You will be during this landmark exhibition in California. Over 50 original drawings from many of the best realists working today will soon be on view. Details here!
 
Opening September 17 at Arcadia Contemporary’s new Culver City, California, location, “Drawn to Greatness” will arguably be the most spectacular display of realism in dry mediums in 2016. In a show featuring over 50 original works, visitors to the gallery’s exquisite new space will encounter names that will undoubtedly endure for generations to come, including Annie Murphy-Robinson, Casey Baugh, Julio Reyes, Daniel Coves, Kerry Brooks, Amaya Gurpide, Michael Chapman, Ryan Salge, George Morton, and many others.
 

George A. Morton, “Mars,” charcoal and graphite on paper, 22 x 18 in. (c) Arcadia Contemporary 2016

Ryan Salge, “Death of a Vagabond,” graphite on paper, 20 x 26 in. (c) Arcadia Contemporary 2016

 
Artists often swear by drawing, proclaiming its importance to any creator’s development in any medium. Moreover, Australian master Rick Amor once remarked that drawing is “the most direct and intimate expression of an artist’s sensibility.” Whatever you may believe, the finest examples have come together within a renowned gallery that merits a great deal of attention from connoisseurs and collectors.
 

Annie Murphy-Robinson, “Casey Voodoo Child,” charcoal on paper, 60 x 42 in. (c) Arcadia Contemporary 2016

 
This extraordinary opportunity won’t last long. Opening September 17, “Drawn to Greatness” will dismount on September 29. To learn more, visit Arcadia Contemporary.
 
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.
 

You’ve spoken! In this occasional series, we highlight one of most popular articles among Fine Art Today readers. This week we revisit the amazing art detective challenge and television show taking place now in the UK.
 
If you were in a museum staring at a masterpiece that had actually been replaced with a fake, would you be able to tell? A new treasure hunt and television show in the UK is asking just that.
 
It’s being called “Fake! The Great Masterpiece Challenge,” and it’s unlike anything you’ve seen before. In coordination with five national galleries in the United Kingdom — Cardiff, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, and Manchester — seven masterpiece paintings (all by British painters) have been secretly removed from their galleries and replaced with fakes. Only the museum curators, production team, and hosts will know which paintings have been switched.
 
The show challenges the public of all ages and experience to locate the fakes in person at the museums or online. The prize for a correct identification? How about an appearance on the show’s finale and a chance to win a specially commissioned copy of one of the works to keep!
 
The challenge is an awesome way to generate interest in the arts as well as potentially boost patronage at the museums. Each episode of the show will delve into a particular period of British art, with special curatorial and art historian guests. Also included in the show are the contemporary artists who were asked to re-create the paintings from scratch.
 
The competition doesn’t appear to be limited to residents in the United Kingdom! To learn more, visit the competition webpage here.
 
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Some have argued it’s the largest public art event on earth, with nearly a half-million attendees and more than $500,000 in cash and other prizes. The eighth installment of this extraordinary festival kicks off September 21. Details here!
 
For seven — soon to be eight — years, Grand Rapids, Michigan, has played host to a gigantic art festival: ArtPrize. Beginning September 21 and continuing through October 9, ArtPrize is a full 19 days of pure artistic and entertainment joy. In arguably the largest public art event on earth, organizers have routinely expected over 400,000 attendees to descend upon the three square miles of downtown Grand Rapids.
 
Attendees of 2016’s edition of ArtPrize can expect to encounter over 160 participating venues hosting a complete variety of over-18 artists working in every conceivable style and medium. They may be found in a museum, gallery, bar, restaurant, theater, hotel, park, wall, bridge, laundromat, or auto parts store — ArtPrize is independently organized by artists and venues through the event website at artprize.org.
 
What makes ArtPrize particularly exciting? That would be the opportunity for artists to collect a number of cash prizes, including two Grand Prize awards of $200,000. All told, over a half-million in cash and other prizes are awarded to artists. Another interesting facet of the awards us how they’re determined. In a unique twist, winners of awards are chosen half by public vote and half by a jury of art experts. Categories of awards include two-dimensional, three-dimensional, time-based, and installation. Another award honors one of the outstanding venues.
 

 
To learn more about this year’s event and how to plan your trip, visit ArtPrize.
 
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.
 

Time and again birds have found themselves the subjects of artists’ work in all types of mediums and styles. Since 1976, one museum has annually exhibited a juried collection of nearly 100 works with our feathered friends as the focus. Who’s featured in this year’s show?
 
On view beginning September 10 is the 41st annual “Birds in Art” exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. The show, which features artworks by 112 of the world’s most talented artists, has earned international recognition over its tenure. Among the artists juried into the show, 20 have been named Master Wildlife Artists in earlier exhibitions; they include Owen J. Gromme (1976), Peter Scott (1980), Maynard Reece (1989), Richard Sloan (1994), John T. Sharp (1996), Nancy Howe (2005), Terry Miller (2013), Anne Senechal Faust (1999), and Andrea Rich (2013).
 

Sean Murtha, “Periwinkle Flats,” 2014, oil on canvas, (c) Woodson Museum of Art 2016

Three jurors scoured through submissions by more than 600 artists from across the world. Via the museum’s announcement: “Opening day, Saturday, September 10, part of Wausau’s Artrageous Weekend, provides varied opportunities to interact with more than sixty ‘Birds in Art’ artists visiting from throughout the world. Karen Bondarchuk, whose work ranges from sculpture and drawing to video and bookmaking and is well known for her large-scale charcoal portraits of ravens, crows, and owls along with larger-than-life corvid sculptures created from salvaged tire scraps, will be honored as the Museum’s 35th Master Artist during opening weekend festivities. Bondarchuk’s work has been selected for inclusion in ‘Birds in Art’ seven times since 2008, her first year in the exhibition. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies ‘Birds in Art’ and will be available in September 2016.”
 

Kathryn Ashcroft, “Tranquility,” 2016, oil on linen, (c) Woodson Museum of Art 2016

“Birds in Art” opens on September 10 and will be on view through November 27.
 
To learn more, visit the Woodson Art Museum.
 
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.

An eclectic range of accomplished artists headlines an outstanding group exhibition in Kansas this fall at Strecker-Nelson Gallery. Find out which nationally known artists and sculptors are included!
 
The great American plains are getting a diverse range of artistic love at Manhattan, Kansas’s Strecker-Nelson Gallery beginning September 9. Featuring an extraordinary lineup of talented artists, including Michael Albrechtsen, Mark Flickinger, Kim Casebeer, Nancy Bovee, Don Kottmann, Mark Kielkucki, Clive Fullagar, Brett Foster, Josh Novack, and Ryan Swayne, the exhibition will surely have something for every connoisseur and collector.
 
An opening reception is slated for Friday, September 9 at the gallery where many, if not all, of the artists will be present to discuss their works. Alongside the stylistically varied paintings are ceramic wall sculptures, pottery, and steel furniture.
 
“The Lyrical Prairie” will be on view through October 29. To learn more, visit Strecker-Nelson Gallery.
 
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.
 

Fans of John Singer Sargent often comment on the artist’s unique ability to communicate so much information and emotion with one broad and aptly placed stroke of the brush. Using the palette knife rather than a brush is renowned painter Lynn Boggess, whose creative abilities could be on par with the American master. Decide for yourself!
 
Contemporary painter Lynn Boggess is currently showcasing a number of recent landscapes at Santa Fe, New Mexico’s EVOKE Contemporary. Collectors are often taken by Boggess’s unique style and expressive use of impasto and the palette knife. To be extreme, his paintings almost border on the sculptural, given the rough, dynamic, and jagged textures produced on his canvases.
 

Lynn Boggess, “08 June 2016,” 2016, oil on canvas, 34 x 30 in. (c) EVOKE Contemporary 2016

Lynn Boggess, “16 May 2014,” 2014, oil on canvas, 24 x 48 in. (c) EVOKE Contemporary 2016

Lynn Boggess, “18 May 2016,” 2016, oil on canvas, 40 x 36 in. (c) EVOKE Contemporary 2016
 

Indeed, viewers will delight in each painting as they journey through their representational and abstract qualities. Scale is yet another element that will make impressions on viewers. Boggess typically works in monumental scale, with many of his works stretching several feet in both height and width. With all their colorful power and vivid energy, viewers will be engulfed — literally and figuratively — by Lynn’s creative vision.
 
To learn more, visit EVOKE Contemporary.
 
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.
 

Jeremy Mann — one of America’s leading contemporary painters — continues his ascent with an electrifying display of recent work.
 
Sixty oils and sketches comprise Jeremy Mann’s newest solo exhibition at John Pence Gallery in San Francisco. Mann continues to evolve as an artist, with cityscapes and figurative works that could well inspire Hollywood’s next dystopian blockbuster. Several cityscapes, such as “Another Night Through Storms” and “New York #11,” hypnotize and pull the viewer in with strong orthogonal lines and a rhythmic array of mark-making.
 

Jeremy Mann, “New York #11,” 2015, oil on panel, 48 x 48 in. (c) John Pence Gallery 2016

 
In “New York #11,” the eye finds visual interest and points of focus in a sea of blue, black, and white through dabs of red that recede into the distance. Forms and structure become more clearly delineated in other oils such as “Sunset by Union Square.” Mann displays a broad range of abilities with “Cathedral,” a magnificent landscape representing a sunbathed mountain peak skimming the clouds.
 

Jeremy Mann, “The Garden,” 2015, oil on panel, 36 x 24 in. (c) John Pence Gallery 2016

 
Complementing the show are Mann’s figurative works, in which female models emerge among fragmented and abstracted spaces. These figures show calming, graceful poses and expressions that give harmony and balance to their kinetic settings.
 

Jeremy Mann, “A Long Abandoned Dream,” 2013, oil on panel, 48 x 48 in. (c) John Pence Gallery 2016

 
“Jeremy Mann” opened on August 26 and will continue through October 1.
 
To learn more, visit John Pence Gallery or Jeremy Mann.
 
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.
 

For those not native to the great plains, grasslands, and rolling hills of the American Midwest, these landscapes might be categorized as “bland” or “uninteresting.” However, during a fantastic solo exhibition this month, painter John Cleaveland asks his audience to take a deeper look into this region’s incredible aesthetic potential.
 
Whether it’s the diverse range of grass species, wildflowers, expansive skies, or beautiful wildlife, the landscapes around the hills and prairies of Missouri offered accomplished artist John Cleaveland awesome aesthetic potential for an upcoming solo exhibition at the Missouri State Botanical Gardens.
 

John Cleaveland, “Not as Quiet as it Looks,” 2016, oil on panel, 31 x 23 1/2 in. (c) John Cleaveland 2016

 
“Missouri Prairies” will feature approximately 24 superb canvases from Cleaveland composed from several trips to the region and nearly 7,000 photographs. A native of the deep South, Cleaveland has stepped outside his comfort zone for the exhibition, pushing himself to discover in paint the subtle beauties of the American plains. The results? Outstanding.
 

John Cleaveland, “I can tell you how to get here, but it will take a while,” 2016, oil on panel, 30 x 24 in.
(c) John Cleaveland 2016

John Cleaveland, “A Little Farther,” 2016, oil on panel, 60 x 24 in. (c) John Cleaveland 2016

 
“Part of the challenge for me was finding new techniques and methods for capturing the incredible range of texture, color, detail, and light of this beautiful landscape,” Cleaveland says. “Although I wasn’t expecting it, these landscapes have taken me back to some of my abstract roots. When you look at this body of work, close inspection of the paintings reveals a high degree of expressive strokes and layering of paint; everything comes together with more distance. It’s such a uniquely beautiful landscape that I also had to teach myself how to see it from an artistic perspective. Luckily, I was introduced to it by locals who know so much about the diverse ecology.”
 

John Cleaveland, “Snow Flattened Tallgrass,” 2016, oil on panel, 52 x 24 in. (c) John Cleaveland 2016

“Missouri Prairies: Paintings by John Cleaveland” opens in the Ridgway Center at the Missouri State Botanical Gardens on September 7 and will be on view through November 11.
 
To learn more, visit the Missouri State Botanical Gardens.
 
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.
 

In this ongoing series for Fine Art Today, we take a longer look at the history and features of a soon-to-be-available artwork of note. This week: Johannes Christiaan Schotel, “Low Tide Gun Salute from a Dutch Man o’War.”
 
Although the Netherlands experienced a Golden Age in the 17th century — both artistically and economically — painter Johannes Christiaan Schotel is regarded as one of the pioneering men of the nation’s second Golden Age, in the 19th century.
 
Guided by the principles of his time, namely Romanticism and Historicism, Schotel was among a wealth of artists charged with the task of presenting the Netherlands as a confident naval nation, something he accomplished with stunning results. Simpson Galleries reports the artist, originally a yarn manufacturer, began to explore painting around 1805, eventually becoming a member of the prestigious Pictura Society. Although Schotel would explore a number of genres and subjects during his career, his most celebrated works focus on the sea.
 
By 1822, Schotel was considered by his contemporaries to be the most important painter of the sea and river scenes. His reputation would eventually earn Schotel numerous titles and awards, as he traveled to France and other European nations for commissioned paintings. Via Simpson Galleries, “Schotel’s large scale marine oil paintings are sought after on the international market … yet, until now, the paintings sold on the international market have dwarfed in comparison to this lot, which may be the largest of Schotel’s paintings to public knowledge.”
 
Headlining Simpson Galleries’ September 11 “Fine Art & Antiques Session II” in Houston, Texas, is Schotel’s “Low Tide Gun Salute from a Dutch Man o’ War” — a magnificent maritime painting in superb condition. As suggested above, the painting is monumental in size — perhaps the largest in Schotel’s oeuvre. Populated with several figures and numerous ships, the low horizon line and epic clouds imbue the scene with a sense of grandeur and majesty, undoubtedly a characteristic sought by Netherlandish patrons.
 
Auction estimates are between $80,000 and $120,000. To view the full catalogue, visit Simpson Galleries.
 
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.

Published September 1, 2016

While some artists carefully plan and execute every element within their work, others prefer a more organic creative process — like the flowing method by which ascending egg tempera painter Anastasia Elena Baranoff creates a unique fantastical world in which her emotions and experiences are shared with the viewer.

Fifth-generation fine artist Anastasia Elena Baranoff has undoubtedly had some incredible moments in her life, as evidenced by her fantastical and beautifully executed egg tempera paintings. Having experienced inspiration in many forms, whether moved by an idea, vision, emotion, music, or another art form, Baranoff sees herself charged with the artistic task of using her creative power to communicate her own unique world and muses.

“I truly believe that as an artist you have to be constantly open to going in new directions, exploring different themes, genres, yourself and always evolving,” she says. “When I begin, I like to put down the idea on paper and form a preparatory drawing of a composition, orchestrating my characters and developing their story and world. Once I feel I have reached what I imagined, I proceed to celebrate that idea in color. I always savor the painting process, making up the color palette as I go along. There is so much freedom of expression involved in that. The creative process, I find, is an unexplainable wonder, and the birth of a work of art is really an event. Just to think, as an artist I am bringing to life something that was not in existence before.”

Anastasia Elena Baranoff, “The Magic Flute (detail),” egg tempera on paper, (c) Anastasia Baranoff 2016

“The Magic Flute” is but one particularly stunning example within Baranoff’s oeuvre and demonstrates well the artist’s fascinating process — and finished products. Through the captivating composition and colorful palette, Baranoff communicates her unique understanding and appreciation of Mozart’s genius through his 1791 opera. Baranoff writes, “From very early childhood I have been a fiery admirer of Mozart and his unsurpassed music, and constantly listen to his brilliant compositions while painting. His opera The Magic Flute has always fascinated me, its exotic, out of this world setting, full of interlaced symbols and meaning.

Anastasia Elena Baranoff, “The Magic Flute (detail),” egg tempera on paper, (c) Anastasia Baranoff 2016

“The composition focuses on the just rescued Tamino, vibrant Papageno, supernatural Three Ladies, and commanding Queen of the Night, introducing a portrait of the captured Pamina. The unusual Egyptian flavor is engaged throughout the painting. Before taking to the brush, I listened to Mozart’s score to get a feeling from the music, looked at the story line, and researched into ancient Egypt and its motifs.

Anastasia Elena Baranoff, “St. Martin in the Fields, London,” egg tempera on paper, (c) Anastasia Baranoff 2016

“Then the imagination began to shape and compose the painting. All the elements that you see in the completed artwork came together, piece by piece, to form a unique image. How a creative composition comes together is beyond explanation, it’s a magic moment that’s somehow born.

“The painting was created in the age-old technique of egg tempera, a method when all the paints are hand-prepared, following an exclusive recipe passed down through the generations. It is a very meditative process and truly adds a special, organic facet to the creative art process. Curiously, egg tempera was a medium used during the time of ancient Egypt, so there is a unique connection in that sense.

Ms. Anastasia Elena Baranoff at work; image courtesy the artist

“During the painting process I continued to listen to Mozart and be fueled by his music. The color palette came naturally, flowing out of me on instinct. When I am creating a painting from imagination, the process gives so much exciting independence, where anything is possible.”

Working much like a director composing a film, Baranoff orchestrates her characters on the two-dimensional stage, choosing decorations and costumes to create her imaginative works. This element ultimately touches the core of Baranoff’s artistic philosophies and goals: to be known as a storyteller, “creating imaginative worlds and taking the audience with me on exciting journeys to new, never-before-seen places,” as she asserts. “I want the viewer to be transported into a dream, a captivating realm, as far from reality as possible. An artwork should be expressive and visually compelling through the color palette, composition, and meaning; every single element of the painting has a special role, and all are connected to form a perfectly harmonious union. Ultimately, I am a traveler, an explorer in my approach to the creative process, and in my art I present my discoveries.”

Anastasia Elena Baranoff, “Madama Butterfly, Cio-Cio San,” egg tempera on paper, (c) Anastasia Baranoff 2016

Anastasia Baranoff’s journey to art seems to have been predestined. As a fifth-generation fine artist in a dynasty of Russian fine artists and icon writers, Baranoff has been exposed since birth to a fine art world few get to experience, and even into adulthood. Anastasia’s mother, Elena, is one of the preeminent portraitists working today and the undisputed master of the often-forgotten egg tempera medium.

Anastasia Elena Baranoff, “Madama Butterfly, Cio-Cio San (detail),” egg tempera on paper,
(c) Anastasia Baranoff 2016

Anastasia writes, “My mother Elena has been the greatest and most generous mentor. Growing up with her, being part of her unique art world, definitely was and continues to be a profound experience. She has taught me all the secrets and shares her knowledge, such as the ancient and unique recipe of hand-prepared genuine egg tempera paint, with its precious pigments as lapis lazuli and malachite.”

In 2013, the mother-daughter tandem founded the Egg Tempera Movement — an organization that seeks to promote new and original artworks in this traditional medium. Their hope is to reignite interest in and use of this specialized medium rarely encountered in the fine art world today.

Anastasia Elena Baranoff, “Afternoon Waltz,” egg tempera on paper, (c) Anastasia Baranoff 2016

Continuing, Baranoff suggests, “When I first began exhibiting my work, I felt that I was sharing something personal with people whom I had never met, and somehow was connecting with them through my creations. And the feeling continues to this day, my artwork is my messenger. I may not even be present in the exhibition hall, but the painting is there, an independent part of me, communicating with the audience.

“I think the journey to becoming an artist is an ongoing one, we are such sensitive beings, seeing and experiencing the world through the special eyes of creators, and with every new step we transform to become the artists we were destined to become.”

To learn more, visit Anastasia Elena Baranoff online.

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.