Monthly Archives: May 2009

Valerie Carroll & Reta Sweeney @ TwentyTwo Gallery

Reta Sweeney

 

Reta Sweeney @ Gallery TwentyTwo.  Part of what DoN refers to as the School of Philadelphia (Peltzman, Barns, Monaghan…), Sweeney sees light with a delightful optimism and has the ability to create welcoming atmosphere in paint.  Reta’s paintings are joyous, reveling in the liquid medium, working quickly and efficiently, applying color with skill, so as to sign the work by scratching into the wet paint with satisfaction.

 

Reta Sweeney

 

A Rose Bouquet, oil on canvas, Reta Sweeney @ TwentyTwo Gallery.

 

Reta Sweeney @ Valerie Carroll

 

Cherry Blossoms and Tulips, Reta Sweeney, oil on canvas and Valerie Carroll @ Gallery TwentyTwoDoN was impressed and inspired by the pairing of these two paintings, it’s not just the color palette, soothing pinks enhanced with warm atmosphere,  but the balance of symbolism and visual cues that creates a broader real world narrative.  This is a lesson in how to decorate with art confidently placing expressionism with impressionism in close proximity increasing the visual energy of the art.

 

Valerie Carroll

 

Valerie Carroll @ TwentyTwo Gallery.  Paintings like this make’s DoN want to paint, reaching deep into the soul creating an image to explain the human condition, paint strokes representing the passage of time, entropy and generativity vs. despair visualized with mysterious smudges and emotional color.

Alden Cole – Luminaries

al

 

To all those who understand my obsession with the LightTro color changing bulb which I have been using for the past 4 years, both here at 717 Federal, and in many luminaries sold over the past 5 years – somewhere around 280 of those bulbs have passed through my hands since 2004, when Betsy introduced me to them – I am devastated. Phillips Color Kinetics, the maker of LightTro, DISCONTINUED making them (some time ago, as I found out this morning). And the distributor has only 36 left. I’m the second one in line for those last 36. And I have one unopened package left of these bulbs, up at the South Street Gallery. Auction time?

 

Oh well, end of an era in my output. Hold onto your bulbs. They can last a long long time. Seriously, it’s a shame that such a beautiful GREEN item should be discontinued. Perhaps it will nudge me out of the luminary business and back into painting. Those bulbs were as good as it gets in terms of night lighting. On to the next phase…

 

Alden Cole

Rich Harrington – Parked Cars @ The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Rich Harrington

Rich Harrington, Parked Cars @ The Philadelphia Sketch Club.

Harrington’s paintings are totally cool – each painting features old cars, trucks or tractors with their rusting hulks rendered realistically but painterly in watercolors and acrylics.  Rich is a Philadelphia artist whose work is recognizable as a Harrington; brushwork, coloration, depth of field, composition, subject matter, information design, atmospheric naturalism and pop sensibilities are all thoroughly modern with a fond backward glance at the remnants of mid-century modernism.

Rich Harrington

The collection of Rich Harrington paintings in the historic pool room of the Philadelphia Sketch Club is extemely accessible and enjoyable, his painting style is specific and strong with powerful images that tell stories yet are extremely decorative.  Harrington is the new Vice President of the Philadelphia Sketch Club and is also the chair of the upcoming Phillustration ’09 – download the prospectus.

Rich Harrington

Detail of painting by Rich Harrington @ The Philadelphia Sketch Club.

Karen McDonnell – Studio Visit

After Dr. Deb’s lecture about Andy Warhol @ Fleisher, DoN visited the studio of Karen McDonnell & Anthony Cortosi – the art team behind award-winning, evocative stencil, spray paint and mixed media paintings appropriately iconic images of Elvis, Betty Grable, Janet Leigh, and much like Andy Warhol, even Factory Superstars like Joe Dallesandro.  The difference is the McDonnell/Cortosi hive mind extracts the images from media, then cuts the stencils, sprays the paint, makes marks, composes word structures  –  making each piece different even if in series, instead of slavishly copying with silk screen; it’s not so much appropriation as it is appreciation of popular culture, visual iconography, memes, idols, graffiti tagging, sticker art, words, naive primitivism and cave painting.

The team currenty has a show @ Roger Lapelle Galleries in Old City.

Karen McDonnell

 Karen McDonnell & Anthony Cortosi.

Karen McDonnell

Dr. Deb Miller compared Andy Warhol’s Cow wallpaper to Flemish cow paintings; McDonnell/Cortosi continues the theme of farm animals as subject for decorative paintings now created with spray-paint, stencils and markers, once to fill the homes of wealthy landowners, now it’s downtown lofts and street art.

Karen McDonnell

The studio of Karen McDonnell & Anthony Cortosi.