"Oracle", Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends

This is a painting called, "Oracle" it's part of my Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends Series. It's 20x16 in an oval format. The idea of an oracle as a medium for revelation is provocative and one I have enjoyed exploring. Technically this is one of the trickiest faces I've every painted because of the strange blue reflected light and the golden up-light from the lamp.

 

I used a combination of different exposure photographs for reference because of the nearly impossible lighting situation and to get the various levels of detail I wanted. I left the still life set up and painted that from life sheltering the still life from the light shining on the canvas and palette.

Too much studio light killed the drama and the color in the still life so I was practically painting this in the dark. The colored lights reflecting on fabric and flesh were luscious to look at and a challenge to paint.

 I thought this image was so strong and the expression so mysterious that I decided to do another version in charcoal and pastel on a warm gray paper. This piece is 30x22.

 

Both of these pieces will be in my Mississippi University for Women show at Eugenia Summers Gallery, Oct 8-Nov 4, 2009, Reception Oct 23. More about this show on my blog from Sept 13.

Artist's Choice Group Show, Principle Gallery, Alexandria, VA

I have four paintings going to Principle Gallery. The work will be part of the Artist's Choice Group Exhibition which opens Friday, Oct 23, 2009. 

Principle is located in the heart of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, minutes from Washington, DC. Principle Gallery has a wonderful reputation as exhibiting the best of American and European Contemporary Realism, focusing both on emerging and established artists, and I'm thrilled to be showing there! 

The Gallery is in Gilpin House, a 200 year old National Historic Landmark at 208 King Street.

They have chosen "The Ascent", 55x32, from my Building a Life Series. This painting was featured in International Artist Magazine, Aug/Sept Issue.

 

And "If Music Be the Food of Love, Play On", 32x39, oil on canvas over panel,

 

And "Like Breath on Glass", 16x20, oil on panel,

And "Midsummer Dream", 15x15, Seasons of the Bard Series, oil on canvas over panel

Principle represents about 40 acclaimed artists such as Dana Levin, Steve Huston, Thomas Beuchner, Ray Donley, Geoffrey Johnson, Jorge Alberto, Anthony Velasquez, and Leah Waichulis.

More about the gallery can be found at their website, www.principlegallery.com

Mississippi University for Women Art Gallery in Columbus

I'll be the visiting artist at MUW. This event is a Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium Event.

The gallery director, Alex Stelioes-Wills, has chosen my painting "Venus Speaks" to be the image used on the gallery's 2009-10 events poster and the invitation piece for the solo show.

This painting is a self portrait with husband. It is 12"x38" and was done around the time of our 26th anniversary. This painting made me smile the entire time I was working on it.

This painting went straight into our art collection so it has never been exhibited. It will be fun to show it for the first time in Mississippi!

This is the beautiful gallery space with the current show, a faculty exhibit.

The exhibit of thirty paintings and drawings will be up Oct 8-Nov 4, 2009 with a reception Friday, Oct 23, 5:30-7pm. The show will be in the Eugenia Summer Gallery on the MUW campus which is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm

"Mad Science" in Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery Show, The Machine in the Garden

"Mad Science" will be shown in Los Angeles, at Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery in West Hollywood.

The Machine in the Garden, An Experiment in the Steampunk Aesthetic Movement has been extended through September 26th. The show is "an expedition of Glass Garage Gallery artists into the retro-futurist hopes for a brighter yesteryear." "Mad Science" will be joining the wonderful work of Jerry Wayne Downs, Mikel Glass, Steven Kenny, Tristan Schane, Margo Selski and others.

 

The show is reviewed in ARTnews Magazine, September 09 issue. Richard Chang of ARTnews eloquently describes several works in the show and mentions a "strange mix of optimism, alienation, and nostalgia that animates the steampunk movement".


Steampunk as an aesthetic movement refers to art, speculative fiction or a certain science fiction, music, or fashion that emphasizes technology from the Victorian era. For it's history think HG Wells, Mark Twain, Mary Shelley and Jules Verne. One of the earliest manifestations was the TV show from the 60's The Wild Wild West.

It's a fantastical view of the world as if the past were imagining a future using technology from the Victorian era. Examples of movies that have a Steampunk attitude are Steamboy, Wild Wild West, City of Lost Children, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

"Mad Science" (19x24) is oil on canvas over panel and part of my Incognito Series. The series is an exploration of dreams followed and futures imagined.

It's an interesting idea to me that a costume can reveal OR disguise. These paintings are adventure and magic, a confiding of our secret selves. They are answers to the question "So, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Thanks to my husband, a great visionary, for being the mad scientist in the basement and inspiration for this painting.

Here are a few more details of the painting.


More details for The Machine in the Garden show or Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery   

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New Works Show, PressitOn Art Gallery, Miami

I'm thrilled to be participating on a group show at PressitOn Art Gallery in Miami, Aug 27-Sept 31 2009.

I'll be joining wonderful artists Laura Dinello, Elena Madden, Tobia Makover, Cedric Smith and new gallery artist, surrealist photographer Jamie Baldridge.

The director has chosen "Flight Plan" (23x32), "Dreams of Flying" (18x24), and "Trust and Betrayal, Samson and Delilah" (36x52) for this show.

"Flight Plan" (23x32) and detail

"Dreams of Flying" (18x24) and detail

In "Flight Plan" and "Dreams of Flying" I see threads that have been showing up in my work of late, ideas of flight, birds and nests. There are so many symbolic connotations associated with these images, thoughts of freedom, achieving new heights, seeing things from a different angle than we're accustomed to.

It's exciting to find a commonality in a body of work that surprises me, an element that I wasn't consciously including in the design. My paintings take weeks to finish so one would think there would be few surprises left by the time I pronounce a piece finished, but sometimes I don't know what a piece is really about till months later.

"Trust and Betrayal, Samson and Delilah" (36x52) and detail

Samson and Delilah was a fascinating painting to do. It's a painting about choice, even Delilah could have made a different choice. It made me ponder thoughts of trust and betrayal. Still a subject worthy of consideration.

Samson and Delilah won the Alabama 2-D Artist Award at the Red Clay Survey, a regional juried show at Huntsville Museum of Art, in Huntsville, AL before traveling to Miami.

The show was juried by Margaret Lazzari, an Associate Professor in the Roski School of Fine Arts of the University of California in Los Angeles.

More about all the exciting upcoming events at PressitOn Art Gallery Miami at www.pressitonart.com