Jackie Afram - Newport Seascape Series

Newport Seascape Series

Jackie Afram explains to us the challenges of her series of seascapes.

The challenge of this series was to display the differences and similarities of types of oil paints, their media and tools. I created these three paintings of a Newport Rhode Island seascape to  show the different types of oil media and tools that I have been experimenting with in my paintings. 

For seascape #2, I used oil paint, a large bristle brush and Liquin as the medium. I worked to achieve subtle glazed shadings with minimum detail. 

Newport Seascape #2 by Jackie Afram

For seascape #3, I used oil paint, a palette knife and wax as a medium. A different subtlety of shading is achieved with this method. The wax allows the artist to use less oil paint and gives the painting a softer overall appearance. 

Newport Seascape #3 by Jackie Afram

For seascape #4, I used oil bars and gloved hands to mix the colors and push and pull the color across the canvas. Close control and detail are difficult with this media, but it is a great deal of fun. I do not have a favorite medium and use whatever strikes me will work best for what I am painting.

Newport Seascape #4 by Jackie Afram

Kathy Turner - Temporal Series

Our Works in a Series Highlights continue with this from Kathy Turner - 

Temporal Series Statement:

This series of art works developed from my fascination with the discarded remnants of civilization that I could find in the woods near my home and along the banks of the Pimmit Run stream. The rich texture and patina that metal attains as it ages in a natural environment, and of stone as it wears away, spoke to me of the fragility of humanity. I wanted to emphasize how ephemeral our lives are by contrasting these coarse worn surfaces with depictions of soft naked flesh. Each piece tells a slightly different temporal story.

Courtesan: She was a great French beauty, and she used her looks to live in luxury, but only so long as her looks survived the passage of time.

Courtesan by Kathy Turner

Madonna of the Rock: the name is a play upon the name of the da Vinci painting called the Virgin of the Rocks, but this nude is not so virginal perhaps and she lies nestled within the curve of the stone.

Madonna of the Rock by Kathy Turner

Out of Eden: This naked Eve may have been cast out of Eden for her transgressions, but she does not appear to feel guilt over it as she looks boldly and even confrontationally at the viewer. She has made her bed, and harsh though it may be, she will lie in it.

Fallen Angel by Kathy Turner

Fallen Angel: A naked winged man lies huddled in a fetal position, curled up in a pile of dried leaves. I imagined that he was once high and mighty, but through foolish acts he has fallen in shame, and now is hiding his face. I was recalling all of the recent political figures who have been caught in various dalliances and fallen in shame.  

Fallen Angel by Kathy Turner

Generations: 2 nude women kneel facing each other, one is largely pregnant and her head tips down to her belly. They are depicted in a setting of ancient ruins and glyphs, including turtles – and the form of the metal resembles a turtle shell as well. The American Indian cultures tell a story of how earth was created on the back of a turtle and populated by the offspring of the daughter of the Great Spirit. So this piece represents that creation and the generations that will follow.

Generations 2 by Kathy Turner

Kathy Turner

Background:

Studied architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.

Degree in Fine Art from Towson State University, Towson, MD.

Studied Japanese woodblock printing in Tokyo Japan.

Worked as a decorative painter for Degage in McLean, VA.

Member of Arlington Artist Alliance and Del Ray Artisans.

Has exhibited and won awards for art for Arlington Artists Alliance, Del Ray Artisans, Arlington County Library art  exhibits, Artisans Gallery in Middleburg NY, Capital Hill Art League, Artomatic and more.

Elisabeth Hudgins - Leaf Impressions Series

Elisabeth Hudgins's contribution to this month's selections on painting in a series-

Leaves are part of my artistic vocabulary. To me they embody so much meaning: renewal, life cycles, being part of the elements of the earth. I often revisit this series, whenever I see exciting leaves or leaf shapes and patterns. I start by collecting the leaves. Then, I use the process of monoprinting with the leaves. In this process, I am actually applying paint on the leaf, and laying the leaf on the paper. Sometimes, I will use a watercolor technique and work "wet into wet", and other times I will use a collage technique. The hardest part is for waiting for the painting to dry, so I can pull up the leaves off the paper and see what happened. This is the unknown element that I find very exciting…. and creates the mystery and surprise of not quite knowing what the outcome will be. 

Hemlock by Elisabeth Hudgins

The mediums I use: watercolor and collage, each allow a kind of transparency. After many years of working solely with the leaf shapes and patterns, I began to add layers of figure drawings to my leaf impressions. They appear almost as double exposures. Two unique images melded into one work. 

Fern3 by Elisabeth Hudgins

To see a slide show of my process for making my Leaf Impressions visit: http://www.elisabethhudgins.com/1/archives/09-2013/1.html

Fall I by Elisabeth Hudgins

And to see more of my Leaf Impression Series visit: http://www.elisabethhudgins.com/leaf-and-tree-gallery.html

Spring by Elisabeth  Hudgins

Rebecca Croft - Everything Lavender - Lavender Series

Next in April's Blog Posts on Series - Rebecca Croft  tells of about her favorites-

Purple.  It's always been my favorite color.  I've never wavered on that from childhood to present.
Travel is one of my great pleasures along with painting.  I've been to France several times.  

 "Lavender In The Valley"  16 x 20  Oil

Two years ago I 
visited Provence where I enjoyed the food, wine, and countryside.  .  

  "Les Beaux, Provence"  12 x 12  Oil

 This is where the most beautiful Lavender
is grown.  It was all around me.  

 "Le Jardin Provence "  12 x 12  Oil

 I came home inspired to paint this series of Lavender Landscapes.  

  "Beautiful Skies Over Lavender"   11 x 14  Oil 

 One day I hope to actually stand in the fields and paint them Plein Air

  "Lavender Fields"  11 x 14  Oil

Wen Lepore -Trying to Making Unique Work

In the Second of our featured Painting in a Series- Now on exhibit at the Gallery Underground.  Wen Lepore shares-

I have been taking art classes since 2008. In the beginning I always like to paint something nice, especially I love to paint landscape, but I don’t like to paint any other things showing in the view… like people, cars, … trashcans or anything messy.  One day I suddenly felt that was really boring, only paint pretty or beautiful things… Because life is not just niceness and beauty, most of our life is a hard time,with pain and suffering. If I paint all beauty, there is a good part, that people would say how nice it is, very lovely painting… and they may forget the next day.

Stanch my Bleeding Heart by Wen LePore

So, I started to thinking more about art, great work, like Shakespeare plays are so famous but most of them are sad stories. People remember sad things.Tragedy is more contagious, because that is true life.  Even for myself I like a little blue music most of the time when I was listening music.

Long Lost Letter by Wen LePore

The great work of art is of course always original, and it should come as a more or less shocking surprise from the natural creation.  Also, my childhood was full of special marks and all the memories are always by my side, very unusual, sometimes very sad, I wanted to show up all those parts in my late paintings and express more my true feeling deep underneath, which is pain in my life.

Lonely by Wen LePore

I want to let people know more about my life through my paintings.  Also I hope my work would get people thinking more about their own lives, or get release from my artistic expression.

Bryan Jernigan - Potential in a Series

The Gallery Underground artists are doing a special presentation of works in a series for the month of April.  All month we will feature the thoughts, motivations and photos of their works.  Please come by and see them in person! 

Our first featured artist, Bryan Jernigan tells us-Potential: Potential confronts us every day. Who do we want to be? Where do we want to go? And how do we get there? Potential stares us in the face.

Radiant Darkness by Bryan Jernigan

On rare occasions we are keen enough to see it, but most of the time it’s fuzzy or lost to us completely. Potential can be scary. The future is an unknown and dark place, but it’s also where potential lives.

Road Ahead by Bryan Jernigan

  I see potential in myself and in others, but I don’t have superpowers, so it’s just as unclear to me as it is to anyone else. In my work, I try to capture in figurative abstraction what potential looks like to me.

Seeing you,Seeing me by Bryan Jernigan

There not There by Bryan Jernigan

 So many times, it’s grainy, undeveloped and obfuscated. I can see the forms, but I can’t see them in sharp focus – they are often stark and intimidating – unrealized potential always is.

Waiting by Bryan Jernigan

   But I’m convinced the more effort I give to it, the more I work on bringing clarity to it, the more likely potential will be realized.

If you haven't met Jess Mickey yet, a sneak peek into her work.

Jess Mickey is our new Co-Director as our capable Marina DiCarlo readies for another State Department posting.  Jess is unafraid to tackle almost any subject.!  From landscapes to portraits, Pets to seascapes she can do it all!  Meet Jess-

"I'm so excited to be the new Co-Director of Gallery Underground!  I have some big shoes to fill, but I believe I am up to the task!  Anytime I put my mind to something, I make it happen!  That is kind of how my art started too. A few years ago, in the process of figuring out what makes me happy, I decided to try a painting class through Arlington Adult Education.

 I've been taking the same class every semester now for 4 & 1/2 years, so I'm a relatively new painter, but it's absolutely become my passion.  Being in a classroom/studio space weekly with other artists inspires me to continue to get better and constantly learn new techniques.

Loving painting is what made me decide to work at the Gallery in the first place, to surround myself with creativity and inspiration, and then when the Co-Director position opened up, I knew I had to have it!  Now, being in the gallery all the time and working alongside art-minded people is another great way for me to grow my body of artwork, utilize my talents, and surround myself with my passions. 

 I couldn't be happier!"

We are happy to have you too, Jess!!!

Jean Stark - Honor & Awareness

March's theme of Perseverance continues as Jean Stark comments-

"This month in the Gallery Underground my work of art is about my parents who are 90 and 91 this year.  "We Dream Only of Love" is about what is left after living a full life.  It is about the transitions we make and the natural world supporting life's changing landscape. 

We Dream Only of Love by Jean Stark

 The difficulty in making this work had more to do with my emotional "therapy" as I worked on the piece.  Coming to terms with the death of parents is deep and heavy work and in this piece I felt very successful in my own desire to give honor to my parents.  This piece brought awareness to me of all elderly people who have given their lives by living them fully and who are still crucially significant as they prepare their way to a transition into another dimension."

Sandi Parker - Trancedent Persistence

TranscendenceI by Sandi Douglas Parker

This month I have a painting at Gallery Underground entitled "Transcendence II" .  Transcendence II began life as Transcendence I.  I was never happy with Trancsendence 1 - I always thought there was too much going on and the colors were too loud. That painting was one of the very early abstracts I did after taking a class from fellow Gallery member Bud Hensgen - I had gotten a feel for abstract, but had not yet found my "voice." I have recently been working on a series of abstract acrylics featuring circles. I thought that all that craziness in Transcendence 1 would work as a great base, so I flipped it on its side and re-worked it using primarily blues. Gone are the reds and turquoises and bright yellows, along with the squares.  What I ended up with is much more in line with the series of circles paintings I have been working on, and also more in line with my current color palette for my abstracts, which I now tend to do with only 2 or 3 colors. When I am long gone and my legacy lives on, I have no doubt that the conservators at the National Gallery will use imaging techniques and reveal that - just like the impressionists - I have painted over a painting that wasn't working!

Sandi Parker

Transcendence II by Sandi Douglas Parker

Marcia Finnerty - Persistence (& a snow shovel) Pays off

Marcia Finnerty tells us :The weather has provided some major obstacles in trying to dig out my kiln and fire my most recent work.  I had to shovel the snow UP and OUT of the basement stairwell leading from my studio to my kiln outside.  So close but yet so far. But the kiln gods have smiled upon my efforts.  When I finally opened the kiln late this afternoon………OMG! This is what I gazed down upon….."

Beautiful Marcia!

Linda Maldonaldo - Limbo plus Focus equals Completion

Linda Maldonado's work is co-featured in this month's Gallery Underground Special "Illuminations" show.  When I asked she if perseverance was a factor she replied that tenacity was always important in your work.  Linda explains -  

Aquascape by Linda Maldonado

"Two of the paintings I brought in for our "Illuminations" show at the Gallery this month are pieces that started out confused and stayed in a limbo phase for some time. I pulled each one out and set out to bring them to successful completion, one way or another. Sometimes the easiest way for me to do that is to pick a composition scheme -- e.g., cruciform for "Aquascape" -- and a limited palette of colors (blues and greens, with black and white accents), and keep working back and forth between collage and acrylic paint. Keeping a clear mental focus helped me enormously to get to the finish line.

All the Earth is Holy Ground by Linda Maldonado

With the second painting, "All the Earth is Holy Ground," the piece started as a warm underpainting with floral intentions. I changed my mind when I found the quote by Christina Rosetti: "Tread softly. All the earth is holy ground" -- and I decided to bring in some blues and use a horizontal orientation with vertical panels. Again, i introduced collage papers and coordinating stamps to create texture and interest, layered with translucent paint to enrich some areas. After several days of thinking and painting, I was pleased with the blend of warm golds and coppers with cool turquoise and dark blues.

For the past few years, I have designed most of my paintings to read well from a distance, and also to reward the viewer who comes closer with details not visible from a distance. I hope I have achieved that with both of these.

Thanks for the opportunity to think out loud about my art."

Laura Clerici - an icon 15 years in the making

We asked our Gallery Underground artist how or if perseverance played into their art making.  Here is our iconographer Laura Clerici's response.

"As for perseverance.....  One of the icons I hope to bring to Gallery Underground is one that was at the National Gallery of Art* it's called the Ustug Annunciation. (ed. note: Laura's work was recently featured at the Museum shop for exhibit Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections ).  I've wanted to work on this image ever since I started painting icons in 1999. 
Although it looks like a simple image, I knew it was not and that I would have to acquire a lot of skill before I undertook it.  Then, about a year ago, we studied it in one of my workshops.  
The green of Gabriel's robe is malachite, and I used it, because I know that Gabriel is usually shown with a blue or green outer robe.  I've seen the original 12th C icon (it's HUGE -- six feet tall), and unlike the photographs you see in books, you can see that there was once was additional color, which seems to have worn off over time."

Laura does her work in the traditional manner working with pigments taken from the earth.  Here is a bit more about the intimidating Malachite. 

Rough Malachite

Origin and History: Malachite is found in many parts of the world in the upper oxidized zones of copper ore deposits.Malachite was first used in Egypt and China. In fact, Egyptians probably used the pigment as eye paint even before the first Egyptian dynasty. In Western China, malachite is found in many paintings from the ninth and tenth centuries. Europeans did not use malachite very much in medieval times, but it was very popular during the Renaissance. However, it had been replaced by synthetic green pigments by about 1800. 
Making the Pigment: The natural mineral is crushed, ground to a chalk-like powder, then washed and levigated--swirled in water to separate the finer particles. 
Artistic Notes: To be useful as a bright green it must be ground coarse, as finely ground renders it too pale.  It is moderately permanent and unaffected by strong light. When used as a paint, malachite's shade also changes with the medium used. As a watercolor, it is a pale green, but it becomes darker in oil. It works better in egg tempera than in oil. (Laura works in egg tempera).

Workshops re-energize in winter - Rebecca Croft

Workshops! Workshops! Workshops!

Every Winter we're stuck inside.  I get so restless so I look for inspiration in my painting.  I have found that by taking a workshop I not only learn new painting tips but get re-inspired.  Workshops always make you think outside the box and work outside your comfort zone.  Each artist has their own way of doing things and their own style.  By taking a workshop I learn to incorporate some of those new applications into my paintings.  I just took a workshop by Trisha Adams on color and it was amazing!  One of the improvements that I want to make in my work is color.  How to make it work for me.  I want my paintings to pop.  Here is the painting that I painted in the workshop.  I was thrilled with how it turned out.  The hard part is taking what I've learned and applying it to my paintings in my studio.  

 

"Bathing in the Light" 

                                                             Oil

                                                         10 x 14

                                           © 2014 by Rebecca Croft

It can be purchased through : my Etsy store

The future is where potential lives. - Bryan Jernigan

We asked the artists: February is for Valentine's Day & Loves.  Do you have a favorite 

subject

color

style 

 in which to create? Is this consistent throughout the year or is you work different in the winter?

Do tell! 

This is Bryan Jernigan's answer:

What Conversation? by Bryan Jernigan

 I had an epiphany of sorts a few weeks ago and recently posted it on my Facebook page:  Potential confronts us every day. Who do we want to be? Where do we want to go? And how do we get there? Potential stares us in the face always. On rare occasions we are keen enough to see it, but most of the time it’s fuzzy or lost to us completely. Potential can be scary. The future is an unknown and dark place, but it’s also where potential lives. I see potential in myself and in others, but I don’t have superpowers, so it’s just as unclear to me as it is to anyone else. So many times, it’s grainy, undeveloped, obfuscated. I can see the forms, but I can’t see them in sharp focus – they are often stark and intimidating – unrealized potential always is. But I’m convinced the more effort I give to it, the more I work on bringing clarity to it, the more likely potential will be realized.

Internal Dialogue by Bryan Jernigan

I have connected this understanding to my figurative abstracts and am loving the way they are going. I was fortunate enough to have one of my pieces – “What Conversation?” – chosen by a juror for a show called “Passages: An Exhibition of Figurative Abstraction” that will hang from February 10-March 6 at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

I am in the process of creating four more of these types of abstracts for the upcoming “Series” show at the Gallery Underground. I’ve been having a great time with it and find they require no reference photos because they come strictly from my mind and the potential I see in others.

So in answer to your question, my work has tended to be different from season to season, but I think it’s less dependent on the temperature outside and more dependent on the stages I go through as an artist and what type of artistic expression I believe will hold my interest. I recently saw a line that read: “I want to make beautiful things even if nobody cares.” As an artist, I think we all feel the same way.

Thanks for letting me respond. Bryan

Together Forward by Bryan Jernigan

Jean Stark- 2014 Resolution: Creative Expression

Jean Stark tells us:

"2014 is a year for creative expression and I'm inspired to learn more about the abstract and expressive qualities of art.  I have been working very realistically even in my imaginative art.  I've proven to myself that I can render realism to the degree that I'd like to achieve and now I'm ready to let the more creative aspects of my art advance to the surface. 

I am offering classes through the Art League (Fundamentals of Art for Children) and Arlington Artist's Alliance Academy (classes for children and adults).  I am also offering a series of six workshops to help adults free themselves up to explore creativity through art in the Arlington Adult Education Program.

 

I am offering classes through the Art League (Fundamentals of Art for Children) and Arlington Artist's Alliance Academy (classes for children and adults).  I am also offering a series of six workshops to help adults free themselves up to explore creativity through art in the Arlington Adult Education Program."

Come join the fun!

Deborah Taylor - all about the Numbers

Deborah Taylor's ambitious goals for 2014 include a LOT of numbers!

She tells us she plans to:

1.Participate in two 30 paintings in 30 days challenges

2. Blog about and post paintings at least 2 times per week

3.  Paint 3 larger paintings that I feel good enough about to post

4. Continue to grow as an artist through participation in workshops, critiques and independent study.

The above was painted in a workshop I took in November, Deborah tells us.

What are YOUR creative goals for 2014?

Marcia Finnerty - Referral turns into honored mission

Marcia Koski Finnerty says " I am currently on a jar kick.  It started as a referral from another ceramic artist friend who didn’t want to deal with making a custom cremation urn for a customer. What’s the problem?  I didn’t comprehend their reluctance to take on this challenge??? I was deeply honored and thrilled at the opportunity to provide the final resting place for a dear loved one; be it person or pet. You can use the jar for cookies, dog treats, pasta, flour, sugar or just display. My ceramic art work is made from ceramic stoneware, dishwasher safe and microwavable.    Then when you move on to the next stage……replace the contents with cremated remains. Scatter, bury, display or re-use it for another event.  These are one of a kind jars and I would love to work with you to design something you won’t find anywhere else."

If you have questions: madeinmud@gmail.com