Featured Artwork: Jason Drake

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June 25, 2018

Reluctance – Barn Owl
30 x 20 in.
Oil on linen
$5,900
Reluctance – Barn Owl is available through South Street Art Gallery in Easton, MD. To learn more, go to http://www.southstreetartgallery.com/featured-guest-artist.html.

Jason Drake is an American realist painter whose work is focused on the landscape, the figure, and the beauty of animals in the natural world. His style elevates uniqueness over the banal, the deep spark over the quick flash. He believes that his art should lift you up, elevate your perspective and help you hold onto things that have meaning.

Fine Art Connoisseur magazine recently featured Jason in their “Three to Watch” article. Writer Allison Malafronte suggested, “With so much thought, observation, and reﬂection behind each piece, it is clear why Drake’s paintings frequently cause viewers to pause.”

Jason’s recent focus on wildlife produced this rendering of a barn owl by an old spigot. While the interaction of man with creatures in nature is a timeless and universal theme we most often have experienced it on a farm. Farm life is not only a place of unending work, but of encounters with the beautiful and the mysterious. This painting attempts to combine those by capturing a fleeting moment when the magnificent alights on the mundane.

Gallery owner Tim Miller wrote, “The depth and emotion of his paintings captures the attention of every client who enters the gallery and he’s quickly become a sought after name amongst our patrons. Jason’s work is as stimulating as it is mature, as beautiful as it is timeless.”

Regarding a recently sold egg tempera piece, one collector wrote, “At age 67, I welcome all the pauses I can come by and I am sure that I will spend many hours enjoying this painting. You have obviously done something special here.”

Living with his wife Holly and his dog Max in the Appalachian Mountains near Boone, North Carolina, Jason paints the wonder of nature that surrounds him and finds beauty in ordinary things and close friends. He is committed to producing works that reflect the glory of God and the dignity of Man.

For more work by Jason Drake, go to http://www.jasondrakestudio.com.

Oil Painters of America Announces Winners

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Fine Art Today

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June 24, 2018

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Oil Painters of America winners - FineArtConnoisseur.com — Casey Childs, “Take These Broken Wings,” 2017, oil on linen, 48 x 24 in.

The Oil Painters of America has announced the winners of the 27th Annual National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils, held at Steamboat Art Museum (Colorado).

The oil paintings on display were selected from some of the finest oil painters in the United States and Canada. This year’s Juror of Awards was renowned Master Signature Artist Craig Tennant OPAM. Casey Childs won the Gold Medal Award, Associate / Signature Division with his painting titled “Take These Broken Wings” (shown at top). Other top award winners include:

Xiao S Jiang paintings - FineArtConnoisseur.com — Gold Medal Award, Master Signature Division: Xiao S. Jiang, “Boat Place,” oil, 22 x 28 in., $18,000

John Pototschnik paintings - FineArtConnoisseur.com — Silver Medal Award, Association / Signature Division: John Pototschnik, “Be Still My Soul,” oil, 30 x 40 in.

Jan Peng Wang paintings - FineArtConnoisseur.com — Silver Medal Award, Master Signature Division: Jan Peng Wang, “Composition of the Oriental,” oil, 11 x 14 in., $1,600

Nathanial Skousen paintings - FineArtConnoisseur.com — Bronze Medal Award, Associate / Signature Division: Nathaniel Skousen, “Beholding to None,” oil, 30 x 24 in.

Bronze Medal Award, Master Signature Division: Christopher Zhang, “A Couple in Front of the Holly Temple,” oil, 40 x 30 in. $16,000

MaryBeth Karaus paintings - FineArtConnoisseur.com — The Dorothy Driehaus Mellin Fellowship for Midwestern Artists: MaryBeth Karaus, “Orange Romance,” oil, 19 x 36 in.

The Exhibition will be on display through September 3, 2018. For more information, please visit www.oilpaintersofamerica.com.

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Figurative Artist Spotlight: Daniel Sprick

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Fine Art Today

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June 23, 2018

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Figurative art by Daniel Sprick - FineArtConnoisseur.com — Figurative art by Daniel Sprick

Colorado-based artist Daniel Sprick will headline the 2nd Annual Figurative Art Convention & Expo (FACE), to be held November 7–10, 2018, at the Biltmore in Miami, Florida.

Sprick is known for his incredible artistic and technical skill, and will do both an onstage painting demonstration and a separate talk on how to develop a painting. In addition, Sprick will moderate a screening of a PBS documentary about his life as a painter.

“Daniel is one of the most in-demand and highly collectable painters in the world today, and we’re honored to have him play a major role at the conference,” said Eric Rhoads, publisher of Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine, the conference organizer. “It’s rare to have an opportunity to see Daniel paint,” says Rhoads, who notes that Sprick rarely does painting demonstrations or workshops.

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The Birthright of Every American

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Fine Art Today

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June 23, 2018

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By Fitz Maurice

Having lived and painted in countries throughout Europe and in many states in America, I have found our national parks to be the most inspirational for me as an artist.

I have been on a quest for seven years, traveling to each of the 60 national parks to capture them in paint. I want to do all I can to help protect and promote our national parks. My goal as an artist is both to paint them iconically, so that they are distinguishable, and to reveal the unique wonders of each different national park, so you feel as though you are there.

Our national parks are like precious gems to me, each one uniquely different in its earthly wonders. Viewers see that each of my paintings is as different as the parks they represent.

Traveling and speaking about our national parks throughout the United States, I feel greatly reassured by the American people and how passionate they are about their parks! I encourage all Americans to remember that our national parks are the birthright of every American. The national parks do not belong to our government. As Theodore Roosevelt said, “The national parks are the people’s parks!”

Our national parks are also the greatest branch of peace that America offers to the world. A world of all different kinds of people travel far to be immersed in our national parks because there are fewer and fewer pure landscapes to enjoy anywhere on our planet.

As an artist, I feel that bringing people to beauty through art brings them closer to truth in their lives.

This exhibition runs through August 4, 2018. For more information, please visit nationalparkpaintings.com.

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Leave It at the Door

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Fine Art Today

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June 22, 2018

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Landscape paintings by JIvan Lee - FineArtConnoisseur.com — Jivan Lee, “Homeward #2 – Spring Thunderstorms,” 2018, oil on aluminum, 48 x 48 in.

LewAllen Galleries will present “Leave It at the Door,” an exhibition of new landscape paintings by Taos-based painter Jivan Lee. Painted primarily on location among the great mountains, rivers, and sunsets of New Mexico, Jivan Lee’s art is a visual testament to his close engagement with the land, as well as his visceral exploration into the raw material of paint itself. Yet his art emanates a sense of appreciation and reverence for the land beyond even its staggering beauty, and in so doing inspires the imagination. It is this sense of appreciation, combined with a fresh interpretation of the landscape and a deeply gifted eye for color and atmosphere, that has contributed to his growing reputation a revelatory contemporary artist working en plein air.

Rendering in thick paint and lush color, Lee’s tools include spatulas, broad brushes, and his own bare hands. Up close they celebrate paint for paint’s sake — luscious, colorful, moldable. In their opulent textures, his surfaces assume the felt sensation of earth, rock, water, and sky. When viewed at a distance, the paintings collect into studies of light, architecture, and land forms — a dazzling transformation that highlights the relationships between familiar image and raw material.

In his instinctual exaltation of the land, he makes palpable the immaterial experience of his beautiful surroundings and of his own physical relationship with his materials. “I experience a quality of gratitude and awe that only happens when I’m out in the elements,” Lee says. “It is a key ingredient that animates me and my work, and helps me step beyond my more habituated tracks of seeing, thinking, and acting.” This spirit may come from the openness with which Lee experiences the land, and with which he is conscious of bracing himself against any preconceptions about what he observes as he paints.

As the title of this LewAllen exhibition suggests, Lee is purposeful in his quest to dissolve his preconceptions about beauty, and in turn his viewers’. Lee is eager to dismantle those pristinely detailed images of landscapes we are accustomed to in favor of mountains, rivers, gorges, and mesas that ascend through miraculous, painterly color to a liminal place above specificity. Indeed, the more one takes in a Jivan Lee painting, the more it deepens into a collection of individual, abstracted moments: a truer, more expressive vision of the landscape, one where our preconceptions cannot blind us.

“Leave It at the Door” will be on view through July 29, 2018, at LewAllen Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For more information, please visit www.lewallengalleries.com.

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Fine Art News: Editorial Submission Guidelines

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Cherie Dawn Haas

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June 19, 2018

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If you’d like to share your fine art news with our community, please follow these guidelines.

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• A caption for each image (for paintings, include the title, size, and media; all artwork must be yours or you must have permissions)
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• Send the above to Peter Trippi at [email protected] (subject line: Fine Art Today – Your Topic and Dates)

Because of the number of requests we receive, we cannot guarantee that unsolicited submissions will be published. We appreciate your interest in being a part of the Fine Art Today community.

Figurative Artist Spotlight: Michelle Dunaway

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Fine Art Today

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June 19, 2018

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Figurative art by Michelle Dunaway - FineArtConnoisseur.com — “Her Mother’s Locket,” 20 x 16 in.

Michelle Dunaway is an internationally known American artist whose paintings are revered for their bold brushwork yet sensitive portrayal of emotions that capture the human experience. Her artwork has been featured in numerous publications including International Artist, Fine Art Connoisseur, American Artist, Southwest Art, Art of the West, and American Art Collector, along with inclusion in several art books.

“Contemplating Flowers — Portrait of artist Katie Whipple,” 12 x 16 in.

Dunaway’s work has received many awards and honors including the award of Exceptional Merit at the Portrait Society of America’s International Portrait Competition in 2010 for her painting The Daughters of Jane Seymour, Finalist in the 2012/13 Art Renewal Salon Competition, as well as being invited to be the featured artist at the 2014 California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition.

Most recently Dunaway received the award of Exceptional Merit in the 2016 Portrait Society competition and a certificate of excellence in the 2017 competition. Michelle receives invitations to teach, lecture, and give painting demonstrations at various schools and events internationally. She exhibits in galleries nationwide, and her paintings are in private collections throughout the US and Europe.

“To me, the extraordinary resides in the everyday moments of life, those moments when we stop, pay attention, and feel gratitude,” Dunaway says. “All of us experience such moments, and they transform us for the better. These instances of human life, personal reflection, and inspiration are what I love to capture in paint.”

This coming November, artists will have the opportunity to learn from Dunaway at the 2nd Annual Figurative Art Convention & Expo in Miami, Florida. Learn about the workshops and scholarships, and enter to win a free ticket at figurativeartconvention.com. Register soon – the price increases July 4!

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Playing Cowboy

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Fine Art Today

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June 18, 2018

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Western art paintings - FineArtConnoisseur.com — Carl Rungius, “Two Cowboys in the Saddle,” 1895–1950, oil on canvas, 24 x 31.938 in. Bequest of William N. Beach. 1960-376.43. Photography by Andy Duback.

Before movie legends like John Wayne galloped across the silver screen, real live cowboys and Indians entertained audiences in dramatic performances that traveled the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. William “Buffalo Bill” Cody (1846–1917) helped generate the growing public interest in the vanishing Wild West by acting out the exploits of his life as a scout and Indian fighter in this uniquely American form of entertainment. At the same time, painters and sculptors such as Frederic Remington (1861–1909), N. C. Wyeth (1882–1945), and Carl Rungius (1869–1959) ventured west in search of artistic inspiration, translating their experiences into romantic portrayals that continue to influence contemporary understandings of life on the open range.

“Playing Cowboy” investigates the formative ways in which turn-of-the-century performing and visual arts mythologized cowboys and villainized Indians. Popular forms of mass media and entertainment, including dime novels, live stage performances, traveling exhibitions, illustrations, paintings, and sculpture all perpetuated the myth of the cowboy and stereotyped Native Americans, based on racialized perceptions of the time.

Lehman & Duval, SE-QUO-YAH, ca. 1838. Lithograph, 19.5 x 14.23 in. Collection of Shelburne Museum, museum purchase, from the Estate of J. Watson Webb, Jr. BH-31. Photography by Andy Duback.

“This exhibition focuses on the instrumental role Buffalo Bill Cody and his dramatic live performances played in shaping our understanding of the mythological American cowboy and the Wild West,” said Kory Rogers, curator. “Using Cody’s life, career, and legacy as the connecting threads, ‘Playing Cowboy’ charts the popularity of Wild West shows from their zenith at the turn of the century to their nadir in the early 1930s.”

“Playing Cowboy” is on view through June 23 – October 21, 2018. For more information, please visit www.shelburnemuseum.org.

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Escape to the Vineyard

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Fine Art Today

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June 18, 2018

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Fine art landscape paintings by Linda Richichi - FineArtConnoisseur.com — “Island Sunset,” pastel, 11 x 14 in.

Nikki Sedacca Gallery is pleased to present nationally acclaimed artist Linda Richichi’s newest body of work in a solo exhibition, “Escape to the Vineyard.” Martha’s Vineyard landscapes and sometimes surprising colors in the sky and water inspire this current collection of fine art landscape paintings.

Richichi received her bachelor’s degree in fine art from SUNY in 1994 and discovered her passion for plein air painting by 2001. By painting on-site and in the moment, each brush mark holds true energy, creating a landscape that is pure and calm. Oil paint glides from Richichi’s brush to canvas or panel in an energetic and seemingly spontaneous manner, yet the intuitive calculation of each each stroke is unmistakable.

Richichi’s work embodies the essence of landscape and illuminates the romantic notion of comfort by Mother Nature.

Richichi is a member of the Oil Painters of America and a signature member of the California Plein Air Painters, and New York and International Plein Air Painters. Notably, in 2012, Richichi was voted National Best Intuitive Artist at About.com. In addition to oil painting, Richichi has received considerable attention for her work in pastel, including exhibiting at the prestigious National Arts Club in New York City with the Pastel Society of America.

“Since 2002, painting en plein air has helped me to experience and capture the energy of light,” Richichi says. “The smaller outdoor studies are used for reference, to create larger studio paintings that contain the higher vibrations found in nature. Capturing the energy using rich colors is a vital step in bringing the outdoor feeling inside.”

Fine art pastel paintings by Linda Richichi - FineArtConnoisseur.com — “Mountain Top Vista,” pastel, 25.5 x 10.75 in.

For more information about the pieces that will be featured in the show, or to learn more about the gallery and Linda Richichi, visit www.nikkisedaccagallery.com. Richichi will offer a painting demonstration in the courtyard behind Nikki Sedacca Gallery in the heart of Nevin Square on Thursday, June 28. “Escape to the Vineyard” will be on view June 29 – July 16, 2018.

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Featured Artwork: Philip Koch

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Fine Art Today

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June 18, 2018

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Winter Sky
oil on canvas
40 x 60 inches
2018
$10,000
Exhibited at the Burchfield Penney Art Center through July 29, 2018
Available from the artist

The Burchfield Penney Art Center feature exhibition, Time Travel in the Burchfield Archives: Paintings by Philip Koch, showcases Winter Sky and other paintings and drawings. Each work was created while Koch (pronounced like “watch”) served as the museum’s Artist in Residence from 2015–18. The exhibit continues through July 29, 2018.

An added special feature of the exhibit is drawings by the artist Charles Burchfield Koch selected from the museum’s archives to hang alongside his own work in the show. “For me,” says Koch “making drawings is at the heart of my painting process. As I studied Burchfield’s methods I discovered how much he relied on his drawings to sharpen his own imaginative vision. Including them in my exhibition seemed a perfect fit.”

Originally Koch was an abstract artist but was inspired by the paintings of Hopper to change direction and begin working as a realist artist. This year Koch will enjoy his 17th residency in Edward Hopper’s Truro, MA studio.

In reflecting on the very beginning of his career as a successful, sought-after artist, Koch admits, “It was the aroma of oil paint that changed my path. My freshman year at Oberlin College I was in the college’s art building for a required art history class. I caught a whiff of a strange smell coming from behind an unmarked door. Upon opening the door I discovered a world I had never seen before: a studio filled with easels and wet oil paintings. I knew in a moment it was where I was meant to be.”

Koch’s paintings are in the permanent collections of 16 American art museums, among them Memorial Art Gallery (Rochester, NY), Butler Institute of American Art, Cape Cod Museum of Art,, Minnesota Museum of American Art, Swope Art Museum and Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

Explore the current Burchfield Penney Art Center Time Travel in the Burchfield Archives: Paintings by Philip Koch.

Also view more of Koch’s work on his website, as well as follow him on Facebook and read his blog.

Philip can be contacted at [email protected]

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