Category Archives: Philadelphia Art Clubs

Art clubs are members only groups with a mission to promote the development of artists; DoN is a member of several Philadelphia area art clubs.

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club

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Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Wayne Franks, Row House Rose, transparent oil on panel

The Art of the Flower show at The Philadelphia Sketch Club usually coincides with the Philadelphia Flower Show in March while it’s still cold and drab outside after the long Winter. But moving the annual celebration of floral art to the dog days of Summer is a good reminder to appreciate the gorgeous gardens in full bloom during this withering weather. The Art of the Flower show is a favorite of the member artists, it’s theme of natural splendor a motif filled with evocative beauty and drama.

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Ruth K. Fackenthal, Day Lilies, acrylic on linen

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club click the thumbnail for larger image

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Kathy C. Lin, Hugging, oil

This painting just makes me happy. The way the composition flips back and forth from abstract to still life to impressionist to naive expressionism is just plain fun.

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Elizabeth MacDonald

Betty MacDonald’s piece is multiple mono-prints on paper transferred from common paint stir sticks. The sense of storytelling and descriptive imagery ties together a lifetime of experiences. References to painting as utilitarian and decorative practices, flowers as design and symbols of nature and inferences to embroidery, handwork and decorative art creates a narrative of how art influences our lives and nature influences our art.

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club click the thumbnail for large image.

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club

The gallery at The Philadelphia Sketch Club is brimming like a huge bouquet of flowers of all kinds presented in all manner os media but to my eye painting is dominant. Whether watercolor, oils, or acrylics, artists find flowers irresistible for study and painting, images of flowers were found buried at Pompeii and have long been symbols of personalities or special occasions. You can’t help but feel good when you see all the exuberant color, fluid shapes and sensuous compositions interpreted by serious artists.

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Pearl Mintzer, Magenta Blossom, acrylic

The Art of the Flower show is only on exhibit through August 18th check the website for gallery hours and experience the many interpretations and inspirations of floral art.

Through SideArts.com, DoN is offering online and in-person one-on-one consulting services to visual and craft artists and art businesses. Read all about it here.

Written and Photographed by DoN Brewer

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Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

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Stephen Heigh, Sunday Morning Robots, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club ends on June 16th 2012, so if you want to see a collection of 77 amazing works of art, illustrations for books, magazine covers, advertising, self promotion, then you have to visit the Avenue of the Artists now. To see illustrations in person is so different than what you see in print. Often a book cover is from a large painting, the art for a magazine cover may be quadruple the actual size, many are masterful works of painting virtuosity not illustrations made on a computer with Illustrator.

And you get to visit amazing alternate realities, space adventures, scary crimes and romantic trysts through the eyes and imagination of professional artists. Some of the art is by recent graduates from design school, especially from Moore College of Art & Design where Rich Harrington, the master-mind behind Phillustration V for the past five years, is a professor of illustration. The artistic talent he gathers together each year is impressive creating the opportunity to view artwork not normally available to the public except as a commercial product like a book or magazine cover.

Glenn Zimmer, Lost in the Tower of London, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Glenn Zimmer helped get members of the Bucks County Illustrators Society to submit work and deliver it to Philly.

Robert Byrd, The Grand Plans and Vision, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club – click the thumbnail for a larger image but Robert Byrd‘s website is amazing!

Stephanie Struse, Owl, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Mike Manley, Judge Parker 5.2.2012, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Jennifer Villareale, Finist the Falcon, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

DoN featured this piece about the Moore 2012 graduate in a recent DoNArTNeWs blog post, it was especially satisfying to see the art in the historic gallery of The Philadelphia Sketch Club. Again, for a good look at this image visit the artist’s website or the gallery while the show is on.

Stacy Hornung, Belly Up I, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

David Palumbo, Terrible Weakness, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

The oil painting by David Palumbo, Terrible Weakness, is enormous, almost life sized, and evokes passion and emotion so skillfully that it’s scary. The Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club will blow your mind with the creativity, masterful skill and myriad styles of modern illustration and proves you don’t need a computer to be an illustrator.

Read about Phillustration IV on SideArts.com Philadelphia Art Blog

Written and photographed by DoN Brewer

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Robert J. Brand, Jazz Photographs, Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club

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Robert J. Brand, Jazz Photographs, Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club

The Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club usually hosts a group art show, April, Jazz Month, is exhibiting a collection of photographs by Robert J. Brand. DoN asked Bob about the photographs in the one-person show? “The show is photos of jazz musicians in performance and I’m not selling anything. I’m giving away work to friends and my friends all support Obama for President. So, they write a check to Obama for President, then I give them a piece of art.”

Robert J. Brand, Jazz Photographs, Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club

DoN noticed that the prices are, shall we say? Affordable. “Well, we’re not going to win this election with the Koch Brothers. It’s going to require people giving money, making phone calls, ringing doorbells, walking streets and turning out the vote. So, making the art affordable is part of getting people involved. Sometime during April, I have a portfolio of twenty-two pictures that I took in Mississippi in 1966. The portfolio is titled It’s Always Been About Voting. And it’s a limited edition, forty boxed sets and all the money from that will go to groups that are fighting for the right to vote. The money’s going against all the anti-voting actions of state governments around the country.”

Robert J. Brand, Jazz Photographs, Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club

DoN asked Robert J. Brand when he began taking pictures? “I got my first camera in 1963, around Thanksgiving when I had just started college.” Are you shooting digitally now? “I have gone digital but some of the pictures in this show are silver bromide images but everything I do now is digital and we’re digitizing as fast as we can. The 1966 pieces have all been digitized. In 1965 and 66, I was in Mississippi several times, the pictures in the portfolio all came from the James Meredith march. He set out to march against fear to show people they could register to vote and he was shot the first day of the march.”

“And ten thousand people came from around the United States to finish the march. And, we did. Before that we worked on what became the first integrated Head Start Program in Mississippi which we physically built over Christmas and New Years of ’65, ’66…I guess I was twenty years old, there were over ten thousand people there.”

Plastic Club Art Studio and Gallery, 247 South Camac Street, Philadelphia PA, 19107 215-545-9324

Written and photographed by DoN Brewer

Read more about Jazz Show at The Plastic Club at Side Arts Philadelphia Art Blog

Jazz Show at the Plastic Club

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Cynthia Harvey, Player, pastel, Jazz Show at the Plastic Club

Alan Klawans, the Exhibitions Chair for the Plastic Club is stepping aside and Susan Stromquist is taking charge of the venerable art club’s exhibition calendar. The art direction by Alan has been impeccable and the current art exhibition, Jazz Show, is a smash hit.

The theme challenged the artist membership to create new work related to Jazz. The resulting collection of eighty artworks is a medley of soulful paintings, bebop abstracts, hip photographs of musicians lined up like a horn section and wild riffs on convoluted mixed media constructions. At the awards President Bob Jackson noted how some artists couldn’t pull from their regular repertoire and make something old fit the theme. Good thing. Because jazz needs extra space to be new, experiment and different each time it’s played, it’s never the same old thing. The Jazz Show is smooth, moody and deep, the art spaced out so each piece gets it’s solo performance.

Michael Mastrogiovanni, New Orleans, photograph, Michael Mastrogiovanni, Jazz Fest, photograph, Jennifer Tsui, Leaving the Village Gate, 1976, collage (on mantle) and Joseph DeFay, Jazz on South Street, photograph at the Jazz Show at the Plastic Club.

Michael Mastrogiovanni, New Orleans, photograph, Jazz Show at the Plastic Club

Karen L. Freeman, Kind of Blue, mixed media, Jazz Show at the Plastic Club

Marcy Morris, Mo’s Band, acrylic, Jazz Show at the Plastic Club

April 1, 2012, the reception was packed like an underground club, the beat of drums and sizzling keyboards resonated from the Judy Shenkman Studio upstairs all the way to the Downstairs Gallery. After the awards ceremony, the packed house opened up the floor and couples danced to the music, others tapped their toes and sipped wine. The vibe of th Plastic Club was like a secret speakeasy and no one wanted to leave at closing.

The Plastic Club, 247 South Camac Street, Philadelphia PA – through April 27th.

Written and photographed by DoN Brewer

Read more at Side Arts Philadelphia Art Blog

Small Worlds 2012 at The Plastic Club

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Terrorarium! Or How I Put an End to My Nightmares of 9/11, John Baccile, Small Worlds 2012 at The Plastic Club

Yeoun Lee, Untitled, Small Worlds 2012 at The Plastic Club

Small Worlds 2012 at The Plastic Club: Ann LaBorie, Blossoms, collage/watercolor, S.M. Pfaffenbichler, Fresh Air, watercolor, Marlene Bugansky, Flowers, acrylic, Gail Zelikovsky, Always Looking Up, silk painting and Ellen LoCicero, On Green Mountain, oil

Neil Johnson, Tiny Dancer, photograph, Small Worlds 2012 at The Plastic Club

At the book party for Her Philadelphia Tales, The Art of Lilliana S. Didovic, Neil Johnson asked DoN when the drop off deadline for the Small Worlds 2012 show at The Plastic Club was? Yikes, today. Neil had his work ready but thought the delivery was the following weekend and missed the drop off deadline. DoN took the aspiring photographer aside in the crowded noisy Smile Gallery and advised him to call The Plastic Club in the morning and explain to the exhibitions chair the situation, to be contrite and volunteer to help. Neil stared at DoN a moment in befuddlement and repied, “I’ll do it.” He did and took home an honorable mention!

Janice R. Moore, Circus Fantasy, mixed media, Garden Dream, mixed media and Bob Jackson, Young Cocks, junk and stuff, Identical Chicks, junk and stuff at Small Worlds 2012 at The Plastic Club

Lauren Rinaldi, Birthday, oil on cradled wood and Heather Riccardi, The Waiting, acrylic, Small Worlds 2012 at The Plastic Club

John Baccile, Small Worlds 2012 at The Plastic Club

Rick Wright, Fianchetto, photo simulacra, Small Worlds 2012 at The Plastic Club

Mina Smith Segal, The Constitution Crowd, Small Worlds 2012 at The Plastic Club

Small Worlds 2012 at The Plastic Club includes one hundred eighty six small art works, the only caveat the piece could not be bigger than 16″ in either direction. It’s fun for DoN to glean some images from a big show like Small Worlds for DoNArTNeWs, matching the image with title in the brochure (The Plastic Club uses a numbering system instead of labels) to discover his photographic eye is drawn to the same artists again and again. Please add a comment to the blog if you’ve seen the show and tell DoN which is your fave.

Photos by DoN Brewer

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