9 New Landscape Paintings from a Blue Ridge Artist
“One of the biggest things that painting does is that it spreads joy.” ~ Kyle Buckland
Kyle Buckland is a contemporary impressionist painter who focuses on painting landscapes both plein air and in the studio. Kyle’s love of landscape painting began around the age of 15 when he began painting outdoors, around his parents home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
He has nine new landscape paintings on view at Hagan Fine Art in Charleston, South Carolina:
“A Light Snow,” oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in., by Kyle Buckland“Winter’s Wonder,” oil on linen, 11 x 14 in., by Kyle Buckland“Snow in the Alley,” oil on linen, 16 x 20 in., by Kyle Buckland“The Oyster Shack,” oil on canvas, 12 x 16 in., by Kyle Buckland“In for Repairs,” oil on linen, 20 x 24 in., by Kyle Buckland“Forest Guardians,” oil on canvas, 24 x 30 in., by Kyle Buckland“The Edge of the Grove,” oil on linen, 20 x 24 in., by Kyle Buckland“Autumn Woods,” oil on linen, 8 x 10 in., by Kyle Buckland“After the Rain,” oil on linen, 16 x 20 in., by Kyle Buckland
Kyle continues to live and work in Virginia but also enjoys traveling in search of new inspiring vistas as well. His work can also be viewed online at kylebuckland.com. He is a member of OPA, AIS and a signature member of PAP-SE.
“We should practice so much that we become inspired by our own abilities,” Kyle says. “Then we’ll never run out of inspiration!” [Learn more about “Courageous Color”]
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The Puppy Project: 130 Dog Portraits in Watercolor > While Covid19 is the challenge of our lifetime, our pets have helped us through with their love and affection. The Puppy Project by Carol Carter illustrates how important our beloved pets are in times of need: particularly through this trying pandemic.
Editor’s Note: Carol Carter is on the faculty of the 2nd Annual WATERCOLOR LIVE virtual art conference, January 27-29, 2022, with a Beginner’s Day on January 26.
From “The Puppy Project” organizers:
One hundred and thirty watercolors will be displayed. Each dog portrayed has come from a request put on social media for every owner to send a picture of their beloved pet. Each portrait is unique capturing the essence. This work celebrate how our pets help us cope through the stress of these trying times.
Pandemics, in particular, while global in scale – evoke a range of intensely personal emotional reactions. Feelings of uncertainty, fear and grief are amplified. Dogs are a great comfort to so many. In eras of upheaval, artists have found connection and resilience by making art and in so doing, contributed valuable insight into human history.
Carol Carter, “Napping Dogs,” watercolor, 15 x 22 inches
The Puppy Project offers viewers a heartfelt expression of how our beloved dogs have helped us through the difficult pandemic.
Carol Carter’s bold, expressive figurative works reinforce the tension between recognizable imagery and luscious, loose abstracted paint application. “It is Carter’s process, more than any one work, which illuminates the ideal of beauty. It is her approach and results that teach and engage her audiences that distinguish her oeuvre,” writes Rusty Freeman, Director Visual Arts, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts.
Ralston Purina will be providing dog bowls and dog treats. Dogs are welcome.
Carol Carter, “Greyhound,” Watercolor, 7 x 5 inches
“The 2020 pandemic will change the way we see art forever – artists and writers have already begun doing the work of illuminating new shifts and losses, documenting the small kindnesses and cruelties, the large failures of leadership, technology and society. One thing seems certain: We will never look at ourselves as a culture in the same way again.” – Megan O’Grady, New York Times, April 8, 2020
Carol Carter: “The Puppy Project”
December 3-4, 2021
St. Louis, Missouri carol-carter.com
Carol Carter, “Gantry,” watercolor, 15 x 11 inchesCarol Carter, “Boston Terrier,” Watercolor, 7 x 5 inches
Learn from Carol Carter in person at Watercolor Live in January 2022!
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DIANNE MASSEY DUNBAR (b. 1952), "Shopping Cart," 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in., Gallery 1261, Denver
For centuries, artists have depicted people preparing and enjoying food and drink, be they at home, out on the town, or sitting al fresco. To consume a meal or tipple is part of being human, so it makes sense that collectors love to display reminders on their walls. Artists now are no less interested in the themes of consumption and hospitality than their forerunners were. Though subtle critiques are sometimes embedded in the resulting images, most contemporary artists are instead drawn to cafes, bars, restaurants, and kitchens for their visual appeal.
Illustrated here is an array of superb artworks made in this timeless genre. Enjoy, and bon appetit!
1. “News Worthy”
SUZIE BAKER (b. 1970), “News Worthy,” 2015, oil on linen panel, 12 x 16 in., private collection
2. “Oligarchs”
FRED DANZIGER (b. 1946), “Oligarchs,” 2018, gouache on Mylar, 10 x 24 in., F.A.N. Gallery, Philadelphia
3. “Shopping Cart”
DIANNE MASSEY DUNBAR (b. 1952), “Shopping Cart,” 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in., Gallery 1261, Denver
4. “The Discussion”
ROBERT EVANS (b. 1953), “The Discussion,” 2013, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in., collection of the artist
5. “Sushi Trail”
STUART DUNKEL (b. 1952), “Sushi Trail,” 2018, oil on panel, 5 x 7 in., Tree’s Place Gallery, Orleans, MA
6. “Beiler’s in Reading Terminal”
HEATHER LYNN GIBSON (b. 1970), “Beiler’s in Reading Terminal,” 2019, oil on linen, 24 x 12 in., available from the artist
7. “May Morning in San Marco”
CHARLES IARROBINO (b. 1952), “May Morning in San Marco,” 2018, oil on linen mounted on panel, 40 x 30 in., Chasen Galleries, Sarasota
8. “Chef’s Station”
KAREN HORNE (b. 1959), “Chef’s Station,” 2019, oil on linen, 18 x 24 in., HORNE Fine Art, Salt Lake City
9. “Brooklyn Lunch”
SHELBY KEEFE (b. 1958), “Brooklyn Lunch,” 2017, oil on linen, 28 x 22 in., Fine Line Designs Gallery & Sculpture Garden, Sister Bay, WI
10. “Silver Spoons”
GEORGANNA LENSSEN (b. 1964), “Silver Spoons,” 2017, oil on board, 8 x 8 in., collection of Lisa and Jeff Thomas
11. “Jelly Donut”
CLEVELAND MORRIS (b. 1947), “Jelly Donut,” 2017, oil on linen, 8 x 8 in., private collection
12. “Far Far Away”
JOSEPH LORUSSO (b. 1966), “Far Far Away,” 2018, oil on panel, 24 x 24 in., McLarry Fine Art (Santa Fe)
13. “Cook Works”
SALLY STRAND (b. 1954), “Cook Works,” 1998, pastel on paper, 30 x 42 in., collection of Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York
14. “Cheeseburger”
ELIZABETH SELBY (b. 1988), “Cheeseburger,” 2014, oil on panel, 36 x 36 in., private collection
15. “Bag of Grannys”
DAN SIMONEAU (b. 1962), “Bag of Grannys,” 2017, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 in., Re:Vision Art Gallery, Kenosha, WI
16. “Lunch in Provence IV”
THALIA STRATTON (b. 1957), “Lunch in Provence IV,” 2018, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in., New Masters Gallery, Carmel, CA
17. “A Careful Cleaning”
NANCY TANKERSLEY (b. 1949), “A Careful Cleaning,” 2019, oil on muslin panel, 12 x 12 in., available from the artist
18. “Two Up, One on the Rocks”
JILL STEFANI WAGNER (b. 1955), “Two Up, One on the Rocks,” 2017, oil on linen panel, 12 x 12 in., J. Petter Galleries, Douglas, MI
19. “Waiting to Be Chopped”
Catherine Hillis (b. 1953), “Waiting to Be Chopped,” 2017, watercolor on paper, 12 x 16 in., private collection
20. “Seasonal Favorites”
JON TOCCHINI (b. 1968), “Seasonal Favorites,” 2014, oil on canvas, 12 x 16 in., private collection
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Steven Assael (b. 1957), "Cassandra and Nola," 2015, silverpoint on paper, 11 1/2 x 14 in., photo courtesy Forum Gallery, New York City
“Silver”
New York City dfnprojects.com
Through January 7, 2022
On view at DFN Projects is the exhibition “Silver,” devoted to the slow, ancient technique of silverpoint drawing. The artist drags a silver rod or wire across a paper, parchment, or panel that has been prepared with gesso or primer, resulting in fine details and pearlescent half-lights.
This multi-artist show has been organized by Michael Gormley, director of the New York Artists Equity Association’s Equity Gallery.
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D. Eleinne Basa, a classically trained artist, began painting at the young age of 8. She furthered her art education after college by taking several workshops before diving into the competitive Plein Air competition scene; it was then that she began to earn critical acclaim. She is still influenced by her early experiences and is happiest when painting “en plein air.” As she notes, it reminds her of the time in her childhood when “painting was pure and came from someplace deep within.”
“LuminoCity,” featuring the artwork of D. Eleinne Basa will remain on view through December 10, 2021 at Rehs Contemporary.
“Soho Evening Rain,” D. Eleinne Basa
More from the gallery:
Basa is always striving to achieve a certain timelessness to the paintings she creates. Her landscapes and cityscapes draw the viewer into the work with their radiant light, reminiscent of the early Luminists and Tonalists of the American School. She has been greatly influenced by some of the most notable 19th Century tonalist painters like Thomas Moran and George Inness, as well as by the soft, delicate, and muted landscapes of the Spanish painter Emilio Sánchez-Perrier.
What is perhaps most captivating about Basa’s work is her capacity to capture atmosphere: the crisp air, the chill of a breeze, or the warmth of sunlight. Paintings like “Afternoon Glow (Hudson Yards)” and “Soho Street Shadows” are prime examples of her ability… with “Afternoon Glow (Hudson Yards),” there is a certain coolness on the street while at the same time the red brick of the building seems to smolder like an ember in the sunlight. Soho Street Shadows has an instant wintery feel; the hazy skyline and barren tree set the stage, and even with a streak of sunlight cutting through the foreground, the air feels brisk.
Basa further develops the brilliance of her work by playing with light sources, most notably in her evening scenes like “Soho Evening Rain,” where light itself nearly takes hold as the focus of the work. The buildings subtly take a back seat, allowing the street light to emanate and reflect off the wet pavement. Brake lights gleam in the distance, pulling our focus deeper into the work, before moving our attention to the finer details that were at first lost in the shadows.
“Soho Street Shadows,” D. Eleinne Basa
From day to night, Basa captures cities in a way unlike many others. The delicate balance of her compositions truly results in a sense of calmness even in some of the world’s busiest spaces.
As with many of her works, these 13 newly painted pieces in “LuminoCity” feature intimate street scenes, oftentimes a lull within the bustle of big cities. For more details, please visit rehs.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.
Zinnias in Basket by Elizabeth Floyd, Oil, 24 x 30 in.; Anderson Fine Art Gallery
Mara Masters (1/10) by Bart Walter, Bronze, 10.75 x 15.5 in., Signed; Rehs Contemporary
Café de la Paix by Edouard Leon Cortes (1882 – 1969), Oil on canvas, 13 x 18 in., Signed; Rehs Galleries, Inc.
Sam by Mary Qian, Oil, 14 x 11 in.; ArtzLine.com
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.
Catherine Hillis has worked as a professional artist for several decades.
Catherine Hillis paints daily in her studio or en plein air.
How did you get started and then develop your career?
Catherine Hillis: I’ve always been involved in the arts. I began my career in theatre working as an actress and costume designer, but I always enjoyed painting and drawing. Once I discovered watercolors, it became my primary medium, and it wasn’t long before I focused entirely on painting. Within a few years, I was entering competitions in the Washington, DC metro area and winning awards, and that led me to enter national competitions. I’ve worked as a professional artist for several decades, writing articles, teaching, selling original artwork, and competing in plein air events. My theatrical background is helpful in developing the narratives I so love in painting and in my colorful approach to teaching. And yes, I paint every day.
How do you describe success?
To me, success is knowing I’ve put forth every effort to become the best I can be while working towards realizing my goals. Every year I set artistic and business goals for myself, and while I don’t expect to meet all those objectives, it provides me with aspirations to work towards.
How do you find inspiration?
I don’t look for inspiration — it finds me! I love those corners of the world that most people pass by without realizing how beautiful or interesting they are. When I find a scene to paint, an overwhelming compulsion forces me to stop, put up my easel and get to work or point my camera and shoot. The scene informs me when it must be painted.
I enjoy working both in the studio and in the field, and I can encounter that compulsion to paint in either location.
What is the best thing about being an artist?
I love my job and I enjoy hard work. Even though working as a self-employed artist is difficult and time consuming, I love what I do. I have the freedom and autonomy to select my own subjects, my own goals, the hours I prefer and my own workspace, whether I select to work outdoors or in the studio. Of course, there are things that accompany the job that aren’t as likeable, such as accounting, shipping, packing, traveling and marketing, but I’m grateful to work at something that I love so much.
Who do you collect?
I collect mostly the work of contemporary watercolor painters I admire such as John Salminen, Jean Grastorf and Joseph Zbukvic, along with Russian, Ukrainian and Canadian painters.
Catherine Hillis, “Thanks for the Memories,” 22 x 18 in., watercolor, 2021. I love painting reflections. This scene provided plenty of opportunity to recreate reflective surfaces while relaying a story about an individual who was just enjoying the moment.Catherine Hillis, “Color Blocking,” 28 x 27 in., watercolor, 2021. Courtesy Anderson Fine Arts Gallery, St. Simons Island, GA. A group of colorful chairs is one of those everyday scenes that people pass every day without realizing how beautiful it is.Catherine Hillis, “Plenty of Pelicans,” 28 x 22 in., watercolor, 2021. Many artists have painted this familiar scene in Apalachicola, Florida, but I wanted to illustrate some of the joy and humor the pelicans provide.Catherine Hillis, “Reservations Required,” 26 x 22 in., watercolor, 2021. There’s a popular restaurant near my home that’s always booked. I’ve never been able to get a reservation there, so I painted it instead.
Although she created oil paintings, watercolors, lithographs, and collages, the artist and educator Luise Clayborn Kaish (1925–2013) was best known for her monumental sculptures in bronze. Critic Robert M. Coates once described her bronze reliefs as possessing a “sweeping energy that parallels the turbulence of Turner in painting,” and indeed her important commissions for Jewish and Christian sanctuaries — such as “The Ark of Revelation” illustrated below — infuse traditional forms with her emotional power and fresh understandings of religious meaning.
LUISE KAISH at work on “The Ark of Revelation” in her MacDougal Street studio, New York City, c. 1962; photo: Morton Kaish, courtesy of Kaish Family Art Project and the Luise and Morton Kaish Foundation
In an era when women were discouraged from pursuing careers in art, and especially sculpture, Kaish studied with leading figures including Ivan Meštrović and Diego Rivera. Traveling widely to research and see art in situ, she was among the first women to be awarded the American Academy of Rome Prize and ultimately became professor and chair of Columbia University’s painting and sculpture division. Beyond the big commissions, her works can be found in major museum collections nationwide.
LUISE KAISH (1925–2013), “The Ark of Revelation,” 1960–64, bronze, 14 x 15 ft., Temple B’rith Kodesh, Rochester, New York, photo: Paul Rocheleau
Out now is “Luise Kaish: An American Art Legacy,” a richly illustrated 256-page monograph surveying Kaish’s life and career, published by D Giles Limited (London) in association with the Kaish Family Art Project. Edited by feminist art historian Maura Reilly, it contains essays by six scholars and many previously unpublished photographs. A portion of each sale made through the Project’s website will go to the Artists’ Fellowship, which assists professional artists and their families in times of need.
The book’s publication coincides with a major gift from the Kaish family to Syracuse University, where Luise and her artist husband Morton Kaish met as students (they married in 1948). The gift will name a gallery at the Syracuse University Art Museum where the couple’s art will be displayed, and also endow a fellowship program that provides students with opportunities to use the Kaishes’ artworks as a basis for original scholarship.
All of these exciting developments epitomize how artists’ legacies can be secured for the future, an urgent matter explored in detail by James Lancel McElhinney in the November/December issue of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine (page 101).
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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.
She Wore a Ribbon by Melissa Hefferlin, Oil, 16 x 13 in.; Anderson Fine Art Gallery
Red Velvet Cake by Beth Sistrunk, Acrylic and oil on panel, 6 x 6 in., Signed; Rehs Contemporary
Fontaine-Chaalis, Oise by Constantin Kluge (1912 – 2003), Oil on canvas, 21 x 25 in., Signed; also titled on the stretcher; Rehs Galleries, Inc.
Petite Souris 479 by Marina Dieul, Oil, 4 in. diameter; ArtzLine.com
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.
ALYSSA MONKS, "No Going Back," 2021, oil on linen, 41 x 41 inches
Alyssa Monks, whose psychologically-charged, figurative paintings have been exhibited in New York since 2006, is known for her bold, expressionistic portrayals of women as they experience the natural, contemporary world. Alyssa Monks’ TED talk (watch below) has been viewed more than a million times, her paintings have been presented throughout the United States and in Europe, and her work was featured in the television series, The Americans (FX) throughout its sixth and final season.
Her works are now on view through January 8, 2022 at Forum Gallery in the exhibition titled “It’s All Under Control.”
ALYSSA MONKS, “The Shadow Self,” 2021, oil on linen, 50 x 34 inches
In the sixteen paintings on view, Alyssa Monks draws the viewer into the shifting, powerful emotions experienced during the past eighteen months when the wider world has suffered physical, emotional, and political disturbances unlike at any time in history. Compounding the complexity of the new works in the exhibition, from the smallest (12 x 18 inches) to the largest (62 x 90 inches), have been the acutely emotional, personal circumstances Monks has faced during this time, events that have combined to propel her to turn to herself as the subject of a body of work that endeavors to make sense of troubled times.
ALYSSA MONKS, “Watch The Only Way Out Disappear,” 2021, oil on linen, 54 x 54 inches
“At times, the recent global and national devastation, division, and so many disappointments felt like a surreal projection of my own mental states in the isolation of the last 18 months,” Monks said. “I began to explore the human reliance on control and predictability, and how our deepest suffering comes from our attachment to security, virtue, identity, and the logic of cause and effect. The glass barrier in these paintings between subject and viewer is clouded with vapor that obscures and abstracts the subject. This barrier underlines the personal and community-wide preoccupation with virus-laden respiratory droplets and the isolation it creates. Some works are more ambiguous than others, amplifying the state of disorientation in the face of terrifying unfamiliarity. Each piece has its own, often-layered, strategy, voice and urgent plea.
“One of the most painful truths in life is that there are difficult events and circumstances that we cannot control or influence. Perhaps in accepting our limitations, and the often life-altering grief that goes along with them, we can find a greater authenticity of being, a sense of empathy, and an understanding that we are not quite so isolated after all. The paintings in this series paradoxically reveal our shared human experience as they describe private moments of distress.”
ALYSSA MONKS, “It’s All Under Control,” 2021, oil on linen, 62 x 90 inches
Since receiving her MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2001, Monks’ paintings have been the subject of numerous solo and group presentations including exhibitions at the Kunst Museum in Ahlen, Germany, The Bo Bartlett Center in Columbus, GA, and the National Academy Museum of Fine Arts, New York. Her work is represented in public and private collections, including the Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, The Center for Contemporary Art, and the collections of Howard Tullman, Danielle Steele and Eric Fischl. Monks has been awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant for Painting three times.
ALYSSA MONKS, “Dissociated,” 2021, oil on linen, 30 x 30 inches
“It’s All Under Control” is Alyssa Monks’ third one-person exhibition at Forum Gallery.
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