This March, as we return to our 17th year in a row (less the year of the attack of the Covidian monster) to the Affordable Art Fair in New York City, we're bringing in a whole new group of artists from the DMV, most of whom I first met via their artwork when I juried the 2022 Paint the Town event in the pretty area of downtown Kensington, Maryland.
Jurying any art show always exposes the juror to new talent, and when I juried this show, as I often do, I selected some of my fave artists to bring to NYC for an art fair. In my mind I wanted to "curate" a booth for the fair that showcased realist work at its best.
One of them is the superbly talented Amanda Coelho.
Coelho has only been painting since 2018, and thus in artistic developmental years, she's still a baby, but a baby with formidable crawling skills, and one who can already wield brush superpowers which emerge here and there in several of her works.
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| A Bear Necessity by Amanda Coelho |
In "A Bear Necessity", she lets the color (green in this case) tell the entire narrative of the work. In doing so, with just the barest hint of white highlights, she not only illuminates the subject gummy bear, but creates the depth and illusion of depth in the painting. She has accomplished what only a good painting can do: deliver a most common and trivial subject to the sublime status afforded by a good painting.
