Tina Reiley-Phillips, art teacher extraordinaire

Everyone has had a few exceptional teachers in their past who've left an indelible mark on their lives.  We come to appreciate these remarkable educators more and more as we age.  

Both my sons were fortunate to have had Tina Reiley-Phillips teach them art at the Harrisburg Academy when they were young boys.  Tina taught Dominick from age 3-8 and Duke from age 4-10.  

I saved every work of art the boys created during those years, and eventually had their favorite pieces matted and framed, all with large white mats and simple black frames.

These works of art now hang all over our house and serve as a constant reminder that art really does matter.  

Tina exposed her students to the masters, teaching her pupils techniques the greatest artists in the world used.  To this day, Duke and Dominick appreciate art more than I ever would have thought possible.

Can you find the influences of Picasso, Matisse, O'Keeffe, Cezanne, Warhol, Degas, da Vinci and Van Gogh in these pieces?   What's truly remarkable is that all these works were done while the boys were in elementary school.

Thank you, Tina.  YOU ROCK!

Death Valley

Still Life

Mona Lisa by Duke

Duke Self Portrait, Blue Period

Out of Africa

Dominick 3rd grade self portrait

Still Life, floral

Dominick 2rd grade self portrait.  When I asked "what is the green thing on your ear?"
he answered "my earring". 

The Eagle has Landed

Still Life

Untitled

Bonanza

Still Life

Duke self portrait

Out on the Farm

Duke Self Portrait

Cluck Cluck

Duke Self Portrait

Jane Booth

I Ching Series: Tossing Coins 1  64 x 54

Part Color Field, part Abstract Expressionist, part Lyrical Abstraction--all wholly uplifting.  Jane Booth's large scale, delightfully happy canvases make me want to dance with wild abandon.  By pouring and pushing (often with her hands) paint directly onto raw, unprepared canvas, Booth achieves a blurred, out of focus effect.  The paint permeates the canvas, absorbs into it, bonds with it, giving the effect of a watercolor--although they are painted with acrylics. The effect of this pure color stain technique is often Helen Frankenthaler-esque:

Sand Hills  66 x 66

Evolve Series: Osmosis 32 x 42

Vessel  78 x 56   Looks like a "feminine Rothko"

Says Booth, "Drawing from vast skies and land that surround my hilltop (Kansas City, MO) rural studio, I'm interested in the space in which everything moves, and how the senses are touched.  I see painting as a snapshot from  the open aperture through which one peers" 

Mount Fuji  62 x 48

River 144 x 60  When this hung in Jane's home, she said they "drank in the blues"

Evolve Series: DNA Showing  54 x 42

Facet Series: Scattered  68 x 68

Often the enormity of Booth's inspiration demands and dictates her size of canvas-such as the large-scale "Channel", which is 142 x 65

Channel

The director of Kansas City Artists Coalition said "These paintings are so luscious you could eat them with a spoon."  I must agree. I'll have a triple scoop, please!

Jane

Click here to see Jane discuss her creative process in a beautifully produced short video

To see more of Jane's work, visit her website

Hannah Holliday Stewart: A Pure Artist

What is "Pure Art"?


Many think of it as art created solely for the purpose of expression---the inspiration coming from within, without any other influence or purpose behind the creation that would dilute or contaminate it's purpose.  It is art totally devoid of commercialism.

 Hannah Holliday Stewart (1924-2010), a pioneer in the world of female sculptors, could be considered a "pure artist".

In this age of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other online venues, it's common to see artists promoting and marketing their creations.  While few would begrudge them this, and in fact most applaud their efforts, as it exposes many to art who otherwise might not ever see it (not to mention allowing them to make a living), there is something so rare and special about an artist who creates solely for the process of creating.  

Despite achieving a high level of recognition and having her work exhibited in dozens of venues including the San Francisco Museum of Art, The Smithsonian, and the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Ms. Stewart mysteriously walked away from the public eye---leaving the Houston art scene and retreating to her studio in Albuquerque, where she continued to create works of art in total isolation.  She rejected gallery representation, instead devoting the next 20 years of her life to creating art in solitude.        

Icarus

Her work, mostly made of bronze, aluminum and stone, is rooted in mythology, primitivism, geometry, symbolism, classicism, feminism and futurism. It feels ancient and contemporary simultaneously.

Her sculptures make me feel empowered and emboldened!

Ms. Stewart with Einstein's Song, circa 1980's

In her studio

Aquarian Age

Ockum's Razor

Note the markings on "Phoenix", reminiscent of petroglyphs from Puye, New Mexico

Atropos Key public installation, Houston, TX

Ms. Stewart wrote in her journal:  "When I was eight years old, I asked my mother what the wind really looked like.  I remember spending hours...days...sitting with my hands open wide or running with my lightening bug jar, hoping to catch the wind.  I wanted to SEE the wind, that magical force that could bend the huge oak tree in a summer storm, gently caress me on a hot summer day or sing to me as it played through a tree or around the house"

"This early interest in natural forces has sustained me throughout my life as a sculptor.  My goal is to render visible the hidden realities of pent-up contained energy.  The direct fields of reference are Sacred Geometry, Astronomy, Myth and Physics...Each sculpture is an energy form, the movement arrested in space, a form sustaining an energy.  My work is a response to these patterns and delineations and communicates with viewers through the universality of symbolism and form".

Adam's Rib maquette

Atropos Key maquette

War Monger

Queen Golden Sheen

Genius Loci

Adam's Rib

Sitting beneath Rubicon

The unexpected treasure trove of work found in her studio upon her death in 2010 is being represented by  Matthews Gallery in Santa Fe, NM

The complete catalogue of her work can be found here

Click here for a brief video about Hannah Holliday Stewart

(all photographs and video courtesy Matthews Gallery)

The Incandescent Art of George Chaplin

In color field art, the integration of shapes through overlapping or interpenetrations blur spacial distinctions so there is almost no sense of the image versus the background.  George Chaplin's paintings, abstract and based in color studies, bring a visionary freshness to color theory.  More amorphous than geometric, Chaplin's areas of color create tension by overlapping and interacting amongst themselves.  His shapes seem to both emerge and submerge into the surrounding colors.

Now For Red

Expansive Red

Chaplin studied color theory with world renown Modern artist Josef Albers (a student at the Bauhaus in Germany) at Yale University of the Arts, earning both BFA and MFA degrees.  He is Chair Emeritus of the Fine Arts Dept. at Trinity College in Hartford, CT.  

Often referred to as "nature's transcendent painter," Chaplin draws inspiration from nature, as well as music.  The ocean is a particular source of his creativity.  Chaplin states, "It's a mesmerizing experience.  You look at the ocean, it's constantly moving.  It's always the same but it's constantly changing."

The same can be said of his paintings---there is movement as the colors blend into one another, creating the illusion that they are vibrating off of the canvas.

Bluuueeee

And Then

Aoi To

 Chaplin is expert in selecting color combinations that never overpower each other---they simultaneously create a sense of calmness and excitement in his compositions.  Art critic Shirley Gonzales wrote "Although he runs through the spectrum of what we usually think of as warm and cool colors, none of Chaplin's colors are really cool....The color fills the room, vibrates, and seems to fluctuate as if moved by currents of air".

Quiet Chord

Study for Green

Oh Yes

Says Chaplin:  "I see color as light and atmosphere, and celebrate it for its emotional impact and beauty.  The changeable nature of color, both intrinsically and from external conditions, fascinates me and I am particularly involved in how it can appear to alternately expand and contract."

For more of Chaplin's luminescent, incandescent work, watch this short film by Dore Hammond:

http://vimeo.com/33357348