Paradise City Arts Festival Founder, Linda H. Post with artist Vitek Kruta from Massachusetts.

 

Quilt artist, Carol Lee Heisler, Lorac Designs of East Norriton, PA.  Paradise City Arts Festival.

 

Mark Jeremy Gleberzon’s acrylic paintings on canvas are real eye-grabbers; yeah, Mark’

 s Canadian. Paradise City Arts Festival. 

Album Cover Art recycled into handbags by Bethlehem PA’s AlbumCoverHandbags.  Paradise City Arts Festival

DoN thinks the handbags recycled from old album covers are divine, especially the B52s; DoN reminded ACH that Frank Sinatra is dead. 

High energy art by Don & Cheryl Olney of Louise’s Daughter of Rochester, NY.  Paradise City Arts Festival.

DoN was drawn into Louise’s Daughter’s dreamy world of good karma, peace and joy; Don & Cheryl are a delightful couple, married 20 years and doing work they both enjoy – does it get better than that?

Dennis Guzenski of J.P. Design’s Lightweight Paper Sculpture.  Paradise City Arts Festival.

Jeanne Petrosky of Pottstown, PA’s J.P. Designs creates wall art that looks like stone but is light as a feather; perfect for creating a dramatic interior design without the worry of wrecking your walls.

Natalie Blake develops tile multiples of ceramic which can be arranged and rearranged at your whim.  Paradise City Arts Festival.

Natalie Blake’s art allows the collector to mix and match to their heart’s content and Natalie Blake Studio’s website is pretty cool, too.  Natalie is from Brattleboro, VT – the town that passed an ordinance proclaiming they would arrest President Bush or Dick Cheney if they set foot in their town?  DoN LoVes Brattleboro.

 

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Scott Ruesswick of Turned Wood Art from Canterbury, NH where beards are essential.  Paradise City Arts Festival.

 

Scott E. Matyjaszek, photographer from Rochester NY @ Paradise City Arts Festival.

Scott Matyjaszek and DoN had a fascinating conversation about photography and the inherent idea of the unlimited potential of spreading art around the world.  Scott prices his work very reasonably so they are accessible but we both agreed if you want to own a limited edition photograph expect it’s going to be in the four figure and up range.  Matyjaszek creates photographic images with 3D techniques that are intriguing, inspiring and affordable.

Saturday DoN and about fifty others attended a lecture by Philadelphia’s finest artist, Paul DuSold at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art’s Cecelia Beaux exhibit.  DuSold is a favorite teacher of many local painters and brought his depth of knowledge of painting to the work by the pioneering woman artist.  Recognized by her peers as “the greatest woman painter that ever lived,” Cecilia Beaux (1855-1942) was a trailblazing artist who achieved international acclaim painting portraits of prominent figures of her day. 100 oil paintings, works on paper, decorative objects, and archival documents (PAFA website).  Paul DuSold explained how warm and cool temperature tones, dark and light color choices, ambiguous edges compared to crisp line, even brush size choices helped make Beaux one of the most successful female artists of her time and a favorite portrait artist of many aristocrats.  DuSold brought some lucidity to what may have seemed to be a conventional portrait exhibit.  Paul DuSold is represented by Gross McCleaf Gallery and teaches painting and drawing at Fleisher Art Memorial and Woodmere Art Museum.

Artist and teacher Paul DuSold @ PAFA’s Cecelia Beaux exhibit.

 

 

 

 

Photo West Gallery @ 3625 West Lancaster Ave currently is exhibiting “Photography – Out of the Blue“, works by 25 Philadelphia photographers and artists.  With works including multimedia, assemblage and conceptual art, Out of the Blue includes a broad range of art using photographs as their basis; the show runs through April 20th.  DoN has discovered that West Philly is totally cool; it’s not just the Science Center, the Bridge and the ICA anymore.

 

Untitled by John Schlesinger @ Photo West Gallery

 

Trippy Indian Snapshots by Nancy Lisagor @ Photo West Gallery

DoN then zoomed back to Center City’s Plastic Club, 247 South Camac Street, to view works by Eleanor J. Hall.  Previously Ms. Hall has participated in group shows at Art Around Gallery, the October Gallery in Old City and ArtJaz Gallery but this was her first solo show and she took full advantage of the historic space.  The walls were covered with lovely florals, still lifes done in acrylics, sensual nudes in pastels, crisp pencil studies and smart shaped canvases of abstracts, figures and animals.  Even though Hall has returned to painting after a long career in business, she’s surely making up for lost time with exuberance and style.

 

Eleanor J. Hall (right) with her granddaughter at The Plastic Club.

Shaped canvas by Eleanor J. Hall.

Back in West Philly, DoN visited the extraordinary ViX Emporium @ 5009 Baltimore Ave; the place was packed with guests munching on snacks while gleaning the array of pottery, prints, clothing, jewelry and art.  Everything was priced right, especially the fine pottery by Steven J. Hoke and the darling Starling fabric prints by Rebecca Westcott (with all the proceeds from sale of the prints going to Morris Animal Shelter – cool.) 

 

Prints and pottery at Vix Emporium.

 

Fabric prints and jewelry @ Vix.

DoN continued on to the opening night gala @ Studio 34, a stunning space located on the second floor of 4522 Baltimore Avenue.  The space boasts a lounge area with a stage for entertainment, a huge gallery space with an excellent show by the Midwives Collective called “Finding Blue“, reiki healing and wellness rooms and a pilates studio.  Friend of DoN, Fran Staret is the resident reiki master.  The art show is exceptional with paintings, photography and sculpture by 14 artists; blue is a recurring theme, artists riff on the luminosity of the color which plays nicely off the theme at Photo West and the ongoing Democraticpresidential race.  Philly is truly blue right now.

Guitarist Walt Bibinger, and jazz singer Jessi Teich, entertaining the crowd at Studio 34.

The art gallery/dance room @ Studio 34: Yoga | Healing | Arts.

Shining Chance by Christiana Kugel @ Studio 34.

DoN has art on display at First Impressions Gallery in Salem, NJ including a cityscape of West Broadway; curator Mary Wolfe is preparing for 2nd Friday, April 11th.  Her last exhibition made front page news and is helping revitalize this historic South Jersey town.

Oil paintings by DoN Brewer and Jeff Samuels @ First Impressions in Salem, NJ.

Drawing by DoN and paintings by Mary Wolfe @ First Impressions Gallery.

DoN is pleased and honored to announce that one of his paintings is included in the 145th Annual Exhibition of Small Oil Paintings at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, 235 South Camac Street, Philadelphia, reception Sunday, April 6th 2-5PM. The exhibit is on through April 27th.

 

Friends of DoN, Reta Sweeney, painter and Lucartha Kohler, glass sculptor have a show called Light & Color at Gallery 50, 50 East Commerce Street, Bridgeton, NJ, April 2 – 25th, reception Friday April 4th, 6 – 9 PM.

 

Friend of DoN, Aida Berzins is included in Izstade, Celebration of Latvian Art at the Philadelphia Society of Free Letts, 531 North 7th Street across from the Edgar Allan Poe House.  Aida is a fine painter who sold out her last show, DoN will review the exhibit for the next DoNArTNeWs.

 

LoVe

DoN

All photographs by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography except where noted.