"Celebrating the Portrait as Art"

Nan Talking, oil on linen, 32" x 26"

When I was in my 20s I was told that portraiture was commercial art and that I could not be taken seriously as an artist if I kept on painting portraits. Having lived through that era, continuing to paint portraits while determinedly showing other work in galleries, it's satisfying to know the portrait is once again appreciated as fine art.

 Gary Haynes of Haynes Galleries takes portraiture and figurative art seriously. He attends the annual conference of the Portrait Society of America, and work by many of its award winning artists are hanging in his gallery. This month, Haynes Galleries will be hosting a group show:

Celebrating the Portrait as Art

April 18-May 24, 2014

Reception Friday, April 18, 5:00-7:30 p.m.

1600 Division Street, Nashville, TN

The show will open first in the Nashville gallery space and travel to Thomaston, Maine this summer. Here is a link to all the pertinent information: http://haynesgalleries.com/hgSite/pages/newsAndEvents/newsAndEvents-PortraitAsArtNash.html

I will have one portrait in the Nashville show. (I don't show in Haynes' Maine location since I show at the Dowling Walsh Gallery up the road.)

With portraits by many outstanding artists including Ellen Cooper, Lea Colie Wight, Aaron Westerberg,  Terry Strickland, Linda Tracey Brandon, Joseph Bolderer, Suchitra Bhosle, Diane Feissel, Alia El-Bermani, Stephen Bauman, Katie O'Hagan,  Lisa Gloria, Linda Lee Nelson, T. J. Cunningham, Cindy Procious, and many others, this will be a show worth seeing!

LUCKY 13: Expedition & Beyond Opening this Friday Evening

13 is a significant number (lucky, too), at the Principle Gallery this Friday. Not only is the date April 13th, but also 13 artists are featured in a group show called Women Painting Women: The Expedition & Beyond. I'm honored to be part of this group, and excited to be in this show.

The 13 artists are: Diane Feissel, Linda Tracey Brandon, Terry Strickland, Rachel Constantine, Sadie Valeri, Alia El-Bermani, Shannon Runquist, Mia Bergeron, Catherine Prescott, Kate Stone, Stefani Tewes, Cindy Procious, and I.

Each artist will be exhibiting three paintings: one small study done on location during our original week-long painting trip to Charleston, SC, and two paintings completed since the expedition.

The only distinction I can claim is of having the only painting of a 1) man and 2) an elderly woman in the entire show. Here they are:

Elemental Balance, oil on linen, 46" x 42"

Hot Enough, oil on linen, 36" x 36"

Hot Enough, detail

My third painting is a plein air study, painted at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston SC. I became fascinated with the southern plants, especially live oak trees--their forms, and the colors and textures of bark and mosses growing on them.

Live Oak and Monument, Magnolia Cemetery, oil on paper on board, 9.5" x 11.75"

You have probably already seen some of the work by these artists online, but I encourage you to come see the show if you are able to get to Alexandria. I saw some of it when it was being delivered, and it is VERY DIFFERENT (much better, IMO) in reality. The impact of the size alone is unexpected, and the color is often quite different, plus the paint quality and texture are usually invisible in an image, but significant when you see the real painting.

All the artists in the "Expedition" hope you can make it to Principle Gallery on Friday!

Finalist Status in the Artist' Magazine Competition

Recently I learned that three of my paintings made the "finalist" category in The Artist's Magazine's annual competition! This was wonderful news. The paintings were Lunch Break, Horn Hill and Back Yards in Snow (the same two that got some recognition in the ARC), plus my portrait of Portia.Portia: Lead, Silver or Gold, 40" x 30

Business Trip to Maine

I can't think of a better place to be, especially if one's business is one's avocation and passion. I do wish Maine were a little closer to Philadelphia, though. Between gallery drop-offs and pick-ups I had ample time to paint with my art buddies Diana Cobb Ansley and Nancy Bea Miller. One lovely evening as the rain clouds were drifting away, we had a grand time painting on top of Cadillac Mountain overlooking Frenchman's Bay and the Porcupine Islands.Painting on Cadillac, 14" x 18"NB at her eaasel
Diana's lovely home in Somesville is the subject of this painting.
I painted this one during a day trip to Stonington on Deer Isle.
We also painted the beaver dam in the middle of Beaver Pond, on the Bar Harbor Road. Photo by Nancy Bea Miller

Some Recent Openings. . .

It's been fun but hectic lately. At the opening reception of the Philadelphia Sketch Club's 150th Anniversary Members' Show at the Newman Galleries, I met Diane Feissel, a very talented artist who recently moved back to Philadelphia and joined the Sketch Club. Our Professional Artist meetings can't help but get better and better with Diane on board. Here I am with Diane at the show, and underneath my portrait of Nancy Bea Miller. Joe Sweeney, an artist whose work was also in the show, took the photos. Thank you, Joe, they're great.Photo by Joseph Sweeney
Photo by Joseph Sweeney

The next weekend, I, my husband, and artist Garth Herrick piled in our car for an 8-hour journey to Youngstown, OH, to the Butler Museum and the opening of the Midyear Exhibit. There we met other artists who were in the show and who have been our online friends on art forums and Facebook. It's fun to meet someone in person with whom you've been chatting about art for years and find them to be exactly as you thought they would be, or even better, in real life.My husband took this shot of the artists together. L to R: Jeff Gola, Garth Herrick, Leslie Adams, Stanka Kordic, and I
Standing in front of my painting Teamwork with artist Stanka Kordic, whom I've been wanting to meet for ages.

Arsenic Lobster , Spring 2010 Cover

Toast to Lobsters, oil, 22" x 30"

Arsenic Lobster--what a strange name for a poetry journal! It does catch one's attention, though. And it's filled with a variety of work by accomplished writers. I'm admiring of anyone who can write poetry since I'm hopelessly devoid of any talent in that direction.

The editor of the journal, Sue Yount, asked me some time ago if she could use my painting Toast to Lobsters on the cover, and of course I was delighted! Here's a link to the journal, in case you would like to purchase a copy of the spring 2010 issue (or any other issue for that matter).

I'm pleased to report that the original painting, which was hanging in the gWatson Gallery in Stonington, Maine, last summer, has been purchased by a private collector.

33rd Annual Juried Exhibition at the Salmagundi Club in NYC

Harriet Pattison in her Landscape, oil, 38" x 30"

People have been telling me for years that I should enter a juried show at the Salmagundi Club in New York. And I kept saying, "Okay, I will," but for some reason the deadline would pass by and I would tell myself I would have to remember to enter next year. This year I decided the procrastination had gone on for too long, so I did enter. To my surprise, my portrait of Harriet Pattison was accepted.

Juried shows would make an interesting study. Everyone says "It's a crapshoot" whether you get in or not. The decision rests in the hands of a few jurors who are human and have human preferences, though they try to be fair. (I know; i've been in that position myself.) I've been rejected many times from shows, and the rejection letter or email always says something about how they received a huge number of entries and how difficult it was to choose. Because of these factors, we artists know we shouldn't be too disappointed if we don't get in. I've been entering shows for several years now, but I can't avoid being disappointed, even angry and frustrated, when I don't make the cut. Conversely, each time my work gets in I'm so thrilled I feel like jumping up and down.

Anyway, I'm very happy that my portrait of Harriet will grace the walls of the Salmagundi this summer! For those who find themselves in Manhatten, Here are the show details:

33rd Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibition for Non-Members
Exhibition of original oils, watercolors, pastels, acrylics, mixed media, and sculpture
July 12th through July 23rd, 2010

Awards Reception: Friday, July 23rd, 6:00--8:00 p.m. (open only to exhibition artists and their guests)
EXHIBITION OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: 7 days a week, 1:00-5:00 p.m., July 12th through July 23rd, 2010

Views from the Air

What do portraits have to do with aerial landsapes? You might well ask!

If you are planning to attend the Portrait Society of America annual Art of the Portrait Conference, and you happen to have signed up for Calvin Goodman's first breakout session on Friday afternoon, you'll find out. I'll be giving a power-point talk on my aerial landscape paintings and how I go about getting reference material for them. I will also try to explain how these large panoramas are related to my other landscape paintings, my figurative work, and my portraits. Copies of my essay "The sky is Not the Limit," will be available.

Hope to see you there!