The Art Renewal Center (ARC) has long established a reputation for providing a platform to showcase and support the very best in contemporary realism. With 789 finalists and over 2,500 entries, the ARC has announced its 2014/15 Salon winners. The winning works will be on view beginning next week at the Salmagundi Club.
 
The magnificent Salmagundi Club — one of the oldest artist clubs in America — will, beginning next week, feature the award-winning selections from the Art Renewal Center’s annual International Salon. The works on view have just returned from the European Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona, Spain, where they were exhibited alongside winners of the 2015 Figurativas competition. As suggested by the ARC, “The combining of these two shows was a historic event for the representational art movement of Post Contemporary Art, and constituted one of the largest collaborative shows on contemporary realism in the Western world.”
 

Nicholas O’Leary, “Departing Bodies,” 2014, oil on canvas, 61 x 39 in. (c) ARC 2016

 
In addition to showcasing a number of world-class representational paintings from January 18 through February 4, the exhibition will be paired with a number of outstanding educational events, including a captivating lecture by ARC Chairman Frederick C. Ross on January 20 and an “Artist Meet & Greet” on January 23. “In addition,” the ARC states, “The Da Vinci Initiative, an ARC-affiliated non-profit that seeks to bring skill-based art techniques into K-12 classrooms, will be holding several educational events in January. Of particular interest is The Da Vinci Initiative artist demonstration using skill-based techniques and the special forum for high school teachers and students about the atelier training method.” General admission tickets are available via the ARC Store for $15. Other events require additional fees.
 

Kamille Corry, “Scorched Wing,” 2013, oil on linen, 32 x 26 in. (c) ARC 2016

Julio Reyes, “Firestarter,” 2014, oil on panel, 25 x 60 in. (c) ARC 2016

 
Awards for the Salon come in a variety of ways, including Honorable Mention, Finalists, Winners, and Additional Awards. The ARC states, “Due to the large number of entries, this year the International ARC Salon had eight judges divided among the seven categories, four judges per category.” Totaling over $160,000, 10 purchase awards were given in addition to over $47,000 in cash prizes, including a Streamline Art Video Award, valued at $25,000, awarded to Cesar Santos.
 

Katsu Nakajima, “Incarnation,” 2013, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 64 x 64 in. (c) ARC 2016

 
Taking top honors and “Best in Show” was Arantzazu Martinez’s “Absolute Trust — Sleeping Beauty.” This monumental work of unimaginable talent and skill measures 90 1/2 x 51 inches and displays an enthroned female subject sleeping, clad in a beautifully rendered and vibrant red dress. The picture conveys an astonishing level of both stillness and movement. Fluttering and darting around the subject are 11 white doves, rendered in various states of flight and rest. A gorgeous and dominating presence perches atop the subject’s black throne — a glaring owl whose gaze meets ours. Nicholas O’Leary’s “Departing Bodies” was honored with the Bouguereau Award and was competitive for Best in Show. The ARC writes, “This atmospheric painting with hundreds of bodies utilizes a successful compositional complexity similar to Bouguereau’s 1902 painting of ‘Les Oreades.’”
 

Daniel Gerhartz, “When Hope Comes,” 2014, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 in. (c) ARC 2016

Donato Giancola, “Forging the Iron Throne,” 2014, oil on panel, 30 x 30 in. (c) ARC 2016

 
Kamille Corry took home first place in the Figurative Category for her “Scorched Wing” while Julio Reyes’ “Firestarter” and Katsu Nakajima’s “Incarnation” were given second and third place, respectively. Within the category of Imaginative Realism, Daniel Gerhartz was honored with the top prize for his “When Hope Comes.” Rounding out second and third place were Donato Giancola’s “Forging the Iron Throne” and Heather Theurer’s “Triumph.”
 

Heather Theurer, “Triumph,” 2014, oil on board, 84 x 42 in. (c) ARC 2016

 
To view the full list of award winners for the 2014/15 competition, visit the Art Renewal Center.
 
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: John Frederick Kensett, “Beacon Rock.”
 
Born in Cheshire, Connecticut, in 1816, John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872) was introduced to artistic expression at an early age; Kensett’s father employed the young artist in his engraving firm in New Haven before seeing him apprentice with the engraver Peter Maverick in New York. After his father’s death, Kensett returned to New Haven to oversee the firm. He would continue to be active in engraving through 1829, but increasingly became interested in exploring landscape painting.
 
Extensive studies and travels abroad to England, France, Italy, Switzerland, and beyond characterize the next 20 years of Kensett’s life. Among his acquaintances and confrères at Hampton Court and Paris were Thomas P. Rossiter, Thomas Cole, Benjamin Champney, Thomas Hicks, and Francis W. Edmonds. Kensett’s return to New York in November of 1847 marks a significant moment in the artist’s career, for this is when he began to produce his coveted scenes of sites along the Hudson River, Niagara Falls, the Catskills, and the Adirondacks. The Metropolitan Museum of Art suggests, “Though a few such paintings reveal the impress of the sublime style of Cole, the founder of the American landscape school, most reflect Kensett’s experience with English art and the soberer, more tonal style of his older colleague [Asher B.] Durand, with whom in London Kensett had admired the landscapes of John Constable.”
 
Until his death in 1872, Kensett increasingly came to produce reductive views of shoreline locations — “spare compositions of simple terrestrial profiles against expanses of calm open water delicately punctuated with a few sailboats on the horizon,” as the Met notes. These later paintings are the most noteworthy of Kensett’s career and earned him immediate success among clients who frequently vacationed at the coastal resorts.
 
A gorgeous oil by Kensett will head to auction via Sarasota Estate Auction’s “January Asian & Fine Art Auction” on January 16. Titled “Beacon Rock,” the lovely picture displays one of the painter’s favorite shoreline views. Of the several paintings of this site that survive, this example might just be Kensett’s best.
 
Particularly notable are the feathery brushwork and expressive application of paint, undoubtedly inspired by Kensett’s love for English landscape and for Constable. Within this picture, Kensett has done a marvelous job of capturing light as it cascades across different surfaces, an approach that eventually earned him recognition as a master of the mode in American landscape painting termed “luminism.”
 
Bids begin at $50,000, and are expected to exceed $200,000. To view the full catalogue of available works, visit Sarasota Estate Auction.
 
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.

Members of the Whistler House Museum of Art experienced a new process for 2015’s “Members Exhibition,” which was selected by invitation in lieu of a juried procedure. With only a few days remaining until the show is closed, what and who can you expect to find?
 
More than 250 works from over 100 artists were submitted for the 2015 “Members Exhibition” at the delightful Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell, Massachusetts. Although the show has only days to go before closing, it has left a lasting impression on visitors, who were exposed to a lush selection of oils, acrylics, watercolors, fiber arts, sculpture, and photography.
 
Notable for this show was a change in the process for selections, which in previous years had been curated by a juror. This year, members were invited to submit several works, one of which would be chosen for the exhibition. President and Executive Director Sara Bogosian said, “This exhibition is a wonderful and comprehensive show of artwork, ranging from traditional to modern works of art featuring talented LAA artists from the Lowell community and beyond.”
 
Although the exhibition will close on January 16, one can rest assured that many more outstanding opportunities to view beautiful art lie just around the corner at the Whistler House Museum of Art.
 
To learn more, visit the Whistler House 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.

David P. Hettinger, OPAM
“Waiting” 
Oil on Linen
20 x 24 in.
$8,900
Available through Rose Renée Fine Art
 
[email protected]
 
About the artist:

David Hettinger is an Illinois painter of life. Every painting for Hettinger is a present experience in which he is reliving the past. His still-life’s hold personal memories for him such as painting his Mother’s geraniums, wintered over, and placed on a windowsill bathed in light. His figurative art pieces are not just portraits or ‘paintings of people’ but of relationships and moments in time. His plein air landscapes are beautiful open air paintings of the Fox Valley rural life, fields and vistas. A recognized Master Oil Painter, David has received numerous gold medals and awards for his works, spanning the last five decades.
 
Contact Information: 
Hettingerstudio.com
Rosereneefineart.com
870 504-1034
[email protected]
 

The Art Renewal Center and Salmagundi Club in New York City are celebrating the ARC’s first live showing of the ARC International Salon Competition with a January 23 Meet & Greet.
 
Collectors will have their chance to meet some of the most accomplished and skilled representational artists during the January 23 Meet and Greet at the Salmagundi Club in New York City.  Tickets are $25 and may be purchased here.
 
To learn more, visit the Art Renewal Center.
 

The Art Renewal Center and its Chairman, Fred Ross, invite you to attend a fascinating lecture: “The Visual Language of Realism.”
 
The Art Renewal Center is overjoyed to be presenting their 2014/2015 International Salon Competition winners this month along with a number of events including Chairman Fred Ross’s January 20 lecture “The Visual Language of Realism.”
 
A limited number of front row seats are available for $100.  In addition, you’ll receive a copy of the ARC Salon Catalogue.  Regular seating for the event is $35.
 
To learn more or to purchase your tickets, visit here.
 

“Red Poppies”
Oil
36 x 40 in
$7,800
www.graydonfoulger.com

About the artist:
Graydon has been involved in art as long as he can remember – drawing as a kid, taking art classes all through school graduating from Brigham Young University in Utah with a BFA in painting and sculpture in 1967. He then studied in a master of fine art program and taught art as a graduate assistant. In 1966, Graydon studied with the European Art Academy, which provided him the opportunity to learn in many of the museums and galleries throughout Europe. In addition, he has studied with several prominent artists.

Co-founding Tivoli Art Gallery in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1968, Graydon spent fifteen years marketing art, teaching classes, jurying art shows and was active in the art scene in Utah, California and elsewhere. He feels the many facets of the gallery experience were very beneficial to his career as an artist.

Graydon resides in Utah, a state he enjoys painting for its diversity. He relishes plein-aire painting (on site) in all weather conditions, yet equally enjoys the challenges of studio work. His interest in a wide variety of subjects is served by traveling extensively in the U.S., South America and Europe. Graydon’s goal is to paint competent, honest, interesting paintings ranging from the subtle rendering to the colorful impasto.

His works are in many private, corporate, public and museum collections and have shown in numerous art shows, receiving many awards. Graydon’s work can be found at the Celebration of Fine Art in Scottsdale, AZ.

The Celebration of Fine Art is a unique art experience which gives visitors the opportunity to watch 100 artists in their working studios January 16 – March 27, 2016 in Scottsdale, AZ. Open daily from 10 am – 6 pm. Visitors will enjoy strolling through the 100 artist studios under the 40,000 square foot exhibit tent.  Artists are on-site creating, allowing for the visitor to watch them at work, discover what inspires them and the techniques used to create the works of art.   Graydon Foulger has participated in this event each year since its inception in 1991.

www.graydonfoulger.com
www.celebrateart.com
 
 
 

Opening soon at David Findlay Jr. Gallery in New York is delightful exhibition of works from 20th-century sculptor Gaston Lachaise.
 
Belonging to the generation of artists who revolutionized European art during the first half of the 20th century — also including Picasso, Braque, and Brancusi — Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935) is often credited with having a powerful influence on the female nude in modern sculpture and fine art. 
 
Typical of Lachaise’s style, his female forms often display well-endowed and voluptuous forms. His most notable work, titled “Standing Woman,” is a quintessential example. In addition to his sculptures of female nudes, the artist was a prolific portraitist who executed several busts for famous literary celebrities of his era, including Marianne Moore and E. E. Cummings.
 
Opening January 7 and on view through February 13, David Findlay Jr. Gallery in New York City is overjoyed to be presenting a number of Lachaise’s bronzes. Of particular beauty is the artist’s 1917 bronze “Equestrienne.” As expected, the viewer discovers a nude female with curvaceous hips, large breasts, and tapered limbs. However, the piece offers a tantalizing glimpse into how the sculptor’s avant-garde style was translated to the animal world, with this piece displaying the female subject on horseback. Chiefly noticeable is the fluidity of the animal’s silhouette, how the arched neck and rounded rump echo the features of the female subject. The eye enjoys an easy and graceful journey around the piece with few breaks and interruptions.
 
Of the sculptor’s legacy, the gallery writes, “considered by critics and audiences alike to be one of the pioneering sculptors in the United States, Lachaise was given exhibitions at New York’s most prestigious galleries, including Stieglitz’s Intimate Gallery and the Brummer Gallery. In 1935, Lachaise was awarded a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, the first exhibition given to a living artist by that institution. Less than a year later, Lachaise’s career was cut short when he passed away at the age of fifty-three.”
 
To learn more, visit David Findlay Jr. 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.

Amazing talent with the brush and fascinating narratives combine for a visionary exhibition in New York. Fans of the conversation piece should take note.
 
Sag Harbor’s RJD Gallery specializes in contemporary art with a focus on narrative and imaginative realism. Each of these elements comes to the fore in “Prized Possessions,” a tantalizing exhibition opening on January 9 that showcases the aforementioned and more.  
 
Featuring Andrea Kowch, Frank Oriti, Margo Selski, Adrienne Stein, Pamela Wilson, and Andrei Zadorine, the exhibition seeks to “discover the objects that intrigue and help to create narratives for these artists,” the gallery suggests. Indeed, collectors with a preference for Old Master techniques with fresh contemporary perspectives will want to consider a visit. “The Daughter of Atlantis Series” by Margo Selski is an excellent example of the show’s overall display of deep narrative and outstanding skill.
 

Andrea Kowch, “Lightkeepers,” archival print, 39 x 46.5 in. (c) RJD Gallery 2016

 
The series of pictures revolves around “a fictitious society that has decided that for generations their purpose is to plant gardens at the bottom of the sea,” the artist writes. “My paintings stand on their own while examining the Victorian drive to conquer, capture, control and embalm reality and nature. The mission of the society is to plant gardens in the ocean no matter how dangerous it may be. In other words, they are determined to bring order to what is untamed and wild.  I use this elite society for young Victorian women (The Daughters of Atlantis) to view 21st century concerns through a mirror at a distance.”
 

Yana Movchan, “Naturel Jewellery,” 2015, oil on canvas, 28 x 22 in. (c) RJD Gallery 2016

 
The imaginative narratives explored by each artist in “Prized Possessions” are sure to invoke a variety of stimulating conversations — whether they are seen at RJD Gallery or in one’s living room.
 
“Prized Possessions” opens on January 9 and will be on view through February 7. To learn more, visit RJD 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.