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
Artscope Issues
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
A RETURN TO CAPE LIVING
Power, intimacy, legacy. These words describe the phenomenal exhibitions slated for the summer of 2023 at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) and Cape Cod Museum of Art (CCMoA), two regional museums with international audiences and memberships. Each institution looks to its formidable community of artists for a lineup of great art by highly accomplished people and groups. Here are the dates, times and show descriptions for May, June, July and August 2023. PROVINCETOWN ART ASSOCIATION AND MUSEUM 460 COMMERCIAL STREET PROVINCETOWN, MASSACHUSETTS SKY POWER: BECKONING COLOR May 5 - June 25 Sky Power is a contemporary painter living and working in Provincetown. Her abstractions and dreamscapes are driven by emotion, strong composition and color-as-form, created through the language of abstraction. Influenced by three Hans Hofmann students — Paul Resika, Selina … [Read more...] about A RETURN TO CAPE LIVING
AN ELEMENT OF SURPRISE
“Fire and Ink,” featuring Hollis Engley’s pottery and Alice Nicholson Galick’s prints, will merge with Printmakers Network of Southern New England’s 30th anniversary at the Cahoon Museum of American Art in what curator Annie Dean called an exhibition of a “wide variety of intellectual and skilled artists and techniques.” With the prompt of “Pearls,” which is the title of the anniversary show, 20 artists will show a portfolio of 7” by 7” prints, whose individual styles should lead viewers to find other larger work alongside, including an 84” tall pochoir (stencil) piece by Amanda Lebel. There are samples of process and materials: copper plates, stencil and an interactive touch screen educating the public on how prints are made. Jo Yarrington will do a unique window installation using film, a first for the museum. Perhaps the common thread of all these exciting artworks is depth. … [Read more...] about AN ELEMENT OF SURPRISE
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