A collection of rare LS Lowry works are expected to fetch up to £370,000 at auction.
The four pieces by the Salford artist have been privately-owned for almost 40 years, but are due back on sale in September.
Lowry is best-known for his depictions of industrial districts of Northern England.
The three oil paintings and a pencil drawing belong to an unnamed family in Harrogate, Yorkshire.
Man Posting A Letter has a guide price of £170,000 to £200,000 and was bought by the couple, who have since passed away, from Lowry personally.
Their children are selling the works at auction.
Elizabeth Pepper-Darling, of auctioneers Morphets, said: "The late Harrogate residents were astute collectors, not only acquiring works by various leading Modern British artists but also by the French artists Bernard Buffet and Maurice Utrillo. They were purchased from leading London galleries in the 1970s."
The auction house previously sold a collection of seven monochrome works by Louis Wain for the family in September 2007.
Morphets, the Harrogate Auctioneers, are to offer a major collection of Modern British Art including the L S Lowry works in their Autumn Fine Art Catalogue Sale on 8th September.
2011年8月31日星期三
2011年8月30日星期二
Rare Asian Art offered for sale Christie's
Christie's New York will present its Fall sale of Japanese and Korean Art on Sept. 14, which will include over 250 pieces of Japanese and Korean art. The Japanese section will include pieces from the estate of Catherine H. Edson. The sale is expected to realize in excess of $9 million.
The Japanese items offeredfor sale will include paintings , lacquer wares and furniture, while the Korean portion includes fine porcelains, as well as traditional and modern paintings by Korean masters. Leading the Japanese section of the sale is The Actor Otani Oniji III as Edobei in the Kabuki Play Koi nyobo somewake tazuna (The Beloved Wife’s Particolored Reins) by Toshusai Sharuku, estimated to sell for $600,000-$800,000. Extremely rare, it’s one of Sharuku’s most sought after pieces.
Another highlight is the lacquer cabinet of the Meiji Period, circa 1900, and estimated to sellfor $300,000-350,000. The cabinet features a design of a famous boating excursion on the Oi River in Saga Arashiyama, the western outskirts of the Heian capital (modern Kyoto). The chest was designed by a painter and signed by lacquer artists: Kawanobe Itcho, Kawanobe Heiemon, and Funabashi Iwajiro.
Leading the Korean section is Kim Whankis’ Landscape in Blue that is expected to sell between $2 million and 2.2 million. Whanki has become an expert of Korean modern masters by using his unique blend of Eastern and Western influences. In the 1950’s he incorporated scenes from European landscapes such as a blue moon, a mountain and a forest, which is a symbolic naturalism in keeping with post-colonial nationalism. He chose Suhwa, “to speak with the trees.” Landscape in Blue emphasized the abstract style with which the artist is so closely associated. This painting was purchased by a private collector directly from the artist.
Other items offeredfor sale in the Korean section include an oil and mixed media painting by Park Sookeun titled Returning from the Market (painted in 1965) which depicts three women, all in traditional Korean clothing (hanbok), and a boy, returning home from the market that is expected to sell between $400,000 to $500,000. Since Christie’s New York began selling the work of Park Sookeun 18 years ago, he has become the most sought-after modern Korean master. Returning from the Market has been possessed by the same collector, who bought it directly from Sookeun. Christie’s has sold 21 of Sookeun’s paintings .
The Japanese items offered
Another highlight is the lacquer cabinet of the Meiji Period, circa 1900, and estimated to sell
Leading the Korean section is Kim Whankis’ Landscape in Blue that is expected to sell between $2 million and 2.2 million. Whanki has become an expert of Korean modern masters by using his unique blend of Eastern and Western influences. In the 1950’s he incorporated scenes from European landscapes such as a blue moon, a mountain and a forest, which is a symbolic naturalism in keeping with post-colonial nationalism. He chose Suhwa, “to speak with the trees.” Landscape in Blue emphasized the abstract style with which the artist is so closely associated. This painting was purchased by a private collector directly from the artist.
Other items offered
2011年8月29日星期一
How couple who collected Lowry paintings
A couple's good eye for artistic talent is set to earn their children £500,000 as their collection is auctioned off.
The husband and wife, who have not been named, collected paintings by L.S. Lowry before he was well known.
And now their children are cashing in, as investors flock to the art market as a safe haven for investments.
The couple paid small sums for the Lowry works, and hung them at home for years while the reputation of the 'matchstick men' artist soared.
They both died within the last few years and their works passed to their four children, who have decided to sell them at Morphets auction house in Harrogate, Yorkshire.
A painting of a man posting a letter in a red postbox, which the couple bought directly from Lowry, is said to be worth £200,000.
Although known to fans of the artist, the oil painting has hardly ever been seen before as it was bought by the couple two years after it was painted in the early 1960s.
Another is of a man pulling a cart and is worth £70,000, while one showing a mother pushing a pram through a crowd of people is tipped to sell for £65,000.
Even a basic-looking pencil drawing by Lowry has an estimate of £35,000.
Auctioneer Liz Pepper-Darling said: 'This couple were very keen on art and obviously had a good eye for it. When they bought the paintings people in the art world knew who Lowry was but it was a few years before he came to public attention.
'They spent their money very wisely on acquiring what could prove to be a very good investment.
'The paintings hung on the wall of their home in Harrogate but they have been stored in a cupboard since they both died.
'The Lowry works haven't been seen for more than 40 years. They are utterly fabulous, especially the one of the man posting the letter which is stunning due to its simplicity and contrasting colours.'
Other works belonging to the couple which are being auctioned are two oil paintings by Helen Bradley, expected to fetch £50,000, and a painting by French artist Maurice Utrillo, worth around £40,000.
The sale comes at a buoyant time for the art market, which is seen as a relatively safe place to invest money during this period of turmoil in other markets.
The husband and wife, who have not been named, collected paintings by L.S. Lowry before he was well known.
And now their children are cashing in, as investors flock to the art market as a safe haven for investments.
The couple paid small sums for the Lowry works, and hung them at home for years while the reputation of the 'matchstick men' artist soared.
They both died within the last few years and their works passed to their four children, who have decided to sell them at Morphets auction house in Harrogate, Yorkshire.
A painting of a man posting a letter in a red postbox, which the couple bought directly from Lowry, is said to be worth £200,000.
Although known to fans of the artist, the oil painting has hardly ever been seen before as it was bought by the couple two years after it was painted in the early 1960s.
Another is of a man pulling a cart and is worth £70,000, while one showing a mother pushing a pram through a crowd of people is tipped to sell for £65,000.
Even a basic-looking pencil drawing by Lowry has an estimate of £35,000.
Auctioneer Liz Pepper-Darling said: 'This couple were very keen on art and obviously had a good eye for it. When they bought the paintings people in the art world knew who Lowry was but it was a few years before he came to public attention.
'They spent their money very wisely on acquiring what could prove to be a very good investment.
'The paintings hung on the wall of their home in Harrogate but they have been stored in a cupboard since they both died.
'The Lowry works haven't been seen for more than 40 years. They are utterly fabulous, especially the one of the man posting the letter which is stunning due to its simplicity and contrasting colours.'
Other works belonging to the couple which are being auctioned are two oil paintings by Helen Bradley, expected to fetch £50,000, and a painting by French artist Maurice Utrillo, worth around £40,000.
The sale comes at a buoyant time for the art market, which is seen as a relatively safe place to invest money during this period of turmoil in other markets.
2011年8月28日星期日
Tower Hill hosts exhibit that celebrates 'Desert Treasures'
As summer tends toward fall, prickly agave and brilliant claret cup, hardy buckthorn and translucent fortnight lilies are blooming at Tower Hill Botanic Garden.
Wielding her paintbrush like a horticultural wand, artist Carol Amos has transplanted a hothouse of "Desert Treasures" from her Southwestern home to the cathedral-like Limonaia greenhouse in the Boylston botanical garden.
A transplant herself and current resident of Scottsdale, Ariz., and St. Louis, Mo., Amos is showing 23 gorgeous oil paintings in the inaugural exhibition in the spacious Limonaia, which was completed in November 2010.
"As a painter, I hope to capture the beauty of the every day world that people see in their own gardens," she said Monday while installing the show. "All I'm doing is conveying to viewers something I saw that's so beautiful that I want to share it with them."
Subtitled "New Paintings by Scottsdale Artist Carol Amos," the show opened Aug. 23 and runs through Oct. 1.
With its 36-foot-tall arched ceiling and large windows, the Limonaia resembles the interior of Spanish-style chapels found throughout the Southwest.
Viewing Amos' paintings, visitors can easily imagine they're looking out a chapel window and seeing yellow prickly pear or a white winged dove perched on a saguaro fruit.
Tower Hill Executive Director John W. Trexler said showing Amos' paintings in the Limonaia's inaugural exhibit was an inspired choice.
"I think the stateliness of the room complements Carol's beautiful art," he said.
Painting these Southwestern plants, Amos combines a botanist's anatomical knowledge with a home gardener's personal touch.
Rather than trying to illustrate a textbook, she's depicted on her canvases accurate, vividly colored portraits of plants and the critters that nibble their flowers and hide beneath their leaves.
Pausing before a painting of a tomato-red ocotillo, Amos pointed to her rendering of its oval leaves and spiny stalks.
"I like detail. I like all the little pieces like the spines and petals. I don't want them to be perfect, just real," she said.
Visitors will be able to compare Amos' remarkably detailed paintings with the genuine article when Tower Hill hosts the Fifth Annual Cactus and Succulent Show Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 17 and 18, in the Milton Gallery and two classrooms.
Comprising 10 vendors, the cactus and succulent show runs on Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Amos will be at Tower Hill Saturday, Sept. 17, to discuss her work prior to the evening reception. All her paintings are for sale.
Through mid-September, visitors will see a pair of very different and exciting exhibits at Tower Hill.
In an exhibit titled "Fear and Wonder," Sean James Harrington is showing throughout the grounds and gardens 24 intriguing sculptures made from recycled materials that reflect his interest in nature and mythology.
Gail Bachorik's fiber and fabric "Art Quilts," which runs through Sept. 4, suggest the lush tropical beauty of her home in Florida. Amos' paintings will move to the Milton Gallery on Sept. 4 when "Art Quilts" ends.
Amos described herself as a contemporary realist who aims to accurately depict her floral subjects while conveying their natural ambience.
Born in Lexington, Ky., she grew up in the Midwest where she began drawing and painting as a child. Largely self-taught, she has studied under Jerry Thomas of St. Louis, Cody DeLong of Arizona, and en plein air artist M. Shawn Cornell.
She said she seeks to bring her plants and flowers alive, an effect she said Thomas called "putting the spark in the eye of the horse."
"I'm not aiming for photographic realism. If my paintings look like a photograph, that's not my intent. I might simplify it a little but not to the point of abstraction," she said. "I'd prefer a viewer to ask: How did this beautiful cactus grow in the midst of this harsh desert?"
Working exclusively with oils for this exhibit, Amos frequently applies her paint in a layered manner that evokes the rough surfaces of her subjects' branches and leaves.
For Amos, the essential step to expressing the vitality of her floral subjects is "really seeing what I'm looking at."
"You have to really look to see what's really there, not what you think is there," she said.
While stressing the importance of composition and technique in her work, Amos hopes viewers share her belief the desert encourages a purity of vision.
Wielding her paintbrush like a horticultural wand, artist Carol Amos has transplanted a hothouse of "Desert Treasures" from her Southwestern home to the cathedral-like Limonaia greenhouse in the Boylston botanical garden.
A transplant herself and current resident of Scottsdale, Ariz., and St. Louis, Mo., Amos is showing 23 gorgeous oil paintings in the inaugural exhibition in the spacious Limonaia, which was completed in November 2010.
"As a painter, I hope to capture the beauty of the every day world that people see in their own gardens," she said Monday while installing the show. "All I'm doing is conveying to viewers something I saw that's so beautiful that I want to share it with them."
Subtitled "New Paintings by Scottsdale Artist Carol Amos," the show opened Aug. 23 and runs through Oct. 1.
With its 36-foot-tall arched ceiling and large windows, the Limonaia resembles the interior of Spanish-style chapels found throughout the Southwest.
Viewing Amos' paintings, visitors can easily imagine they're looking out a chapel window and seeing yellow prickly pear or a white winged dove perched on a saguaro fruit.
Tower Hill Executive Director John W. Trexler said showing Amos' paintings in the Limonaia's inaugural exhibit was an inspired choice.
"I think the stateliness of the room complements Carol's beautiful art," he said.
Painting these Southwestern plants, Amos combines a botanist's anatomical knowledge with a home gardener's personal touch.
Rather than trying to illustrate a textbook, she's depicted on her canvases accurate, vividly colored portraits of plants and the critters that nibble their flowers and hide beneath their leaves.
Pausing before a painting of a tomato-red ocotillo, Amos pointed to her rendering of its oval leaves and spiny stalks.
"I like detail. I like all the little pieces like the spines and petals. I don't want them to be perfect, just real," she said.
Visitors will be able to compare Amos' remarkably detailed paintings with the genuine article when Tower Hill hosts the Fifth Annual Cactus and Succulent Show Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 17 and 18, in the Milton Gallery and two classrooms.
Comprising 10 vendors, the cactus and succulent show runs on Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Amos will be at Tower Hill Saturday, Sept. 17, to discuss her work prior to the evening reception. All her paintings are for sale.
Through mid-September, visitors will see a pair of very different and exciting exhibits at Tower Hill.
In an exhibit titled "Fear and Wonder," Sean James Harrington is showing throughout the grounds and gardens 24 intriguing sculptures made from recycled materials that reflect his interest in nature and mythology.
Gail Bachorik's fiber and fabric "Art Quilts," which runs through Sept. 4, suggest the lush tropical beauty of her home in Florida. Amos' paintings will move to the Milton Gallery on Sept. 4 when "Art Quilts" ends.
Amos described herself as a contemporary realist who aims to accurately depict her floral subjects while conveying their natural ambience.
Born in Lexington, Ky., she grew up in the Midwest where she began drawing and painting as a child. Largely self-taught, she has studied under Jerry Thomas of St. Louis, Cody DeLong of Arizona, and en plein air artist M. Shawn Cornell.
She said she seeks to bring her plants and flowers alive, an effect she said Thomas called "putting the spark in the eye of the horse."
"I'm not aiming for photographic realism. If my paintings look like a photograph, that's not my intent. I might simplify it a little but not to the point of abstraction," she said. "I'd prefer a viewer to ask: How did this beautiful cactus grow in the midst of this harsh desert?"
Working exclusively with oils for this exhibit, Amos frequently applies her paint in a layered manner that evokes the rough surfaces of her subjects' branches and leaves.
For Amos, the essential step to expressing the vitality of her floral subjects is "really seeing what I'm looking at."
"You have to really look to see what's really there, not what you think is there," she said.
While stressing the importance of composition and technique in her work, Amos hopes viewers share her belief the desert encourages a purity of vision.
2011年8月25日星期四
Redesigned estate sales firm thriving
Hundreds of customers traipse through an immaculately clean condominium in Bloomfield Hills, carrying lamps, oil paintings for sale, cosmetics and sofas. Mark Blondy happily rings up another sale for the Commerce Township-based Americana Estate Sales Inc.
"It's like a high-grade circus: The tent goes up, the people come and make up stories about the occupants and walk out with its contents," said Blondy, 50. "They go home and you move the show to another location."
Americana Estate Sales expects to improve its sales this year to almost $100,000 or more after a lackluster 2010 provided a wake-up call to redesign his business that coordinates the sale of white elephants.
"I'll admit, 2010 was a bad year, but it took me out of complacency," said Blondy, who formed an estate business in 1996. He redoubled his efforts with the help of Patty Livernois, the ex-owner of Uppity Puppy, a Royal Oak dog boutique, who knew retailing and web design.
Together they built a following of 10,000 contacts. They also identified a moving company that would help their clients who purchased furniture too big to transport by car.
But nothing did more good for Blondy than taking courses in effective communication from Landmark Education in Livonia, he said.
"I thought it was my job to tell clients what they needed to do to sell their possessions, and it wasn't working. What I found was that listening to them mattered. Let them tell me more about the occupants of the house, what possessions were most sacred and how they wanted leftover items sold on consignment or donated," Blondy said. "Make sure you hear what they say and repeat it back so you don't override expectations."
Improving communications in person and online helps him get referral business among people in transition — death in a family, moving out of town or just downsizing. At the average house, it takes two weeks to organize, sort, price, display, market to customers, sell items and clean up.
Blondy coordinates two and sometimes three sales a week with seven part-time people, including two professional belly dancers. The average event lasts two days and brings $5,000 to $10,000 cash to the client. Americana takes an average of 25 to 35 percent.
Brian Crilley, the son of Shirley Crilley, owner of the Bloomfield Hills home where a recent sale occurred, said it wasn't easy to let go of the stuff he had grown up with and watch strangers march out with it.
Metro Detroit continues to be a national leader in estate sales, one expert said.
"Detroit is the second-largest market in the country behind Chicago for estate sales. You'll find an average of 25 to 30 sales per week," said Dan McQuade, co-owner of Vintage Software LLC, a Missouri company that powers EstateSales.net and makes money from companies that advertise their estate sales on his server.
"The economy is down and people want bargains."
The popular company sends 150,000 customized emails a week on sales occurring around the nation and provides a Web search option to locate specific collectibles.
Blondy expects to expand business next year by creating a training academy for estate sale workers and an association of estate sale operators. He is formulating a code of ethics and a board of directors and writing a training manual.
"Antique dealers and estate sale operators aren't certified like home appraisers. We want to provide a means of overall support through accreditation, ethical standards, education and other resources," said Blondy, who has conducted more than 500 sales in his 15-year tenure. "Our experience makes the difference."
"It's like a high-grade circus: The tent goes up, the people come and make up stories about the occupants and walk out with its contents," said Blondy, 50. "They go home and you move the show to another location."
Americana Estate Sales expects to improve its sales this year to almost $100,000 or more after a lackluster 2010 provided a wake-up call to redesign his business that coordinates the sale of white elephants.
"I'll admit, 2010 was a bad year, but it took me out of complacency," said Blondy, who formed an estate business in 1996. He redoubled his efforts with the help of Patty Livernois, the ex-owner of Uppity Puppy, a Royal Oak dog boutique, who knew retailing and web design.
Together they built a following of 10,000 contacts. They also identified a moving company that would help their clients who purchased furniture too big to transport by car.
But nothing did more good for Blondy than taking courses in effective communication from Landmark Education in Livonia, he said.
"I thought it was my job to tell clients what they needed to do to sell their possessions, and it wasn't working. What I found was that listening to them mattered. Let them tell me more about the occupants of the house, what possessions were most sacred and how they wanted leftover items sold on consignment or donated," Blondy said. "Make sure you hear what they say and repeat it back so you don't override expectations."
Improving communications in person and online helps him get referral business among people in transition — death in a family, moving out of town or just downsizing. At the average house, it takes two weeks to organize, sort, price, display, market to customers, sell items and clean up.
Blondy coordinates two and sometimes three sales a week with seven part-time people, including two professional belly dancers. The average event lasts two days and brings $5,000 to $10,000 cash to the client. Americana takes an average of 25 to 35 percent.
Brian Crilley, the son of Shirley Crilley, owner of the Bloomfield Hills home where a recent sale occurred, said it wasn't easy to let go of the stuff he had grown up with and watch strangers march out with it.
Metro Detroit continues to be a national leader in estate sales, one expert said.
"Detroit is the second-largest market in the country behind Chicago for estate sales. You'll find an average of 25 to 30 sales per week," said Dan McQuade, co-owner of Vintage Software LLC, a Missouri company that powers EstateSales.net and makes money from companies that advertise their estate sales on his server.
"The economy is down and people want bargains."
The popular company sends 150,000 customized emails a week on sales occurring around the nation and provides a Web search option to locate specific collectibles.
Blondy expects to expand business next year by creating a training academy for estate sale workers and an association of estate sale operators. He is formulating a code of ethics and a board of directors and writing a training manual.
"Antique dealers and estate sale operators aren't certified like home appraisers. We want to provide a means of overall support through accreditation, ethical standards, education and other resources," said Blondy, who has conducted more than 500 sales in his 15-year tenure. "Our experience makes the difference."
Redesigned estate sales firm thriving
Hundreds of customers traipse through an immaculately clean condominium in Bloomfield Hills, carrying lamps, oil paintings for sale, cosmetics and sofas. Mark Blondy happily rings up another sale for the Commerce Township-based Americana Estate Sales Inc.
"It's like a high-grade circus: The tent goes up, the people come and make up stories about the occupants and walk out with its contents," said Blondy, 50. "They go home and you move the show to another location."
Americana Estate Sales expects to improve its sales this year to almost $100,000 or more after a lackluster 2010 provided a wake-up call to redesign his business that coordinates the sale of white elephants.
"I'll admit, 2010 was a bad year, but it took me out of complacency," said Blondy, who formed an estate business in 1996. He redoubled his efforts with the help of Patty Livernois, the ex-owner of Uppity Puppy, a Royal Oak dog boutique, who knew retailing and web design.
Together they built a following of 10,000 contacts. They also identified a moving company that would help their clients who purchased furniture too big to transport by car.
But nothing did more good for Blondy than taking courses in effective communication from Landmark Education in Livonia, he said.
"I thought it was my job to tell clients what they needed to do to sell their possessions, and it wasn't working. What I found was that listening to them mattered. Let them tell me more about the occupants of the house, what possessions were most sacred and how they wanted leftover items sold on consignment or donated," Blondy said. "Make sure you hear what they say and repeat it back so you don't override expectations."
Improving communications in person and online helps him get referral business among people in transition — death in a family, moving out of town or just downsizing. At the average house, it takes two weeks to organize, sort, price, display, market to customers, sell items and clean up.
Blondy coordinates two and sometimes three sales a week with seven part-time people, including two professional belly dancers. The average event lasts two days and brings $5,000 to $10,000 cash to the client. Americana takes an average of 25 to 35 percent.
Brian Crilley, the son of Shirley Crilley, owner of the Bloomfield Hills home where a recent sale occurred, said it wasn't easy to let go of the stuff he had grown up with and watch strangers march out with it.
Metro Detroit continues to be a national leader in estate sales, one expert said.
"Detroit is the second-largest market in the country behind Chicago for estate sales. You'll find an average of 25 to 30 sales per week," said Dan McQuade, co-owner of Vintage Software LLC, a Missouri company that powers EstateSales.net and makes money from companies that advertise their estate sales on his server.
"It's like a high-grade circus: The tent goes up, the people come and make up stories about the occupants and walk out with its contents," said Blondy, 50. "They go home and you move the show to another location."
Americana Estate Sales expects to improve its sales this year to almost $100,000 or more after a lackluster 2010 provided a wake-up call to redesign his business that coordinates the sale of white elephants.
"I'll admit, 2010 was a bad year, but it took me out of complacency," said Blondy, who formed an estate business in 1996. He redoubled his efforts with the help of Patty Livernois, the ex-owner of Uppity Puppy, a Royal Oak dog boutique, who knew retailing and web design.
Together they built a following of 10,000 contacts. They also identified a moving company that would help their clients who purchased furniture too big to transport by car.
But nothing did more good for Blondy than taking courses in effective communication from Landmark Education in Livonia, he said.
"I thought it was my job to tell clients what they needed to do to sell their possessions, and it wasn't working. What I found was that listening to them mattered. Let them tell me more about the occupants of the house, what possessions were most sacred and how they wanted leftover items sold on consignment or donated," Blondy said. "Make sure you hear what they say and repeat it back so you don't override expectations."
Improving communications in person and online helps him get referral business among people in transition — death in a family, moving out of town or just downsizing. At the average house, it takes two weeks to organize, sort, price, display, market to customers, sell items and clean up.
Blondy coordinates two and sometimes three sales a week with seven part-time people, including two professional belly dancers. The average event lasts two days and brings $5,000 to $10,000 cash to the client. Americana takes an average of 25 to 35 percent.
Brian Crilley, the son of Shirley Crilley, owner of the Bloomfield Hills home where a recent sale occurred, said it wasn't easy to let go of the stuff he had grown up with and watch strangers march out with it.
Metro Detroit continues to be a national leader in estate sales, one expert said.
"Detroit is the second-largest market in the country behind Chicago for estate sales. You'll find an average of 25 to 30 sales per week," said Dan McQuade, co-owner of Vintage Software LLC, a Missouri company that powers EstateSales.net and makes money from companies that advertise their estate sales on his server.
2011年8月23日星期二
Unknown artists and local legends
Hundreds of donated art works will be sold on Saturday, September 3 in a brand new valley event called Art From the Attic.
Doors at the Invermere Community Hall (located at 1709 10th Street) will open at 9 a.m. sharp, and customers will be invited inside to view and purchase works of art including posters, prints, paintings and photographs until 4 p.m.
A huge variety of current art will be available, with original pieces by local artists such as Lynn Grillmair, June Thomsen and Carney Oudendag. Also on offer are prints by Canadian artists Robert Bateman, Albert Casson and David Veres.
A selection of vintage art will also be available including oil paintings for sale, watercolours, drawings and lithographs. There are even a couple of paintings on velvet. If you are looking for a particular subject for your collection or a Christmas gift, try browsing through the specialty items including wildlife photographs, needlework and movie posters.
Where possible, information about the artists will be provided. However, many works are by unknown artists.
“You may just find something that’s worth a lot of money,” says event manager Elinor Florence, “but more likely, you’ll find something that you just fall in love with.”
Art supplies will also be on sale including frames, mats, glass and canvasses suitable for recycling.
“We urge buyers to use their imaginations, as there are some very high-quality frames for sale,” says Florence.
All art will be pre-priced and organizers will not accept offers. A half-price sale will be held for the last hour of the day. If you spot something you love, you can take a chance that it will still be there later and return from 3 to 4 p.m. for an even better deal.
Please note that the organizers will not accept credit or debit cards, so bring your cash or personal cheques with you. Because the event is for charity, buyers will not have to pay any taxes.
Fifty percent of all proceeds will go towards the Invermere Health Care Auxiliary, which raises money for the local hospital. The other half will go to the Columbia Valley Arts Council, which supports the visual and performing arts in our community.
Doors at the Invermere Community Hall (located at 1709 10th Street) will open at 9 a.m. sharp, and customers will be invited inside to view and purchase works of art including posters, prints, paintings and photographs until 4 p.m.
A huge variety of current art will be available, with original pieces by local artists such as Lynn Grillmair, June Thomsen and Carney Oudendag. Also on offer are prints by Canadian artists Robert Bateman, Albert Casson and David Veres.
A selection of vintage art will also be available including oil paintings for sale, watercolours, drawings and lithographs. There are even a couple of paintings on velvet. If you are looking for a particular subject for your collection or a Christmas gift, try browsing through the specialty items including wildlife photographs, needlework and movie posters.
Where possible, information about the artists will be provided. However, many works are by unknown artists.
“You may just find something that’s worth a lot of money,” says event manager Elinor Florence, “but more likely, you’ll find something that you just fall in love with.”
Art supplies will also be on sale including frames, mats, glass and canvasses suitable for recycling.
“We urge buyers to use their imaginations, as there are some very high-quality frames for sale,” says Florence.
All art will be pre-priced and organizers will not accept offers. A half-price sale will be held for the last hour of the day. If you spot something you love, you can take a chance that it will still be there later and return from 3 to 4 p.m. for an even better deal.
Please note that the organizers will not accept credit or debit cards, so bring your cash or personal cheques with you. Because the event is for charity, buyers will not have to pay any taxes.
Fifty percent of all proceeds will go towards the Invermere Health Care Auxiliary, which raises money for the local hospital. The other half will go to the Columbia Valley Arts Council, which supports the visual and performing arts in our community.
2011年8月22日星期一
Joel Jover, a Flagship Visual Artist
Joel Jover Llenderroso is a Camagüey-resident visual artist who never ceases painting, but now he is making his own path into writing books.
Acknowledged by the quality of his work, displayed both in Cuba and abroad, this tireless artist is fine-tuning details of a string of oil paintings for sale entitled “Las 21 Vírgenes”, in which Jover retakes iconographies of virgins and Madonnas, a project in which he once was involved during the 1990’s and even exhibited in New York City some years ago.
In this new proposal, the painter associates the above-mentioned figures with farmyard animals, the sea, the forest and the wood. Besides, one can appreciate paintings in which the virgins carry snakes, deers, lions, eagles, scorpions, frogs, fish or roosters, instead of babies.
Joel Jover’s canvas Eiffel Tower joins other 29 Cuban painters in a travelling exhibit that pays tribute to the 120th anniversary of the Jose Marti’s La Edad de Oro (the Golden Age) magazine, a project that is sponsored by the Sociedad Cultural José Martí and the Visual Arts National Council.
At Amalia art gallery – run by the Cuban Fund of Cultural Assets (FCBC) - this renown artist very recently presented the exhibit “Todo para Vender & Coleccionismo”, made up by small and medium size pieces of decorative art, in a bid to encourage art collecting in this province.
Active member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), Joel Jover is a flagship proxy of this organization and a prove of that are the many awards he has captured during his career, such as the Medalla Alejo Carpentier and the Distinción por la Cultura Nacional.
Acknowledged by the quality of his work, displayed both in Cuba and abroad, this tireless artist is fine-tuning details of a string of oil paintings for sale entitled “Las 21 Vírgenes”, in which Jover retakes iconographies of virgins and Madonnas, a project in which he once was involved during the 1990’s and even exhibited in New York City some years ago.
In this new proposal, the painter associates the above-mentioned figures with farmyard animals, the sea, the forest and the wood. Besides, one can appreciate paintings in which the virgins carry snakes, deers, lions, eagles, scorpions, frogs, fish or roosters, instead of babies.
Joel Jover’s canvas Eiffel Tower joins other 29 Cuban painters in a travelling exhibit that pays tribute to the 120th anniversary of the Jose Marti’s La Edad de Oro (the Golden Age) magazine, a project that is sponsored by the Sociedad Cultural José Martí and the Visual Arts National Council.
At Amalia art gallery – run by the Cuban Fund of Cultural Assets (FCBC) - this renown artist very recently presented the exhibit “Todo para Vender & Coleccionismo”, made up by small and medium size pieces of decorative art, in a bid to encourage art collecting in this province.
Active member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), Joel Jover is a flagship proxy of this organization and a prove of that are the many awards he has captured during his career, such as the Medalla Alejo Carpentier and the Distinción por la Cultura Nacional.
What a racket: Artist combines love of classics, tennis
JOPLIN, Mo. — A quick glance about the Post Memorial Art Reference Library this month and one might think the library had obtained special access to works by the masters: Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse and the like.
Until they spotted the tennis balls.
There’s “Harmony in Red (The Red Room),” one of Mattisse’s recognizable pieces circa 1908. But look closely, and you’ll see the addition of a tennis court out the window and a sleeve of balls on the table along with the iconic tea set.
There’s “The Starry Night,” a Vincent Van Gogh circa 1889, that typically resides in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It’s still there, actually. Look closely at the one in Post, and you’ll see a tennis ball “star” in the sky.
That’s the work of Joplin artist Margie Moss, who says she hopes the masters have a sense of humor like she does.
“I think Rafael would laugh,” she said. “I don’t know, actually. Who knows? Some artists were probably more serious than others, but you would hope they’d find humor in them.”
Moss, a member of the Local Color Art Gallery in the historic Gryphon Building, has made her living for the past 30 years as owner of the Joplin Decorating Center. But lately, she finds herself more and more drawn to the gallery.
“The more I paint, the more I love it. And the more you paint, the better you get, so you get encouraged,” she said. “And then you love it more.”
Moss also loves tennis, which explains her unique twist on classics such as “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” by Johannes Vermeer, a Dutch painter in the 1600s.
“He painted her 350 years ago, but that painting was lost for 200 years, and no one really knows the identity of her,” said Moss. “I thought she has on a blue, almost Nike-looking headband.”
So Moss copied the original, tempted to put a white Nike swish on the headband but stopping short of doing so for fear of being sued. “Instead, I decided she was a tennis diva, and gave her tennis ball earrings. No doubt her demure look hides the fact that she was a killer on the court.”
Moss is somewhat of a tennis diva herself.
“I’d never really been exposed to it much in the small town I grew up in,” said Moss, a native of Newton, Kan. “I first picked up a racket when I went to the University of Arkansas and found two tennis courts behind the dorm.”
Meawhile, she became an art major, but didn’t do so well at painting and threw what she created away. She went on to work for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City as a buyer and design coordinator.
The turning point for her own art career came when she moved to Joplin in 1980 and began interior decorating.
She and her husband, Dick, began their family soon after, which now includes Katie, 29, and Cole, 23, who grew up creating their own Christmas cards. Cole recently graduated from art school in Los Angeles and has a book due out in November.
In some of the area’s nicest homes, Moss noticed the work of local artist Jeff Legg.
“I tracked him down and asked if he’d teach lessons, and he agreed,” she said. That was 20 years ago, and Legg has since gone on to be a master signature member of Oil Painters of America.
Moss credits that experience with jumpstarting her art career. The family decorated their home with prints of famous works, and as Moss became more adept at painting, she copied them, one by one, to replace the prints with real paintings.
At the same time, she began playing tennis at Millenium with a group of Joplin area ladies who formed a team.
Against all odds, they beat out teams from Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri to qualify for nationals in Indian Wells, Calif.
“And thus my creative mind went to work combining my love of tennis and art,” Moss said.
All told, she created 12 tennis ball paintings Ñ all oil on 8-by-8-inch canvasses Ñ and has done a great deal of research about each of the masters and their originals.
Take Rafael, who was out walking in the countryside and came upon a young woman and her baby. He was taken with her, and asked if she would sit for him. She agreed, but although he had his paints and brushes, he lacked a canvas. Looking about, he spied a wooden barrel top and used that as his surface.
Later hungry, he stopped in an inn, but realized he had no money for dinner. The innkeeper agreed to provide him one in exchange for the painting. It hung in the inn for who knows how long until being discovered.
Now, Madonna of the Chair is one of the five most valuable paintings in Europe and hangs in the Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy. Moss’s interpretation of it is among the exhibit at the Post.
She also has exhibited paintings at “Brushstrokes,” Spiva Center for the Arts, Art Central and St. Avip’s Gala and Art Auction during the last 10 years and has won several awards.
Now, she’s searching for the perfect tennis-related organization to gift the paintings to, with the hopes that her paintings can benefit someone the way tennis has benefited her.
“It’s just so enjoyable to be able to do the thing you love to do.”
Until they spotted the tennis balls.
There’s “Harmony in Red (The Red Room),” one of Mattisse’s recognizable pieces circa 1908. But look closely, and you’ll see the addition of a tennis court out the window and a sleeve of balls on the table along with the iconic tea set.
There’s “The Starry Night,” a Vincent Van Gogh circa 1889, that typically resides in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It’s still there, actually. Look closely at the one in Post, and you’ll see a tennis ball “star” in the sky.
That’s the work of Joplin artist Margie Moss, who says she hopes the masters have a sense of humor like she does.
“I think Rafael would laugh,” she said. “I don’t know, actually. Who knows? Some artists were probably more serious than others, but you would hope they’d find humor in them.”
Moss, a member of the Local Color Art Gallery in the historic Gryphon Building, has made her living for the past 30 years as owner of the Joplin Decorating Center. But lately, she finds herself more and more drawn to the gallery.
“The more I paint, the more I love it. And the more you paint, the better you get, so you get encouraged,” she said. “And then you love it more.”
Moss also loves tennis, which explains her unique twist on classics such as “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” by Johannes Vermeer, a Dutch painter in the 1600s.
“He painted her 350 years ago, but that painting was lost for 200 years, and no one really knows the identity of her,” said Moss. “I thought she has on a blue, almost Nike-looking headband.”
So Moss copied the original, tempted to put a white Nike swish on the headband but stopping short of doing so for fear of being sued. “Instead, I decided she was a tennis diva, and gave her tennis ball earrings. No doubt her demure look hides the fact that she was a killer on the court.”
Moss is somewhat of a tennis diva herself.
“I’d never really been exposed to it much in the small town I grew up in,” said Moss, a native of Newton, Kan. “I first picked up a racket when I went to the University of Arkansas and found two tennis courts behind the dorm.”
Meawhile, she became an art major, but didn’t do so well at painting and threw what she created away. She went on to work for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City as a buyer and design coordinator.
The turning point for her own art career came when she moved to Joplin in 1980 and began interior decorating.
She and her husband, Dick, began their family soon after, which now includes Katie, 29, and Cole, 23, who grew up creating their own Christmas cards. Cole recently graduated from art school in Los Angeles and has a book due out in November.
In some of the area’s nicest homes, Moss noticed the work of local artist Jeff Legg.
“I tracked him down and asked if he’d teach lessons, and he agreed,” she said. That was 20 years ago, and Legg has since gone on to be a master signature member of Oil Painters of America.
Moss credits that experience with jumpstarting her art career. The family decorated their home with prints of famous works, and as Moss became more adept at painting, she copied them, one by one, to replace the prints with real paintings.
At the same time, she began playing tennis at Millenium with a group of Joplin area ladies who formed a team.
Against all odds, they beat out teams from Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri to qualify for nationals in Indian Wells, Calif.
“And thus my creative mind went to work combining my love of tennis and art,” Moss said.
All told, she created 12 tennis ball paintings Ñ all oil on 8-by-8-inch canvasses Ñ and has done a great deal of research about each of the masters and their originals.
Take Rafael, who was out walking in the countryside and came upon a young woman and her baby. He was taken with her, and asked if she would sit for him. She agreed, but although he had his paints and brushes, he lacked a canvas. Looking about, he spied a wooden barrel top and used that as his surface.
Later hungry, he stopped in an inn, but realized he had no money for dinner. The innkeeper agreed to provide him one in exchange for the painting. It hung in the inn for who knows how long until being discovered.
Now, Madonna of the Chair is one of the five most valuable paintings in Europe and hangs in the Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy. Moss’s interpretation of it is among the exhibit at the Post.
She also has exhibited paintings at “Brushstrokes,” Spiva Center for the Arts, Art Central and St. Avip’s Gala and Art Auction during the last 10 years and has won several awards.
Now, she’s searching for the perfect tennis-related organization to gift the paintings to, with the hopes that her paintings can benefit someone the way tennis has benefited her.
“It’s just so enjoyable to be able to do the thing you love to do.”
2011年8月18日星期四
Art in the suburbs
It’s not difficult to pick out John van der Hart’s house on Eighth Line. It’s the only one with the 30-foot observation tower and an art gallery in the front yard.
There’s a simple explanation for the unique features that decorate the 78-year-old artist’s home: he wants to share his art with the entire world.
Last Thursday, he sat in his front garden with flecks of paint still on his hands and face, surrounded by his paintings. The large format oil paintings, some of which were self-portrait nudes were propped up for optimum viewing from the street.
“This is a natural way of expressing myself,” said the long-time North Oakville resident. “I find it wonderful.”
Van der Hart moved to his home on Eighth Line in 1971. In time, a subdivision was built up around his house when he stubbornly refused to sell to a developer.
He always had one or two works of art adorning his front yard, but last April he dragged more than a dozen canvases into his garden to create his “natural gallery.”
Originally from Holland, van der Hart has been a professional artist for 40 years and is well respected for his watercolour paintings. He moved to Canada after being inspired by the county’s natural beauty.
Last year, he decided he wanted a change from watercolour and began using oil paints. He said he preferred oil paints for several reasons including the grand scale of the pieces, the fact that an artist can continue to work on the pieces over time and that they had more of an emphasis on the human form.
“Watercolour art, they are without people. These are landscape paintings and if they put people in it they put people in it looking at their backs,” he said, “never face on because if they do that, the landscape around it disappears for a subject matter.”
He then looked to the end of his driveway to provide him with a potentially limitless audience.
“I have thousands of cars passing everyday,” he said gesturing towards vehicles whizzing by his works of art.
“People come, they drive slow, I sit in the entrance of the gallery, they wave, I wave back”
“I communicate with them. They are my neighbours. I am their neighbour.”
Van der Hart feels that he and his neighbours share a mutually beneficial relationship. To him, his installation is allowing those who would not normally go to art galleries the opportunity to see art.
“They would never come in my gallery and look at it. But they see them here,” he said. “And so I have enriched their lives a little. And it’s the same with passing cars.”
There are some people, however, who believe his paintings are too risqué for the neighbourhood.
Van der Hart recalled last year seeing one of his neighbours taking pictures of his paintings on his lawn. There were self-portrait nudes in his collection.
The Town by-law office called him two days later asking him to take his paintings down. They told him they had received a complaint from one of his neighbours who said one of his paintings might damage her children’s mind.
“I said, ‘you’re kidding. No way, these are my paintings,’” he explained.
He did, however, put leaves over his painting’s genitals to satisfy those with delicate sensibilities.
“My purpose is to get more people to come out here,” he said, looking out over his many paintings. “To give them a reason because people might not be used to this type of painting at all, ever. If you don’t go to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) they might never have seen it.”
There’s a simple explanation for the unique features that decorate the 78-year-old artist’s home: he wants to share his art with the entire world.
Last Thursday, he sat in his front garden with flecks of paint still on his hands and face, surrounded by his paintings. The large format oil paintings, some of which were self-portrait nudes were propped up for optimum viewing from the street.
“This is a natural way of expressing myself,” said the long-time North Oakville resident. “I find it wonderful.”
Van der Hart moved to his home on Eighth Line in 1971. In time, a subdivision was built up around his house when he stubbornly refused to sell to a developer.
He always had one or two works of art adorning his front yard, but last April he dragged more than a dozen canvases into his garden to create his “natural gallery.”
Originally from Holland, van der Hart has been a professional artist for 40 years and is well respected for his watercolour paintings. He moved to Canada after being inspired by the county’s natural beauty.
Last year, he decided he wanted a change from watercolour and began using oil paints. He said he preferred oil paints for several reasons including the grand scale of the pieces, the fact that an artist can continue to work on the pieces over time and that they had more of an emphasis on the human form.
“Watercolour art, they are without people. These are landscape paintings and if they put people in it they put people in it looking at their backs,” he said, “never face on because if they do that, the landscape around it disappears for a subject matter.”
He then looked to the end of his driveway to provide him with a potentially limitless audience.
“I have thousands of cars passing everyday,” he said gesturing towards vehicles whizzing by his works of art.
“People come, they drive slow, I sit in the entrance of the gallery, they wave, I wave back”
“I communicate with them. They are my neighbours. I am their neighbour.”
Van der Hart feels that he and his neighbours share a mutually beneficial relationship. To him, his installation is allowing those who would not normally go to art galleries the opportunity to see art.
“They would never come in my gallery and look at it. But they see them here,” he said. “And so I have enriched their lives a little. And it’s the same with passing cars.”
There are some people, however, who believe his paintings are too risqué for the neighbourhood.
Van der Hart recalled last year seeing one of his neighbours taking pictures of his paintings on his lawn. There were self-portrait nudes in his collection.
The Town by-law office called him two days later asking him to take his paintings down. They told him they had received a complaint from one of his neighbours who said one of his paintings might damage her children’s mind.
“I said, ‘you’re kidding. No way, these are my paintings,’” he explained.
He did, however, put leaves over his painting’s genitals to satisfy those with delicate sensibilities.
“My purpose is to get more people to come out here,” he said, looking out over his many paintings. “To give them a reason because people might not be used to this type of painting at all, ever. If you don’t go to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) they might never have seen it.”
2011年8月15日星期一
First Contemporary Middle Eastern Art Auction Announced at Artnet Auctions
Artnet Auctions is proud to announce the first online auction of Contemporary Middle Eastern Art. This seven day sale brings together a unique collection of artworks by both emerging and established artists from the Middle East, including Ahmad Mater, Sadegh Tirafkan, Vahid Sharifian, and Parviz Kalantari. The artworks range from outstanding photographs to sculptures and paintings by sought-after artists from countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.
This unique sale is curated by Nazy Nazhand, founder of ART MIDDLE EAST, the leading platform for promoting Contemporary Art from the Middle East through specialized programming and cultural events. “As the premier online auction site, artnet has revolutionized viewing, debating, and acquiring art for a global audience with the click of a button,” Nazhand said. “This is the first auction of Middle Eastern Art on artnet Auctions. Having previously held special auctions focusing on periods and movements, including Pop Art, Design, European, 20th century, Modern, and Latin American Art, this once again confirms the leading position artnet holds at the forefront of the global art market.”
Robin Roche, director of artnet Auctions, said: “The addition of a Middle Eastern auction confirms the strength and growth of the art market in the region and the continued international interest in the works. We hope this is the beginning of many more sales in this category.”
Leading the sale is a beautiful, late work by one of Iran’s Modern masters, Parviz Kalantari. This large work, Untitled, 2009, exemplifies his raw and innovative approach to painting (Est. US$22,000–30,000). In this piece, Kalantari captures the quiet beauty and rural sophistication of his town set in the arid deserts of Iran and embraces his homeland with unique materials such as mud, straw, and soils. Also included in the auction is the only complete set of all 23 photographs in the highly regarded Queen of the Jungle (If I Had a Gun) series by Vahid Sharifian (Est. US$30,000–40,000). These works have been the subject of numerous critical reviews and the series highlights Sharifian’s range of sharp political critique and humor.
This unique sale is curated by Nazy Nazhand, founder of ART MIDDLE EAST, the leading platform for promoting Contemporary Art from the Middle East through specialized programming and cultural events. “As the premier online auction site, artnet has revolutionized viewing, debating, and acquiring art for a global audience with the click of a button,” Nazhand said. “This is the first auction of Middle Eastern Art on artnet Auctions. Having previously held special auctions focusing on periods and movements, including Pop Art, Design, European, 20th century, Modern, and Latin American Art, this once again confirms the leading position artnet holds at the forefront of the global art market.”
Robin Roche, director of artnet Auctions, said: “The addition of a Middle Eastern auction confirms the strength and growth of the art market in the region and the continued international interest in the works. We hope this is the beginning of many more sales in this category.”
Leading the sale is a beautiful, late work by one of Iran’s Modern masters, Parviz Kalantari. This large work, Untitled, 2009, exemplifies his raw and innovative approach to painting (Est. US$22,000–30,000). In this piece, Kalantari captures the quiet beauty and rural sophistication of his town set in the arid deserts of Iran and embraces his homeland with unique materials such as mud, straw, and soils. Also included in the auction is the only complete set of all 23 photographs in the highly regarded Queen of the Jungle (If I Had a Gun) series by Vahid Sharifian (Est. US$30,000–40,000). These works have been the subject of numerous critical reviews and the series highlights Sharifian’s range of sharp political critique and humor.
2011年8月14日星期日
San Elizario blossoms into arts haven
SAN ELIZARIO -- Historic San Elizario is gradually evolving into a respected art district.
In just three years, San Elizario has witnessed an explosion of art galleries and studios.
Artists organize two major events each month, including an increasingly popular art market in this small town 22 miles east of Downtown El Paso.
Everywhere, you see young emerging artists, intermediate artists and veteran artists creating and selling a diverse palette of art, including oil paintings, Native American and Chicano art, custom-made leather products, and sculpted wooden art works.
One gallery specializes in the work of widely known Southwestern artist Amado Peña who pays tribute to Native American cultures in his paintings and murals.
El Paso Community College is working with artists based in San Elizario to train docents for art galleries and museums.
Just recently, 23 Juárez artists opened exhibitions at various galleries in San Elizario.
All this is happening in the unincorporated community that traces its roots to the Spanish explorer Juan De Oñate in the late 1500s.
Al Borrego reels off the numbers -- more than 300 artists have shown their art in San Elizario art shows since 2009.
At least 22 artists have working studios
in the district and the work of more than 90 artists is represented in various galleries and wall space.
Borrego is credited with getting the ball rolling in 2009 on making San Elizario an arts destination.
Borrego first exhibited his own work and the work of other artists at a farmer's market sponsored by the Mission Trail Association. He expanded into what was called the Main Street Gallery near the San Elizario Plaza. He later remodeled his own space and invited other artists to embrace his vision.
Borrego describes San Elizario as the only art district in El Paso County, a pool of artists promoting and investing in the arts without any public money. "Nowhere in El Paso compares to us," Borrego said. "We've got history, working studios and entrepreneurs."
Most studios and galleries are housed in restored, historic buildings. Harvey Johnson pitched in and opened a small restaurant near the galleries.
"We're a destination," Borrego said. "We've surpassed Mesilla already as far as art goes."
He is referring to the historic town near Las Cruces, often billed as a tourist destination.
Borrego pointed out that other artists on a waiting list want to be part of the evolving arts scene in San Elizario.
"We have a lot of artists that believe in the vision," he said.
The vision may be paying off.
Jennifer Ernest, a visitor from Virginia, recently strolled outside the galleries. She said she became curious about what else San Elizario offered after hearing about its historic mission.
El Paso arts advocate Adair Margo often escorts visitors to San Elizario.
"There's organization to draw people down there," Margo said. "San Elizario is so historic and has beautiful architecture that's being restored. They have these periodic art fairs. So it's a very exciting place to be right now."
Gaspar Enriquez, a prominent Chicano artist who lives in San Elizario, started remodeling a historic building into art space long before others started promoting art in San Elizario. He is also restoring another historic building that once served as the first county seat.
"There is a lot of faith. Whether it comes true or not, that's a question to be answered in the future," Enriquez said.
Enriquez suggests that San Elizario's success as a place where the arts and artists can prosper may depend on the cooperation of El Paso County government and other entities.
"Since this place has a lot of history, I thought, 'Usually the arts bring in economic development,' " he said. "So I think San Elizario has a lot of potential."
Artist Albert Escamilla emerged out of Sanderson, a tiny railroading town in far West Texas best known for a devastating flood in 1965. He has been a professional artist for 35 years.
Escamilla's art studio and gallery is one of the main anchors in what's being called the San Elizario Art District. He does impressionist-style oil paintings.
"It's been a goal for all of us to bring art to the people," he said. "I grew up at a time when an art gallery or a museum was beyond our reach."
Escamilla recalls the lean times when he was literally a starving artist living out of a station wagon. Now, his wife, Rachel, manages the business while he creates more art.
"Business is the key behind this. You have to be committed," Escamilla said. "For me, it's a blessing to be here."
Escamilla is convinced artists in San Elizario are getting noticed. A couple of months ago, a city bus pulled up with El Paso City Manager Joyce Wilson and the El Paso City Council. Univision affiliate Channel 26-KINT recently produced its newscast from the San Elizario placita, with an emphasis on the arts.
Artist Maria Branch has a working studio and art gallery in San Elizario. She also teaches art in her studio.
"I love the people out here and love being here," Branch said. "I've done well in the year and a half that I've been here."
Sam Gutierrez, 35, learned to make jewelry, leather work, dream catchers, war shields, medicine wheels and other traditional Native American art from his grandfather and other relatives at the Tiguas' Ysleta del Sur Pueblo.
"Hopefully within the next couple of years we'll be as big as Santa Fe, Albuquerque or Old Mesilla." he said.
Sergio Acosta, 26, born and raised in a nearby barrio known as Campestre, is creating his own vision of the Virgen de Guadalupe in an oil paintings for sale he titled "The Fountain of Faith."
"I never knew I had this talent until I was in the prison system," Acosta said. "Thanks to God, prison gave me hope."
He was painting next to spaces where other artists display metal sculptures, boots and other leather products.
El Paso artist Manuel Alvarado, a Vietnam War veteran in his late 60s, dedicated himself to painting after he retired in 2005 as a refrigeration mechanic. Alvarado loves San Elizario's tranquil pace.
Alvarado had a heart attack a year ago and almost died.
"God gave me another chance," Alvarado said. "I'm not very good at this. I just do it 'cause I like it."
Borrego looks at all the art around him and imagines that someday the art scene in San Elizario will grow even bigger.
"Artists come and go. We're all starving at one point or another," he said. "Everything happens with art. I love watching this blossom."
In just three years, San Elizario has witnessed an explosion of art galleries and studios.
Artists organize two major events each month, including an increasingly popular art market in this small town 22 miles east of Downtown El Paso.
Everywhere, you see young emerging artists, intermediate artists and veteran artists creating and selling a diverse palette of art, including oil paintings, Native American and Chicano art, custom-made leather products, and sculpted wooden art works.
One gallery specializes in the work of widely known Southwestern artist Amado Peña who pays tribute to Native American cultures in his paintings and murals.
El Paso Community College is working with artists based in San Elizario to train docents for art galleries and museums.
Just recently, 23 Juárez artists opened exhibitions at various galleries in San Elizario.
All this is happening in the unincorporated community that traces its roots to the Spanish explorer Juan De Oñate in the late 1500s.
Al Borrego reels off the numbers -- more than 300 artists have shown their art in San Elizario art shows since 2009.
At least 22 artists have working studios
in the district and the work of more than 90 artists is represented in various galleries and wall space.
Borrego is credited with getting the ball rolling in 2009 on making San Elizario an arts destination.
Borrego first exhibited his own work and the work of other artists at a farmer's market sponsored by the Mission Trail Association. He expanded into what was called the Main Street Gallery near the San Elizario Plaza. He later remodeled his own space and invited other artists to embrace his vision.
Borrego describes San Elizario as the only art district in El Paso County, a pool of artists promoting and investing in the arts without any public money. "Nowhere in El Paso compares to us," Borrego said. "We've got history, working studios and entrepreneurs."
Most studios and galleries are housed in restored, historic buildings. Harvey Johnson pitched in and opened a small restaurant near the galleries.
"We're a destination," Borrego said. "We've surpassed Mesilla already as far as art goes."
He is referring to the historic town near Las Cruces, often billed as a tourist destination.
Borrego pointed out that other artists on a waiting list want to be part of the evolving arts scene in San Elizario.
"We have a lot of artists that believe in the vision," he said.
The vision may be paying off.
Jennifer Ernest, a visitor from Virginia, recently strolled outside the galleries. She said she became curious about what else San Elizario offered after hearing about its historic mission.
El Paso arts advocate Adair Margo often escorts visitors to San Elizario.
"There's organization to draw people down there," Margo said. "San Elizario is so historic and has beautiful architecture that's being restored. They have these periodic art fairs. So it's a very exciting place to be right now."
Gaspar Enriquez, a prominent Chicano artist who lives in San Elizario, started remodeling a historic building into art space long before others started promoting art in San Elizario. He is also restoring another historic building that once served as the first county seat.
"There is a lot of faith. Whether it comes true or not, that's a question to be answered in the future," Enriquez said.
Enriquez suggests that San Elizario's success as a place where the arts and artists can prosper may depend on the cooperation of El Paso County government and other entities.
"Since this place has a lot of history, I thought, 'Usually the arts bring in economic development,' " he said. "So I think San Elizario has a lot of potential."
Artist Albert Escamilla emerged out of Sanderson, a tiny railroading town in far West Texas best known for a devastating flood in 1965. He has been a professional artist for 35 years.
Escamilla's art studio and gallery is one of the main anchors in what's being called the San Elizario Art District. He does impressionist-style oil paintings.
"It's been a goal for all of us to bring art to the people," he said. "I grew up at a time when an art gallery or a museum was beyond our reach."
Escamilla recalls the lean times when he was literally a starving artist living out of a station wagon. Now, his wife, Rachel, manages the business while he creates more art.
"Business is the key behind this. You have to be committed," Escamilla said. "For me, it's a blessing to be here."
Escamilla is convinced artists in San Elizario are getting noticed. A couple of months ago, a city bus pulled up with El Paso City Manager Joyce Wilson and the El Paso City Council. Univision affiliate Channel 26-KINT recently produced its newscast from the San Elizario placita, with an emphasis on the arts.
Artist Maria Branch has a working studio and art gallery in San Elizario. She also teaches art in her studio.
"I love the people out here and love being here," Branch said. "I've done well in the year and a half that I've been here."
Sam Gutierrez, 35, learned to make jewelry, leather work, dream catchers, war shields, medicine wheels and other traditional Native American art from his grandfather and other relatives at the Tiguas' Ysleta del Sur Pueblo.
"Hopefully within the next couple of years we'll be as big as Santa Fe, Albuquerque or Old Mesilla." he said.
Sergio Acosta, 26, born and raised in a nearby barrio known as Campestre, is creating his own vision of the Virgen de Guadalupe in an oil paintings for sale he titled "The Fountain of Faith."
"I never knew I had this talent until I was in the prison system," Acosta said. "Thanks to God, prison gave me hope."
He was painting next to spaces where other artists display metal sculptures, boots and other leather products.
El Paso artist Manuel Alvarado, a Vietnam War veteran in his late 60s, dedicated himself to painting after he retired in 2005 as a refrigeration mechanic. Alvarado loves San Elizario's tranquil pace.
Alvarado had a heart attack a year ago and almost died.
"God gave me another chance," Alvarado said. "I'm not very good at this. I just do it 'cause I like it."
Borrego looks at all the art around him and imagines that someday the art scene in San Elizario will grow even bigger.
"Artists come and go. We're all starving at one point or another," he said. "Everything happens with art. I love watching this blossom."
2011年8月11日星期四
Workhouse Artist of the Week: Susan Tilt
It’s not just Susan Tilt’s infectious laugh that creates an aura of happiness in her studio. The former Navy wife turned mixed media artist creates colorful fiber and oil paintings full of vibrancy, whimsy - and the Holy Spirit.
“I’m not the only one to say this, but sometimes I don’t think that I work alone,” said Susan. “You can call it anything you want, but there is something there that is beyond me. There’s a Holy Spirit thing going on. I can get so lost in my work that sometimes I return to it and think ‘I don’t quite remember doing it that way.’ And that’s a wonderful thing.”
Susan’s contemporary liturgical fiber art (also called “textile art”) is mostly commissioned as vestments for local churches. But it didn’t start out that way. Susan married young and raised two children with her Navy husband, Tom.
“I hadn’t finished school,” said Susan. “I chipped away at a studio arts degree for years, and finally finished 13 years ago at Mary Washington. Prior to that I had taken classes in photography, painting and ceramics in all kinds of places—New Orleans, Washington, wherever the Navy took us.
“I commuted to Fredericksburg for school for two and a half years, which was a marvelous time,” said Susan. “The fiber thing came without a plan. Upon graduation, I had done a lot of painting and photography, but when I started keeping my granddaughter—she was a baby—she didn’t mix well with a dark room or oil painting supplies. I had sewn as a much younger person and I thought, well, I’ll just play around with it. And it just went from there.”
“A couple of things happened,” said Susan as she leaned back against her lime-green and purple quilted pillows. “An priest friend of mine, who is also an artist, commented one day about some work I had done in fiber and said it would make for a wonderful vestment stole for Christmas.”
Susan created a stole for her friend, and has since been commissioned for vestments, banners and altarpieces for St. Christopher’s in Springfield and New York Avenue Presbyterian in Washington, D.C.
“I’ve never advertised anywhere except for my website and the fact that I’m here,” said Susan. "But it’s just taken on a life of its own. I’m not only making vestments for priests, but also clergy. Word just got out.”
A quick glance around Susan’s Workhouse studio shows that she isn’t just moved by liturgical creations. Large oil pieces tell stories of poetic interpretations or inspirations from travel to volunteer work. “I just got back from two weeks in New Orleans,” said Susan. “I taught for a second year at a summer camp at All Souls Episcopal Church in the lower ninth ward. The church didn’t exist before Katrina —it’s in an old Walgreen’s.”
Susan’s eyes lit up as she described her experience. “It’s my mission,” she said. “A friend of mine, Gayle Fendley is a producer for Religion and Ethics on PBS. Gayle travels everywhere for her work—New Orleans is near and dear to her heart. We started talking one day about the city we both love. I said I would love to go there and help the people after Katrina, but not unless I really had a job to do. I wanted something of substance. She called without a whole lot of notice last year and said ‘they need an art teacher down here, can you come?’ and I just said yes, I’ll be there.
“I took lots of supplies—some of the artists here helped me gather up supplies and helped prepare me for it too, which was lovely,” said Susan. “I took my whole show on the road and taught art to almost too many children. It’s a challenge. It was a challenge last year and it was a challenge this year too because there’s not enough help, and it’s a lot of children who haven’t been exposed to things we take for granted.”
The trip to New Orleans inspired Susan to create her Katrina series: “Before”, “Katrina”, and “After”, which she says is still in her head and needs to get out onto canvas. “I do think of that neighborhood a lot,” said Susan. “I think of other neighborhoods and the raw beauty of it, the ups and downs. I think of the children and the art they created while I was there. All of it feeds me.”
Susan's fiber art sells for about $400.00 for her smallest vestments and her most intricate fiber work, a chasuble (the outermost liturgical vestment worn by clergy) start at $600.00. “I try to keep my prices down because churches and clergy don’t have much money,” said Susan of her costs. “But thread has even gone to $5.00 per spool—which is ridiculous, but that’s what it is.”
“My paintings can go anywhere from about $375.00 to $2000.00,” said Susan as she walked over to a recent oil painting titled “Interview with a Pear Tree”. “This is based on a poem by a friend of mine. Her poetry is so esoteric. It’s a lot of whimsy and fun.”
“I consider myself a mixed media artist with oils and fibers,” said Susan. “It addresses two sides of me. Painting is a way to just let loose. “Katrina” addresses something serious, but the way it’s done, you aren’t sure really what it is. And I like that about it. All the fiber work is far more detail oriented. It’s both sides of me. I didn’t know I could be so detail oriented, but I can be. And there’s a pleasure in that too— then after a point I have to paint and whoosh, let loose.”
“I’m not the only one to say this, but sometimes I don’t think that I work alone,” said Susan. “You can call it anything you want, but there is something there that is beyond me. There’s a Holy Spirit thing going on. I can get so lost in my work that sometimes I return to it and think ‘I don’t quite remember doing it that way.’ And that’s a wonderful thing.”
Susan’s contemporary liturgical fiber art (also called “textile art”) is mostly commissioned as vestments for local churches. But it didn’t start out that way. Susan married young and raised two children with her Navy husband, Tom.
“I hadn’t finished school,” said Susan. “I chipped away at a studio arts degree for years, and finally finished 13 years ago at Mary Washington. Prior to that I had taken classes in photography, painting and ceramics in all kinds of places—New Orleans, Washington, wherever the Navy took us.
“I commuted to Fredericksburg for school for two and a half years, which was a marvelous time,” said Susan. “The fiber thing came without a plan. Upon graduation, I had done a lot of painting and photography, but when I started keeping my granddaughter—she was a baby—she didn’t mix well with a dark room or oil painting supplies. I had sewn as a much younger person and I thought, well, I’ll just play around with it. And it just went from there.”
“A couple of things happened,” said Susan as she leaned back against her lime-green and purple quilted pillows. “An priest friend of mine, who is also an artist, commented one day about some work I had done in fiber and said it would make for a wonderful vestment stole for Christmas.”
Susan created a stole for her friend, and has since been commissioned for vestments, banners and altarpieces for St. Christopher’s in Springfield and New York Avenue Presbyterian in Washington, D.C.
“I’ve never advertised anywhere except for my website and the fact that I’m here,” said Susan. "But it’s just taken on a life of its own. I’m not only making vestments for priests, but also clergy. Word just got out.”
A quick glance around Susan’s Workhouse studio shows that she isn’t just moved by liturgical creations. Large oil pieces tell stories of poetic interpretations or inspirations from travel to volunteer work. “I just got back from two weeks in New Orleans,” said Susan. “I taught for a second year at a summer camp at All Souls Episcopal Church in the lower ninth ward. The church didn’t exist before Katrina —it’s in an old Walgreen’s.”
Susan’s eyes lit up as she described her experience. “It’s my mission,” she said. “A friend of mine, Gayle Fendley is a producer for Religion and Ethics on PBS. Gayle travels everywhere for her work—New Orleans is near and dear to her heart. We started talking one day about the city we both love. I said I would love to go there and help the people after Katrina, but not unless I really had a job to do. I wanted something of substance. She called without a whole lot of notice last year and said ‘they need an art teacher down here, can you come?’ and I just said yes, I’ll be there.
“I took lots of supplies—some of the artists here helped me gather up supplies and helped prepare me for it too, which was lovely,” said Susan. “I took my whole show on the road and taught art to almost too many children. It’s a challenge. It was a challenge last year and it was a challenge this year too because there’s not enough help, and it’s a lot of children who haven’t been exposed to things we take for granted.”
The trip to New Orleans inspired Susan to create her Katrina series: “Before”, “Katrina”, and “After”, which she says is still in her head and needs to get out onto canvas. “I do think of that neighborhood a lot,” said Susan. “I think of other neighborhoods and the raw beauty of it, the ups and downs. I think of the children and the art they created while I was there. All of it feeds me.”
Susan's fiber art sells for about $400.00 for her smallest vestments and her most intricate fiber work, a chasuble (the outermost liturgical vestment worn by clergy) start at $600.00. “I try to keep my prices down because churches and clergy don’t have much money,” said Susan of her costs. “But thread has even gone to $5.00 per spool—which is ridiculous, but that’s what it is.”
“My paintings can go anywhere from about $375.00 to $2000.00,” said Susan as she walked over to a recent oil painting titled “Interview with a Pear Tree”. “This is based on a poem by a friend of mine. Her poetry is so esoteric. It’s a lot of whimsy and fun.”
“I consider myself a mixed media artist with oils and fibers,” said Susan. “It addresses two sides of me. Painting is a way to just let loose. “Katrina” addresses something serious, but the way it’s done, you aren’t sure really what it is. And I like that about it. All the fiber work is far more detail oriented. It’s both sides of me. I didn’t know I could be so detail oriented, but I can be. And there’s a pleasure in that too— then after a point I have to paint and whoosh, let loose.”
2011年8月10日星期三
Three artists at The Millers
A new group of three artists are exhibiting in the Acorn Restaurant at The Millers of Midmar throughout August and September.
Frances Gilroy, Julia Macauley and Bern Ross are all from the Stonehaven area and this is the first time they’ve exhibited together.
All three artists are influenced by their surrounding Mearns countryside, the coastline and harbours although the pictures on show make an eclectic collection.
Frances said: “We are all interested in colour and we seem to love exploring different subjects and media.”
“Creatively we have to keep moving on,” Bern Ross added. “It’s the definition of an artist, really, producing unique work all the time.”
Julia Macauley is inspired by dreams and sometimes by a book she’s reading, although she enjoys painting en plein air near her home and when abroad. Frances’s work is inspired by unexpected observations like the abstract patterns of nature seen in tree bark and the colourful countryside at El Cerillo in Spain.
Bern Ross loves the variable terrain and changeable weather in Scotland, which she says suits her temperament. In this display of paintings, she explores a wide variety of subjects, from landmarks near her home in Stonehaven to imagined scenes.
“Our work complements each others’ really well,” says Frances Gilroy of Catterline, “and I hope we’ll be able to exhibit together again in the near future.”
The Millers of Midmar shows a regular exhibition of artists’ work in the Acorn Restaurant for two months at a time, donating a percentage of sales to a charity of their choice.
The Mearns artists will be there throughout August and September. Their work includes oil paintings, acrylics, pastel work and watercolours: all pictures are for sale on the spot.
Frances Gilroy, Julia Macauley and Bern Ross are all from the Stonehaven area and this is the first time they’ve exhibited together.
All three artists are influenced by their surrounding Mearns countryside, the coastline and harbours although the pictures on show make an eclectic collection.
Frances said: “We are all interested in colour and we seem to love exploring different subjects and media.”
“Creatively we have to keep moving on,” Bern Ross added. “It’s the definition of an artist, really, producing unique work all the time.”
Julia Macauley is inspired by dreams and sometimes by a book she’s reading, although she enjoys painting en plein air near her home and when abroad. Frances’s work is inspired by unexpected observations like the abstract patterns of nature seen in tree bark and the colourful countryside at El Cerillo in Spain.
Bern Ross loves the variable terrain and changeable weather in Scotland, which she says suits her temperament. In this display of paintings, she explores a wide variety of subjects, from landmarks near her home in Stonehaven to imagined scenes.
“Our work complements each others’ really well,” says Frances Gilroy of Catterline, “and I hope we’ll be able to exhibit together again in the near future.”
The Millers of Midmar shows a regular exhibition of artists’ work in the Acorn Restaurant for two months at a time, donating a percentage of sales to a charity of their choice.
The Mearns artists will be there throughout August and September. Their work includes oil paintings, acrylics, pastel work and watercolours: all pictures are for sale on the spot.
2011年8月9日星期二
Calligraphy paintings lead 2011 spring auction
Sky-high price appearing, continual record breaking and frequent emergence of "white gloves"
Since the "RMB-100-million-yuan Era" in 2009, the artwork market has always been "hot" in China. Record breaking and new high seems to be a common occurrence in this market. Even so, people are still quite surprised by the hot market behavior in the just-completed spring auction in 2011.
A lot of sky-high prices and records emerged with the falling of hammer in the spring auction of this year. In the Guardian Spring Auction concluded in the end of May, the total turnover was up to RMB 5.323 billion yuan, refreshing the record of Chinese artwork auction in a single season and also historically creating four world records. EAGLE STANDING ON PINE TREE; FOUR-CHARACTER COUPLET IN SEAL SCRIPT by Qi Baishi created a world auction record for the recent and modern paintings and calligraphy with a price of RMB 425.5 million yuan; Wind, Earth and Wind by Chen Yifei created the world auction record for oil painting with a price of RMB 81.65 million yuan; Yuan Dynasty handwritten copy of Policies of the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties in Twelve Volumes set a world record of Chinese ancient books with a price of RMB 48.3 million yuan; Mirror, Blossom, Water and Moon-Bronze Mirror with Auspicious Beats and Inscriptions was sold at a price of RMB 8.97 million yuan, establishing a world record of bronze mirror.
The turnover created a record high continually, but on the contrary, many auction companies adopts a strategy to reduce the amount in the spring auction market this year. "We adopt a strategy to improve the quality and reduce the amount. The total amount reduces by 1/4 this year compared with one in the last year. I estimated that it would be the best if the turnover reached to RMB 3 to 4 billion yuan," Zhao Xu, executive director of Beijing Poly International Auction Co., Ltd. made such an estimate before the spring auction of this year. And due to the hot market, the final turnover is nearly two times of the estimated one.
Another surprising thing is the frequent emergence of "white gloves" in the spring auction market of this year. Obtaining "white gloves" is the highest honor for an auctioneer, which means a 100 percent transaction rate in an auction.
In the 3-day Hanhai Spring Auction, 100 percent artworks were transacted in four sessions namely Qing Yun Tang - Gold Litters, Collection of Chinese recent and modern paintings and calligraphy, Precious Xu Beihong Oil Paintings collected by Sun Peicang family, Belgian Private Collection of Buddha statues, and Hanhai Night Session for Important Paintings, Calligraphy and Antiques.
Guardian Spring Auction brought up five "white gloves" sessions namely Zhongxing Hut Painting Collection, Autumn Studio's Collection, Charming Landscape: Five Elaborate Paintings by Lu Yanshao from Private Collection in Singapore and Gazing at the Last Century: Painting and Calligraphy by Celebrated Politicians, Scholars and Artists.
Among 49 sessions in Poly Spring Auction, 100 percent artworks were transacted in 13 sessions, including Night Session for Baron Guy Ullens' collection of Chinese Important Contemporary Artworks, Centenary Brilliance - Night Session for Xu Bangda Artworks and Centenary Collection, Night Session for Chinese Modern and Contemporary Artworks - Important Paintings by Wu Guanzhong, Spring Water and Autumn Cloud - Oversea Collection of Jades in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties and "Vintage Vehicle".
Since the "RMB-100-million-yuan Era" in 2009, the artwork market has always been "hot" in China. Record breaking and new high seems to be a common occurrence in this market. Even so, people are still quite surprised by the hot market behavior in the just-completed spring auction in 2011.
A lot of sky-high prices and records emerged with the falling of hammer in the spring auction of this year. In the Guardian Spring Auction concluded in the end of May, the total turnover was up to RMB 5.323 billion yuan, refreshing the record of Chinese artwork auction in a single season and also historically creating four world records. EAGLE STANDING ON PINE TREE; FOUR-CHARACTER COUPLET IN SEAL SCRIPT by Qi Baishi created a world auction record for the recent and modern paintings and calligraphy with a price of RMB 425.5 million yuan; Wind, Earth and Wind by Chen Yifei created the world auction record for oil painting with a price of RMB 81.65 million yuan; Yuan Dynasty handwritten copy of Policies of the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties in Twelve Volumes set a world record of Chinese ancient books with a price of RMB 48.3 million yuan; Mirror, Blossom, Water and Moon-Bronze Mirror with Auspicious Beats and Inscriptions was sold at a price of RMB 8.97 million yuan, establishing a world record of bronze mirror.
The turnover created a record high continually, but on the contrary, many auction companies adopts a strategy to reduce the amount in the spring auction market this year. "We adopt a strategy to improve the quality and reduce the amount. The total amount reduces by 1/4 this year compared with one in the last year. I estimated that it would be the best if the turnover reached to RMB 3 to 4 billion yuan," Zhao Xu, executive director of Beijing Poly International Auction Co., Ltd. made such an estimate before the spring auction of this year. And due to the hot market, the final turnover is nearly two times of the estimated one.
Another surprising thing is the frequent emergence of "white gloves" in the spring auction market of this year. Obtaining "white gloves" is the highest honor for an auctioneer, which means a 100 percent transaction rate in an auction.
In the 3-day Hanhai Spring Auction, 100 percent artworks were transacted in four sessions namely Qing Yun Tang - Gold Litters, Collection of Chinese recent and modern paintings and calligraphy, Precious Xu Beihong Oil Paintings collected by Sun Peicang family, Belgian Private Collection of Buddha statues, and Hanhai Night Session for Important Paintings, Calligraphy and Antiques.
Guardian Spring Auction brought up five "white gloves" sessions namely Zhongxing Hut Painting Collection, Autumn Studio's Collection, Charming Landscape: Five Elaborate Paintings by Lu Yanshao from Private Collection in Singapore and Gazing at the Last Century: Painting and Calligraphy by Celebrated Politicians, Scholars and Artists.
Among 49 sessions in Poly Spring Auction, 100 percent artworks were transacted in 13 sessions, including Night Session for Baron Guy Ullens' collection of Chinese Important Contemporary Artworks, Centenary Brilliance - Night Session for Xu Bangda Artworks and Centenary Collection, Night Session for Chinese Modern and Contemporary Artworks - Important Paintings by Wu Guanzhong, Spring Water and Autumn Cloud - Oversea Collection of Jades in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties and "Vintage Vehicle".
2011年8月8日星期一
Artist Spotlight: Kim Abraham
"It's a real essence of a place ... the silhouette," says Kim Abraham, standing in front of his paintings at the Zenith Gallery in Chevy Chase.
It was just one year ago that this Georgia-raised painter received the opportunity of a lifetime—a fellowship from the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, a non-profit arts organization in Ireland, for a six-week stay in Ireland to paint the Irish countryside.
Now, Abraham's Ballinglen paintings, along with works by five other artists, are on display at Chevy Chase's Zenith Gallery as part of the "Character of Chevy Chase" exhibit.
"Every morning I would stand outside and watch the sun come up ... (and) some birds would be coming in," says Abraham, recalling the mornings he woke up at 4 a.m. to paint "Ballinglen," an oil painting capturing the sunrise.
Abraham continues to dream of the Irish landscape, whose simplistic beauty he captured in his artwork in just a month and a half, from his studio here in Chevy Chase.
"Sometimes I use a photo as a quick reference, but mostly it's from memory," Abraham says.
Images of Ireland's landscape are seared into his head, he adds.
Given his love of the outdoors as a child, it's no surprise that Abraham's abstract paintings of Irish landscapes are anything but typical.
"Growing up in the South ... the landscape was always at your feet," says Abraham, recalling his hunting days as a child and his reverence for the Southern landscape.
Abraham uses many different media, including graphite for dark silhouettes and oil on paper or canvas.
"With a great deal of patience," he works "meticulously across the horizon" line on the paper or canvas, in what he describes as a slow process to bring Ireland's landscape to life for the viewer.
See the landscapes yourself at the Zenith Gallery in the Chevy Chase Pavilion at Western and Wisconsin avenues, now through Sept. 10.
It was just one year ago that this Georgia-raised painter received the opportunity of a lifetime—a fellowship from the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, a non-profit arts organization in Ireland, for a six-week stay in Ireland to paint the Irish countryside.
Now, Abraham's Ballinglen paintings, along with works by five other artists, are on display at Chevy Chase's Zenith Gallery as part of the "Character of Chevy Chase" exhibit.
"Every morning I would stand outside and watch the sun come up ... (and) some birds would be coming in," says Abraham, recalling the mornings he woke up at 4 a.m. to paint "Ballinglen," an oil painting capturing the sunrise.
Abraham continues to dream of the Irish landscape, whose simplistic beauty he captured in his artwork in just a month and a half, from his studio here in Chevy Chase.
"Sometimes I use a photo as a quick reference, but mostly it's from memory," Abraham says.
Images of Ireland's landscape are seared into his head, he adds.
Given his love of the outdoors as a child, it's no surprise that Abraham's abstract paintings of Irish landscapes are anything but typical.
"Growing up in the South ... the landscape was always at your feet," says Abraham, recalling his hunting days as a child and his reverence for the Southern landscape.
Abraham uses many different media, including graphite for dark silhouettes and oil on paper or canvas.
"With a great deal of patience," he works "meticulously across the horizon" line on the paper or canvas, in what he describes as a slow process to bring Ireland's landscape to life for the viewer.
See the landscapes yourself at the Zenith Gallery in the Chevy Chase Pavilion at Western and Wisconsin avenues, now through Sept. 10.
2011年8月7日星期日
First United Kingdom Exhibition of Drawings by Robert Motherwell to Open in October
Works on Paper, the first ever exhibition dedicated to drawings and paintings on paper by Robert Motherwell (1915-1991) to be held in Britain, will be staged at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery, 6 Cork Street, London W1, from 10 October to 26 November 2011. Taking place twenty years after the artist’s death, it will comprise some ninety works spanning most of his career.
Robert Motherwell was a major figure in the birth and development of Abstract Expressionism and the youngest member of the ‘ New York School ’, a term he coined. His career spanned five decades during which time he created some of the most iconic images of the 20th century. A passionate advocate and articulate spokesman for Abstract Expressionism, he believed that ideas and emotions were best communicated through the bold forms and gestural lines of abstract art. This exhibition will include sixty works from the Lyric Suite, a group of works from the Beside the Sea series and a selection of works based upon James Joyce’s Ulysses as well as an abstract portrait of the poet. A further selection of works from the 1940s to the 1980s includes Elegy and Je t’aime as well as automatism drawings, work from the Drunk with Turpentine, Gesture and the Open series.
Motherwell came from a educated middle-class family and studied literature, psychology and philosophy at Stanford University , California , and philosophy at Harvard. He decided to become an artist after seeing modern French painting on a year-long trip to Europe in 1938-9 but first, to please his father, he studied art history at Columbia University , New York . There, through his tutor Meyer Shapiro, he met the Chilean-born painter Roberto Matta and other Surrealist artists exiled from Europe whose use of ‘automatism’ had a lasting effect on him as well as on other American artists including Jackson Pollock. Motherwell became very close to Pollock and to Mark Rothko, the other two outstanding figures of Abstract Expressionism.
In 1941 Motherwell went to Mexico with Matta and on the boat he met Maria Emilia Ferreira y Moyers, a Mexican actress, who became his first wife. In Mexico , under the influence of Matta and Wolfgang Paalen, Motherwell worked on his Mexican Sketchbook. Using a technique called psychic automatism, he produced images that were a Surrealist mix of the abstract and the semi-representational. This sketchbook and the trip to Mexico led to his first important paintings, works such as Little Spanish Prison, 1941, now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art .
Motherwell’s first one-man show at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century Gallery in New York in 1944 included paintings, drawings and collages all with a Spanish or Mexican theme. The Spanish Civil War became a great moral issue that drove his work for some years and for many his defining image is the 140 monumental works entitled Elegy to the Spanish Republic which began with a small ink drawing illustrating a poem by Harold Rosenberg in 1948. He described these works as “a funeral for something one cared about” and continued to paint them up to his death.
In the late 1940s and the 1950s Motherwell spent some time teaching and lecturing, first at Black Mountain College , North Carolina , where he taught and influenced Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly who died recently, and later at Hunter College, New York. In 1944 he initiated the Documents of Modern Art series translating and publishing for the first time many of the important documents of the European avant-garde.
From 1954 to 1958, during the break-up of his second marriage, he worked on a small series of paintings which incorporated the words Je t’aime, expressing his most intimate and private feelings. His collages began to incorporate material from his studio such as cigarette packets and labels becoming records of his daily life. He was married for the third time, from 1958 to 1971, to Helen Frankenthaler, a successful abstract painter. In 1962 they spent the summer at the artists’ colony at Provincetown , Massachusetts , where the coastline inspired the Beside the Sea series of 64 paintings, the oil paint splashed with full force against rag paper imitating the sea crashing on the shore in front of his studio.
Robert Motherwell was a major figure in the birth and development of Abstract Expressionism and the youngest member of the ‘ New York School ’, a term he coined. His career spanned five decades during which time he created some of the most iconic images of the 20th century. A passionate advocate and articulate spokesman for Abstract Expressionism, he believed that ideas and emotions were best communicated through the bold forms and gestural lines of abstract art. This exhibition will include sixty works from the Lyric Suite, a group of works from the Beside the Sea series and a selection of works based upon James Joyce’s Ulysses as well as an abstract portrait of the poet. A further selection of works from the 1940s to the 1980s includes Elegy and Je t’aime as well as automatism drawings, work from the Drunk with Turpentine, Gesture and the Open series.
Motherwell came from a educated middle-class family and studied literature, psychology and philosophy at Stanford University , California , and philosophy at Harvard. He decided to become an artist after seeing modern French painting on a year-long trip to Europe in 1938-9 but first, to please his father, he studied art history at Columbia University , New York . There, through his tutor Meyer Shapiro, he met the Chilean-born painter Roberto Matta and other Surrealist artists exiled from Europe whose use of ‘automatism’ had a lasting effect on him as well as on other American artists including Jackson Pollock. Motherwell became very close to Pollock and to Mark Rothko, the other two outstanding figures of Abstract Expressionism.
In 1941 Motherwell went to Mexico with Matta and on the boat he met Maria Emilia Ferreira y Moyers, a Mexican actress, who became his first wife. In Mexico , under the influence of Matta and Wolfgang Paalen, Motherwell worked on his Mexican Sketchbook. Using a technique called psychic automatism, he produced images that were a Surrealist mix of the abstract and the semi-representational. This sketchbook and the trip to Mexico led to his first important paintings, works such as Little Spanish Prison, 1941, now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art .
Motherwell’s first one-man show at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century Gallery in New York in 1944 included paintings, drawings and collages all with a Spanish or Mexican theme. The Spanish Civil War became a great moral issue that drove his work for some years and for many his defining image is the 140 monumental works entitled Elegy to the Spanish Republic which began with a small ink drawing illustrating a poem by Harold Rosenberg in 1948. He described these works as “a funeral for something one cared about” and continued to paint them up to his death.
In the late 1940s and the 1950s Motherwell spent some time teaching and lecturing, first at Black Mountain College , North Carolina , where he taught and influenced Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly who died recently, and later at Hunter College, New York. In 1944 he initiated the Documents of Modern Art series translating and publishing for the first time many of the important documents of the European avant-garde.
From 1954 to 1958, during the break-up of his second marriage, he worked on a small series of paintings which incorporated the words Je t’aime, expressing his most intimate and private feelings. His collages began to incorporate material from his studio such as cigarette packets and labels becoming records of his daily life. He was married for the third time, from 1958 to 1971, to Helen Frankenthaler, a successful abstract painter. In 1962 they spent the summer at the artists’ colony at Provincetown , Massachusetts , where the coastline inspired the Beside the Sea series of 64 paintings, the oil paint splashed with full force against rag paper imitating the sea crashing on the shore in front of his studio.
2011年8月3日星期三
Artist says oil painting is a lifelong love
Patrick Dinunzio said art has been a part of his life almost as long as he can remember and he hopes it will stay with him until the end.
Dinunzio, a Bruce Township resident, is the featured artist during August at the Wolcott Mill Historic Center. Dinunzio will feature a variety of his oil paintings. The artist said he has been interested in the subject from an early age and luckily never got too far from it.
"I got my first paint set in the early '60s, so I've been painting for about 50 years," he said.
Dinunzio studied art at the Center for Creative Studies, Wayne State University and Macomb Community College, but said he is primarily self-taught.
Dinunzio worked as a machinist, machine repairman and programmer, but he said he always found time to jump into painting - especially now that he is retired.
"I am kind of changing my style and getting a little more painterly," he said, adding that his work is becoming a little looser. "I am changing and I have noticed through the years as my personality changes, I'm getting older, that is the evolution of my painting according to how I feel."
Dinunzio said despite his long history as a painter he finds himself primarily drawn to one medium.
"I know some artists diversify with pastels and waters, and I just got attracted to oils and that is it," he said, adding that he also works in ceramics. "I like the idea that you have time to do corrections. With watercolors, you can't. Acrylics dry too quickly. Oils are just an appealing medium to work with."
As for subject matter, Dinunzio said he really enjoys portraits but he isn't afraid to diversify.
"I'll work in portraits for a week or two and then I kind of get burnt out, and I jump to landscapes and still life," he said.
Dinunzio, a Bruce Township resident, is the featured artist during August at the Wolcott Mill Historic Center. Dinunzio will feature a variety of his oil paintings. The artist said he has been interested in the subject from an early age and luckily never got too far from it.
"I got my first paint set in the early '60s, so I've been painting for about 50 years," he said.
Dinunzio studied art at the Center for Creative Studies, Wayne State University and Macomb Community College, but said he is primarily self-taught.
Dinunzio worked as a machinist, machine repairman and programmer, but he said he always found time to jump into painting - especially now that he is retired.
"I am kind of changing my style and getting a little more painterly," he said, adding that his work is becoming a little looser. "I am changing and I have noticed through the years as my personality changes, I'm getting older, that is the evolution of my painting according to how I feel."
Dinunzio said despite his long history as a painter he finds himself primarily drawn to one medium.
"I know some artists diversify with pastels and waters, and I just got attracted to oils and that is it," he said, adding that he also works in ceramics. "I like the idea that you have time to do corrections. With watercolors, you can't. Acrylics dry too quickly. Oils are just an appealing medium to work with."
As for subject matter, Dinunzio said he really enjoys portraits but he isn't afraid to diversify.
"I'll work in portraits for a week or two and then I kind of get burnt out, and I jump to landscapes and still life," he said.
2011年8月1日星期一
In Texas Museum, Wind's Evolution is on Display
A century ago, Texas was covered with windmills, which pumped water from aquifers so cattle could drink and gardens could grow. Thousands of these old-style models still exist in remote pastures, but in recent years far taller and more powerful turbines have sprouted atop western mesas, transforming this oil and gas state into the national leader in wind-generated electrical power.
This evolution is on display at the American Wind Power Center in Lubbock, which bills itself as the world’s largest windmill museum. Dozens of old, clanking windmills occupy the grounds of a small, breezy hilltop, irrigating the grass, while a 165-foot-tall modern turbine, made by the Danish company Vestas, towers in the background and supplies the museum’s electricity. Long, sleek blades from another monster turbine, the first manufactured by General Electric, lie along the edge of the parking lot, awaiting the construction of a new wing the proprietors hope to build, finances permitting.
The museum is the culmination of more than 30 years of work by Billie Wolfe. Wolfe, who taught at the College of Home Economics at Texas Tech University, got interested in old windmills in the 1960s, and much later she teamed with Coy Harris, chief executive of the Wind Engineering Corporation, to create the museum, which was established in 1997. (Wolfe died earlier that year.)
Harris, who is now the museum’s executive director, continues to expand the collection and plans to add 10 to 15 smaller electric turbines — the size people could put on their ranches — on an unused section of the property. “We’re going to put in a mini wind farm,” he said.
The Lubbock windmill collection is not Texas’ only one. Two-hundred-plus miles north, several dozen windmills are clustered in a roadside park in Spearman, just past the Hungry Cowboy restaurant upon entering the town from the south on Route 207. (It’s only fitting that the Panhandle, the state’s windiest region, boasts a wind-power display.) These are from the collection of a legendary local and windmill lover, J. B. Buchanan, and the names on the tails include some of the most storied windmill companies in history, like Eclipse, Aermotor and Axtell.
This evolution is on display at the American Wind Power Center in Lubbock, which bills itself as the world’s largest windmill museum. Dozens of old, clanking windmills occupy the grounds of a small, breezy hilltop, irrigating the grass, while a 165-foot-tall modern turbine, made by the Danish company Vestas, towers in the background and supplies the museum’s electricity. Long, sleek blades from another monster turbine, the first manufactured by General Electric, lie along the edge of the parking lot, awaiting the construction of a new wing the proprietors hope to build, finances permitting.
The museum is the culmination of more than 30 years of work by Billie Wolfe. Wolfe, who taught at the College of Home Economics at Texas Tech University, got interested in old windmills in the 1960s, and much later she teamed with Coy Harris, chief executive of the Wind Engineering Corporation, to create the museum, which was established in 1997. (Wolfe died earlier that year.)
Harris, who is now the museum’s executive director, continues to expand the collection and plans to add 10 to 15 smaller electric turbines — the size people could put on their ranches — on an unused section of the property. “We’re going to put in a mini wind farm,” he said.
The Lubbock windmill collection is not Texas’ only one. Two-hundred-plus miles north, several dozen windmills are clustered in a roadside park in Spearman, just past the Hungry Cowboy restaurant upon entering the town from the south on Route 207. (It’s only fitting that the Panhandle, the state’s windiest region, boasts a wind-power display.) These are from the collection of a legendary local and windmill lover, J. B. Buchanan, and the names on the tails include some of the most storied windmill companies in history, like Eclipse, Aermotor and Axtell.
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