Anyone who knows me knows that I’m far from a wild child. I tend to be calm, controlled, even-tempered. Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to abstract expressionist work like a moth to a flame. And the work of Delray Beach artist Brenda Hope Zappitell is a fire this little moth can’t resist!
In Search of Sunrise II, acrylic with cold wax on panel, 42×42
In her work, Zappitell “surrenders control to the paint, the brush and a visceral process of creative discovery” [sic]. She works spontaneously and rapidly, following the paint as it dances across the canvas.
In Search of Sunrise I, acrylic with cold wax on panel, 42×42
Taking her inspiration from the energy of nature, her palette builds from light, delicate tints to saturated rapid-fire strokes of bold color.
A Matter of Perception, acrylic with cold wax on panel, 48×48
Squiggles and strokes that could almost be graffiti-like still retain their softness, like a flourishing garden in the middle of an urban metropolis.
Embracing Uncertainty II, acrylic with cold wax on panel, 30×36Reverie I, acrylic with cold wax on panel, 48×48
To see more of Brenda Hope Zappitell’s work, please visit her website. You can see her work in person at several galleries across the US– be sure to check her website to see if there is one near you!
Featured image is Translation, acrylic with cold wax on panel, 60×30. All images are via the artist’s website.
This Fall, the leaves in Oregon have been full of riotous color, bursting forth in celebration of the last days of sunshine and warmth. But to find happy energy in the long, grey days of winter, one only need look as far as Dutch painter Guus Kemp’s work.
Just Beautiful, oil on canvas, 36×48
Thick bursts of glossy paint almost leap of the canvas, like fireworks in the sky. This is an artist using the properties of paint– its colors, texture and sheen to bring joy to the viewer. The works elicit emotion, excitement and energy.
Red Man, oil on canvas, 48×60
A Dutch-born artist, now a resident of Houston, Kemp began working with oils in 2008, opening up a whole new means of expression. According to the artist, “My paintings are a reflection of who I am . . . an extrovert who takes life by the horns!”
Female Tornado, oil on canvas, 48×60
Indeed, these large scale, intensely hued works are no shrinking violets. These are pieces that demand your attention. And once they get it, you can’t help but be happy and energized.
Riot of Parrots, oil on canvas, 48×60
To be enlivened by more of Guus’s work, please take a peek at his website. Thank you to Gallery Orange for introducing me to this artist, if you’re in New Orleans, be sure to check them out!
Featured image is Carpe Diem, oil on canvas, 48×48. All images are via the artist’s website.
What do you get when you take one part line sketch + one part abstract expressionism + a flair for fashion? The stunning work of Denver artist/photographer/designer, Leigh Viner. Leigh elevates what could be a simple fashion sketch to fine art by her extraordinary eye for composition, figurative expression and well-placed explosions of color and texture.
Push
Look closely at the women Leigh is painting. These models aren’t faceless mannequins, each one has a story to tell. Their faces are full of subtle emotion– vulnerability, longing, confidence.
PerceiveGatsby
The strength of her work is in it’s simplicity. She is an artist that understands “less is more”. In her hands, a simple line drawing becomes a striking portrait with just a few limited dashes of color.
Draw The LineAbstractions Aside
To see more of Leigh’s work, visit her website. Her work is available for purchase in her Etsy store, jkldesign, which features original art, as well as prints of her artwork and photography. Leigh also writes a delightful blog, CREATE. You’ll be inspired.
Please enjoy this oldie by goodie while I spend the next two weeks camping, packing, visiting with the mom-in-law and moving from WA to OR. See you in September!
It is a huge misnomer that only the rich can afford to be art collectors or even to purchase original work. When most of us think of an “art collector”, we tend to think of the stereotype of the wealthy patron, attending auctions at Christie’s, buying artwork for more than many of us make in a year, heck, in a lifetime. Or maybe you’ve gone into a higher end gallery and seen a price and thought to yourself, “Self, no way you’ll ever be able to afford that.”
Well, I’m here to tell you, the times they are a changin’. It has never been easier or more affordable to purchase original artwork and/or high quality limited editions. No, I’m not talking about the kind of “original art” you buy at the fleamarket or from a sale in a hotel ballroom. I’m referring to original, gallery worthy fine art. The kind you can be proud to hang on your wall.
Here are some suggestions for finding the artwork of your dreams and getting your collection started:
Online galleries/exhibition websites– These are popping up all over the place and many of them represent some very talented artists and you can usually find wonderful work in every price point.
Etsy— Possibly the largest online art & handmade marketplace, complete with a powerful search engine, you’ll find a wide range of artwork available. Many artists are using Etsy to reach a wider audience and as a way to sell their work independantly. ( Note that many of the artists with shops on the “exhibition sites” will have their links on those sites connecting back to their Etsy shops. )
Into the Mystic, photgraphic print, 8″x8″ $30
20×200— this New York City based website works with artists to offer limited editions of original work. Starting at just $20 for the smallest size, 20×200 offers affordable, quality work for newbie collectors.
Well-Being I, limited edition on archival paper, 8″x10″, edition of $200, $20
Papernstitch— I must admit, I’m a little biased toward this one, as it is run by my friend ( and fabulous artist in her own right ), Brittni Wood. Started as a blog, Papernstitch is a growing online exhibition site, curated monthly by Brittni and features handpicked, talented artists, designers and craftspeople. The Papernstitch blog is still going full force and features daily posts from Brittni and a handful of other talented contributors. Papernstitch is definitely worth a look when you are searching for something special.
Open Space by Rachel Austin, original mixed media on canvas, 8″ x 8″, $85
Artwelove— Founded in 2008, ArtWeLove “offers exclusive, museum-quality art editions by today’s inspiring artists”. A big difference with this site is it focuses on offerings from artists whose work is found in top galleries, museums and exhibitions throughout the world. The work is curated and commissioned directly from the artist to ArtWeLove exclusively– you won’t see these prints anywhere else. The site has a “learning engine” similar to Amazon.com, which tracks your artwork preferences over time and makes recommendations for you.
Petal, Pixel and Stain by Nina Tichava, limited edition on archival paper, starting at $50
PoppyTalk Handmade–Founded in 2008 by a Canadian husband and wife team, PoppyTalk Handmade is a monthly curated and “themed” marketplace showcasing artwork, handmade and vintage goods from around the world. Sort of an online street fair/festival, PoppyTalk provides an online marketplace to emerging and indie artists and craftspeople.
Pillow Land, sewn print by Clare Elsaesser of Tastes Orangey, 4.75″ x 4.75″, $20
Stay tuned over the next few days for more suggestions on ways to buy original art on any budget!
Pablo Picasso once asked ( rhetorically, of course ), “Why do two colors, one put next to the other, sing?” Good ol’ Pablo had no answer, nor do I. But they do. Color calls out to us, reaches out to something in our spirit and psyche, evoking emotion. Not every artist gets color, how different hues complement and interact with each other. Michelle Armas gets it. She gets it and puts it on canvas for all the world to see and enjoy.
Sophia
Michelle began professional life, not as an artist, but in graphic design and corporate branding in New York. Talk about baptism by fire! To help cope with the stress of working in NYC, Michelle began painting. After about a year, she decided to trade the corporate world for the art world and began painting full-time.
Rosalia
Her canvases explode with color, joyous, juicy and fluid. It’s as if she’s captured the hues of the warmth of a sunny day, of being a kid again, running and jumping with full abandon.
Arelis
Lovely, sketchy scribbles and seemingly-spontaneous pops of color remind us what it was like before we were “taught” to draw and color– that magical time when we, as young children, were only concerned with the feel of the crayon on paper, fascinated by the variety in our Crayola 64. We weren’t trying to create anything.. we were just completely submerged in the process of creating.
Spooky
Filled with the colors of poppies and popsicles, sundaes and springtime, her work does sing. Sappy, happy love songs, you know, the ones that we all know the words to. Because we recognize this artist’s vocabulary– these are stories of pure color, that speak to the very basic of creative instincts that began deep within all of us. They sing us a sparkling lullaby as we bask in their sunshine, dreaming of coloring in the clouds.
To see more of Michelle Armas’ work, check out her website and be sure to stop by her blog. Her writing style is as cheeky and colorful as her paintings.
Hello Artsies!!! After being out of the blogosphere for the past three weeks or so, I am finally back behind the computer, as it were and it feels great. I have so much to share that I hardly know where to begin.. As many of you know, my hubby George and I recently moved from Florida to Washington. We were incredibly blessed to be able to make a vacation out of our cross-country trek, with stops to see friends, new places and old favorites along the way.
Our first stop ( OK, first fun stop.. we spent the first night in a motel outside Little Rock, AR, not super exciting ) was Tulsa, Oklahoma. George lived in Tulsa for several years and we hadn’t been back since we got married, so decided to take a couple of days to introduce me around to Tulsa friends and places. It just so happened that the friends we were staying with in Tulsa had a friend who owned a gallery, Exhibit by Abersons at Center 1 Tulsa. Said friend of friends happened to be having an opening the night of our arrival in Tulsa, so even though there was a whole gang of people expected for dinner, we popped over to the gallery to have a peeksy.
The exhibit, which opened on May 19th was curated by Master Printer Bill Goldston of Universal Limited Art Editions and follows the progression of Rauschenberg’s print work through the years. Like any good Art History Major, I recognized Rauschenberg’s work and his importance as a painter & print maker, but beyond that, I admit I didn’t know much. Rauschenberg came to the forefront toward the end of the Abstract Expressionist movement and toward the beginning of the Pop Art movement. The prints included in the exhibition lean more toward the Pop end of the spectrum, showing examples of his collaging of photographic images through silk-screen processing showcasing pop culture imagery of the 1950s and 60s, such as Guardian ( 1968 ).
Guardian is compromised of transfer images from Life Magazine, the transfers being done by brushing the images with solvent, placing them on the lithograph stone, then passing the stone through the printing press. These are works that demand a closer look, there is so much going on, even little details are significant. George enjoyed scrutinizing the work ( see photo below! ), which are so accessible that they seem just as relevant today as they must have 50 years ago.
The work George is pondering is Bazaar, an intagilio print and lithograph on paper created in 1984. Other highlights for me included, Aquafix ( below ), a haunting image created by Rauschenberg in 1981. As the years progressed, his work evolved into cleaner, more simplified compositions as exemplified in Aquafix and Lotus VII, both favorites of mine from the exhibit.
Lotus VII ( above ) is part of Rauschenberg’s final series of prints, completed only a month prior to his death. The Lotus images were created for an exhibition of Rauschenberg’s work in Beijing and are compilations of photographs taken by the artist on two trips to China. The photographs were transferred to panels, then an intagilio process, photogravure, was used to tie the images together visually. The results are stunning images, which surely pleased Rauschenberg as his final legacy.
If you are in the Tulsa area, be sure to check out the show at Exhibit by Abersons. If you can’t get to Tulsa, Rauschenberg’s work can be found in many major museum collections with images, biography and other info available online, check out the websites of MOMA, The Tate, the Guggenheim and many more.
A polarizing persona in the art world, Jackson Pollock, called “Jack the Dripper” by some, figured largely in the Abstract Expressionist movement in America. His work is such of the “love it” or “hate it” variety and it can often strike a chord with those who least expect it.
Untitled, No. 3 by Jackson Pollock
I remember taking a basic Art Appreciation class early on in college, with a good friend from high school. Said friend was very conservative in most aspects and usually preferred the more realistic artwork we studied– but she loved Pollock’s work. There was just something about it that she responded to.
Untitled, No. 8 by Jackson Pollock
Pollock’s process, referred to as “action painting”, involved several aspects that were innovative at the time– Pollock laid his canvases unstretched out on the floor, instead of stretched on an easel, utilizing household paints instead of more traditional oils and instead of brushing the paint on, dipped whatever was on hand into the paint and then slashed & dripped it onto the canvas.
Green Silver by Jackson Pollock
I remember being intrigued by Pollock and his work, but it wasn’t until I saw one of his pieces up close & personal, in an Abstract Expressionist exhibition at the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, that I truly became a fan. Seeing the monumental scale of the work, the depth of the paint and being able to recognize that yes, there truly was a method to his madness in all those drips and splatters, sealed the deal for me.
I have a weakness for Abstract Expressionism. I’m not sure what it is about the paintings of that time and the artists who created them, but there is just something about these works that move me. Maybe it is the experimentation, or the emotionality behind them or the rebellion against a post-WWII saccharine society.
The last of the original group of the Abstract Expressionists, Hedda Sterne has passed on. Perhaps a lesser known member, her work was still widely collected and is held in the collections of several prominent museums.
I have a weakness for Abstract Expressionism. I’m not sure what it is about the paintings of that time and the artists who created them, but there is just something about these works that move me. Maybe it is the experimentation, or the emotionality behind them or the rebellion against a post-WWII saccharine society.