Art and About the End of August

Friday August 24, 2012 

 

Pet artist Gary :Lapelle will open the Renaissance Art Gallery at Noon this Friday. Got a beloved pet? Gary is the person to talk to. He loves drawing animal portraits.

 

New Art and Artist 

New artist hanging work.

There is a lot of new art hanging in the gallery from our artists, in addition to a new artist, Bobby Marcum. Come in to see his work!

 



New display by Fern Christian

On Saturday, Pati Payne will be in the gallery. Pati is a well-known watercolorist. She is also starting a new class at the Renaissance in watercolor. Perfect timing with fall coming on. 

 ATC

Saturday will also be our 3rd ATC meet and swap from 1-3 pm. APC is the theme, Altered Playing Cards. This will help us all get into the mood for the 12th Annual National Miniature Exhibition in November. The original miniature were painted on the playing cards of the day in watercolor and gouache. So working with playing cards is perfect!  Drawing teacher Susan Tschantz will have lots of things for everyone to work on. She has an enormous stash of pencils!

 

And figure artist Linda Helgason will be in on Sunday from 1-4 pm.





Hot times in July at the Renaissance

"March Marigold" L. Moul

This weekend promises to be a scorcher! Over half the U.S. is in sever draught, and those of us who aren't, yet are still so hot it is dangerous!

Most outdoor activities are not going to be pleasent, but the Renaissance Art Gallery will be open, and air conditioned. Perfect day and weather to come in out of the heat and enjoy local original art.

Friday Photographer Laura Moul will host the gallery from 12- 4 pm. Laura is an award winning landscape artist. So is also an expert in digital photography. The perfect person to ask questions of about digital photography. She knows what all those little pictures on your camera mean!

Saturday Susan Tschantz will be in. Susan teaches beginning art and drawing at the Renaissance. She will be in working on her ATC for the upcoming August 25th swap. She would welcome the company and would be happy to show you how simple and enjoyable Art Trading Cards are.

"Fishing Buddies" Tinted Charcoal
S. Tschantz

Susan will also be in Sunday from 1-4 pm. Again, she will have all her drawing toys, um, I mean tools! Susan has been using the latest tinted charcoal from Derwent along with tinted graphite. These exciting new products make drawing a new artform again.

Art in the Park and Charcoal

Still Life on Gray
Tinted Charcoal
S. Tschantz

Busy week ahead for the artists of the Renaissance Art Gallery. Many of us will be at Art In the Park, and annual art festival held in Ritter Park, Huntington, WV. It promises to be an ideal weekend, warm and sunny.

The event will start at 10:00 am on Saturday May 19, 2012 and run until 5:00 pm.

The Renaissance Art Gallery will be open that afternoon. Susan Tschantz will be there, working in charcoal.

Everyone is invited to stop by after visiting Art-In-The-Park and cool off!

Assembling Art: Wednesday Junior Art Class

As most of you know, I lead a Wednesday Junior Art Class. I say lead because I don't know how much actual teaching I do. Mostly I try to mentor and guide them into doing what they want to do anyway, rather than imposing what I want to do. I try to give them the skills and confidence to achieve what they need to do.

Robbie Sets things up

To this end, I have been looking into having other artists give demonstrations in their own art, and how they approach the creative process. How they work, what they work with, what are their goals, that sort of thing. To this end, I bludgeoned, ah, asked by friend and fellow Renaissance Art Gallery artist, Robbie Poore to give the class an insight into his unique approach to art.



Robbie is an assemblage artist at The Renaissance Art Gallery. This means that he creates works of art out of things that everyone else would through out. His demonstration was simple. You take a surface, in this case canvas; you use glue and start building. Robbie seldom has the complete design in mind when he starts. Oh he has an idea, even a goal, but he follows obediently to where the art leads him. It is not unusual for him to change directions in mid-stream. He gets inspiration from the objects themselves and the music he listens to.

Working on Art

So he presented the idea of found art, and assemblage. He brought in 12x12 canvases, glue and bags of different items including bottle caps, old CD’s (shattered) broken records (literally) cut up gift cards, string, lugs, eye hooks, crushed shells, and tubes of kitty litter (unused, thankfully!) All kinds of things! Others brought in miscellaneous items also.

Creative use of materials

Several items proved to be rather popular and flexible items, such as the kitty litter. Now, I did think some of those nice decorative polished stones you get in floral craft shops would be good, but kitty litter? It works. As well as the wooden keys you often get when you buy stretched canvas, but seldom use? It was very well received, both as a tool for spreading glue and for parts of the artwork. Things with a lot of texture worked really well, but unusual things also were used. All of them mixed and matched things with abandon, but with their own unique aesthetic eye.



We do have paint for the kids, both tempura and craft acrylics, but they actually preferred working with the natural colors of the items. Quite a few used random puzzle pieces, sometimes the print side, and sometimes the backs. They were really innovative in how they used these items, working with texture and design. Things I would not have thought would make good art found their way into some rather nice pieces. The work they did give me a fresh look at art. It also gave them a different point of view on just what art is. We had done standard collage and torn paper projects but this was totally different for them and me.

Watching each piece develop was exciting

The success of today makes me realize just how important it is to expose these young artists to other points of views, to other ways of approaching art. In the coming months I will be having other artists and other media in the Junior Art Class at The Renaissance Art Gallery. I do enjoy working with them and giving them my point of view on art. Teaching them to look at the work as an artist does. But what I can give them is simply one point of view, and that is in itself limiting. I am not looking to turn out clones of me but help them access their own unique artistic gifts. Being exposed to other artists, with different aesthetics will help them focus on their own views without stifling them. And by having each gallery member visit, they will be exposed to multiple mediums.

~Susan Tschantz

Renaissance Artist

Butterflies are free!

Here's looking at you, Kid

Lots of different materials
gave many options

Winter Is Not A Slow Time for Art for the Artists of the Renaissance.

   

           It has been a busy winter for gallery artist Ron Haeberle. In December he submitted two pieces for the West Virginia Division of Culture and History "Inspired - Historic West Virginia Buildings and Structures". Returning from a Christmas vacation he learned both had been accepted. These were delivered at the last moment. The opening was more elaborate than for the previous show. While it was a great honor, both were purchased for the WV collection on opening night. This is exciting and satisfying, it is also a bit sad. One was the painting of the Johnson Memorial Church, which was featured, in the Gallery's Blog. We have to say sadly; because the painting was so fresh it had not been show in Huntington at all. We never got the chance to hang it in the Renaissance Gallery! Luckily Ron has prints!

The Renaissance Building
R. Haeberle

          Coincidentally, Tamarack has scheduled an architecturally based show for this winter as well. This is a members show and He have selected four pieces which I will deliver this week. These include a very early work depicting the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans based on a photo by his son and three from the Huntington series. One of these is hot off the easel - the old Huntington High building - now the Renaissance Center, home to our own Renaissance Art Gallery.


           Finally, Ron delivered 30 or so works to the French Art Colony in Gallipolis Ohio recently. He was invited to put together this solo show late last year and it is a real honor to participate in this gallery's annual schedule. Ron now realizes he has almost nothing left that he would willingly show. His walls at home are bare - embarrassingly bare. He now feels the need to get to work!


The schedule for Ron's shows are:

WV Dept. of Culture and History - WV Culture Center - Charleston: Current until midsummer in the Commissioners Gallery/

Tamarack - Architectonic - Tamarack Gallery -Beckley WV: Opening Feb 13. Running til April 9, 2011.
French Art Colony - Gallipolis Ohio: Opening Feb 4. Running til Feb 27, 2011


He will have a solo show at the Renaissance Gallery in June 2011.

*~*



Round & About
Fern Christian

          Ohio University Southern in Proctorville, OH will host Fern Christian in a solo show at opening Feb 10, 2011. So Fern has been working in her James River Studio getting ready for this show in addition to teaching her own painting classes at the Renaissance two days a week.

*~*

          Bruce and Lillianne Bowersock have been invited by Ashley Home Furniture Store in Barboursville to hang an exhibition in the front glassed-in area of their store. Ashley Home Furniture will have an opening artist's reception on Sunday, March 7 from 5-8 pm at the store. Bruce and Lillianne’s work will hang for two weeks there. The manager felt that if people had access to original art right at the time they are buying furniture, it would make sense and be a big asset to them. Everyone is invited.


          Lillianne was invited to show her “Cats in the Window” series at the Red Caboose located in the new Huntington Visitor's Center where Heritage Station is. She will have two sizes of prints and her note cards available for sale there. There is a Grand Opening on Thursday, March 3 from 4-7 p.m. Everyone is invited to meet the artists. It will be a great place with an old-fashioned bakery right outside the door of the Red Caboose! Stop by on the 3rd!

*~*

          Robbie Poore is gearing up for this one-man show in April 20111 at the Renaissance Art Gallery.. This will be our first show with the newly remodeled gallery. Already this is drawing some excitement.

*~*

          Drawing has occupied Susan Tschantz most of this winter, both teaching her drawing classes and doing a series of drawings. Giving in to the weather, she has been doing a series of winter snow scenes, in graphite, charcoal and more. You can see her progress in her Starrpoint blog.


          She has also been working on doing effective drawings with simple shapes.

Long Shadows
S. Tschantz

*~*

          And all of the Artists of the Renaissance are preparing for the Spring Fine Arts Exhibition, “Parks & Recreation” May 2011.

Photographic Challenge

For artists who choose the camera as their medium, there are many challenges, the first is to convince the public that photography can and is fine art. We are so familiar with the snapshot, the group mug shot at the Grand Canyon, vacation pics and wedding photos that seeing what comes through the camera lens as fine art can be a real leap. There is a world of difference between taking and producing a Fine Art Photograph and snapping off a quick shot. But we have to show the world the difference!

To showcase photography as fine art, as a medium that takes as much creative thinking and hard work, The Renaissance Art Gallery is going to host its second Annual Fine Art Exhibition in July 2010.

The challenge this year is “Color Complements” and the photography should focus on the use of color in the composition of the photograph. The Prospectus is available now at The Renaissance Art Gallery. Or you can download a copy from The Renaissance Art Gallery website: http://www.orgsites.com/wv/renaissance If you wish a copy by mail send a SASE envelop to:

The Renaissance Art Gallery
900 8th Street, Suite #20
Huntington, WV 25701

While this challenge might seem daunting, it is doable. Take a look around and see just how much color plays a part of our everyday life. The photographer in you will be up to this challenge.

Contact The Renaissance Art Gallery:
Gallery (304) 525-3235
Appointments: (304) 453-3187
gallerywv@yahoo.com
www.orgsites.com/wv/renaissance

http://twitter.com/wvgallery
http://renaissancegalleryart.blogspot.com/

Gallery hours are:

Friday & Saturday 12-4 pm, Sunday 1-4 pmStudio hours Monday 10-Noon, Wednesday 1:00-7:30 pm and Saturday 10-Noon

PS- All photos for this blog posting by Gallery member Susan Tschantz. Just a small sample of what can be done with a photograph!

Weather and Art Classes

It looks like we finally have a break in the weather. The last few weeks have been killers! But it seems we are getting a break, back to our normal winter weather. Gallery will be open and classes back to normal this week.

The Ron Haeberle show is still up along with new works by other gallery members. Susan Tschantz has several new paintings up and will be hanging one drawing she did for her adult drawing class, "Bridge over the Avon." The drawing is a graphite pencil drawing, 8 x 10 done with a photo reference supplied by Helen South of about.com drawing & sketching site.

Figure Drawing

The weather does not appear to be cooperating with the Renaissance Gallery this week. More snow, so many will not be able to make the Figure drawing class this week, but there is always next week!

With the bad weather, don't rush!

Sue Tschantz will be maning the gallery tomorrow, however, and will have the hot pot on for tea and coffee.

Linda Helgesson has her display of firgure drawings up for view, as well as new works by the rest of the gallery members, including Ron Haeberle.

New Year, New Art

The start of the new year is leaving everyone tired! After the miniature show, it seems it is hard to get going again.

January and February will be devoted to new artists and new works. The Exhibition hall will focus on the new members of the Gallery, and be supported by new works of the regular members, things we have not displayed before.

Ron Haeberle has a large amount of new watercolors, some urban, but most featuring the back woods around this part of West Virginia.