Principle Gallery Opening!

Women Painting Women - The Expedition and Beyond opening on April 13, 2012 in Alexandria, Virginia, was great fun.

American Art Collector Ad, April 2012

American Art Collector preview article, April 2012

Twelve of the thirteen artists who's work is on display were in attendance. (We missed you Kate Stone.)

It was a great experience for the artists and their new collectors. How often are the artists, their models and their collectors in the same room?

Here are the happy new owners of The Three Fates, and my models for the painting, Diane Feissel, Sadie Valeri and Alia El-Bermani.  

It's always a treat to meet new collectors and to have an opportunity to ask them why they relate to the work. After meeting Diana and Chip I have no doubt The Three Fates is going to a good home.

They enjoyed meeting the models/artists, and getting everyone's autographs in the catalog of the exhibition. The catalog is still available and on sale for $15.85 (marked down from $19.00). The publisher, MagCloud is having a spring sale through May 13, 2012. 

It was pretty much standing room only and the air was crackling with awesome energy.

Linda Tracey Brandon with her new collector and model/artist Mia Bergeron.

My daughter Carly, and my friend, Washington, DC area
artist Tricia Ratliff. 

Tricia did a wonderful interview on her blog, Agile Arts Journal, of Diane, Sadie and Alia, the three Women Painting Women bloggers. Check it out, it has some great insight about the show.


I went back the next day to take some pictures of the installation with out the crowd.

Kate Stone

Sadie Valeri, Alex Tyng, Rachel Constantine

Cindy Procious, and a table for the catalogs and the
American Art Collector Magazine.

Sadie Valeri's glorious self portrait and a peek into the yellow room.

Alia  El-Bermani, Catherine Prescott, and Stefani Tewes.

Figure paintings look especially nice on those signature pumpkin colored walls at Principle Gallery.

Linda Tracey Brandon, Kate Stone, and Sadie Valeri

One need look no further than this section of the gallery to see how inspired by each other we are. Left to right, Diane Feissel's painting of Rachel Constantine, Alia El-Bermani's painting of Diane Feissel and my painting of Diane Feissel, Sadie Valeri and Alia El-Bermani.

Mia Bergeron

My little still-life, Hand in Glove.

I love this view of Rachel Constantine's self portrait and Alia El-Bermani's painting facing each other.

Stefani Tewes, Rachel Constantine

Some studies from The Expedition done on location in Charleston.

Shannon Runquist over the fireplace.

Stefani Tewes

Alex Tyng

You can see all 39 pieces in the show in the catalog. The show is up through mid May. Here's the video slide show preview of the exhibit.

Here's a complete list of artists and links to their websites that have work in the show at Principle Gallery:
Mia Bergeron,
Linda Tracey Brandon,
Rachel Constantine,
Alia El-Bermani,
Diane Feissel,
Catherine Prescott,
Cindy Procious,
Shannon Runquist,
Kate Stone,
Terry Strickland,
Stefani Tewes,
Alexandra Tyng,
Sadie Valeri

New from Matter Deep Publishing

There's so much going on today with our family publishing company!

The Expedition and Beyond Catalog is online and ready for purchase,

The Expedition and Beyond

By Matter Deep Publishing

58 pages, published 1 MAR 2012

The Expedition and Beyond- Work by 13 artists, introduced through the Women Painting Women phenomenon of 2010, who continue to be challenged and inspired by each other. They come together once again in a show at Principle Gallery, Alexandria, Va, April 2012.

and my daughter-in-law, Amy Strickland's novella Kissing Corpses is free for today, Happy Leap Year. This is Amy reading the first chunk of her book.


Never fear if you missed the freebie for Happy Leap Year Day, it's only .99 the rest of the time.

 

Here's more about The Expedition and Beyond. Here's Amy's website so you can see what all she's getting into. Here's my daughter, Carly Strickland's website, she's our designer.

The Expedition and Beyond at Principle Gallery Video

This week was (between painting sessions) about putting the finishing touches on a preview video for the Women Painting Women, The Expedition and Beyond Exhibition at Principle Gallery, which opens April 13, 2012 and runs through May 15.

Catalog is available if you can't make it to the show. Preview catalog.



Here's a complete list of artists that will be in the April show at Principle Gallery:
Mia Bergeron,
Linda Tracey Brandon,
Rachel Constantine,
Alia El-Bermani,
Diane Feissel,
Catherine Prescott,
Cindy Procious,
Shannon Runquist,
Kate Stone,
Terry Strickland,
Stefani Tewes,
Alexandra Tyng,
Sadie Valeri

Hope you enjoy and share away!

The Three Fates - Completed

The Three Fates, 30x40, oil on panel

This painting is for Principle Gallery's April 2012 show,  "The Expedition and Beyond" 

Work by 13 artists, introduced through the Women Painting Women phenomenon of 2010, who continue to be challenged and inspired by each other. 

We were introduced through the Women Painting Women Blog, the Robert Lange Studios Invitational Show of Nov. 2010 and really got to know each other during the Expedition, a painting retreat on Sullivan's Island SC. Here is a preview of a catalog about this experience and The Expedition and Beyond.

This allegorical painting of Diane Feissel, Sadie Valeri and Alia El-Bermani as The Three Fates is my tribute to them and the generosity of spirit I find in this group of 14 artists. 

The Three Fates are Greek goddesses who spin, measure and cut the thread of life. Together they each represent a part or portion of the whole.

Rather than spinning, I've changed Diane's job to rolling out the canvas, Alia is measuring it and Sadie is cutting it.

I wanted to have them doing something, building a canvas, that would show them as being the supporters of women painters and the art community that they are. I chose traditionally masculine tools for them to be using.

I've also included items for each of them that is personal to their work. The personal items are not necessarily feminine things, wax paper, weeds or animals but in the incarnation in which I've chosen to use them they become feminine, jewelry, clothing or hair adornment.

As women artists we work and compete in a man's world without losing touch with who we are as women.

Notice Alia is wearing flowering weeds in her hair, a shout out to her recently completed series of paintings honoring southern weeds. Sadie is wearing a ruff made of wax paper to represent her beautiful wax paper still-life paintings. Diane is wearing a bracelet of a cat cameo in tribute to her Fabrication series about animals.

I frequently use symbols in my work, as in this current body at Peterson-Cody Gallery. I include things if they make sense to me and not worry too much if other people will get them and usually it works out okay. It seems if you are talking about universal human themes, since we all have those in common, most people will relate to the work.

The Three Fates - In Progress

Here's a complete list of artists that will be in the April show at Principle Gallery:
Mia Bergeron,
Linda Tracey Brandon,
Rachel Constantine,
Alia El-Bermani,
Diane Feissel,
Catherine Prescott,
Cindy Procious,
Shannon Runquist,
Kate Stone,
Terry Strickland,
Stefani Tewes,
Alexandra Tyng,
Sadie Valeri

The Three Fates - In Progress

My current obsession is a painting I'm working on for Principle Gallery's April 2012 show,  "The Expedition and Beyond"

Work by 14 artists, introduced through the Women Painting Women phenomenon of 2010, who continue to be challenged and inspired by each other.

The Three Fates, 30x40, oil on panel, (in progress)

This is an allegorical painting of Diane Feissel, Sadie Valeri and Alia El-Bermani as The Three Fates. In real life these models are artists and the Women Painting Women bloggers. The painting doesn't even have one complete pass of color yet so I still have many days left go on it.

I've included items for each of them that is personal to their work.

Alia is wearing flowering weeds in her hair, a shout out to her recently completed series of paintings honoring southern weeds. Sadie is wearing a ruff made of wax paper to represent her beautiful wax paper still-life paintings. Diane is wearing a bracelet of a cat cameo in tribute to her Fabrication series about animals.

Diane, Sadie, Me and Alia after the Robert Lange Studios Women Painting Women Invitational, November, 2011.

It's making me very happy to be working on this painting! I met all these women through the Women Painting Women experience, and since have become good friends. I'm so grateful to them for modeling.

The four of us, along with 10 others will be showing work that we did on a painting retreat in Charleston, SC in the fall of 2010, and work that was inspired by our trip. (a complete list with links to all the artists in my next post about the finished painting and show)

Here's the set up in my studio, where I work from a monitor and from prints. I set my palette up on a French easel to ease the strain on neck and shoulders. An added benefit is that the light on the palette is the same as the painting when it's set up this way.

This is a close-up of my palette. I generally pre-mix at least 4 strings of flesh colors, working back and forth between the strings to get small nuance of color.

Here's a reflection on how the WPW reminded me of my senior show "I've Gone Full Circle".

There is a preview of the catalog for the Expedition and Beyond. Here's a post about the Expedition.

WPW and the 2010 invitational in the press. 

More pictures when its complete.