Award-winning, nationally acclaimed artist and member of the American Watercolor Society, Andrew Kusmin’s watercolors show a scalpel-like precision, and are as intense as oil paintings, as he merges the past with the present in composites of northeastern United States subjects. He was 46 when an art class changed his life and he knew he was meant to master watercolors, promising himself to do it within five years. He’d always used his hands, when he was in the Navy buying legal whale teeth for two bucks a shot, scrimshandering them; restoring houses, making furniture. Paintings were portable creations he could take with him. He liked that. Using the proceeds from his dentistry practice and sale of his house and a barn he’d rehabbed, he managed to send his children to college and keep enough to start over. “It was a whole new world,” he recalled. Teaching art at first, he … [Read more...] about UNFINISHED BUSINESS
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A VEHICLE FOR LIGHT & WARMTH
Adam O’Day may be best known for his colorfully unique cityscapes, especially those of Boston’s skyline. So much so that in 2016 his painting, “Transit,” won Boston’s “Portrait of a City” contest. The Mayor’s Office purchased his work and gave prints to visiting diplomats and distinguished guests as gifts. What sets his cityscapes and landscapes apart is his use of lush, thick, bold skylines, often including pastels, like pink, purple, turquoise and burnt oranges. Often the buildings are darker or more solid in color — but the streetscapes, including cars, and the horizons — are wistful, emotional, offering both a vehicle for light and warmth. “I love painting in oils,” O’Day said. “But I’ll use anything, really. Oils have that traditional feel and look that no other medium comes close to having. Oils are the gold standard in visual art and painting. For me it’s their depth and … [Read more...] about A VEHICLE FOR LIGHT & WARMTH
TRANSCENDENT ENERGY
With the transcendent energy which exists behind the real world emerging onto her canvases, Sky Power’s paintings seem almost to be vision quests, dreaming the real world into another realm, filtering that so-called “real” world into a dream, or that space in which Crazy Horse was alleged to have lived — the dimension beyond what we see, what allegedly, “is.” Somehow what she captures in her light and color-filled abstractions is very moving. Such works as, “Passing Through,” oil and charcoal on canvas, 24” x 30”, which pictures a floating piano, an entry to crypt, a flower, what could be desert and mountains and sky, with an arroyo or wash nearby, pulse with a vital urgency of mortality. Or “Shelter,” oil and charcoal on canvas, 24” x 30”, vivifying the earth and sky colors of pink and green, with strange, almost birdlike shapes emerging from the mating of sky and earth. Or “Last … [Read more...] about TRANSCENDENT ENERGY
FIELD RESEARCH AT AIR
A drive down Bellevue Avenue in Newport conjures up Great Gatsby vibes - stately mansions, mature trees clad in verdant foliage, an abundance of natural and human wealth that culminates in the majestic Cliff Walk, a nature trail with breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean. One highlight of this idyllic summer destination and storied street is the Newport Art Museum. Located on three acres, the museum’s galleries are housed in two historic buildings. The galleries showcase over 600 contemporary regional, national and international artists annually. Art classes for all ages and experience levels are held in the Museum’s School studios. This June, Providence-based artist and educator Heather McMordie will be in residence at the museum, living in its studio apartment and working in a dedicated studio space at the Museum School. She is a part of the museum’s juried AiR/Newport … [Read more...] about FIELD RESEARCH AT AIR
SURVIVING EXTINCTION
Guest curator Lara Pan’s exhibition, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” on view through June 15 at Jamestown Arts Center, is a thought-provoking multi-media exploration of the inevitability of mass extinctions. Here, artworks from 11 artists with backgrounds in mathematics, science, architecture, film and artificial intelligence delve into realities of terminus for global species. I met curator Pan for a walk-through of this exhibition to see the artworks installed and to discuss her concept. Ours turned into an interesting conversation that touched on legacy, integrity, trust, humanity, extinction, mutation and AI. She fluidly added mention of the professional backgrounds and affiliations of the artists and the continents where they are currently working into the dialogue. She had worked with some of the artists before on other curatorial projects that she’s developed in the past … [Read more...] about SURVIVING EXTINCTION
DEMANDING YOUR ATTENTION
After visiting several exhibitions this winter, two artists’ works especially stayed with me, provocatively, after viewing them each in two different exhibits: Milo, and Anastasia Semash. Milo’s work was shown as part of a recently concluded exhibition at the Belmont Art Gallery in Belmont, Massachusetts titled “Off the Clock,” a witty reference to a slew of invited artists who teach in the Belmont Public Schools, but who don’t drop their brushes or ignore their easels after hours when they are “Off the Clock.” Showing himself simply by his first name, in“Enough?” Milo (Milowsky) painted a 48” x 36” scene that struck me both by its subject and its interiority when I saw it on display. Made of a combination of paint, automotive candy-like spray paint and metallic flake, its background is haunted by what had once been the skyscrapers of a city, but now could be burnt, blackened hands … [Read more...] about DEMANDING YOUR ATTENTION