Posts Tagged ‘Landscape Painting’
“The subject of my works is paint, the motif is the image, the illusions, the beauty of landscape. I never want to forget that what I am looking at is paint on canvas.” ~ Louisa McElwain
Altamira Fine Art opens its summer arts season with Louisa McElwain’s “A Painters Dream,” an exhibition of 19 new paintings by the renowned landscapist. The show runs May 23rd – June 5th, 2012; an artist’s reception takes place Friday, May 25th, 2012.
McElwain, a New Mexico native, describes herself as an abstract artist. This new show advances that claim; and it’s a correct claim. But, as I write this, and as I view her new canvases, I can’t help but think, “Damn, these are radically charged, super-painted works! And they remind me of Vincent Van Gogh’s foaming, tumultuous and emotive paintings.” One of my favorite reference books describes abstract painting as “having artistic content that depends on intrinsic form rather than on pictorial representation.” McElwain is representing these landscapes; we can see them. But a vortex—must be that New Mexico magic—of energy churns up place, color and light in each of her works. In “Extraterrestrial,” pictured above, a supernatural form volcanically takes off from the earth–it’s in the sky, becoming the sky.
The Teton County Library has selected Brian Brush and Yong Ju Lee’s Filament Mind as its new lobby entrance (designed by Gilday Architects) public art installation.
“Suspended threads of gossamer fiber optic cables will span the length of the new lobby, and each thread connects on the wall next to the label of a unique library subject category,” says the Library. “The cables will interface with the library’s own “mind,” the Wyoming State Library catalog. Each time a library user throughout Wyoming searches a person, place, idea or book, an individual fiber optic thread fires a glowing light or color related to the library subject category returned from that search. In this way, Filament Mind resembles a luminous “connectome,” or map, of synaptic brain activity, firing away the thoughts of people extended through the mind of the library.”
Get a “Sneak Peek” at the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s (NMWA) upcoming exhibition, Rugged Impressionism: The Masterful Field Studies of Carl Rungius, on Monday, April 30, at 11:30 am. Adam Duncan Harris, NMWA’s Curator of Art, will be on hand for a special preview of this show that takes an in-depth look at Rungius’ intriguing artistic process. The talk takes place in the Museum’s Kuhn Gallery, and participants will get a first, special look at Rungius’ spectacular landscapes before the show opens to the public. NMWA is home to this country’s largest public collection of Rungius’ work.
The Museum’s artist biography tells us that “Rungius’ ability to capture the heart-stopping chance encounter between man and animal sets him apart from many of his talented colleagues. Equally accomplished as a painter of wildlife and landscapes, Rungius quickly developed an enthusiastic following among fellow artists and patrons.” The talk is free for members, or with Museum admission. www.wildlifeart.org
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Visiting artist Ricki Arno wants kids and parents to know that she will be teaching a special class at the Art Association this summer. June 25 – 28, join Arno as she takes you on an artistic, humorous creative journey: Cirque Des Tetons Workshop! The class is for kids in grades 6 and up, and parents, aunts, uncles, even grandparents are encouraged to sign up along with the kids.
The class will create a “dazzling mixed media CIRQUE DES TETONS, complete with weird side show characters, daring high wire and trapeze artists, a handsome or beautiful Ring Master, ferocious wild animals, amazing jugglers, a supernatural magician, colorful clowns, and whatever else tickles and delights our fancies,” says Arno. “A collaborative, ongoing “Circus Street Art Wall” will capture the excitement.”
To find out more, and to sign up, contact the Art Association at (307) 733-6379. Those interested in the class are also welcome to contact Arno at rarno@nyc.rr.com, or phone (917) 741-4834. http://www.artassociation.org/education/childrens/s12-69-Cirque.html
The Grand Teton Association Presents the 2012 “Artists in the Environment” Plein Air Summer Series Schedule, Grand Teton National Park
Gregory I. McHuron
Date: June 9, 2012
Location: Blacktail Pond
Time: 4:00 – 7:00 pm
Gregory I. McHuron has been painting wildlife and landscapes throughout the United States and Canada for 35 years. A Syracuse native, he was raised in Colorado, Wyoming, Alaska and California.
McHuron has long painted Jackson’s surrounding area and the West, capturing a wide variety of subjects. He is active in many arts organizations, including the Wyoming Artists Association, Wind River Artist Association, Scottsdale School of the Arts and The Lodge at Palisades. His paintings are featured at the National Museum of Wildlife Art and the CM Russell Show. Grand Teton National Park, Isle Royale National Park, and Gates of the Artic National Park and Preserve include McHuron’s work in their permanent collections.
“People have said that they are immediately struck by my strong sense of design–then, the interesting color combinations, juxtapositions, and light and dark patterns,” says McHuron. “The common thread in all my work is that I was there.” McHuron often puts himself in extreme conditions in order to get the painting he wants. Standing in rivers and on the edge of cliffs, bobbing in a raft down the Grand Canyon, or accidentally finding himself in the middle of a buffalo stampede aren’t unusual circumstances.
McHuron co-founded “Artists in the Environment” with landscape artist Conrad Schwiering. He is represented by Jackson’s Trailside Galleries.
Marshall Noice’s paintings, wildly and emotionally vibrant, link contemporary Western art to early 20th century Fauvism. Those artists were known as “Les Fauves,” or “Wild Beasts.”
This I knew. But I’m finding out new and very cool things about Montana-based Expressionist painter Marshall Noice, whose new show of works Shadows & Light, opens at Altamira Fine Art on August 16, 2011. The show runs through August 30, 2011 and and opening reception will be held Thursday, August 18, 5-8:00 pm.
If you have an aptitude for rhythm memory and a fine sense of pitch, you may very well also be an excellent photographer or painter. Noice’s creative path includes music, photography and, most successfully, painting. In a former life he was a drummer, touring and opening for acts as big as the Allman Brothers Band, Cheap Trick, and Tower of Power. Eventually Noice quit the road, moved to Montana and discovered the great photography of Paul Strand, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams.
Noice the photographer came upon the paintings of fellow Montanan Theodore Waddell. Riveted, Noice c0mmenced 100 paintings of Blackfeet artifacts. “After those 100 paintings, I’d found what I was looking for in terms of an art process,” Noice says. “Color doesn’t trump composition in my work. They’re pretty much on equal footing….I have spent a lifetime relating to the landscape in one way or another…I get direct inspiration from being in nature.”
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Jackson Hole artist Jennifer L. Hoffman opens her new show of works, Intrinsic Nature, at Trio Fine Art on Thursday, August 17, 2011. The show runs through September 3, 2011, and an artist’s reception takes place at Trio on Thursday, August 18th, 5-8:00 pm. Twenty-four new works will be included; most are pastels but Hoffman plans to include oil paintings and at least one drawing.
Hoffman says she’s never felt such energy for exploration and pushing her artistic envelope. Noted forher soft, tonalist light and muted palette, Hoffman’s paintings evoke real emotion. This show embraces the artist’s love and examination of “close-in” places: aspen trunks, winding streams and channels, ridgelines, snow and her exquisite, cloud-soft skies.
Nobody does Wyoming sky like Hoffman. Violet cumulus clouds reflect purple winter mountains and
bare trees. She’s a lover of shadow, of rubbing nature’s elements together, rich with texture, spare of detail. A delicate, misty scrim floats over Hoffman’s landscapes.
“Sometimes I find myself noodling around, adding branches and twigs, putting in more and more,” Hoffman notes. “The next day, I come back to the studio and wipe it all back down. It’s not always easy to make things say a lot simply, but that is what I find I want in my paintings. That is what the title of my show is about – trying to extract the essential inspiration from all the detail of nature, and of life….The more I paint, the more I want to paint.”
A final note: Hoffman’s landscapes are part of New York’s Salmagundi 34th Annual Juried Painting & Sculpture Exhibition, featuring works by non-members. View her work there through August 19, 2011. Congrats, Jen! www.triofineart.com
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Cayuse Western Americana “has assembled a fun assortment of maps from Jackson Hole, Grand Teton Park, Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and more.” Artists include Jo Mora, Jolly Lingren and Tom Carrigen. Western jeweler Dawn Bryfogle will be there, too; she’s expanded her range and plans to show big pieces, made of sterling, 14K gold fill and semi precious stones, all with her signature attention to detail.
Stop in to Cayuse (guess when?) Thursday, August 18th, 5-8:00 pm. 307.739.1940 www.cayusewa.com.
