Kathleen Giles with her painting “Vanity” at the NWS International Open Exhibition
The National Watercolor Society (NWS) is holding its 99th annual International Open Exhibition now through November 17, 2019. The globally recognized art event features nearly 100 unique watermedia paintings from around the world.
Juror of awards Brian Rutenberg and NWS president Robbie Laird greet guests at the opening of the International Exhibition.
More from the organizers:
“The exceptional quality of the 2019 International Open Exhibition must first be attributed to the artists’ dedication to their creative expression, and to the expertise and considerate decision making by the three internationally acclaimed artist jurors, Jean Grastorf, Elaine Daily-Birnbaum, and Frank Eber,” said judge of awards, New York–based artist Brian Rutenberg. “We are delighted to celebrate this amazing group of artists and their paintings.”
Caption: Xi Guo, “Tangled No. 13,” watercolor on paper, 20 x 30 in.
The jurors selected only about 12 percent of the exceptional paintings entered for the exhibition. They also reviewed three additional paintings submitted by the artists who, after receiving notice of their painting being selected, were invited to apply for Signature Membership. New Signature Memberships were awarded to 14 artists. The juried show includes both cash and merchandise awards with a value of more than $40,000.
William Hook, “Demolition 1,” watercolor on paper, 20 x 14 in.
The NWS 99th International Open Exhibition strives to show the best in all new watermedia painting. The exhibit takes place at the NWS Gallery, 915 South Pacific Avenue, San Pedro, CA, during regular gallery hours or by appointment. All work is for sale. For gallery hours, visit the website or call 310-831-1099.
Additional works:
Nicolas Lopez, “Illuminating Your Shadows Through the Window of Light,” watercolor on paper, 20 x 20 in.Dean Mitchell, “Shanghai Alley,” watercolor on paper, 15 x 10 in.
Diarmuid Kelley (b.1972), “Conference Pears Against a Pink Napkin,” 2018, oil on canvas, 9 7/8 x 14 inches (25 x 35.5 cm)
Offer Waterman Gallery (London) recently announced the debut New York exhibition of paintings by Diarmuid Kelley, November 7–30, 2019. The exhibition, “Recent Paintings,” will feature more than 20 of the artists’ signature large-scale portraits and still lifes, taking over Stellan Holm at 1018 Madison Avenue. “Recent Paintings” marks the first solo exhibition by the acclaimed British artist outside of London and the gallery’s first independent presentation in New York.
“I’m thrilled to present Kelley’s work to New York,” states gallerist Offer Waterman. “There is a strong market for figurative painting, and Kelley’s recent paintings have resonated with collectors. This will be a prime opportunity for his New York audience to discover the works in person for the first time.”
Diarmuid Kelley, “Garden Rose,” 2019, oil on linen, 14 x 12 1/8 in. (35.5 x 30.5 cm)
“In my recent works, I’ve been experimenting with different color combinations, which I’m excited to debut in New York,” states Diarmuid Kelley. “Central to my work is that I make images that are incomplete – fragments of an interior, ones that may include a sitter, or a figure, but only as part of an overall scheme; a collage of different patterns, textures, and colors.”
Celebrated for an innovative studio practice and figurative painting that references Renaissance masters, contemporary photography, and cinematic mise-en-scene, Kelley is a master of painting and capturing the expression of light. The more than 20 works in “Recent Paintings” showcase Kelley’s singular process and prowess for figurative painting and traditional disciplines, which made him a standout in his generation of British artists.
Working from his rooftop London studio, Kelley uses a custom-built box with a window to frame his sitters and heighten the play of darkness and light. Kelley begins his painting process by creating a carefully orchestrated “stage” for his subjects to inhabit. With utmost attention to detail, including color, texture, and pattern, a mise-en-scene is carefully crafted to become a third character in his work. In Kelley’s hands, humble and ephemeral objects, from fruit to autumn leaves, inhabit a silent but eloquent space in time and are portrayed with a rigorous observation of color and form.
Diarmuid Kelley, “Edith Piaf (said it better than me),” 2019, oil on linen, 52 x 59 7/8 in. (132 x 152 cm)
His subjects range from public figures, including an official portrait commission of HRH the Duchess of Cornwall and Sir Richard Thompson for the Royal College of Physicians, to the personal, with many of his friends sitting for the larger works that can take many months to complete.
Kelley came to prominence at the age of 23, as the youngest-ever recipient of Britain’s prestigious NatWest Art Prize in 1995. Coming of age in the YBA generation, Kelley was distinguished for his rigorously traditional practice working from live models and his dedication to figurative painting. Offer Waterman has represented Kelley since 1998, and this will be his ninth solo exhibition with the gallery.
“Recent Paintings” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring an interview with professor of fine art Liz Rideal of the University College, London’s Slade School of Fine Art. The exhibition will be on view at Stellan Holm, 1018 Madison Avenue, November 7–30, 2019, Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m. – 6.p.m.
The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) is currently hosting the first solo museum exhibition of the visual art of Scott Avett, founding member of the Grammy-nominated Avett Brothers band. “Scott Avett: I N V I S I B L E” includes large-scale portraits, prints, and paintings and is on view through February 2, 2020.
Scott Avett, photo by Crackerfarm
From the organizers:
Until now Avett’s work with The Avett Brothers has taken center stage. The NCMA exhibition shines a light on his art making, thereby demonstrating the richness and diversity of his practice.
“I’m not anything first—not painter, musician, writer, printmaker, performer—before I am an artist,” said Avett, who holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from East Carolina University and lives in Concord, N.C. “I’m always thinking in visual terms. Even when I’m writing, I’m thinking visually, and I feel like everything trickles down from that. This body of work was made over a 20-year span. These are snapshots from my life as it moves and changes, all from the view of my conscience.”
“Scott Avett: I N V I S I B L E” features psychologically charged and emotionally intense portraits focused on his family and himself—often intimate, vulnerable, and sometimes uncomfortably truthful portrayals. “Scott Avett has been a highly accomplished working artist for as long as he has been a musician, but until now, he has kept the art making part of his life more private, almost as a refuge from his life as a performer,” said Linda Dougherty, chief curator and curator of contemporary art. “Sentimental, nostalgic, and deeply real—like his song lyrics—his paintings resonate with human emotion and forge powerful and personal connections between Avett’s work and the viewer/listener.”
Museum Director Valerie Hillings notes, “This show reflects the NCMA’s commitment to highlighting the multidisciplinary nature of contemporary art practice and to inviting consideration of individual and societal themes and issues that are raised by artists, including Avett. Like his songs, Avett’s paintings, portraits of his family and himself, speak to universal issues of spirituality, struggle, and transformation, as well as more personal stories of career, family, and Southern life.”
More information about the museum and the exhibition is available at ncartmuseum.org.
Raphael, “Ex-voto of Tommaso Inghirami Fallen under an Ox-Cart in Rome,” about 1508, oil on panel, 64 x 88 cm (25 3/16 x 34 5/8 in.), Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, Vatican Museums, Vatican City
To mark the 500th anniversary of the death of the legendary painter Raphael, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston will bring together — for the first time — Raphael’s portrait of papal librarian Tommaso Inghirami from its collection and a painting depicting an episode in his life from the Musei Vaticani in Vatican City. This special exhibition, called “Raphael and the Pope’s Librarian,” is part of the Museum’s Close Up series and is on view through January 26, 2020.
Nearly five centuries after his death in 1520, Raphael’s fame remains undiminished. Crowned “prince of painters” by Giorgio Vasari, he inspired artists both of his own time and for centuries afterward. According to the celebrated writer Henry James, Raphael’s work was “semi-sacred.” The exhibition — and its accompanying publication — will tell the story of the first Raphael in America and will explore Inghirami’s fascinating career in Renaissance Rome.
Following a daunting quest by her art dealer in Europe, Gardner was the first collector to bring a work by Raphael to America. Despite any hesitations over the painting’s beauty, Gardner named an entire gallery of her new Boston museum after the Renaissance master and installed many of her most acclaimed works of art around his portrait of Tommaso Inghirami.
Raphael, “Tommaso Inghirami,” about 1510, oil on panel, 90 x 62.5 cm (35 7/16 x 24 5/8 in.), 114.1 x 86.7 cm (44 15/16 x 34 1/8 in.) framed, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, P16e4
Celebrated by Erasmus as “the Cicero of our era,” Inghirami was a celebrity in the Renaissance, esteemed for his profound erudition and theatrical abilities. His unparalleled knowledge and grasp of classical literature made him the ideal choice to head the Vatican library. Yet he achieved a lasting fame on stage, playing a leading role in the revival of ancient theatre and acquiring the nickname “Fedra” after starring as the lovesick Queen Athens in Seneca’s Greek tragedy Hippolytus (Phaedra). Inghirami’s friend, Raphael, cast him in another role, as the philosopher Epicurius in his legendary School of Athens fresco and then memorialized him in the painted portrait at the center of this exhibition.
“Raphael and the Pope’s Librarian” is the latest in the Close Up series of exhibitions, each installment of which sheds new light on an outstanding work of art in the Gardner Museum’s permanent collection. The publication is edited by Dr. Nathaniel Silver, the Gardner Museum’s William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection, with an essay by Ingrid Rowland (University of Notre Dame.)
The exhibition is also accompanied by public programs, including a lecture by Prof. Rowland and a conversation between the curator and Prof. Joseph Connors (Harvard University.) For more information, please visit www.gardnermuseum.org.
Michael Little (SAS Board Treasurer), Dr. David Van Dam, Irma Van Dam (BA Committee)
Scottsdale Artists’ School (SAS) is set to host its annual fundraiser, Beaux Arts, on Saturday, November 9, 2019. The theme for this event is Dream. Believe. Achieve. Thirty-six years ago, SAS was only a dream to its founders. During the years of its conception these same people were faced with obstacle after obstacle and they continued to believe they could build a school that would be a local and national cornerstone to the fine art community.
From the Scottsdale Artists’ School:
Since its beginning, Scottsdale Artists’ School, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has been a prominent influence in the community and continues to teach the fundamentals of fine art to artists and aspiring artists of all ages and skill levels. The school offers diverse programming and scholarships to a wide range of students who might not be able to receive this education without assistance. Proceeds from Beaux Arts are vital to supporting these programs.
The evening will be celebrated in a large party tent on the school’s grounds, and guests will have the opportunity to mingle with art enthusiasts and artists, both local and visiting. Guests are invited to come dressed in a 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s glam style to complement the Scottsdale Artists’ School’s 2019 signature painting, donated by Joseph Lorusso and painted exclusively for Beaux Arts.
Joseph Lorusso, “Time for Herself,” oil on panel, 17 x 24 in.
Lorusso is an instructor at SAS, and his work has been shown nationally and internationally and has won numerous awards and honors. He has been featured in many high-end art magazines, and his work is represented at fine art galleries across the United States.
2019 Signature Raffle item by Sandy Scott, “Eat More Beef,” bronze
In addition to the opportunity to purchase original works of art, guests will also enjoy music, raffles, libations, and a light dinner. The signature raffle prize this year is a wonderful sculpture by Sandy Scott, who has donated one of her very own pigs entitled “Eat More Beef” from her private collection. Ms. Scott is a master sculptor whose art, including the remarkable Presidential Eagle outside the Clinton Library, graces many well-known places across the U.S.
The event will feature a silent auction, which will contain travel packages, a variety of artwork from well-known professional artists, including oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, sculptures, and more. A limited set of juried work from our student artists will also be available in the silent auction.
Beaux Arts FestivitiesBrooklynn Fallon and Phoebe Roussin make sure guests buy their raffle tickets “on time”Beaux Arts Paintings for auctionBeaux Arts Paintings for auction
Here is what you should know to attend Beaux Arts:
Hosted by: Scottsdale Artists’ School
Date: Saturday, November 9, 2019
Time: 6:00 pm, VIP Guests 5:00 pm
Location: Scottsdale Artists’ School, 3720 N. Marshall Way, Scottsdale Arizona 85251
Attire: Cocktail Attire
Cost: Admission $125 per person, VIP admission $200 per person
Reservations: Call (480) 990-1422 or visit scottsdaleartschool.org
Sky XV
60 x 48 in.
oil on linen
$12,000 available at Gallery Biba: 224A Worth Avenue Palm Beach, Florida 33480
My deep reverence for nature inspires everything I paint. With great attention to detail, light and mood, my paintings capture my sense of wonder and awe. Walking through a forest, looking up at the leafy green canopy and outstretched limbs of our lofty friends the trees, listening to birdsong and the wind rustling gives me great peace. Hundreds of hours of minute, detailed painting are required to bring that moment to others. Skies offer another source of wonder and help in changing our perspective, with ever-shifting formations of towering cumulous or wispy cirrus with glowing colors. Life is an experiment in ever-changing reality. Many of the things that support life on earth are in danger. The things we need to protect, in turn, if cared for, will protect us. Clean air and water, trees to help cool, filter air and keep the water cycle intact are all crucial to our survival.
Recently I have been traveling and exploring forests and wild areas to photograph vulnerable and vanishing trees. These photographs will then be used as reference material for individual tree portraits. I am taking video to capture the movement of wind and sounds of the ecosystems to accompany the tree paintings. I have been giving away native tree saplings at my exhibits for years and will continue to work to inspire others to care for our natural treasures.
Upcoming Exhibitions:
International Guild of Realism at Principle Gallery September 20–October 15, 2019
Natural Narrative, Cultural Council of Palm Beach, February 2020
Cornell Art Museum at Old School Square, June 2020
Dance of Miriam
40 x 30 in.
Oil
Available through the artist [email protected]
Dance of Miriam is a piece I imagined after reading the history of the Israelites deliverance by the hand of God from captivity and slavery to the Egyptians as told in the book of Exodus. After crossing the Red Sea to freedom, Miriam, the sister of Aaron, takes up a tambourine and dances and sings with obvious joy for the triumph of God. In this painting I used abstracted elements and specific colors to communicate this joy and movement as I saw it in my mind. I hired several models to dance in my studio and outdoors, capturing videos and stills of their movement so I could find images that worked together, and I could interpret on the canvas to describe what I imagined. During the course of the painting I discovered the technical narrative to be most important to achieving the effect I was after. I used rollers, squeegees, rags, scrapers and even poured solvent over the painting until the action of the paint and the marks created gave the conceptual narrative its intention.
Dance of Miriam is currently in my studio!
Education
Palette and Chisel Academy of Art, Chicago
American Academy of Art, Chicago
Northern Illinois University, BSed
William Rainey Harper College
Recent Workshops
Alyssa Monks
Casey Baugh
Roger Dale Brown
Quang Ho
Bernardo Siciliano
Vincent Desiderio
Steven Assael
Recent Shows
OPA Salon 2019
NOAPS Best of America 2019
NOAPS Best pf America 2018
3rd Place Award for “The Gift”
NOAPS Small Works 2018
OPA Eastern Regional 2017
Award of “Excellence” for ‘Model Break’
NOAPS Best of America 2017
Award “Best Figurative Work” for ‘Allure’
Unlocking The Bible Fundraiser: Painting “The Sower” completed live and auctioned at the event
American Impressionist Society Small Works 2017
Portrait Society Award of NOAPS Signature Artist Group Show 2016
Honorable Mention “Out of the Box” category for ‘Free Bird’
“Thief on the Cross” one act play by Stephen Baldwin, Painting “Redemption” featured in the performance.
Professional Memberships
OPA, Oil Painters of America
Portrait Society of America
ARC, Art Renewal Center
American Impressionist Society
NOAPS, National Oil and AcrylicPainters Society, Signature Status
Galleries
R. S. Hanna Gallery, Fredericksburg, TX
Castle Gallery, Fort Wayne, IN
In addition to his studio painting J. Russell Wells is nearing completion on a book about contemporary artist’s describing their artistic epiphanies which have impacted their careers.
Hiu Lai Chong Key Bridge Boathouse
30 x 40 in.
Oil on Canvas
Washington Society of Landscape Painters ~ Light and Shadow
The color and beauty of the world around us will illuminate the walls of the Martha Spak Gallery in an exhibition by artists from the Washington Society of Landscape Painters. For 106 years these artists have been united by a love of the landscape, but the current members also find inspiration and joy in florals, still lifes, and other subjects. The show, “Light and Shadow,” will feature this variety of motifs, in the style and medium of each individual artist. It runs from November 2 through December 3, 2019, with a reception on Saturday, November 2 from 3pm-6pm that includes a gallery talk from 3pm-4 pm. A special event will be held on October 27, in which WSLP painters can be seen creating plein air works on The Wharf in DC that will then be exhibited in the gallery.
“Light & Shadow” will feature the work of 29 of the 40 members: Jacalyn Beam, Marietje Chamberlain, Jean Brinton Jaecks, Web Bryant, Ray Burns, Hui Lai Chong, Bernie Dellario, David Diaz, Gray Dodson, Lisa Elegi, Harry Jaecks, Brenda Kidera, Mary Kokoski, Andrei Kushnir, Barry Lindley, Andre Lucero, Lynn Mehta, Lisa Mitchell, JoEllen Murhpy, Jack Pardue, Sara Linda Poly, Bobbi Pratte, Bill Schmidt, Jean Schwartz, Lida Stifel, Nancy Tankersley, Robert Thoren, Nancy Wallace, Meg Walsh.
Susan J. Klein July 1969
36 x 24 in.
acrylic on canvas
Grand Canyon Celebration of Art is celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Grand Canyon National Park. The artists participated in Plein Air at Grand Canyon September 7–14, facing the ever shifting light, the sheer vastness of the canyon and, this year, windy conditions. The work they created, along with their studio work, is on exhibit and offered for sale at historic Kolb Studio at the South Rim of Grand Canyon until January 20, 2020.
Susan J. Klein, one of the 23 plein air artists participating this year, celebrated in her studio painting, “July 1989”, a number of anniversaries as well — 50 years since she did the plein air sketch at Cape Royal on the canyon’s North Rim that
evolved into the painting, 50 years since our country’s landing on the moon, and 50 years since the birth of her daughter. Klein says of her painting:
“Choosing to use artistic license, day became night, and a full moon revealed the era-old monuments and that stalwart pinion. This magical painting, then, collapses the barriers of time in a timeless place.”
Klein has been painting and exhibiting for over forty years, first in her native Ohio and since 1990, in Sarasota, Florida. She has extensively traveled and painted in Europe and the American Southwest. Along with National Park artists-in-residencies and work exhibited at embassies in both Rome (2001–2004) and Sofia, Bulgaria (2008–2010) as part of the United States Department of State Art-in-Embassies programs, this is the fourth time she has participated in the Celebration of Art. Her unique style and vibrant palette capture the canyon on canvas in a distinctive way.
Tres Amigos
24 x 30 in.
oil on linen
Available through the artist at www.lauriekersey.com.
Much of Laurie Kersey’s work focuses on her life-long love, horses. After riding for many years, an injury ended that activity, and the direction of her work turned to equine-themed subjects as a means of maintaining that relationship and keeping horses in her life. Her work has, for many years, included the dramatic coastline and quiet countryside of California, as well as elegant florals.
“Tres Amigos is part of a series inspired by a week spent on a ranch in Colorado with a herd of domestic horses who roamed freely when they were not working,” says Kersey. “I was taken by the affectionate bond and familial closeness of the herd.”
Upcoming exhibitions include the Oil Painters of America Western Regional Juried Exhibition at Sorrel Sky Gallery in Santa Fe, NM; the American Women Artists Exhibition at the RS Hanna Gallery in Fredericksburg, TX; and the Mountain Oyster Club Contemporary Western Art Show & Sale in Tucson, AZ.
Kersey is a Signature Member of the California Art Club, Oil Painters of America, and American Women Artists, an Artist Member of the American Impressionist Society and the American Academy of Equine Art, and is represented by Jones & Terwilliger Galleries in Carmel and Palm Desert, CA, and K Nathan Gallery in La Jolla, CA.
She has been honored with awards in the OPA National Juried Exhibition, Greenhouse Gallery Salon International, Carmel Art Festival, American Women Artists National Juried Exhibition, Hudson Valley Art Association National Juried Exhibition, San Luis Obispo Plein Air Painting Festival, and Torrey Pines Plein Air Invitational. She has been featured in Art of the West Magazine, Southwest Art Magazine, PleinAir Magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine, American Artist Magazine, USEF’s Equestrian Magazine, Horses in Art Magazine, and has been a first place winner in the Artist’s Magazine’s annual competition.
Sign up for a monthly e-newsletter at www.lauriekersey.com or follow Laurie on Facebook at Laurie Kersey and Instagram @lauriekersey.
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