“Devon with her Hair Down”

20 x 16 in.

Oil on canvas

“Devon is a frequent model of mine and I always seem to catch something of her spirit, and so I have painted her many times. Her mother has purchased one of the portraits. Unfortunately for me, she is off to England working so I won’t likely get to see her again.”

About the artist:

William Rogers is a plein air artist working in oil and watercolor. He is past President of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (CSPWC)  and a signature member of the Transparent Watercolor Society of America (TWSA), and the Société Canadienne de aquarelle (SCA). He has won numerous awards from all these societies and from plein air events since 2009.

In 2016 Bill took home 2nd Prizes in Mountain Maryland Plein Air, as well as awards in Paint Annapolis and Paint the Peninsula. He also was given an Award of Excellence for his work in the Oil Painters of America Salon Show in September 2016 and the Dorothy Corson Award from the CSPWC in October.

Another highlight came in 2014 when Bill served as the official Tour Artist for HRH Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall on their Royal Tour of Canada. Many of the completed works were acquired by His Royal Highness for his personal collection.

“The Night Is Young”
Oil on linen
77 x 40 in.
To purchase, contact Summer Hartley at 904-829-6880 or [email protected]

Leah Lopez was born in New Mexico where brilliant colors backdrop the unique rugged landscape, where diverse cultures converge with tradition and art living up to its name, the “Land of Enchantment”. Growing up amid these surroundings was the beginning of the artist we know today.  However, Leah would meet many challenges. In her youth, Leah’s creative development was stifled by a devoutly religious family. She secretly imagined a life where she could freely express her creative passions and began plotting her escape. At age 18, Leah decided to pursue it and was rejected by her friends and family.

Leah spent the next few years immersed in the study of drawing and painting. When possible, she’d take classes and retreat to her studio to experiment with oil paint for days and nights. Eventually, she developed a dexterous handling of her favorite medium and Leah became a well-known emerging artist in the Southwest. Around this time, she and her sister were reunited and began rebuilding their bond. Leah remains grateful for the time they had together. Unfortunately, it was short-lived when her sister died in a car accident. Devastated and seeking solace, she recalled how they shared a love of the stories with characters living lives of adventure. And for Leah, the greatest place for adventure was in New York City.

Life has a strange way of repeating itself. Once again, gathering the necessities and a few months’ rent, Leah began a new journey into an unknown world. She recalls, “I’ve always been an explorer and a seeker, these experiences, good or bad, serve as inspiration for my paintings.”  New York would prove to be her greatest challenge. Leah had to work harder than ever to build a new life. Her efforts paid off when she opened her ideal north-light studio and the Leah Lopez Atelier at Union Square, in January 2014.

As an artist, Leah is highly respected and her paintings are celebrated. With gallery representation across the states and students flocking to the Atelier to study, she maintains the same industrious schedule to develop her latest body of work. More than ever, Leah’s paintings are passionately inspired by her life and experiences on this riveting, creative journey.

Leah Lopez Fine Art

New York, New York

www.leahlopez.com

“American Gothic 2017”

30 x 30 in.

oil on canvas

ART IS A REFLECTION OF HUMAN EXISTENCE

In my early twenties for some unknown reason and with no significant financial resources, I purchased a canvas board, student brushes, and a few tubes of oil paint. The instant I started to copy a magazine image onto the canvas, I knew my calling was to be a painter with all of its challenges and demands. After I earned undergraduate and Master of Fine Arts degrees in studio art, life with its responsibilities took hold. Yet, I always found time to paint, though not with the focus that was required to develop my craft as I wished. I then structured my life so that eventually I would be able to paint full time time.

As a student of people I was able to interact with many individuals during a long non- painting career in museums and educational institutions working in teaching and administration. These experiences helped me develop a deeper understanding of human nature. This understanding, as well as my overall life experiences, have become profound influences in determining my mature painter’s voice.

I have come to understand that my work has always been directed by the paths I chose. The paintings I create are about how people choose to, or not to, live their lives. My intent is not to replicate past historical visual images, but rather to study the reaction of people in various life situations and then create contemporary visual stories depicting significant moments that reveal an inner presence. They study the fleeting instant when emotional reactions and the pathos of a situation is often unconsciously revealed. Through my paintings viewers are prompted to think and reflect upon the relation of these enigmatic references to their own lives.

I strive for accurate visual representation, however, I consciously do not paint for photographic accuracy. My work is about the fusion of concept and pigment to produce a painting. Yet, photography has always been a mainstay of my visual approach. In structuring a composition, I select images from a number of my photographs. These images are used to draw what I call a road map on the canvas. Then my focus shifts to pigment for its expressive application onto the canvas. I paint so the pigment can speak as an indication of a passage’s significance, as well as express the intrinsic concept of the scene. My brushwork emphasizes passages of the canvas, creating a visual tempo about the story that that is being told. Thus, the finished painting is a fusion of concept and the process of painting.

The direction I have been advancing towards is to paint backgrounds that are increasingly more indicative of the painting’s narrative rather than the placement of people into a traditional environment. This is to promote greater interest and reflection on the part of the viewer, for further grounding people within an evocative narrative creates a scene apart from the commonplace of daily existence. While questions are raised in viewing these scenes, there is no “right” interpretation of them. I leave all interpretations to the viewers who dialogue with my paintings.

I am a member of the Salmagundi Club, New York; Oil Painters of America; American Impressionist Society; and American Women Artists.

I received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Rutgers University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Douglas College. After a period of teaching Studio Art and Art History I pursued a career in nonprofit institutions holding positions in development and institutional advancement. Positions held include Deputy Director, Cincinnati Art Museum; Vice President, Pratt Institute; Vice President, American Craft Museum, now the Museum of Arts and Design; as well as Director of Alumni Relations, Associate Director University Development, and Director of Development, Tisch School of the Arts, all for New York University University; and development posts at the Whitney Museum and the Brooklyn Museum.

View more of Patricia’s work at www.patriciahynespainter.com

Contact Patricia at [email protected] or 973-763-2384

“A Canyon of Colors”

29 x 29 in.

Oil

2017

With her distinctive style, Michelle Condrat wowed collectors during the 2016 Grand Canyon Celebration of Art, shattering sales records at the Quick Draw

and ending the exhibit as the top seller. Michelle will be back at the canyon

again this year with her fresh contemporary vision and visual perception of the western landscape.

The 9th annual Grand Canyon Celebration of Art will feature 25 artists painting

plein air at the Grand Canyon September 9-16, 2017, with an exhibit and sale of their work opening at Kolb Studio on the South Rim on September 17. The exhibit and sale will be open daily through January 15, 2018.

Each of the participating artists creates a studio painting for the exhibit, which hang in the exhibit along with the plein air work they paint during the event.

Of her studio painting this year, “A Canyon of Colors,” Condrat notes “My goal was to capture a snapshot of the subtle color changes from the highlights and shadows to the reflections upon the water, for these colors can change so fast and dramatically from one second to the next.”

For more information and a schedule of events please visit:

https://www.grandcanyon.org/arts-and-culture/9th-annual-grand-canyon-celebration-art

or contact Kathy Duley at [email protected] or 480.277.0458

“Waiting for a Friend”

8 x 8 in.

Acrylic on panel

Available online at http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/chantel-barber/waiting-for-a-friend/586286

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.

View more of Chantel’s work at www.chantellynnbarber.com.

“Naples Cafe”

24 x 36 in.

oil on birch

I love painting color and the unexpected way it can bounce around a painting. This cafe was the perfect chance for me to play with color throughout the piece.

Heather works in oils and prefers figurative work but she enjoys painting many different subjects. Her education includes a rigorous course of independent study reading many books on drawing and painting and taking workshops from respected artists such as Vadim Zanginian, Kim English and Clayton Beck III. While earning a degree in biology with emphasis on anatomy in the early 1990’s, she also studied art history and ceramics.

Heather is a Master Signature artist with the Women Artists of the West and Associate of Distinction with American Women Artists. She has received numerous awards for her work which helps others see the beauty in everyday objects, places and people.

Latest awards

Bold Brush May 2017 for “Oscar and Sharon’s Big Day Out, Best of Show

Sedona Art Prize May 2017 for “Colorful Subject”, Finalist

WAOW National Juried Exhibition 2016 for “Home on the Range”, Art of the West Editor’s Choice

AWA National Juried Exhibition 2016 for “Orange Taffeta”, Finalist

WAOW Hot Summer Nights 2016 for “After the Dance”, Best Overall

WAOW Hot Summer Nights 2016 for “31st and Lexington”, Honorable Mention OPA Online Showcase Spring 2016 “Belizean Chef”, Honorable Mention

AWA Spring Online Show 2016 for “Margaritas in Tubac”, Finalist

“Vibrant Floral”

36 x 48 in.

Oil on Panel

Completed 2015

Available – $38,000

Lotton Gallery, Chicago, IL

Biography:

Yana Movchan was born in Kiev in 1971. Her sublime mastery of the technique and structure of Renaissance painting combines with the instinctive symbolism of “magical realism” to create a personal neo-realist idiom. Her work is formal, yet playful; contemporary, yet timeless; and joyous, yet mysterious, evocative and dreamlike.

In Yana’s paintings, the intellectual and the emotional synthesize to form images that touch the viewer’s heart whilst issuing a challenge: there are deeper meanings to be unraveled, hidden clues amongst the hyper-real still lifes, portraits and animal scenes; meanings which echo deep in the unconscious mind. Her work has been compared to Velasquez, Colville and Magritte.

Movchan trained at the Ukrainian Art Academy. Her master’s thesis project (a triptych entitled “Life on Earth”) won the Golden Fund Prize, the Academy’s highest art award. Her work has featured in solo and group exhibitions in the Ukraine, Prague, London, The U.S. and Canada. She is based in Halifax, Canada, where she lives with her husband and two young sons.

Lotton Gallery

900 North Michigan Ave. Level 6

Chicago, IL 60611

Tel: (312) 664-6203

[email protected]

www.lottongallery.com