Amy Sollins: Black dust and double edged fairy tales

Amy Sollins

                                                                                                 Automaton, Charcoal and Pastel on Paper, 31" x 24 "

For the past eight six years I’ve been making charcoal drawings of my possessions, including my grandmother’s cast iron doorstop, my underwear, my jewelry, a small bronze Buddha. I draw with the softest charcoal possible so that the dust falls in shadows. The titles often describe the objects and sometimes their colors. For example, a black charcoal drawing of nine views of a bar of white dove soap is titled Nine White Doves. I completed a series of drawings based on Andersen’s Fairy Tales that are framed with matchsticks. Recently, I’ve been making more elaborate drawings with charcoal, pastels, and watercolor.

                                    Attachment, Charcoal, Pastel and Watercolor on Paper, 30 1/4" x 22 1/4 "

I’m utterly in love with the sound of charcoal as it crunches between my fingers as I push it into the paper, how it glides along the surface and disappears when erased with a kneaded eraser or chamois, how it breaks and cracks, how the dust settles naturally or when I blow on the drawing. These were the first methods and tools I learned as a beginning art student and here I am again. I’m reminded of one of my favorite (and often quoted) passages from T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets:

Indian on Horseback Toy, Charcoal on Paper, 22 " x 30"

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

The vintage beauty of Michael Cutlip

Michael Cutlip 

My materials are vast. I don’t like limitations. Anything goes in my studio…if it makes a mark, I will use it.

I draw inspiration from most that is naïve. Children are, hands down, the best artists. Their freedom and uninhibited nature taps into that certain energy which all mature artists seek their entire lives.

Urban nature, street art, things old, vintage, warn-out, discarded, natural beauty in its abstract form and simply the moment, the moment of creation – where one move inspires the next. One has to only open his eyes…..beauty is everywhere.

The process is essential. I work in the moment. In my experience, a planned painting is a failed painting. The painting must be free to wander. The best works are those that seem to simply happen.

Michael Cutlip is a full-time, working artist living in Berkeley CA, with his wife Akiko and their two children Sumi and Luca.

NocturnalMonotype
16" x 20"

Blue CarnationMonotype
10.5" x 13.5"

Gumi has got to be a food group

California-based artist Jeanne Vadeboncoeur has created a series of photorealistic paintings that feature charmingly expressive gummy bears. She paints the candy bears in various positions—sitting primly, on their heads, toppled over—Vadeboncoeur has imbued her subjects with a curious melancholy. The infusion of melancholy is most striking. 

To me it looks like honest art about any creature that knows it's own fate ... and let's be honest, it's probably going to be eaten, and it knows it. Considering that they are made to be eaten combined with they daily war they fight to exist in a food chart that dose not even recognizre them as a food group you start to imagine just how it feels to be from the world of gumi. Pathos injected into candy, few can pull that off. Perhaps only one, Jeane Vadeboncoeur.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contemporary Realism by Jeanne VADEBONCOEUR / Simply Divine

"Loosing My Mind", oil on panel, by Jeannne Vadeboncoeur

Within In The Bryant Street Gallery is a brewing talent that is simply divine. Her name in Jeanne Vadeboncoeur. She paints what is called Contemporary Realism. Very detailed oil paintings and sometimes works on paper of ordinary objects that she renders in away that is anything but ordinary. In 

her own words she says ... 

"Marbles" by Jeannne Vadeboncoeur

" I am often asked how I choose my subjects. Most of the objects I select are small; usually they can fit in the palm of my hand. I find that the spectrum of my focus takes on a different quality when I have to get in so close to the selected item. Even at a close range I am still able to see the object in its entirety, unlike with a larger specimen, where to see the detail I often looses sight of the overall image. There is something self indulgent and satisfying about allowing my self to give all my attention to a single solitary item. I also choose items based on surface. There are certain surfaces that I love to recreate: the flat powder on a donut, the colorful translucency of gummi bears, the unique finish of eggshell.  Lastly, and most simply, I pick items that I like. "

For me, her work reminds me to take a moment and realize there is more to the world than at first glance, and that perhaps it might be a good idea to take a moment a see the extraordinary in the ordinary. Her work reminds me to have a giggle and try to enjoy the simple things while you can. Jeanne is extraordinary and we expect great things from her, that she will no doubt deliver in her in her own extraordinary way.

More of Jeanne's work can be seen at her blog
Her can also be seen in person at the Bryant Street Gallery in Palo Alto

"One of Each", oil on panel, 16"x16"

"Double Stuff", gouache on paper, 19"x24"

What drives artist to create?

What drives artist to create? I ask because not everyone can do it, so what is that keeps them going. Why do such an involved labor intensive challenging thing?

Artist: Michael Buscemi /  large scale collage and ink constructions,... truly something to marvel at

Let The Blogging Begin

We at Bryant Street Gallery In Palo Alto decided, we needed to blog ... and not just to announce current shows but to engage with the public about the work and all that it may possibly mean or suggest to you. WE want to know what you think! So don't be shy ...  ask us. 

Up now at the Bryant Street Galley is "WINTER" by local Bay Area artist Michael Buscemi ... The work is clean and crisp using india ink and collage with a snow like palette. Through to Jan 31st ...

I am always in search of the spontaneous forms that seem to spring from movement. I find myself always drawn to capture these forms as they emerge, caught in a moment of their evolution. I love the freedom of expression that occurs when a gesture made by me is translated through my brush to the surface I am working with.

This action demands a vigorous honesty that fills me with inspiration and appreciation for the process I am engaging in. When this works well, I am filled with an inner music, the beauty of something simple, yet complex appearing for the first time, being born out of no pre-conception.

Sound of the Music
collage, ink wash on paper
48" x 32"

Michael Buscemi (center)  at Bryant Street Gallery

Untitled 1
India ink and acrylic on canvas
60" x 84"