Bridgette Meinhold, “Among the Trees,” 38 x 60 in.
Continuing her investigation of the ethereal nature of the environment, Bridgette Meinhold’s new show “Among the Trees” at Gallery MAR (Park City, Utah) explores and celebrates the nature of forests and beauty of trees. Inspired by the Mary Oliver poem “When I Am Among The Trees,” Meinhold’s new work expresses her love for the natural world and how we can gain a better understanding of life through the wisdom of trees.
Bridgette Meinhold, “Goodness and Light,” 47 x 60 in.
More from the gallery:
By slowing down, with appreciation, and simplicity, we too can find our innate goodness within and share that with the world. These new encaustic paintings explore our relationship with the trees in our mountain landscapes. Nestled in an A-frame on Empire Mountain, Meinhold lives and works on her encaustic paintings amongst the trees. Beeswax and resin are the main components of her dreamy process to create stunning masterpieces. The whimsical mountain landscape comes to life in the form of a powder-base milk paint, tucked between layers of wax, encased and preserved forever, just like the perfect day on the mountain is etched in memory.
Bridgette Meinhold, “Stay Awhile,” 30 x 30 in.
Meinhold is an active proponent of open space preservation and protection of wild spaces as well as being an avid skier, mountain biker, climber, and hiker. Her time spent outdoors and her love of nature directly translate into her atmospheric landscape paintings.
Invoking “Think globally, act locally” and concerned with the ever increasing threats of climate change, Meinhold and Gallery MAR will be donating to a local tree-planting organization, TreeUtah, to sponsor the planting of new trees in the regions around Park City, Utah.
Grandiose
24 x 24 in.
Oil on Cradled panel
$2500
Available at Horizon Fine Art Gallery, 30 King St., Jackson Hole, WY 83001, 307.739.1540
Monique expresses “My contemporary landscape paintings are a fusion of experience, experiment and emotion. Instead of painting what I see with my eyes, I want to depict my own interpretation of a scene with my soul. I want to capture the mystery and the beauty of nature. Simultaneously, I’m thinking about composition, harmony, colors, movement, and texture. Atmospheric effects are another wonderful way to create a sense of drama with calm and mystery, which appeals to me.”
This above painting is a part of a series that you can view at Horizon Fine Art.
After growing up in Montreal, Canada and spending 10 years in the Cayman Islands, Monique and her husband made East Tennessee home in 1999. Monique worked as a graphic artist for over 20 years prior to becoming a full-time fine artist. Ever evaluating and evolving her style, Monique has continued throughout her professional career to study under many well-known artists, including Guido Frick, Kim English, Peggy Root, Kathy Odom, Aimone Art School. The style that emerges in Monique’s work is out of the ordinary. It bursts with energy with its vibrant colors, constant movement and intriguing texture. She likes to experiment, try different mediums and substrates, and embraces the new discoveries. Also, you will find that each of her paintings holds a small exclamation mark — it’s her trademark! The playfulness of finding this solitary mark invites audiences to slow down and re-enter that space as they have to find this well hidden exclamation mark (kind of finding Waldo!). Monique also teaches several workshops each year.
Wind Sail by Kadin Goldberg
45 x 48 in.
Oil on wood panel
In honor of the 100 year anniversary of Grand Canyon National Park, this year’s Grand Canyon Celebration of Art has recognized the achievements of 27 artists who have successfully interpreted the canyon, both in plein air and studio work.
During Plein Air at Grand Canyon from September 7th through September 14th, the artists painted along the north and south rims of Grand Canyon, where visitors could observe and interact with the artists. The work they created along with their studio work will be exhibited at Kolb Studio in Grand Canyon Village through January 20th, 2020.
Following in the footsteps of the many artists that have painted the Grand Canyon over the past 160 years, this year’s Celebration of Art artists faced
the challenges that capturing the Canyon on canvas presents. Its vastness, ever shifting light and shadows, and unique perspective of looking down has frustrated many an artist. Windy conditions this year added another dimension to those challenges.
Kadin Goldberg is a Montana artist who participated for the first time in this
year’s Celebration of Art. Goldberg has won numerous awards for his paintings, including including First Place in the 2018 Emerging Artist Category at Art Muse Contest Online, First Place (2017) and Second Place (2018) in the Rocky Mountain Juried Exhibition in Red Lodge, MT as well as Third Place in the Borrego Springs Plein Air Invitational. He travels the west in his vintage camper, attending plein air events and exploring the landscape. Of his studio painting
for this year’s CoA, “Wind Sail” Goldberg says:
“It is through the massive formations at the Grand Canyon that the vastness of a void can be fully realized. The space between formations has an overwhelming power to inspire. While this piece is a depiction of the canyon itself, it is also a painting of the air that the canyon encompasses. This feeling of space is reminds us of our place in the infinite universe.”
Her Hands
14 x 11 in.
acrylic on panel
Available thru Richland Fine Art, Nashville, Tennessee
615.292.2781
Chantel’s passion for art began flourishing at age 11 when she was mentored under local San Diego artists. She continued to study art, largely self-taught, while living in Newport, Rhode Island and Keflavik, Iceland and El Paso, Texas. While enrolled in a college art course, a fellow student introduced her to acrylic paints, and she soon fell in love with the medium but found it to be dominated by abstract art. Her first love was portraiture for which she found little advice. As she dreamed of perfecting her skills as an acrylic portrait artist, Chantel continued to learn from professional oil painters and translated their teachings into acrylic techniques.
In 2006, Chantel opened her own art business called Chantel’s Originals near Memphis Tennessee. She benefited from workshops and demonstrations with outstanding artists including Dawn Whitelaw, Rose Frantzen, and Marc Hanson. Chantel is a Signature Member of the International Society of Acrylic Painters (ISAP), and is also a member of the Portrait Society of America (PSoA), the National Oil & Acrylic Painters’ Society (NOAPS) and the Chestnut Group. She served as the National Coordinator of the State Ambassador program for the PSoA and past President of Artists’ Link in Memphis, Tennessee.
Chantel has been featured in solo art shows and juried exhibitions. Her award winning paintings are in private and public collections throughout the United States and overseas. Her work is published in Acrylic Artist magazine, American Art Collector, Southwest Art, The Artist’s Magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur, International Artist Magazine and several books.
Chantel resides in Bartlett, Tennessee where she creates and teaches private workshops in her studio. In addition, she teaches workshops throughout the United States and Canada.To see more of Chantel’s work, sign up for her newsletter at chantellynnbarber.com.
Robert Schefman, “The Birds are the Keepers of Our Secrets,” 2019, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in.
In his first solo exhibition with David Klein Gallery, Robert Schefman presents his recent series of paintings and drawings exploring the hidden world of secrets.
Robert Schefman: Secrets
Through December 21, 2019
David Klein Gallery (www.dkgallery.com)
Detroit, Michigan
Robert Schefman, “Secrets,” 2016, oil on canvas, 44 x 30 in.
More from the gallery:
Using social media as a device to reach a large audience, Schefman posted a request asking followers to send him one personal secret that he could use as a subject or an element in his paintings. The response was immediate and revealing. More than one hundred anonymous secrets were sent through the internet or by mail to the artist’s post office box.
Using the private information gathered from strangers’ letters as a point from which to investigate the conceptual nature of secrets, Schefman explored the specific responses and began to develop the ideas for this series over the course of several years. Many of the pieces in the “Secrets” exhibition refer directly to the actual secrets touchingly revealed in the anonymous letters or messages received by the artist. Additionally poignant were the descriptions of relief or catharsis brought on by confessing personal baggage, often for the first time.
Robert Schefman, “In Love with My Best Friend,” 2019, oil on canvas, 72 x 56 in.
“The secrets I collected were stories about the most private thoughts and experiences of people’s lives: love and relationships, addictions and compulsions, fears and shame. They wrote about events and decisions that brought on life’s emotional highlights and regrets. Some secrets were unique but most merged into groups that pointed to how much we all have in common. I think I expected the greatest number of secrets to be about hidden relationships and infidelities but was surprised to find that most of the secrets centered around depression.” — Robert Schefman, 2019
Schefman employs the practice of illusionist narrative paintings to define a corner of the world that seems visually familiar and yet no place the viewer has been before. It’s a place where the observer can read the elements for content and be drawn into the visual illusion of object, space, and form. Trained as a sculptor, his early career was focused on producing large-scale minimalist steel sculpture. Later on, seeking to build a narrative within his work, he turned to painting, both in watercolor and oil on canvas, developing the remarkable technique and the compelling content he is known for today.
Robert Schefman, “On the Edge of the Moon,” 2019, oil on canvas, 78 x 120 in.
Born and raised in Detroit, Robert Schefman earned a BFA in sculpture from Michigan State University and an MFA in sculpture from the University of Iowa. He lived and worked in New York City for fourteen years, returning to the Detroit area in 1990. His work has been included in exhibitions at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; The Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN; Oakland University Art Gallery, Rochester, MI; Midland Center for the Arts, Midland, MI; The Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, MI; Manifest Research Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; Foley Square/ Federal Plaza, New York City; the Brooklyn Army Terminal, New York City; Ward’s Island, New York City; and United Nations Plaza, New York City. Grants awarded include the Pollack-Krasner Foundation, the Bernard Maas Foundation, the Arts Foundation of Michigan, and the State of Michigan Creative Artist Grant.
Schefman’s drawings, paintings, and sculptures are in multiple private and public collections, including the Eli and Edythe Broad Museum of Art, East Lansing, MI; the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC; the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL; Wayne State University, Detroit, MI; Thomas M. Cooley Law School, Lansing, MI; and the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.
“Secrets, silent, stony sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants willing to be dethroned.” — James Joyce
Alan Feltus, “Near Distance,” 1992, oil on linen, 39 1/2 x 55 in.
“Alan Feltus: An Air of Stillness” is on view at Winfield Gallery (Carmel, California) through December 8, 2019.
From an Essay on Alan Feltus, by Helaine Glick:
A captivating air of stillness underlies all of Alan Feltus’s figurative tableaus. His self-possessed females and their male counterparts inhabit a private realm suspended in time and space, and nothing out of context interferes to break the spell. With his rich but unobtrusive brushstrokes, precise palette of tempered Mediterranean color, and uncannily perceptive eye, Feltus gives expression to rarified and faintly voyeuristic scenarios suffused with longing, expectation, boredom, anticipation, uncertainty, and regret. Both hypnotic and mysterious, his paintings pose many questions but reveal few answers.
Alan Feltus, “And Now What?” 2013, oil on linen, 47 1/4 x 39 1/4 in.
Feltus came of age in mid-twentieth century New York City. Raised by a beautiful but troubled bohemian mother, he was often left to his own devices. He attended alternative schools and spent one high school year in Rome with her, but it was his association with her artist friends—some of whom became mentors—that inspired him and helped him to thrive. He spent hours in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, where he developed a keen awareness of the scope of art, and of his own tastes and preferences. Henri Rousseau’s “The Sleeping Gypsy” was a favorite, as were the haunting paintings of French-Polish artist Balthus. By the early 1960s, Feltus landed in art school, eventually earning his master of fine arts degree in painting at Yale University. While teaching at the School of the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio, he was awarded the Rome Prize Fellowship (Prix de Rome), which meant a two-year stay at the American Academy in Rome.
Living again in Rome was extremely fruitful for Feltus. He had no constraints or requirements to fulfill, and was free to experiment in a beautiful studio and roam the city’s galleries and museums. During this period he discovered a work that would become central to his artistic life—the painting “Susanna,” by Italian artist Felice Casorati, installed at the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art. A casually intimate scene of a nude woman seated next to to a fully clothed man in a closely defined interior space, it struck him like a bolt of lightning. The painting seemed to him to have “everything I could want my own paintings to have.” He considered it the perfect composition: two figures, select pieces of furniture, and a few scattered papers. It had the “quiet, contemplative character” that he craved. This work solidified Feltus’s commitment to narrative figure painting, and endorsed the kind of work his nature directed him towards.
Returning to the United States, Feltus took up a full-time teaching position at the American University in Washington, DC, and began to regularly exhibit his work at the Forum Gallery in New York City. He married artist Lani Irwin, and settled on a farm in Maryland, to teach and paint. But the pull of his Italian experiences and a life dedicated solely to art led him to conclude his teaching career of twelve years, and with his family, relocate to the historic town of Assisi in Italy.
Alan Feltus, “The Red Ribbon,” 2013, oil on linen, 47 1/4 x 39 1/4 in.
Arthur Haywood, “Egyptian Mathematics,” 18 x 25 in.
Based on the theme “Pure Truth, Pure Kindness, and Pure Beauty,” New Tang Dynasty Television has organized the NTD International Figure Painting Competition since 2008 to revive the traditional art of realistic oil painting.
This fifth competition entered more than 400 figure paintings by 258 artists from 46 countries, of which 104 were selected.
Apelles Zhou, “Watch the Emptiness,” 24 x 35 1/2 in.Manu Saluja, “The Dhol Player,” 30 x 38 in.
2019 NTD International Figure Painting Competition, November 24 – November 30, 2019
Location: Salmagundi Club, New York City
The auction will be on November 30, 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
On November 29, 2019, there will be a demo and live figure painting on site.
Peter Wenzel (1745–1829), “Wild Turkey,” c. 1800, oil on canvas, 38 1/2 x 28 1/2 in., Bagshawe Fine Art
London Art Week (londonartweek.co.uk) sees galleries throughout the neighborhoods of Mayfair and St. James’s open their doors for special exhibitions. On view will be artworks dating from antiquity to the present day. On December 2, a symposium will offer participants a new platform for debate on ethical issues facing the art world. The week coincides with the Old Master sales conducted by London’s major auction houses.
London Art Week takes place December 1–6, 2019.
Eduard Fechner, “The Head of a Young Boy Wearing a Fur Hat,” pencil, Stephen Ongpin Fine ArtGallery Interior, the Weiss Gallery (copyright Marcus Peel)
Daniel Maidman, "Saint Rebecca," (2018), 18” x 24”, Oil on canvas
Equity Gallery (NYC) recently announced “It Could Be You: Portraiture in a Constructed World,” a comprehensive group exhibition of contemporary portraiture juried by Hyeseung Marriage-Song, Beverly McNeil, and Patricia Watwood. The show features more than 30 international multidisciplinary artists whose artwork explores both the purpose and limits of portraiture, identity, and the self in the modern digital age.
Hyeseung Marriage-Song, “Selfie,” (2017), 20” x 36”, oil on linenAndrew Cornell Robinson, “Lodrys,” (2019), Graphite on cotton rag paper, 27 ⅝” x 21 7/16”, 70 x 55 centimeters, (frame 28 11/16” x 22 11/16”, 73 x 63 centimeters)Trudy Borenstein-Sugiura, “Rising Son,” (2018), 14” x 17”, Found Personal Papers and Documents
More from the gallery:
Somewhere between the introduction of cheap camcorders and the proliferation of smart phones we became distrustful of our body’s ability to mediate directly with the physical world. To a large extent we have exchanged the sensual perceptions emanating from our surroundings for simulated experiences that mitigate reality through camera lenses and digitalized imagery. Once understood to be aide-mémoirs of life’s lived experiences, the media is reality—a reality comprising instantly shareable content validated or refuted by social media emojis.
That’s a risky way to construct one’s universe. How can we hope to fix an identity, let alone one informed by ethical principles, on a mutating digital stage that is subject to the whims of marketing algorithms and bots on a mission? Given present conditions, it’s no wonder that our instinct to ascertain “what’s real” has devolved into an addicting stalk for pleasure hits that never quite satiate an appetite weaned on spectacle.
Natalie Italiano, “Remembrance,” (2017), 30” x 22”, Oil on canvas
That said, can we stake out what is abiding, true, and stable about us and our fellows? In an increasingly alarming and chaotic era, art that depicts what is actually there and recognizable is defiant — and nothing could be more necessary and reassuring at the moment than simply showing what we actually look like (and mean) to each other.
Linnea Paskow, “Portrait of C,” (2019), 30” x 22”, collage of magazine and paint fragments
In “Corpo a Corpo,” 35 contemporary figurative artists from 12 countries present their works inspired by the classical tradition of the Great Masters of the past. This initiative, promoted by the Fondazione CR Firenze and the Fondazione Parchi Monumentali Bardini e Peyron, will be on view at Villa Bardini through January 12, 2020, in Florence, Italy.
More from the organizers:
The exhibition is curated by Daniela Astone and Gaia Grazioli and coordinated by professor Carlo Sisi, chairman of the Accademia delle Belle Arti of Florence and is accompanied by a catalog (Polistampa, 106 pages), which makes use of the scientific contribution of professor Giovanna Uzzani.
The expression “corpo a corpo” indicates a close-range hand-to-hand combat. Metaphorically speaking, it is an action that synthesizes man’s daily struggle with himself in confronting life in all its complexity, and in this sense it appears both violent and poetic.
“Corpo a corpo” also represents the felicitous union between a technical gesture and the representation of a form that urges the artist to embark on an endless journey of personal exploration, always aimed at achieving excellence.
By Teresa Oaxaca
The 35 protagonists of this exhibition are no exception and tell us through their drawings, paintings, and sculptures their “body to body.” They draw inspiration from the great masters of the past, dedicated to an uncompromising practice, at the service of each one’s own reflection and creative autonomy.
This anthology of personality communicates with each other and with the public through a common language that has no boundaries or barriers, being the universal one of figuration. Some of the artists present in the exhibition are self-taught, and many have attended private academies or ateliers.
By Kate Leman
Today there are several academies located all over the world entirely devoted to the practice and study from life: from the United States to Russia, from China to old Europe, all the threads seem to intertwine in Florence. For almost 30 years, Florence has been recognized as a center of excellence for figurative arts training. Indeed, the city is home to countless academies, schools, and ateliers frequented by artists from all over the globe who come to develop classical painting and sculpture technical skills.
By Ben Fenske
The 35 works on view include drawings, paintings, and sculptures by artists hailing from 12 countries: Australia, China, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
By Eudald de Juana
Thus, “Corpo a Corpo” promises to present visitors with a selection of high-quality works that represent the figurative arts field, a prime example of which is Italy’s acclaimed artist Pietro Annigoni, whose permanent museum can be also found within Villa Bardini’s halls.
Luigi Salvadori, president of the Fondazione CR Firenze stated, “We are thrilled to host the upcoming exhibition ‘Corpo a Corpo,’ which offers us the opportunity to spotlight Florence’s international side.” He added, “The exhibition represents the city’s openness to the world, a value that Fondazione CR Firenze believes is important to communicate.”
Jacopo Speranza, president of the Fondazione Parchi Monumentali Bardini e Peyron added, “Villa Bardini welcomes the upcoming exhibition with great satisfaction. It is only natural that the home of the Annigoni Museum pay homage to classical arts through ‘Corpo a Corpo.’ We are proud of this new initiative, which affirms Villa Bardini’s commitment to offering visitors internationally relevant experiences.”
The works in this exhibition are intended to emphasize that figuration coexists with the contemporary, that the styles and techniques of tradition relived with the experimental sensibility of our time are able to describe unconventional feelings and imaginations but share in the certainties and worries of the world in the making. On the occasion of the exhibition there will be a series of events with free admission, by reservation (tel 055 20066233 – [email protected]), organized by Daniela Astone, whose aim is to introduce the various methods of dealing with drawing and painting from life.
Please visit www.villabardini.it for more information.
Fill your mind with useful art stories, the latest trends, upcoming art shows, top artists, and more. Subscribe to Fine Art Today, from the publishers of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine.
“Secrets, silent, stony sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants willing to be dethroned.” — James Joyce
