Women Painting Women (R)evolution

In September, the 14 artists who exhibited last year in The Expedition and Beyond are returning to Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA for another Women Painting Women exhibition, and each of us have invited another artist to show with us. In addition, four gallery artists will be joining the show.

Considering that I'm more of an evolutionary than a revolutionary, and more of a humanist than a feminist, you may ask why I'm excited to be part of a show with revolution and women in its title. Well, I'm excited because I want to encourage change, and because I believe that the work of male and female artists should be seen and taken equally seriously.

The way I see it, WPW is kind of like Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action is considered necessary by some people as a way of eliminating racism--yet it offends other people because by definition it is racist, and how can we get rid of racism by establishing a racist situation? Affirmative Action is an experiment. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't. The ultimate goal is to get to a point where there is no need for it.  I see WPW as similar to Affirmative Action in that it gives women artists venues in which to show work, separated from the work of men, with the ultimate goal being not ghettoization, but inclusion, on equal footing, with male figurative artists. Women Painting Women gives accomplished, professional female painters the chance to show the world what they can do, to increase representation of female artists in galleries and museums. I'm all for a level playing field.

Just to make it clear, I cringe when I see art shows entitled "Five Women Painters," or "Three Women Paint the Figure." To me, the fact that all the painters are women is not enough to make a valid theme for a show. I have a method for testing these titles out: in my head, I change the titles to "Five Man Painters" and "Five Men Paint the Figure" and see if it sounds strange. It does. Mentioning the sex of the artist doesn't add anything to the title, in fact it detracts from it because it distracts from the point that shows like this really should have nothing to do with the sex of the artist.

But Women Painting Women has a valid, worthwhile, and interesting theme. A few years ago, the WPW blog was born from the question asked by Sadie Valeri, Alia El Bermani, and Diane Feissel: (to paraphrase) "Do women paint women differently than men paint women? Let's find out!"

Three or so years later and several shows later, we have 32 female artists exhibiting their paintings of women at Principle Gallery, and that question can be asked, pondered, and maybe even answered by the people who see the show. I believe that the viewpoints of women painters need to be recognized and valued. Shows like this not only raise the profiles of the artists involved, but also, by doing so, they enlarge our portrayal and understanding of the woman as subject in art.

Here are two of the three paintings I will be showing:

The Grandmothers, oil on linen, 40" x 34"

Year at Sea, oil on linen, 69" x 46"

Women Painting Women (R)evolution opens September 20th, 6:30-9:00 p.m.
The Principle Gallery
208 King Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
703-739-9326   info@principlegallery.com

Women Painting Women

My plein air painting in the park, Woman Painting Women Painting Woman! Our model was artist Stanka Kordic, who volunteered to fill in for the model who cancelled and stoically posed in the cold, blustery weather.

This past week in Charleston, SC was amazing one, staying with 11 other artists (Alia El Bermani, Diane Feissel, Sadie Valeri, Catherine Prescott, Mia Bergeron, Linda Brandon, Stefani Tewes, Cindy Procious, Kate Stone, Rachel Constantine, and Terry Strickland) in a large beachfront house on Sullivan's Island. We were there to paint, get to know each other, be inspired by each other. . . and to attend the opening reception of the Women Painting Women show at the Robert Lange Studios in Charleston.

This show had its origins as a blog started by artist Sadie Valeri. Sadie had noticed that many major exhibitions, gallery shows and events featuring women as subject matter were painted overwhelmingly by men, so she began collecting images of women painted by women. High quality submissions began pouring in from all over the world, and the blog grew so rapidly that Sadie enlisted the help of fellow artists Alia El-Bermani and Diane Feissel to handle the postings. Some of the artists featured were represented by Robert Lange Studios, and it wasn't long before gallery owners Megan and Robert Lange had the idea of curating a show based on this theme.

Even though we knew the show had generated a lot of great press coverage, we were thrilled at the reaction of the people who were walking around the art district on the evening of the opening. I was with Linda Tracey Brandon when a woman told us, "Oh, you MUST see the Women Painting Women show--it brought tears to my eyes!" That was pretty much the general reaction, and it was like a huge groundswell of energy.

To read more about our adventure, check out Sadie Valeri's description. She says it a lot better than I possibly could.


Opening night at Robert Lange Studios: Alia El Bermani in front of her beautiful painting Space Between.
From left: Me (Alex), artist Mario Robinson who shows at Ann Long Fine Art, and Linda Brandon.
From left: artists Kate Stone, Diane Feissel, and Rachel Constantine.
Stefani Tewes, Cathy Prescott and Alia El Bermani painting the model in Magnolia Plantation.

Cindy Procious at work in a Charleston cemetery.
Oyster roast at the home of artist Shannon Runquist--an evening of wonderful hospitality and southern cuisine.
At our house on Sulivan's Island, painting from the model.

Women Painting Women

I'm pleased that my painting Right Here (oil on linen, 36" x 28") will be included in the Women Painting Women show at the Robert Lange Studios in Charleston, South Carolina, Friday, November 5, 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Women Painting Women was started as a blog by artists Sadie Valeri, Alia El-Bermani and Diane Feissel. The blog is an ongoing and ever-growing collection of "Figurative Paintings of Women by Women with a focus on Contemporary, Living Artists." Over an amazingly short period of time, the founding artists have taken their idea further by creating an exhibition by the same name, and finding a venue for it. They are now exploring ways to take the WPW idea even further.

This is going to be the second show of women's art in which my work is included--and to think I used to swear I would only enter shows that were not women-only! I think something changed for me when I observed how the realist movement, more specifically the realist figurative movement, had become focused on and dominated by the work of male artists. I am hoping people will make an effort to see the quantity of highly accomplished work by women that is out there in the art world, because I would like to see more of a gender balance, more of a mutual respect, less of a boys' club.

A word about galleries: I would like to see gallery directors think twice about the way figurative art is marketed. I believe that the way it is pitched to potential collectors has a lot to do with the type of art collectors are buying--or not buying. Here are a couple of issues that could be addressed:

The AGE of the artist. Why is a young artist such a hot commodity? Doesn't a middle-aged artist still have room to grow? Doesn't age bias eliminate many female artists whose career trajectory takes a different path?

The WAY the figure is depicted. Do male and female artists see the figure differently? Why is the female figure so popular now, how is the female figure depicted in the most sought-after realist art? Would you paint the female figure differently? Would you like to see more art showing male figures?

After being represented by a highly respected New York Gallery since 1994, being one of a group of male and female artists who have been treated with equal respect and whose work sells equally well, I am puzzled by the existence of galleries that only represent men, or claim that only men are financially worth representing, even though they say they give women a chance. I'm hoping that, in the near future, there will be more galleries that showcase the figurative work of male and female artists equally.