Nominees: Robin Beaty and Fleur Palau

The 16th Spotlight on the Arts Awards is coming to the Music Hall on April 15th -- so as a follow up to announcing the nominees, I'd like to specially congratulate Robin Luciano Beaty and Fleur Palau as I have the pleasure of working with both of them!

Robin Luciano Beaty...

Robin has been nominated for "Outstanding Abstract Artist of 2009". She concentrates primarily on the ancient wax based medium of Encaustic paint, a molten beeswax mixed with resin and dry pigments, which she incorporates mixed media, vintage materials, textiles and found objects. Her work has been described as "beautifully conceptual, satisfying mind and spirit simultaneously" and "deliciously collectable". Robin has had an ongoing presence at Three Graces Gallery in Portsmouth - Her solo show this past August ('09) was a huge success, featuring an impressive body of work in her medium of encaustic. Last Spring ('09), Robin was awarded the Award for Excellence in Mixed Media at the NAA's 12th annual Regional juried show as well as the prestigious International Encaustic Painting "Conference Award" for Best in Show in the exhibition juried by Nicholas Capasso, chief curator of the Decordova Museum. *I'd like to also mention that she built her own studio, which is gorgeous and impressive in and of itself -- she's prolific, professional and a delight to work with.

Fleur Palau...

Fleur has been nominated for "Outstanding Narrative Artist of 2009". She was trained in both Florence and New York, she has lived and worked in Italy for over 20 years where she maintains a home and working studio. She is currently living in New Hampshire and has an ongoing presence at Three Graces. She is best known for her narrative paintings depicting a world of Rabbits. Her paintings are a whimsical, yet sometimes moody reflection of the human psyche set in the natural world. Fleur admits "The full meaning of these paintings is of course open to speculation and does not concern me, though I recognize the symbolism and irony that is the vehicle in which to reveal some useful message about ourselves. I would hope that in these rabbbit portraits we may recognize the better attributes of our own nature, that of love, friendship, loyalty, and that the renewed recognition of this will at once empower and inspire." Fleur recently finished a series of paintings to be published in a children's book!

Architectural Digest HOME DESIGN SHOW

The 9th Annual Architectural Digest Home Design Show in New York City opened yesterday! Our dear friend and fabulous furniture designer/maker extraordinaire, George Beland, is exhibiting work from his Foundation Line. "Acceptance into this juried show testifies to Beland’s artistry." (Andrew Lieb, Portsmouth Herald)

The show features a world of design inspiration...

• Exhibits from nearly 300 premium brands


• Antiques and mid-century section, presented by 1stdibs.com


• Design seminars presented by The New York Times and industry associations


• Cooking demonstrations and tastings by celebrity chefs
  
• Complimentary one-on-one consultations with design professionals


• Curated tours with members of the American Society of Interior Designers
  

Here are some photos of last year's event courtesy of Architectural Digest:

George has been working very hard preparing for this show! He has added two new pieces to his foundation line, a television console and a "not so small" small table...

Here is George in his studio - he was recently interviewed by Andrew Lieb for the Portsmouth Herald.

"In his workshop at the Button Factory, furniture builder George Beland is at
work on a custom kitchen set he’ll exhibit at the Architectural Digest Home
Design Show from March 18-21 at Pier 94 in New York City." more

The Architectural Digest Home Design Show is Thursday thru Sunday. For those of you who won't be able to make the big show, George's work is, of course, always on display at Three Graces. Congratulations George! Work it!!

My Sunset Road!

I just received a package from Courtney of My Sunset Road -- I love her jewelry designs (have admired necklaces and earrings on the beautiful Becky OH! for over a year now) and I am delighted to have them here at Three Graces! Courtney's designs are a perfect blend of organic and elegance.

making her ideas and designs come alive in metal...

The latest collection Sunset Road hints at ancient cultures from faraway places. Courtney has found inspiration in history and design from Africa, Asia and South America - intrigued by the form, function and significance of the ancient designs. "The original artisans crafted these pieces for both ornamental and symbolic purposes. They were adornments that were meant to seduce and were also worn as emblems of power. I wanted to keep the historical context and communicate it in my modern adaptations."

This is her favorite collection to date! "My love for modern design and history have come together in a collection that would feel at home in both the Museum of Natural History and the MoMA! These pieces are meant to be everyday favorites. You can wear them alone for a subtle look but the clean shapes and design are perfect for layering as well as mixing and matching with each other for a bolder statement."

The Spring collection from My Sunset Road "honors women who are conscious of trends but want quality pieces with timeless appeal."

Jewelry designs by My Sunset Road (a.k.a. Courtney Filer-Dougal) is now available and coming soon to our online shop!

16th Annual Spotlight Awards -- Nominees Announced!

I was recently asked to be on the visual arts jury for the Spotlight Awards!

The nominees were officially announced in this week's Spotlight, here's the link: http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20100311-ENTERTAIN-3110307

Congratulations to all of the nominees -- I feel really good about our nominees as they are not only an extremely talented group of artists, but hard working. The things that each of them has accomplished in the past year is inspiring and should be acknowledged. Here are our picks for the awards:

Outstanding Abstract Artist of 2009

Tim Beavis
Kim Bernard
Robin Luciano Beaty
Gail Spaien
Rose Umerlik

Outstanding Representational Artist of 2009

Sydney Bella Sparrow
Amy Brnger
Tom Glover
Adeline Goldminc-Tronzo
Christopher Volpe

Outstanding Narrative Artist of 2009

Megan Bogonovich
Katherine Doyle
Julee Holcombe
Fleur Palau
Jocelyn Toffic

Outstanding Public Artist of 2009

*People's choice — nominees for Outstanding Public Artist of 2009. The public will vote for the winner at seacoastonline.com/spotlightvote

Emile Birch
Gordon Carlisle
Barbara Rita Jenny
Gary Haven Smith
Susan Schwake
Nathan Walker

The winners will be announced and awards will be presented at the 16th Annual Spotlight on the Arts Awards Show at the Music Hall in downtown Portsmouth on April 15th -- I sincerely hope that you can make it to the event! It begins at 7:00pm. The event is FREE and open to all Seacoast performing and visual arts enthusiasts and their guests.

FUTURAMA

We just celebrated the opening of our new show, FUTURAMA, featuring encaustic paintings by Kimberly Curry!

"As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Romania many years ago, I spent my time teaching at the local university and searching through second-hand stores, which were loaded with musty-smelling merchandise from Germany, Holland and other parts of Western Europe. It was like a treasure hunt for me. The gold nuggets were fabric from the 1950s: Stained tablecloths, faded curtains, and scraps of material from long-forgotten projects.

The images in the fabric tugged at my heart along with the hopeful story the items seemed to tell. It was the excitement of the images: Space exploration, scientific advances, and hope for a bright new future.

With its translucent and opaque qualities, the medium of encaustic painting is used as a vehicle to capture the images of the times." - Kimberly Curry, 2010

Kimberly Curry was raised in Southern Maine and attended Newbury College and Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston for interior design. She now resides in Portland, Maine.

While driven toward artistic expression and appreciation all her life, she did not find her true creative voice until she coached a group of young artists in Romania while living there on a Peace Corps assignment. There, Kimberly witnessed first-hand what it really means to have a spiritual need for artistic expression, even over above-base survival, with only the barest of supplies on hand. Artists in Romania worked with recycled posters, shoe polish, and fingers when brushes weren't available. Kimberly's work within the Peace Corps was to help procure supplies and funding for these young artists, and to provide moral support for their callings and endeavors.

Kimberly is the president of the board of SPIRAL Arts, Inc. and teaches intergenerational water-color classes through SPIRAL Arts in Portland, Maine.

Futurama is up thru March 29th!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I LOVE photoshop :)

in the news...

Thanks to Anne Bryant for coming in and writing about our Teeny Tiny Art Show!

"...Curator Kim Ferreira has done a great job of hanging a massive amount of work in such a way that it draws you further into her gallery to discover all the paintings, sculptures, and drawings that have been tucked, hung, encased in glass, neatly stacked and gently displayed...."

"...Absolutely stunning are Amy Gross' shadow box treats filled with botanical doppelgangers. She uses what she calls "imitative materials" to make these microcosms of mimicry. Right down to paper bees and ribbon moss, a close look at these incredible pieces reveals not one piece of craft store flora. Beads, fabric, paper, and other simple materials pretend so well, and Gross' skill makes me hope we see more of her in the future...."

"...I can't help but be drawn to the funnier side of this show. Greg Stones' sweet little watercolors and prints of penguins, zombies, aliens, Bigfoot, flashers, and nervous penguins' poop are really hilarious..."

"...Sarah Sharp's snapshots of scenes where little plastic toys are having adventures, mostly on food, are well executed as well as fun to look at. "Grand Day Out" turns a plant pot into a place for wee plastic hikers to take a nature walk and "Cows of Monte Cristo" makes a pasture of a sandwich..."

"...Gianna DiBartolomeo's paper and thread pieces resemble cross stitch, and hold snarky commentary between the words and the simplified images. From the recognizable one liners found in classic novels to her funny icon-type images paired with funny statements — you'll read them all if you read one.'I love ponchos.' 'Yoga is my sport.' 'Dependency Anonymous: We'll have a bus come pick you up'...."

"...Kaetlyn Wilcox has some killer little bird portraits she's done on wooden eggs. The birds, of course, in their Sunday best. Kelly Vivanco's well dressed little moles in "To the Market" and "Coin Purse" are very sweet and chock full of personality..."

"...I have just brushed the surface of this show. Be sure to stop in for all the rest of it — the lumberjacks, the spray paint, the Shakespeare, the fabric birds, and so, so much more."

Thanks again Anne! read the article in its entirety here.

TT6 now in our online shop!

We had a wonderful opening friday night -- the gallery was jam packed with people and teeny tiny art!

I am very pleased to be done hanging and also to announce that all of the works from the Teeny Tiny Art Show #6 are now available to view + purchase in our online shop!!

Enjoy...and stay tuned for posts on participating artists...

Teeny Tiny #6

February is upon us...more snow, valentines, my birthhday and the Teeny Tiny Art Show!

The sixth in the ongoing series of Teeny Tiny splendor this show includes old and new friends -- 36 artists from all over the country!

The show opens Friday, February 5th, with an opening reception from 5-8pm. For those of you who just can't wait -- feel free to check out a preview of many of the work in the show here.

I'll be sure to follow up with more in-depth previews and interesting tid bits about participating artists and their new works for this sensational show!

Cheers,

~Kim

New Year, New Show!

Today I write about a fabulous new show that just opened last friday featuring two talented and dear friends of mine -- Tiffany Torre and George Beland!

"Three Graces arranged the clever, yet natural pairing of wool installations by Tiffany Torre and wood furniture by George Beland. The softness of Torre’s fabric, like elegant tweed upholstery, ideally complements the modern, hardwood furniture. Both have minimal, but graceful lines and curves, and together the work reinforces the gallery’s welcoming, homey feel." (Chloe Johnson, the Wire)

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! Like everyone else, the past few months have been very busy -- we moved into a house, which has been extremely exciting and overwhelming at the same time. Having lived in a very small apartment for the past ten plus years I am very grateful. (and Bob has given me free reign on picking paint colors, so I've been busy painting all of the walls...perhaps I'll share some photos a little later...)

i'm back!

The past few months have been crazy busy despite and also resulting in my lack of posting! My guilt has passed and i realize the blog must go on!

The gallery is currently featuring a beautiful show of recent paitnings and works on paper by Shiao-Ping Wang..."Musings"

"I am most interested in growth and change when I make art. I find patterns fascinating: when a few shapes accumulate in large numbers the appearance and energy of the image becomes wholly different.

More often than not the gathering (or “swarming”) of shapes develops intuitively without planned organizations on my part. However, nature often emerges in my work through the movements and textures I see in the environment around me. The layers of paint and material I use generate the physical change in the process that is very interesting to observe, just like the change of seasons.

I see a color either “float” or “sink” on the flat surface of the canvas, always moving and changing in many directions. For this reason I use acrylic paint and a vinyl paint, called Flashe, to obtain both glossy (acrylic) and matte (Flashe) surfaces for a vision that is constantly changing." - Shiao-Ping Wang

Shiao-Ping Wang was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States in 1981. She studied both Western art and Chinese art in New York and earned a MFA degree from Queens College, City University of New York.

Shiao-Ping works both abstractly and from observation in various painting media. Her work has been exhibited throughout the US and China. She has taught painting and drawing in various colleges including the University of New Hampshire. In 2007 Shiao-Ping won a Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center and in 2008 she was the winner of the Spotlight Award for "Best Painter". (Here she is with her husband and fellow painter, Brian Chu -- Brian was one of my professors at UNH!)

Shiao-Ping Wang: Musings runs thru November 30th, so stop in and say hello -- and if you can't, all of the works will soon be available in our online shop!

PICNIC

Three Graces has a booth at Picnic tomorrow!

the Festival begins at 11 am rain or shine ... stop by and say hi if you are in the area! I'll be there with Bob (and the lovely and talented Tiffany Torre will be in the gallery.)

Cheers

opening this friday!!!

Come one, come all! this show is amazing, I am so excited to have so many amazing artists to work with, unfortunately there is so much that still needs to be done between now and the opening tomorrow night, that I don't have time to go into the details...however, you can check out the Teeny Tiny Art Blog which features pictures and interviews with many of the participating artists and will continue to do so thru the month!

See you on friday, the opening reception is from 5 to 8pm -- and for those of you who can't make it, the online shop will be launched Friday afternoon!

Luminous Landscape

Last night we celebrated the opening of "Luminous Landscape", a new exhibition featuring encaustic paintings by Linda Cordner, Charyl Weissbach, Janet Bartlett Goodman and Tracy Spadafora. The artists in this show have employed diverse encaustic-based means for exploring the subtle and mesmerizing affinity imparted by our surroundings. The use of pigmented wax, with its vivid color and translucent properties is uniquely able to convey nature's vastness and its mysterious allure, creating an illusion of timelessness.

Linda Cordner has exhibited at Three Graces on multiple occasions, in the Teeny Tiny Art Shows and most recently in "Making Their Marks in Molten Wax. Linda was raised in Connecticut and received a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Connecticut with concentrations in Graphic Design and Painting. She also spent a semester studying in London. An early interest in art lead her to choose this path without hesitation. After college she settled in Boston and has explored many areas of art and design throughout her career.

"I am very drawn to wax and its tactile qualities, the smell and viscosity of the medium are very different from other painting techniques. Creating organic forms is a natural extension of wax's origin. Coming from a background in graphic design, I am drawn to certain color schemes and shapes, the repetition and placement being important to the composition. My paintings are made by layering multiple coats of wax which can completely obscure the under layers at times. I use collage or incised patterns and lines to show the translucency of the wax."

Janet Bartlett Goodman currently resides in Oakland, California. A native of Boston, Janet received her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art, with a major in Industrial Design.　Her early work as a Product Designer honed her eye for color, line and form.

"My father was an Artist. So the smell of linseed oil and turpentine always floods me with memories of my childhood. The work that I am doing is about people and places that are important to me. The power of imagery to evoke emotions and create memories has always fascinated me. I use color, line, and depth to create a lyrical aesthetic. Each piece holds a single moment in time. In some of the works the viewer is invited to wander in. With the grid pieces, the viewer sits firmly outside the scene, and the image is allowed to stand-alone.　

My background is in product design so, for me, material and processes are very important. Wax is a wonderful medium to work with and I love the challenges that come from working in this very ancient technique. Encaustic is a mixture of bees wax, demar resin and pigment which is heated and applied to a substrate than reheated and each layer is fused to the one below. Once fused you get a very rich, deep, luminous surface. The process of making art should not be routine; it should make you continually question and experiment. Each piece should build on the success and failures of the last."　

Tracy Spadafora works and lives in Boston. She is exhibiting paintings from her "Persistance of Nature" Series.


Tracy is exhibiting paintings from her "Persistance of Nature" Series. "Images of nature came into my work many years ago. Intrigued by the elegant and complex patterns of leaves and other flora, I began incorporating them in my work as symbols of our natural environment. In my paintings these organic forms are juxtaposed with symbols of our man-made environment, represented by schematic diagrams and architecture plans of the "Big Dig" artery project in Boston, MA. The leaves, pods, flowers and seeds often take on a whimsical quality as they hang, float, and blossom from a background of roads, parking lots, and industrial parks, ultimately reshaping these structured surroundings.


I work with an ancient wax painting technique called encaustic, which allows me to layer images and preserve them underneath the surface. The obscuring and burying of images within the layers of wax and paint helps to extend their meaning into the realms of memory and intuition. In these works natural structures and man-made structures converge and collide, creating a dialogue between these opposing forces. The natural environment has suffered greatly as a result of commercial, residential, and industrial development. Nature struggles to survive and find new life within the continuous sprawl of these man-made environments.

With these paintings I intend to convey a sense of the poetry and endurance of nature as a force - a force that seems to persist in spite of man's actions. In this work I seek to address larger questions concerning the lineage of our natural and man-made environments."

Charyl Weissbach is a Boston encaustic painter. She has a BFA in Painting and Art History from the Massachusetts College of Art. Her painting technique involves the use of hot wax(encaustic)in combination with oil paints.

"Color, texture, and light placed within familiar settings such as a landscape or seascape can evoke feelings of inspiration.　These locations contain intriguing compositions, color rich in texture, and unusual shapes that, in collaboration, emit an aesthetic sensation of harmony, and the illusion of timelessness.　The imagery of my work does not accurately represent nature, as we know it.　With this, I am able to convey nature's vastness and its mysterious allure, which is a significant theme in my compositions.　Therefore, I try to unveil an abstraction of nature's character, attempting to capture some of its infinite variations of color, shape, and ethereal beauty.I derive great pleasure from satisfying a viewer's yearning for visualizing the complexity and beauty of our natural surroundings.　It is my hope that these feelings, which have formed the basis of these paintings, will be in some way conveyed to those viewing them."


"Luminous Landscape" is on view thru August 31st. You can also view all of the paintings from this exhibition in our online shop!