Michael Gault: Michael Gault has been exhibited extensively, attracting collectors from around the world. Gault was recently awarded the Creative and Visual Arts Award for the Best Art Workshop Provider in Colorado by LUXlife Magazine. He offers Plein Air and Open Studio classes through his website and social media.
To see more of Michael’s work, visit:
Website
email
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Bonnie Zahn Griffith: “Remnants of Winter”, pastel on paper, captivates the viewer with its harmonious tones and impressionistic style. Inspired by the beauty of the western landscape and the colors of winter, Griffith renders her vision in oils and pastels, inviting viewers to step into the scene and craft their own story. Her work showcases the timeless allure of nature through her mastery of light and texture. Griffith works both en plein air and in the studio. She has work represented in several galleries across the west, teaches workshops and mentors aspiring artists.
To see more of Bonnie’s work, visit:
Website
Instagram @bonniezahngriffith
Facebook Bonnie Griffith Fine Art
Artsy
Blue Sky @bonniegriffith.bsky.social
For discerning art collectors, there’s nothing quite like the thrill of discovering exceptional work before it hits the gallery circuit — or connecting directly with the artists who are shaping today’s art scene. That’s exactly what the Plein Air Convention & Expo (PACE) delivers.
Widely known as the world’s largest gathering of plein air painters, PACE is more than just a celebration of landscape painting. It’s a rare, immersive experience where collectors gain direct access to the creative process, meet established and emerging artists, and even witness the creation of new masterpieces in real time, many of which are available in the PACE art gallery.
At PACE, over 75 of the nation’s top plein air painters come together to teach, paint, and exhibit their work. For collectors, this means an extraordinary opportunity to:
What makes plein air paintings so uniquely collectible? It’s the story behind the brushstrokes — each work is painted outdoors, on location, capturing the light, atmosphere, and emotion of a specific moment in time. These are not just paintings; they are living memories, rendered in oils, pastels, or watercolors, by some of the most talented artists working today.
Collectors who attend PACE often remark on the energy, camaraderie, and passion that infuse every corner of the event. There’s something magical about being surrounded by hundreds of artists, all painting side by side in iconic outdoor locations. You’re not just observing art; you’re part of a vibrant movement that celebrates beauty, nature, and creativity.
The market for plein air art continues to grow as more collectors recognize its value, both aesthetically and as an investment. By attending PACE, you position yourself at the forefront of this dynamic market, with the chance to acquire works that will only appreciate in value — both financially and personally.
Join Us at the Plein Air Convention & Expo, May 19-23, 2025 in Reno / Lake Tahoe.
Expand your collection. Connect with the artists. Experience art in its purest form.
Learn more and secure your place: PleinAirConvention.com
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.
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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.
How did you develop your unique style?
Larry Cannon: I did not start painting until my mid-50s. By that time, I was fully integrated into the beauty of California and influenced by what I saw and felt from the rich visual environment around me. From the moment that I arrived in San Francisco I had a visceral reaction to the forces of Nature flowing around me. Major influences were the coastal trees sculpted by the ocean winds, the continual wearing away of the land by the relentless ocean, and by several years of sailing on San Francisco Bay where the shifting winds and tidal currents provided a direct tactile connection between those forces and my hand on the sailboat tiller.
The sailing experience especially prepared me for the need to continually adjust to changing conditions – good training for painting in watercolor. Those feelings and observations have led me to paint in watercolors with more flowing broad-brush strokes in unison with the movements of the wind and water working on the coastal land and sea. It also led me to glazing with layers of transparent golden colors to add the glorious California Golden State sunshine that brings unity to the riot of color presented to us by Nature around us.
To see more of Larry’s work, visit:
Website
Truthful Illusions: Realism in the Age of Abstraction
Through July 6, 2025
Fort Wayne Museum of Art (FWMoA), Indiana
fwmoa.org
From the Museum:
Throughout the 20th century, artists absorbed new ideas in philosophy, politics, and aesthetics, spurred in part by European-American cultural exchange and giving rise to what we call “modern art.” The surrealist Salvador Dali illustrated the vivid inner world of dreams and the subconscious as theorized by neurologist Sigmund Freud, while other artists, influenced by Marxist philosophy, saw traditional forms of art and their standards as oppressive.
The years leading up to the two World Wars engulfed Europe in various forms of totalitarianism. American Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock (1912-1952) and Mark Rothko (1903-1970), disillusioned by these repressive regimes, saw art as the embodiment of freedom and sought to throw off all its constraints. For Pollock, even awareness of painting was a constraint, writing in 1947, “When I am in my painting, I am not aware of what I’m doing,” and for Rothko, the painting had a life of its own: “I think of my pictures as dramas; the shapes are the performers…Neither the action nor the actors can be anticipated or described in advance.”
This quest for pure art, unconstrained by standards of skill or even consciousness, was a century-long attempt at answering these questions: What is art, and how does it represent reality? This exhibition of what is called “realism” provides another answer with work by artists whose obvious technical skill supports and does not constrain their artistic intent. They create by the forms, patterns, and embodied nature of the world, savoring what can be seen and showing us its truth.
The exhibition includes 39 works from the FWMoA collection and borrowed works. Featured artists are Aaron Bohrod, Will Cotton, Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso, Gary Erbe, De Scott Evans, Andrea Kowch, Clio Newton, Yigal Ozeri, Joel Daniel Phillips, Robert Schefman, Maria Tomasula, Robert Vickrey, N.C. Wyeth, and Renee McGinnis.
“My work attempts to distill all I know of our formidable species and the natural systems that sustain us down to a sorrowful beauty, speaking visually about humanities’ triumphs and tragedies and how these conditions continually co-exist,” said McGinnis. “Distilling all I know of our species and the fragile systems that sustain us down to a gentle yet startling beauty, the mid 20th century luxury liner is a metaphor for the earth herself, breathtaking behemoths, benchmarks of technology, human arrogance and aesthetic attention.”
To learn more about Truthful Illusions: Realism in the Age of Abstraction, visit the museum’s website at fwmoa.org.
View more art museum announcements here at FineArtConnoisseur.com.
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.
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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.
Nature Paintings For Collectors > Alan Bray’s Maine is not the postcard vision of rugged coastlines and lighthouses. Decades of living in the state’s lesser-known interior—densely forested and isolated—have drawn the artist toward more intimate subjects.
In his most recent works, he favors the nests and dwellings of woodland creatures over sweeping vistas. While a singular mountain scene appears in this exhibition, his focus remains on the intricate architectures of natural phenomena, where small moments hold immense presence.
Rendered with exacting detail, Bray’s subjects—whether vacant burrows or hidden habitats—reflect both scientific observation and poetic sensitivity. Vividly toned and hyper-specific, they elevate the unnoticed into something fantastical and otherworldly.
On View Through May 30, 2025:
“Alan Bray: Inhabited Landscape”
Garvey | Simon at DFN Projects, New York, New York
garveysimon.com
More from the gallery:
Bray paints in casein, a milk-based tempera that dries quickly to a matte, velvety surface, requiring deliberate, precise application. Instead of sweeping brush strokes, he builds his images through small, controlled marks, layering pigment to achieve intricate detail. This unforgiving medium—nearly impossible to blend or correct—demands patience and meticulous layering, producing textures that verge on the tactile.
This is particularly striking in his recent depictions of birds’ nests, where interwoven brushstrokes evoke the dry fragility of twigs and leaves. Though casein remains his primary medium, “Inhabited Landscape” includes a rare graphite drawing, in which Bray masterfully builds dimension through subtle shifts in shade and tone.
Alan Bray was born in Waterville, Maine, and grew up in Monson, a small slate-quarrying town set in the northern reaches of the Appalachians. Bray attended the Art Institute of Boston before graduating from the University of Southern Maine; he received his MFA in painting from the Villa Schifanoia in Florence, Italy. It was during this formative time in Florence that he was exposed to tempera on panel.
Bray’s work has been the subject of no less than 25 solo exhibitions and is included in the public collections at the Portland Museum of Art, ME; DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, MA; the Farnsworth Museum of Art, ME; Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY; Zillman Art Museum, ME; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, WI; Lyman Allyn Museum of Arts, New London, CT; Maine Savings Bank Collection, Memphis Cancer Center, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts, Menlo Park, CA; amongst others. The artist lives and works in Sangerville, Maine.
View more fine art gallery exhibitions here at FineArtConnoisseur.com.
Please help us congratulate Deborah Tilby for winning Overall First Place in the March 2025 PleinAir Salon, judged by previous PleinAir Salon winner Lori Putnam.
“When I paint, it is my intention to be relatively faithful to the colour and light that I see all around me while experimenting and playing with the paint application,” Debroah says. “I would like my brush and knife handling to be as interesting as the subject; to have the mark making and the colour working together to be the life and energy of the work. At least, that is my goal! Accomplishing that goal is always difficult but also fascinating and really fulfilling. It keeps me painting almost daily.”
“One word: Energy!” said Lori about the painting. “There is an unexplainable stirring that happens when a painting has this kind of movement,” Lori said. “I compare this to the same sort of excitement I get when I watch an orchestra conductor with baton moving, hitting the downbeat, then moving again while the other hand is begging for more before gently pushing back. It is all but impossible to ignore … float, hit, release, attack, the crescendo, and dramatic finale.
“This artist takes us through a journey here. Compositionally, there is a strong ‘X’ design using diagonal lines. The masses are brilliantly organized by value and contrast. The piece is masterfully painted using a variety of mark-making and brushwork.”
Learn more about Deborah Tilby at www.deborahtilby.com.
In the spirit of the French Salon created by the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, this annual online art competition, with 11 monthly cycles, leading to the annual Salon Grand Prize winners, is designed to stimulate artistic growth through competition. The PleinAir® Salon rewards artists with $50,000 in cash prizes and exposure of their work, with the winning painting featured on the cover of PleinAir® Magazine.
Winners in each monthly competition may receive recognition and exposure through PleinAir Magazine’s print magazine, e-newsletters, websites, and social media. Winners of each competition will also be entered into the annual competition. The Annual Awards will be presented live at the next Plein Air Convention & Expo.
The next round of the PleinAir Salon has begun so hurry, as this competition ends on the last day of the month. Enter your best art in the PleinAir Salon here.
20th Annual Cowgirl Up! Western Art Show
The Desert Caballeros Western Museum
Wickenburg, Arizona
westernmuseum.org
Through May 25, 2025
The Desert Caballeros Western Museum preserves and exhibits the art and history of the Southwest and desert frontier. Twenty years ago, it launched “Cowgirl Up! Art from the Other Half of the West,” an invitational exhibition and sale that — in the male-dominated field of Western art — has turned the spotlight squarely on women.
The 20th edition of CU! will feature more than 60 talents offering paintings, drawings, and sculptures in various techniques, styles, and mediums.
Among the new participants is oil painter Sara Bloodwolf, whose ancestor Sequah performed with Buffalo Bill Cody in his Wild West Shows.
