Under $2500 - A quick look

I dropped off my two entries at Maryland Art Place's Under $2500 exhibition and sale, and chatted for a while with hardworking MAP Exhibitions Director Caitlin Gill about Picts and Scotland and The Lillith.

I walked around the gallery and checked the works that had been delivered -- I have no idea who most of these artists are, but here are some of my top picks for the show.  If anyone knows the name, send me a note or leave a comment, so that they can get credit.

The below three pieces also caught my eye, and so I asked Gill about them.  They are gorgeous works on reclaimed, repurposed solar panels.

I was told that the solar panels were part of MAP's last show reGenerate and were part of "a MAP initiative to produce a show related to energy and sustainability."

The panels came from a local solar company, Lumina Solar via one of MAP's former employees, Robbin Lee, who so kindly made the introduction. Lumina was looking for ways to discuss the waste surrounding solar -  it was a win-win in terms of MAP's goals and theirs. 

This is good on several levels - not only because it is high quality, smart and intelligent art, but also re-employs discarded solar panels, which are the most toxic thing produced on planet Earth today when they are no longer of use and discarded. HUGE kudos to Lumina and MAP!

By the way, the artist with this wonderful work and superior artistic skills: Caitlin Gill.

UNDER $2500 Benefit Exhibition and Sale:  Friday, November 22 | 6 to 10 pm  | Tickets $30

Purchase UNDER $2500 Tickets HERE

Last Chance (physical): Saturday, November 23 | 12 to 4 pm

Virtual Exhibition & Sale: Saturday, November 23, 10 am – Black Friday, November 29, 12 am

To view the virtual exhibition click HERE | Live on Saturday, November 23 @ 10 am | REGISTER HERE

ABOUT UNDER $2500 

UNDER $500 and FIRST EVER UNDER $2500 affordable art sale where artwork is sold on a first-come-first-served basis right off our gallery walls! Newly rebranded as UNDER $2500, this event promotes the purchase of artwork by artists in the Maryland region. Guests can expect to mingle with other artists, collectors, patrons, and general art enthusiasts at the event. Take your purchases home with you the night of the event. Gift wrapping will be available on-site! 

The opening night sale (physical) will take place Friday, November 22 from 6 pm to 10 pm (ticketed) and then again on Saturday, November 23, 2024 from noon - 4pm (free). Saturday is a ‘last chance’ opportunity to snag any artworks that remain on MAP’s walls. Tickets are $30 for opening night and can be purchased at the door or in advance  HERE.

This year’s theme is Black and White! MAP will have holiday trees on display. Enjoy a cheerful atmosphere with an open bar, light fare, and some holly jolly tunes.

A virtual sale and exhibition will also take place and will be featured online HERE from Saturday, November 23 at 10 am – BLACK FRIDAY, November 29 at MIDNIGHT. Artwork will NOT be available to view online until November 23 at 10 am. Be sure to register in advance in the interim! Registration is free.

Maryland Renaissance Festival 2024

As I've done several times in the past, I attended Maryland Renaissance Festival 2024 yesterday, and as usual, it was a spectacular day in an most unique place where traveling back in time (this time to 1537) was not only worth it, but also easily one of the best and most entertaining and fun-filled events that someone in our neck of the woods can attend.

Let me be clear: On the scale of 1-10 on my recommendation for spending a fun-filled day, the Maryland Renaissance Festival gets 1000!

We picked up our tickets at Will Call, where the pretty elf on duty was efficient and to the point.

Me: "Hi... I was also told to show you my ID to get the military discount..."

Elf: "Can I see your ID card?"

I hand it to her and she examines it closely.

Elf: "Nope... military discount is only for active duty, not retired military" she says firmly as she hands the card back.

I grumble to myself as I walk away disappointed and bummed out and enter the festival, where within a few feet my son and I are transported back to 1537 and immediately greeted by these ladies below... which improved my mood immediately.

Quite possibly one of the best people-watching places on Earth, especially for artists and people watchers like me and most readers of this blog, is the huge medieval world created by the hard-working people who set up this festival year after year for the past few decades.

A couple of decades ago, I actually rented a tent at this fair and sold a lot of artwork - all of it was somewhat related to the theme at hand -- at the time I was doing a lot of drawings about standing stones in Scotland, the saga of The Wallace, and ancient Pictish and Celtic legends - so it fit right in.

This year there must have been a sale on pointed ears, as there were elves by the hundreds at the fair - I suspect that there was a Vulcan or two around, trying to pass for an elf in the crowd, as I saw at least two Klingons, obviously time traveling, and Boba Fett was also seen wandering in the crowd.

Elfin princess at the Maryland Renaissance Festival 2024

There are multiple stages throughout the festival, and constant performances by highly talented musicians, entertainers, magicians, sword-swallowers, etc.

From the several that we saw, DC ART NEWS awards the Best Act at the Maryland Renaissance Festival 2024 to juggler Paolo Garbanzo!

Paolo Garbanzo at the 2024 Maryland Renaissance Festival

Garbanzo is not only a superbly talented juggler, but he is also a master comedian, a superbly gifted ad hoc talker (during his act there was a ballerina war, a math war... yeah) but also a finely tuned performer with an almost supernatural link with his audience - he is able to "tune" the act to the audience as the speed of someone who has refined his talents over years of practice and observation.

All through the grounds are crafts people, artists, cooks, sellers, and entertainers which pepper the festival with hundreds of things to see, buy, touch, learn and do.

One of many vendors at the 2024 Maryland Renaissance Festival

There is also a huge diversity of spirits, beers, meads and ales to enjoy! And lots of visitors, both human or elfish were enjoying the offerings, as well as a cat or two!

A gorgeous feline at the Maryland Renaissance Festival 2024

One of the many taverns and pubs at the Maryland Renaissance Festival 2024

Two costumed visitors to the Maryland Renaissance Festival 2024

For lunch, the younger Campello wanted a steak on a stake (get it?) and for $7 he got a really nice, full size, grilled steak on a stick, which he wolfed down as we headed to the jousting arena.

We got there a little early, which was good, as the place really packs up as the time for the joust to begin approaches.  We sat next to an elf witch with a small brood of little elves by the side.

The joust began with the lords and ladies introducing the mistress of ceremonies as Princess Luna of the Kingdom of Andalucía -  she was a gorgeous and highly skilled MC!

Lords and ladies at the joust arena

The almost seven million readers of this blog already know that I am a pedantic Virgo, and in 1537 there was no such thing as a Kingdom of Andalucía.  

In the past, the ancient kingdoms of Jaén, Córdoba and Seville were collectively referred to under the name Andalucía, which comes from the way that the Arabic speaking Moors which invaded Iberia in the 700s and were kicked out of Spain by 1492, referred to that southern region of the Iberian peninsula, which had been settled and ruled by the Germanic tribe known as the Vandals.

Thus the Arabic name for (essentially) southern Spain was al-Andalus, which means "Land of the Vandals." As such, al-Andalus evolved to Andalucía.

Sorry Princess Luna.

Joust at the 2024 Maryland Renaissance Festival

The joust was spectacular! All four riders were superb horsemen and performed a variety of "ooooh" "aaaaaah" eliciting riding skills, especially the knight from Ireland and the prince from Portugal - who was easily the most skilled and versatile jouster! 

Prince Miguel from Portugal was amazing!

However, in my pedantic hell I also had issues with the Irish and Portuguese name selections.  If I were in charge, I would have had the Irishman be a Scottish knight - after all King Robert The Bruce of Scotland sent hundreds of Scottish cavalry to Spain to help the Christians defeat the Moors during the Reconquista.

Prince Miguel from Portugal should really be recast as perhaps a member of the Marinid Dynasty, a Berber Muslim dynasty that ruled present-day Morocco from the mid-13th to the 15th century and were a powerful presence in other parts of North Africa.

Joust at the 2024 Maryland Renaissance Festival

In summary, one of the funnest, most enjoyable, entertaining ways to spend a day on this planet!  The festival only runs a few weekends a year (yesterday was the last day for 2024), and the tickets sell out fast!  You can visit them online and you have to reserve your tickets early for 2025, as they will sell out fast!

My kudos to every one associated with the hard work and labor of love that it is to present, work, and stage the festival. I am in awe of your love and commitment!

Details here.

The Rampant Lilith

This is a new mixed media painting which will make its debut at the Volta Art Fair in New York City next May. It is "The Rampant Lilith" and it is part of my repetitive, obsessive works - it marries two of my artistic obsessions: The Lilith and the Pictish people of ancient Scotland. She is covered in woad-colored Pictish tattoos. 40x32 inches, mixed media painting on 600 weight paper.

The Rampant Lilith
2023 mixed media painting by Florencio Lennox Campello, 40x32 inches

Dalhousie Arch

This is "Dalhousie Arch, Edzell, Angus, Scotland." 

It's from around 1990 and one of the many ink drawings of the arch that I did while stationed at NSGA Edzell. 

It has been part of the US Navy art collection since then. 

"Dalhousie Arch, Edzell, Angus, Scotland"

After the base closed, it hung at the old CNSG... it is now hanging at Fleet Cyber Command/US TENTH Fleet in Fort Meade.

What shows up on Ebay

 

Skies above the Montrose Links, Scotland
1990 Watercolor on paper by F. Lennox Campello

This 1990 watercolor - done while I lived in Scotland is currently up on Ebay for a steal! See it here

My awards for the 31st Tephra ICA Festival (formerly Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival)

Now in its 31st year, the Tephra ICA Festival (formerly Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival) will take place on May 20–22, 2022 and will highlight more than 200 artists and artisans from across the nation. Drawing upon a robust exhibitor and collector base coupled with Tephra ICA’s contemporary art foundation, the Festival has become one of the region’s most anticipated events, attracting approximately 30,000 people to the unique, outdoor environment of Reston Town Center.

Details here.

I juried this festival a few years ago, and have participated in it many times over the years, maybe 25 or 26 times out of the 31 years, and I have won a ton of awards over the years - I applied again this year and got rejected, which is OK, since there are new jurors each year, and rejection is part of an artist's life.

It is a great show!

This year's jurors will select the award winners when the festival opens - but as usual, I'd like to run through them online and award my own awards.

You can see the artists here and make up your own awardees... my first observation is that (as usual), this show is heavily tilting towards the craft side - it's somewhat of a trademark for Reston, and since the beginning it has added more and more jewelry, furniture, etc. at the expense of the fine arts. There are about 30 jewelers in the group! And they're all really good!

But, did I sound elitist or what? Sorry...

And the awards go to...

Best Painting Award: Jill Banks - Booth 943 - A true example of the 10,000 hour rule; Banks is a master and her work shows it. Tough category with 37 painters here - all really good with notable ones such as the superbly talented Ann Barbieri, Jon Smith, Cassie Taggart and others.

Best Photography Award - Landscape photography dominates, which is to be expected, and (as I've noted for decades now) I tire of seeing photos of crumbling buildings in Havana and old 1950s cars - please! Enough! If you wanna take photographs of Cuba, go somewhere else other than Havana! Maybe photograph some of the heroes who often take to the streets to protest the brutality of Communism! 

James McArthur Cole is trying hard to head in the right direction, and he has some stunning Cuban photos, such as the one below - but I deduct two points for each photo of an old car.

Cuba 60 by James McArthur Cole

But John Deng - Booth 317 - stands out! His beautiful photos are equally adept at capturing immensely different landscapes as well as the diversity of the human species.

Honey Gatherers by John Deng

Photo by John Deng at Tephra 2022 ICA Festival

John Scanlan's photos of Scotland are breathtaking, but then again, Scotland is possibly the most beautiful country on the planet! Nonetheless Deng takes my "Best Photography Award."

Best Weird Art Award: Greg Stones - Booth 523 - Greg notes that his "basic process is this: Paint a landscape. Then add weird stuff." It works! They are immensely interesting paintings.

Best DMV Award: Joseph Craig English - Booth 700 - Craig is a master of the DMV landscape/landmarks - no one on the planet can do it better. By the way - there are only four printmakers in the entire show: English plus Mel Fleck, Jim McCormick and Laura Wilder; they are all really, really good. Note to future jurors: More printmakers!!!!

Best Craft Award: Mick Whitcomb - Booth 816 - Specializes in one-of-a-kind furniture and lighting made from architectural and industrial salvage - the kind of stuff that some call "steampunk."  The work is clever and unique and far outshines (no pun intended) the category competitors.

Fan Light Fixture by Mick Whitcomb

Best Drawing Award - Easy pick here with the complex drawings of Susan Deaton in booth 423. She notes that her work is about "conceptualization of social and environmental issues through the use of symbolic images." Methinks there's a lot of Lovecraft in there as well.

Best Glass Award - The DMV is home to three of the best known glass artists on the planet, and thus a magnet place for artists of this genre.  The work of David Sandidge stands out... some of the whimsical pieces remind me of Carmen Lozar's early work.  Sandidge is clearly a master of this most demanding of all arts.

Glass art by David Sandidge

I will announce the Best in Show winner when I visit the show in person next month!

Edzell Arch

 As I've noted before, Queen Victoria, on her way to the Highlands, used to travel through the tiny Scottish village of Edzell, in the Angus region of Scotland. Thus, the locals built an arch to honor their English queen.

From 1989-1992, I lived a few minutes from the village of Edzell, and the arch was a much visited subject of my drawings back then. Below are some examples of those works from those years. These are all in multiple collections in Scotland and the US.

This showed up at an auction recently

Two Canadas over Brechin, Scotland by F. Lennox Campello, c. 1990

 

More Scottish skyscapes

I'm still looking for the friggin' 4th grade photos of Anderson... and now I found this! These are 1989-1992 watercolors that I did in Scotland when I lived there while stationed with the US Navy... I did tons of these as sky studies of the gorgeous Scottish skies...

See more of them here.

Scottish watercolor

I wrote a while back about all the watercolors of Scotland that I did while I lived there from 1989-1992... these rarely show up on the secondary art market.

This one is a steal at the current starting bid! See it here.

More Obsessions: Thoughts and things that keep living in my head

F. Lennox Campello

More Obsessions: Thoughts and things that keep living in my head

Stone Tower Gallery

7300 MacArthur Blvd.

Glen Echo, MD 20812

Exhibition:  F. Lennox Campello: More Obsessions

Exhibition dates: July 5 to 28, 2019

Gallery Hours: Saturday & Sunday, 11am to 6pm and by appointment

Art Walk Reception: Friday, July 5, 6 to 8pm

Is technology part of contemporary art? Of course it is! 

Is technology a drug that causes obsessions? Of course it is! 

A compulsive drive to work the same image or idea repeatedly is not that rare an issue in the pages of art history. Nearly every major museum in Europe has a similar version of El Greco’s vision of Christ throwingthe merchants from the Temple, and Mondrian redefined the same abstractcomposition of color blocks over and over, and over, as did Italian artist Giorgio Morandi, who obsessively returned to the same basic still life over, and over, and over. 

What drives those “obsessions” is a matter for debate, as well as for much furrowing of eyebrows at art schools across the planet, where it is generally noted as a negative trait for an artist. 

F. Lennox Campello, who the Washington City Paper included a few years back in their annuallisting of Washington’s most interesting people, not only relishes in returning to the same subject many times over, but in some cases the “many times” have over the four decades of obsessions delivered interpretations now numbering in the hundreds for a single subject. 

A new obsession to Campello has been the incorporation of technology to help his other obsession (telling a story via his artwork) succeed.  Video and sound become powerful narrative additions to almost classical drawings.

“Your Portrait in a Gallery of Portraits” is such an obsessive narrative technical and technological composition. In the charcoal and conte drawing, we see a solitary figure from the back, as she visits an art gallery. To both sides of the figure embedded digital screen search online and put a new portrait of a famous person every five seconds on each screen. The center screen seems empty at first, until a viewer approaches it, and realizes that their image is now part of the work (captured by a hidden miniature camera). 

The work (exhibited in the DC area for the first time), has kindled an unexpected response from the viewers during its initial exhibition at the Art Basel week of art fairs in Miami last year. “I noticed – and recorded – hundreds and then thousands of people taking a selfie of themselves ‘inside’ my artwork,” notes Campello, “… a selfie of a selfie, if you will…,” he adds. 

Other obsessions also make an appearance: the Picts of ancient pre-Celtic Scotland (where Campello lived for several years), Argentine revolutionary mass murderer Ché Guevara, the Biblical Eve, and the Kabbalah’s Lilith, Saint Sebastian, Saint John the Baptist, a naked Supergirl, enjoying a nudie flight, Campello’s own secret messages in a secret written code. 

The artist, who was a US Navy cryptologic officer for over two decades, has invented a secret visual written language which is a marriage of ancient Celtic Ogham (the secret writing code of the ancient Druids) with the more modern US Navy Falcon Codes, a series of phrases with double meanings. They also appear, hidden in the shadows of bodies and objects throughout some of the drawings.