Jackson Hole Art Blog

Like I told Rocky Vertone, the man behind Full Circle Frameworks:  ”You made me get gum stuck in my hair!”

Full Circle Frameworks is devoting its Work In Progress #6 to….WILDLIFE ART.

Inconceivable!

If Rocky can, as he says, “sell out,”  then game on.  Minds open.  We’re getting it.  Phew.

On Friday, August 20, fasten your seat belts and head over to 335 N. Glenwood for  art-as-it-happens.  The paint party starts at 6 pm.  (The fact that lots of alcohol will be on hand is touted; please drink, paint and drive responsibly.)

Many local artists will collaborate to create a single work, and as I understand it the only criteria is that the artists stick to the theme….wildlife.   Vertone says these artists plan to show up and paint — the list may increase.   I’m rearranging Rocky’s list alphabetically:  Ben Carlson, Cutter, Richard Goodwin, Kelley Halpin, Remy Milossy, Erin Smith, Travis Walker and Aaron Wallis.

You can find Full Circle Frameworks on Facebook. You can call Rocky at  307.733.0770.

Item #2

A recent visit to the Jackson Hole Art Auction offices (upstairs at Trailside Galleries , 130 East Broadway) revealed that the Auction has obtained a handwritten, illustrated letter from C.M. Russell to his”Friend Bob,” written by Russell in 1909.  ”Bob” was Robert J. Benn, a resident of Kalispell, Montana.

The letter reads:

March 28, 1909

Friend Bob,

I received both your letters and photograph. We thought the picture was a good one. When are you and Mrs. Benn coming? If you will let me know, I will meet you at the trane and we will try and give you a good time. That was a nice letter you got from Churchell. I’ll be wearing antlers the next time we meet. I make the high ride Monday the 30th. I may have to pull better but I’m betting I ride him. Hoping to see you and Mrs. Benn soon.

Your Friend, C.M. Russell

I got a letter from Goodwin, he sent his regards to you both.

The wearing of antlers Russell mentions refers to his new membership in the the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks of the USA, Lodge #214 in Great Falls, Montana. “Russell also makes reference to his new membership in the Elks with a typical, humorous drawing in which he depicts himself on a bucking goat while several elk shout out encouragement for him to stay in the saddle,” says the Auction’s Emma Zanetti.

Russell’s letter also arrived with documents relating to Benn’s murder at his own saloon in Kalispell.  The unsolved murder took place several years after this letter was written, and Kalispell’s newspaper ran the headline: “Robert J. Benn Is Shot And Killed—Assailant Unknown.” Sub-headlines announce that Benn’s body was discovered lying in a pool of blood behind the bar.

Approximately 250 lots will be up for sale at this year’s auction, taking place on Saturday, September 18, at the Center for the Arts in downtown Jackson.  In the spirit of disclosure, I have worked for the auction in the past. This year’s collection of lots is very exciting.  Zanetti notes that other masters such as Bob Kuhn, Lanford Monroe, Carl Rungius, Mian Situ, Howard Terpning, William Acheff and Clyde Aspevig are all well represented. For more information email her at registrar@jacksonholeartauction.com.   1.866.549.9278.

Item #3

The Contemporary Landscape, a show of new works by artists Andrzej Skorut and Shanna Kunz opens at Mountain Trails Gallery on Saturday, August 21, 4-8:00 pm.   Works will be on display August 19-26.

An August, 2010 article in Western Art Collector quotes Skorut.

“I believe in importance of the immediate visual impact of the painting; that one square inch of the painting should hold as much interest as the whole canvas,” says Skorut. “Yet I also believe that deeper, honest meanings should lie beneath the surface, giving the viewer an opportunity to embark upon a personal voyage of discovery.”

As Skorut’s followers know, the artist was born in Krakow, Poland.  Surrounded by the high culture of that city, the artist valued art from an early age.  But he makes his living painting landscapes. He is a Tonalist, and uses muted hues to suggest countryside mysteries.  Skorut notes that although he paints in what might be called a contemporary representational style, his paintings are also abstract; he renders hills, trees, pastures and mountains in reduced geometric form.  Viewers find themselves just a tiny bit hypnotized by this painter’s still, evocative work.

Kunz works in oils and watercolor.  Describing herself as “as a naturalist raised and rooted in the diverse landscapes of western America,” she also concentrates on conveying emotional connections she has with the land.  Spatial relationships are important, as is pushing color boundaries.  She and Skorut share subtle vibrations in their work, but Kunz allows an unmistakable golden light into her compositions.  That may mean she yearns more to catch the sun and its effects at specific times of day, and that those specific moments are the artist’s primary muse. And, while Skorut’s landscapes can zoom in or out, Kunz has a predilection for dense groupings of trees — they are the heart of her paintings.

For more information, contact Mountain Trails Gallery by phoning 307.734.8150.   www.mountaintrails.net

QUICK NOTE:

Saturday, August 21, Heather James Gallery hosts an Open House from 10-6pm. The gallery’s Los Angeles based curator Chip Tom will be on hand, giving art talks and tours all day.  Info: 307-200-6090 or lyndsay@heatherjames.com.

Historical Native America: Portraits from the 19th Century, a One Man Show of  works by painter James Ayers, opens with an artist’s reception at the Legacy Gallery on August 5, 6-8:00 p.m.

Inspired by great historical artists and portraitists such as Karl Bodmer, George Catlin and Edward Curtis, these paintings “…reference the historical drawings and photographs but from a modern day artist’s perspective.”  Expect to view contemporary takes on such prominent figures as Black Buffalo and Mano-Tope Four Bears.   A likeness of the former is particularly creative because no actual photographs of Black Buffalo exist, according to the gallery.   Ayers’s take on what this Native American leader must have looked like spring from descriptions found in the descriptions of Lewis and Clark, written during their 1804 expedition.

For more information about the show please visit  www.legacygallery.com, or email janell@legacygallery.com.

Item #2:

Over at Trailside Galleries, another showcase takes place this month: Huihan Liu’s new works are on display at that gallery through August 31. An artist’s reception takes place Thursday, August 19, 5-7:00 p.m. Ten new paintings lovingly depict people and village life in Tibet–an exquisite, ancient civilization in a struggle for its own survival.

The showcase runs in tandem with a larger Trailside showcase, its annual “Western Classics.”

The gallery is highlighting 30 or more of its best traditional paintings and sculptures.   Representational works by well known western artists, including those affiliated with the Cowboy Artists of America, are included.   Emphasized are contemporary renditions of cowboy life, Native American subjects and spectacular landscapes.    Take your time, there’s a lot to see!

Phone contact:  307.733.3186.   www.trailsidegalleries.com

Don’t forget to wander upstairs to view the offerings for this year’s Jackson Hole Art Auction.

Item #3:

Jackson local artist Amy Ringholz opens a new show of her singular style animal portraits in a new show, “Resonance,” opening August 5 at Altamira Fine Art, on Center Street.     An opening reception takes place August 5, 5-7:00 pm, and the exhibition remains up through August 17.

Ringholz openings are always infused with the artist’s own sense of celebration and fun; expect to get down, downtown.

“Resonance” refers to Ringholz’s efforts to connect powerfully with viewers. Study of textiles, 19th Century prints and art nouveau have infiltrated these compositions.  Moving into storytelling mode, these new paintings are related to her totem series but are more illustrative — they possess a fairy tale quality.   She feels that the “magic” of these new paintings offer a “flow of stories of love, friendship, family, God, honor and the pursuit of dreams.”

“Amy’s art has brought joy to admirers and collectors across the country. This show will be an especially significant step in her artistic journey as it melds her familiar abstract styling with the sophisticated conceptual storytelling thematic,” says gallery Director Mark D. Tarrant.

For more information, email connect@altamiraart.

Trio Fine Art’s Kathryn Mapes Turner presents her latest works in a new show, Time In-Between. Opening with an artist’s reception July 29, 5-8 pm, the exhibition remains up through August 15.  Time, and its impermanence, are Turner’s themes—these concepts are explored in oils and drawings of landscape and animals.

Turner’s work is ever more tonalist, more reductive and evocative. Realism is not fully dissolved, though she often seems to be working towards abstraction in her oil paintings.

In fact, Turner theorizes that all visual art is “inspired by an abstract idea that is executed with a specific medium onto a fixed surface,” a thought developing into imagery.   “My art is what happens between me, my subject and the medium which are all constantly changing” explains Turner.

Comparing this series of paintings to sedimentary rock—each composition is built up using multiple layers of paint—Turner notes that it was difficult to decide when any of her paintings were complete. Stratitfication of glazes and dry brush technique enable her paintings to take on a life of their own.

Check out Turner’s work on her website, or phone her directly, at 307.690.9632.

Item #2:

July 17-30, check out the work by collaborating (and married) artists Chris Reilly and Michelle Haglund, on display at Diehl Gallery. This post missed the show’s opening, but if you haven’t already, stop by the gallery to see these mystical, lovely works.

Encaustics play a big, if not complete, roll.  Birds and bees, insects and little amorphous frogs—fantastic flowers and backgrounds of mottled gold, reds and greens suggest nature’s sensual core.   I think of the Renaissance;  flowers are used as ancient symbols in many cultures and have been since antiquity. Haglund says the artists’s household is filled with “enthusiastic nature explorations of various life forms.”  Wax is the medium bringing the work of the two artists together—some works are by both artists, others by one or the other.   They describe finished works as “fully ripened.”

For his part, Reilly seeks to inspire contemplation. “The stillness of meditation is echoed in the quietude of the finished painting that has undergone a process of creation, destruction and finally preservation. Creatures that transform, such as dragonflies and butterflies, are arranged in a loose grid symbolizing the enduring pattern of regeneration. Branches, laden with blossoms and fruit, stretch across the canvas receiving light and mimicking a human limb. These works are built up with wax and scraped down until a feeling of serenity is achieved,” he notes.

Email: info@diehlgallery.com.    Phone:   307.733.0905

Item #3:

Jackson painter and photographer  (and, we should add, portraitist) Alison Brush says she will have two shows in Jackson this summer.  Currently, new works are on display at Betty Rock Cafe through August 6.

“The realms between waking consciousness and sleep fascinate me,” says the artist. Fluid and rhythmic, these paintings would rock you to sleep were they music.  Dreams of the oceans. Wriggle into spaces swimming in refracted, swirling color.  Meditate, imagine your wildest dreams coming true.

Brush’s cyclonic paintings flow towards infinity, and beyond.

Email the artist at:  abrush@mindspring.com.

Through July 31, Trailside Galleries will present a showcase of works by artist Mike Malm —  new paintings will be available for viewing the latter part of the month.

Though he often paints landscapes, Malm is an avid romantic portraitist.  His softest, most sensitive works often recall Renoir’s reverence for the feminine.  Against rural backgrounds Malm portrays what he feels is one of God’s great creations:  the human figure.   To  Malm, a tilt of the head or tiny hand gesture can communicate universal thought and emotion.

In other words, painting is a calling for this artist, a testimony.   With every work, Malm strives to move his viewers by capturing the infinite subtleties of human nature.

A new showcase of paintings by artist Chris Owen follows, August 1-31 at Trailside.  The gallery says up to ten new works will be on display by the artist, whose work hangs in such collections as the Pearce Western Art Collection in Corsicana, Texas, the National Western Museum in Denver, Colorado, and the Old West Museum in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Owen has moved to working with oils full time, and his passion is chronicling cowboy life.  In speaking about his art Owen falls into detailed descriptions of his observations of horses and ranches.

“There is nothing more satisfying to me than to bring a green colt up into a real nice saddle horse that knows how to handle himself and is a pleasure to be around. From the halter breaking and ground work right on up to all of the roping and getting gates and other ranch chores, each step presents its own challenges and the way it’s handled can vary quite a bit depending on the individual horse’s personality,” says the artist.

For information on both shows, contact Trailside’s Dawn Meckam by emailing dawn@trailsidegalleries.com, or phoning  307.733.3186.

Item #2:

At Heather James Fine Art, Masters of Impressionism and Modern Art brings together exquisite examples of art by Berthe Morisot, Édouard Léon Cortès, Fernand Léger, René Magritte, Claude Monet, and Jackson Pollock among many others.

A highlight of the show, Monet’s Water Lily (c. 1915-1919), gives Jackson art lovers a chance to see one of Monet’s signature works; part of a series that defined the artist’s career.   ”Monet’s distinctive late palette and all of the pictorial tensions unique to the achievements of the artist’s final decades are on display with this prime example from the master Impressionist’s oeuvre,” says the gallery’s James Corona.

Specific works on exhibit include Pablo Picasso’s Buste de Femme Souriante (1901) and Fernand Léger’s La racine noire et fragments d’objets (1943-1950).  

For information: lyndsay@heatherjames.com.

Still. Reflective. Meditative.  Calm.  Mysterious.

Potent.

Landscape artist Jared Sanders’ depictions of barns, fields, rivers and trees — images reminiscent of rural Utah landscapes the artist experienced as a child — feel rooted and secured.  It’s as if these quintessential American structures have made a life decision to stay “home.”  No roaming.   This land is the place and there is nothing finer; all the lights of the city, the allure of a rocky sea coast, the scintillating Western mountain ranges are calculating sirens.  Not real.

This land is real.  And it holds great power — pounding hearts, eternal rhythms.

Jared Sanders has a new exhibition, “Seasons: One Man Show” on display at Altamira Fine Art June 17-29, 2010.    An opening reception takes place Thursday, June 17, 5-7:00 pm, at the gallery.

“Jared is an important and popular contemporary landscape artist. Although the scenery and barns he depicts in his paintings are primarily in or near the area where he lives, they seem to strike a nostalgic chord of recognition and serenity with admirers of his work no matter where they live,” says Gallery Director Mark D. Tarrant.   “His textured brushwork and subdued use of color continually create scenes which are simultaneously placid, yet compelling.”

Sanders, a tonalist, favors earthy, rubbed browns and dusky yellows; burnt reds and “old” blues and greens are aged–subdued–with the injection of grays.   Siennas and ochre oils warm up the cool palette.   Sanders intense attention to connecting objects and colors within each work is apparent; balance is flawless.

Contact Altamira Fine Art by phoning 307.739.4700.   www.altamiraart.com.

Item #2:

A small note about a big move:  Horizon Fine Art is decamping from its Center Street location and moving across town to new digs.

Horizon’s new address is Suite 202, at 30 King Street.  I believe that address is situated on the east side of King Street between Broadway and Pearl….and close to the corner of Broadway and King.

It’s just north of  from Shades Café and Sweetwater Restaurant.   Ooh, and a short walk down the stairs from Snake River Grill!   And in close proximity to Trailside Galleries, a few steps to the east on Broadway.

Congrats and Bon Chance, Horizon!

Who is moving in to your old space?    Anybody?

Email:  horizonfineart@wyoming.com.   Phone:  307.739.1540.

Item #3:

Laurie Thal, Wilson glass artist, has had her work snatched up by the President. Of the United States.  While exhibiting at a Washington D.C. craft show her work was admired by a member of the State Department. That staff member, Tracy Bernstein, asked Thal if she had any hand blown glass vessels depicting a peacock.  She did; the bowl’s design is by Lia Kass, long time creative partner to Thal.

The bowl, shown at left, was purchased by the State Department’s Senior Gift Officer (what a cool job, shopping for fine arts to bestow upon heads of state!) and presented to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife by President and Mrs. Obama.   The Prime Minister visited D.C. last November.

Thal also had a glass ornament on the Clinton Administration Christmas tree.  AND she’s got work displayed at the Governor’s residence in Cheyenne, Wyoming.   Congratulations Laurie and Lia!   Very cool.

FINAL NOTE: LAST WEEK’S “ARTIST IN THE PARK ” EVENT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED.  THE NEW DAY AND TIME ARE JUNE 19, 9 AM – 12 NOON.

Eighty-six artists make up Heather James Gallery’s Post-War and Contemporary roster alone; the gallery specializes in six other art categories: American, Design, Impressionist & Modern, Latin American, Old Masters and Photography.

In Jackson Hole, that’s some mighty glittery gallery fireworks.   The Heather James Gallery’s mix of past and present art periods is unique in this art market.   The gallery’s presence on re-shuffled, re-designed Center Street buttons up what feels like a newly defined “arts capsule” in Jackson. Center Street’s “Gallery Row” is creating new identity for the Town of Jackson; the block establishes a dynamic focal point, positioned as it is across from a large tourist staging and parking area.

Center Street is its own “draw,” a block mixing regional and international art.

Heather James owners Jim Carona and Heather Sacre plan an opening celebration in June; a grand opening takes place later this summer, on August 21, with the blockbuster show Wyeth, featuring the works of N.C., Andrew and Jamie Wyeth.

Gallery director Lyndsay Rowan McCandless is at the fore.  This is also a good thing. She’s joined by long-time local Molly Hawks.   The gallery’s collection is curated by Los Angeles based curator Chip Tom, and renowned architect Dianna Wong designed the space.

Notes McCandless, “Heather James Fine Art has been created to complement their current two galleries located in Palm Desert, CA and to honor and support their love for Jackson, WY. We are looking forward to the merging of our creative ideas and visions in order to bring you the most vibrant and diverse art experience that you can imagine in the Tetons.”

Jackson photographer David Swift opines that Tom’s curatorial skills are original and vital.   None of that “undisciplined angst-splatter…that most people think of when they think modern art.”

Swift already has a favorite Heather James artist, Carlos Mérida. “I’ve never heard of him.  Turns out he was one of the cool guys hanging with the Cubists from the 20’s, on.  He’s as good as his old pals, and there is a piece hanging in the gallery I want really, really, really bad.”

Swift and others familiar with Jackson’s arts agree that having McCandless back at the fore of a contemporary gallery is beyond happy.  She’s the valley’s “art angel,” says the photographer, and understands the “art-swoon gland kicks into overdrive once when we get around works created at the dawn of the 20th Century, on.”

How to find and reach Heather James Gallery:

P.O. Box 3580, 172 Center Street – Suite 101, Jackson, WY 83001     Phone: 307.200.6090

Item #2:

Sotheby’s May 19, 2010 American Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures Auction brought these results:  

Thomas Moran’s “Coconino Pines and Cliff, Arizona” :  $746,500 with Buyer’s Premium

Winslow Homer’s “Return of the Gleaner,” :  $2,210,000 with Buyer’s Premium (estimate was $400-$600,000)

Frederic Remington’s “The Mountain Man”:  $1,082,500 with Buyer’s Premium (estimate was $700-$900,000)

Childe Hassam’s “Harney Desert”:  $446,500  with Buyer’s Premium (estimate was $200-$300,000)

Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Inside Clam Shell”:  $3,442,500 with Buyer’s Premium

Marsden Hartley’s “Berlin Series, No. 1″:  $1,762,500.

For full auction results, click here.

On May 19, as part of New York’s auction season, Sotheby’s holds its  American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture Auction.    Featured in this year’s sale is Thomas Moran’s 1902 oil on canvas landscape Coconino Pines and Cliffs, Arizona.   Measuring 26 x 32″, the painting is estimated to sell, according to one source at $800/1,200,000.   At last look, Sotheby’s posted an estimate of $500,000 – $700,000.

For American artists, the era was an opportunity for noted landscapists to be commissioned by railroads interested in promoting cross country travel, and America’s national parks held great allure, both as destination and as artistic subject.    Moran is said to have accompanied a group of 12 or more artists commissioned by the Santa Fe Railroad.  The expedition took them to the Grand Canyon;  the railroad’s line had a starting point at Williams, Arizona.   Moran enjoyed exploring other areas in Arizona as a benefit of his affiliation with the Santa Fe line.

Other works auctioned include Georgia O’Keeffe’s Inside Clam Shell, estimated at $3.5 million – the painting is the “star” of the auction. John Singer Sargent’s In a Gondola has an estimate of $1.5-$2.5 million; Remington’s Mountain Man, Cast No. 6, estimated at $700-$900,000;  and N.C. Wyeth’s Waite Seized Him and Swung Him On High, $250-$350,000.

Item #2:

First: Thank you, Diehl Gallery, for sending me SO MANY IMAGES WITHOUT MY HAVING TO ASK YOU!  That never happens.

The Sixth Annual Fete at Diehl Gallery –  June 5

5-9 p.m.
Season-Opening All-Artist Show featuring
new works by gallery artists

June 23 & 24

Ashley Collins Preview
6-9 p.m.  (6/23)
Ticketed preview to benefit Teton Science Schools;
Call Laurel Wyckoff at Teton Science Schools for
information and tickets: 307.734.3766

Ashley Collins Public Opening (6/24)
5-8 p.m.
Exhibition runs through July 14

July 17

Chris Reilly
5-8 p.m.
Exhibition runs through July 30

July 31

Monica Petty Aiello and Tyler Aiello
5-8 p.m.
Exhibition runs through August 13

August 14

David Banegas
5-8 p.m.
Exhibition runs through August 27

August 28

Dirk De Bruycker
5-8 p.m.
Exhibition runs through September 9
September 10 Les Thomas
5-8 pm
(In conjunction with Palates and Palettes and the JH Fall Arts Festival) Exhibition runs through September 30

INFO: 
307-733-0905
info@diehlgallery.com
www.diehlgallery.com

Half a mile from the county fair
And the rain keep pourin down
Me and billy standin there
With a silver half a crown
Hands are full of a fishin rod
And the tackle on our backs
We just stood there gettin wet
With our backs against the fence

Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Let it run all over me…

The Art of Water, a public art exhibition celebrating the beauty and role of water in the Teton Watershed and its surrounding area, is on exhibit at the Driggs City Center. Opening day March 24, will include an open-to-the-public reception 5:30-7:30 pm, at the Driggs Senior Center.   The exhibition, a collection of photography, paintings and sculptures, courtesy of Friends of the Teton River and the Teton Arts Council, hangs through the month of June, 2010.

March 24th’s schedule of events:

5:30: Welcome by FTR and TAC representatives
Gallery open for viewing 5:30-7:30 PM

6:00: Sounds of the Teton: Audio recording natural sounds on the Teton River
Audio recording artist Charlie Otto

6:15: Performances of Poetry and Prose
Poet Garl Drake
Poet Ty Mack
Author Bruce Smithhammer

6:30: Healing Waters: A journey into the waters of Idaho, California, and Chile
Filmmaker Joe Lindsay

6:45:  River Songs
Singer/songwriters Thomas Sneed and Ted Wells

7:30 Closing thoughts by FTR and TAC representatives

Participating artists include: Bart Walker, Kelly Sullivan, Dorothy Galloway, Marcia LeMire, Dan Burgette,  Sue Tyler, Marina Nell, Teri Manigalt, Beach Huntsman, Carole Flaherty, Anna Taylor, Rosemary Thomas, Claire Vitucci, Cynthia Guild Stoetzer, Philbin De Got, Mary Lou Oslund, Virginia Grosse, Michele Farrier, Shauna Crandall, Tami Milligan, Nancy Nielson and Rosemary Franz.

The exhibition pays homage to the river’s fresh water and the creative personalities interpreting its particular bountiful beauty.    A light meal of soup, along with bread by the new local bakery 460 Bread will be provided.

For more information and a schedule of the evening’s events, visit www.tetonwater.org. Megan Hatch is the Friends of the Teton River contact.  Email Megan at megan@tetonwater.org.  Phone:   208.354.3871.

Bonus Prelude: YouTube Rock Art Epic Sensation!

Now, back to work.

Perhaps Spring’s promise of fresh earth and sky is potent serum for new collaborations.   With Daylight Savings Time just days away, Altamira Fine Art announces a rare two-person show, No Limit. The exhibition joins the work of landscape artists John Felsing and Kathryn Mapes Turner. An opening reception takes place Thursday, March 11,  5-7:00 p.m.  

Turner grew up on Grand Teton National Park’s Triangle X Ranch, her family’s homestead.  Felsing has lived in his rural Michigan home twenty years; the artists have been friends for many years.   Strong rooted landscapes are part of humankind’s great collective unconscious and while Turner’s landscapes are traditionally loosely impressionistic, she’s not let go of realism.  That would be difficult to do, growing up in the Valley of the Park, a landscape packed with every imaginable element but the sea.  And understandable, because the urgent impulse to relate this true magnificence in recognizable form is a constant.   But in this show, I see a loosening of that emotional grip;  a loosening that, far from letting go, allows more interpretation of light and form in.   The results may be less specific to geographical place, but not less specific to sense of place.

This may be Felsing’s influence; he has long been encouraging Turner’s painterly explorations.  Felsing’s minimalistic, tonalist palette relates memory of place, Michigan’s more dissolved and meandering open territories.  He describes his work as being adverse to labels, and his paintings are responses to moments.  Viewers of Felsing’s paintings say they often have to step across the room to view his works before realizing their subjects as the paintings, up close, appear abstract.   Felsing thinks of his paintings as anything from portraits, to deductions, to music.

As in Whistler’s nocturnes, there is a meeting of the east–Asian–and Western influences in Felsing’s work.  An essay I found on Whistler’s nocturnes says that for Whistler, “nocturne” is a reference to the tendency of French Romantic painters to relate art to music and a “binary color scheme.”

“I am not interested in reproducing what is visible, but in attempting to make things visible,” says Felsing.  “Not until I visit a place repeatedly, do I feel enough intimacy to attempt a painting; only then does one realize that art grows out of love.”

(This is an active period for Michigan’s “state of mind” in the arts;  playwright Sam Shepard, a long time Michigan resident, is currently enjoying both a successful New York run of a new play and a revival of one of his classics.  His spare, tight stories are almost molecular in their scarce structure and prose.)

Turner, a partner in Trio Fine Art, is taking a spring break with this show, germinating a few new seeds.   She continues to be fully associated with Trio.

No Limit remains on display through March 31.   For information, email Altamira Fine Art at connect@altamiraart.com.

Kaidi Dunstan’s first show took place some 20 years ago, in a small Deloney Street gallery.   In a matter of hours, the exhibit was close to sold out.  Her first collection of oil paintings, a grouping of still lifes and portrayals of the female human figure were so masterfully painted as to remind us of the great Post Impressionists Gauguin and Cezanne.    Dunstan’s compositions were inspired by some of the former’s paintings of Tahitian women, and a small study of a bowl of cherries could have been snatched from the latter’s studio.   Dunstan displayed, with her premiere show, a genius for mixing and applying paint.   Evident, too, was an affinity for capturing exotic color and patterns.

Transported, Dunstan’s first Jackson show in some years, opened February 22 at the Tayloe Piggott Gallery. An opening reception takes place Friday, February 26, and the exhibit remains up through April 17.

Dunstan currently lives in London.  Her life, recently touched by personal tragedy,—she lost her husband to cancer—remains enigmatic to the public at large. Though Dunstan’s work is contemporary and her colors echo those of the Expressionists, her work can be likened to Kiki Smith’s “Victorian”  artistic interpretation of mourning.   Dunstan continues to work on the human figure, but her work has become almost completely abstract.   Faces and human forms are transparent and Dunstan’s paintings are marked by overlapping lines and mosaics of color.   Structurally, she’s turned her paintings inside out.   They look as if they were complicated to create, and they are.  Dunstan uses transfer paper as a material on which to sketch, then transfers that drawing to another surface like canvas or paper.   She can use her original image over and over, and so creates multiple layers of the same image in a single work.

Often, Dunstan’s forms seem to be dissolving before our eyes.

“The human figure holds an enduring fascination for me providing both oddness and mystery,” says Dunstan.  She has incorporated media images of daily disasters into recent work, and is otherwise taking materials from the world at large into the maze of her compositions.   Through the imposed mystery and hints of grief emerge works that, with their bow to biology and minutiae, speak of teeming life.

The large nude double-portrait I purchased at Dunstan’s first show remains the centerpiece of my own little art collection.  And to this day, it’s often mistaken for a Gauguin by those seeing the painting for the first time.