Growing up in the Hudson Valley with easy access to New York museums and galleries, and painting lessons at an early age had a big influence on Christine Debrosky’s becoming a full time artist.
In early adulthood, she took an eye-opening workshop in pastel, and has not looked back, garnering numerous awards, collectors, and exhibition opportunities across the US and Europe.
“I work both en plein air and in the studio. For painting light effects, there is no substitute for first hand observation. I like to think that one can feel the same wind, hear nature’s rustles and enjoy the warmth of the sun when viewing my field work. Once back in the studio, I produce more contemplative pieces, carefully orchestrating design elements, inviting the observer into the piece and to linger for a while.”
Christine is a signature member of the American Impressionist Society, the Pastel Society of America, and Master Circle with the International Assn. Pastel Societies. Today, she lives in the desert Southwest, in a renovated home, with a custom designed dream studio.
“Honey Dript Morning” is evocative of the languid opening of a steamy, late summer day. The white barn has stood sentinel to many such mornings on the same corner for over a hundred years.
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.
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 and Michael Shane Neil. 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. She is past President of Artists’ Link in Memphis, Tennessee.
Chantel has been featured in solo art shows and has participated in numerous group shows at premiere Memphis venues including the Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Her award winning paintings are in private and public collections throughout the United States and overseas. Her work is published in Acrylic Artists magazine, American Art Collector, and Fine Art Connoisseur. Chantel resides in Bartlett, Tennessee, where she teaches online and in workshops throughout the United States.
Available through Lovetts Gallery, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Oil painter Terry Cooke Hall is inspired by, and in awe of, the women she paints who are primarily those she photographs, and often meets, at an annual event in south-central Montana. These women carry on the centuries-old traditions of the Native Americans from the Plains and Northwestern U.S. tribes. Her depictions of the regalia worn by both the women and their horses are not historical, but are her own interpretations of the patterns and colors of the tribes. This is her way of honoring their traditions without copying their generational customs.
Her figures in realism are set in an imaginary world of colorful winds or swirling skies, often backlit by an abstraction of the sun or moon. Her approach blends color, patterns, and textural elements, providing a unique contemporary twist. Her “imaginative realism” style is a look at her West viewed through the lens of 30 years of work in design and illustration.
Terry’s influence comes from trips throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California in the family station wagon, a big part of Terry’s childhood, forming strong memories of the Southwest in the 60s. During the mid-70s, Terry’s passion for art led her to numerous classes, workshops, and university extension courses in graphic design and illustration, including studies of the works of the Golden Age illustrators, a heavy influence on her current style. In 1978, she put her training into use by illustrating for land development firms in Southern California. After 15 years of the left-brain world of architects and engineers, Terry left her job and co-founded a commercial art business in San Diego County.
Since 2006, Terry has focused exclusively on developing a fine art career that has strong roots in California Impressionism. She has studied under nationally-known artists with an intense focus on foundational principles of fine art and impressionistic light and color.
Terry lives in Bozeman, Montana, and participates in several national shows annually, adding several awards through participation in those shows. Her current list of galleries include Tierney Fine Art, Bozeman MT; Mountain Trails Galleries, Jackson WY & Park City UT; Mountain Trails Gallery Sedona, Sedona AZ; Lovetts Gallery of Fine Art, Tulsa OK; & Dick Idol Signature Gallery, Whitefish MT.
MaryBeth Karaus, “Chef’s Cutting Board,” oil, 60 x 48 inches
Artists MaryBeth Karaus and David Mueller celebrate their shared love for painting in a new exhibition this September at Eisele Gallery of Fine Art. Find out more here!
Eisele Gallery of Fine Art in Cincinnati will open “Timing Is Everything” on September 8, featuring brilliant artworks by MaryBeth Karaus and David Mueller. This moving exhibition, which continues through October 7, showcases work rendered with a mix of refinement and spontaneous brushwork that employs contemporary designs.
David Mueller, “Nurturer,” oil, 60 x 48 inchesMaryBeth Karaus, “Oh Honey,” oil, 60 x 40 inches
“As a couple we are part of the lucky few that get to speak the same professional creative language and feel the same dynamics of effort, emotional investment, and rewards in what we do,” says Mueller. Karaus adds, “David and I are both motivated by capturing and sharing the simple beauty around us. A painting can be an oasis of peace and give nourishment to the soul in an otherwise tumultuous and chaotic world.”
David Mueller, “Power of Prayer”MaryBeth Karaus, “Brooklyn,” oil, 30 x 20 inchesDavid Mueller, “Late Light Grazing,” 12 x 36 inches
According to the gallery, the show’s theme, “Timing Is Everything,” touches on the trials and joys that make up the canvas of a lifetime. “Works draw on the emotions of Mueller’s recent health crisis, the loss of Karaus’ parents, and the unexpected happiness that comes with finding a partner to share it all with,” the gallery writes.
This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.
Georg Heinrich Crola, “A Thunderstorm on Lake Chiemsee,” 1833, oil on canvas. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 2002.5.1
There was only one thing that could happen when Romantic painters discovered Norway. Your chance to relive their journey through incredible art opens soon in Hartford.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, will open a vibrant exhibition on September 7 that showcases the paintings of three Romantic painters considered to be “the leading figures behind the advent of Norwegian landscape painting in the 19th century,” according to the museum.
Thomas Fearnley, “Arco Naturale, Capri,” before 1833, oil on paper. Collection of Asbjørn Lunde.Johan Christian Dahl, “Forest Study from Grosser Garten, Dresden,” 1822, oil on canvas. Collection of Asbjørn Lunde.Johan Christian Dahl, “Waterfall in Hemsedal,” 1845, oil on canvas. Collection of Asbjørn Lunde.
On view through January 15, 2018, “Sublime North: Romantic Painters Discover Norway” showcases the art of Johan Christian Dahl, Thomas Fearnley, and Peder Balke, set within selections from the museum’s broader collection of American and Northern European landscape painting in the Romantic era.
Thomas Fearnley, “Tree Study, by a Stream, Granvin,” 1839, oil on board. Collection of Asbjørn Lunde.Thomas Fearnley, “Riders in a Landscape (View over Romsdal with Romsdalhorn in Background,” 1837, oil on canvas. Collection of Asbjørn Lunde.Johan Christian Dahl, “Mountain Farm,” 1854, oil on canvas. Collection of Asbjørn Lunde.
The museum reports, “Dahl, Fearnley, and Balke all traveled outside of Norway to study art and practice in cities such as Naples, Copenhagen and Stockholm, with both Fearnley and Balke joining Dahl — one of the first Norwegian artists to achieve international success — as his students in Norway and Dresden. Despite living abroad Dahl traveled to his homeland and remained deeply invested in his country, which struggled to achieve full independence during his lifetime. As Norwegians sought to define and express their collective identity, these artists especially contributed to the national awakening by looking to nature and the people who inhabited it with a sense of pride, and also by exhibiting and selling their work across northern Europe.
Johan Christian Dahl, “View of the Feigumfoss in Lysterfjord,” 1848, oil on canvas. Collection of Asbjørn Lunde.Peder Balke, “The Mountain Range ‘Trolltindene’” c. 1845, oil on canvas, mounted on Masonite. Collection of Asbjørn Lunde.Peder Balke, “Seascape,” 1860s, oil on canvas, mounted on cardboard. Collection of Asbjørn Lunde.
“Landscape painting during the Romantic era was fueled by the concept of the sublime — renewed reverence for nature and its influence on emotion and the imagination. Together with his pupils, Dahl infused Nordic fjords, craggy mountains and rivers with the established repertoire of Romantic motifs — rocky inlets, misty hills and contemplating wanderers. Fearnley’s powerful scenes are distinguished by sensitive effects of light, while Balke specialized in highly dramatic seascapes that foreshadow, with their radically simplified style, the abstraction of Modern art. Combining the direct study of nature (through open-air oil studies) with dramatic imaginary views, this group produced fresh interpretations of the rough and imposing Norwegian landscape.”
This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.
Judith Leyster, “The Last Drop (The Gay Cavalier),” circa 1639, oil on canvas, 35 x 29 inches, Philadelphia Museum of Art
A major East Coast museum just announced its plans to mount a celebratory exhibition that commemorates its acquisition of a major European Old Master collection, 100 years ago.
Before John G. Johnson (1814-1917) died, he made sure his robust collection of European Old Master artworks was taken care of by giving it to the city of Philadelphia. That collection is held today by the renowned Philadelphia Museum of Art, which recently announced a November 3, 2017 opening for “Old Masters Now: Celebrating the Johnson Collection.” The exhibition brings together many highlights from the collection, which was received upon the donor’s death in 1917.
Rembrandt van Rijn, “Head of Christ,” circa 1648-56, oil on panel, 14 x 12 5/16 inches, Philadelphia Museum of ArtTitian, “Portrait of Archbishop Filippo Archinto,” 1558, oil on canvas, 45 x 35 inches, Philadelphia Museum of Art
According to the museum, “The exhibition presents a fresh look at one of the finest collections of European art to have been formed by a private collector in this country. On view will be major works by artists such as Botticelli, Bosch, Titian, Rembrandt, and Manet, among many others. It will also open a window on the work of museum curators and conservators, illuminating how our understanding of these works continues to evolve.”
Rogier van der Weyden, “The Crucifixion,” circa 1460, oil on panel, 71 x 36 1/2 inches, Philadelphia Museum of ArtJan van Eyck, “Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata,” circa 1430-32, oil on vellum on panel, 5 x 5 3/4 inches, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Timothy Rub, the museum’s George D. Widener director and CEO, added, “Over time our appreciation of Johnson’s extraordinary gift continues to grow, and yet it remains a source of endless fascination with many discoveries still to be made. We are delighted to open a window onto our work, offering visitors a fresh look at the process of scholarship and conservation that we bring to the care of our collection and an insight into the questions, puzzles, and mysteries that continue to occupy our staff.”
Édouard Manet, “The Battle of the USS Kearsarge and the CSS Alabama,” 1864, Philadelphia Museum of ArtClaude Monet, “Railroad Bridge, Argenteuil,” 1874, oil on canvas, 21 3/8 x 29 inches, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Continuing, the museum writes, “The exhibition also explores those areas of European painting in which Johnson focused in depth, including Italian, Dutch and Netherlandish, and French art. The number of Dutch paintings he acquired was among the largest of his day, and is especially rich in landscapes by Jacob van Ruisdael and animated genre scenes by Jan Steen. Rembrandt’s ‘Head of Christ’ will also be on view in this section.”
“Old Masters Now” opens on November 3 and will continue through February 19, 2018. To learn more, visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.
Keith Batcheller, “Time to Cool Down,” oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches
Established in 2011, the Pismo Beach Art Show (called SLOPOKE) has emerged as a go-to destination for collectors of museum-quality fine Western art. In 2017, organizers are ready to again host the growing event, which is just around the corner.
Pismo Beach Veterans’ Memorial Hall in California will be the proud host of 2017’s SLOPOKE art show and sale, featuring a range of sculpture and paintings by leading Western artists. The event kicks off on Saturday, September 30, and will continue through Sunday, October 1. Now in its seventh year, the show originated as a Western art exhibition, but has since expanded to contemporary art as well in response to customer demand.
Regina Lyubovnaya, “Bird Parade,” oil, 20 x 24 inchesErrol Gordon, “Emancipation,” bronze, 14 x 17 x 7-1/2 inchesValeriy Kagounkin, “Moving the Herd,” 2017, oil, 24 x 32 inches
According to the event website: “The SLOPOKE is a standalone, business venture with participating artists and sculptors, who are juried in and on-site to present their art.” Represented artists in 2017 include Cliff Barnes, Greg Singley, Joe Milazzo, Keith Batcheller, Lisa McLoughlin, Loretta Tearney Warner, Pat Roberts, Regina Lyubovnaya, Susan von Borstel, Tom Marlatt, Valeriy Kagounkin, Vel Miller, Tamara Magdalina, Leslie Balleweg, John Budicin, Tom Burgher, Paula Delay, Errol Gordon, Barron Postmus, and George D. Smith.
This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.
Fine Art Connoisseur magazine has set up a temporary website for artists, galleries, museums, and auction houses to register and tell their stories about Hurricane Harvey. In addition, we’re offering them a chance to participate in a free ad spread that we hope will get spaces reopened and collectors buying.
A message from Eric Rhoads, Publisher of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine:
Dear Friends,
As publisher of various art magazines and newsletters, I feel that we have a responsibility to help artists, galleries, and museums impacted by Hurricane Harvey.
When Katrina hit New Orleans, many galleries there were in trouble. Tourism fell way off, and locals were consumed with things other than buying art.
At that time we stepped in and offered free advertising to help some of those galleries survive, and we later learned that it helped a lot. Thankfully, collectors with good hearts looked at the websites, found art they liked, and did some purchasing.
We feel an obligation to give back during this storm as well. We know of one gallery whose building collapsed. We also know that there are galleries that will be impacted by a lack of traffic and tourism, and galleries affected by flooding in their space or simply the distraction of storm-related issues in their communities, keeping people from visiting and buying.
We have set up a quick temporary website for people affected by the storm to register and tell us their stories.
We will reach out to these galleries, artists, and museums, and offer them a chance to participate in an ad spread to try to get people to visit and buy from them, to help sustain them during this difficult time.
We are not charging them for this special ad space, which will be in the next issues of PleinAir and Fine Art Connoisseur magazines, and promoted on the magazines’ websites as well.
We know the storm continues to create flooding in Houston and other areas, so please keep these people in your thoughts and prayers.
This is a time when we, as a community of artists, galleries, collectors, museums, and auction houses, can come to their rescue. I encourage you, particularly if you were going to buy art anyway, to consider visiting these people online and making purchases.
Yours truly,
Eric Rhoads,
Publisher
PS: This is not a time for competitive differences. Therefore I encourage all of my sisters and brothers in the arts community to come together, and for local galleries and artists not affected to help those who are. I also call on all other art magazines and websites to step up and offer a similar program.
This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.
Stephanie Hartshorn, “Piggyback,” 2015, oil on board, 8 x 10 inches
Sorrel Sky Gallery will host a two-woman show “Rural Narratives,” featuring Stephanie Hartshorn and Tamara Rymer on September 8. The pairing of the two artists should make for a great exhibition. Why?
An architect by trade, Hartshorn’s work engages heavily with structures as an art form, especially those found within both rural and urban landscapes. Rymer’s work is equally as beautiful, but instead explores western lifestyles and those surrounding her family history.
Tamara Rymer, “East, West, and Midwest,” 2015, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches
Shanan Campbell Wells, owner of Sorrel Sky Gallery, is looking forward to having these two artists showing together, suggesting “Stephanie and Tamara both paint with such a clear visual ‘voice.’ Each makes her own observations, creates her own narrative, and transforms that narrative into imagery that we can relate and connect to. Having their works paired in this show will offer a unique opportunity to ‘hear’ what they have seen and been influenced by.”
This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.
2017 marks the centenary of Auguste Rodin’s death, and institutions around the world are commemorating this icon through a number of absolutely can’t-miss events and exhibitions. We have a list.
Arguably the greatest single force that brought sculpture into the Modern age, Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) is, in the history of art, a giant among giants. He is famed for his expressive and introspective approach, and works such as “The Kiss,” “The Thinker,” and “The Gates of Hell” have been cherished and celebrated since their inception.
Marking 100 years since his death, 2017 will witness a number of fantastic events around the country that deserve your attention, and we’ve compiled them here for your convenience. The hashtag #Rodin100 may be followed for this initiative as well. For full information, visit http://www.rodin100.org/.
1) Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collections are part of a travelling exhibition to three museums in the United States in 2017. Titled “Rodin: The Human Experience — Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collections,” this major exhibition features 52 bronzes by Rodin, with particular focus on the sculptor’s passion for modeling the human form in clay, the medium in which his hand and mind are most directly evidenced. This show opened at the Portland Art Museum on January 21 and continues through April 16. It will then travel to the Flint Institute of Arts in Flint, Michigan, where it will be on view from May 6 through July 30. Its final stop will be in Savannah, Georgia, at the Telfair Museums from September 1 through January 7, 2018.
2) The Rodin Museum in Philadelphia will present “The Kiss” from February 1 through January 2019. An installation rather than an exhibition, “The Kiss” is centered on the theme of passionate embrace. The works on view “demonstrate the variety of approaches, meanings, and allusions that Rodin brought to his intimate figure groupings in order to evoke emotional intensity,” the museum writes. “In particular, the Rodin Museum’s copy of ‘The Kiss’ is considered for its unique history and as an example of Rodin’s continuing appeal.”
3) From September 9 through December 9, the Pauly Friedman Art Gallery on the campus of Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania, will present “Rodin: Portraits of a Lifetime.” Selected works for this exhibition again focus on the artist’s adroit figural sculptures. “Rodin captured the expressiveness and authentic emotion of his subjects in part by using roughly textured bronze surfaces to reflect light,” the museum reports, “giving the effect of movement.”
4) San Francisco, California’s Legion of Honor presents one of the larger exhibitions in “Auguste Rodin: The Centenary Installation.” From January 28 through December 31, this installation features some 50 sculptures in bronze, marble, and plaster, drawn from the permanent collections of the Legion of Honor. “To further commemorate the Rodin centenary,” the organization writes, “the Fine Arts Museums have invited international artists Urs Fischer and Sarah Lucas to conceive installations combining new and existing works in dialogue with the museum’s Rodin holdings that explore underappreciated dimensions of Rodin’s work.”
5) The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia will present “Kiefer Rodin” from November 17 through March 12, 2018. In collaboration with the Musée Rodin in Paris, this exhibition “gathers new works by renowned contemporary artist Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945) that were created in response to sculptures and drawings by Rodin,” the foundation reports. Featuring over 100 works, the exhibition includes Kiefer’s large-scale illustrated books made in homage to Rodin as well as sculptures and drawings by the master himself — some being displayed in the United States for the first time.
6) New York’s Metropolitan Museum will be presenting a number of carefully curated works by Rodin from September 5 through January 15, 2018. Nearly 60 marbles, bronzes, plasters, and terracottas by Rodin that represent over 100 years of acquisitions and gifts will be on view. Via the museum, “The extraordinary range of the Met’s holdings of Rodin’s work is also highlighted in a related focus exhibition, ‘Rodin on Paper,’ a selection of Rodin’s drawings, prints, letters, and illustrated books, as well as photographs by Edward Steichen of the master sculptor and his art.”
7) Finally, the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City, Mexico, will exhibit more than 150 works in bronze, marble, plaster, porcelain, and terracotta during “Eve through the Glance of Art” from November 17 through April 2018.
This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.
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.
