“Presence Gorilla”
Bronze
10 x 9 x 22 in.
Edition 10/10
 
http://www.bartwalter.com
[email protected]
 
Artist’s Statement:
My art evolves from a passion for all living things. I strive to capture the essence of a living being; to explore some kernel of truth that may have gone unnoticed, and to depict an otherwise elusive moment in time.

In my mind’s eye, I strip away all that is unnecessary, even as I build the sculpture with layer upon layer of clay. My goal is a distillation of the subject until only true essentials are left. If in so doing I can reveal some intangible spirit, make evident the soul of my subject, and communicate this in my art, then I have accomplished something real.
 
About the Artist:
A full-time sculptor for three decades, Bart Walter is primarily known for his unique and dynamic approach to surface. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, his work can be found in notable public and private collections worldwide: be it in the museum, gallery, or zoo, his art is exhibited in myriad locations. Many unique commission works in bronze sculpture have been sought by collectors and institutions over the years as well.
 
Bart Walter travels extensively to pursue honest interpretations of his subjects, from lions and chimpanzees to more local North American wildlife. Sculpting and drawing directly from life allows him to infuse vitality and spontaneity into his work. Continuing the tradition of earlier animaliers such as Barye and Bugatti, Bart has transcended their reliance on the taxidermist table and the zoo by sculpting directly from the natural world.
 
Working from his personal drawings, clay and wax field studies, Bart embraces a figurative, representational style that eschews the minute in favor of the whole–the spirit of the animal. Bart’s renderings are derived from a personal commitment to the integrity of each subject. When casting in bronze, Bart’s hands-on approach results in sculptures that are faithful to the original work. With this holistic view of inspiration, creation and casting, Bart Walter has won the respect and admiration of fine art curators, collectors and the general public.

http://www.bartwalter.com
[email protected]
 
 

“Heart and Soul”
acrylic on gessobord
6 x 6 in.
 
http://www.chantelsoriginals.com
 
About the Artist:
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 Tennessee State Ambassador for the Portrait Society of America, and is also a member of The Chestnut Group, and the American Impressionist 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 paintings are in private and public collections throughout the United States and overseas. Her work has been published in the Acrylic Artist and American Art Collector magazines. She currently teaches online and regional workshops on acrylic techniques throughout the year. Chantel resides in Bartlett, Tennessee.
 
http://www.chantelsoriginals.com
 
 

One of Spain’s most important sculptors of the modern age was born 150 years ago. To celebrate his art and legacy, the Museo del Prado has mounted a glorious exhibition on marbles, drawings, and more. Can you guess his name?
 
Born in Olot in 1866, Miguel Blay is regarded as one of the later 19th century’s greatest sculptors, with a legacy on par with Rodin’s. One hundred and fifty years after the artist’s birth, the Museo del Prado is hosting a special exhibition in his honor. “Solidity and Beauty: Miguel Blay” will feature a number of the sculptor’s iconic works, including “To the Ideal” and “Blooming.” In addition to the exquisite marbles, the museum will have on view drawings, medals, the artist’s hand-written notes, and more.
 

Miguel Blay, “To the Ideal,” 1896, plaster, (c) Museo del Prado 2016

 
The show, which opened on April 19, will be on view through October 2. The museum writes, “this material offers a vision of the different creative phases of Blay’s career, during which he aimed to transmit emotions, sincerity, and beauty in a serene, harmonious manner.” Indeed, there can be no doubt that Blay achieved these goals with stunning figurative marbles of star-struck lovers, and more.
 
To learn more, visit the Museo del Prado.
 
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.
 

The Boise Art Museum is proud to showcase the works of a renowned resident. This artist’s new body of work was inspired by her journey to Wilder, Idaho, and is sure to leave audiences thirsty for more.
 
“Karen Woods: The Way to Wilder” will open on May 21 at the Boise Art Museum to great excitement. Woods, a Boise-based painter, has established a successful artistic career with her magnetic pictures of cityscapes and landscapes behind rain-soaked glass. Some more distorted than others, her works call attention to the beauty that each of us has experienced — but rarely noticed — while traveling through a storm.
 
“Karen Woods: The Way to Wilder” will hang through September 11. To learn more, visit the Boise 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.
 

Pushing the boundaries of contemporary portraiture is the acclaimed American painter Kehinde Wiley. Colorful, patterned, and powerful, recent works from this emerging icon are on view through May 8. Where?
 
Portraiture is arguably one of the most powerful and communicative genres in art. What informs an individual’s identity in all its complexity, and how can that be conveyed — if not captured — through their visage? Painter Kehinde Wiley is quickly rising in the art world as one of the foremost portrait painters, employing pose, fashion, posture, and symbolism to create multi-layered visages that have admirers buzzing.
 
On view through May 8 at the Seattle Art Museum, “Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic” offers a number of the artist’s highly stylized and staged portraits, which draw heavily from aristocratic portraits of the 18th century. Wiley’s portraits offer a unique and original view of African American youth and culture, which resulted from his residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem. According to the Seattle Art Museum, “Wiley set out to photograph and recast assertive and self-empowered young men from the neighborhood in the style and manner of traditional history painting. Since then he has also painted rap and sports stars but for the most part his attention has focused on ordinary men of color in their everyday clothes. Trained at Yale in the 1990s, Wiley was steeped in the discussions concerning identity politics during this decade and he brings his personal insights and theoretical studies to his practice.”
 
To learn more, visit the Seattle 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.
 

It may come as a surprise to read that France has never devoted a solo exhibition to famed 19th-century academic painter Charles Gleyre, who mentored Monet, Jean-Léon Gérôme, James McNeill Whistler, and Renoir. Will the narrative change?
 
Swiss academic painter Charles Gleyre (1808-1874) isn’t one of the names most often mentioned in the history of art, but his legacy — and artworks — often speak for themselves. Supremely gifted and academically trained, Gleyre produced some outstanding mythological and figurative narratives that compare in quality to William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s work.
 

 Charles Gleyre, “Evening, or Lost Illusions,” oil on canvas, 23 1/4 x 41 1/2 in. (c) ARC 2016, private collection

 
To the surprise of many, the nation of France — which was Gleyre’s home for much of his life — has yet to devote a solo exhibition to the painter. That will finally change on May 10, when the Musée d’Orsay opens “Charles Gleyre: The Reformed Romantic.” The exhibition will feature an outstanding number of canonical paintings through the museum’s own collection and major loans. The show will highlight 20th-century scholarship on the artist by Michel Thevoz, who offered fresh interpretations on Gleyre’s semiotics, including a psychoanalytical approach.
 

Charles Gleyre, “The Bath,” 1868, oil on canvas, 35 1/2 x 25 in. (c) Chrysler Museum of Art 2016

 
Needless to say, the museum is energized at the prospect of offering its patrons a unique chance to engage with the multi-layered and complex illusions of academicism. “Charles Gleyre: The Reformed Romantic” will be on view through September 11.
 
To learn more, visit the Musée d’Orsay.
 
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.
 

Breastfeeding — whether public or in private — has been one of the hot topics in modern Western culture. No matter on which side of the fence you fall, this hypnotic exhibition seeks to challenge public perceptions through powerful portraits of mothers and their children.
 
Did we also mention that this is artist Leanne Pearce’s first exhibition? Using pastel and oil, the University of Sunderland graduate is making waves in the art world through her captivating portraits of mothers breastfeeding. The show, which is on view now through May 6, is located at the University’s Design Centre.
 
Accompanying the exhibition is this telling video:
 

 
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.
 

A number of outstanding figurative works from three accomplished artists will grace the walls of this Denver, Colorado, gallery in May. Discover the details here!
 
Artists David Cheifetz, David Shevlino, and Jordan Wolfson will present a number of recent paintings next month at Gallery 1261 in Denver, Colorado. “Three Person Exhibition” will showcase nearly 50 paintings in total, many figurative in subject and outstandingly powerful.
 

David Shevlino, “Red Jacket,” oil, 14 x 11 in. (c) Gallery 1261 2016

 
The works of Cheifetz are beautifully rendered and present the viewer with careful and precise treatment of the figure in addition to surreal still life compositions. Shevlino’s pictures are much looser and more expressive with their abstraction and brushwork, as the artist renders his subjects with larger, sweeping strokes of the brush and palette knife. Finally, Wolfson’s pictures present a more impressionistic view of his subjects, which include several interiors, figurative paintings, and abstracted still life compositions.
 

Jordan Wolfson, “Portrait Cari III,” 22 x 20 in. (c) Gallery 1261 2016

 
“Three Person Exhibition” opens at Gallery 1261 on May 6 and will be on view through June 4. To learn more visit Gallery 1261.
 
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.
 

The exploratory oils by Christopher St. Leger are the subjects of a current exhibition in Austin, Texas. Ready to take a trip?
 
As the exhibition’s title — “Automotive” — suggests, the experimental oils by Christopher St. Leger seek to capture a momentary view from a car window. Chosen from a lower perspective, the works “compositionally adhere to the reality of perspective while stylistically embracing a more expressionistic exposure creating what he calls an automotive pastoral … exploring a new city without a map. A joyride of attention on the visual,” Gallery Shoal Creek writes.
 

Christopher St. Leger, “Mill,” oil on canvas, 40 x 38 in. (c) Gallery Shoal Creek

 
Opened on April 22 and through May 28, “Automotive” will feature 21 oils by Leger. Discussing his work, Leger writes, “Our culture is an automotive one. Still, I’m interested in its experiential benefits. While day-to-day linear movement measures our drive and promotes our well-being, inside, the passenger is passive and reflective, unburdened from decisions. Painting for me is simulating this experience of a passenger. I am contained. From my containment I gaze upon an arena marked by exhaust, haste, and turbulence. I see others, but mostly I see their containers. We are aligned and in accordance.”
 

Christopher St. Leger, “NYC del sol,” watercolor and acrylic on paper, 17 x 28 in. (c) Gallery Shoal Creek

 
“Automotive” is on view at the lovely Gallery Shoal Creek in Austin, Texas. To learn more, visit Gallery Shoal Creek.
 
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.