The American Impressionist Society (AIS) will soon open its 26th Annual National Juried Exhibition at Cassens Fine Art in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana. On view will be 166 paintings, as well as 15 more created by AIS “Masters,” board members, and officers. Most have been executed in oil, casein, pastel, oil stick, watercolor, acrylic, or gouache. A five-member jury reviewed 1,750 entries, and a printed catalogue illustrating all of the works they selected will be available for purchase, as will the artworks themselves.
AIS Master Ned Mueller will serve as awards judge, and on July 31 he will distribute more than $100,000 in cash and merchandise, including $12,000 for Best of Show. Among the other opening-week activities (July 29–August 2) will be a Wet Wall exhibition, opportunities to paint outdoors (including on a 10,000-acre ranch), demos, critiques, a workshop, and a panel discussion.
Serving artists since 1998, AIS was founded to promote the appreciation of Impressionism through exhibitions, workshops and events. AIS offers our members engaging opportunities to enrich their fine art practice.
Jeff Yeomans (b. 1954), "Warm Reflections," 2010, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in., collection of Paula Holtzclaw
A Spotlight on the Fine Art Collections of Contemporary Artists
By Rose Fredrick
Wondering what to collect next? Here’s a tip: ask an artist.
This does sound counterintuitive — “Don’t artists make enough work to fill their own homes?” — but artists are, in fact, some of the most knowledgeable, insightful, and avid (bordering on obsessive) collectors you’ll ever meet.
“As artists, we already love and appreciate art, and we are most likely surrounded by it in our daily lives,” oil painter Paula Holtzclaw replies when asked about her decades-long collecting journey. Sculptor Kevin Box explains it this way: “I look at my own artwork for eight to 10 hours a day at the studio. I don’t want to go home and look at my work.” The painter of surreal figures Steven DaLuz adds, “Artists like to surround themselves with beauty, mystery, and humankind’s interpretation of our fleeting existence.”
See what I mean? Artists know artists and what drives them, and they understand that there’s something more powerful going on beneath the surface of great works. When you factor in the nonconformist attitude artists tend to embrace, suddenly the “why” of someone buying art moves into a deeper realm. For example, artists often acquire work that pushes them to keep striving for something more in their own work, something more profound within themselves.
I decided to approach eight talented artists to learn about, and from, their collecting habits, which rival those of many connoisseurs with far greater means.
Marco Tidu (b. 1964), “Vanitas: Allegoria dell’effimero,” charcoal and pencil on paper, 28 x 28 in., collection of Kevin Box. Note Box’s own sculpture at bottom right, which coincidentally resembles one the model is holding in Tidu’s drawing.
Nature Vs. Nurture
If it’s true that collectors possess some special DNA passed down from their hunter-gatherer ancestors, this might explain why many artists heed the desire to acquire more objects than their spaces can accommodate. For them, collecting may well be a modern-day hunt that satisfies like no other.
“My grandfather was an avid collector; he frequented auctions and yard sales looking for antiques and paintings,” recalls landscape painter and art dealer Todd Montanaro. To this day he thinks about a painting he saw as a child, a Parisian scene his grandfather had purchased. “I inherited the collecting gene from him,” Montanaro says with a laugh, “but not the painting!”
Christopher Blossom (b. 1956), “Gloucester Fishing Sloop Approaching Home,” oil on linen, 10 x 12 in., collection of Todd Montanaro
“My collection is built on the rare compulsion that comes over me when I see a piece that I must own,” says landscapist Stephanie Marzella, who buys when she absolutely connects with another artist’s personal expression.
According to colorist painter Manon Sander, being introduced to art at an early age probably has something to do with it. “When I was a child, I would catch my dad standing in front of the paintings in our home, studying them for a long time. Back then I thought it looked boring, just to stand and stare. Funny, now I do the same thing. My dad had so much appreciation for art; I guess I inherited that from him.”
Attention Art Collectors! May 20-22, 2025: Visit the Plein Air Convention & Expo’s robust pop-up art gallery at the Nugget Casino Resort in Reno, Nevada, where hundreds of artists, including our master faculty, will have studio and plein air works on display and ready to purchase. Register for the full event at PleinAirConvention.com now.
Elena Burykina (b. 1977), "Portrait of Jake," 2021, oil on panel, 12 x 12 in.
The Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art (WMOCA) is set to host another edition of its widely admired International Biennial Portrait Competition. Juried in by the institution’s executive director, David A. Hummer, the works on view reflect the unique relationships between artists and sitters, and have been created in a wide variety of media.
JuliAnne Jonker, “Goldie”
Launched in 2017 at the historic Wausau Club (built 1901), WMOCA is a venue where residents of north central Wisconsin experience recent works created by internationally important artists, both living and deceased. It presents exhibitions, performances, and educational programs and regularly displays highlights from its growing permanent collection.
Judy Takas, “(Trans)cendental (Trans)mutation: Portrait of the Poet”
At a Glance:
INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL PORTRAIT COMPETITION
Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art
Wausau, Wisconsin wmoca.org
Through September 27, 2025
Rosetta (b. 1945), "Lynx" (artist’s proof), 1993, bronze (edition of 18), 16 x 21 x 15 in.
EXHIBITION: “Rosetta: Animal Artistry”
Loveland Museum
Loveland, Colorado thelovelandmuseum.org
through September 20, 2025
The Loveland Museum has organized “Rosetta: Animal Artistry, A 40-Year Journey,” a retrospective devoted to a leading sculptor who deftly captures the grace, power, and spirit of wildlife.
This venue is especially appropriate because the artist and her photographer husband, Mel Schockner, moved to Loveland in the 1990s, drawn by its renowned bronze foundries and skilled artisans.
Inspired by her lifelong love of animals, Rosetta blends hard edges with fluidity, melding abstraction with representation in order to convey her deep respect for the animals she portrays. The artist herself will lead tours of the exhibition on August 30.
Image credit: Loveland Museum
About the Museum: Author, collector, curator, and mountain guide, Harold Dunning, founded the Museum in 1937. The City of Loveland took over operations of Dunning’s pioneer museum in 1945. Renovations and expansions throughout the years have yielded an art and history museum that presents rotating and permanent art and history exhibits, family events, adult and youth classes, lectures, poetry readings, and other programming opportunities. The Museum has a 37,000-object history collection, provides educational spaces and community gathering spaces in both the main Museum building and the newly acquired Beet Education Center located adjacent to the Museum, and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
Loveland Museum is an integral part of the cultural landscape in Northern Colorado. The Museum feels a strong responsibility to its regular patrons and our collaborative partners to move forward with accessible programs that contribute to the high quality of life residents have come to expect in the city.
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.
Sheepish, Lori Putnam, oil, 16 x 20 in; Putnam Fine Art Studio; Master Signature Member Bronze Medal, Oil Painters of America National Exhibition 2025
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.
David Sokosh (b. 1963), "Bottle Display," 2023, cyanotype image (19 x 15 in.) on a sheet of Hahnemuhle Sumi-e paper (23 x 18 in.), no. 1 of 5, Shelburne Museum. All works are available for purchase through the artist.
BLUEPRINT OF A COLLECTION: CYANOTYPE PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID SOKOSH
Shelburne Museum
Shelburne, Vermont shelburnemuseum.org
through October 26, 2025
There’s something different on view this year at Vermont’s Shelburne Museum, renowned for its superb holdings of American material culture, especially works by folk and self-taught artists. The exhibition “Blueprint of a Collection: Cyanotype Photography by David Sokosh” highlights images of old works newly created by a photographer and filmmaker based in New York’s Hudson Valley.
For the last two years, Sokosh has carefully explored the museum’s collection, photographing specific artifacts using his large-for-mat camera and the 19th-century cyanotype process, which is best known for its deep blue tones. The artist has selected a diverse array of objects ranging from weathervanes and glass goblets to quilts and architectural details. In his photographs, a lighthouse lens is removed from its original context to become a striking study in form, or the details adorning a mammoth jug evolve into rhythmic, abstract patterns. Sokosh has created 25 different photographs in two sizes: 20 x 24 and 32 x 40 in.
In addition, Sokosh has made a group of experimental photographic objects — cyanotypes applied to four new hat boxes and one new quilt. Also on view is his groundbreaking video presentation, composed of more than 6,000 individual cyanotype prints that have been scanned and sequenced to re-create motion in a process Sokosh calls a Cyanimation Moving Picture.
All of these pieces take their cue from the passionate collecting of Shelburne Museum founder Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888–1960), who rightly foresaw that “simple” examples of Americana were at risk of being destroyed or neglected. In various ways, Sokosh’s show bridges past and present, allowing familiar icons to take on new meanings and appearances.
Maynard Dixon (1875–1946), "Open Range," 1942, oil on canvas mounted on board, 36 x 40 in., estimate: $800,000–$1,200,000
The 40th annual Coeur d’Alene Art Auction is set to occur at Reno’s Grand Sierra Resort. Over the years, this event has generated more than $400 million in sales of top-quality paintings and sculpture reflecting the American West, both historical and contemporary.
Auction partner Mike Overby stresses the significance of “Open Range,” the major work illustrated above, which was painted by Maynard Dixon in 1942. Formerly in a museum collection and featured on the cover of The Oxford History of the American West (1996), this painting has not been on the market in more than 40 years.
Montana native son Charles M. Russell is well represented in this sale by paintings and sculptures, including the watercolor “Roping a Wolf “(1918), estimated at $ 500,000 – $750,000. Another highlight is the Reynolds Collection of important paintings by Oscar Howe (1915–1982), the South Dakota talent who brought Native American art into the modern era. These four works have also been off the market for over 40 years.
The historical painters in this year’s auction include Oscar Berninghaus, Earl Biss, Nicolai Fechin, E. Martin Hennings, Bert Geer Phillips, Birger Sandzén, Joseph Henry Sharp, Walter Ufer, and N.C. Wyeth. They are complemented by historical bronzes from Solon Borglum and Rembrandt Bugatti. Collectors of sporting art will appreciate superb examples by Bob Kuhn and Philip R. Goodwin, and those who follow California art will like the pieces by Thomas Hill, Thomas Moran, and Edgar Payne.
Among the living artists represented are Tony Abeyta, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Mark Maggiori, Don Oelze, Billy Schenck, Howard Terpning, and Jamie Wyeth.
At a Glance:
Coeur d’Alene Art Auction
Grand Sierra Resort
Reno, Nevada cdaartauction.com
July 26, 2025
Kerry Simmons, “All in Clover,” oil on canvas, 22” x 28”
This August, RLS Gallery (Charleston, South Carolina) invites art lovers to step into a garden unlike any they’ve seen before. “From the Garden,” a new group exhibition, features a vibrant and thought-provoking collection of works that explore the natural world through a lens of imagination, metaphor, and emotion.
More from the gallery:
Curated with an eye for both beauty and surprise, “From the Garden” brings together a diverse roster of painters—traditionalists and experimenters alike—who were each tasked with creating garden-themed work. The result is an evocative mix of styles, from classical still lifes to narrative figurative pieces and surreal interpretations that push the boundaries of what “garden art” can mean.
Larisa Brechun, “Eve’s Garden,” oil on panel, 10” x 10”
The exhibition explores not only the visual richness of gardens but their deeper symbolic potential. Twisting vines, sun-dappled orchards, and tangled beds become backdrops for stories of growth, secrecy, solitude, and transformation.
Katie Koenig, “The Nature of Delicate Loss,” acrylic on linen, 36” x 60”
“I love how gardens carry this duality—they’re controlled yet wild, serene yet teeming with life,” says Katie Koenig, whose work in the show merges storytelling with natural symbolism. A lone deer fades into petals as it emerges from the darkness. “In my piece, the garden becomes a place of memory and metamorphosis.”
Claudia Tullos-Leonard, “Chasing the Light,” oil on panel, 30” x 40”
Participating artists include Andrew Sjodin, Harriet White, Narelle Zeller, Larisa Brechun, Brett Scheifflee, Dakota Pitts, Anna Rose Bain, Kerry Simmons, Reynier Llanes, Denise Stewart Sanabria, Nathan Durfee, Robert Lange, Mia Bergeron, Timur Akhriev, Joshua Flint, and many more.
Karen Ann Paavola, “Succulent Garden II,” oil on panel, 24” round
This mix of classic and unconventional interpretations makes “From the Garden” a refreshing take on a well-loved subject. Artist Karen Ann Paavola, who painted a 24” round arial view of a succulent garden in mid arrangement said, “It’s a reminder that gardens, like art, are spaces of both order and surprise—where beauty can be cultivated, but also where the unexpected can take root.”
Denise Stewart-Sanabria, “Birds in Red Velvet,” oil on linen, 40” x 30”
Curator and gallery owner Robert Lange said, “Curating group shows offers an opportunity to give artists something to think about and to push them to create work that may go beyond their usual practices. This particular theme gives enough room for all these many invited artists to ‘grow’ in new ways.”
Aron Belka, “Cone Forest,” oil on panel, 24” x 24”
“From the Garden” is on view August 1-22, 2025. For more details, please visit www.robertlangestudios.com.
Marilla Palmer, "Ecstasy of the Sun," 2025, watercolor, gold leaf, embroidery, millinery foliage, pressed flowers, Durabright prints on Arches paper, 29.5 x 41 in.
Kathryn Markel Fine Arts (NY, NY) is pleased to announce “Ecstatic Earth,” featuring new paintings by Marilla Palmer. This will be her sixth solo exhibition with the gallery.
Palmer’s mixed-media works immortalize the temporality of nature. In all her work, but particularly the newest works on panel, nature is exalted in shimmering details that shift with light and movement. This is the first exhibition of her botanical paintings on panel, and also the first to include an underwater scene.
Marilla Palmer, “Ecstatic Clematis,” 2025, pressed petals, Durabrite prints, sequins, 24K gold leaf, acrylic on Ampersand panel, 16 x 12 in.
Her deceptively serious still lifes become playful, fantastical tableaus upon closer inspection. Delicate watercolor brushstrokes are accompanied by plastic sequins, dried petals, sumptuous fabrics, gold leaf, and more. This juxtaposition is both humorous and lovely, theatrical and erudite. Palmer cultivates her own garden that she observes for both inspiration and material. She explains, “Working so directly with nature makes it feel like I’m collaborating, but with an unpredictable partner. Who knows what will appear in my studio garden? How will the petals change when pressed or if the wet watercolor, interference paint or sequins will capture the ecstasy of what I see?”
Marilla Palmer, “The Impermanence of Light,” 2025, Pressed foliage, Durabrite prints, 12K gold leaf, acrylic on Ampersand panel, 16 x 12 in.
Glittering collage elements and iridescent backgrounds add movement and lively energy to the static depictions and signify the growth and life associated with the imagery. In the work, insects, flowers, and leaves are frozen in time, their impending end suggested in the dried petals and leaves the artist incorporates. Tendrils stretch across the surface as if reaching for the sun. In her statement, when contemplating mother nature, the artist quotes Goethe, “We live in her midst and know her not. She is incessantly speaking to us, but betrays not her secret.” Palmer preserves the ephemeral and depicts exuberant abundance all at once.
Marilla Palmer, “Mellow Yellow,” 2025, watercolor, sequins, pressed petals, Durabrite prints, stitching on Arches cold press paper, 30 x 22 in.Marilla Palmer, “A Wild Bouquet,” 2025, watercolor, pressed petals, sequins, stitching, Durabrite prints on Arches cold press paper, 30 x 22 in.
Marilla Palmer lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Connecticut. Her work has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carlsbad Museum and Art Center, MoMA PS1, and extensively among other galleries and institutions throughout the United States.. She received her B.F.A from the Philadelphia College of Art.
Amy Werntz (b. 1979), "QE III," 2021, oil on panel, 24 x 18 in.
There’s more good news from Michigan’s Muskegon Museum of Art (MMA). As we reported this spring in Fine Art Connoisseur, the MMA has benefitted enormously from the vision of the San Antonio collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, who recently donated their collection of figurative realist art made by women, along with a new wing to house it. In 2016 they established The Bennett Prize, endowing a $3 million fund at the MMA to ensure it will be awarded every two years in perpetuity. This $50,000 honor offers the winner an opportunity to create new work for a solo exhibition that then travels the country.
This May, the Dallas-based artist Amy Werntz won the fourth Bennett Prize, selected from among 10 finalists by a jury that included Art Institute of Chicago curator Gloria Groom, artists Margaret Bowland and Angela Fraleigh, and Elaine Melotti Schmidt. Best known for images of elderly people, Werntz says she strives to highlight “ordinary moments in everyday life and to show the importance and value of this generation so often overlooked in our society by the lure of youth.”
Co-founder Steven Alan Bennett adds, “We continue to be delighted by the high quality of the finalists. We were especially impressed by the work of Amy Werntz. Her level of mastery is remarkable, and her pieces have a finished, jewel-like quality that is instantly attractive. Her understanding of figurative painting is palpable and her treatment of her subjects is both kind and subtle.”
Werntz’s honor was announced during the May opening celebration for the MMA exhibition “Rising Voices 4: The Bennett Prize,” which features 30 paintings created by the 10 finalists. Another finalist, Nicole M. Santiago of Williamsburg, Virginia, was presented with the Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt Prize of $10,000. The other eight finalists were Olivia Chigas, Nimah Gobir, Ambrin Ling, Jane Philips, Audrey Rodriguez, Abbey Rosko, Helena Wurzel, and Rei Xiao.
Also on view at the MMA this season is the solo exhibition of new works created by the 2023 Bennett Prize winner, Shiqing Deng of Brooklyn.
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