posted by admin on Jan 12
Celebrating 42 Years of Painting!
For all of my patrons, students and connoisseurs of traditional realism, a very big Happy New Year for 2009. After three years in the ‘Bluegrass’ state my wife Debbi and I are getting somewhat acclimated, but still miss our old Pacific Northwest home.
Last April I was in a Staples store making color copies and a lady noticed my artwork and was very impressed. She invited me to a meeting of the Cincinnati Art Club, which has a social hour, sit down dinner and a guest artist. I especially enjoyed Indiana artist C.W. Mundy’s presentation. It was a delightful evening at their own clubhouse/gallery with over 50 people in attendance. To my surprise, I learned that the CAC is the second oldest art club in America being founded in 1890. I was encouraged to join, through a jury process, and because of my art background was accepted and advanced to ‘Signature Member’ status.
The CAC hosts an annual national juried exhibition called Viewpoint and this year’s judge was Dr. Julie Aronson, Curator of American Painting and Sculpture at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Earlier in the year, I had started a 24×36 tropical piece for a gallery in Chicago. The gallery owner wanted a preview of the painting when it was only half way done. I could tell he was not impressed, so I did a little bit of surgery and painted it for myself. This painting turned out so well, that I decided to enter it in the Viewpoint competition. I received a letter of acceptance and a few weeks later got a phone call asking me if I was going to attend the awards reception. I was thinking about it and was told it would be a really good idea if I were there. The reception at the club’s gallery was packed with 150-200 people and I had to park two blocks away. They even had valet parking attendants. Wine and hors ‘dours were top notch. Then the awards ceremony began with about 20 recipients. The show had a lot of sponsors and prizes, like Artist magazine which is published in Cincinnati. Finally, it got down to the top three cash awards and my name had not yet been called and my heart was beginning to pound. I was not called for second or third place and I figured they lost my name or I’ve won this thing. I won it! This win is definitely a big boost to my career and helpful to gaining a foothold in the local art scene.
Nationally, the juried competitions have been mixed. These days, with so many artists vying for accolades and prize money, especially with the down turn in the economy, it is an accomplishment just to get into these shows. I was disappointed in not getting into some, but was happy with the ones I did.
There were three major exhibitions that I participated in. The old ‘Arts for the Parks’ is now defunct, but has been replaced with the ‘Paint the Parks’, in which I have been selected for the Top 100 twice. The same organization promotes ‘Paint America’, a national competition having two paintings from each of the 50 states. I have one representing Kentucky and the other Tennessee. I was also pleased to be showing in the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society (NOAPS) that went on tour at four different venues and sold.
I have new paintings with horses, elk, an old grist mill with a water wheel, landscapes and I’m even painting a cute little frog that likes to invade my goldfish pond. These new works will be uploaded to our website soon.
Again, thank you all for your love of art and continuing support.
