FRAMING UP WINTER'S WORK

Here is a selection of  work representing  the direction I have pursued over the  2013-14 winter months. It was a very long winter and not the easiest one but I am not complaining about this.   I found  that living in this isolated region fosters  a spark that keeps the curious individual pursuing things that might not occur if I was in someplace like Florida. While I was inspired a great deal by the life change(sea change) in Australia over the last decade, the tree change, and seasonal weather conditions  of northern Great Lakes have a strong impact. There is also a SEE CHANGE going on with me, as my vision is transforming itself from day to day, with floaters coming and going, retinal challenges, corneal dryness, aging, all the things you never think will happen to you, cause you to seek your grace in new ways. I still love and enjoy painting en plein air and I had set up still life tableau during 2012-13, which led me into a stiff and static mentality. The choice to  pursue an object free narrative was challenging and the pathway to new realizations is littered with self doubt and at times disgust,  but ultimately, I like what I am doing while I am doing it, and I just move on.

RED LEAF   

water based oil and graphite on canvas ,Two panels(detail)

CORNUCOPIA 

water based oil and oil stick on canvas

ARBOR VITA

 waterbased oil on canvas

PREDATOR

unfinished homage to Robert Rauschenberg

water based oil with found object and collage

Bush Fire

waterbased oil on canvas

SUDDEN GUST NOVEMBER

water based oil on canvas

RED FLOATER

water based oil on canvas

SPRING  SNOW 

water based oil on panel

UNTITLED STUDY

water based oil on panel

UNTITLED STUDY

water based oil on canvas

BEFORE MY EYES

water based oil on panel

TUMBLER

water based oil on panel

The Art Critique

 

     About a year ago a group of us decided to get a thing going each month, where friends  who have been carefully assembled as valued and creative individuals, gather to share work in process, to share concerns, ask for a set of fresh eyes and often serve as a resource for more efficient  methods of framing, exhibiting and selling work, find a good book to read. Sometimes we just  have a good cuppa and a pastry  with a side of heartfelt conversation.  The group morphs each month, as not everyone is able to attend all the time, and winter took its toll on us, through travel, illness, and weather conditions, which in northern Wisconsin can be a major consideration in assessing the social factor.  We met at the chez Cheryl artspace in February and several cars, at the end of our morning,  had to be pulled out of the snow banks that were creeping up to the window sills, intrepid characters that we all are, it is nice to know there are spousal units waiting with trucks and ropes and shovels to assure that everyone gets home safely.
     Now it is April and mud might be the issue, the skies are cloudy and thick with promise of precipitation today, and I am filled with thoughts brought out in discussion with our little group yesterday.  There are eight people in this group right now, though it could grow to ten and still have the  impact and energy needed as a group dynamic. If the group gets too big there is too much chatter and not enough  thoughtful input, if the group is too small  there is less divergent and heterogenous  perspective, we are all women who paint or make things,  with impeccable credentials, some retired with professions in the design field, educators, administrators and business entrepreneurs, and the group is sincere and honest, two qualities that must accompany each individual into the group.

Yesterday we had six in attendance, In an hour and  a half we had  covered the art and designs of each participant, coming away with new insights and the confidence to keep at this, even if its not producing a masterpiece or a marketable  sensation, the goal is  to keep learning and  exploring. I think we have all come to value highly, our little morning discussions and support that is offered with kindness and deep thought.

One participant asked if we could each  write an artist statement for our next meeting in May. I once attended a workshop regarding the business of art, and this artist statement business was covered, our seminar leader suggestion we should be able to distill  a statement down to three sentences. I never could streamline things.  And there are those who say the art work is the statement, I hover somewhere in between, having been involved in art museums, label writing and  research,  but I always found it easier to write about some other artists work rather than my own.  This will be hard, but onward, there is a month ahead, of watching spring arrive, planning gardens,and most of all,  getting work ready to exhibit at places  local and regional. I  think I say this for the women in the art crit group, this is a valued experience as well as a special, to have this connection  and a real gift to be able to do what we do.

Several of our group intent on what is on the easel at the moment

FLOATERS AND FIELD OF VISION SERIES

It has been quite a while since I devoted any time at all to this blogspot. My banner says something about plein air painting, and I  need to explain that in October that no longer seemed to  work as a proper description of the direction I was going. I spent last winter doing still life studies and occasionally working from photos and through the summer, I did very little art work, just a few plein air outings and the rest of the time I guess I felt there was more work to do in the garden. By the time fall rolled around I was ready to get back to painting on a more regular basis. Then I had another wake up call.   I had a strange episode with my left  eye while traveling, I awoke with a spider web of shadow  due to something happening in the inside of my eye. After a thorough check with the eye specialists in Ames Iowa where I was visiting my brother, I was assured that there was not a detachment and I should expect to have the shadows for awhile. The following week, after I returned to Door County, the right eye did the same thing, and  nearly four months later, I am still experiencing this shadow floater business, as well as some blurring in both eyes, due to the cataracts that were discovered in the past year. There are times when I see things that aren't there, birds that don't exist, and shadows that move and  track which ever direction i might be looking.   I decided to put plein air  painting on hold for a while, so just started making marks, calligraphic form, color field and  patterns that mimic the floaters which are with me every day.  I have also purchased larger oil sticks as well, which makes  for an interesting layering and application of color, which can  be thinned and spread with thinner or oil medium, or built up to more of an impasto, and it is sometimes easier for me to grasp the fatter sticks, rather than narrow handled paint brushes.

Floaters

Group of six studies, popped into frames, these pieces are small, 6 x 8 inches.

Untitled  Study

FIELD OF VISION  SERIES

Untitled Studies 18"x18" water based oil and oil stick on canvas

Exploring movement and color, through expressive marks which  

reference  calligraphic image and patterns.

Thoughts on Art Fairs and Old Friends No Longer There

Sitting at   Briggsville Art in the Garden,
my  first time in 38 years -  north of Sturgeon Bay WI
Saturday September 21, 2013


THOUGHTS ON ART FAIRS
AND OLD FRIENDS NO LONGER THERE

It has been a while since I stuck my neck out to face the unknown in this way.  I  am an old Art in the Park  renegade, after trying this in 1975 while living in Fort Dodge, Iowa, I was discouraged with the results,  and instead spent the next 15 years as a co-chair for the event, behind the scenes gal, with the Fort Dodge Area Fine Art Council, I watched the art in the park event morph through several incarnations, from a free- for- all show for anyone (can you say clorox bottle piggy banks?), to a juried show that offered purchase awards and other enticements for the working artist.   I don't know if there is an art fair in Fort Dodge anymore.

Here in Door County, there are any number of public art events, and I have in the past participated in a few Door County Art League shows, but held back this year. and I usually have chosen not to participate in festivals, fairs and special public events, until this year when I was invited to be one of ten artists at a show at Briggsville Gardens. I sold something even before we opened to the public, and then  three more paintings found new homes as a result of this show. My first and only sales of the year.  I have renewed respect for those artists who do this for a living every weekend during the summer, the packing, the displays, the weather, the crowds, all variables in the day and the miles of driving, the promotions, the web sites, the marketing.  Makes me tired just thinking about it.

 I still call myself an artist, but I am not a pro, and I  admire those who can persevere through all things necessary to carry on.

 As a newly arrived senior citizen, I can now enjoy the meager earnings of my social security - that is helping pay for paint and other supplies, but the act of selling an art work, that is a rare moment for me, and it feels like the circle is complete,  saying a proper good bye to the work, it has a new home, I get some money, which helps me feel better about letting something go. Did I mention I hate to let go of my work, my scribbles, even old calendars, my archive of my daily life is  at times a burden, but then I look at a sketchbook or journal from a trip in 1993 and I re-live a moment in Scotland when I ate haggis,  or how the butterflies looked when they landed on the wet pavement...I look at a drawing I did in 2004 for an invitational exhibit, a drawing that I loved and no one bought, I am glad I still have that, even though its sitting in a closet right now. But what a great surprise to realize that I can still do an art fair, and enjoy it... thanks to Briggsville Gardens, and organizer Karen Lee DeNoto, it was a good day.

This has been a difficult year  all things considered, increasing mobility issues and now some vision concerns, plus some muses have passed to the other side, my friend Diane,  most especially, I will miss, and on a recent trip to Iowa and my home turf, I felt that gap that she left.  She was foremost in my mind when I decided to do the art fair this year.  She forged on with a plan for a huge solo show, and a smaller solo show at my art space last year, then passed away a few months later. I now think of this when I have a chance to do something, I think of her when I am making a decision . When I was visiting  in Jefferson last week for an all school reunion I stayed at a friends home, where Diane frequented. On the bathroom wall, this friend has encouraged her house guests to submit graffiti, and there on the wall was something Diane had written, 

"The reason for making art is  that there is no reason for making art"  that was Diane... and it made me smile. 

Diane Foster at Chez Cheryl Art Space in August of 2012, sitting with a few of her works

Door Prize for Portraiture, 4th annual event upcoming June 28- July 27...

LAST YEARS EVENT WAS A PERFECT NIGHT
THIS YEAR WE HOPE FOR MORE OF THE SAME

Winner Buttons Wolst
all smiles after her announced big win last year.

       Honorable Mention winner Mark Zelten-2012

Kirsten Christenson 

Just a few photos from LAST YEAR----- Door Prize for Portraiture party for the artists and their friends was a beautiful evening...

 Judge Graeme Reid at last years event...

PORTRAITS

The 4th annual Invitational Door Prize for Portraiture is starting to take shape, with a few works delivered early, I am excited about this annual event which Steve and I sponsor.  The farm house is transformed into a gallery space for the month of July, and  will be open to visitors a few days each week, for those who might be interested in the work, or  follow one of the 21 artists included this year.

Artists included are; Sharon Auberle,  Sister Bay WI, Ernie Beutel, Julia Van Roo Bresnahan from Baileys Harbor, WI,  Pam Clausen, from Kewaunee WI, Sharon Delvoye, from Green Bay, Sally Everhardus, Fish Creek, Lynn Gilchrist, Sturgeon Bay, Paula Swaydan Grebel, Plymouth WI, Emmett Johns From Albuquerque NM and Fish Creek WI., Ken Klopack, Chicago , Liz Maltman, Fish Creek, Mary Ulm Mayhew, Newburg, WI, Tim Nyberg, Stillwater MN, Randy Rasmussen, Sturgeon Bay, Rick Risch, Sturgeon Bay, Suzanne Rose, Kohlberg, WI Stephen Titra, Evanston , IL, Cynthia Wolfe, Baileys Harbor, Archelle "Buttons" Wolst, Sturgeon Bay, Jeff Young, Green Bay and Mark Zelten, Green Bay... Though I have been drawing portraits weekly for the the winter months, I opted out this year, making room for one more artist.

This collection of artists includes a few new names each year, with a handful of returning friends as well. It will be commemorated with a party for them and a guest judge, Graeme Reid, Director of Exhibitions at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend WI will once again offer comments and observations on the exhibit, and give awards to Best in Show and two honorable mentions.  We have been doing this event out of a love of the  genre, after seeing an amazing portrait show at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney Australia, where they hold an annual event called the Archibald Prize. Though our little space and small exhibit is a far cry from the scale of the Archibald, it is a great little exercise in curatorial  duties, affording me an opportunity to "play museum  curator" in my retirement, allowing me some networking opportunity with  area artists I admire.

 All manner of media can be considered but most of the work is 2-D paintings, drawings and photos, found object, collage, and we are open to other materials such as wood, clay and glass.  Each year we have extended an invitation to about 20 artists, some get dropped and new ones come in to the list, that list is growing and  we hope to continue the event so that everyone on that list will eventually have opportunity to do a piece.   Each artist who answers the invitation  pays $20, which in turn pays for printing and mailing a beautifully designed announcement card. That card usually features last year's winner of the Door Prize.  The winners receive a cash award, and we have a nice array of food and drink for the party-goers. Every year we have had spectacular weather, no bugs, and glorious sunsets.  I am posting with this blog a few photos from last year's event. We hope our readers will enjoy it and find their way to  Chez cheryl Artspace in late June.

Selected works, then and now

Hickey Brothers Fish Market- Baileys Harbor WI

There has been a fair amount of activity in the studio this month, with painting on a nearly daily basis,  if I could get through the hip deep snow, Steve was able to blow it clear for me, and I spent the days  unwrapping and flattening the rolls of work Steve brought back from Australia. It was work accumulated and left there for years, stored in our car, in a shed, untouched and unseen for a long time, and I forgot I had painted some of the sultry studies of rain forest views. Australiana has been on my mind, but I have also been focusing on finishing up a few pieces started here last summer and fall.  

The red building in the top painting is on property owned by Hickey family, who have a commercial fishing business. I don't know much about the history of this place but the old building and array of ropes, boat accessories and fishing net supplies  attracted me, as well as hundreds of other artists I am certain, through the decades they have been  in business.  This painting was started on site then photographed and finished in the studio over the winter months.

Bromeliad Pathway 2005-06?

Probably done in 2005, water soluble oil on paper, View of the path and hilltop near our cabin-

With apologies for the flash glare here, this is a foggy view of our  rain forest in Gooonengerry New South Wales, the flora and fauna  was dominant in my daily routine, we lived there for each southern summer season, for nearly a decade before selling it. The place changed my life and my perspective. I was amazed at the colors when I unwrapped these studies. Its good to have them back.   I savor the time spent there, and am able to travel back to the moment at which I stood there, leeches inside my socks, the spectre of a brown snake in the bushes, and kookaburra, currawong and tiny fairy wrens surrounded me.  These painted sketches on canvas paper serve as a vehicle for my life's memories. 

Watercolor pencil studies that did get rained on, done from the porch annex on our caravan, 2007

Staghorn Pathway- Goonengerry NSW 2007(?)

 Our Staghorn lined path into the rain forest, which is really mostly eucalypt trees, it is called a dry littoral rain forest, there are some species of rain forest tree there, but the lantana and camphor laurel tend to take over, non native invasives sucking up the water, but our forest had staghorns and orchids and Davidson's Plum and all manner of bromeliads, huge and small. There was always something blooming in there. We would awake to the thump of a wallaby moving up the path, and go to sleep at night often with the sound of a male koala, bellowing away for a female to accept him.

It is my hope to remount these paintings and studies,  and  sometime in the late summer, will host a small exhibition of the work, presented as a  cohesive body of work, Australiana

June Blossoms 2008

Spring Fever or Cabin Fever

It is St Patrick's Day and we had a few snow showers this afternoon. The finches coming to the feeders  betray the weather, with a glimmer of yellow gold coming through on their feathers after months of winter drab.  I have not visited my blog for nearly two months.  The time has flown, Steve  departed and returned after a month of travel in Australia, I  happily endured the snow days and snow plows and kept the chickens fed, the dog walked, and tried to keep up with the increasing blanket of snow on the deck.   I attended art critiques, book club,  spoke as part of panel at the Miller Art Museum, swam at the Y, did gourmet ladies who lunch on a very frigid day,  worked on a new landscape, and two more still life studies, finishing several works which will be posted here later. So just when I think the winter is slow and uneventful, I look back and suddenly its spring, even the new arts guide is out for the season.   Now we have daylight savings time and talk of sand hill cranes returning.  I need to prune raspberries, get some paintings framed,  clear out the spider webs and get  going with a few projects including my garden and possibly some new hens in the coop.

 Here are some firm plans for the coming season at Chez Cheryl Art Space this year;

• June 27 Private party for artists  and friends of artists, participating in Door Prize For Portraiture 
• June 28 through July 27 Open to the Public on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday through the month of July,  11-4 each day, or by appointment. Invitations will be going out later in the spring, early summer.  I will have 21 artists this summer as part of our tribute to the portrait, Door Prize for Portraiture was conceived after one of our last trips to Australia together back in 2009. The Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney Australia was so mind-blowing, we wanted to do our own scaled down version here, so this year will be the 4th annual show.  I will write more about this at another time. 
• August- open by appointment
• September workshop    Ken Kloplack
• September workshop with Emmett Johns in Plein Air Painting
• Dining for Open Spaces, a Private Dinner Event for Door County Land Trust October 11
• date to be announced holiday open house and exhibition of work by Cheryl