Portrait with Nautilus (“Me and AI”).What is the connection between human vs machine-generated worlds? Who’s creating what?
What is the best thing about being an artist? Erica Calardo: It’s like living everyday in a dream. When I’m painting I feel connected to my deepest nature. There is only me, my easel, my visions. The colours, the soft brushes, the scent of walnut oil. I love the feeling of that white piece of cloth in front of me, ready to be turned into an image, a piece of my inner world. I was one of those kids with a pencil in her hand. Nevertheless, I didn’t immediately pursue my dream once I grew up. I have a degree in philosophy and a phd in mathematical logic. I was an academic researcher for a while and now I feel that everything is coming together in my work.
How do vou find inspiration?
Erica Calardo: Inspiration can strike at any moment and from anywhere. I live in a constant stream of stories: audiobooks, novels, movies, stories made up by my little son. Philosophy and allegories are essential. My atelier is located in Italy, in the hearth of Bologna: its ancient stones, warm colours, statues, mysteries, and old masters’ paintings are the air I breath. Then suddenly something starts to resonate until it becomes almost an obsession: a melody, an image, a place, a concept… and my imagination goes wild inventing all sorts of stories around it.
Eric Rhoads, CW Mundy, Kelly Kane, Rebecca Mundy, and Cherie Dawn Haas
At the 10th Annual Plein Air Convention & Expo (PACE) in Denver, Colorado, Eric Rhoads presented plein air painting legend CW Mundy with the PleinAir™ Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award.
Watch the video that honors his life and journey to becoming a master painter here:
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Charles Warren Mundy, today known as CW, was born in 1945 in Indianapolis; his hardworking parents raised two children, a girl Charleen and a boy Charles. Early on, Charles displayed a talent for art and athletics.
He was very familiar with the art of Walt Disney and Norman Rockwell and spent much time observing their work, such as the covers of the Saturday Evening Post. So at seven years old, when he was commissioned by the Daily Vacation Bible School teacher to produce advertisements, he copied Walt Disney cartoon figures with the message, “Come to Daily Vacation Bible School!” onto cardboard.
While growing up, another passion of his was basketball. Charles was a starting guard on the Howe High School Varsity Basketball team, even helping to take his team to the “Semi-State” in 1964. His abilities in basketball earned him a scholarship to Lenoir Rhyne College in North Carolina, and he later transferred to Ball State University in Indiana where he could pursue both basketball and art.
At BSU, CW took every art class they offered and he played in various bands; he became interested in banjo after hearing Flatt and Scruggs’s “The Ballad of Jed Clampett.”
In 1969 he earned an undergraduate degree from BSU in secondary education with an emphasis on art.
After college, CW moved to California and studied painting “from life” under Donald “Putt” Putman in Hermosa Beach. Putt was the first living artist that CW had met who actually had a vibrant art career and was making money in the cowboy western art world.
At the same time, CW also pursued his music, playing in a popular band called The Tarzan Swing Band. Later, he would meet his future wife, Rebecca, while playing in a gospel bluegrass band.
Moving back to Indiana in the late 1970’s, CW combined his love for sports and art and began his sports illustration career and founding his company, Champion Illustrated Sports.
His commissions for the next decade included many professional teams and organizations; for example, he was the first artist / illustrator for the famed Indiana University Basketball Coach Bobby Knight.
CW and Rebecca married in 1989, and shortly after CW made the change from sports illustration to fine art after observing artwork by Clyde Aspevig and Richard Schmid. It was exciting to him to discover these artists painting like the “old pros.”
In 1995, the couple traveled to the Chicago Art Institute for “Claude Monet 1840-1926,” the largest retrospective of his paintings ever assembled (159 paintings)l, which he says “got his attention.” Later in 1995, they visited France and followed in the footsteps of Monet and the Impressionists, on what turned out to be the first of many plein air painting trips to Europe, including a trip to Italy in ‘96, England in ‘97, and Spain in ‘98, and more for a decade.
In 2003, they traveled to the Netherlands because CW was so influenced by the works of the early Dutch Masters.
While traveling, Rebecca would shoot video footage and photographs of CW painting on location. and upon returning home to Indiana, they produced a professional video and brochures of each trip, for the purpose of a gift to clients who purchased the paintings.
Still Life painting grabbed CW’s attention after studying the works of Emil Carlsen, Henri Fantin- Latour, and Impressionists such as Van Gogh, Renoir, and Manet.
CW has also been inspired to paint figurative work in various series, including ballerinas, portraiture, and children at the beach.
For CW, painting representational figures, still life, and plein air became a natural revolving situation, working for several months with the figure, then outdoors en plein air, then back in the studio painting “from life.” The rhythm kept him fresh and excited.
CW has had a teaching career for more than 25 years.
He is the recipient of many awards and honors, including a “Master Artist” with the Oil Painters of America, “Master Artist” with the American Impressionist Society, a “Fellow” with the American Society of Marine Artists, and a part of En Plein Air Masters in France in 2005-2006. CW was recently honored in 2018-2019 to be the first Inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, the largest children’s museum in the world.
CW has been driven to continually be seeking new and fresh ways to paint, never resting on his laurels, always trying to push himself forward.
PleinAir Magazine Publisher, Eric Rhoads, said this of CW, “He is so good, his work so strong, I honestly did not think he could ever get any better, yet I watch him push through, experimenting, and doing paintings that push the boundaries of great painting. In the years to come, CW Mundy will be remembered not only as one of the greats of this generation but will go down in history as one of the greats of all time.”
Please join us in celebrating CW as we present him with our highest honor — The PleinAir Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award.
Jane Seymour accepting the PleinAir Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award; also on stage are Eric Rhoads, Kelly Kane, Cherie Dawn Haas, and Michelle Dunaway
At the 10th Annual Plein Air Convention & Expo (PACE) in Denver, Colorado, Eric Rhoads presented actor and painter Jane Seymour with the PleinAir™ Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award.
Afterward, Michelle Dunaway painted Jane’s portrait on stage, finishing a piece she had started earlier that was based on a photo of Jane with Willie Nelson. Jane also took the time for an exclusive photo session with our VIP attendees.
While Michelle painted Jane, they shared their painting strategies and personal stories.
Watch the video that honors her path and dedication to the arts here:
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Known perhaps most famously for her acting roles such as Solitaire in the James Bond film “Live and Let Die,” Kate Trask in the miniseries “East of Eden,” and Dr. Michaela Quinn in the hit television series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” Jane Seymour was born in 1951 in England to a Jewish doctor and a Dutch nurse.
She was raised in Wimbledon with her birth name of Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg. As a child, she was surrounded by the arts. Her father had a love of Japanese art and the family was often casually performing, dancing, and singing. As a teen, Jane wanted to be a ballerina and so she attended a school for performing arts. Around that time, she chose her screen name, after the English queen.
When she was just thirteen she made her professional debut with the London Festival Ballet. That same year, she entered the Arts Educational Trust for dance, music and theater training and danced with the visiting Kirov Ballet at Covent Garden.
Her love of art began at an early age in England, where family gifts were always created rather than purchased, so that the true spirit of giving of one’s self was expressed. Visiting museums was also a favorite family pastime.
Jane began painting around the 1990s when she was prompted by a period of personal challenge. Soon, her art became the expression of a very private healing process.
A profound experience that influenced Jane as a colorist was her discovery of the Impressionists, Matisse’s stunning motifs, and Chagall’s magical palette. Her lively design studies of floral patterns were inspired by the vibrant watercolors of Raoul Dufy. The influence of these artists continues to grace her work today. Jane remains challenged by studying the paintings of one of her most admired artists, John Singer Sargent, and painting in the Grand Manner tradition with legendary living masters.
An inspirational trip to paint in Monet’s Garden in 2001 became Jane’s personal tribute to the Impressionists. From this, she co-produced the first in a planned series of art education films on The Masters titled Journey to Impressionism.
Having commissioned Tom Mielko, the noted Santa Barbara watercolorist, to paint a portrait of her children, she became motivated to begin painting with him. She continues to paint with others, and also had the pleasure of painting with the late Richard Schmid.
Jane enjoys the feeling of being one with nature and the outdoors, painting some of her most beautiful canvases en plein air. Inspiring others to paint, and the feeling of community and healing it creates, are abundantly rewarding to her.
Her art also served as inspiration for Open Hearts by Jane Seymour, a unique and beautiful jewelry line. Inspired by her original paintings of two hearts connected and open at either end, the designs symbolize that love has no boundaries and flows unconditionally.
When she is not acting, writing, or designing, Jane can be found in her Malibu, California painting studio. With a thriving career as an artist and her own art gallery in Los Angeles, she has exhibited in numerous galleries and venues across North America. Over the past thirty-three years she has created an intimate world of delicate watercolors, vibrant oil paintings, pastels, and bronze sculptures, and has accepted select private commissions. She continues to reach new artistic levels by developing her technique, style, and subject matter.
The artist’s first one-woman museum exhibition was mounted at the Butler Institute of American Art in 2004. She has also created set designs for the Houston Ballet and a commission for the Fort Worth Dallas Ballet. She was chosen as the official artist for the 2006 Naples Winter Wine Festival and was a featured painter for the Olympics three times.
A multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winner, recipient of the Officer of the British Empire in the year 2000, which was bestowed upon her by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, and recipient of the Horatio Alger Award, Jane has proven her talents in virtually all media.
In addition to acting, Jane has written over ten books and has launched Jane Seymour Designs, a national lifestyle brand inspired by her homes, art, and family-centered lifestyle. She is also involved in many philanthropic causes and in 2010 launched the Open Hearts Foundation, which provides funds to charitable organizations.
It is a great privilege for us to recognize the life and work of Jane Seymour. Her high-profile career and artistic efforts have raised awareness of painting and art-making worldwide, influencing millions.
Please join us in celebrating Jane as we present her with our highest honor — The PleinAir Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award.
J.C. Leyendecker (1874–1951), "Men with Golf Clubs (Arrow Collar advertisement)," c. 1909, oil on canvas, 20 1/2 x 42 1/2 in., National Museum of American Illustration (Newport, Rhode Island)
Under Cover: J.C. Leyendecker and American Masculinity
New-York Historical Society
New York City nyhistory.org
Through August 13, 2023
The New-York Historical Society has organized the exhibition “Under Cover: J.C. Leyen-decker and American Masculinity,” which considers the illustrator and commercial artist who helped shape American visual culture in the first three decades of the 20th century. Leyendecker (1874–1951) became famous for memorable advertisements promoting Arrow shirt collars, Gillette razors, Ivory soap, Kuppenheimer menswear, and Interwoven socks, not to mention his countless covers for the bestselling Saturday Evening Post. His aesthetic influence extended to Norman Rockwell, his colleague and eventual successor as the Post’s premier illustrator.
The model for many of Leyendecker’s illustrations was Charles Beach, his lover and eventual business manager, and his imagery — ostensibly intended for a mainstream audience — often had unspoken queer undertones. Guest curator Donald Albrecht says Leyendecker’s work demonstrates “how fluidity in gender expression and queer representation were actually quite common at the time, contrary to current assertions that they are unique to our own moment.”
Albrecht has collaborated on the project with the Society’s curator of material culture, Rebecca Klassen, and all of the artworks have been borrowed from the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, Rhode Island. The project is a partnership with the American LGBTQ+ Museum, which will open within the Society’s yet-to-be-constructed new wing.
On view are 19 original oil paintings as well as magazine covers and commercial illustrations that appeared in print, roadside billboards, store windows, and mass transit. Illustrated here is a quintessential example showing two handsome white athletes posed in an elite setting; in the windows behind them appear the crests of both Harvard and Yale.
On July 7, the Society will host a screening of the documentary film “Coded: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker (2021).” The 28-minute film was directed by Ryan White and narrated by Neil Patrick Harris.
Paul Batch (b.1979), "Late Winter," 2020, oil on panel, 11 x 14 in., Susan Powell Fine Art (Madison, Connecticut)
There is a lot of superb art being made these days; this article by Allison Malafronte shines light on a gifted plein air artist.
Paul Batch’splein air sketches and finished studio landscapes certainly stand out from the crowd. Although this artist has full-palette flexibility, he often chooses to work with a limited number of colors in a tighter range, which creates a depth of atmosphere, radiant realistic light, and stunning color combinations not easily replicated. Applying paint with a skilled hand and a range of brush sizes and types, Batch also uses palette knives and razor blades to achieve abstract lines, shapes, and colors that harmonize with his more painterly passages.
Born and currently residing in Massachusetts, Batch received both a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford (Connecticut) and has been a full-time artist ever since. Although he paints portraits and other subjects, he is best known as a landscapist as well as a popular teacher. Batch is one of many artists these days who have learned to use online platforms to distribute educational content, and he now offers downloadable videos and a mentorship program from his website, as well as live Zoom workshops and demonstrations.
Moving online is not the only adjustment Batch and other artists have had to make in 2020. The range of emotions they have experienced, from deep discouragement to profound resilience, has naturally made its way into their art. The painting pictured here, “Late Winter,” was actually the first painting Batch completed after a month-long sabbatical at the beginning of the pandemic. “It has been a weird month, to say the least,” he wrote on Instagram then. “First real day back at painting in about three or four weeks. Feeling pretty thankful for what I have, and hoping the best for everyone.”
“Late Winter” carries that sense of hopefulness and deftly captures a majestic moment in nature that one would think is nearly impossible to recreate in paint. For Batch, the beauty is not only in the actual subject, but also its symbolic meaning.
“The last of the day’s light was just about to burn off into darkness as nightfall approached,” he shares. “The contrast between the warmth of the light and the coolness in the ground created quite an incredible moment. Much of my work involves transitions. Whether it’s the time of day, or changing seasons of life, the poetic possibilities that occur during these moments are a metaphor for our abilities to change and provide hope for tomorrow.”
As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
Bigger, Older, Wiser, Charlie Easton, acrylic on 3 canvasses, 48 x 108 in; Charlie Easton
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No Fuss and Feather, Donna Lee Nyzio, oil on panel, 12 x 24 in; PaintedWorld.com
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Blackrock Niches, Curt Stanfield, oil, 18 x 24 in., Indiana Waterways: The Art of Conservation exhibit; Curt Stanfield
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
Anna Cyan in the studio. A small universe with a big painting in the middle.
How did you get started and develop your career? Anna Cyan: I was born in Soviet Ukraine. My journey started at a kids’ art school during the time when many artists painted grand narrative pictures of Lenin and the revolution. I was fortunate, though. I also studied privately with non-conformist artists, who taught me that freedom begins inside you. Inner freedom is a major theme in my work now.
Since then, I’ve traveled far – to 21st century Toronto, Los Angeles and New York. I was committed to building realist painting skills and spent many years pursuing that. Now, I use these traditional tools, but my job is to tell the story of the here and now.
What is the most interesting thing you have painted/sculpted and why? Anna Cyan: I am working on a series that has surprised even me, because it took a certain level of courage. The works are large-scale post-mortem portraits – dead people portrayed as such. It sounds scary, and the boldness is not only in going there myself, but in believing that viewers will be willing to go there with me. Ultimately, though, the story is about hope, that when we go, something lives on.
Ernest Blumenschein (1874–1960), "White Blanket and Blue Spruce," 1922, oil on linen mounted on paperboard, 34 1/8 x 28 1/8 in., collection of Vaughn O. Vennerberg II, Dallas; photo: Sotheby’s
“Near East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism”
Denver Art Museum, Colorado denverartmuseum.org
Through May 28, 2023
The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is set to open “Near East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism,” a major exhibition organized by Jennifer R. Henneman, director of the museum’s Petrie Institute of Western American Art. It features more than 80 paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and decorative arts that explore the many ways the style and substance of French Orientalism directly influenced American artists and their representations of the West.
France began its colonial expansion into Algeria in the 1830s, and its internationally admired artists’ scenes of what they saw there — and elsewhere in North Africa — soon presented a template for how American artists might depict the landscapes and people of the American West being transformed during the 1849 California Gold Rush and after. The styles, motifs, and meanings of both French Oriental-ism and Western artworks reflect their creators’ fears, desires, and curiosities about “unknown” lands during the process of colonization.
“In the 19th and early 20th centuries,” DAM director Christoph Heinrich says, “regions of the American West were as foreign and unfamiliar to many Americans as places like Morocco and Algeria were to Parisians. Through the paintings, this show begins to tease apart the facts and fictions presented in the art of the time.”
The project opens by introducing French Orientalists like Eugène Fromentin, Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, and Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, as well as American Orientalists including Fredric Arthur Bridgman and Elizabeth Nourse. It leads to master paintings by Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Alfred Jacob Miller, and George de Forest Brush. Works by Charles M. Russell and Fred-eric Remington underscore the fact that an artist did not actually need to travel to North Africa to be influenced by its imagery.
Among the intriguing topics explored are Delacroix’s influence on American artist Alfred Jacob Miller; the impact of popular literature — especially The Arabian Nights and the Bible — on representations of desert regions; the effects of westward expansion on the environment; and the crucial role of world’s fairs in disseminating Orientalized ideas about global Indigenous cultures.
Close attention is also paid to the French training of members of the Taos Society of Artists including Joseph Henry Sharp, Bert G. Phillips, and Ernest Blumenschein. Their interest in the geography and cultures of the Taos area echoes their Parisian teachers’ fascination with North Africa; this is best seen in their depictions of the high desert’s clear air, brilliant colors, and expansive scenery.
The exhibition’s handsome catalog is being distributed by Yale University Press.
Launched in 2018, the Bennett Prize for Women Figurative Realist Painters is the largest of its kind, offering each winner $50,000 payable over two years. Endowed through a $3 million fund at the Pittsburgh Foundation established by the San Antonio-based art collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, this biennial prize has been successfully propelling the careers of full-time female painters who have not yet reached “full professional recognition,” which the Bennetts define as having sold a single work for $25,000 or more. In receiving $25,000 annually for two years, the winner is accorded some financial “breathing room” in order to create a fresh body of work she might not otherwise have the bandwidth to make.
The driving force behind the prize initiative was the impressive collection that Bennett and Schmidt have been forming since 2009. It now consists of more than 200 works by women figurative realist painters, including major examples by such living talents as Margaret Bowland, Aleah Chapin, Alyssa Monks, and Katie O’Hagan, as well as historical pieces by such forerunners as Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Cassatt, and Elaine de Kooning.
Steven Bennett notes, “From the moment we commenced collecting, we were concerned that women artists were not being treated equally with men. They have fewer shows; they have fewer pieces in museums’ permanent collections; and their works have almost universally sold for less than those of men. We have seen our collection as a way to right some of these wrongs and are delighted that the Muskegon Museum of Art is joining us to ensure that the effort continues long into the future.”
Indeed, Michigan’s Muskegon Museum of Art (MMA) has played a crucial role as the setting for the announcements of the Bennett Prize’s first two editions, and it has launched the national tours of exhibitions of works by the 10 finalists and the prizewinners (Aneka Ingold of Florida and Ayana Ross of Georgia, respectively).
This past November, the Bennett Prize 3’s 10 finalists were announced: Ruth Dealy (Rhode Island), Ronna S. Harris (Louisiana), Haley Hasler (Colorado), Sara Lee Hughes (Texas), Monica Ikegwu (Maryland), Laura Karetzky (New York), Linda Infante Lyons (Alaska), Mayumi Nakao (New York), Kyla Zoe Rafert (Ohio), and Deng Shiqing (New York). The jury consisted of artists Julie Bell and Zoey Frank, Steven Bennett, and Joseph Rosa, who until recently served as director and CEO of Seattle’s Frye Art Museum. Bell recalls that “it was an emotional experience to judge this competition.” She says, “Going through each artist’s body of work was like meeting each one in person and having a heart-to-heart conversation. So many different styles of painting, so many different stories told. I felt connected to every one of them.”
Looking forward, the finalists will gather in Muskegon on May 18 to learn the name of the winner and, for the first time, of a $10,000 runner-up award recipient. All of the finalists’ paintings will remain on view at the MMA until September 10, as will the new show of Ayana Ross’s latest works. (These two exhibitions will then begin a national tour, including stops in Tennessee and Pennsylvania.)
Elaine Schmidt says the MMA was chosen as the initiative’s lead museum partner because of its longstanding commitment to both women artists and realism. “They understood what we were trying to do from the beginning and shared our passion,” she explains, adding special praise for executive director Kirk Hallman and for senior curator and director of collections and exhibitions Art Martin.
Their high regard is borne out by Bennett and Schmidt’s recent decision to give the MMA more than 150 of their paintings; these works have been created by 115 women artists and are together worth more than $10 million. Kirk Hallman says, “Steven and Elaine’s vision is one shared by the MMA. Our relationship has helped to elevate this art museum to a national scale… In addition, the Bennett-Schmidt gift is a call to action institutionally, encouraging both the Muskegon Museum of Art and other museums to continually expand opportunities for women artists.”
In addition to their art, Schmidt and Bennett are donating $1.5 million toward the MMA’s $11.2 million expansion — 26,000 square feet that will more than double its size and encompass a new wing dedicated to women artists. This capital project will be completed early in 2024.
As for the Bennett Prize itself, the data is in: the 18 finalists and two winners from its first and second editions have now sold more than 100 paintings at a 45 percent increase in pricing — despite the impact of COVID-19. These artists have also exhibited in 19 solo shows and 46 group shows — exactly what the founders had hoped for back in 2018 when the initiative launched. Fine Art Connoisseur congratulates everyone involved and looks forward to seeing the latest artworks in Muskegon this spring.
Western Art Exhibition > Cowgirl Up! Art from the Other Half of the West
Desert Caballeros Western Museum
Wickenburg, Arizona westernmuseum.org
Through September 3, 2023
Rachel Brownlee (b. 1993), “Unwanted Hours,” 2022, charcoal on cotton paper, 36 x 23 in.
The Desert Caballeros Western Museum is much admired for preserving and exhibiting the art and history of the Southwest and desert frontier. Eighteen years ago, it launched “Cowgirl Up! Art from the Other Half of the West,” an invitational exhibition and sale that — in the male-dominated field of Western art — has turned the spotlight squarely on women’s perspectives.
CU! remains a leading national event for women artists, and its 18th edition will feature more than 55 emerging and established talents, selected from over 300 applicants. Their paintings, drawings, and sculptures are made in a range of techniques, styles, and mediums. This year’s exhibition is divided into two galleries: one of “miniatures” and the other of full-sized art.
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