Daniel Gerhartz, "A Quiet Winter's Night," 2018, oil, 30 x 36 in.
Daniel Gerhartz: The Continuum of Beauty
Museum of Wisconsin Art (summer 2018)
From the museum:
This exhibition of thirty-one paintings is the artist’s first major retrospective; it includes many new, never before seen works. His subjects hover between traditional figurative painting and portraiture; only about five percent of his production is true commissioned portraiture.
Daniel Gerhartz, “Turquoise and Velvet,” 2017, oil, 48 x 30 in.
Gerhartz often depicts an interrupted moment, as if the sitter has just realized the artist’s presence. In the majority of his paintings, he relies on his wife, children, or a friendly farmer as models. These paintings are not portraits per se but rather vignettes, archetypes of maternal love, childhood simplicity, or grandfatherly affection; they often evoke an earlier and more humble way of life.
For Gerhartz, despite the currency of Conceptual or Postmodern styles, beauty is still a worthwhile aspiration. He finds inspiration and meaning in time-tested ideas about painting, simplicity, and family.
Editor’s Note:Watch Daniel Gerhartz work his way through “Her Mother’s Locket” in this art video workshop. Daniel holds nothing back as he freely shares his thought process while he develops this work and sees the composition through to completion. His concise description of how to read values, color temperatures, and edge control will give you more understanding as you begin your next work.
Daniel Gerhartz, “Amethyst,” 2017, oil, 40 x 30 in.Daniel Gerhartz, “As One,” 2017, oil, 60 x 30 in.Daniel Gerhartz, “Goodnight Moon,” 2017, oil, 48 x 30 in.
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Simona Dolci, "Narcissus," 2011, oil on canvas on panel, 91 x 100 cm
Through June 20, 2018
Museo dei Bozzetti, Italy
A guest blog post by Simona Dolci
“The sweet noise of life,” a phrase taken from a poem by Sandro Penna, is the perfect title to bring together my paintings and the sculptures by Paddy Campbell in this fine art exhibition. The series of paintings displayed follow two themes that are important for me because they concern my artistic investigation in recent years.
Simona Dolci, “Venus” oil on canvas, 2008, 80 x 130 cm.
The first theme deals with the cycle of VENERI (Venuses), which I consider as having been concluded for some time. The artists of the past depicted the Venuses as figures without time or age; true iconic images. The Venuses of the past are ideas, not individuals; they are ideals that are depicted and embodied in symbolic images clothed in beauty.
Contemporary artists who take on imagery this powerful — one of humanity’s innermost images — know that the archetype remains the same; what changes is the way it is depicted. The Venuses of our world, the modern Venus is an individual woman with her own personality, well aware of her true body and her very human imperfections.
Simona Dolci, “On the Stage,” 2011, oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm.
The other theme concerns the masculine. This is also a cycle and is still being worked on: MALES of love, males of war.
I believe that theatre is one of the artistic fields that more easily lends itself to depicting the way in which the human world is explored and known. The actor, a figure with a changing personality, is able to change and transform himself. Yet, due to the fact that he can be many different personalities, often lives immersed in solitude.
One of the great characters in theater, Yago, like Judas, is regarded as contemptible, a traitor. Is he really the figure of evil or is he the enchanter, the narrator, the magnificent weaver of plots, albeit malevolent, who reveals passions and makes events possible, as any teller of tales can do?
Simona Dolci, “Solitude of the Actor,” 2011, oil on canvas, 70 x 60 cm.
Of course, then there are the myths. Mercury, the symbolic image that corresponds perfectly to the contemporary world, who is characterized by speed, communication, connection, deception, money. Narcissus, who in the refraction and multiplication of his own image loses his identity, nullifying himself in its shattering.
I am an architect by training and a painter by vocation. I am also a teacher; in the past, in the Faculty of Architecture, and today at a private art school, The Florence Academy of Art. I teach drawing to young artists who come from all over the world to learn how to draw as our forefather-artists did.
I hope that one day the fracture that exists in the world of representative art, which still underscores a division between modern art and classical art, the art of ideas and the art of figuration, can be remedied, as has happened and is already happening in other artistic fields such as music and dance. With my work, I would like to continue in this direction.
I try to use techniques in realism with the contemporary spirit of a modern woman who has lived all the seasons of commitment and experimentation of her own generation, and who today proudly claims this role as a figurative artist.
Visitors viewing “President Ronald Reagan, Study for White House Portrait,” 1990 by Everett Raymond Kinstler. Photograph by Kristi Irving.
Everett Raymond Kinstler, now 91 years old, has rendered portraits of more than 2,000 individuals — leaders in almost every professional field, including eight United States presidents.
“America Creative” (through July 14, 2018) explores how the eye of an artist sees kindred souls whose life’s work is also in the arts, whether visual, musical, performing, or literary. Kinstler’s vibrant, impressionist style imbues an otherwise static medium with the energy and vitality of his sitters, enlivening their personalities for us today and telling the stories of their lives.
Visitor viewing “Marian Anderson,” 1990 (Collection of the Harvard Club, New York City) by Everett Raymond Kinstler. Photograph by Kristi Irving.
Spanning the years from 1952 through 2015, these portraits cover the long career of a successful artist who has truly honed his craft. They also capture a generation of creative leaders in this country. Thanks to loans from the artist and from several institutions, including the National Portrait Gallery and the National Academy Museum, the exhibition features portraits of visual artists such as Norman Rockwell and Alexander Calder, actors such as Katharine Hepburn and Christopher Plummer, musicians and entertainers including Tony Bennett and Marian Anderson, and authors such as Tom Wolfe and Dr. Seuss.
Visitors to the opening reception viewing “Tom Wolfe,” 1987 and “Alexander Calder,” 1972 (Collection of the National Portrait Gallery), by Everett Raymond Kinstler. Photograph by Kristi Irving.Everett Raymond Kinstler painting Eddie George, former running back for the Tennessee Titans. The audience greatly enjoyed his dog Philadelphia’s spontaneous addition to the event! Photograph by Kristi Irving.Gary Haynes and Everett Raymond Kinstler. In the background, “Paul Resika,” 1985, and “Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss),” 1982 (Collection of the Hood Museum of Art), by Everett Raymond Kinstler. Photograph by Kristi Irving.Installation view including “Peter Cox,” 1983, “Christopher Plummer as Prospero,” 2011, and “Paul Jenkins,” 2006, by Everett Raymond Kinstler. Photograph by Peggy Kinstler.
The Briscoe Western Art Museum (San Antonio, Texas) raised a record-breaking $2.4 million during the first weekend of the 2018 “Night of Artists” Art Sale & Exhibition, including nearly $1.9 million in total art sales.
From the museum:
This year’s show is the biggest to date with more than 280 works of painting, sculpture, and mixed media art on display by 74 contemporary Western artists. Proceeds from the sale benefit the programs, exhibits, and collections of the Briscoe Museum.
Now in its 17th year, the Briscoe’s annual fundraising event was revamped for 2018 with the addition of the Bison Society Collectors Summit, a live art auction hosted by legendary auctioneer Troy Black, and the addition of several new artists.
Martin Grelle, “Warriors on the Greasy Grass,” oil on linen, 36 x 36 in., $150,000 (sold)
Top sellers at the live art auction included “Warriors on the Greasy Grass” by Martin Grelle, which sold for $150,000 and “Grizzly Bear Man” by Z.S. Liang which commanded a price of $70,000.
Z.S. Liang, “Grizzly Bear Man,” oil on linen canvas, 44 x 26 in., $70,000 (sold)
More than 800 artists, sponsors, and guests attended 2018 “Night of the Artists” opening weekend. Internationally recognized artists participating in the show include Billy Schenck, Mark Maggiori, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Tim Cherry, Sandy Scott, John Coleman, Jan Mapes, George Hallmark, Kent Ullberg, and Kim Wiggins. The range of subjects reflects the vastness of the great American West from dreamy landscape vistas, to rugged frontier cowboys, historic missions, and detailed Native American themes.
The public exhibition and sale continues through May 6 at the Briscoe Museum’s Jack Guenther Pavilion, located at 210 W. Market Street on the San Antonio River Walk, with all unsold artwork available for purchase. The exhibition is free with museum admission. Get a preview of this extensive collection of art on the Briscoe website gallery at BriscoeMuseum.org/gallery.
Dreaming of Dubois
16 x 20 in., oil on panel
$2200
It has been a long cold dreary winter how about a look toward the summer?
This painting Dreaming of Dubois was painted by Beth Bathe en plein air during Lighthouse Plein Air Festival 2018 in Florida.
Beth’s representational paintings have been described by art critics as “evoking nostalgia, like that of an old sepia toned photograph, often with just touches of color.”
Beth was a featured artist in the 2018 February/March issue of PleinAir Magazine.
Curiosity about the medium Beth works in is often the first question of many viewers. Is it watercolor, is it oil? Beth’s answer: “somewhat both.” She works with Cobra Water Mixable Oil Colors in a limited tonalist palette, using both brushes and a handful of unconventional tools, such as squeegees and cotton swabs.
A Virginia Commonwealth University graduate, Beth is highly influenced by American Regionalist painter Andrew Wyeth. She refers to much of her subject matter as “the vanishing landscape.” The paintings depict the beauty of a time gone by in buildings, barns and old towns.
When not at home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Beth is often on the road, crisscrossing the country, painting primarily en plein air at competitions such as Southwest Plein Air, Texas; Parrsboro Plein Air, Nova Scotia; and at ten other festivals and workshops in 2018.
In 2017, Beth participated in ten high-profile juried and invitational competitions, including Plein Air Easton, Maryland; Door County, Wisconsin; and Cape Ann, Massachusetts.
Ben Steele was born in Kennewick, Washington, in 1977 and relocated to Utah in his teens, graduating from University of Utah in 2002 with a BFA in painting and drawing. He continued his artistic education at the Helper Workshops under the instruction of David Dornan and Paul Davis, moving to Helper, Utah, for a multi-year internship with Dornan. He has been living and working in the small coal and railroad town ever since with his wife, Melanie, and sons Oliver and Andrew.
Steele’s art is part of several notable collections, including the Raymond James Financial art collection, the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, Academy Award Winning Producer Michael Sugar, the Executive Offices of the San Francisco Giants, golfer Fred Couples, and in multiple Delta Airline Sky Club lounges throughout the US.
Gallery Representation
ARDEN GALLERY
129 Newbury St.
Boston, MA 02116 www.ardengallery.com
CODA GALLERY PALM DESERT
73-151 El Paseo
Palm Desert, CA 92260 www.codagallery.com
Chantel’s passion for art began flourishing at age 12 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. While enrolled in a college art course, a fellow student introduced her to acrylic paints, and she soon found it to be a medium dominated by abstract art. But 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. All the while, she remained active in local art communities, including serving as President of Artists’ Link in Memphis, Tennessee.
In 2006, Chantel opened her own art business called Chantel’s Originals near Memphis, Tennessee. Chantel soon benefited from workshops and demonstrations with outstanding artists including Dawn Whitelaw, Michael Shane Neil, Suzie Baker, and Marc Hanson. Chantel is currently the National Coordinator of the State Ambassador program for the Portrait Society of America, and is also a member of The Chestnut Group, and the National Oil & Acrylic Painters’ Society.
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, and several books. She regularly blogs at chantellynnbarber.com. Chantel resides in Bartlett, Tennessee where she teaches online and in workshops throughout the United States and Canada.
Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler! (Let The Good Times Roll!)
15 x 20 in., scratchboard
$3,700
Currently on a nationwide tour. Available through the artist.
Ginger Gehres calls herself a “Visual Bard,” one who tells a story through imagery.
One of only 16 Master Members of the International Society of Scratchboard Artists (ISSA) and an Associate Member with Distinction with the American Women Artists, Ginger is a published artist, visual storyteller and art historian who has studied under both nationally and internationally acclaimed artists.
“Growing up with generations of creative people allowed me to build on the basics and become the person I am today. Having worked in many mediums in the past, both commercially and in fine art, I picked up the medium of scratchboard art in 2013 and fell in love with it,” says Ginger.
As stunning as her work is, it seems hard to imagine it has been called quirky, intriguing, and fun. All are fine with Ginger. Traditionally, a black and white, reductive medium, scratchboard now incorporates color.
“I want my art to tell a story to a viewer. If it makes you smile or react with emotion, then I am successful. I hope what I create speaks volumes to you.”
Becoming an artist was the natural progression for Ginger.
“My Grandmothers taught me to see the world around me and to express my thoughts creatively. My Mom shared her love of dance and music and my Dad opened my eyes to the world of architecture, a love of the ocean, and how to spot animals and birds hiding in the forests!”
As a young adult, Ginger suffered from episodic migraines and seizures. In 1998, she had a severe stroke-like episode, which gravely affected the left side of her body. Left-handed, Ginger spent years in speech, physical, and occupational therapy, relearning how to hold a paintbrush and to coordinate her movements. She claims, “My life as I knew it may have ended years ago, but a shot at a new life began, and I am making the most of it!”
Memberships:
Master Member: International Society of Scratchboard Artists
Associate Member with Distinction: American Women Artists
Exhibitions:
2017
ISSA Holiday Online Exhibition, First Place
Bryn Mawr Art Ability, Second Place
Pamlico Artists Fine Art Exhibition, Juror’s Choice
North Light Books Strokes of Genius 10 (to be released November 2018)
ISSA International Society of Scratchboard Artists Exhibition, Adelaide Australia, “Highly Commendable” Masters Division
American Women Artists Spring Online Juried Show, Second Place
2016 Feeling Crabby Sold at Bryn Mawr during Exhibition
Bryn Mawr Art Ability International Exhibition, Second Place
North Light Books Strokes of Genius 9
North Ridge Country Club Fine Art Gala
ISSA International Exhibition, Tucson, AZ, Award of Excellence
Eye of the Artist Fine Arts Show, Third Place
Patrick Earl Hammie, "Inheritance," 2015, oil on canvas, 12 x 16 in.
July 7 through September 28, 2018
Portrait and figure paintings at the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Wisconsin https://wmoca.org
“Painting the Figure Now” seeks to show quality paintings that investigate the many ways we see the human figure now. Contemporary approaches to portraiture, narrative, and any and all visualizations focusing on the human form in life, action, play, work, and repose. The museum is seeking artists who understand the finest traditions of figurative art. “We believe the human form is an endlessly interesting subject with inexhaustible potential,” says the museum. “We want to see humanity with a relevant, fresh, and contemporary feeling.”
Alessandro Tomassetti, “Lie to Me,” 2018, oil on aluminum, 19 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.Jo Hay, “Maddow,” 2017, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in.Victor Wang, “Flushed Birds,” 2018, oil on canvas, 65 x 52 in.
Denise Fulton, “Chutes & Ladders,” 2018, oil on panel, 20 x 24 in.
Eduardo Carrillo, “Self Portrait,” 1960, oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 27 3/4 in., Crocker Art Museum, Promised Gift of Juliette Carrillo and Ruben Carrillo.
In June 2018, the Crocker Art Museum will bring to Sacramento an expansive exhibition of works by Eduardo Carrillo, a painter, teacher, and social activist known for advancing recognition of Chicano art and culture in California.
Eduardo Carrillo, “Testament of the Holy Spirit,” 1971, oil on panel, 47 3/4 x 60 in., Crocker Art Museum, Purchase with funds from the Maude T. Pook Acquisition Fund, 1972.24
Carrillo’s large-scale oil paintings have been described as mystical, surreal, and visionary, while his intimate watercolors reflect the artist’s daily life in self-portraits, still lifes, and images of people and places he held dear. “Testament of the Spirit: Paintings by Eduardo Carrillo (Testamento del espíritu: Pinturas de Eduardo Carrillo)” reflects on the artist’s relationship to his native California, as well as to his Mexican heritage, his early religious upbringing, and the European tradition of art.
Eduardo Carrillo, “Las Tropicanas,” 1972–73, oil on panel, 84 x 132 in. Crocker Art Museum, Promised Gift of Juliette Carrillo and Ruben Carrillo.
This bilingual exhibition features more than 60 paintings and watercolors spanning nearly four decades of the artist’s production, from the late 1950s through the late 1990s. Works on view include a promised gift to the Crocker by members of the Carrillo family, as well as two works in the Crocker’s permanent collection.
Eduardo Carrillo, “Untitled (Still Life with Santo Niño Candle),” 1989, watercolor on paper, 15 1/4 x 11 1/4 in., Private collection, Davis, California.
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