See What Anahit Burke is Creating!

 

Art Piece: 

“Cottage”

Acrylic

 

About the Artist:

Anahit Burke

Anahit Burke currently resides in Texas, where she enjoys painting in the abstract style as well as painting landscape art.    Anahit believes painting landscapes is the best way to underline the beauty of the nature we were so fortunate to inherit.  The medium she uses mostly is acrylic as she finds that acrylics brighten the painting more than any other mediums.  Anahit also specializes in ancient iconography.

To view more of Anahit’s work and the work of all our fine artists, visit us at www.contemporaryartgalleryonline.com.   Also check out our monthly art competitions.

 

 

 



Subjectivity of Oil Paintings by Alexandra Dailey

Art by Sharon B. Hawkshawe

On Saturday while at work, I decided to stroll around the galleries and peruse the 370+ oil paintings that are now adorning the walls at The Crooked Tree Arts Center. I found myself particularly drawn to the super realistic pieces, the ones reminiscent of the Flemish still-lifes that contained teapots, flowers, dishes, ribbons, and memento mori. Some are so exquisitely conveyed that I believed I could reach into the frame and touch the depicted tablecloths. Some pieces display more contemporary subject matter while still retaining the true-to-life quality that I revel at. Other paintings deviate from realism and strive to convey emotion, power, and transience through less defined lines, blurred colors, and heavy brushstrokes laden with oil paint. These too are beautiful; I personally find beauty in both approaches—the precise, and the implied, impressionistic. After walking the galleries and seeing each painting, I resituated myself at the front desk. While seated I overheard our curator professing her like of the impressionistic pieces, which struck a chord in me. All of these paintings are unique, and quite amazing, yet each one of us has our preferences for which piece and which approach is best or most successful. The subjectivity of oil paintings. In this world we cannot escape subjectivity, especially when it comes to art. To me the clean lines and realistic paintings are preferable, but to someone else, the opposite style may seem superior. I wonder, even now, how the juror is going to select the best piece. How will he decided which is better, realistic or impressionistic? I am thankful that it is not up to me to decide. And thankfully I get to enjoy both ends of the oil painting spectrum at my place of employment. I don’t believe I could say which approach and style is overall better, or best. Each has its merits and its supporters. Which style do you prefer?

To get information about the OPA exhibit at The Crooked Tree Arts Center visit www.crookedtree.org.

Article Submitted by Alexandra Dailey

To read more articles written by Alexandra Dailey, visit http://alexdailey.wordpress.com.

Season of the Rose by F. M. Kearney

I think a rose was the first flower I ever photographed. With two major blooms a year, in June and September, there are plenty of opportunities to shoot this popular flower.

At this time of year, the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden in the New York Botanical Garden comes alive with 4,000 rose plants in over 600 varieties. With so many subjects to choose from, the roses that line the trellis around the garden often go unnoticed. That's too bad, because the trellis can add a very nice decorative element to the photo. I usually try to shoot these types of photos on overcast days to avoid harsh shadows and heavy contrast. The horizontal image is an example of this kind of lighting. The vertical was shot on a sunny day. It was a picture I almost didn't want to take. However, the sun was only shining on the foliage in the background and not the roses themselves. This separation in lighting not only makes the image work, I feel it adds a degree of vibrancy that's lacking in the other photo. Sometimes, it's the situations you least expect that yield the best results.

Today’s blog is dedicated to the wonderful memory of my mother, who passed away this year.  She would have been 91 today.

Article Contributed by:
F.M. Kearney is a fine art nature photographer, specializing in unique floral and landscape images. To see more of his work, please visit www.starlitecollection.com.

Fine Little Day by Jayme Catalano

 

Fine Little Day

Fine Little Day, a Swedish store online, stocks whimsical, delightful, and interesting home goods, gifts, and jewelry. Founded by artist Elisabeth Dunker, the company calls themselves a “sprawling and happily inconsistent company” with an ambition “to include art and design in your everyday, joyful life.” In addition to their impeccable collection of textiles, wallpapers, ceramics, and books, the store stocks vintage birch bark shoes, mini lederhosen, art prints, and beautiful cutting boards. Best of all, the store ships free worldwide. Happy Shopping!

 

Article Submitted by:

-Jayme Catalano
Canary Public Relations
www.canarypublicrelations.com

Canary Public Relations is a boutique firm specializing in marketing, branding and public relations for small businesses.  They specialize in working with fine artists, designers, and creative professionals of all types.

 

See What Betty McGlamary is Creating

Art Piece: 

“Looking for Lunch”

Oil

18” x 24”

 

About the Artist:

Betty McGlamary

Betty McGlamery lives in Marietta, Georgia and works primarily in oils and acrylics. She enjoys plein air painting and has been spending half of her time painting in South Georgia. She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Art Education from Florida State University and has been painting for most of forty years. She is a member of Gallery 4463, Acworth, GA.

To view more of Betty’s work and the work of all our fine artists, visit us at www.contemporaryartgalleryonline.com.   Also check out our monthly art competitions.

 

See What Ashley Peters is Creating

Art Piece: 

“Stacking the Odds”

5”  x  7"  

Linocut, Acrylic Wash and Pen

About the Artist:

Ashley Peters :

Ashley was born in the small town of Millington Tennessee, and grew up in Ohio.  Ashley attended Fort Wayne Indiana at the University of Saint Francis.  There she fell into printmaking illustration, which ignited her creative fire. 

About Ashley’s Art Style:

Ashley’s  art consists of a combination of printmaking (Woodcuts & Linocuts) and illustration, (Pen, Ink & wash).  The pieces are often intimate, particularly the elongated sizes. The imagery comes from that of nature including things such as trees, landscapes, a natural female form,(Ashley’s image of Mother Earth) as well as woodland creatures such as her fox friend and fleeting deer.   Ashley loves using linear edges to create a fluid motion and overall balancing opposites. The lines are harsh and raw. They cut through the space.  Ashley then implements colors found in nature, often muted.   Ashley’s works are about her observations of the world around her; as it changes and evolves as well as what is left behind in the process.

To view more of Ashley’s work and the work of all our fine artists, visit us at www.contemporaryartgalleryonline.com.   Also check out our monthly art competitions.

 



Creative Flower Photography Tip #5 Embrace the Backlight by F.M. Kearney

Flowers are usually best photographed on overcast days. The cloud cover acts as a giant softbox, effectively evening out the light by eliminating all dark shadows. Sometimes, this flat, contrast-free lighting is exactly what I'm looking for. Other times, when I'm in the mood to spice things up a bit, I seek out the harshest, most direct lighting I can find. I don't necessarily want this type of light on my subject, but rather behind it to create a nice backlight.

While waiting for the rose garden to open one morning in the New York Botanical Garden, I noticed a row of white shrub roses near the entrance. Nothing about them really caught my eye, and under normal circumstances, I probably wouldn't even have given them a second look. But since I had time to kill, I figured I might as well try to see if I could find something interesting about them to shoot. After surveying them under standard frontal lighting, I began to suspect that my initial assessment was correct: "Nothing to see here, move on!" But, I was absolutely amazed when I walked around to the other side and saw just how much better they looked backlit. No longer static and boring, they literally came to live in this dramatic lighting. Sparkling highlights were dancing everywhere. However, backlight isn't the easiest kind of light to work with. Unless you're going for a complete silhouette, additional lighting and techniques will be needed to properly expose your subject.

I positioned my tripod to compose a shot with a small group of roses in the foreground and a few others several feet away in the rear. I used my depth of field preview to determine the optimum aperture that would render the background as a field of soft, glistening highlights. Although the background looked good in the viewfinder, the image as a whole was very faded and washed out. A quick visual of the front of the lens explained why. The glare from the sun was shining directly onto it. A lens hood was definitely in order, but I don't have one permanently connected to my lens. Instead, I use a Cokin modular hood, comprised of several individual 3/4 inch stackable rings, allowing me to build a custom lens hood of precisely the length I need. With the lens now completely shaded, the true color and contrast of the image was restored. To compensate for the strong backlight, I mounted a flash on my camera and set it to "TTL-Fill." I also used a reflector and aimed it at the opposite side of the flowers from which the flash was pointed. I find that this type of multi-directional lighting can produce almost studio-quality results in the field. At last, I was finally ready to shoot.

This may sound like a lot of work, but once the initial set-up is in place for the first photo it's a much more streamlined process for all the others. The accompanying photo I titled, "Garden Highlights," is one of the images I shot that morning. It might require a bit more prep, but the spectacular results possible with backlighting are certainly worth the effort.

Article Contributed by:

F.M. Kearney is a fine art nature photographer, specializing in unique floral and landscape images. To see more of his work, please visit www.starlitecollection.com.

Ring Roads by Jayme Catalano

The Rice School of Architecture selected ring roads from two dozen international cities, layered the ring roads to the same scale, and color coded them for distinction. The result is Ring Roads of the World, a beautifully graphic illustration of urban sprawl. Prints are available through the school’s website.

See What Sarah Swisher is Creating!

See What Zave Nelson is Creating

 

Art Piece: 

“Man’s First Sin”

Marker and Colored Pencil

25”  x  19”

 

About the Artist:

Zave Nelson:

Zave was born in Atlanta, Georgia.  He never met his mother.  As a child Zave was a problem child, and stayed in trouble.  Zave was introduced to art and in his words “art changed his outlook on life and has brought him closer to God.  He now looks upon his life and talents as a gift, for which he is very thankful.

Zave’s Personal Statement:

“I am of the father as the father is of me therefore I do the will of him through the expression of my craft.”

 

To view more of Zave’s work and the work of all our fine artists, visit us at www.contemporaryartgalleryonline.com.   Also check out our monthly art competitions.

 

Just Shoot Me by F.M. Kearney

Truly amazing images of nature have been captured in black and white. Some landscapes, when stripped down to their purest tonal elements, tend to take on an almost ethereal quality. The incredible work of Ansel Adams – probably the greatest nature photographer of all time – is certainly proof of that. But, I haven't shot black and white since my early days as a photojournalist. When it comes to nature, I'm strictly addicted to color. There certainly isn't any shortage of color to shoot in the spring. After a long, cold winter, it seems Mother Nature just can't wait to put on her "Sunday Best."

Tulips have always been very popular subjects. They're one of the few flowers that can be successfully photographed on both overcast and sunny days. It's the translucent quality of these flowers that makes them literally explode with color on sunny days. It was hard to miss the obvious attraction of a couple of yellow tulips surrounded by a sea of brilliant red in this photo I entitled, "Two in a Million." I captured this image almost twenty years ago and it's still one of my favorites.

The multi-colored snapdragons is another photo where the color takes center stage. I was particularly drawn to the natural yellow "bookends" of this composition I call, "Springdragons."

Having an eye for photography is good, but probably not as important when your subjects are this colorful. Sometimes, you can almost hear them scream, "Just shoot me!"

Article Submitted by:

F.M. Kearney is a fine art nature photographer, specializing in unique floral and landscape images. To see more of his work, please visit www.starlitecollection.com.

Ruben Wu by Jayme Catalano



After a decade on the road following the band Ladytron, Reuben Wu has developed a knack for documenting the overlooked and unexpected. Wu is preoccupied with the “derelict, forgotten, remote and strange.” His own transience and inability to make a mark are also themes in the work. The images have a dreamy, almost visionary tint to them; the places and people don’t seem real and they all seem to be from a time long past. As Wu says in his artist statement, the images “subtly confound our perception of what is corporeal and what is tangible; as unremittingly human as they are impossible to place.” You can view more of the work at the artist’s website.

Article Submitted by:

-Jayme Catalano

Canary Public Relations

www.canarypublicrelations.com

Canary Public Relations is a boutique firm specializing in marketing, branding and public relations for small businesses.  They specialize in working with fine artists, designers, and creative professionals of all types.



 

See What Curtis Montgomery is Creating!

Art Piece: 

“Sauble Beach”

Colored Pencil and acrylic on Paper

11”  x  17”

 

About the Artist:

Curtis Montgomery :

Curtis Montgomery works towards high realism through coloured pencil crayon and watercolour. Born and raised in Elora, Curtis has studied at Fanshawe College and Max the Mutt Illustration School (Toronto). His strong routes in Canadian culture shine through in his realistic renderings of Ontario mills and historic hockey figures. Curtis has run his own beginner art class for children, and worked as a private tutor of perspective drawing.

To view more of Curtis’s work and the work of all our fine artists, visit us at www.contemporaryartgalleryonline.com.   Also check out our monthly art competitions.

 

Art Piece: 

“Intersection”

Oil

12”  x  12”

 

About the Artist:

Sharon Hawkshawe :

Sharon Hawkshawe was born in Dayton, Ohio, and raised in Columbia, Maryland.  Her mother is a published author and her father was an artist and architect before his death.  Sharon has been painting all of her life, specializing in the use of acrylic and oil paints.   Sharon’s topics cover the most basic of human experience through the use of abstract and impressionistic landscape work.  

Sharon’s work has been viewed in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Miami, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, New York, and more.  Sharon is also a published author, (publishing under her num de plum Sharon Belle), of several magazine articles as well as coauthor of a book of poetry, entitled Songs of the Soul.  Her artwork is also featured throughout, including the front cover. 

 

To view more of Sharon’s work and the work of all our fine artists, visit us at www.contemporaryartgalleryonline.com.   Also check out our monthly art competitions.



The Crooked Tree Arts Center by Alexandra Dailey

Oil by Sheri Alimonda

New Member of Contemporary Art Gallery Online

 

Well, I’m happy to share that I am now a member of the Crooked Tree Arts Center staff in Petoskey, Michigan J I work at the front desk so I have a front row seat to all the visiting patrons, artists, and works of art that come through our doors! So far I’ve worked there for three days, and already I’ve met wonderful board members, watched a speed painter, and become as well versed as possible in the upcoming events. The biggest event of the season is the Oil Painters of America Summer Salon 2013, AKA OPA. This exhibition runs from June 20 to August 31, and will showcase over 370 oil paintings by artists from all over the country. All of these paintings will be arriving this week, which means close to 400 works of art will be passing by my desk! Oh, the joy of working at an arts center! Even though I spend most of my time answering the phones, I greatly enjoy the fact that I am surrounded by art at my place of employment. If you’re interested in learning more about OPA, or if you yourself will be in the Northern Michigan area this summer, check out www.crookedtree.org for more information regarding events, exhibits, lectures, performances, and more! Stay tuned for more art news from the Northern Michigan front!

The Complexity of Simplicity by F.M. Kearney

THE COMPLEXITY OF SIMPLICITY  

I'm often amazed at just how much subconscious thought and planning goes into the creation of a "simple" photograph.

A couple of years ago, I was in the Thain Family Forest of the New York Botanical Garden. Located in the center of the 250-acre garden, this forest is the last remaining tract of original forest that once covered most of New York City. I was initially attracted to a rustic, log fence at the entrance to one of its trails. Seeing it as the perfect foreground element to lead a viewer's eye into the photo, I positioned my tripod in the center of the trail and leveled it to the height of the fence. This was the best perspective to show the lines converging as they disappeared around the corner in the distance. I was also careful not to set the camera in a position that would place a fence post directly in front of a tree. How many times have you seen poorly composed photos of trees and poles "growing" out of a subject's head? I wanted to make sure that the most prominent posts were clearly separated from the trees. I then had to decide where to place the focus point. Had I focused on the closest part of the fence, the trees in the background would have been soft. If I had set the focus to infinity, the immediately foreground would have been out of focus. My best option was to focus midway into the scene and select an aperture that would give me a range of sharpness extending from the foreground all the way out to infinity. (Today, focus-stacking software is available to make this task much easier). It had rained the night before and the leaves were still a bit damp, creating a slight but noticeable glare. I put a polarizer filter on my lens and was surprised at just how much it improved the picture. It eliminated the glare while simultaneously saturating the color.

This all explains how I took this picture, but, just as important, is when I took it. A photo like this definitely would not have worked on a sunny day. The contrast between the shadows and highlights would have been greater than even a polarizer filter could handle. Although the day was dreary and overcast, it provided the perfect lighting for this scene.

These are the types of thoughts that run through my mind before each photo I shoot. Sometimes, it's the simplest-looking images that require the most mental calculations.

 

Article Submitted By:

F.M. Kearney is a fine art nature photographer, specializing in unique floral and landscape images. To see more of his work, please visit www.starlitecollection.com.

 

Gross Out by Jayme Catalano

                      

 

In his Mixed Media collection, L.A. based artist Alex Gross found vintage portraits and re-imagined the Victorians as superheroes and villains. The crazy costumes notwithstanding, the effect contemporizes the solemn faces of Civil War veterans, society matrons, and school boys with our modern, pop-culture obsessed world. I’ve always felt remorse for the long-forgotten people in those discarded photographs in the bins of dusty antiques stores but now at least some of them have been rescued from obscurity. Gross has released a book called Now and Then: The Cabinet Card Paintings, available on Amazon, that includes photos of the original images before their transformations

Article Submitted by:

-Jayme Catalano
Canary Public Relations
www.canarypublicrelations.com

Canary Public Relations is a boutique firm specializing in marketing, branding and public relations for small businesses.  They specialize in working with fine artists, designers, and creative professionals of all types.

 

Titles of Images above:

Picture 1 Scarlet  -     Picture 3 Mondo    -    Picture 2  Peter

See What Yvette Tipton is Cretaing!

Art Piece: 

“Submission by Blindness”

Acrylic

24”  x  30”

 

About the Artist:

Yvette Tipton :

Yvette was born and raised in San Francisco.  She began drawing and sculpting at 5yrs old.  Yvette believes art is an expression of the inner person, expressing thoughts and ideas that are meant to be shared.

To view more of Yvette’s work and the work of all our fine artists, visit us at www.contemporaryartgalleryonline.com.   Also check out our monthly art competitions.