Still Point Art Gallery BLOG

Call for Artists - Spirit of Place - Spirit of Home

2012-01-17T08:24:00.000-05:00

Still Point Art Gallery announces that submissions are now being accepted for its next online exhibition -- Spirit of Place - Spirit of Home.

We all need a place to call home, a place to which we belong, a place where we feel the pull and draw to come back again and again to be refreshed, renewed, revitalized. It may be a house, the city in which we were born, a cabin in the woods, a spot near the ocean, or a place far, far away that remains elusive. Wherever it is, this place feels like home. This place has magic, soul, and spirit.

The deadline for submissions is January 30, 2012. More details about submissions, along with the entry form, may be found here.

Image: Helen Sullivan. Kay's Cottage Garden.

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Christine Brooks Cote

January 17, 2012

David Kinsey - Artist of Distinction - Abstract Amazement

2012-01-09T11:13:00.000-05:00

David Duane Kinsey was recently named an Artist of Distinction in Still Point Art Gallery's exhibition: The Abstraction Attraction! He also received a Portfolio Award and, as a result, will have a portfolio of his work published in the gallery's art and literary journal, Still Point Arts Quarterly.

Untitled(New White) Untitled(Draw)
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Kinsey has two paintings in the exhibition: Untitled(New White) and Untitled(Draw). With their beautiful and entrancing detail, complexity, and structure, the viewer is drawn into the work...drawn into the web of amazement. This web is the result of Kinsey's careful arrangement of line, texture, and color...elements of painting masterfully combined to create compositions that capture.

David Duane Kinsey received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Ringling College of Art and Design in 1997 and his Masters of Fine Arts degree from Yale University in 1999. He taught at his alma mater, Ringling College of Art and Design and State College of Florida from 1999-2010. Currently, he is an Associate Professor in the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Stonehill College in Massachusetts.

Kinsey's various awards and honors include the George and Segal Foundation Grant for Painters, a Hermitage Artist Residency Fellowship, and a Yale Norfolk Teaching Fellowship. His paintings have been exhibited in New York, Connecticut, Florida, Washington, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.

Artist Statement

Embedded in abstract forms, there lies a heightened awareness of the alchemy and visceral properties of paint. This is the fuel that propels the expressionistic responses and reactions of automatism. Obviously the paintings are somewhat preoccupied by the multiple facets of the formal issues of painting. However, I strive to elevate this in an abstract language for ways of talking about ideas of aesthetics, structures, dichotomies, the physical versus the ethereal, internal versus external.

I am interested in the painting's physical presence and that reflection upon the viewer. This can be seen by some of the accumulated gluttonous areas of thick impasto paint (influences: Chaim Soutine, Antoni Tapies, Frank Auerbach) and, at other times, by thin washes or glazes within atmospheric spaces. Some of the shapes are organic reflecting the organic nature of painting itself and the human touch. The geometric shapes often allude to technological references, architecture and/or other structures. When combined, I attempt to have them harmonize with a sense of balance within the variety. Music and aesthetic contemplations are often a major influence of this fusion.

My paintings are incredibly labored over with hours of studio time. I like the idea of them having gone through a type of epic trail, because I would like them be an echo of moments of time that occur in one’s life. And so, I try to mix up the process by which I create them, because they act as markers on a timeline in my experience as a human and artist. By using acrylic paint, I am able to maneuver at a rapid pace to accommodate the improvisational processes that I use. These processes always fluctuate as it relates to my mental temperature. I try to work on about three to five paintings at a time, each with a different process. By having multiple works in progress I have found that I attempt to build them all up like an orchestra. They seem to feed off each other and provide me with advice as “what to do next."

Untitled(New White). 16 x 20 inches. Acrylic on canvas. $1200.
Untitled(Draw). 16 x 20 inches. Acrylic on canvas. $1200.

Visit David Kinsey's website

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Christine Brooks Cote

January 9, 2012

Keith Parks - Artist of Distinction - Inventive Photographer

2011-12-12T21:30:00.000-05:00

Keith Parks was recently named an Artist of Distinction in Still Point Art Gallery's exhibition: The Abstraction Attraction! He also received a Portfolio Award and, as a result, will have a portfolio of his work published in the gallery's art and literary journal, Still Point Arts Quarterly.

Nightshade

Crash

Lithium

Keith Parks' photography is unique, inventive, and revealing of a mind of extraordinary creativity. His five images in this exhibition, of which three are shown here, are from Parks' extensive Paper Series. In this series, Parks uses paper and a camera to explore color, hue, light, shadow, contrast, and, of course...composition. Extraordinary composition. Extraordinary creativity.

Born in Los Angeles, Keith Parks grew up in the town of Oxnard, California, where his father converted an old shed in their backyard into a darkroom to "keep him off the streets" while he was in high school. Parks began college at California State University, Northridge as a photography major, but as graduation approached and he realized there were no "Help Wanted: Photographer" ads in the classified section, but plenty of entry-level graphics jobs, he switched his emphasis to graphic art in his final year. In 1980 he received his B.A. in Art.

That led to a career of more than thirty years in graphic design. In 2008, with his daughter about to depart for college, and his midlife artistic crisis in full bloom, Parks felt the time was right to take a stab at some purely personal artwork. He devoted a couple of years to building a body of work, and posted the resulting images to an online artist's community, eliciting positive reviews and valuable feedback. By 2010, with his hard drive filling up with image files, he began to submit entries to art shows and to have work appearing in shows around the country. Since then Parks' work has been showing in galleries throughout the country and online.

I have been taking and making pictures since the days when it made your fingers smell (aaahhh... fixer). At first I lamented the departure of film, but the digital medium certainly has its advantages. So while I do some computer processing of most of my images, I try and limit it to things that I could have done in the darkroom. It is important to me that the pictures are not overly synthetic.

The series of paper images began quite by chance. While shooting some food pictures, I realized that the paper I was using as a backdrop was quite interesting on its own. And as I worked more and more with paper, I came to see it as the perfect subject. Paper is cheap, comes in almost endless colors and textures, and is quite willing to sit for hours under the lights while I cut, fold, reposition, and take multiple shots. In this series I continue to explore abstracts, still life, figurative images, conceptual pieces, and my own variations on historical art imagery. Ultimately I am most inspired by the phenomenon of nature that we call “light”, by its human offspring vision and perception, and by the amazing things that happen when the three come together. I also love a nice picture of a cute kitten now and then.

Nightshade. 20 x 20 inches. Color photograph. Framed, $395.
Lithium. 20 x 32 inches. Color photograph. Framed, $495.
Crash. 20 x 20 inches. Color photograph. Framed, $395.

Visit Keith Parks' website

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Christine Brooks Cote

December 12, 2011

Nomi Drory - Artist of Distinction

2011-12-05T10:42:00.001-05:00

Nomi Drory was recently named an Artist of Distinction in Still Point Art Gallery's exhibition: The Abstraction Attraction! She also received a Portfolio Award and, as a result, will have a portfolio of her work published in the gallery's art and literary journal, Still Point Arts Quarterly.

Nomi Drory was born in Bolivia, raised in Israel, and thenmoved to Canada as an adult. Through her experience as an immigrant shedeveloped both a pervasive sense of dislocation and a paradoxical attachment todisparate places. The contrasting cultures and the combination of man-made and naturalenvironments experienced on four different continents have helped to direct the material andthematic content of Drory's art. In addition, her training in Israel as an architect between1983 and 1989 influenced her artistic process and concerns.

Gray Memorial and Wall

Nomi Drory has four paintings in the exhibition; two are shown here. These are from her Dichotomy Series. In her words:

In this series, I have attempted to distill the symbolic andutilitarian essence of two iconic, monumental architectural structures, theHolocaust Memorial in Berlin and the Israeli West Bank Barrier, highlightingtheir metahistorical independence and interdependence. I have also soughtsimultaneously to explore and confront two of the darkest elements of mypersonal identity and familial history.

I am the daughter of a father who was born in theHungarian-speaking region of the former Yugoslavia. The sole member of hisfamily to survive the Holocaust, he escaped Europe to the newly-founded Stateof Israel, which became for him not only a refuge but a guardian. His firsthome in Israel was the abandoned house of a Palestinian Arab family. I am alsothe daughter of an Israeli-born mother, a non-religious socialist and humanrights advocate who saw herself as more of a Canaanite than a Jew.

Red Memorial and Wall

Dedicated in May 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the end ofWorld War II, Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial commemorates the murder of six million Jews at the hands of Hitler and his Nazi forces. Designed by PeterEisenman, it occupies 19,000 square meters of space near the Brandenburg Gate and is made up of 2,711 gray stone slabs of various heights that bearno markings. The Israeli West Bank Barrier is a border separation comprised offences, vehicle-barrier trenches, and an 8-meter-tall concretewall built partly along the 1949 Armistice Line betweenIsrael and the Palestinian West Bank. The barrier is referred to by Israelis asthe Anti-Terrorist Fence and by Palestinians as the Apartheid Wall.

In juxtaposing Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial with the IsraeliWest Bank Barrier, I have attempted to represent viscerally the tragicdichotomy inherent in the founding of Israel: the creation of a safe home forthe historically victimized Jewish people and the displacement of thePalestinian people. I was drawn to depict these two monumental structuresbecause of their symbolic resonance and literal physical architectures.

The wall upon which the pieces in this series are hung alsoevoke for me my personal reality here and now in Canada. Though the subject matter ofthis series is drawn from the politics of Israel and Palestine, I see thisseries as quintessentially Canadian. Moving to Canada in my late twenties,especially to multicultural Toronto, enabled me to gain the geographical andsocio-cultural distance necessary to listen to and hear the voice of theOther--which is what is at the heart of this series.

During her career Nomi Drory has explored a variety of art media and disciplines. She began exhibiting in Israel in 1989; at that time she was studying architecture and presented and received honors for her work in that field. In 1995 she exhibited drawings and ceramic sculptures in Sydney, Australia. By 1999 she had turning to painting and, since then, her work has been shown in New York and extensively throughout Toronto.

Gray Memorial and Wall. 48 x 24 inches. Mixed media on board. $1500
Red Memorial and Wall. 40 x 20 inches. Mixed media on board. $1200

Visit Nomi Drory's website

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Christine Brooks Cote
December 5, 2011

Exhibition Opening - The Abstraction Attraction!

2011-11-16T07:39:00.005-05:00

I am very pleased to announce the opening of Still Point Art Gallery's online exhibition, The Abstraction Attraction - a celebration of the abstract in visual arts!

Our amazing artists have contributed to the creation of a truly amazing show!

Artists of Distinction for this exhibition are Steven Bogart, Ling Ling Cheng, Nomi Drory, David Kinsey, Keith Parks, and Cat van der Heiden. As Artists of Distinction, these six artists will have the opportunity to show more of their work as Gallery Artists beginning in February 2012.

Each of these artists is also given the Gallery's Portfolio Award, which provides the opportunity to have a portfolio published in the Gallery's highly praised publication, Still Point Arts Quarterly.

Be sure to enjoy the work of these artists work in the Gallery and, over the next few weeks, come back to read about them and their art in our blog.

All artists selected to exhibit work in this show:

Richard Barrett	Gary Engle	Mikel Patrik
Laura Bauer	Susan Gainen	Saule Piktys
B. Clyde Beck	Pat Goltz	Charla Puryear
Mike Bell	Sue Green	Dennis Quinn
Lauren Blackwell	Gwen Gunter	Jerry Reed
Steven Bogart	James Harkins	Elizabeth Sheehan
John Brooks	Sue Anne Hoyt	Pamela Soldwedel
R. F. Buchan	Desiree Kantrim	Jane Soodalter
David Burtner	David Kinsey	Marko Susla (GA)
Manihoo Chang	Sassoon Kosian	TT Tone
Ling Ling Cheng	Candace Law	Jane Tracy
Ione Citrin (GA)	Nigel Lord	Barry Treu
Lee Clarke*	Richard Lund	Cat van der Heiden
Nina Clayton	Cheryl MacLean	Daniel Victor
Nik Clements	SallyAnn Mickel	Singway Wang
Celeste Cottingham	Paul Moss	John Grady Williams
Bob Craig	Linda Murray	Laura Yang
Marie Dancy-Brennan	Lee Muslin	Takeshi Yokokawa
Jacqueline DelBrocco	Selena Nawrocki	Gogo Yu
Halina Domanski	Mark Nutt	John Zajac
Joan Dromey	Julie O'Daly	Stephenie Zentara
Nomi Drory	Alexander Ouchinnikov	Maureen Zwier (GA)
Shelley DuBois	Keith Parks

(GA) Artists with this designation are Gallery Artists. They were selected to be Artists of Distinction in previous exhibitions and, consequently, have additional work featured as a Gallery Artist.

* Featured in a previous issue of Still Point Arts Quarterly

The Abstraction Attraction will remain a featured exhibition through February 14, 2012 and will remain online until February 14, 2013.

Cat van der Heiden. Mirth. 48 x 36 inches. Acrylic. $1350

David Kinsey. Untitled(Draw). 16 x 20 inches. Acrylic on canvas. $1200

Halina Domanski. Escaping from Tunnels. 30 x 40 inches. Mixed media. $1000

Ione Citrin. Cosmos. 20 x 18 inches. Oil on canvas. $800

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Christine Brooks Cote

November 16, 2011

Still Point Art Gallery

Ekaterina Bykhovskaya: Visual Poet

2011-09-15T10:30:00.007-04:00

Six photographs by Ekaterina Bykhovskaya are currently on exhibit in Still Point Art Gallery's current show: Destinations: Famous Places and Intimate Spaces. For her amazing work, Bykhovskaya was named an Artist of Distinction.

Near a Temple, Kyoto, 122
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Bykhovskaya's photographs are from a series entitled Poetic Japan. They are stunning in their sense of grace and poise. The images suggest depth and strength, yet emanate freedom, fluidity, serenity, and reverence. They are indeed visual poetry, bringing the viewer to a spiritual moment in Japan.

[view all six images]

Ekaterina Bykhovskaya was born in Moscow, Russia, and at the age of twenty-five moved to Strasbourg, France, where she has been living for the past eight years. Bykhovskaya travels a lot and used to take lots of snapshots with her point-and-shoot camera in auto mode when traveling. One day several years ago it occurred to her that, since she took so many pictures anyway, she might as well try to learn to do it “properly." She bought a digital single-lens reflex camera and, after reading the manual and fiddling with the camera on her own, she came to realize that even the basic controls were too complicated for her comprehension. This prompted her to take a photo course at the London School of Photography. This course was an eye-opener; not only was it extremely helpful for understanding how each button on the camera worked, but it also made her realize the vastness of her ignorance about cameras and photography. She discovered that the medium of photography went far beyond the mere recording of the outside world and could be an exciting tool for expression of views, moods, and emotions.

Kyoto Imperial Gardens, 21
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Since then Bykhovskaya has taken numerous photography courses and workshops in Europe and the United States both to improve her skills and to experiment with different subjects and styles. Bykhovskaya still does a lot of travel photography, however, rather than trying merely to document her travels, she seeks to convey in her images a personal perception by expressing emotions and feelings inspired by a place, situation, or moment.

Of the Poetic Japan series, Bykhovskaya says:

Poetic Japan was conceived before my trip to Japan in the autumn 2010. Buddhist temples and Japanese gardens embody for me the ultimate serenity which I tried to convey through the photographic medium. Being inspired by the works of Elizabeth Opalenik, Jill Enfield, and Kathleen T. Carr, I chose infrared photography seeking to create dreamy and somewhat surreal images of a perfectly serene world. Using digital gear only, I tried to combine the subtlety of infrared light with post-production emulating the wet collodion process so as to give to this series a lyrical and timeless feel.

Near a Temple, Kyoto, 122. 9 x 13 inches. Inkjet print, framed, $500.
Kyoto Imperial Gardens, 21. 13 x 9 inches. Inkjet print, framed, $500.

Ekaterina Bykhovskaya's website

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

September 15, 2011

Ronnj Medini: Maker of Pictures

2011-09-07T18:07:00.002-04:00

The photography of Ronnj Medini reminded me of this quotation by Elliott Erwitt: "To me, photography is an art of observation. . . . I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them." As a viewer of Medini's work, I find that it is difficult to look away from any one of his pieces. They are rich and full and pleasing. Yet in each one there is a tension or a calling that continues to draw you in to find more in the picture. There is so much to see. So much to feel. So much to be revealed. Medini doesn't take pictures of things he sees, rather he makes pictures from the way he sees things.

Ronnj Medini's work is currently being exhibited as part of Still Point Art Gallery's show, Destinations: Famous Places and Intimate Spaces. He was selected to be an Artist of Distinction and he will have the opportunity to show more of his work starting in November as a Gallery Artist.

Dante
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Somewhere, Old Street in Tallinn
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Ronnj Medini was born in the town of Fossombrone in Italy in 1974. The only child of two merry-go-round owners, he comes from a long line of circus performers. As a result he spent his early childhood moving from town to town. When Medini was 10 years old, his parents changed their way of living and decided to settle permanently in the seaside city of Ancona.

Footmarks, Ireland
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As years went by Medini showed a rich interest in painting, poetry, and writing. Eventually, his artistic inspiration evolved towards photography, and in 2004, by means of a simple compact camera, he started doing work that brought him to a representation of feelings and sensations that goes far beyond the mere descriptive image. Now, as a fine art photographer, Medini expresses himself through his pictures: a stairwell turns into a Dantesque symbol of good and evil, a tower of Babel where souls go up and down, hopefully questing for the eternal light (Dante, above). Medini’s photographs fix sensations and images in time so to give them a biblical power.

Dante. 39.4 x 27.6 inches. Black and white photograph. $500 (print).

Footmarks, Ireland. 27.6 x 39.4 inches. Black and white photograph. $250 (print).

Somewhere, Old Street in Tallinn. 39.4 x 27.6 inches. Black and white photograph. $300 (print).

More information about Ronnj Medini may be found on his website.

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Christine Brooks Cote

September 7, 2011

Marilyn Henrion's Soft City--New York City

2011-08-27T13:09:00.001-04:00

I have admired Marilyn Henrion's work for several years, but her recent body of work, Soft City -- Henrion's personal take on New York City, is beyond amazing in both its vision and its artistry. Her contributions from Soft City to Still Point Art Gallery's current exhibition, Destinations: Famous Places and Intimate Spaces, earned her the honor of being named an Artist of Distinction. Like all the pieces in the Soft City series, the three mixed media pieces Henrion contributed are each unique scenes of New York City. Each combines digitally manipulated photography and inkjet printing with hand stitching techniques. The presence of the hand stitching both animates the surfaces and, at the same time, softens and humanizes the urban geometry by the irregular qualities of texture inherent in the materials and construction techniques. These works radiate brilliance in their evidence of creativity, design, and artistry.

New York City

Cable Building Study

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New York City

Twilight Study

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New York City

Reflection Study

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In his introduction to the catalog for Soft City, Ed McCormack writes, The stark iconography of urban architecture takes on palpable sensuality in the distinguished textile artist Marilyn Henrion’s new “Soft City” series, which presents a magical mystery tour of familiar thoroughfares. In these works, Henrion, a native New Yorker, reveals the soft side of New York, with unexpected visual treats lurking around every corner. Once Gotham’s hard unyielding surfaces are peeled back, the beautiful and complex patina of each facade is illuminated. In Soft City, Henrion's strong connection to the images of her Soho neighborhood can be fully appreciated.

A graduate of Cooper Union, Marilyn Henrion is included in the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C. Her award winning artworks have been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide. They are in major museums, corporate and private collections, including the Museum of Arts & Design in New York; the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky; the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska; the U.S. Embassy in Pnom Penh, Cambodia; SAS Institute, Cary, North Carolina; and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts; among others. They have also been featured in numerous publications, including Women Designers in the U.S.- 1900-2000, published by Yale University Press. Among the grants Henrion has received was one awarded by the Artslink Partnership, devoted to fostering excellence in the arts between the United States and countries of the former Soviet Union. In 2005, she was awarded a fellowship by the New York Foundation for the Artst.

More information about Marilyn Henrion and her Soft City series may be found at these sites:

http://web.me.com/marilynhenrion/marilynhenrion/Marilyn_Henrion.html

http://web.me.com/marilynhenrion/marilynhenrion/Soft_City.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru_1PvtGNw4

New York City--Cable Building Study. 8 x 10 inches. Mixed media, hand quilted. Framed. $800

New York City--Reflection Study. 8 x 10 inches. Mixed media, hand quilted. Framed. $800

New York City--Twilight Study. 8 x 10 inches. Mixed media, hand quilted. Framed. $800

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

August 27, 2011

Call for Artists - The Abstraction Attraction!

2011-08-25T09:23:00.001-04:00

Still Point Art Gallery announces that submissions are now being accepted for its next online exhibition -- The Abstraction Attraction!

This exhibition will be an exploration and celebration of abstraction in visual arts!

The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2011. More details about submissions, along with the entry form, may be found here.

Return to Still Point Art Gallery

Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

August 24, 2011

Exhibition Opening--Destinations: Famous Places and Intimate Spaces

2011-08-10T09:33:00.001-04:00

I am very pleased to announce the opening of Still Point Art Gallery's online exhibition, Destinations: Famous Places and Intimate Spaces.

The artist travels the world with a sketchbook, an easel, or a camera. The artist wants to draw…paint…take the photograph! The artist travels the world for excitement, challenge, and inspiration…people, culture, architecture, landscapes, cityscapes, famous monuments, ancient ruins. So much to see…so much to absorb. The world's famous places...the world's intimate spaces.

Our amazing artists have contributed to the creation of a unique and interesting exhibition, showing their views of places and spaces around the world. Truly, one of our finest exhibitions!

Alexandra Chehy
Patmos Greece Side Street
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Artists of Distinction for this exhibition are photographer Ekaterina Bykhovskaya, photographer Ronnj Medini, and mixed media artist Marilyn Henrion. Be sure to enjoy their wonderful work in the Gallery and come back soon to read about them and their art here in this blog. These artists will have the opportunity to show more of their art as Gallery Artists beginning in November 2011.

Artists selected to exhibit work in this show:

Christine Bakke	Bob Craig	Marsha Hewitt	Jerry Park
Michal Barkai*	Paula Dixon	Miriam Karp	Davide Perella
Sabine Blodorn	Monica Engeler	Glenn Larsen	Judy Reinford
John Brooks	Michael Finley	Catherine Leach	Elizabeth Sheehan
Ekaterina Bykhovskaya	George Gati	Jessica Levant	Jane Soodalter
Amy Bynum	Matthew Gauger	Nigel Lord	Harvey Spears
Adriana Chanmala	Valerie Ghoussaini	Jim Lustenader	Helen Sullivan
Alexandra Chehy	Carol Gooberman	Ronnj Medini	Marko Susla
Ione Citrin	Jane Gottlieb	Frank Myers	Ron Testa
Robert Bruce Clark	Marilyn Henrion	Timothy Paradise	Carla Woody

*Featured in the July 2011 issue of Still Point Arts Quarterly

Destinations: Famous Places and Intimate Spaces will remain a featured exhibition through November 15, 2011 and will remain online until November 15, 2012.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

August 10, 2011

Maureen Zwier: Distinguished Nature Photographer

2011-06-20T10:06:00.001-04:00

Nature Photographer Maureen Zwier was named an Artist of Distinction in Still Point Art Gallery's current exhibition, "We can never have enough of Nature." The three images she submitted for the exhibition are shown below. Each is a view of Nature that leans to the extraordinary, emphasizing the beautiful colors and designs of the natural world.

Sunflower
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I photographed "Sunflower" in my backyard late one afternoon. It was one of those wonderful moments when everything fell into place. This particular bloom was a few feet below most of the other flowers on the plant. I laid on the ground and photographed the flower with leaves as the background. The backlighting from the sun just lit up the petals of the flower. I never noticed the red lines running through the petals until I looked at the image on my computer...what a pleasant surprise.

DreamScape I
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"DreamScape I" is part of a series of photographs that have been manipulated to give a surreal feel to them. For this piece, I photographed the flowers and then added a slight blur to the image to give it a dreamlike quality.

Maureen Zwier was a microbiologist who decided to make a mid-life career change to become a photographer. She lives in St. Charles, Illinois. As an artist, she attempts to photograph subjects of nature that most people do not notice. This may involve capturing an image of an unusual plant or insect, or, photographing a common subject from an unusual perspective. Using creativity, artistry, and light, her intention is for the viewer to walk away from viewing her images with a new sense of wonder and appreciation for our native environment.

Sunflower. 19 x 13 inches. Color photograph. Framed, $330.

DreamScape I. 19 x 13 inches. Color photograph. Framed, $330.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

June 20, 2011

Call for Artists - Destinations: Famous Places and Intimate Spaces

2011-06-15T19:28:00.002-04:00

Still Point Art Gallery announces that submissions are now being accepted for its next online exhibition -- Destination: Famous Places and Intimate Spaces.

The artist travels the world with a sketchbook, an easel, or a camera. The artist wants to draw…paint…take the photograph! The artist travels the world for excitement, challenge, and inspiration…people, culture, architecture, landscapes, cityscapes, famous monuments, ancient ruins. So much to see…so much to absorb. The world's famous places...the world's intimate spaces.

The idea of this exhibition is to create an amazing collection of unique and interesting art pieces from artists’ travels around the world.

The deadline for submissions is July 25, 2011. More details about submissions, along with the entry form, may be found here.

(Be sure to read information in the prospectus about sales. Our sales policy and procedures change with this and future exhibitions. For artists who wish to list prices, we now pass all purchase inquiries on to the artist and require no commission for any sales. More information is available here or in our June newsletter.)

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

June 15, 2011

Sushila Oliphant Honors Nature

2011-06-13T14:48:00.007-04:00

Midnight Reflection
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Still Point Art Gallery's current exhibition is all about the essential nature of Nature. It was inspired by a passage by Henry David Thoreau, which ends with the words, "We can never have enough of Nature." Three of Sushila Oliphant's paintings were selected for this exhibition, and she was named an Artist of Distinction for her particularly wonderful and meaningful contributions. Two of the paintings are shown here. They are beautiful...colorful, vibrant, rich...the tones are deep, akin to those of a haunting cello or lyric basso profondo. These paintings speak to the grandeur and splendor of Nature, calling us to bow with respect and in worship. Oliphant so perfectly captures that aspect of Nature that makes it bigger and greater than all of us, though we are all contained within it. She captures the spiritual aspect of Nature, that part that feeds our souls, that part that Thoreau honored in his writings about Nature, that part of which we can never have enough.

Artist Statement

I love to capture that wondrous spiritual feeling of awe that certain places produce in me, like meadows, sunsets, a mountain view, canyons, or forests. My paintings come from those feelings and memories of peace and joy, as well as from a deep connection with nature.

Los Pináculos de Daniel
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Painting is my way of communing with the Universe, Source, or God--whatever one may call that divine awareness. It is the food for my soul on its journey to merge with nature and transcend it.
My favorite medium is painting on found wood. I love the way it feels in my hands. I get excited by the various textures along with the strong patterns formed in the wood. I see the whole scene in the wood as I sand it and then all I do is paint it in. I am always very surprised at the final results as they are totally different from what I originally had in mind. I sometimes think someone else slips inside and does the painting for me...and I am always delighted and very grateful.

Midnight Reflection is a memory from a trip with my sister, Penny, through the Mohawk Trail. It was such a magical place...stunningly still. That stately dead tree, surrounded by those radiant flowers and landscape, emitted a deep sense of peace and striving for a higher reality. We reflected about life for hours in that spot.

Los Pináculos de Daniel was inspired by my life in Arizona and a long, lost love that was found again. For fifteen years, I kept it in the closet without working on it--I had a block. I rediscovered and finished it at the same time Daniel and I reconnected a few years ago. He inspired me to complete it. These are the mountains we have crossed to be together and, as we look back towards them, they have become part of our beautiful scenery.

Biography

Sushila Oliphant draws her inspiration from inner traditions and her spiritual teachers. She grew up in Hampden Highlands, Maine and Chenango Bridge, New York. During the harsh winter months in Maine, she and her sister, Penny, were taught painting and drawing by their grandmother, a graduate of Pratt Art Institute. Sushila Oliphant was further inspired by her travels to Canada, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, as well as throughout the Yucatan and Chiapas in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize.

Oliphant works in pen and ink, acrylic, pastels, colored pencils, graphite, and watercolor, and with collage and digital photography. Nature and spiritual themes are her favorite subjects. She attended the University of Maine, the University of Arizona, and Miami Dade Community College in Florida. She has won several awards for her work in art shows in Maine, Colorado, Florida, and Mexico. Oliphant owns a graphic and web design business called Harmonic Designs. She currently resides in Miami, Florida.

Midnight Reflection. 9.25 x 12 inches. Acrylic on plywood. $1200.

Los Pináculos de Daniel. 24 x 24 inches. Acrylic on plywood. $3500.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

June 13, 2011

Peggy Martinez--Distinctive Watercolorist

2011-06-08T09:56:00.087-04:00

Still Point Art Gallery opened its show, "We can never have enough of Nature," last week and named three Artists of Distinction. One is watercolorist Peggy Martinez, whose paintings of flowers appear soft and delicate with folds and shadows in the petals and leaves that give them graceful shapes and an inviting appearance. As an Artist of Distinction, Martinez will have the opportunity to show more of her work as a Gallery Artist beginning in August 2011.

Artist Statement

My inspiration…

Iris
[Enlarge]
Art is the universal silent language, understood and interpreted by millions without an audible word. To see the different emotions and hear the different points of view from viewers is intriguing and stimulating to any artist. To understand why audiences prefer one painting over another feeds my creativity and passion to grow as an artist.

Exuberance
[Enlarge]
I have found that my strength emerges through my love for painting nature’s garden. The beauty and grace found in flowers and landscapes is never ending; they sustain my imagination with an infinite source of inspiration.

My art…

I enjoy expressing nature’s palette to emphasize my vision of textures and colors by painting a close-up point of view, which can be interpreted as abstract. I frame my work with or without glass. I enjoy experimenting with different surfaces, mediums and uncovering new ways to paint. Since, I have so many ideas and just never enough time to express everything I envision. The more I paint, the more my mind challenges my soul.

My yearning to teach…

Summer Blossom
[Enlarge]
A few years ago I attended a watercolor workshop with Arleta Pech at Dillman’s Resort in Wisconsin. She had urged us to bring any work we would like to have critiqued at the end of the last afternoon. I brought prints of my work. After she critiqued my prints, a few of the students turned around and asked me when they would be taking my workshop. I said: “Who me? Are you kidding?” I had never thought of teaching, but then on my way home I reflected on that workshop and the students' desire for my assistance and opinion. That was when I started teaching and doing demonstrations. I absolutely love teaching and sharing what I know. My students tell me that I hold nothing back and always have a fresh, new point of view. I am constantly reinventing and refining my classes to be the best I can. If I can help an artist move their artwork to a new level and build confidence with color, that would be my biggest satisfaction.

Biography

Peggy Martinez, originally from Rochester, New York, has lived in Rochester and Salinas, Puerto Rico. She attended Kutztown State College, in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, where she studied art. Martinez then went on to work in banking for twenty-nine years, mostly in management and corporate sales. During the summer of 2010, Martinez decided to leave the corporate world to pursue her passion for painting. She currently lives in a suburb of Rochester, New York with her husband and daughter.

Martinez is largely a self-taught artist and has attended many workshops with locally and nationally well-known artists. Among the artists are Arleta Pech, Tom Lynch, Zoltan Szabo, Lian Quan Zhen, Susan Webb-Tregay, and Don Getz. Since leaving her employer, Martinez has actively been conducting lectures, demonstrations, and teaching watercolor classes. She is affiliated with the Webster Art Club, Rochester Art Club, and Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society. She has independently coordinated non-instructional trips to Martha’s Vineyard and Chautauqua Institute for her own enjoyment and that of others who are passionate about painting.

Martinez' painting, training, management and marketing experiences have led her to teach watercolor classes for all levels, independent workshops and demonstrations for various Art Clubs and Guilds. Her goal is to expand her workshops on a national level, build a solid collection of artwork, and ultimately be represented by an Art Gallery.

***

For more information about Peggy Martinez' art and workshops, please consult her website.

Iris I. 18 x 24 inches. Watercolor mounted on board. NFS

Exuberance. 24 x 36 inches. Watercolor and acrylic. $1000

Summer Blossom. 24 x 12 inches. Watercolor mounted on board. NFS

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

June 8, 2011

Exhibition Opening: "We can never have enough of Nature."

2011-06-01T06:00:00.001-04:00

I am very pleased to announce the opening of Still Point Art Gallery's online exhibition, "We can never have enough of Nature."

"We need the tonic of wildness -- to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.
--Henry David Thoreau

Maureen Zwier. Sunflower.
[Enlarge]

Artists of Distinction for this exhibition are watercolorist Peggy Martinez, painter Sushila Oliphant, and nature photographer Maureen Zwier. Be sure to enjoy their wonderful work in the Gallery and come back soon to read about them and their art here in this blog. These artists will have the opportunity to show more of their art as Gallery Artists beginning in August 2011.

Artists selected to exhibit work in this show:

Alisha Anderson	John Gilluly	Frank Myers
Leslie Anderson	Jane Gottlieb	James Nguyen
Peter Azrak	Tom Hinkle	Sushila Jean Oliphant
Christine Bakke	Susan Jenkins	Ron Pederson
Richard Barrett	Robert Katz	Vahe Peroomian
B. Clyde Beck	Stuart Kerner	Elise Rorick
Mike Bell	Anne Labowitz	Carel Schmidlkofer
Gail Butler	Linda LaRose	Pamela Soldwedel
Ione Citrin	Diane Leifheit	Jane Soodalter
Valerie Connelly	Megan Levacy	Michael Strider
Bob Craig	Michael Lynne	Helen Sullivan
Michael Finley	Cheryl MacLean	Marko Susla
Susan Gainen	Fabio Maestripieri	Linnea Tober
George Gati	Peggy Martinez	Becky Tyler
Alaina Gibson	Trish Moores	Annette Zalanowski
	Sandy Moser	Maureen Zwier

"We can never have enough of Nature" will remain a featured exhibition through August 9, 2011 and will remain online until August 9, 2012.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

June 1, 2011

Ann Salk Rosenberg: These Girls are Talkin'

2011-05-10T10:28:00.007-04:00

Ann Salk Rosenberg's paintings made me stop...and say "WOW!" "Where did this come from?" Meaning...from where in a person do paintings like this come? Who is this artist and what lies behind these unbelievable paintings? Each one is full of vibrant color, accented with checkerboard, polka dots, and curlicues, and featuring a marvelous female persona that is most assertively speaking to you from its square domain. See the shape of the mouth, the expression in the eyes, the flip of the hair, and even the gestures of the hands...these girls are talkin' and they want you to listen!

I Do Nothing All Day Excuse Me a Moment

[Enlarge] [Enlarge]

Rosenberg submitted this work for Still Point Art Gallery's show Still Point III, the Gallery's annual show dedicated to showing those things that artists choose to hold still with their art. Rosenberg was named an Artist of Distinction and will have the opportunity to show more of her work as a Gallery Artist for the next year. Rosenberg describes her paintings as large, bold narratives. She uses vibrant colors, geometric shapes and a touch of humor to reflect her joyous spirit, celebrate her creativity, and inhale the glorious fullness of life. In Rosenberg's words:

The inspiration for each painting comes from a place deep inside and gets channeled through my brush onto my canvas. The strokes come together and create a lyrical story. Sometimes the story is from my own history, but often it is simply one drawn from our collective consciousness. It is as if I start the process by accessing and then painting our universal memories, experiences and lessons. You, the viewer, then take up the story and it becomes your own.

My Drum, My Beat, My Reality
[Enlarge]

BIOGRAPHY

As a child, Ann Salk Rosenberg’s imagination took her to places she could only dream to go. Growing up down the street from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) provided an ironic metaphor—art was present but just out of reach. She settled for writing poetry and imagining being a painter living a life saturated with color, happiness, and freedom. School, work, marriage, family, and all the associated responsibilities necessitated that she push her dreams into a small forgotten corner of her being. It was as if she “was sitting on the shelf of life, like a coloring book unopened, with pages silently waiting to be filled with riotous color.”

In 1984, Rosenberg was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis; by 1994, she was completely disabled. In 1999, after sleeping, eating and watching TV for five years, she finally had enough strength to pick up a paint brush. She found that art was one of the few things she could do or find solace in, but because of health constraints, Rosenberg was frequently only able to paint for very short periods of time. In 2008, with the help of a new doctor, Rosenberg was correctly diagnosed with a severe gluten allergy; she did not have MS. With time, a gluten-free diet, and healing, art has become a more and more significant and central source of her physical, mental, artistic, and spiritual strength.

I Do Nothing All Day, 48 x 48 inches, acrylic and graphite on canvas, $50,000

Excuse Me a Moment, 48 x 48 inches, acrylic and graphite on canvas, $50,000

My Drum, My Beat, My Reality, 48 x 48 inches, acrylic and graphite on canvas, $50,000

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

May 10, 2011

Alison Hoornbeek: Tumultuous and Tranquil

2011-05-03T14:14:00.002-04:00

It is not unusual for me to be stopped in my tracks by images, and I was certainly stopped by these images: Alison Hoornbeek's submission to Still Point Art Gallery's current Still Point III exhibition. But there was something that happened inside me when I looked at these photographs...a unique response. I felt something. I heard something. But then there was silence. It was an amazing experience. Thunderous, yet silent. THUNDEROUS, YET SILENT. I felt and heard the loud thunder that emerges from these images...but then I immediately...simultaneously...sensed stillness and silence.

An artistic achievement? Most certainly, and one that earned Hoornbeek the title Artist of Distinction for this exhibition. For indeed Hoornbeek has created Art.

Art is something which, although produced by human hands, is not created by these hands alone, but something which wells up from a deeper source in our souls.
--Vincent Van Gogh

Splash 1 Splash 2 Splash 3
[Enlarge] [Enlarge] [Enlarge]

These images are from a body of new photographic work that Hoornbeek is still editing. The series, entitled Tumultuous and Tranquil, embodies the energy of nature, which is simultaneously both tumultuous and tranquil. The vibrant force of energy present in all things, also known as Supreme Consciousness, takes many shapes and forms. In Hoornbeek's words:

In the midst of dynamic movement, profound stillness can be found. These images express my experience of stillness in motion, and the tremendous power inherent in the awareness of Supreme Consciousness.

To me, waves represent the state of perpetual becoming, without a final destination to achieve. A wave crashing on the shore, merges immediately back into the Ocean from which it came. The water is at once an individual drop and one with the entire Ocean. So it is with us in our lives, we are at once individuals and inseparable from our own divine nature. We may feel battered as we arrive as individual drops on the shore, but it is for us to merge back into the wholeness of our true identities.

Alison Hoornbeek studied photography and film at Hampshire College in Massachusetts. After graduating, she spent many years photographing for non-profit organizations. This led her to spend a great deal of time in the Far East. Here she began to study the traditions and philosophies of eastern cultures. Her immersion in the culture, traditions, and philosophies of the East has affected her view of the world and the images she makes. Pursuing the tradition of Equivalence, she creates images that communicate the transcendent while using the imminent. Her current photographic work is a visual articulation of her understanding and experience of the ancient teachings she has studied.

Alison lives and works as a professional photographer in the New York metropolitan area. She is an active member of the National Association of Women Artists and Soho Photo Gallery in New York City.

Splash 1. 18 x 12 inches, archival pigment print, not framed, $350.

Splash 2. 18 x 12 inches, archival pigment print, not framed, $350.

Splash 3. 18 x 12 inches, archival pigment print, not framed, $350.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery
May 3, 2011

Bob Craig: Unique Expressions of Mood and Color Through Collage

2011-04-26T11:33:00.001-04:00

The colors, shapes, and designs of Bob Craig's artwork combine to create beautiful, imaginative creations. They are interesting to look at, with their many shapes and patterns working and blending together to achieve a whole...a gestalt. Craig's medium is collage, the art of bringing things from disparate places and "sticking" them together to create something greater than its parts. Craig earned the title Artist of Distinction in Still Point Art Gallery's current exhibition, Still Point III, with his three pieces, Goldfish, High Country Predator, and Rectilineal Wood. (High Country Predator is not shown here.)


Goldfish [Enlarge]

The process of collage is well worth knowing and understanding, as it is, in a way, a metaphor for certain aspects of life. It is hard to miss the act of bringing things together to form something greater than its parts. It happens in life and it is indeed what collage is all about. Each collage piece begins with a pencil underdrawing, sometimes from a photograph, but more often from Craig's imagination. Then, the palette is assembled, consisting of pieces of color photographs, painstakingly clipped from the vivid pages of magazines. National Geographic Magazine is preferred because of the quality of the paper and the print. These pieces are sorted and grouped by hue and texture, then carefully cut into pieces of varying size--some as small as a fingernail--and applied to the backing with varnish. The piece may then be enhanced with acrylic paint, either sprayed or daubed on. The result is a complete reinterpretation of photographic surface, from which surprising new imagery emerges. This video provides a beautiful presentation of Craig's collage technique.

Rectilineal Wood
[Enlarge]

Craig describes himself as a Western Canadian artist whose path in the fine arts has led him to a unique expression of mood and color through collage and mixed media. He has explored numerous forms of art and craft--painting in watercolor and oils, pottery, sculpture, and bead-making, to name a few. He has also worked in art restoration and education. Craig thinks of himself as a craftsman--constructing or interpreting imagery and messages from his conscious and subconscious mind. As an adult Bob Craig has occasionally lived in altered perceptual states where reality has become magnified and the world has seemed as one giant harmonious gestalt. Craig's art is an effort to recapture the vivid nature of these encounters.

Crag's work has appeared in juried exhibitions in New Zealand, Italy, Canada, the United States and Switzerland, where he was awarded first prize in the mixed media free subject category at SEETAL 2006.

Goldfish. 18 x 24 inches, mixed media, $400.

Rectilineal Wood. 18 x 24 inches, mixed media, $400.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

April 26, 2011

Erdmut Lerner--Painter of Landscapes

2011-04-18T08:13:00.005-04:00

Some pieces of art draw me in and don't let go. Such is the case with the paintings of Erdmut Lerner. Take, for example, Summer's Ease (below). My eyes enjoy looking at every bit of this piece...over and over...up close and at a distance. I enjoy feeling the subtleties of the colors, the delicate edges and curves of the shapes, and the overall beauty and power of the piece. Lerner's work is indeed both beautiful and powerful...beautiful in its colors and glorious shapes...powerful in its bold, yet soft, expression of the visual landscape. It is perfect. For Lerner's contributions to Still Point Art Gallery's current exhibition, Still Point III, she was named an Artist of Distinction and will show more work as a Gallery Artist for the next year.

Summer's Ease
[Enlarge]

Although Lerner loved art from an early age, it never occurred to her that she could be an artist. Instead she went to graduate school, earned a doctorate in English literature, then worked in the editorial offices of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

It seemed that it took the arrival of the new century to open up new directions for Erdmut Lerner. She enrolled in a landscape painting class at the Evanston Art Center in Illinois, and she was immediately riveted. In Lerner's words: The sensuousness of the paint and the soft wind around me filled me with an immense joy and a certainty of having arrived at my destination.

Learner began her artistic career as a plein-air painter, setting up her easel wherever she could find an enticing view of water, trees, or fields. A decade later she is still a painter of landscapes, but her way of representing them has become predominantly abstract.

For Lerner the painting process usually begins with looking at photos taken on travels. When a particular photo draws her attention, usually for its particular mood rather than its specific details, she begins to make exploratory sketches, often in watercolor or pencil. Eventually she moves to the easel, but before she begins to work on the canvas, she spends time trying out color schemes that will express her intentions, a process that can take several days. Once she makes her decision, often still a tentative one, she reaches for her brush and begins to sketch the scene. After a while her imagination, as though restless with the more mechanical task of copying from a photo or sketch, takes over, leading her swiftly away from the realistic scene towards ever greater abstraction. Although at times images of trees or houses remain part of a painting, more often they become subdued, yielding to pure abstraction.

Dawn
[Enlarge

The Steady Breathing
of the Land
[Enlarge]

I am still a landscape painter, but I don’t go out into the fields any more. Rather, the landscapes I paint do not exist in the real world; no train ticket will get you there. They emerge from inside of me, from my imagination. The process whereby they evolve is slow; I cannot rush it. But I can steer it gently, by controlling color and line, modifying and correcting. Gradually yellow mountains, lavender passages, green nights, and magenta fields make their way onto my canvases. I think of them as distillations of bedrock experiences, and, as such, expressions common to us all, be it an uneasiness about the night, a longing for safety, or the desire for a peaceful world.

Summer's Ease, 18 x 19 inches, oil on canvas. $500.
The Steady Breathing of the Land, 20 x 18 inches, oil on canvas, $500.
Dawn, 19 X 20 inches, oil on canvas, $500.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

April 17, 2011

Call for Artists - "We can never have enough of Nature."

2011-04-14T16:47:00.001-04:00

Still Point Art Gallery announces that submissions are now being accepted for its next online exhibition -- "We can never have enough of Nature."

We need the tonic of wildness -- to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature. --Henry David Thoreau

The deadline for submissions is May 16, 2011. More details about submissions, along with the entry form, may be found here.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

April 14, 2011

Bobby Baker - Black and White Silence

2011-04-11T11:57:00.004-04:00

Bobby Baker was honored with the title of Artist of Distinction for the work he submitted and is showing in Still Point Art Gallery's current exhibition, Still Point III. The exhibition is showing four of Baker's pieces, but my favorite is Morning Calm. This photograph shows how little is needed to create a beautiful and amazing image; and, while there is very little in this photograph, one can also say that there is so much in this photograph. There are so few physical elements...the horizon, a hill, a boat and its shadow. There is, of course, a lack of color. There is even a lack of shades of gray, being basically a black boat, a light gray backdrop, and a medium gray horizon and hill. But the photograph says so much with so little. The photograph has tremendous spirit and depth. It speaks...with silence. It surely says different things to different people, but, without question, this photograph speaks. A beautiful and amazing image.

Bobby Baker, Morning Calm
[Enlarge]

Bobby Baker describes his experience of taking this photograph in this way:

Early one summer morning on Cape Cod, I came across a town landing between Chatham and Orleans….walking the beach, the only sounds I heard were of birds and the lapping of water from the morning’s tide…the serenity was all consuming, a peacefulness that nearly lulled me into not taking the shot, but instead to just be a part of the morning. What first caught my eye was the single sail boat anchored alone, and the slight line of land in the distance behind it – nothing more. That image alone seemed to describe the entire feeling of this morning, so calm, a morning calm.

Bobby Baker’s work is shaped by his ongoing love of seaside life. The Caribbean, Mexico, and the Florida Keys have all served as inspiration for his work, but the driving force for his creative eye remains Cape Cod; so much so that his work for the past several years has been almost entirely shot on the Cape.

Baker began his journey into photography in the 1980s as an assistant/intern to a Palm Beach, Florida event photographer. Over the next several decades his camera work was interrupted several times by a music career, then a successful business career. For the past three years his work has flourished with the ongoing mentorship of renowned fine art photographer and Copley Society of Art, artist and board member, Judith Monteferrante.

While recent work includes images from other locations on the Cape, Chatham is at the center of Baker’s work and has been the subject of several exhibition-featured images. He finds the lighting on the Cape to be special, citing the soft, warm light of the setting Cape sun to be, at times, so lush, you want to wrap yourself in it, and the early morning Cape light to be magical.

Over the past several years Baker’s work has been juried into numerous gallery exhibitions in Newburyport, Marblehead, and Cape Cod. Beyond these exhibits, his photographs have been featured in newspapers, websites, calendars, a book released late 2010, and are included in private collections. Bobby received national award recognition in the Fine Art Photography category of the prestigious 2010 The National exhibit at the Cape Cod Art Association. This show featured juried work from artists across the U.S. He was also one of a select group of artists to have multiple pieces of work juried into the 2010 All New England exhibit at the Cape Cod Art Association, and again received award recognition. Baker’s photographs were featured this past June in a solo show, First Encounter, in the Hooper Mansion Gallery of the Marblehead Arts Association.

Baker is a juried artist in the Fine Arts of the Cape Cod Art Association, a juried artist member of the Marblehead Arts Association, an artist member of the Plymouth Guild for the Arts, and is represented by The Second Hanging, New York City.

Morning Calm. Black and white photograph, 22 x 13 inches, unframed, $400.

As an Artist of Distinction, Bobby Baker will have the opportunity to show more of his work as a Gallery Artist beginning June 2011.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

April 11, 2011

Still Point Art Gallery Opens "Still Point III"

2011-04-06T09:15:00.002-04:00

I am very pleased to announce the opening of Still Point Art Gallery 's online exhibition, Still Point III.

Bob Craig, Goldfish.
[Enlarge]

One way of thinking about visual art is that the artist finds or discovers something - be it inside or outside of the artist - and, through art, holds it still. A photographer captures a moment in time with a click of the shutter and that moment is locked in stillness. A painter paints a scene using oils on canvas and that scene exists forever in a motionless state. A sculptor molds and shapes details of a human body, and that body stands frozen...never to age...never to change.

Still Point III is the third annual exhibition focused on exploring those things that artists, through art, hold still.

Artists of Distinction for this exhibition are Bobby Baker, Bob Craig, Alison Hoornbeek, Erdmut Lerner, and Ann Salk Rosenberg. Enjoy their remarkable work in the Gallery and come back soon to read about them and their art in this blog. These artists will have the opportunity to show more of their art as Gallery Artists beginning in June 2011.

Artists selected to exhibit work in this show:

Bobby Baker	Pat Goltz	Jerry Park
Richard Barrett	Carol Gooberman	Cheryl Rau
Darren Baylor	Lisa Graham	Elise Rorick
Anne Bevan	Sue Green	Ann Salk Rosenberg
Rae Broyles	Alison Hoornbeek	Ashley Shellhause
Pery Burge	Stuart Kerner	Pamela Soldwedel
Gail Butler	Doris King	Jane Soodalter
Alexandra Chehy	Sassoon Kosian	Daniel Sroka
Ione Citrin	Linda LaRose	Marko Susla
Bob Craig	Candace Law	Michelle True
Joanna Dur	Erdmut Lerner	Cathie Tyler
Monica Engeler	Armin Mersmann	Regina Valluzzi
Scott Erickson	Cella Neapolitan	Mayumi Yamakawa
Rick Faas	Mark Nutt	Maureen Zwier

This exhibition will remain a featured exhibition through June 14, 2011 and will remain online until June 14, 2012.

Bob Craig, Goldfish. Mixed media, 18 x 24 inches, $400.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

April 6, 2011

Pencil Artist Ranjini Venkatachari Earns Artist of Distinction

2011-03-14T10:47:00.001-04:00

Pencil Artist Ranjini Venkatachari has two pieces that were selected for Still Point Art Gallery's current show, Still Life: Ordinary and Extraordinary. These two pieces are without doubt extraordinary, and they earned Venkatachari the honor of being named an Artist of Distinction. What first drew me to Venkatachari's work were the bold colors...pure colors...vivid tones. The colors are loud but not offensive...striking but not distasteful...intense and vibrant but also wonderfully innocent and moving. Then the design. Primary Colors Simple crumpled scraps of paper in primary colors hung with strips of blue tape. Colored pencils casually scattered on a surface...again, primary colors. More pencils in a clear glass...more primary colors. All set against a neutral beige background. The whole thing pops. Simple. Brilliant. Compliments Red and green. Perfect combination. Another scrap of crumpled paper taped to the wall. A perfect circle missing from that paper forms a hole. Two circles on the shelf. One is the green paper cut from the scrap. The other is a red apple. The viewer faces a decision. Which one shall I put into the hole?

Primary Colors
[Enlarge]

A few words from the artist about these pieces:

"Primary Colors" and "Compliments" are part of my abstract-realism series using objects and crumpled paper. This series of works are composed with bold colors set against simple backgrounds exploring the idea of abstraction within reality. Here, I wanted to share with the viewer how light, color, and temperature create a unique visual rhythm setting a dynamic mood for this piece.

Compliments
[Enlarge]

Venkatachari was born and raised in southern India. Art has been her passion for as long as she can remember. As a child her favorite drawing tools were her pencils. The vivid colors of southern India were her first inspiration in the world of art. Venkatachari completed her bachelor's degree in mathematics, but was also making art, working in graphite and using ethnic Indian painting techniques. She picked up colored pencils in 2005 when she moved to the United States after her marriage. She chose pencils because of their versatility and because they satisfied her craving for doing simple drawings as well as fully saturated pieces with lots of detail.Since then pencils have been her primary medium. Inspired by simple everyday objects, she embodies her work with a variety of moods by using expressive color and dramatic lighting. She prefers to work in a realistic style, but likes her art to be a passionate interpretation of the world around her rather than a replication of what she sees.

Venkatachari has had her works displayed in many national and international shows across the United States, like the Salmagundi Annual Non-Member Exhibition, Leading Masters of Contemporary Realism (International Guild of Realism) and the Annual International Juried Show of Colored Pencil Society of America. She has received awards is several regional and online shows. Her works have also been published in American Artist, International Artist and Southwest Arts.

Primary Colors. 24 x 18 inches. Colored pencil. $2000.

Compliments. 11 x 14 inches. Colored pencil. $800.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

March 14, 2011

The Still Life of Linda Pearlman Karlsberg

2011-03-01T17:42:00.014-05:00

There are certain works of art that I find so appealing and engaging that I find it hard to move on from them. Like a new favorite song that one wants to hear over and over again, there are some art pieces that I want to look at over and over again...tracing the lines with my eyes, feeling the texture with the fingers of my mind, appreciating the elements of design, noting the subtleties of light and shadow, and engaging with the story of the scene. This is the case with the drawings by Linda Pearlman Karlsberg in Still Point Art Gallery's current show--Still Life: Ordinary and Extraordinary, and this is why Karlsberg was selected as an Artist of Distinction. These pieces are so visually appealing...so interesting, rich, and engaging...that I want to keep looking at them in order to take in as much as I can and to continue to find what I might have missed or cannot yet see. With regard to Mermaid's Dance I and II, I enjoy the clear definition of space along with the interplay of positive and negative space. Then, set against this clean right-angled background are these playful little bendy creatures that seem to be moving and dancing and enjoying themselves. A scene of pure delight. My enjoyment in New Wings is based on the variety of shapes...squares, triangles, polygons...and the variety of shades...light gray to black. The interplay of these elements and the positioning of objects is perfect, and the result is an appealing and engaging piece that captures the viewer.

Mermaid's Dance I
[Enlarge]

Karlsberg calls herself a still life and landscape painter and draughtsman working in oils, graphite and lithographic crayon. She has been drawing and painting for as long as she can remember, and by age eight she had a constant thirst to realize the world around her with pencil or paint. She pursued her desire for technique and mentorship at Tufts University and the School for the Arts at Boston University. While in graduate school and after, she taught drawing, design, and painting at Boston University and other colleges for many years. She and her husband have owned and operated a professional photography studio since the mid-1970s, and so all of Karlsberg's life has been dedicated to creative image making and striving to develop her eye, craft, and sense of expression.

In Karlsberg's words:

Light is the catalyst for my work. I find it magical and magnetic and I am compelled to capture how light describes, reveals and obscures, and how it renders a mood or drama. Beyond this pursuit of visual richness and potential, I am moved by the enigmatic, lyrical, profound and magical that I find lurking below the surface in the landscapes and still life constructs I depict.

Mermaid's Dance II
[Enlarge]

Over the years Karlsberg has preferred the mediums of oil paint and graphite. She prefers to work with graphite on hot press papers, as the mark is distinct and she likes the value range, from white to rich velvety blacks. Karlsberg's paintings are in oils and she prefers working on the hard surface of gessoed panels, similarly, because of the way paint stands on the surface and strokes retain their own character. She likes to work from life and so she builds a still life in her studio by manipulating the objects and the light over many hours, tweaking and changing elements and placement until she finds that it is visually striking and conceptually compelling. She plays with tension produced by the juxtapositions, and at the same time seeks a pervasive serenity and mystery.

The formal elements I manipulate within each still life, allow me to probe the expressive potential of objects, to push the emotional power of their interplay and to develop my own symbolic language. While trying to give visual form to an idea and studying the interaction between entities in the construction, I explore each object’s form enhanced and described by light. I seek to stretch confines, to look beyond the ambiguous nature of function and the limitations of each object’s imposed definition, and in doing so to develop imagery that embodies the universal while exploring the particular.

New Wings
[Enlarge]

Because these visual elements offer me rich metaphoric dimensions still life is a forum where I can explore life's struggles, contradictions and inscrutability. In this personal realm my still life work is a response to my life’s tragedies, challenges and gifts. It gives form to the tension that results from my seeking personal expression, while inhibited and bound by the responsibilities of earning a living and taking care of a family, as well as from the fight with one’s own creative limitations. At turns, personally resonant themes of discovery, potential, creativity, growth, beauty, spirit, truth, relationship, struggle, fragility and death drive the imagery. At the same time I hope that the work speaks to the universality of these themes and resonates with others, to reach beyond my individual language to engage others’ understanding of life’s experience.

Mermaid's Dance I. 18 x 16.5 inches. Graphite on paper. Framed, $1200.

Mermaid's Dance II. 21 x 15 inches. Graphite on paper. Framed, $1200.

New Wings. 27.2 x 19 inches. Graphite on paper. Framed, $1600.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

March 1, 2011

Marko Susla's Memories

2011-02-17T16:44:00.004-05:00

Still Life. The inanimate objects of our lives. I am no longer a believer. Not since photographer Marko Susla contributed three remarkable images to Still Point Art Gallery's current exhibition--Still Life: Ordinary and Extraordinary. These three images were selected for the exhibition, and Susla was selected to be an Artist of Distinction. His images show objects that are simple, everyday objects: a blue drinking glass, a basket holding clothes pins and a lady's slip, and a couple of old cameras. But there is nothing simple or everyday or inanimate about these images. It is clear that these objects were carefully chosen, tenderly positioned in a particular location that was also carefully chosen, and then cast into immortality. And here is where my disbelief comes in. There is life in these objects...there is anima in these objects. With these objects Susla creates a sense of honor and reverence and gratitude that is palpable and awe-inspiring. Susla accomplished this by not only seeing and photographing the objects as they lay before him, but by also seeing and photographing them for everything else they possessed. (One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are. --Minor White) Still Life. The objects of our lives.

A - I'm Feeling Blue [Enlarge]

B - She Was a Beautiful Woman [Enlarge]

C - My Late Father [Enlarge]

The artist speaks about these images in this way:

As we wander about through this thing called life, we take a lot of things and life events for granted. We don't necessarily do this to be malicious or negative; it’s just the natural process of living. At some point, perhaps, life changes, either through a drawn-out process or a sudden event, and the life-changing experience may be positive or deeply devastating. Our subconscious mind is an immensely powerful thing, storing memories and experiences deep in its recesses. Equally as powerful are our senses in responding to external sensory triggers such as smell, sight, and sound. When our senses are stimulated by a seemingly long forgotten trigger, the mind may experience a release of memories and feelings that are deep inside and long forgotten. These memories bring us back to the past and allow us to relive it on our mind's virtual stage, as if we are really there again in that moment. To the photographer, creating an image of a still life can be a way to work with these memories. While the viewer will never know the photographers’ own experience, the photograph may stimulate the viewer to relive his or her own long forgotten memory.

These three photographs are very dear and personal to me. Last year, I placed my mother into a nursing home. This past October I sold her house, my childhood home in Connecticut. Although I had not lived there for the past twenty some odd years, I had spent weekends there and it was my refuge. These photographs were among the last I took there before I locked the door and walked away. Their edit is a delayed mourning. The basket of clothes pins reminds me of my mother as a younger lady of beauty and strength. The cameras belonged to my father and are photographed against the slats of the front porch from where so many memories from early childhood through my adult years were created. The blue glass photographed on the window sill of the garage represents the memories of my mother's china and glass and also brings to mind the times when my mother entertained family or friends.

Biography

Marko Susla, currently residing in New Jersey, was born and raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut. For his eighth grade graduation trip into Manhattan, his father placed a Leica 35mm in his hands, gave him a roll of black and white film and a few instructions on using the camera. From here Susla's interest in photography grew. Marko Susla was classically trained as a scientist obtaining a B.S. from the University of Bridgeport followed by six years of post graduate studies at Wesleyan University (Connecticut). Working with spatial concepts, the rules of assembly, learning how to look at things, to see things, to document abstract concepts, and effectively present them in a visual representation, science was a natural conduit into photography. A camera was a natural extension of using scientific instrumentation. The camera, though, has an additional dimension--the ability to capture and portray emotion and feelings.

Susla pursued independent study in photography and is currently under the mentorship of a fine art professional. His current interests are disparate, ranging from the beauty of scenic and landscape photography, the dark side of documenting abandoned structures and places, and, most recently, the beauty and drama of nocturnal photography. Perhaps what seems disparate is actually a balance.

Marko Susla's work has been shown in a number of exhibitions around the United States, including: Vermont Photography Workplace in Middlebury, Vermont; The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado; Presidio of San Francisco and New Orleans. His work was also part of an online gallery project based in Kópavogur, Iceland. Susla has also had work published in Burn Magazine and SuperMassiveBlackHole.

I'm Feeling Blue. Color photograph-fine art print, 20 x 16 inches, not framed $400.

She Was a Beautiful Woman. Color photograph-fine art print, 20 x 16 inches, not framed $400.

My Late Father. Color photograph-fine art print, 20 x 16 inches, not framed $400.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

February 17, 2011

Still Point Art Gallery Opens "Still Life: Ordinary and Extraordinary"

2011-02-08T15:04:00.005-05:00

I am very pleased to announce the opening of Still Point Art Gallery's online exhibition, Still Life: Ordinary and Extraordinary.

A still life. A vase filled with flowers, an apple or pear, some books, feathers, a teapot, candles. Maybe a stuffed bird. Inanimate objects. A bottle of perfume, a cell phone, a water bottle, children's toys. Maybe even cheap sunglasses or fake diamonds. The inanimate objects of our lives...the ordinary and the extraordinary objects of our lives...to honor, to preserve...to hold still...to remember, to venerate.

B. Andrew Valliere. Mums.

This is a beautiful show...one to cherish. Many of the images are of ordinary objects that we all see and touch in our day-to-day living. All of the images are extraordinary expressions of honor, remembrance, reverence, and gratitude. A show to enjoy slowly. A show during which to experience the power of objects.

Artists of Distinction for this exhibition are Linda Pearlman Karlsberg, Marko Susla, and Ranjini Venkatachari. Enjoy their remarkable work in the Gallery and come back soon to read about them and their art in our blog. These artists will have the opportunity to show more of their art as Gallery Artists beginning in April 2011.

Artists selected to exhibit work in this show:

Lisa Smith Arnold	Christine Søvig Gilbert	Michael Pointer
Peter Azrak	Margaret E. Harnois	Bruce Shores
Richard D. Barrett	Linda Pearlman Karlsberg	Sue Skitt
Barbara Lee Black	Stuart Kerner	Jane Soodalter
Sandra Bos	Linda LaRose	JHelen Sullivan
Marilyn Burch	Yeoun Lee	Marko Susla
Alexandra Chehy	Su Legatt	Barbara Tolkin
Ione Citrin	Diane E. Leifheit	Diana Torres
Bob Craig	Jessica Levant	Michelle True
Marie Dancy-Brennan	Cheryl MacLean	Jamie Valdez
Irina Dorofeeva	Janet Marroquin	B. Andrew Valliere
Jasna Dragun	Tina McCurdy	Ranjini Venkatachari
Brenda Ferguson	John R. Neeson	Laura Yang
Jacek Fraczak		Maureen Zwier

This exhibition will remain a featured exhibition through April 19, 2011 and will remain online until April 19, 2012.

B. Andrew Valliere. Mums. 72 x 36 inches. Oil on canvas (triptych). $3500.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

February 9, 2011

Call for Artists "Still Point III"

2011-01-31T10:03:00.006-05:00

Still Point Art Gallery announces that submissions are now being accepted for its next online exhibition -- Still Point III.

Still Point III is the third annual exhibition focused on exploring those things that artists, through art, hold still.

The deadline for submissions is March 21, 2011. More details about submissions, along with the entry form, may be found here.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

January 31, 2011

The Abstract Sculpture of Pamela Soldwedel

2011-01-19T17:10:00.001-05:00

Art that you want to touch and feel. The curves, the gentleness, the flow, the movement. Imagine your hand moving slowly as you progress up the curve and then speed down and around the curve. Like a car on a roller coaster. Imagine feeling the coolness of the stone or metal, the solidity of it and the gaps...the positive and negative space. Imagine picking it up...if you can...and holding it heavy in your lap. These are creations that need to be touched...need to be felt...even if only in your mind. In essence, these wonderful creations, by Pamela Soldwedel, have rhythm...the kind of rhythm that comes from deep within one's soul. The rhythm of life and of nature. The rhythm of love and of hope.

A - Ocean Born [Enlarge]
B - Rock 'N' Roll [Enlarge]
C - Search 1 [Enlarge]

These pieces are showing in Still Point Art Gallery's current show, Rhythmic Sensation-Visual Sensation. It is always so wonderful to see sculpture, and these pieces are really a highlight of this show.

Ocean Born, marble and glass, 8 x 14 x 6 inches, $1500
Rock 'N' Roll, granite, 24 x 53 x 23 inches, $20,000
Search 1, bronze, 10.7 x 7.5 x 11.2 inches, NFS

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Christine Cote
Still Point Art Gallery
January 19, 2011

Gute Brandao: Magical and Musical Revelations

2010-12-21T11:35:00.007-05:00

When selecting pieces for Still Point Art Gallery's current exhibition, Rhythmic Sensation-Visual Sensation, I came across the images submitted by Gute Brandao and I stopped in my tracks. I could not leave these images...these incredible drawings...ink and watercolor on paper. Soft, pale colors on a pale background...ink-drawn lines and curves and stars...unusual figures that seem to bounce, dance, hang, and march. Figures that dance, lines that act like moving walkways, things that revolve and spin... Suddenly I'm reminded of a vast array of automaton...toys that move! Wind-up toys that walk or dance or march or spin! Dozens of wind-up toys that are perfectly and beautifully orchestrated to create a stunning masterpiece of musical and theatrical bliss.

The Electric Churchland [Enlarge]

Acola a gente do sonho pariu o espaco [Enlarge]

The New Revelations of Being [Enlarge]

For the work shown here, Gute Brandao was named an Artist of Distinction and will be a Gallery Artist beginning in February 2011. He will then have the opportunity to show more of his wonderful work. Gute Brandao is an amazing artist -- self-taught and without categorization. If anything, Brandao likes to describe his art as musical. He translates the sounds he hears into lines, forms, and colors. A kind of frustrated musician, he constantly listens to music, and it seems that it moves through him onto his canvas or paper. Brandao's art may also be described as complex. There are many things going on, and you can't grasp it all by one quick look. Brandao admits to being obsessed with pattern and repetition. Even the artist himself discovers something new when he goes back to look at his own work. There is always a new revelation waiting to be found.

There is also a childlike innocence to Brandao's art. Interestingly, Brandao had difficulties with art as a child. His schoolmates in Brazil made fun of him in art class because he would always mess up his colors. Brandao is color blind...an interesting affliction for an artist. His mother helped him by writing the names of the colors on little labels of paper and taping them to his pencils. Now, Brandao doesn't worry about his color blindness. He uses colors randomly and in whatever way works for him. "Now I think I am reaching back to those early days for a pure and honest attitude when confronting the complexities of life." A friend said of Brandao's work: "[He is] seeking a return to the wholesome sincerity and spontaneity found in children's art. . . . seeking a . . . haven from the bewildering and often hypocritical cultural conventions of the modern world." When Brandao speaks of his art, he talks about mental objects that come to him in visions or his imagination. These objects need to be organized through pattern and repetition, form and color. This is how his paintings and drawings are created. It's amusement for him. It's magic for his viewers. The magic of beautiful wind-up toys moving together in harmony.

Works by Gute Brandao

The Electric Churchland was drawn by Gute Brandao while he was in Brazil, visiting a little colonial mining town called Ouro Preto (Black Gold). The town is known for its beautiful baroque architecture and is protected by the UNESCO Organization as a World Heritage Site. The churches in the town are fabulous, known both for their architecture and for the statues made of soapstone and wood by Master Aleijadinho, a sculptor who had leprosy and so tied his chisel to his rotten fingers in order to work on hard surfaces. The town is a magical place, especially at night. The town's many churches have a custom of tolling all the bells at once to announce death, birth, marriage, and other important moments. Brandao loved the feeling and sensations of walking in this town. The Electric Churchland celebrates Ouro Preto with many symbols...cosmic rain, mandalas, spaceships, and more.

Acola a gente do sonho pariu o espaco is difficult to translate into English, but it means something like: the people of the dream gave birth to the space. It belongs to a series called The Psychonauts of Inner Space.

The New Revelations of Being was inspired by teepees as well as by a text by Antonin Artaud, a French writer of the early twentieth century. Brandao put together the idea of displacement and the lives of the native Americans with the text Artaud wrote about the Tarahumara people of northern Mexico. For each layer of teepees in Brandao's drawing, there is a figure worshiping nature, the sun, and the spirits.

Biography

Gute Brandao is a self-taught artist and weaver who was born in the city of Belo-Horizonte, the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais in the southeastern region of Brazil. His creativity was manifest at a young age with his early works in wood, metal, and fiber, and he received awards for his fiber work in Brazil at a young age. Brandao came to the United States in 1988, settled in Washington, D.C., and started doing drawing and painting. Since then he has shown his work regularly in the broad Washington, D.C. area in both solo and group shows. He also regularly shows his work in New York City, Chicago, Paris, and Brazil. Brandao's art, like that of a child, bursts forth with refreshing brilliance and energy. Also like the work of a child, Brandao's work lacks the sour taste often found in protest or political art. Brandao takes viewers by the hand, so to speak, and pulls them through a world of uplifting, raw art, keeping them from falling into the chaotic darkness found in the depths below.

The Electric Churchland, ink and watercolor on paper, 17" by 14", not framed, $600

Acola a gente do sonho pariu o espaco, ink and watercolor on paper, 14" by 17", not framed, $400

The New Revelations of Being, ink and watercolor on paper, 17" by 14", not framed, $400

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

December 21, 2010

The Swirling Sensuality of the Work of Tom Barnes

2010-12-16T11:08:00.002-05:00

Strong contrasting colors without shadow or nuance; a design that seems made of undulating layers and folds of a thick oozing liquid; a slight bit of symmetry that provides just the right amount of order and organization; and the subtle appearance of a buried object...a bird, a banana, a butterfly. It did not take me long to fall in love with the work of Tom Barnes. His work is the stuff of wild imagination...captivating and very sensual. You can feel the curves and swirls on his canvas as you move your eyes over and around each turn and bend. Nothing jagged. Nothing sharp. This work is pliable and penetrable, slowly and gracefully bending and twisting, inviting the viewer into the rhythm of its movement...into the center of its existence.


Untitled (Butterfly on a Banana)


Untitled (Mauve Bird)

Untitled (Monkey Watching Snake Eat Bug)

[Larger Image] [Larger Image] [Larger Image]

For the work shown here, Tom Barnes has been named an Artist of Distinction in Still Point Art Gallery's current exhibition: Rhythmic Sensation-Visual Sensation. Indeed the rhythmic movement that one feels by looking at Barnes' work is extraordinary. I asked Barnes to say a few words about this small grouping of paintings. He started by saying that he believes that inspiration comes from working in the studio with the perceptions from experience.

These perceptions manifest in my paintings, and hopefully, penetrate into the nature of things. What is concealed by the phenomena of the world has always been of great interest to me. Storytelling and feelings are not something that I want in my work. I want my work to connect what we know with what we cannot know and I feel it is at this connection that the greatest experience happens. When working in the studio and the idea is unfolding, I am more in touch with the unknown. Although I have a basic idea what my paintings will look like, chance plays a large part in making the connection. When I feel the work is finished I hope that on some level the connection is communicated.

Barnes worked in sculpture for years, but his current ideas now seem to be best expressed two-dimensionally with paint. There is something about the immediacy of oil painting that he finds very effective in carrying these ideas. This current series of paintings started out as small paintings that were made very quickly using a fluid paint. The pouring of paint created the patterns, lines, shapes and textures. These small paintings were then developed into larger pieces using traditional straight-painting techniques with oils.

Artist Statement

In creating the techniques needed to express my ideas, I have focused on the physical immediacy of paint. The originality of the structure of my paintings is the result and the revelation of what is essential. What is essential is unknown, but can be sensed. What is sensed, I believe is heightened by the arbitrariness of the image. The image coming from chance and intuition has an appearance of reality, but seems fleeting and works immediately and strongly on the sensory system. As perceived it is an image that appears like a hallucination experienced on the threshold of consciousness. Recognizable forms are conjoined with abstract forms in such a way that one is not sure of the visual experience being navigated. Although at first glance what is perceived is an ordered arrangement of visual phenomena, there is something irrational in the imagery. Objects of awareness of a known reality seem to be emerging from the movement of paint or the paint is pouring out of and away from the known. All forms seem to be exchanging or sharing the same visual information. Within these paintings, butterflies do not light on flowers, but on bananas; pelicans sit not on pilings, but among snow-covered tires, which are merging with the flow of the paint. In these paintings there is no narrative, irony or intentional symbolism. It is the recreation of an event, an event that affects states of consciousness regarding objects of consciousness. How the perceived event and the objects of consciousness affect the senses, ultimately loops back to the physical immediacy of paint, and by engaging with that, what is essential is experienced.

Biographical Statement

Tom Barnes received his Master of Fine Arts from the University of South Florida and currently teaches at The University of Alabama. He also taught for two years at Valparaiso University and in a summer program at The University of San Carlos in Guatemala City, Guatemala, where he received Recognition for Educational Advancement and Cooperation. In addition to teaching Figurative Modeling and Three-dimensional Design, he devotes his time to the practice of painting, although he is also an accomplished sculptor. He lives and works in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Marfa, Texas.

His paintings and sculptures have been in over 165 group and solo exhibitions. His work is in the permanent institutional collections of the Alexandria Museum of Art, Southwest Texas State University, The University of Alabama, Stillman College, Indianapolis Museum of Art, University of Utah Museum of Fine Arts and the Pentagon. Corporations that have collected his work include the Energen Corporation, Economic Development Corporation of Alabama, The Burdines Corporation of Florida and the Business Center of Alabama. Other public collections include the Porter County Arts Commission, Valparaiso, Indiana, the Chattahoochee Valley Art Association, La Grange, Georgia and the Arts Council of Tampa, Florida. He is also in numerous other public and private collections.

See more of Tom Barnes' art on his website.

Untitled (Mauve Bird), oil on canvas, 16 by 16, NFS

Untitled (Monkey Watching Snake Eat Bug), oil on canvas, 20 by 20, NFS

Untitled (Butterfly on a Banana), oil on canvas, 12 by 12, NFS

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

December 16, 2010

It's In Print -- Still Point Arts Quarterly!

2010-12-14T14:17:00.014-05:00

As artists or art enthusiasts, we love to look at art. It's that simple. We go to art shows, visit galleries and museums, and buy great art books whenever we get the opportunity. In recent years, our viewing opportunities have increased; we can not only see art in person and in print, but we can also view art on artists' own websites or on any of the hundreds of online galleries that have come into existence. We can now see much more art by local or regional artists or emerging artists due to the existence of online or virtual art galleries like Still Point Art Gallery.

Despite the amount of time I spend in front of my computer, there is still a place in my life for PRINT. I subscribe to several wonderful art magazines and I love to browse through and sometimes buy art books. I return to some of my favorite magazines over and over for enjoyment and inspiration. Art helps me form ideas; it engages my mind in important ways; it challenges my intellect; it enlightens me and inspires me. Sometimes, rather than sit at my desk, I want to sit in my comfy chair with a hot cup of tea and a book or magazine. The richness of an art print in a high-quality magazine or book is better than what you see on a screen, and there is a time and a place for that in my life.

So, Still Point Art Gallery is moving forward with the printing of an art magazine -- Still Point Arts Quarterly. The publication will focus on artistic expression and creativity. Each issue will include extensive art portfolios as well as original and thoughtful short articles or essays about art and artistry. The Quarterly will engage, enlighten, inspire...four times a year...in January, April, July, and October.

The inaugural issue of the Quarterly will be the April 2011 issue -- timed to help celebrate the two-year anniversary of Still Point Art Gallery.

Subscriptions are now being accepted.
Subscribe now and be part of Still Point Arts Quarterly from the very beginning!

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

December 15, 2010

Call for Artists: "Still Life: Ordinary and Extraordinary"

2010-12-10T10:32:00.006-05:00

Still Point Art Gallery announces that submissions are now being accepted for its next online exhibition -- Still Life: Ordinary and Extraordinary.

The deadline for submissions is January 24, 2011. More details about submissions, along with the entry form, may be found here.

Return to Still Point Art Gallery

Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

December 9, 2010

Still Point Art Gallery Opens "Rhythmic Sensation-Visual Sensation"

2010-12-08T06:00:00.001-05:00

I am very pleased to announce the opening of Still Point Art Gallery's online exhibition: Rhythmic Sensation-Visual Sensation.

-A-

-B-

Rhythm is all around us - in music, in poetry, in patterns of speech, in architecture, in nature. Rhythm is within us - our hearts beat, our lungs take air in and let air out, our running feet hit the ground in a set pattern. This exhibition explores the ways that rhythm is part of visual art...the rhythm that is created by pattern, repetition, and movement...and formed by line, color, shape, and texture. Artists were invited to submit compositions that use these elements to create rhythm, giving the viewer the opportunity to experience rhythmic sensation and visual sensation.

-C-

This show will make you want to move! If you are like me, you will start to hear music or sounds while viewing this show. Music that flows, music that bebops, music that pings and pongs, music that sways, shimmers, and rocks. Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Claude Debussy, John Cage...Elvis Presley, The Grateful Dead, The Flaming Lips. It's all here...pattern, repetition, movement, rhythm...a real visual sensation!

A - Waves by Darren Baylor, acrylic, 24" by 18", framed, $1500

B - Wavy Sound by Giannis Tsaganos, paper rolls on wood painted with acrylic colors, 18.5" x 15.7" x 2.8", $900

C - Pixel-Neutral, 001 by Mikel Patrik, acrylic on canvas, 48" by 36", $2633

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

December 8, 2010

Still Point Art Gallery: Selections From 2010 Exhibitions

2010-11-19T11:54:00.002-05:00

Still Point Art Gallery: Selections From 2010 Exhibitions has just been released and may now be purchased from Blurb! This is the Gallery's first publication and, as such, provides yet another way for us to support and promote the work of our amazing artists. The book may be previewed below.

The images in this collection were selected from art that was exhibited by Still Point Art Gallery during 2010. Paintings, photographs, and mixed media artwork from about seventy artists were each specially chosen to be included in this wonderful collection of contemporary art. Artwork was selected from the following 2010 exhibitions: Geometric Abstraction; THE Painting Exhibition; Still Point II, True Artist; and Global Lifestyles: Big Cities, Small Towns, Tiny Villages.

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Christine Brooks Cote
Still Point Art Gallery
November 19, 2010

Still Point Art Gallery "Yearbook" Has Gone to Print

2010-11-15T12:15:00.008-05:00

This year Still Point Art Gallery is printing a collection of art works chosen from its 2010 exhibitions: Global Lifestyles, True Artist, American Portraits, Still Point II, THE Painting Exhibition, and Geometric Abstraction. The book - Selections From 2010 Exhibitions - will showcase the work of about 65 of the roughly 250 artists who exhibited work at one of the gallery's shows in 2010.

The book is being published through Blurb and should be available for purchase in a couple of weeks. The book's cover is shown above.

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Christine Brook Cote
Still Point Art Gallery
November 15, 2010

Call to Artists: Rhythmic Sensation-Visual Sensation

2010-10-27T11:50:00.004-04:00

Still Point Art Gallery announces that submissions are now being accepted for its next online exhibition: Rhythmic Sensation-Visual Sensation.

Rhythm is all around us - in music, in poetry, in patterns of speech, in architecture, in nature. Rhythm is within us - our hearts beat, our lungs take air in and let air out, our running feet hit the ground in a set pattern. This exhibition explores the ways that rhythm is part of visual art...the rhythm that is created by pattern, repetition, and movement...and formed by line, color, shape, and texture. Artists are invited to submit compositions that use these elements to create rhythm, giving the viewer the opportunity to experience rhythmic sensation and visual sensation.

The deadline for submissions is November 22, 2010. More details about submissions, along with the entry form, may be found here.

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

October 28, 2010

Frank Myers Captures the Spirit of New Orleans

2010-10-12T16:21:00.006-04:00

Frank Myers, of Raleigh, North Carolina, has been named an Artist of Distinction for work showing in Still Point Art Gallery’s current exhibition, Global Lifestyles: Cities, Towns, Villages. Myers’ wonderfully unique, impressionistic images are photographs that were developed using a technique called digital Polaroid manipulation (explained below). His images capture the spirit of New Orleans…the city’s unique style of music, unique approach to jazz, interesting instrumentation and one-of-a-kind musicians, and evenings spent enjoying the company of friends in an amazing city that never sleeps. With careful attention to light and digitally-produced impressionism, Myers' photography captures the action, movement, vitality, tradition, and sound of the city that the entire world has come to love and respect--New Orleans.

New Orleans Trumpeter

[Larger Image]

New Orleans Buskers Skinny Tuba
[Larger Image]
New Orleans Washboard Player
[Larger Image]

Myers has been drawing, painting, and taking pictures his entire life. In college he studied with Herb Jackson who introduced him to action painting and abstract imagery. That exposure was instrumental in moving his thinking about imagery from purely literal to conceptual. This important shift had a tremendous impact upon Myers’ artistic vision.

As life moved forward Myers found himself working almost entirely in photography. Several years ago he began to experiment with digital painting. Myers has enjoyed rediscovering painting and drawing using a combination of the latest digital tools combined with analog techniques. One such technique is Polaroid manipulation. The technique involves using a stylus or toothpick to move the emulsion around on a Polaroid image as it is developing to create an impressionistic version of the photograph. The digital version of this technique involves using different brushes, paints, and masks to create a stylized rendering that, like a true Polaroid manipulation, is a very loose interpretation of an actual photograph.

Myers produces limited edition prints of his digital works that are limited to fifty (50) and are printed on traditional papers, canvas or handmade papers whichever provide the texture and quality that best represents the images.

New Orleans Trumpeter, digital polaroid manipulation, 16 x 24, not framed, $250
New Orleans Buskers Skinny Tuba, digital polaroid manipulation, 16 x 24, not framed, $250
New Orleans Washboard Player, digital polaroid manipulation, 36 x 24, not framed, $450

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Christine Brooks Cote
Still Point Art Gallery
October 10, 2010

Peter Kempson, Artist of Distinction, Paints "Love Notes to Los Angeles"

2010-10-11T16:07:00.002-04:00

As stated by one of his critics, Peter Kempson paints “love notes to Los Angeles,” amazing pieces that allow the viewer to step right into the painting and be in Los Angeles. For his contribution to Still Point Art Gallery’s current exhibition, Global Lifestyles: Cities, Town, Villages, Kempson was named an Artist of Distinction. His paintings are remarkable for their detailed precision, a style that can only be called photorealism.

Rodeo Drive Sunset Plaza

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Kempson holds a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia, which is reflected in the story-telling quality of his work. Much of his career was spent working as advertising art director and creative director at Ogilvy & Mather in New York and McCann Erickson in Los Angeles. His work earned him numerous awards for creativity, including several Clios and an Emmy.

Amazingly, Kempson is a self-taught artist, and, though relatively new on the fine art scene, he has already exhibited at the prestigious Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Kempson has also recently been awarded the commission for a large painting to grace the lobby of the Los Angeles Firemen’s Credit Union. Though he has begun painting other cities, beginning with his hometown of New York, Kempson’s primary focus remains capturing the unique and ironic character of Los Angeles where, as he puts it, “…validation may come in the form of an Oscar statuette or a stamp on your valet parking ticket.”

Artist's Statement

Her full name in Spanish is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles[1], but she’s usually referred to by her initials, with the casual reverence one might pay a ball player or a beloved boss. She’s blessed with a majestic coincidence of mountains and the sea, yet her iconic structure—her Eiffel Tower—is a half-ruined real estate sign from the 1920’s. L.A. spins paradox on top of paradise with unselfconscious ease. She’s a city where validation may come in the form of an Oscar statuette or a stamp on your valet parking ticket—a place where people live in palaces, cottages and sometimes in cardboard boxes, and where palm trees vie with telephone poles for dominance of the sky.

To one who grew up associating the very idea of a city with the vertical thrust and paved-over urbanity of Manhattan, L.A.’s sweeping vistas and naked relationship to Nature seem exotic, and her gifts for nonchalance and self-parody provide a refreshing change from cities that take themselves a bit too seriously.

Like Oz, L.A. is at turns both wonderful and frightening, but ultimately the goal of quests that originated all over the world. Louis B. Mayer came here from New York’s lower east side, Howard Hughes from Texas, Alfred Hitchcock from England, Katherine Hepburn from New England, Governor Schwartzenegger from Austria. Even L.A.’s emblematic palm trees are originally from the Central American tropics. Non-native transplants like myself have long taken root and flourished here.

Though I’ve lived here for over a decade, perhaps it’s because I came from elsewhere that I find L.A. a source of endless visual fascination. I see a city of angels and demons, at once magnificent and profane—a place where dreams and disillusionment, grace and greed, triumph and tragedy collide on a daily basis, generating an energy uniquely L.A.’s own. Working from my own photographs, painting in acrylics on canvas, the aim of my LANDSCAPES TM is to capture the idiosyncratic character of this fabulous, flawed city in images that are not the usual tourist views.

A critic told me that my paintings were like “love notes to L.A.,” which is a little surprising as I portray the city billboards, graffiti and all, but I suppose the affection I feel for my adopted home town comes out in my work.

Rodeo Drive, acrylic, 40 x 30, NFS
Sunset Plaza, acrylic, 40 x 30, $4000

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Christine Brooks Cote
Still Point Art Gallery
October 10, 2010

Photographer Ron Testa Named Artist of Distinction

2010-10-06T11:05:00.008-04:00

Ron Testa, named Artist of Distinction in Still Point Art Gallery's current exhibition Global Lifestyles: Cities, Towns, Villages, has been making photographs since 1962. His experience and confidence is evident in his work, as is his eye for subject matter and composition. Three of the five images he has in the exhibition are shown below. They are scenes of structures from Illinois and Utah. The structures are interesting, but the stories that lie hidden, yet speak so eloquently from within these images, are even more interesting, In some fascinating way, these images are as essential, realistic, and respectable as any rural American town is expected to be.

Melvin, Illinois Cisco, Utah Utica, Illinois

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Testa has been making photographs for nearly fifty years and has had his work exhibited in a broad array of formats and venues - nationally and internationally, solo and group, casual and elite, publications, galleries, and museums. It began with Testa receiving a bachelor of fine arts degree in photography from the Cleveland Institute of Art. He then took on a brief stint as assistant photographer at the Cleveland Museum of Art before joining the U.S. Navy as a combat photographer and serving three tours of duty in Vietnam stationed aboard an attack aircraft carrier in the Tonkin Gulf. In 1973 Testa received a masters of fine arts degree in photography from the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York. He went on to teach at the Baldwin School of New York City from 1973 to 1975 and was head photographer at the Field Museum in Chicago from 1975 to 1989. During that time he taught photography at Columbia College in Chicago and was a consultant to the collection at the Chicago House archeological dig in Luxor, Egypt.

Testa’s work has been shown internationally in England - 200 American Photographers, American Arts Centre (1970) - and in France - Contemporary Artists, Centre International d'Art (1986). He has exhibited nationally at numerous solo and group shows over the last forty years, including the acclaimed George Eastman House (1968, 2006), Cleveland Institute of Art (1974), School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1982), University of Memphis (1992), Anchorage Art Museum (2006), University of Indianapolis (2009), and the University of Illinois, Urbana (2010).

Examples of his work are represented in the permanent collections of museums across the country, including the George Eastman House, the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the International Center for Photography in New York, the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

Melvin, Illinois, digital inkjet print, 14 x 11, framed, $300
Cisco, Utah, digital inkjet print, 14 x 11, framed, $300
Utica, Illinois, digital inkjet print, 14 x 11, framed, $300

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Christine Brooks Cote
Still Point Art Gallery
October 5, 2010

Photographer George Gati Named Artist of Distinction

2010-09-29T21:59:00.011-04:00

Still Point Art Gallery has named George Gati an Artist of Distinction for work he is showing in its current exhibition, Global Lifestyles: Cities, Towns, Villages. The idea behind this exhibition is to draw attention to the vast and magnificent range of what we can see around the globe...natural and man-made structures, people, customs, ways of living.

Photographer George Gati brings us to Morocco and provides images that give us a genuine feeling for life in Morocco. Five of his photographs are included in the exhibition; three are shown below.

Laundry hanging out of windows...the large stucco-sided apartment building facing the bright hot sun of midday
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A simple street scene...street made of stone or brick...an ancient and decaying wall...a traditionally-dressed woman selling merchandise...two men in western caps resting next to a colorful, dilapidated wagon
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A man pushing a cart near a large residential complex...the desert literally meets the front door of the building...the hot sun beats down on the scene creating a contrast of very bright areas and very harsh shadows
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For much of his life, Gati worked as an engineer. It was not until he retired that he had the opportunity to seriously pursue his long-time interest in photography. Gati is mainly a self-taught photographer, but realizes that learning is an ongoing process. He constantly reads about photography, studies photographs, and attends as many exhibitions as possible. He writes photography exhibit reviews and frequently judges contests for photography clubs.

Gati believes that the world around us is a fascinating place. As an engineer working in research and development for many years, Gati's sense of observation and composition had been well developed and finely tuned. He particularly values finding and taking pictures of those scenes that most people would walk by without even noticing. These are the scenes that often make amazing photographs. This is the magic of photography...the magic of Gati's photography...creating wonderful images that enable others to SEE what is typically unnoticed or taken for granted.

Drying Clothes, archival digital pigment-based print, 20 x 16, not framed, $225
Street Scene, Morocco, archival digital pigment-based print, 16 x 16, not framed, $225
Somewhere in Morocco, archival digital pigment-based print, 16 x 13, not framed, $195

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Christine Brooks Cote
Still Point Art Gallery
September 29, 2010

Still Point Art Gallery Opens "Global Lifestyles: Big Cities, Small Towns, Tiny Villages"

2010-09-28T20:44:00.001-04:00

I am very pleased to announce the opening of Still Point Art Gallery's online exhibition - Global Lifestyles: Big Cities, Small Towns, Tiny Villages.

Some people love the big city, others love small towns, and still others enjoy a stay in a tiny village. Around the globe...the city, the town, the village...each has its own skyline, view, personality, flavor, aroma, and feeling. Perhaps your art is inspired by where you live or maybe it is the product of your travels. In any case, artists were invited to share expressions of the global lifestyle...be it in the big city, a small town, or a tiny village.

Drying Clothes by George Gati Cisco, Utah by Ron Testa

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A fascinating collection of scenes from around the world, this exhibition may inspire you to pack your bags and travel. Far beyond that, however, we hope it will bring forth a desire to see ... really SEE the world...perhaps the world that is your own hometown. See the world's diversity of landscape...dry and dusty, green and lush, sometimes mountainous, sometimes flat; its wonderful and interesting people with their different customs and lifestyles; and its amazing man-made structures...buildings, bridges, super highways, winding roads, places of worship. You can choose to travel far or just go around the corner. There is so much to SEE!

Village by Linda LaRose

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Artists of Distinction for this exhibition are George Gati, Peter Kempson, Frank Myers, and Ron Testa. Be sure to view their amazing art in the gallery, and keep your eye on this blog for upcoming articles about these artists and their work.

Cisco Utah by Ron Testa, digital inkjet print, 14 x 11, framed, $300
Village by Linda LaRose, digital photograph, 10 by 7, framed $500
Drying Clothes by George Gati, archival digital pigment-based print, 20 x 16, not framed, $225

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Christine Brooks Cote
Still Point Art Gallery
September 29, 2010

Susan Gainen's Nanoscapes

2010-09-16T15:29:00.010-04:00

Nanoscape? That's different. Yet another word to join landscape, cityscape, seascape, and skyscape. Nano. Something very tiny. One billionth of a second. So I guess a nanoscape is a view of something very tiny.

Susan Gainen is the artist behind nanoscapes. She creates, envisions, and paints nanoscapes. Gainen is exhibiting three of her nanoscapes in Still Point Art Gallery's recent show, True Artist. [He is the true artist whose life is his material. --Henry David Thoreau] These pieces are called Fractured Glass 1, 2, and 3. Amazing work...tiny bits of bright color...small geometric shapes...shapes creating more shapes...pulsating color...all starting with tiny, tiny pieces, some like specks, of color. So in what way are nanoscapes related to Gainen being a True Artist? I asked her, and the answer was as fascinating as her work.

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Susan Gainen: The three Fractured Glass paintings are quintessential nanoscapes because they celebrate intense color and tiny details, generate their own motion and energy, and because they are prime examples of my creative process, Painstaking Exuberance. I can’t recall not loving all of the bright colors, but I know with certainty when I became entranced by detail.


Fractured Glass #1 [Larger Image]

I was in sixth grade when it became clear that I couldn’t read the blackboard. Between the time I saw the eye doctor and the time I picked up the glasses, my Girl Scout troop had a Saturday morning bird watching trip during which I saw nothing...neither red birds nor blue birds. I was memorably cranky. When I got the glasses and suddenly could see every leaf on every tree and every blade of grass, I knew that there was magic in detail, and I never looked back.

Fractured Glass #2 [Larger Image]

How I enjoyed working with detail! I painted tiny designs on Plaster of Paris eggs (1970s), created seed mosaics (1970s), crocheted with tiny threads (1970s & 80s), painted two 4x8-foot acrylic “mosaics” on closet doors with ½” brushes (1993), and stitched blue-ribbon-winning needlepoint oriental rugs on 22-mesh-to-the-inch canvas (1990s).

Eventually I moved on to painting. I had heard that James Boyd-Brent is an excellent teacher, so in 2006 and 2007 I took “3 Days of Outdoor Watercolor” through the Split Rock Arts Program. In time, the "outdoor" aspect of the class got the better of me. On the last day of the second class, a 3-inch Katydid spent four hours in the small of my back. Combined with mosquitoes in my paints and ants on my paintings, I marked that day as my very last session of outdoor painting. Fortunately, I had taken a class with Russ Dittmar, who never met a color he didn’t want to enhance, and I knew that I would be happy painting indoors and creating my own visions of the world.

That is exactly what happened...I created nanoscapes. Nanoscapes began as paintings on postcards. Some were landscapes, but the most interesting ones to me were just shapes...all kinds of shapes...and shapes that generated motion. At the urging of a friend (“I love your work but I can’t put a postcard behind my sofa.”), nanoscapes eventually grew into full-size paintings.

Fractured Glass #3 [Larger Image]

So, back to my creative process, which I call Painstaking Exuberance. My vision and purpose as an artist are tied into the process and the result. Whether large or small, each nanoscape begins with a creative question, and the Fractured Glass question was “What happens when triangles go wild?” Answering the question with "painstaking exuberance" works like this: (1) make a pencil drawing; (2) paint a Davy’s Gray (light gray watercolor) outline of each shape; (3) paint inside the lines with multiple layers of color; (4) paint an outline of each shape in a contrasting watercolor; and (5) paint an outline for the entire piece.

Adding the first color to begin Step 3 requires the most courage. Even though the painted shapes are waiting, putting on the first bit of color makes me take a deep breath and sit up very straight. I feel, at that moment, as if I am about to walk off a cliff. I always begin with a red, and once I’ve started, I don’t want to stop. How will it turn out? How will the colors and shapes connect with one another? Will they create their own motion and energy? What dimensional qualities will they have? How will they change in Step 4, when I outline each shape?

The last questions to answer are: Will I smile when I’m finished? Will I like it? I never know until the last bit of paint is on the outline of each painting.

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Fractured Glass #1 (14 x 10) watercolor, framed, $450
Fractured Glass #2 (14 x 10) watercolor, framed, SOLD
Fractured Glass #3 (33 x 22) watercolor, framed $1000

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Christine Brooks Cote
Still Point Art Gallery
September 16, 2010

Pat Hobaugh's Bodies

2010-09-09T14:48:00.001-04:00

Artist Pat Hobaugh is showing three paintings in Still Point Art Gallery's current exhibition, True Artist. The exhibition was inspired by these words of Henry David Thoreau: He is the true artist whose life is his material.

These three paintings are from Hobaugh's Bodies series. Ten pieces in all, this series perfectly fits the theme of the True Artist exhibition as the material inspiring the work clearly came from his life. In Hobaugh's words:

My figurative work is a personal reflection on the human experience of sorrow, anxiety, fear, doubt, pain, and longing that accompany the event of a health crisis. These paintings represent the experience that my wife and I went through during her recovery period after colorectal surgery, wherein the universal emotions listed above are symbolically expressed on the canvases. The realist rendering of the figures reflects the reality of the situation’s effect on the body. The exaggerated proportions of the heads further reflect how thoughts and mental processes become distorted and deteriorated in such a situation. The backgrounds are mental projections, painted in gray flattened colors to further separate them from the figures. They represent memories and possibilities, which are both reality and enigma. The plants are symbiotic parallels of the figures, which are links between the reality of the figures and the surreality of the backgrounds.

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(above, left to right)
Dream of better lives, the kind, which never hate, 36 by 36, oil and acrylic on canvas, $1500

I'll stop the world and melt with you, 36 by 36, oil and acrylic on canvas, $1500
Moving forward using all my breath, 60 by 60, oil and acrylic on canvas, $2000

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Christine Brooks Cote

Still Point Art Gallery

September 9, 2010