Artists Describing Their Art:
David Mihaly - The first series here represents notable historical and pop culture figures, many with Ohio roots, presented in a contemporary style. Each portrait can be seen as a celebration of the individual depicted as well as a meditation on the difference between the bygone era of actual achievement in the arts versus todays culture of instant celebrity. Also included here is a series of textured jazz musician portraits. Each musician painting was made using a layered acrylic technique, evoking the smoky atmosphere of the clubs where the music was born....
Denise Seyhun - The glowing energy of waves and the foaming seas captivate my soul, and as a result my seascapes, waterfalls, and riverscapes bare witness to my love and admiration for the force and elegance of bodies of water. Main character in my oil paintings is water, which deeply fascinates me, not only as true beauty but also with its transparent colors reflecting in constant motion. As an artist my purpose is to accomplish the portrayal of the emotional tones and depths of shades of truth that are displayed in continuous movement. For this particular reason the unseen and untold dimensions that the undertones and the overtones of bodies of water allow me to experiment with a wide array of colors on my palette. Consequently, my goal is to never repeat myself in my artistic journey as I continue to play with many shades of reflections in water until I have compiled a finite collection of all shades of water....
Ana Maria Hidalgo - These paintings I have submitted belong to the sequence of paintings I have called "Sensorial Hearts". This sequence is being shown at the present time in Chile. I am showing 13 large paintings done in acrylic on canvas. The subject has to do with the world of human feelings, symbolized by the shape of a heart, which is represented figuratively only once in while on the work of art. Human feelings as subject matter constitute an excellent excuse for developing innumerable contents that finally conform the creative act. Color plays an important role in the making of the work of art. Its construction begins with deep ochre, from whom several figures emerge, concluding strokes of pure and lively color, that finish the work of art, ending in the creation of an complete body. The creation of primogenial signs that relate to ancestral human expression and human origin is one of the objectives of this work. This paintings also have to do with the creation of space and vital cosmos where the observer can recreate himself looking for shapes that originate upon his own subjectivity. On the other side, the exhibition also includes the presentation of some poems written by the ...
Jerry Ross - Manifesto of American Verismo By Jerry Ross, 2012 "American verismo", a movement that I have recently founded, is a catch-all phrase for an artistic style that draws its main inspiration from Italian art, both classical and modern. There is an implied nostalgia for work done "dal vero" (after life) whether classical (Raphael, Rubens, or Caravaggio, etc.) or 19th century (the Tuscan I Macchiaioli school) or more contemporary. Verismo is somewhat akin to contemporary "atelier realism" but the latter has been criticized for an academic uniformity and its over attention to details. American verismo is more poetic and linked to post-impressionism, the Milan-based Scapigliatura ('wild hair') movement, and the I Machiaioli's commitment to social issues. But like atelier realism, American verismo is associated with a painterly sketching style, use of broad brushstrokes, and the alla prima, "direct attack" technique of painting. It is also linked to all'aperto (open air) impressionist-style landscape painting. In short, to pleinairism which has become widely popular in recent years. I first introduced the term during several classes he taught at the Maude Kerns Art Center in Eugene and then later at the "Angels Fight Road Art Center" plein air retreat...
Kimmie Hamm - Everywhere you dream to go can become a part of you and everywhere you have been is a part of you. I am an explorer and optimist at heart, so when I set out to create something one word always comes to mind: Possibilities I feel that through art I can explore the visions in my mind, everything from a small flower or blade of grass to distant worlds filled with whimsy and thoughts of what ifaEUR|aEUR|. Culturally I have two aspects that influence me one being my Native American ancestry and the other my German immigrant ancestry. I am deeply rooted in the beauty and wonderment of nature. My wise grandmother told me if you have strong roots your sprit can fly anywhere and still return home. That saying has always stuck with me and in many ways sparked my imagination. The explorer in me must come from my immigrant ancestry. My great grandfatheraEURtms family traveled to America on a steam ship in 1874. I can imagine them traveling for what must have seemed like an eternity. I often contemplate what they must have been thinking, and try to express the excitement of the unknown and the anticipation ...
Leonard Parker - Dr. Leonard W. Parker's artistic style lends realism to his landscapes and seascapes by viewing both from a distance or up close! As a university professor, he has grasped the techniques of oil painting from his own personal research and study. His works have been displayed locally, but his desire is to gain wider notariety. Parker has adopted the phrase "'Scapes in oil" to tell both buyers and sellers that his greatest love is representing as real as possible God's wonderful world in which we live! One would desire to display his landscapes and seascapes in a variety of settings. Dr. Parker also has had commissioned art from photographs. Buyers of his artwork have come to cherish their original oil painting on canvas as heirlooms. ...
Amanda Scott - About the Artist Amanda Scott has been a dedicated artist for over ten years. She has been a self directed student taking classes, learning from other artists, and sitting in on hundreds of University lectures while working as an Art Model. The diversity of her experience supports the diversity of her art in style and medium. Her muse is usually the female figure. Her works have been exhibited in Local coffee shops, Open air Art Walks, and group shows. She is resident of Maui. Her work can be found at Maui Hands Gallery. Artist Statement I make art because for awhile I am transported to a fantasy world of my own creation. I've often wondered if I could be more practical, less of a dreamer. However, every time I've thought of giving away my paints it felt like I was dying. My paintings celebrate and explore humankind. My journey as an artist is inspired by the light that imbues one's life when one pursues their joy....
S Tofu - My artwork has two main focuses; mixed media collage and landscape painting. I have always used old maps in my collages and incorporated map inspired ideas into my art. In January of 2001, I experimented with a collage using only maps. The success of the experiment and the resulting piece changed the direction of my work. Much of the map work takes its inspiration from other traditional art forms using repetitive patterns, in particular quilts and other textiles. In 2009 the patterns used in my collage work started to take on a more painterly appearance. In 2011 I spent the entire year creating a large-scale piece called the 2011 Project. Essentially I created a map of the year by making a piece of art on each and every day of 2011. The work is made up of 365 individual, mixed media pieces, each 4"x4" (10x10 cm) in size. In many ways the 2011 Project was also my sketchbook for future work. I experimented with new materials and subject matter for many of the 365 pieces. Those ideas have been playing out since 2011. 2012 saw a solo show that was a travel-themed mixed media installation called Imagining ...
Chris Gould - Never the studious young boy, I spent most of my class time drawing sketches in the pages of my notebooks. Santa Anna, raising his sword in the battle for the Alamo buried deep within my notebook jumped out and attacked my father one evening while he help me with my homework. He counter attacked by hurling, "you will never be anything doing stuff like this", and I believed him. In school I loved art class, excelled and looked forward to it but never believed that I could be something there. When I went to college I focused on art and graduated near the top of my class with a BFA, and still believed that I would never be anything. After all, all I needed was a degree. With diploma in hand I entered the professional world with the ambition to climb the corporate ladder. Climb and climb to be something. Reaching to be something, I fall on art as therapy for the stress and anxiety that being something brings. Now I am something and nothing at the same time because I don't believe any more. And now I want to be something else. It is here in this ambition ...
Patrick Lynch - Inspired by the English Pre-Raphaelites and the writings of late Victorian Kentucky poets Madison J. Cawein and Robert Burns Wilson, my paintings are of the eternal human quest for love set in a lost Gothic world inhabited primarily by women who are caught in the contradictions of their dreams and how they have found their world to actually be. Many of the inhabitants are haunted, but not by supernatural forces. When ghosts appear, they are not always the spirits of lost loved ones, more often, they are the ghosts of an idea or dream-for example, the idea that one can find a lifelong and true love or of that one person who simply cannot be forgotten. The women who spread their wings are not angels in the expected sense; their wings are a manifestation of the forces that shape their lives. Men are sometimes present in my images, often in an embrace of acceptance and partnership as they share the immutable longing for love. At other times, men are found at that pivotal moment of undesired separation or are reaching out to comfort those in pain. But not every moment is one of tragic endings. There are moments ...
Elizabeth Bogard - My art is about life. I Paint Life When Life Is Art, expressing what I see around me aEUR" people, places, moments in time - subjects I connect with on some level aEUR" intellectual, spiritual, or emotional. I find it better to let the subject come to me rather than deliberately seeking it. I believe that an artist must experiment in order to grow. Lately I am creating stylish collages using torn and cut papers from vintage and antique sheet music. As Pablo Picasso said, I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else. When this happens to me, the results are exciting. E. K. Bogard ...
Bob Cauley - For centuries masters of art have influenced pupils of study to expand upon style and skill. I have been most influenced by Jackson Pollock and the Impressionists. I mostly work in oils, usually mixing the paint on the canvas, not on the pallet. My abstracts give me a sense of freedon.. They are similar to Pollock's work with my own little twist, free-flowing paint and style. When I create a landscape, it gives me a place to escape from reality. I have had an interest in art since my childhood years. But I did not attempt to create my own works of art until the age of 38. My inspirations come from my dreams and my vivd imagination. I much enjoy creating my art pieces. When I am finished with a piece, a great sense of satisfaction follows. This is the very same feeling that comes over me when I see others enjoying and appreciating my art....
Sheila Mccarron - Sheila McCarron was born in Co. Monaghan, Ireland. She currently lives and works from her studio in Dublin. She received a BA Hons Degree in Visual Communication from the University of Ulster, Belfast in 1999. She has exhibited widely throughout Ireland, her work has also found homes with international buyers. ...
Suzanne Gegna - I AM INTERESTED IN THE WORLD WITHIN AND THE PASSAGEWAY FROM INNER TO OUTER AS WELL AS OUTER TO INNER. I LOVE THE USE OF COLOR AND FORM IN ABSTRACT ART AND IT FREES ME AND I HOPE THE VIEWER TO FIND A PERSONAL CONNECTION WITH THE FINISHED ARTWORK. I ALSO USE WHIMSY TO CONVEY A CONCEPT AND HOPE TO REMIND THE OBSERVER THAT WHAT WE SEE IN THE MOST LITERAL SENSE IS PERHAPS NOT ALL THAT IS REAL. OFTEN I BELIEVE SIMPLICITY IS THE BEST WAY TO EXPRESS COMPLEXITY.... ...
Jacquie Vaux - My goal as an artist, is to present a beautiful veiw of wildlife in the form of fine art paintings.I strive to show the vivid colors and patterns in the most appealing compositions. I also demonstrate natural behavior and some element of habitat that most beautifully presents this subject manner in the most visually exciting format. I respect and appreciate the wildlife I depict in my paintings. I study and work on improving my technical expertise. This is a never ending process which I address on a daily basis. I have a strong work ethic which allows me to stay focused in order to complete large complex works. I look forward to painting larger paintings of big animals such as elephants, giraffes and cape buffaloes. I am also eager to paint more botanical and floral paintings. ...
David Welsh - David Welsh was born in Derbyshire (1937), and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. Now retired, his main career has been as a teacher, but painting has never been far behind, especially in the last ten years. He enjoys portrait painting as well as landscape work where his specialities are the effect of light, often on water, and interesting and dramatic clouds and skies. He has always worked in oils, a medium that he finds very suitable for all the effects he wants to achieve. He has been much influenced by a group of contemporary English artists, who are not Avant-garde, but rather proceed from the Impressionist tradition. He admires, among others, artists like Roy Petley, Fred Cuming, Ken Howard and Bernard Dunstan. ...