Tonight is a big night at WSS!‏

One of my best pieces of advice, from the billions of great pieces of advice that I dispense on a constant and routine basis, is as follows:

Someone: "Master Lenster, I'd like to start collecting original artwork but have limited funds and do not know whom or what to collect..."

Me: "Why don't you start by visiting lots of art shows and seeing what your visual eye likes? Do not forget to visit lots of student art shows as well."

Someone: "Student art shows?"

Me: "Yes, young padwan... it is often at undergraduate art student shows, MFA shows and other art schools' art exhibitions where the undiscovered jewels may reside, often at a lower degree of Samolians..."

Tonight is the opening of the Washington Studio School's Annual Juried Student Show, a terrific event to which I've never been asked to jury, but which I would love to do so. I've been to several of these in the past, acquired work at some of them, and I can tell you that it is usually one of the best student shows in the DMV.

The opening of the Annual Juried Student Show  is tonight, Friday, September 11 from 6-8 pm. The show was juried by WSS Faculty Member Carolyn Reece-Tomlin, installed by Jo Weiss and Joanne Kaufman, and mentored by WSS's vastly talented and hard-working faculty.

The students selected by Reece-Tomlin are: Adele McGovern, Belen Eliot, Bill Thompson, Brenda Fox, Brigitte Zelenko, Courtney Applequist, Carol Blum, Catherine Antoine, Caroline Champetier de Ribes, Chris Marlow, Elisa Sarmiento, Elizabeth Naab, Erika Mosher, Gail Goodman, Gail Jensen, Jacqueline Sparks, Jay Ball, Jill Bateman, Joanne Lamm, John Graham, Karen Slovin, Karim Bouabdelli, Kathryn Kailian, Lara Fredrickson, Laurance Frierson, Leo Bottrill, Leslie Blackmon, Monette Melanson, Maria Uehara, Maria Schreiber, Michele Lurie, Mitsuko Tsuchiya, Pat Kraniotis, Peggy Greene, Phyllis Mayes, Phyllis Ruffer, Scott Cowcher, Scott Wiskoski, Siobhan Fisher, Tanya Yudelman-Bloch, Teresa Jarzynski, Tricia Garey, Yassir Islam.

As an aside, Caroline Champetier de Ribes wins the award for the best artist name!

Lest we forget



"Studio View, 9/11"
Oil on Canvas c. 9/11/2001 by David FeBland

 

Black Artists Matter

Zenith Gallery and Zenith Community Arts Foundation Present:

"BLACK ARTISTS MATTER"

 

At the Marketplace at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation

DC Convention Center- Hall E, Booth #540

801 Mt Vernon Pl NW, Washington, DC 20001

Showing select artworks from the

FREEDOM PLACE COLLECTION

Alma Thomas, Romare Bearden, Benny Andrews, Robert Freeman & Richard Yarde. 

Other artists represented:
Doba Afolabi, Anne Bouie, Cassandra Gillens, Hubert Jackson, Gloria Kirk, Chris Malone, Curtis Woody and more.

Market Place Open to the Public

Show Dates:  September 17- September 19, 2015 

 

Zenith Gallery Information:

Margery Goldberg, 202-783-2963, margery@zenithgallery.com

Zenith Community Arts Foundation Information:

Ella Dorsey, 202-783-8005, zenithcommunityarts@zcaf.org 

For your Wednesday night

I will be the Chief Critiquer in David Mordini's and Sean Hennessey's new event "The Critique" at their Otis Street Art Project space tonight. 

The most expensive thing in the world is information; for artists it is information and critical feedback. Artists complain all the time about not having either one of these two.

 

This critique should be a really interesting time where you can listen not pnly as I give my professional opinion about the work Zofie Lang, Christian Tribastone, Ceci Cole McKinturff, and Nate Lewis!

I am probably the best opinion-giver on the planet because I offer it from many perspectives, not just from a pencil-neck geek art critic, but also from a professional artist with a few decades of worldwide experience under his size 36 belt plus an even more successful (and humble) art dealer with more experience on the subject than nearly all other DMV art dealers combined... so please come by and bring a note pad and clean ears.

You will learn a lot.
Also I will also be dispensing some gold nuggets on artists and arts fairs!

Everyone that is interested in hearing this conversation about these artists' original art - applicable to all -  is invited sit in on The Critique. The conversation is meant to be critical but constructive. The event aims to discuss what works, what doesn’t work, and to lead the artist toward possible resolutions or developments.

6:00 - 7:00 Meet and Greet with refreshments, and to see the Otis Street Arts Project space.

The Critique will begin at 7:00. Some works we will discuss will be jpgs, some will be actual pieces and each artist's work will be discussed for roughly 30 minutes.

RSVP on the event's Facebook Event Page
(not required for attendance) https://www.facebook.com/events/1649240928664730/

Artists' Websites: Michelle Banks

DMV artist Michelle Banks is one of the hardest working artists around the region.

Her work explores the marriage of art and science in a visual representation that maximizes the artistry of science and the science of visual art.

While many artists complaint about lack of opportunities, Banks grabs them by the horns and you can see her work several times a year around the region.

She writes:

Art and science may seem like opposites, but they can form beautiful partnerships. My work draws on biology, anatomy and neuroscience to produce paintings and collages that celebrate colors and forms that can often be seen only under a microscope.

You can find her artwork at the following local events this year:

September 1217th Street Festival
Washington, DC

September 26Barracks Row Fall Festival
Washington, DC

October 3Art on the Avenue
Alexandria, VA

October 4McLean Project for the Arts, Artfest
McLean, VA

If you can't make it to a festival, you can visit her online shop at Artologica.

This is what you need to do this Wednesday!

I will be the Chief Critiquer in David Mordini and Sean Hennessey's new event "The Critique" at their Otis Street Art Project space this Wednesday. 

 It should be a really interesting time where you can listen to my wealth of immense knowledge as I talk about the work of Zofie Lang, Christian Tribastone, Ceci Cole McKinturff, and Nate Lewis!

If you want to pick up some good and critical points about artwork - some brutal, but all constructive - from the perspective of one of the DMV's best-known art critics, who also happens to be an immensely successful artist, and an even more successful (and humble) art dealer (much to the chagrin of some)... please come by and bring a note pad and clean ears.

Also I will also be dispensing some gold nuggets on artists and arts fairs!

Everyone that is interested in hearing this conversation about these artists' original art - applicable to all -  is invited sit in on The Critique. The conversation is meant to be critical but constructive. The event aims to discuss what works, what doesn’t work, and to lead the artist toward possible resolutions or developments.

6:00 - 7:00 Meet and Greet with refreshments, and to see the Otis Street Arts Project space.

The Critique will begin at 7:00. Some works we will discuss will be jpgs, some will be actual pieces and ach artist's work will be discussed for roughly 30 minutes.

RSVP on the event's Facebook Event Page
(not required for attendance) https://www.facebook.com/events/1649240928664730/

I will also be bringing some signed artwork to dispense to attendees as I see fit... FREE ART!!!

Scotland!!!!!

Phillips and Ebay

If you want to buy works by up-and-coming artists like Math Bass, Petra Cortright, and Artie Vierkant at Phillips later this month, get out your laptop, because for the first time, the auction house will offer works live during the sale via eBay.

Details here.

Barbara Januszkiewicz at McLean

The unique and vibrant artistic style of Mid-Atlantic watercolor artist Barbara Januszkiewicz will be featured when McLean Project for The Arts opens its art exhibition from 7-9pm on Thursday, September 10, 2015. Color Riff by Barbara Januszkiewicz features paintings designed to spark a dialogue between the use of color and its conceptual link to music. 


Januszkiewicz is recognized for her unique style and use of difficult medias like watercolor, a media that she has mastered completely and takes to the next level with her ability to capture the complexity of color. For this exhibit, however, she displays her latest work of watercolor-like acrylics on unprimed canvas, a new medium for Januszkiewicz. 


"Januszkiewicz has a flowing, vibrant style akin to that of the Color School’s Morris Louis,” raves the Washington Post. 


Januszkiewicz has been influenced directly by music in her career. She strives to capture how the music sounds and feels in her paintings. “I find it intriguing that there is a vocabulary of words that apply to both music and visual art, like movement, patterns, perspectives and layering,” she says. 


“Music is my muse,” she continues. “I am inspired by the gritty undertones and rhythm patterns of the blues. I take a song’s chord progressions and play with the idea of a mirror cord in the colors I paint with. Blending the music and corresponding color notes, I work to create luminous paintings that reflect the emotionalism and improvisational freedom that we find in music genres like jazz.” 


Viewers can interact with the art through unique and rare online content. Video and audio clips of the musicians and music that have inspired Barbara’s artwork will be connected via a smartphone app to the paintings. 

Exploring the effects of every genre from jazz to thumping garage rock to vintage blues can now be witnessed in exhibit, where sound becomes visual. 


The public, press and art supporters are welcome to tour the exhibit and see the artwork and interact with the artist on Thursday, September 10, 2015 from 7– 9pm, McLean Project for the Arts, 1234 Ingleside Avenue, McLean, Virginia. Color Riffs runs through October 24.

Stagmomantis carolinas NOT praying!

Trawick Prize winners

Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards

Exhibition dates, September 2 - 26 

Gallery hours, Wed. - Sat., 12-6pm

Opening reception, Friday, Sept. 11, 6-9pm

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards is a visual art prize produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District that honors artists from Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Virginia. Artwork from eight finalists will be on display at Gallery B, 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E. The finalists were selected from more than 350 artists who applied to this year's competition, and they will compete for $14,000 in prize monies.

Winners:

Best in Show ($10,000): Jonathan Monaghan

Second Place ($2,000): Lynn Cazabon

Third Place ($1,000): Jason Hughes

Young Artist ($1,000): Nara Park

Exhibiting Artists:

Selin Balci, Annapolis, MD
Lynn Cazabon, Baltimore, MD
Catherine Day, McLean, VA
Jason Hughes, Baltimore, MD
Tim Makepeace, Washington, D.C.
Sebastian Martorana, Baltimore, MD
Jonathan Monaghan, Washington, D.C.
Nara Park, Washington, D.C.

More info here.

Come say howdy!

Continuing to sell well...

The Road to the Isles

A far croonin' is pullin' me away
As take I wi' my cromak to the road.
The far Coolins are puttin' love on me,
As step I wi' the sunlight for my load.

Chorus:
Sure, by Tummel and Loch Rannoch
And Lochaber I will go,
By heather tracks wi' heaven in their wiles;
If it's thinkin' in your inner heart
Braggart's in my step,
You've never smelt the tangle o' the Isles.

Oh, the far Coolins are puttin' love on me,
As step I wi' my cromak to the Isles.

It's by 'Sheil water the track is to the west,
By Aillort and by Morar to the sea,
The cool cresses I am thinkin' o' for pluck,
And bracken for a wink on Mother's knee.

It's the blue Islands are pullin' me away,
Their laughter puts the leap upon the lame,
The blue Islands from the Skerries to the Lews,
Wi' heather honey taste upon each name.

Post Erika waves in OBX

Headin' South today

Gonna be shark bait for a few days while a friend watches the homestead...

Dead man's float

The kid has it down pat - he can now officially qualify to join the Navy when it is his time to serve!

Today he is six years old!

Call for artist entries!

Applications for the 2016 Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival are now open!  Join them as they celebrate the 25th anniversary of this top-ranked outdoor festival, visited by over 30,000 patrons each year. 

Presented in Reston Town Center, a suburb of Washington, DC, the festival attracts art lovers, affluent homeowners, corporate executives, and design professionals in addition to the broader community. The Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival has built a reputation for showcasing talented artists and high-quality work.  Don't miss your opportunity to be a part of it in 2016!

I've both done this festival many times and juried it once, and I highly recommend it!

Details and application here.

You can’t eat art

This is still one of my favorite art-related articles ever published in the WaPo in 2001.

The van is parked at the CVS drugstore on Spout Run Parkway. Artist John Grazier huddles inside, eating rice pudding from the all-night grocery and downing it with Busch beer. He’ll sleep here tonight, scrunched up on the brown shag rug on the floor, though he knows he won’t get much rest. “I keep worrying I’m going to roll over on the paintings.”
 
The paintings are why he’s here. They’re why, a week ago, he drove 220 miles from his home near State College, Pa., where the rent is due, his two children need to be fed, and he’s got less than $13 in the bank. He has no other job, no other paycheck to meet the bills. His entire income, what little of it there is, comes from his art.
 
He needs to sell a painting.

Read it here.

And ten years later, in 2011, the WaPo did this update.

Ten years ago, John Grazier was a struggling, self-taught surrealist, driving his 1966 GMC Handi-van (which also served as his sleeping quarters) 220 miles from his central Pennsylvania rental to the addresses of Washington’s elite to sell his paintings

The eccentric artist had worn out his welcome with District art dealers and struck out on his own — peddling his work door-to-door to law firms and entrepreneurs — when reporter Darragh Johnson shadowed him for a 2001 Washington Post Magazine story. He swung from bouts of homelessness to pulling in $100,000 commissions.

You can see some of John's works here. 

Marion True

The reporters staked her out. The investigators said she conspired with crooked dealers. And her museum colleagues seemed content to watch her disappear, as if one of the world’s most powerful, respected and sought-after art historians deserved to be the only American curator brought to trial.

Read about  Marion True (former curator of antiquities for the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles) here.