Miller Art Museum, Sturgeon Bay WI
June 4- July 25 2016
Some may have noticed, there are no portraits at Chez Cheryl Artspace this summer. Instead, the Miller Art Museum has graciously hosted this exhibit which has doubled in size this year. Opening In early June with a public reception, the exhibit runs through July 25. I must admit great pride in seeing this exhibit grow and to such an exquisite level of talent and expression. The opening reception was wall to wall, food and drink ran out before the reception was over. My face hurt from smiling.
The following week I presented my talk to the Miller Art Museum volunteers and general public, Speed Reading the Portrait;a brief history, which went well thanks to Michael Nitsch and Elizabeth Meissner Gigstead for their help with my images I requested for the talk. I had spent most of the winter months reading and compiling information to make my talk thorough yet not bogged down with too much linear thinking. My audience laughed when they should and I felt confident that no one fell asleep during my hour long excursion through art history.
I stopped back at the Miller the other day and attendance seemed to be very good that day, the count was at 56 and that was noon. More people in one Saturday than I would have had in a week at chez Cheryl. Best in show award went to Craig Blietz for his self portrait, with two cats, honorable mentions included Sharon Delvoye, Shelby Keefe and Bonita Budysch. I felt strong pieces included a painting by Buttons Wolst, also a self portrait by Emmet John's, and last but not least, an incredible portrait of her granddaughter, by Jan Comstock.
Next year the show will go back to the farmhouse studio at chez Cheryl, and may introduce some new people, wih possible sabbaticals for a few others who have been regulars since its inception. It's fun to stir the pot now and then.
I struggled to make a portrait this year, working on a tiny ampersand clay board, with gouache, over and over again, until I was sick of it. Learning to handle gouache, and working in such a small format, I found the combination of those elements too challenging but learned a bit of handling a media that tends to dry quickly. At the 11th hour I went back to larger format, oil paint and a bigger brush and the self portrait Touch of Grey/ The Green Scarf evolved in a matter of two days. This painting evolved with the joy of the paint, and brush strokes were allowed to take over the image for their own sake. It is all about the movement of paint, less about the actual likeness, yet I feel an image and expression of some small degree of accuracy in this selfie.
 |
| TOUCH OF GREY/GREEN SCARF 2016 water based oil on canvas at the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay WI |
 |
| CAT WITH SPIDERWORT 2016 waterbed oil on canvas Community Mosaic Project Hardy Art Gallery, Ephraim WI |
MOSAIC PAINTING PROJECT
The fundraiser known as the Community Mosaic event is happening at the Hardy gallery in a few weeks. I have submitted a piece again this year. A still life with cat and spiderwort, with space divided into flat color fields, the piece is inspired by Japanese prints, with no visible light source, no shadows, just the articulated forms of the cat and the arcs of the spiderwort leaves to give it interest.
COLLECTION INVITATIONAL
HARDY GALLERY- July 22- August 2016
 |
| APPROACHING STORM 2016 water based oil on canvas for the Collection Invitational Silent Auction Hardy Art Gallery, Ephraim WI |
I have donated a piece to the Hardy, for their annual silent auction. Two pieces go on exhibit, one for show and one for sale. I chose to submit for sale, APPROACHING STORM in water based oil on canvas. It is a good representation of the recent storms that moved through quickly the last several nights. Inspired by the view from the farm house studio windows looking west toward the Peil creek valley and Door County Land Trust property on the McNeil Farm. The view has been painted by many but probably not as often or as intensely as i have studied it through seasonal changes, in snow and rain, in summer blossoming and autumn golds, the view is my muse.
SALON DE REFUSÉ or What Steve calls THE HARDLY, with no ill feelings or malice, we have decided to honor those rejected each year, or for the next year at least, by holding a pop up show for one day only, with a party, for artists who bravely enter the Hardy annual salon each year, and face rejection, because the show is so popular and hugely supported with entrants each year, nearly 50% of the entrants do not get accepted into the final showing.
For those who enter juried shows, feeling you enter your best work, pay your money to find yourself doing the walk of shame to retrieve the work that didn't make the cut, I offered a pop up opportunity in mid June, Steve and I had talked about this for several years. I had once again been rejected from the juried portion of a show at The Hardy Gallery, something that I would usually get in every other year, but this year marked the third if not fourth year in a row for being rejected. I know this stings a bit, and while I hold no ill wishes to the jurors, I am often baffled when I am sure I entered my best work. We held a one night only event at chez Cheryl Artspace. People brought their work and hung it as they came in, we had food and drink and a lot of good company that night. Many said they would enter the Hardy just to get rejected, so they could come hang with Cheryl again next year. We may have started something.
Meanwhile, I am feeling sick at heart today, after hearing about a mass shooting of police officers in Dallas. It was upsetting to hear about the young man in Minneapolis who was shot dead while reaching for his wallet. My heart breaks for his family, and all others who have been innocent victims. Cops are scared, and well they should be, however the back lash of the oppressed has been gaining strength in voice, which is good, but is terribly misdirected. There are no easy answers in solving these problems, or in seeking justice. The world is too hard to take lately, between the political campaigns, and various global concerns that I have no control over, I can only control what it is I do each day, and that is to try and find beauty and create something that allows me to share and understand this complexity of day to day existence.
No comments:
Post a Comment