Tallahassee International

I am honored to have been chosen for the Tallahassee International Juried Competition this year.  Unfortunately, I did not get this post up in time and the exhibition is over.  The exhibition was a wonderful array of national and international work showing a huge variety of styles and ideas.  Free catalogues are still available at the museum.

The exhibition happens at Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, otherwise known as FSU MoFA.  This gem of a museum housed in a mid-century brutalist building with beautiful gardens both around and tucked inside of the museum is a must see if you visit or live in Tallahassee, Florida.  

Exciting things are happening at FSU MoFA and next year's Tallahassee International should be amazing as well.  If you are in the area check out their exhibitions. Both  Fallon Theatre and the Museum of Fine Arts share the building at 530/540 Call St. 

Above: Nest, Watercolor, colored pencil, acrylic and oil on paper. 20 x 20" 

Richard Clague and Louisiana Landscapes

I first saw Richard Clague's paintings at the LSU Museum of Art in Baton Rouge.  Each state has painters who specialize in landscapes of the state or region.  Suffice it to say Clague was very skilled as a painter and had a keen eye for detail and balance in the lush landscapes of Louisiana.

http://www.knowlouisiana.org/entry/richard-clague-jr

Richard Clague whose handsome self-portrait is above was a Louisiana painter born in Paris. 

Pastoral paintings of rural Louisiana and coastal lines were his specialty.

Clague's contemporaries like Marshall Smith and William Buck also painted Southern landscapes plein air or out in the open with their easels and oil paints. 

Above:

 Self-Portrait dedicated to his grandmother, Madame Pierre de la Roche of New Orleans, with an inscription which reads, “A ma chère Grand-Mère” (To My Dear Grandmother)

Farm in St. Tammany Parish 1951-1870

A short list of museums whose collections include Richard Clague: 

The New Orleans Museum of Art, the Historic New Orleans Collection, Louisiana State Museum and the Ogden Museum of Art.

Southern Portrait Project Coming Soon

Since moving to Tallahassee, Florida almost two years ago I have not written on this blog.  I did not expect to have such a long hiatus from adding entries here. I have been busy creating new work, exploring the area and establishing new goals for my artwork.  

I started exhibiting my work at Ann Connelly Fine Art early this year.  ACFA is a beautiful gallery with wonderful, educated and professional people working there.  I am honored to be included in their line up of artists.

I have continued to photograph people for portraits, record stories, research history and learn about the landscapes and native plants.  Some of those images and stories will appear on the blog soon.  I have met some amazing people from the descendant of a ship captain and plantation owner in Charleston, SC to a man whose grandfather walked to Cedar Key, FL from Indianapolis, IN in 1869 to a landscape gardener who has a passion for puzzles and art. Everyone has an amazing story.

In order to continue my work on the Louisiana Portrait Project and keep it relevant to my travels and my move to Florida, I decided to expand the project to the Southern states.  I will not necessarily try to create a portrait for each county of each state but to create an overview of the states with people, landscapes and stories from different regions of each state. I am sure that I will be working on this subject matter for many years to come.  

The first exhibition that I will have relating to this new expanded project is at The Gadsden Art Center and Museum in the fall of 2019.  I will be exhibiting portraits of people from this region including Gadsden and Leon counties but also portraits from Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and the Carolinas. 

Some of my new paintings are above and below.  

Above: Nest on Lilac Background,  Oil and colored pencil on paper mounted on board.

Below: Vermillion Nest #6, Oil on Duralar