Oct. 1

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Pastel Society Exhibit
Mable House
Oct. 8 - Nov. 10

August 6: Acrylic in "B/W" New Artist Sergio Decoster

Artist: Sergio Decoster

Title: Naturaleza Minimalist IV

Year: 2009

Size: 80 x 80

Medium: mixto sobre lienzo [sobre lienzo = on canvas]

Price: 900 Eur

I discovered this artist by googling famous acrylic paintings since that is your current medium of choice. I found an interesting, brief article comparing acrylic painting to art painting. You may have known this, but I didn't: "artists can add a gel medium to acrylic paint to enhance its texture."

Anyhow, from this article, I followed a link to "Examples of Acrylic paintings," where I saw this artist:
Sergio Decoster.

He's a young artist in Spain. What struck me about his acrylic works is how dichromatic they appear--and we know from your experiences how hard those distinctions are to make. I really liked several of his images in a series called Naturaleza Minimalista, including 78 paintings. I've included some of my favorites below.

Bio
Name: Sergio Decoster
Born: 1975
Location: Oviedo-Girona, Spain
Training: Self-trained expressionist painter
Artistic Activity: Semi-pro
Recognition level: Mid-career artists
Descriptive Tags: Acrylic paintings, brown, landscape art, representational

Title: Matorral Empordanes II [Matorral = Thicket]

Year: 2009

Size: 81 x 100 cm

Medium: Acrilico sobre lienzo

Price: $1500.00 Eur

Title: Claro en el Bosque (Translation: Clearing in the woods)

Year: 2009

Size: 100 x 100 cm

Medium: Acrilico sobre lienzo

Price: Not for sale

Title: Valle

Year: 2009

Size: 60 x 60 cm

Medium: Acrilico sobre lienzo

Price: $500 Eur

Title: El Refugio del Silencio

Year: 2009

Size: 60 x 60 cm

Medium: Acrilico sobre lienzo

Price: $500 Eur

What I think is interesting:

• The success in technique with the color
• The use of "dripping" in the images
• The realistic trees in his series versus the more "cartoonish" ones
• How completely different his other series are

UPCOMING EVENTS:
National Juried Exhibit
Mable House
August 21-Sept. 28

July 2: Matechuk Textile Artist

Artist: Judy Matechuk

Title: Caribou Morning

Classifications: Textile art, fabric art/manipulation, applique, snippet art, creative stitching, sand carving
Year: 2009

Judy Matechuk is from Nova Scotia but has called the Yukon home since she moved there in 1968. She is a textile artisst, using fabric for "painting" and sandblasting/sandbrushing images on the framing glass of the fabric scenes to create "ghostly images."

Patchwork Autumn (You can just barely see the glass etching on this--see bison in upper center)

Engine 69 at Summit Lake

June 4: Abstracts With Hidden Pictures? Considering Kandinksy

I've only heard the name Kandinsky; I'm not familiar with his works, but I find them really interesting. I'm basically going to copy some of images and texts from a  review by Magdalena Dabrowski on The Glyphs site.  She describes Kandinsky's (his first name was Wassily!) compositions as "the culmination of his efforts to create a 'pure painting' that would provide the same emotional power as a musical composition"

I've picked two for us to consider.

Title: Composition IV
Completed: 1911

Here's Dobrowski's description: (highlighting mine)

The painting is divided abruptly in the center by two thick, black vertical lines. On the left, a violent motion is expressed through the profusion of sharp, jagged and entangled lines. On the right, all is calm, with sweeping forms and color harmonies. We have followed Kandinsky's intention that our initial reaction should result from the emotional impact of the pictorial forms and colors. However, upon closer inspection the apparent abstraction of this work proves illusory. The dividing lines are actually two lances held by red-hatted Cossacks. Next to them, a third, white-bearded Cossack leans on his violet sword. They stand before a blue mountain crowned by a castle. In the lower left, two boats are depicted. Above them, two mounted Cossacks are joined in battle, brandishing violet sabers. On the lower right, two lovers recline, while above them two robed figures observe from the hillside. Kandinsky has reduced representation to pictographic signs in order to obtain the flexibility to express a higher, more cosmic vision. The deciphering of these signs is the key to understanding the theme of the work. An awareness of Kandinsky's philosophy leads to a reading of Composition IV as expressing the apocalyptic battle that will end in eternal peace. Composition IV works on multiple levels: initially, the colors and forms exercise an emotional impact over the viewer, without need to consider the representational aspects. Then, the decoding of the representational signs involves the viewer on an intellectual level. I find that I can no longer view Composition IV without automatically translating the imagery to representational forms. Yet this solving of the work's mysteries does not draw the life from it; rather, the original emotional impact is strengthened in a new way.

Title: Composition VI
Completed: 1913

Here is what Dobrowski says:

Standing below the six by ten foot expanse of Composition VI, the viewer cannot help but brace himself against the impending crash of a tidal wave of colliding forms and colors. And, in fact, the theme of this work is The Deluge. Kandinsky defined three centers to this Composition, which are discerned sequentially by the viewer. Initially, the eye is drawn to the pink and white vortex in the left center. The multiple lines representing torrential rain carry the focus to the right section, where a darker center of discordant forms and stronger rain lines adds to the tumult. From this second center, the eye slides to the lower center, where a blue form outlined in black cowers below the torrents of rain and crashing waves. In this work, Kandinsky has pushed further beyond representation to the very limits of abstraction.

I discovered these pics looking at the rooms in The Hermitage which is in St Petersburg Russia.

What I find interesting:

• The images in the abstract
• Why make the images abstract
• The feeling of the pieces
• The choices of the colors

May 7: Matisse Used Scissors?

I had no idea Matisse used scissors. I'm familiar with his simply shaped silhouetted figures, but I always thought they were painted. It wasn't until I was looking up collage and mixed media that I discovered he used paper cutouts and then "translated" them into ceramic tiles, paintings, prints, stained glass and stage sets. Even better he did this as his creative outlet when he found it difficult to paint while recovering from surgery.

He called his technique "drawing with scissors"--he cut shapes from paper painted with an opaque watercolor called gouache, pinned the shapes on the wall of his studio and rearranged them until he discovered a satisfactory composition.

He put the images he produced in a book called Jazz. For them, he used the pochoir technique--using stencils of his designs and applying thick ink to paper.

This one is called Icarus. Why do you think the heart is red. . . ?

Here are some more images from Jazz, with appropriately, Miles Davis playing in the background. Cool, huh?

Here's another really nice video showing Matisse's art. . .I wish I knew the names of some of these. I like the one of the woman in the billowed blouse with objects on her sleeves and the one that looks like an open window. Such huge variations in detail. . .

What I think is interesting:

• The variations of Matisse's style
• The cutting out of paper as a form and as a new outlet crafted from "handicap"--besides Monet's loss of eyesight working for him, what other artist's has this worked for?
• Collage--this isn't really a representation of it. . . but it's what drove me here.

And check this out--a kid's art lesson plan based on Matisse.

LOCAL ART FESTIVALS
Shady Days in Gay (~45 miles south of Atlanta)
Art/Crafts
May 1-May 2
706-977-8548

April 2: Murals in Philadelphia

I did not know that Philadelphia was considered the mural capital. Too bad we didn't realize it when we lived nearby!


There's an ongoing Mural Arts Program there that works with more than 100 communities a year to create murals that reflect the culture of the neighborhoods. There's data base that's dedicated to archiving locations and posting them: http://www.muralfarm.org


Here are a few:

Title: Holding Grandmother's Quilt

2004
Artist: Donald Gensler
Location: 3912 & 3932 Aspen St.

Title: Metamorphoris: Blueprint to End Homelessness

Artist: Josh Sarantitis

Location: 1360 Ridge Ave.

Started/Completed: 4/30/2001-9/29/2001

What I Think Is Interesting:
Community Art
Average people working with artists (?)
The Ongoing program & focus

LOCAL FESTIVALS

Pinewoods Bird Festival
Thomasville, GA (about 6 hours south--not far from Valdosta)
Wonderful activities for amateur & advanced birders alike!
April 10
229-226-2344

89 Annual Thomasville Rose Show & Festival
229-227-7020
April 22 - April 24

Inman Park Festival
Atlanta's biggest Street Market, Live entertainment, Dance Festival, juried arts/crafts
770-635-3711
April 24-April 25