Capturing the Light

The light, the light, capturing the light eludes me. Paintings that do catch the light are the most effective. Or at least that’s what I learned in school. It’s the reason why Kinkade, whose work I find saccharine, is so successful. It’s why Rembrandt is considered one of the greatest painters who ever lived. I never cared for his work either, which I find much too dark, and his subject matter, primarily portraits and biblical scenes, doesn’t grab me. Yet Vermeer mostly painted portraits, and he’s one of my all time favorites. Vermeer really knew how to paint the light. His studies of women in domestic scenes take my breath away.

Yesterday, I showed my painter friend, Han, a photo I took of orchids at the recent Hatsume Fair at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Garden. I was excited about the photograph not for its photographic value, but because I thought the orchid would make a good watercolor. Han shook his head when he saw it. “Not enough light,” he said. “I could paint the light,” I replied knowing that I just have to paint that orchid.

My paintings often have too much light. It’s the shadows I ignore. Nancy Jones, a photographer and the wife of Bill Jones who is an exhibiting woodturner at A Unique Art Gallery, stopped by last week when I was covering the gallery. We talked about artworks, and she said the shadows interest her the most. So perhaps it’s the shadows I need to concentrate on. By focusing on the shadows, the light will emerge and will be more striking in contrast to the dark. Sounds awfully philosophical to me.

Above is the picture of the orchid I hope to paint and also a photo of my recent work, “Wakodahatchee November.” It was the colors that inspired me to paint the scene on a 30” x 40” canvas, one of my larger pieces. I’m exhibiting it in Vivid Art, a show in Delray Beach, which begins next week, April 4 and runs through June 3, 2011 at 110 East Atlantic Avenue. 110 is a commercial office building on four floors with a lot of wall space and an open atrium that can accommodate paintings up to 72 inches high and 60 inches wide. The building nestled between Café de France and Blue Fish restaurants is an exciting new venue for local art groups. Talking about light, the open atrium is bright and inviting. Here’s hoping it will draw affluent viewers eager to buy art.

Taking Flight

The very talented artist known as Han has been teaching Photo Reference Watercolor, Oil, or Acrylic Painting at A Unique Art Gallery in Jupiter for the past few months. I met Han in July when he joined the art collective, and the two of us became friends. He began teaching his class on Saturday mornings, which is the day I mostly cover the gallery.

Originally on the first Saturday but more recently on the third Saturday of the month, I run an Unleashing Creativity workshop. Han took part in a couple of workshops, so I decided to take his class. We figured that way neither one of us would have to pay. We would just exchange services. My sister, Jan, was studying watercolor with him, and I decided to try it myself.

A hundred years ago when I was in college, watercolor was a medium I did not enjoy. I’ve been oil painting since my early twenties, and I’ve always thought that oils are much easier to use than watercolors. After all, you can correct mistakes in oils but with watercolor you have to get it right from the start. So I was nervous when I started taking Han’s class.

I teach in my creativity workshops not to worry about the product and instead to enjoy the process of creating. If the process (the creative experience) is good, it will more likely result in a meaningful, worthwhile finished product. Though I try to practice what I preach, I’m not immune from an internal judge, who can be very critical of my work. Still I didn’t allow my self-criticism to inhibit me from trying to paint with watercolor, and the result has been a new love.

Next Wednesday, March 9, 2011, A Unique Art Gallery and our neighbor Unique Glass Art, are benefiting the Audubon Society of the Everglades on our Second Wednesday open house from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. The theme is “Taking Flight,” which is the feeling I get working with watercolors.

Jan and I have been bird lovers our entire lives. Our mother was not a dog or cat lover, so our

childhood pet was a brilliant parakeet. We are convinced that Skippy, who had a huge vocabulary and spoke in sentences, was a reincarnated human. He was a bird who flew away from home and found his way back.

Ten years ago when I started painting again after not painting for nearly twenty years, I began with a painting of Baby, my parakeet at that time, in a hibiscus tree. So I suppose it’s not surprising that the Audubon fundraiser inspired me to spend the last month using watercolors to paint birds. I’m hoping that the fundraiser is a huge success and that people will want to buy my new watercolors.

A Unique Art Gallery and Unique Glass Art are located at 226 Center St., one block west of Alt A1A, next to the Jupiter Ale House. Learn more about the organization, its artists and programs on the Association’s website, www.artistsassociationofjupiter.com. For more information on this event call Susan Lorenti at (954) 588-7275 or Carolyn Austin at (561) 747-2024.

Time is passing

Season is here, and life is busy. Too busy sometimes. Last week the Women in the Visual Arts exhibit opened at 110 East Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach. The office complex on four floors with a lot of wall space and an open atrium that can accommodate paintings up to 72 inches high and 60 inches wide is an exciting new venue for WITVA. This exhibition was open to non-members, all Florida artists, both males and females over the age of 18. I was thrilled to receive an Invitational Award to show six of my oil paintings in another exhibition in the building. I’ll have to decide which pieces to put in.

Meantime, I’ve been so preoccupied with A Unique Art Gallery and the Small Spaces: Big Ideas, Small Works Show that I haven’t been painting as much as I like. The show is opening on February 3rd, and though it was time consuming, it’s amazing how easy it went. A lot is involved putting on an exhibition. We had to put out a call for artists, organize the submissions, get them to JB Berkow, the juror, then notify the artists, receive the accepted works, and finally hang the forty-four wall pieces and set up pedestals for the six 3-dimensional works. The opening is next week 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 9, 2011. Everyone is invited to 226 Center Street just west of Alternate A1A in Jupiter for wine, refreshments, socializing, and viewing and purchasing art.

Next week will be especially busy since Wednesday is the gallery open house and Thursday night is the Pink Cocktail Party and Fashion Show at the Lighthouse Art Center, 373 Tequesta Drive in Tequesta where the ArtyBras will be auctioned. Last year $5,000 was raised for breast cancer research, and this year the art bras will benefit the Ella Milbank Foshay Cancer Center at the Jupiter Medical Center and the Lighthouse ArtCenter. I have AlgeBra in the show, which I will be modeling.

Saturday, February 12 is Everglades Day. I volunteered to sell T-shirts at the annual event that begins in the morning, but I will have to leave early because Rare Earth Gallery, 41 S.W. Flagler Avenue in Stuart is having its 2^nd annual fundraising event to benefit Treasure Coast Hospice. They entitled this special day: "HEARTS for HOSPICE." I donated an item for the auction and also volunteered to participate at the event. So I will have to leave Everglades Day by noon and head up to Stuart. On the way home, I plan to stop at my friend David Willison’s solo exhibit opening in the Art on Park Gallery, 800 Park Avenue in Lake Park. The exhibit began on February 6th and runs until March 3^rd, but the 12^th is the big night from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. I imagine I’ll be exhausted by the time I get home, but it should be fun.

New Beginnings

On December 8, 2010 my friends, Carrie and Mike, delivered their new baby boy, Joey, who is now two weeks old. I wish I could say that I took the photograph of him and his father. When I saw it, I knew I had to paint it. Carrie emailed me the image, and though I never paint portraits, this one of Mike and Joey is an exception. I started the under painting a few days ago, and I think I may be able to pull it off.

It struck me as very coincidental because “New Beginnings” is the theme of the Second Wednesday Open House at A Unique Gallery on January 12, 2011. I realized that if I can finish the painting in time, it would be perfect to exhibit in the show. This Second Wednesday is particularly important to me because the proceeds of sales and the raffle will benefit the Mental Health Association of Palm Beach County (MHA). The theme was chosen to acknowledge the opportunities in the New Year for the recently established artists collective, the recipients of MHA’s services, and everyone’s chance at a new beginning.

Since 1949, MHA has been dedicated to improving the lives of people who are touched by mental illness. Through advocacy, education, research and outreach, the organization reduces the stigma of seeking mental health treatment and leads a community collaborative effort to increase access to care. My original involvement with the association began over twenty years ago when I owned my private psychotherapy practice. As a healthcare provider I appreciated the support I received from MHA, and now I’m pleased that it will be the recipient of the gallery’s fundraising.

January’s Second Wednesday is also meaningful because my Dad was chosen to be one of the featured artists. If he were still alive, he would be joyful. Dad would have loved Carrie and Mike too, and he would have wanted to do the portrait of Mike and Joey which he would have captured with his pastels. He was great at drawing people, and perhaps that’s what held me back. There was always a bit of competition between us, and I was intimidated by his masterful work. Still, I haven’t really been motivated to do portraits, so perhaps my focus on landscapes had nothing to do with him.

Lupe Lawrence, my friend and a fellow landscape artist at the gallery, shared with me that someone told her she couldn’t paint portraits. That’s all she needed to hear and proceeded to begin painting them. She recently exhibited one of her powerful portraits in the “Peace on Earth” exhibit, which will be on display at the Lighthouse ArtCenter in Tequesta until the end of December. I’m hoping my portrait turns out as well.

In any event, I’m looking forward to the “New Beginnings” open house and I’m inviting everyone to attend. It will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 226 Center Street in Jupiter just west of Alternate A1A next to the Ale House in Center Plaza. In addition to my Dad, Herman Schreiber, three other artists will be featured: sculptor Norm Gitzen, and painters Chris Oakes and Genevieve Johnson. Hope to see you there, and in the meantime have a joyous holiday. Happy New Year!

A Scary Gallery Experience

Last month, I wrote about gallery experiences without knowing that I was about to face the worst experience ever. Just days after writing the blog, my sister, Jan, suggested that we call the owner of a gallery in Boca Raton which had three of my late father’s pastels. We hadn’t heard from the gallery owner in a while, and Jan thought it made sense to check in with him before the “Season.” She called him on a Saturday and was surprised to get his voicemail and no return call to the message she left. By Monday when we still hadn’t heard from him, I tried calling and emailing.

Feeling slightly paranoid when he didn’t answer either the calls or the emails, I decided to look online. I freaked out when I discovered that the website was down. This did not bode well. Clearly the gallery was closed, and what happened to our paintings!?! After some research, we located the property manager who confirmed that the gallery was shut down, but he was not forthcoming with the whereabouts of our pastels. We were very anxious for a day or two and then decided to call the Boca police.

Our talk with a police officer prompted the gallery owner to return our calls. He sounded devastated about the loss of his gallery and explained that he owed the property management rent money so they were holding the artwork hostage. More calls to the property management went back and forth until we finally reached their lawyer. We informed him that we had a signed Consignment Agreement, a legal document which required him to return the pastels to us.

Thankfully, in just a little over a week we had Dad’s work back. I’m convinced that without the Consignment Agreement our work might still be in storage along with all the other artwork we saw the day we picked ours up. I’m writing this as a warning to any artist who has work in a gallery without a signed agreement. I’m very grateful to J.B. Berkow, a well-known local artist who wrote the book What They Don’t Teach You In Art School. It’s a must read, and the agreement I use came straight out of it.

On a happier note, I’ve been enjoying the Unleashing Creativity Workshops so much that I’ve decided to offer my services as a creativity coach to individuals for private sessions. I met with my first client and found it extremely rewarding.

I’m also pleased to announce that I’m a featured artist for December in a Unique Art Gallery, 226 Center Street in Jupiter, along with Han, Lupe Lawrence, and Nancy Fried-Tobin. Everyone is invited to our Second Wednesday Open House on December 8, 5:30 – 7:30 pm. The theme is “Nurturing,” and a portion of the proceeds will benefit Loggerhead MarineLife Center. Jan and I are happy to announce that we will be showing Dad’s pastels in the gallery beginning in December. Another reason to attend the open house. Happy Holidays!

For the nurturing theme, I’m exhibiting my orchid paintings. The above photos are “Orchids in the Entry” which I just finished and “Orchids On the Fence” from a couple of years ago.

Gallery experiences improve with Susan Lorenti's A Unique Art Gallery

The past six years, I have had both positive and negative experiences dealing with galleries that have exhibited my paintings. Rare Earth Gallery in Stuart this past year has been particularly pleasant, but nothing can compare to the experience in A Unique Art Gallery in Jupiter, the creation of businesswoman, Susan Lorenti.

Creating art has been a part of my life since the 1960s, and back then I exhibited work at the Cambridge Art Association in Massachusetts. For over two decades I focused on my mental health career, so it wasn’t until 2002 that I joined Women In The Visual Arts and began to exhibit my paintings again. In the past six years, my work has been for sale in eight galleries. The first, 2004 – 2005, was The Unknown Artist in downtown West Palm Beach, not the best experience. Pandora’s Hope, a lovely space in Pineapple Grove in downtown Delray Beach, was much better. Unfortunately the owners couldn’t make a go of it and closed the gallery six months after I joined, but I did have a solo show there in 2005.

Now I’m hoping for better luck in A Unique Art Gallery. Susan Lorenti, who has worked in galleries and frame stores for decades, decided last spring to open a gallery collective. She created the Artists Association of Jupiter (AAoJ) and opened A Unique Art Gallery at 226 Center Street in June 2010. Rather than take a commission on artwork, she charges rent for the wall or floor space an artist occupies. Though each artist has an investment in the success of the gallery, Susan is the director. She is a member of the four person team that she selected to jury in new artists, she hangs the work, and she does the daily gallery sitting. Hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. Most importantly, she has brought together a wonderful group of artists, and like gallery owners of the more distant past, she nurtures and develops each one of us.

If not for Susan I wouldn’t have a brochure or be giving thought to prints and giclees. She encouraged me to do a class, and now I’m running Unleashing Creativity workshops, which pays my rent and is good for my soul. Using my therapeutic skills and integrating the therapist and artist within me has been pure joy. Working with other artists has also been extremely worthwhile. Though I’ve been involved in the Artists of Palm Beach County for a couple of years and have been a board member for the past year, the experience of covering the gallery with Susan and collaborating on Second Wednesday monthly art openings with AAoJ members has been especially rewarding.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the “Season” will bring shoppers into the gallery. Our Second Wednesday theme on November 10, 2010 is “Returning and Re-Discovering Home,” which will showcase four of our artists, Mare, David Willison, Raymonde Tallyrand, and John Rachell. I look forward to this season with enthusiasm and feel grateful for Susan Lorenti and the Artists Association of Jupiter.

The photo above is of Susan Lorenti at the North Palm Beaches Cultural Alliance Event

Dealing With Rejection

It's only the end of September, but the season is beginning to rev up. Next Thursday, October 7, 2010 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. is the opening of Landscapes: Painters of Scenery at the Lighthouse ArtCenter in Tequesta. Clay Surovek of John Surovek Gallery in Palm Beach juried the show, and I was pleased to have two of my paintings included in the exhibit. One is "Sin City," a large collage painting of my Las Vegas experience in 2008 (I used the image for a blog I wrote a couple of months ago). The other is "Sugar Sand Park Carousel," a 24" x 30" oil on canvas pictured to the left.

I was particularly pleased when I heard from the Lighthouse, because a couple of days before I received a rejection from “Land-Escape” for "Roman Sunset" (pictured to the right). Coincidentally, the Palm Beach County Art in Public Places exhibit at the airport is having an Artists Reception also on October 7th. In spite of the rejection, I’m nearly finished working on a 24” x 30” landscape of a waterfall and Japanese sculpture in the Morikami Garden, and I’m thinking about doing another collage painting. I decided to concentrate on painting for a while because the rejections from agents and publishers are more discouraging for the time being.

Before I went up north this summer for a two week vacation, I sent a query letter, table of contents, and a chapter of my non-fiction, The Fabulous Art Scene, A Guide to the Art Community in Palm Beach County Florida to Pineapple Press, which publishes books about Florida. I was very optimistic that they would be interested in my regional guide, a compilation of my articles in Examiner.com, so I was deeply disappointed when I received a standard rejection letter. Still the very next day, I emailed a query to Leapfrog Press about my novel, Spirit Seekers. The novel is currently a finalist for a Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Award.

Usually I have to wait weeks or even months to get a response to a query, but the very same day that I emailed the Leapfrog query, I received an email requesting a ten-page sample of the novel. I was so proud of myself that I hadn’t let the Pineapple Press rejection devastate me, and I decided that Leapfrog would be my publishing company. I went off to Massachusetts feeling confident, but not willing to look at email while I was away. I didn’t want to spoil my vacation in case I received a rejection, and I decided I could wait until my return home to check my email.

The rejection arrived last week. It was almost anti-climatic by the time I received it, because I already felt rejected. But I was so busy painting and covering A Unique Art Gallery for the Artists Association of Jupiter that it wasn’t until the actual rejection letter arrived that I realized I hadn’t sent out a query in weeks. I let the art scene (painting, the gallery, openings, and writing Examiner articles) distract me.

At some point though, I probably will again pursue publication. After all, the Florida Writers Conference is in three weeks, and who knows? I may win an award, and I love the manuscripts that are sitting in my closet. I really do believe that they deserve to be published. They may not be the best works ever written, but they are at least as good as much of the stuff out there. Blah, blah, blah… rejection stinks.