailers, or from distributor Farcountry Press at www.farcountrypress.com.
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As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
Morning Retreat by Steven Walker, Oil, 22 x 30 in.; Anderson Fine Art Gallery
Studio Sky by Walter Rane (Born 1949), Oil on panel, 48 x 36 in., Signed; Rehs Contemporary
Harlequin by Ugo Giannini (1919 – 1993), Oil on canvas, 32 x 26 in., Signed; Rehs Galleries, Inc.
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
How did you get started and then develop your career?
Marcia Holmes: After a career as a CPA, I started experimenting by questioning my mother, who was an accomplished abstract artist in Mississippi. First using transparent layers of oil, watercolor and ink on paper, in a process of extremely loose, alla prima sessions, I added pastel as the “accent” on top and fell in love with the visceral quality, immediacy, and glorious color that remained.
Twenty-one years later, with over 16 Solo exhibitions, numerous juried award-winning pastel exhibitions, features and museum inclusions, notably, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art Louisiana Contemporary 2018 for my abstract painting; I have been awarded Eminent Pastel status with the International Association of Pastel Societies, as well as the distinction of Master Pastelist with the Pastel Society of America.
How do you find inspiration?
Totally immersed in nature I find inspiration from water reflections, exploring a feeling, energy of movement, and creatively interpreting these strong impressions as I hover between abstract expressionism and representation. Often painting larger scale impressionist landscape paintings in oil or mixed media on canvas, my desired response for a viewer in all that I do is to find a resting place of ‘grace in space’.
Picasso Paintings on View
The Art Gallery of Ontario ago.ca
through January 16, 2022
The Art Gallery of Ontario has organized the exhibition “Picasso: Painting the Blue Period.” It focuses on the paintings, works on paper, and sculpture the young Spaniard made between 1901 and 1904, when he fashioned a distinctive style by adapting the artistic lessons he had learned in Paris to the social and political climate of economically struggling Barcelona, where he lived.
The project has grown from a series of technical studies performed on several key paintings, offering new insights on their hidden compositions, motifs, and alterations, plus hitherto unknown information on Picasso’s materials and process.
The accompanying catalogue (Delmonico Books) brings art history and conservation science together in a fascinating, and still too rare, way.
The show will move on to the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., where it will be on view from February 26 through June 12.
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MICHAEL AARON HALL (b. 1975), "Sons of Victory," 2017, bronze, 28 1/4 x 40 1/2 x 6 1/2 in., on view at the Springville Museum of Art (Springville, UT)
There is a lot of superb contemporary realism being made these days; this article by Allison Malafronte shines light on a gifted individual:
MICHAEL AARON HALL (b. 1975) makes moving memorials and monuments that pay tribute to those who have passed and must not be forgotten. Their stories are told through Hall’s mastery of sculpting, which he has been refining for close to 12 years.
It all began with the encouragement of his artist mother and time spent in the studio of the noted sculptor Avard T. Fairbanks, his great-uncle. Those youthful experiences opened the door for Hall’s natural curiosity and ability to take flight, and as a teenager he not only copied Old Master works but also attempted to paint frescos, filling the concrete walls of his parents’ basement with trial-and-error experimentation.
It wasn’t until he spent two years living in St. Petersburg, Russia, however, that Hall decided to become a professional artist. Frequenting the Hermitage and the Russian Museum, he was greatly influenced by the works of both historic and contemporary Russian painters. He consequently studied drawing and painting in Russia briefly before spending several years training under the Swiss artist Patrick Devonas, who encouraged Hall to pursue sculpture full-time.
Today Hall works primarily in bronze, though he did study marble carving briefly in Pietrasanta, Italy, and hopes to devote more time to it in the future. The sculptor has completed important commissions, as well as several personal projects and collaborations. Noteworthy public monuments include The Beckstead Memorial and The Esther Motanic Memorial.
As suggested by such series titles as “Heaven and Earth,” “Divinity,” and “Between Mother and Child,” Hall readily incorporates the spiritual in his subject matter, examining aspects of existence that go beyond the here-and-now.
In Hall’s bas-relief “Sons of Victory,” he retells the story from Mormon scripture involving a generation of boys who fight a war on behalf of their non-violent parents.
“My father was a pacifist and greatly opposed war in all forms,” Hall explains. “But my grandfather was a U.S. Army colonel and served in several wars. Each man had a different way of looking at life, and I respect and admire them both for their convictions. I believe that although we as humans can easily find divisions among one another, if we can learn to accept people as individuals, we will find that we are more united than we think.”
> Visit EricRhoads.com to learn about more opportunities for artists and art collectors, including retreats, international art trips, art conventions, and more.
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Featuring 60 artists from across America, Canada, and Europe, the 29th annual Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale will again tempt collectors with an eclectic mix of contemporary realist artworks capturing the Western way of life.
This year’s featured artist is David Griffin, a Coors participant for the last 13 years. Illustrated above is his Signature Work, “Only a Matter of Time,” acquired for the collection of the National Western Stock Show, of which the Coors exhibit is a key part. (Posters of it can be purchased online and on site.)
Griffin grew up in Lubbock and, after studying fine art at Texas Tech University, found success in the world of professional illustration during the 1970s and ’80s.
In 1990, he turned to painting full-time and now splits the year between Dallas and Cordillera, Colorado.
Though works such as “Only a Matter of Time” clearly draw upon Griffin’s close observation of nature, there is also something vaguely mysterious — even symbolist — about this scene, which captures an incoming storm seen from miles away.
The exhibition’s net proceeds will again support the National Western Scholarship Trust, which helps more than 100 college students annually pursue training in rural medicine, agriculture, and veterinary sciences.
This season, Coors curator Rose Fredrick is hosting a series of free Zoom conversations that bring viewers into the fascinating studio environments of the show’s participating artists. Please visit the website for registration details.
> Visit EricRhoads.com to learn about more opportunities for artists and art collectors, including retreats, international art trips, art conventions, and more.
> Sign up to receive Fine Art Today, our free weekly e-newsletter
As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
Nandina Berries by Loren DiBenedetto, Oil, 36 x 24 in.; Anderson Fine Art Gallery
Winter Hills of Somerset, WI by Ben Bauer, Oil on panel, 28 x 40 in., Signed; Rehs Contemporary
The Singing Lesson by Arthur J. Elsley (1860 – 1952), Oil on canvas, 34 x 28 in., Signed and dated 1909; Rehs Galleries, Inc.
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
Marcia Holmes, “Garden Fascination,” pastel and oil, 40 x 30 in., $5200, available through the artist
Marcia Holmes IAPS EP/MC PSA-MP: Marcia, a committed Pastelist, is drawn to garden venues as a consummate traveler. With a painterly approach, in Garden Fascination, she’s embracing a balance of oil and pastel, highlighting the texture of peony blossoms with a palette knife on a field of lush pastel. This day was a glorious afternoon stroll in Nedra Matteucci Galleries garden in Santa Fe. Shady Lakes Water Lilies II (Albuquerque, NM) and Safely in the Rabbit Hole (NYC-Central Park) display her noted abstract expressionist mark marking at Master level Exhibitions: Pastel Society of America and IAPS 7th Master Division (through June 21, 2022).
Marcia Holmes, “Shady Lakes Water Lilies II,” pastel, 40 x 30 in., $4450, available through the artistMarcia Holmes, “Safely in the Rabbit Hole (NYC),” pastel, 27 x 40 in., $3400, available through the artist
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