On becoming a better person through art.
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On the shift from engineering to full time sculptor.
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On facing fears in a park full of tigers.
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Diane Richey-Ward is a mixed media visual artist based in northern California who combines large scale charcoal and pastel drawings with photo imagery and video…
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I’ve always been curious how much of the work we create is a product of our environment. There are long dissertations on the Nature/Nurture impact on each person’s development, but how much of the visual/sensory experience is consumed and metabolized and then makes its way into the artist’s work? This is an ongoing obsession of mine as an artist and traveler…
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If you are local to the Boulder/Denver area, chances are good you have heard of, or know, Caroline Douglas. Her whimsical and dream-based ceramic sculptures are prevalent in exhibitions in this area as well as further afield. She also is a beloved teacher in Boulder and also in Marrakesh, Mexico and Hawaii. Some of her more recent travels have taken her to Estonia, Serbia, and Latvia where she made her clay sculptures in the company of sculptors from Turkey, Egypt and Croatia.
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I know I'm always harping on about art and travel, because it’s how I prefer to make my way in the world. Alas, there are very real challenges to making art WHILE traveling.
Just last week in London I went to the Tate Britain, the Tate Modern, V and A Museum, The Serpentine Gallery, the Somerset House Design Biennale, The Dennis Severs House near Spitalfields. I saw plays at the National Gallery, The Globe Theater for Shakespeare and The Victoria Palace Theater to see Hamilton! And those are…
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Arrived in London early, went walking to stay awake. And found beneath my feet the art world unnoticed and unsung. I've walked these stones countless times, yet never saw them like this. York paving stones - weathered, chiseled and trampled. Day 1 - I got what I came for without even trying!
How easily we pass by inspiration! Clues to what we love. I've enhanced these photos with contrast because this is what I saw. But I hesitated at first to take out my phone for photos - my phone! It's ridiculously easy to capture moments with our ever-present phones, yet I was in motion, not wanting to slow down or stop…
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Where do I begin with the extensive creative accomplishments and adventures of Alec Von Bargen?
Artist/photographer/Humanitarian/Actor/Writer/Traveler - the list goes on and on. Born in New York City, he is based (sometimes) in Mexico and Milan, but no moss grows under this artist/traveler's feet. His numerous awards include being twice invited to exhibit at the Venice Biennale, he has also exhibited in galleries and museums internationally including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the OCT Museum in Shanghai…
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In the next few weeks I'll be hither and thither - mostly across the pond in London and then to southwest Ireland at my 3rd residency at Cill Rialaig Artists Retreat. It's always a challenge to keep up a regular blogging schedule when I'm on the road, especially when I'm off the grid in the far reaches of the Irish coast. I will find a way my dear readers so check back soon.
Next week I'm hoping to publish my next artist traveler interview with
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Few things make me happier than a fresh leather bound art travel journal with blank pages waiting to be filled! The virgin white pages fill me with anticipation - visual stories that I will look back on in future years. Whether the resulting images will be a reflection of literal places or from my imagined worlds, they are travelogues of the epic quest…
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I don’t remember how I first heard about the Toronto area based painter Janice Mason Steeves, but I felt an immediate kinship when I saw her earthy, minimalist, abstract paintings. It seemed that we also shared a love of northern, vast, bleak landscapes, and we have both visited Iceland as an artist in residence - albeit at different residencies. The paintings that have come from her residencies and workshops there reflect the cool earth tones and the silence and spaciousness of that far northern wonderland.
She also leads classes in oil and cold wax, and chooses often to hold workshops in such far afield places as Ireland, the wild west coast of Canada, and soon to be locations in Scotland and Mongolia…
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The heat is already bearing down, the skies hazy with drifting wildfire smoke from miles away, and my default guidance system pulls me north. Could be my genetic predisposition - 98% British Isles, Irish, French and Scandinavian. I'm not built for heat and glaring sunlight.
I did a residency in Iceland back in 2012 at Gullkistan, and wrote this passage in my sketchbook while there:
"To be in Iceland, the newest land mass on the planet - the rumbling belly of continents. Breaking, stretching, gasping open. Bleak, scoured, fertile. The clouds pan across the flatlands - spreading…
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Trine Bumiller is a Denver based painter who has a special interest in the natural world. Her oil paintings are shown around the world and she is represented by Robishchon gallery in Denver, and Zg Gallery in Chicago. She has also been to numerous artist residencies, including one in Denali National Park in Alaska.
Even though we live in neighboring cities, I first met Trine recently at a residency at Brush Creek Arts in Saratoga WY. At that time she was working on a huge project…
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Thank you to Artsyshark.com for their feature artist article - you can read more on their site. Click the image:
"In life and art, I long for the horizon. There is an invisible tether that pulls me toward the unknown, and this is reflected in the artwork that I do. Even in my purely abstract paintings, it’s always about a mythical journey of discovery. I always want to know…”
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Just a few days left of our residency here at Brush Creek Ranch. Time stands still and whizzes by, simultaneously. This vast landscape inspires and intimidates at times, even being from Colorado. Our daily hikes have added dimension to our isolated camp, and from the high perches, there is a sense of scale and orientation, sometimes missing from the low valleys.
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I've noticed a pattern while at a month long residency, that almost without fail repeats itself. Currently I'm at the midpoint, where I feel that nothing is working, and I can't paint!
The first week is full of vim and vigor, as all the artists get to know each other, we set up our studios and get cracking. The second week builds on that momentum and the studio begins to fill up with, at least, works in process. Then the midway point happens - suddenly
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All about ARTIST RESIDENCIES - how to find the right one for you,create a compelling application and become an artist in residence. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW!
For those who are creative and love to travel, artist residencies are the Holy Grail. From Antarctica to the Arctic Circle and everywhere between, artist residencies are dedicated places for creatives to focus on their work, travel to cool places and
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Something about the horizon line keeps showing up in my work out here in the wide open spaces of Wyoming. This is not the first time - the horizon is a composition I naturally gravitate to, in many ways - literally and metaphorically. There is an invisible tether that pulls, and sometimes yanks me toward the horizon, ever longing for the unknown.
This I think is partly the human condition, to be
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