A preview of the July/August 2021 issue of Fine Art Connoisseur, including the Table of Contents and links to get your copy:
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Dripping in Rubies & Sapphires
By Tobi Clement
18 x 22 in.
Pastel on Anthracite PastelMat (framed & matted with AR glass)
$3,100
Available through Canyon Road Contemporary Art Gallery
Dripping in Rubies and Sapphires was painted from a recent plein air study painted at the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in Southern New Mexico. Tobi says, “the Bosque holds an intimate place in my heart; I am serenaded by the songs of the migratory snow geese and sandhill cranes, and the beauty of this refuge provides an endless source of inspiration for my work. This piece will be included in a group show, Expressions of Northern New Mexico, at Canyon Road Contemporary Art Gallery, July 17, 2021.”
Landscape artist Tobi Clement lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, surrounded by the expansive landscape and stunning skies of the Southwest. Tobi’s artwork stems from her desire to express the breathtaking beauty and ethereal quality of the light expressed in the sky. Tobi emphasizes there is a soul-grabbing intensity in the colors and an unexplainable mystery to the light and how it changes everything we see for just a short moment. It feels as if God has squeezed a tube of cadmium yellow over the earth in that moment, I feel as if I am wrapped in a divine embrace.”
For the Scottish, twilight, or as they say “twylicht” or half-light, is the in-between time when the light of day merges with the dark of night. Throughout history and across many cultures, myths declare this special time to be a brief but potent time for magic when one can cross the elusive border dividing the mundane world from supernatural realms. Tobi shared “one day the door cracked open into that otherworld for just for a moment, long enough for me to peek through, like a voyeur, into that mystical place where I captured a glimpse of a romantic exchange between the light of day and the dark of night. I was witness to their eternal love affair.”
Spellbound by this myth, Tobi strives to express in her work the mythical affair between two lovers, Light and Dark, whose brief passionate interlude evokes the breathtaking beauty witnessed in the sky during the ethereal time of twilight.
Gallery Representation: Canyon Road Contemporary Art Gallery
Upcoming Show: Canyon Road Contemporary Art Gallery
Group show: Expression of Northern NM.
Open House: July 17, 2021 10:00am-6:00pm
The Gallery hosts an all day “Open House” event with music and art demonstrations with a group of artists in the front garden. It is a festive event! Tobi will be there painting and hopes you’ll stop by for a visit.
Upcoming Workshops:
Building a Foundation: July 2 – August 1, 2021
three-day art retreat at the Benedictine Monastery, Pecos NM
Chasing the Light: September 15 – September 20, 2021
four-day art retreat at the Benedictine Monastery, Pecos NM
About:
Tobi Clement is an internationally recognized and professional award-winning pastel artist, known for her mythical skies. Tobi’s work was featured in the annual French publication, Pratiques De Arts #50 magazine, and she is invited as one of fourteen American artists to participate in a special all-woman Pastel Exhibition: Pastel du Mondeau au Feminin Spring, 2022 in Montluçon, France honoring American Women Pastellists in an exhibition in L’Orangerie du Chateau de la Louviere. Tobi was featured in the 2020 June/July & August/September Pastel Journal with a two-part educational editorial. PleinAir Magazine featured Tobi in an educational editorial in the 2020 November issue.
She is a signature member of Northwest Pastel Society (NPS), Pastel Society of New Mexico (PSNM), and Plein Air Painters of New Mexico (PAPNM).
To follow the romance of When Light meets Dark, sign up for her newsletter for events, workshops and posts her latest work.
Website: https://www.tobiclementartist.com
Email: [email protected]
Social media:
https://www.facebook.com/TobiClementPastelArtist
https://www.instagram.com/tobiclementartist
Puddles
Oil on birch panel
12 x 24 in.
Denise Antaya: “Puddles was inspired by a drive in the countryside looking for painting locations. It was a rainy day and quite gloomy. I snapped a quick photo and carried on. It was a horrible image on my phone, but it kept drawing me in. The puddles were reflecting the sky, and I had to paint it. It was evident that I would have to return and/or make a lot of the scene up. So began my interpretation based on a poor photo, a few visits back to the location, and my experience plein air painting.
“Puddles was awarded Honourable Mention in the 14th Annual ARC Salon Competition. It was also juried into the OPA 29th National Juried Exhibition where it sold. It was the painting that won me a spot on Landscape Artist of the Year Canada.”
Denise was born in Windsor, Ontario. She was always an artist from a young age. After a 31-year career in Advertising she decided to follow her passion for landscape painting, full time. With training at the Academy of Realist Art in Toronto and Plein Air Workshops with notable landscape painters under her belt, she began to follow her dream.
She primarily works in oils on wood or linen. The everyday themes in Antaya’s oil paintings combine her love of nature and her fascination with light and how it transforms an often-overlooked scene. Her subjects range from season to season, but almost always represent the natural environment untouched by man. She has the ability to capture a moment and even transport one back to a quieter, simpler time.
Denise was a finalist on Landscape Artist of the Year Canada in 2019. The television show aired on Makeful TV, CBC, Cottage Life TV and Sky Arts in the UK.
With 40 exhibitions across Canada and the United States, her paintings have earned a dozen awards.
Denise is a member of OPA, NOAPS and IGOR.
Denise is represented by Westland Gallery, Bridgeport Fine Art Gallery and Oxtongue Craft Cabin and Gallery.
Her website can be found at Denise Antaya Fine Art
Sign up for her e-newsletter at Denise Antaya Fine Art
Follow her on Instagram at Denise Antaya (@denise8096) • Instagram photos and videos
Also find her on Facebook at Denise Antaya – Home
Moire Looking Off
By William Rogers
Oil on canvas
24 x 18 in.
$2,400
Available through the OPA Salon Show at the Quinlan Art Center in Gainesville, GA
William Rogers AWS CSPWC TWSA is a watercolor and oil painter who loves to paint figures from life, such as the one in oil featured here. This particular model, Moire, has been the subject of a large number of paintings and is probably the artist’s muse at present. She takes wonderful poses and her personality comes through which, when captured, creates a superior work. Paintings of her have been recently shown in the Oil Painters of America (OPA) National Exhibition in 2020, the OPA Eastern Regional Exhibition in 2019 and 2020 where it was given an Award of Excellence, the 2021 OPA Salon Exhibition now on at the Quinlan Arts Center in Gainesville GA, and the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society Best of America 2020 Exhibition as well as the 2020 Fall Online Exhibition. A number of these works have also sold during the shows. His watercolor portraits of her have been featured in the Adirondacks Exhibition of American Watercolors, as well as the American Watercolor Society 2020 Exhibition at the Salmagundi Club in NYC. Other models have been featured in various International Exhibitions with a number of awards.
Another favorite subject of his has been horses, usually in working/activity/racing scenarios. Many of these works also feature the handlers and trainers, jockeys, and drivers as well. Bill has been working on a series of portraits of horsemen and women with whom he has a personal connection, and they have been very well received. This series will soon be featured in a travelling exhibition along with the racing and stable images with the horses. He did win a number of awards including Best Watercolor from Harness Tracks of America’s Art Exhibition between 2006 and 2008 after which the event was discontinued. A number of the works were acquired by the racetracks featured in the paintings.
His recent oil painting featured here titled “Moire Looking Off” is on display now at the OPA Salon Show at the Quinlan Art Center in Georgia. Bill’s work can be found on his website www.williamrogersart.com as well as in galleries listed there, many works still being available. He shows his work regularly on Facebook and Instagram and teaches courses in Figure and Landscape painting at www.chesapeakefineartstudio.com and www.artlabstudios.ca.
1917 Indian Motorcycle
By Emily Copeland
Charcoal on Stonehenge Paper
56 x 107 in. | 142.2 x 271.8 cm
Available through RJD Gallery Shades of Grey exhibition
Emily Copeland has the heart of an artist and the soul of an experienced antiquer. Her lifelong love of antiques has evolved from discovering timeless treasures in tucked away shops to rendering vintage objects with mind boggling precision on the easel. Emily creates realistic “portraits” of beloved objects from a bygone era — a vintage telephone, a football helmet or a well-worn and much-loved pair of cowboy boots — all rendered in black and white with her preferred medium of charcoal. She enjoys sharing her love of vintage pieces and seeks to evoke memories of favorite items that often date back to childhood.
Emily explores the details in vintage objects and makes them the focus of each work by creating works much larger than the objects themselves, making the viewer see what may have been missed by looking at the actual piece. A pair of boxing gloves comes to life with its worn leather, cracks and creases and a vintage Indian motorcycle roars into our consciousness with the power of the artist’s exquisite technique and incredible shadings. Each work is created in black and white but somehow seems to present itself in color and draws us into a backstory of our own making.
Her works have been exhibited internationally, including London, Singapore and New York. Her solo show, “Shades of Grey” has been met with an enthusiastic response and has been extended through July 31 at RJD Gallery. See “Shades of Grey” and enjoy a nostalgic look at everyday objects that hold a special place in our hearts.
The Pro and his Caddie
Oil
24 x 18 in.
$1,600
Available through the artist at www.aidabgarrity.com or [email protected]
Aida Garrity is inspired by life and beauty, capturing individual personalities, moods and emotions. In her paintings of golf-inspired landscapes and scenes from her previous residence in Dublin, Ohio, she undertakes the challenge of crafting a composition that evokes emotion and transmits a story to the viewer. Her sweeping wide-brush background strokes and subtle soft-brush details capture the beauty of the Dublin landscape — its intensely green grass, majestic trees and manicured golf courses.
Garrity discovered her passion for painting at age five through children’s art classes at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, Venezuela. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Metallurgical Engineering from the Imperial College, London, and worked for 30 years in the engineering field. She returned to her artwork with an MFA from San Francisco Academy of Art University in 2010 and exhibits her work in national and international exhibitions.
Aida paints in plein air monthly with other members of the “Peace River Painters Plein Air Group” in central Florida and in the Fall she joins her artist friends in the majestic area of Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine.
Most recently, she had a solo exhibit at the Dublin Arts Council titled “Aida Garrity: Dublin Goldscapes” and was also juried in the very prestigious Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Arts Club 124th Annual Open Exhibition at the Salmagundi Arts Club.
Aida is a member of these fine art organizations:
• Salmangundi Arts Club
• National Arts Club
• Portrait Society of America and the Cecilia Beaux Forum
• Oil Painters of America
• American Women Artists
• National Oil and Acrylics Painters Society
View more of Aida’s paintings at www.aidabgarrity.com
Time And Money
20 x 16 in.
Oil on panel
$3,200
Artwork currently available through the artist
Karen Budan: I am a contemporary still life painter who paints in a hyper-realistic style. My paintings are often mistaken for photographs. Painting still lifes allows me to create arrangements, adjust the lighting, and set the stage to transform everyday objects to extraordinary.
My inspiration for a painting often comes from unexpected places. This particular painting was a result of my wandering through my home looking for something that could become a major actor in my next painting. I am especially drawn to compositions that include translucency and reflections, so it is no surprise I found myself looking at this clock that has been sitting on my coffee table for years with new eyes. As I picked it up and headed for my studio, I found the phrase time and money running through my head and the idea of money scattered around the base of the clock came to life. “Time and Money” just won an Award of Merit in its first show, the 2021 National Oil and Acrylic Painter’s Society Best of America Small Paintings Show.
I am a Signature member of the Oil Painters of America, the National Oil and Acrylic Painter’s Society, a Distinguished Associate member of the American Women Artists, and a Juried member of the International Guild of Realism. I also serve on the Board of Directors of the National Oil and Acrylic Painter’s Society.
Current and upcoming shows include:
American Women Artists: 2021 Spring Online Show now through June 1st
National Oil and Acrylic Painter’s Society: 2021 Best of America Small Paintings Show now through June 4th
Oil Painters of America: 2021 Salon Show
International Guild of Realism: 2021 Salon Online Show now through May 20th
American Women Artists: Lifting the Sky, Elevating the Works of American Women Artists May 20th through August 21st
I am currently represented by two galleries:
Lovetts Gallery, Tulsa, OK
ArtQwest Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
Visit karenbudan.com for more of my work or sign up for my newsletter.
Instagram: www.instagram.com/kbudan/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kbudan/
Sycamore Tree
By Jim Hallenbeck
16 x 12 in.
Pastel on Paper Board
Price: $1,000
Available from jimhallenbeckfineart.com
Primarily an oil painter, Jim began using soft pastels in 2020 as the urging of his friend and mentor Albert Handell. One of Jim’s favorite subjects to paint are trees and he came across this large sycamore tree in North Carolina. Jim provides a unique perspective as he leads the viewer’s eye up the tree and toward the sky.
Sycamore Tree has been juried into 4 national exhibitions including Pastel Society of North Carolina Pure Color Online Juried International Exhibition (Sept 2020), Peninsula Art League (Gig Harbor, WA) Open Juried Show (Oct 2020), American Artists Professional League (AAPL) 92nd Grand National Exhibition Salmagundi Club NYC (Nov 2020), and the American Impressionist Society Associate Members Only Juried Exhibition (April 2021). The painting won the Claude Parsons Memorial Award at the AAPL Exhibition in the Pastels category.
Jim is a studio artist at Artspace in Raleigh, North Carolina, as well as an Associate Member of the Oil Painters of America, the American Impressionist Society, the Pastel Society of America, and an Elected Associate Member of the AAPL.
Jim is a retired IBM VP and has a B.S. in Art Education (FIU Miami, 1979). After a successful 35-year career, Jim has dedicated himself to being an artist — his dream and passion fulfilled. Jim’s reentry has included workshops with AIS signature and master artists such as Nicole Kennedy, Dan Beck, Dawn Whitelaw and 8 workshops with his friend and mentor AIS/OPA/PSA master Albert Handell.
Jim’s approach is to represent each subject in his unique colorful narrative. Jim hopes to trigger an emotion or spark a memory that resonates on a very personal level with the viewer.
Gallery Representation
Artspace, Raleigh, NC
Mattie King Davis Gallery, Beaufort, NC
Bel Air Art Center, Rocky Mount, NC
You can contact Jim via email at [email protected] or phone 919-917-3394
Website: www.jimhallenbeckfineart.com
Instagram: www.instragram.com/jimhallenbeckjr
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jimhallenbeckfineart
Still Floatin’
By Nancy Tankersley
20 x 20 in.
Oil on canvas
$3900
Available through the artist
During her life as a painter, Nancy Tankersley has moved fluidly from portraiture to still life and figurative paintings and finally on to plein air landscapes. “I think it is important for contemporary artists to capture the land and the people as they are today. I do not try to romanticize or invent my subjects, but I do try to show the beauty of the ordinary. People engaged in their occupations, enjoying their leisure time by eating, shopping or just strolling down a street, as well as abandoned and often overlooked landscapes … all of these are ordinary subjects, which can make extraordinary paintings. I try to paint from life as much as possible so that my work has the authenticity that comes from capturing a moment in time.”
The breath of her themes has enabled her to draw what she has learned from each and apply that knowledge with conviction in each painting. In Still Floatin’, Tankersley draws upon her skill with the figure in capturing the gesture of the lone waterman oaring his way to his old, moored workboat, checking its hull and lines and making sure she is still afloat. “As one can see by the numerous boats that have met a watery end, this is a task that a good waterman must attend to frequently. I started this painting as a plein air painting, drawn by the light, but ended up adding the figure and placing the half-submerged hulls as design elements to encase the lone figure. I’ve always enjoyed capturing the gesture of the figure and especially that of figures at work.” In the past two decades she has explored workers of the restaurant industry, first responders, landscapers, airport workers, dancers and even cowboys!
In 2019 Tankersley was the featured artist at the 49th annual Waterfowl Festival in Easton, Maryland, and in July she will debut a new body of work featuring the agricultural workers of the Eastern Shore at a special exhibit at the Academy Art Museum. In 2021 she will participate in Plein Air Easton in July and En Plein Air Texas in October. Her work was recently accepted into the first online International Exhibition of Marine Art. which includes the work of artists from US, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Australia.
The artist is represented by the Trippe Gallery in Easton, Maryland; Anderson Gallery in St. Simons, Georgia; and Gallery 330 in Fredericksburg, Texas.
Tankersley enjoys teaching and mentoring other artists and in 2021–22 will continue teaching virtually as well as in Portugal, Georgia and Italy.
Her instructional DVDs, Painting Figures from Photographs and Essential Principles of Painting, is available through Liliedahl Art Instruction Videos.
Enfilade Light with Floral Arrangement
By Brian Keeler
26 x 30 in.
Oil on panel
Available through North Star Art Gallery, Ithaca, NY
About the Painting
This painting is at once a figure painting, genre scene, still life and interior composition but it is also a study of an enfilade. An enfilade is a succession of rooms, and a conceptual device used in many of those paintings by the genre painters of Holland in the 17th century. Included in those compositions were doorways that portrayed views leading from quiet interiors of everyday domestic activities; sewing, reading letters, playing music, drinking wine, and even the occasional de-liceing or de-fleaing. In other words, the less-than-elevating themes regarded as being unworthy of our attention and indeed, not material for our artistic expressions. The light from exterior gardens or streets and canals is often filtering beautifully to infuse the scenes with a sublime delicacy and in effect making a new appreciation, if not making the quotidian into sacramental moments. The light, of course was articulated beautifully by these Dutch Masters, and the ones utilizing the enfilade device most effectively were De Hoogh and Vermeer with the former being the main exponent of this structured depiction of space.
I have been enthralled by this construction of space through enfilades and many other qualities of these Dutch paintings since my early days in art school. Millions of others too have found sustenance, emotional healing, solace, inspiration and so much more from viewing these works. One of the examples of the healing or salubrious effects of these works was evident in the practice of one of the judges in the Nuremburg trials of Nazi war criminals. After listening to accounts of grueling cruelty of atrocities he would take his lunch at the nearby Delft Museum, the Mauritshuis, and sit in front of Vermeer paintings to restore his spirit.
In my most recent painting (shown here), I have taken this concept of enfilade along with the domestic portrayals of De Hoogh and used it for this painting of the interior of our house. This painting began primarily as an exploration of still life. It expanded into a study of light and of the interior of this 1865 Victorian with a portrayal of my partner, Linda involved with arranging flowers in the distant room — the kitchen. So the floral theme is repeated, with the main actor being the amaryllis in front room and then echoed with tulips being placed in a vase in the distance. The Dutch aspect could be said to be referenced and underscored here with tulips, as that was an essential part of the Dutch economy in the 17th century. There was the disastrous financial debacle of tulip futures running amok during that era — and wonderfully portrayed in the recent movie “Tulip Fever.” That movie interweaves the financial maelstrom along with a portraitist’s life in a fascinating plot with lots of tension and intrigue. I consider the light in this painting to be an actor or agent of change and impermanence that is entering this work. The vase half illuminated and the streaks of afternoon light coming from behind flow into this enfilade to play across the floor, and the white linen cloth and to describe the room’s topography.
Brian Keeler – Biography
Expressing and describing the beauty of light has been the focus of Brian Keeler’s career in painting, which includes landscape, the figure, portraits, still life and allegorical work. Depicting the “topography of light” is the way he likes to describe this process, as this phrase communicates the way light plays across forms in the multifaceted expressions of both the light and the subjects. In a certain sense however, the light actually becomes the subject for Keeler and the scene or depiction takes on a secondary or supporting roll. He often chooses the “Golden Hour” as the time for portraying the motifs he selects, as this late afternoon or early morning light accentuates the drama of any given scene. His figurative painting and other genres also incorporate a marvelous appreciation for the way light can reveal the world to us.
Among other artists, patrons and the general public, he is known as a colorist, which is to say, it is the quality of his color that is one of the memorable aspects of his well-crafted work. His art also combines a unique sense of composition, proportional harmonies and draftsmanship, as these paintings, pastels and watercolors show an orchestration of the overall relationships.
Keeler combines these aesthetics of light and structural compositional dynamics in his work and in his teaching and writing as he shares his love for painting in workshops in the US and abroad, most notably in figure and plein air courses taught in Italy. He has become a passionate student of the Italian Renaissance over his more than 20 years of teaching and traveling in Italy, and he shares these art history insights in slide lectures as well as incorporating some aspects of the classics in his own allegorical works.
* Galleries
Brian Keeler’s work is represented at the North Star Art Gallery in Ithaca, NY, The West End Gallery in Corning, NY, The Argosy Gallery in Bar Harbor, Maine and at his hometown studio-gallery, The Brian Keeler Studio in Wyalusing, PA.
Instructional resources for artists and collectors
Brian Keeler’s work was published in a wonderful hardcover by North Light Books several years ago. This book, “Dramatic Color in the Landscape” is a compendium of his teaching and approach to painting. He has also produced a series of videos on plein air and studio painting. These are available as DVDs and now several are also available as instant downloads. Visit his website to order or the North Star Art Gallery website. He is currently working on a new book, a retrospective of his figurative work with instructional material.
*Upcoming Shows
Brian Keeler’s work is given a new thematic exhibit about every two months at the North Star Art Gallery. The current show is centered on Bridges and Boats of Italy and America. In November 2021 through January, an exhibit of new work will featured at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY.
* Visit his work at the following websites:
http://www.northstarartgallery.com
http://www.westendgallery.net
http://www.briankeeler.com
