Category Archives: Paintings Philadelphia

oils, acrylics, watercolor, mixed media, ink, philadelphia

Quattro Amici + @ Off The Wall

Thursday evening after a few hours of drawing at The Plastic Club, DoN headed over to Dirty Frank’s to see the show at Off the Wall Gallery for Quattro Amici +: Anders Hansen, T. Clyde McCobb, Catherine (Kit) Mitchell, Diane Podolsky plus Karl Olsen’s Mid 08 Summer Showcurated by the indefatigable Jody Sweitzer who personally selected and hung the art. Like being in a Paris underground bar, the show is hung salon style with paintings, drawings and prints strewn across the wall almost as if Toulouse, Claude and Pablo were sitting and drinking Absinth at the bar, even a few dogs wandered behind the bar looking for treats. In fact, Karl Olsen’s paintings and pastels have a striking Lautrec quality. Each of the pieces are desirable in their own right; Hansen’s languid watercolors, Podolsky’s stylish mixed media, Mitchell’s bright and colorful landscapes and McCobb’s confident paintings represent more than an artist collective, it’s a school of thought, a way of seeing, a bond of trust and friendship that encourages strength and adventure in art.

Anders Hansen watercolor.

Quattro Amici + exhibit at Off The Wall @ Dirty Franks.

Karl Olsen mixed media (DoN LoVeS the reflection of the beer signs on the glass).

Karl Olsen, Susan Stromquist and Mike Guinn at the Quattro Amici + opening party @ Dirty Franks’ Off the Wall Gallery.

Sarah Olsen with Anders Hansen @ Dirty Franks.

All photos by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.

CFEVA Artists @ Drexel University’s Pearlstein Gallery

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Wednesday evening, Shoshana, Alden Cole and DoN attended Far Away From the Beginning A Departure from Childhood Idealism, an outstanding exhibit of contemporary art curated by Tara Caton, in cooperation with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists at Drexel University’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery at 33rd and Market Streets. Tara Caton, a former intern at CFEVA, is graduating from Drexel with a degree in “Entertainment and Arts Management” and produced the show as her Senior Thesis Project. Caton tells DoN she, “looked for artists with commonalities of themes, a number of artists work with dark memories from childhood, a childhood perspective with adult melancholy, fantasies, toys, play, dreams and memory.” Tara selected all the works, wrote the text, produced the brochure and art card and installed the art; she will be the first to graduate with this degree and said it was a huge honor to do such a big job for an undergrad project. The exhibit in the Pearlstein Gallery includes many familiar CFEVA artists including Anne Canfield, Darla Jackson, Joelle Jenson, John Karpinski, Jedediah Morfit, Caleb Nussear, Scott Pellnat, Peter Prusinowski, Serena Perone, Matthew Neff, Cecelia Rembert and Nataliya Slinko. Far Away From the Beginning is on exhibit through September 5th.

Curator Tara Caton at The Leonard Pearlstein Gallery.

Artist Scott Pellnat with his adorable little girl explaining his sculpture which looks like it’s made of cast iron but is really “off the shelf” plastic parts. “Why create your own figures when you can buy a Barbie?”

Each section of Pellnat’s sculpture is rearrangeable so you can customize the surprisingly light pieces of surrealist art to suit your mood.

Jedediah Morfit explaining his bas-relief sculpture; working in common, forgotten, traditional genres (museums are full of them) Morfit re-fashions the method into new and vital art.

Detail from Jedediah Morfit‘s “The Price of Doing Business“.

Anne Canfield’s “The Mermaid and the Tiger Meet Halfway“, oil on linen.

John Karpinski is attracted to the paradox of comics and how they say a lot with so little. Through comics adults can regain time from their childhood; John’s childhood favorite comics were Daredevil # 158 and What If? # 15.

All photos by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.

CFEVA Introduction 2012

Blick Art Materials

Super Models @ The Plastic Club

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Last Sunday afternoon Shoshka, Alden Cole and DoN attended The Model Artist Show at The Plastic Club featureing art by artists/models with 71 artworks by Philly’s favorite models. Without the models there would be no life study at Fleisher, PSC, Plastic Club, UArts…

The models spend a lot of time with artists and obviously are exposed to trends, techniques, methods and procedures allowing them to develop their own singular styles, many of the models have their own fine art degrees. The Model Artist Show is superb with a wide variety of media from painting to prints to sculpture – now we know what they’re thinking about while they pose for hours on end.

Artist/Model Susan Stromquist won 2nd prize for No. 18 Folded Figure 1.

Artist/Model Veronica Meekins.

DoN has drawn or painted Veronica many times and even used a print of her for NTPE1 (more about NTPE later).

Mixed media by Jym Paris; the use of fabric and mixed media is unique and exciting.

DoN told Paris he’s stealing his idea (good artists copy, great artists steal – Picasso).

Model/Artist Pam Cole.

Pam instigated the idea of multiple models at The Plastic Club which has become a popular motif for the artists – very challenging.

Artist/Model Susan Wierzbicki with her “Water Your Garden” acrylic painting.

Artist/Model Heidi Sterling‘s “The Island“, oil on panel.

Alden Cole LoVeD Sterling’s series of wildly abstract paintings; this image is one of five of the spectacular paintings.

Artist/Model Hannah Holby’s “Fisherman – T Rex“, oil on print. DoN LoVeS dinosaurs!!!

Artist/Model Hannah Taylor’s “Leelo“, oil on canvas. Is this super-pop or what!?!

Artist/Model Rob Willis‘ “Quiver“, mixed media.

Charcoal drawings by Rob Willis.

Rob Willis (with nephew) won first prize for his full body of work at The Plastic Club’s The Model Artist Show.

The exhibit is on display in the Camac Street gallery through August 24th – go see it!

CFEVA Art Show House

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Saturday, Shoshka and DoN visited the Center for Emerging Visual Artists Show House at 1634 South 13th Street, the former home and studio of artistScott Pellnat. The townhouse is filled with art by CFEVA artists including Anne Canfield, Katie Murken, Julia Blaukopf, Kara Rennert, Caleb Nussear, Darla Jackson, Jennifer Chapman, Serena Perrone and of course Scott Pellnat‘s wonderfully wacky constructions. Pellnat is an accomplished woodworker and avid dumpster diver creating mechanical constructs out of marquetry of colored pencils, found objects and wood, there’s even a hidden room behind bookshelves which open by pulling on a book ala the Addams Family revealing robotic creatures pulling ropes and strings producing a dramatic diorama.

Looking up into the turret Pellnat built on the roof.

Looking down from the turret into the house – the walls are covered in colored pencil marquetry and the floors are spray painted through lace and stencils.

The top floor is filled with a knitted installation with tendrils swooping through the room like some kind of giant alien brain cell. The site specific piece was created by Katie Murken.

Scott Pellnat in his “secret studio”.

As if the room isn’t creepy enough, there’s a gravity distortion which turns the room sideways!?!

Close up shot of Scott Pellnat‘s intricate woodwork.

Anne Canfield‘s “Swim Team: Snippets from Yuki’s Memory Book“.

Serena Perrone‘s “Dreaming of Flying Fish“, oil and charcoal on panel, diptych.

Scott Pellnat’s Grandfather Clock – one must crank the handle on the side to raise the clock but the cranker can’t see the clock!?!

Stag by Jake Kehs @ CFEVA Show House. (Kehs is not a CFEVA artist, his work is part of Pellnat’s collection including an amazing wolf sculpture on the first floor ready to pounce from a cardboard mountain.)

Silver point drawings by Caleb Nussear called “#3XUL Diminished“.

CFEVA keeps finding new venues and interesting events to promote Philly’s fine artists including the upcoming Philadelphia Open Studio Tours this October. DoN will keep you POSTed.

4th Fridays on 4th Street

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Supermodel Mike invited DoN to visit Jinxed Clothing to meet artist Tim Diet and toy designer/artist Mr. Shane Jessup. Tim Diet is a NYC based artist who creates super-pop art featuring icons of advertising and cartoons; “Where’s the Beef?” features the Hamburgler, Wendy, Wimpy and more, “Menace to Society” stars Dennis and other trouble-makers. Diet’s style is to paint with acrylics on stretched canvas and create a masterful mash-up of cheery icons designed to make us buy stuff that’s not really that good for us.

Tim Diet with his paintings @ Jinxed.

Acrylic Boxes by Tim Diet @ Jinxed (that’s Leanne Biank working on her entry for The Rolling Canvas Art Collective presented by Fuji Bikes which opens Friday @ Jinxed).

Acrylic Box by Tim Diet @ Jinxed.

Tim Diet and Jinxed owner Supermodel Mike.

“Words that Hurt” paintings by Mr. Shane Jessup @ Jinxed.

Mr. Shane Jessup is a toy designer for Kid Robot, planet Earth’s premier creator & retailer of limited edition toys, clothing, mini-figures, artwork & books. Jessup designs three-D toys in Illustrator, the vinyl toys are manufactured overseas, refined back here in the states and then sold to kids and collectors alike and are currently a big hit at ComicCon in San Diego. The toys are Super-Kawai bunnies, robots, punks and monsters – DoN LoVes them all! You can buy a box of 24 figurines some of which are rare and collectable – then you have to network with other collectors to find the special ones you need to complete your collection. Start by shopping at Jinxed, you’re sure to find something deliciously wacky to start your collection.

Painting and vinyl figurines by Mr. Shane Jessup @ Jinxed Phildelphia.

Jinxed Philadelphia on 4th Street, South of South Street.

Next, DoN stopped in Digital Ferret CDs because of the crowd of punks outside; it’s so cool that punk is not dead, super-high platform boots, black leather and pink Mohawks will never go out of style. Digital Ferret CDs is one of America’s leading music retailers and mail order houses for 80s, Ambient/Techno, Industrial, Electronica, Gothic, Metal, Trip-Hop, World Fusion and Experimental Music. Inside the shop was rocking to the sounds of Philadelphia’s own Society Hill, kind of a mash-up of punk, funk and grunge – really fresh and clean – lead singer Dwight was totally unintelligible – fabulous! Check out Society Hill’s MySpace Page to learn more about the band.

4th Friday on 4th Street is really fun with jewelry vendors, stained glass, art and clothes for sale on the sidewalk – and parties everywhere. Let’s ROCK!

All photographs by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.