Whiting Tennis: Still Life with Dying Flowers

2009 REDUX Studio Challenge Award Winner!

Still Life with Dying Flowers. oil on canvas.  48 x 36 inches

-Schnitzer Prize in 2008
-Neddy Award in 2006
-Represented by Greg Kucera Gallery since 2005
-Featured in KAC's 2009 exhibit, Dimensional Invention
-Featured artist of KAC's Spring Gallery Party.

In "Still Life with Dying Flowers", Tennis worked as closely as possible in the manner he imagined the original impressionists made paintings, trying to produce one picture that is the sum total of a series of observations of an ever changing subject, in this case, the temporal studio light and dying flowers. Tennis has included studies and references on his studio wall (including Guston and Picasso), demonstrating his ever-growing love and respect for oil painting, pictorial and otherwise.

Troy Gua: Pre-upload Portrait of (Your Name Here)

Pre-upload Portrait of (Your Name Here). 24"x24". acrylic on panel

- Representation at Seattle Art Museum gallery

- 'Do You See Me?' July 2009, Vermillion gallery

- Featured in "Curator's Eye," City Arts Magazine, Seattle, January 2009

Popular American culture is shaping Gua's life and continues to be a vital component of his creative process. Now ingrained in our collective psyche, social networking websites have changed the way we socialize. The piece "Pre-upload Portrait of (Your Name Here)" is Gua's take on the default Facebook avatar: a generic impression of a photo portrait. He employs an impressionist's impasto stippling technique to create an impression of an impression. The visible brushstrokes and obvious handmade quality is in smirking juxtaposition to its digital subject matter, and the once revolutionary painting style stands hand in hand with today's revolutionary social phenomenon.

Tim Cross: Cooper Lake

 2009 REDUX Studio Challenge Award Nominee

 

Cooper Lake.  24 x 36 inches. Oil on canvas

-Neddy Award Nominee, 2009

-Artist Trust Gap Grant Recipient, 2007

-In KAC's Dimensional Invention, 2009

Rochelle Dammel: Cottage Garden

Cottage Garden. 24" x 36". Oil on Canvas

-Studied oil and pastel realism in France between 2005-06.  

-She has participated in the Forgotten Works Challenge's "30 Paintings in 30 Days"

-Has shown at the Kirkland Performance Center.

 

The Cottage Garden is a bold and magnified take on Impressionism in that the light comes via the intense laying of colors of the vegetation and large brushstrokes.  The texture and blurring of shapes enables the eye to wander, giving different images the chance to emerge as this garden of brightly mixed flowers and greenery comes into focus.  Dammel's work explores the idea that reality is whatever we choose it to be.  Trusting her subconscious and combining the use of texture and intense color, her work appears familiar and foreign, dark and bright, serene and frenzied all at the same time.

Lois Harbaugh: Nesting Cup

Nesting Cup. porcelain. 4 x 6 x 6 inches.

-Represented by Pacini Lubel Gallery, Seattle
-Exhibited artist in Clay? II, Kirkland Arts Center, 2008
-Has shown locally and nationally, has been in numerous publications, and received multiple awards.

Paul D. Natkin: The Viewpoint on an Afternoon in Early November

The Viewpoint on an Afternoon in Early November. acrylic on canvas.  24 x 36 inches

-Exhibited in Seattle, New York, Kiev, and Tashkent.

-Paintings included twice  in "New American Paintings"
-Curator for BruTube at KAC, October 2009

Over the last 25 years, Natkin has produced thousands of images of the Viewpoint.  Visitors come day and night to partake in the incredible view and ever-changing show of light and weather. Natkin, like the Impressionists, is always watching and chasing after the fleeting moment.

Nicholas Nyland: Haystack

 2009 REDUX Studio Challenge Award Nominee

Haystack. 11 x 12 x 12 inches. Glazed terra-cotta

-ArtistTrust Fellowship, 2008
-Betty Bowen Award Nominee, 2008

-Member of SOIL Gallery, Seattle

-Represented by Pulliam Gallery, Portland

As the title suggests, this piece refers to Monet's haystack paintings, which he painted in all seasons and light conditions. Nyland found a connection to the near abstraction, use of color and energetic brushwork. Much of his current work concerns the nature of abstraction (abstract painting in particular) through a variety of media. It is from that standpoint that he approached this piece and applied impressionist painting techniques, such as direct color application and optical mixture, to a sculpture. He sought a similar visual experience that set up a similar tension of an image/form that is nearly dissolving into it's constituent marks.

Molly Norris: Through a Glass, Lightly

 

Through a Glass, Lightly. 32 x 23 x 5 inches. mixed media. 

-Master of Art degree from Vermont College.
-Writer/cartoonist/blogger contributing to Art Access, City Arts Magazine, and City Dog Magazine
-Curated KAC's 2008 Retrospective, "Weldon Butler: Visual Abstractions"

In "Through a Glass, Lightly" Molly Norris uses fabric to mimic landscape- clouds to fluff, sky, green grass and Monet's hay.  Norris uses found color to collaborate with industry - perhaps similar to how Impressionist painters began to incorporate smokestacks into their landscapes.  The striped, outdoor  "Sun and Shade" fabric is reminiscent of Renoir's painting, "Boating Party".  The altered mirror transforms your reflection into an impressionistic world.

Mary Mac: Robin in Autumn

Robin in Autumn. 24"x36". monotype

- Received BFA Printmaking, Valdosta State University

- A Day off for Art, June 2009 - Create and taught a printmaking class for parents of autistic and special needs of children. 

- Studio Printmaker at Kirkland Arts Center since 2003.

 

Mac's monoprints prior to this studio challenge were narrative in nature and about young ladies and what they were up to. Mac was interested in their clothes and shoes as well as posture, so as to tell their stories. Wanting impressionistic ideas to manifest in her work, she paid attention to the relationship between grass and sky; to the environment the young ladies inhabited. Mac has developed a technique to create prints with thick layered textures by letting the inks mix on the paper from the pressure. She plans to use this technique in a new series of work placing the young ladies in the changing seasons.

Justin Gibbens: American Basilisk

 American Basilisk. 20 x16 inches.  watercolor & gouache on paper

- 2008 Artist Trust Fellowship Award Recipient

- 2006 Pollock-Krasner Award Recipient

- Received a Scientific Illustration certificate from the University of Washington in 2003

Continuing in his own brand of subversive natural history, Gibbens has embellished the notable American ornithologist and illustrator Louis Agassiz Fuertes' wild turkey, a suitably inspired piece for the season. Gibbens has departed from his typically tight and illustrative style in the creation of American Basilisk. Working quickly on Yupo paper and doing away with his magnifying lens and his single haired brush, Gibbens subject took on painterly and impressionistic qualities.

Justin Colt Beckman: Monet vs. Manet

 2009 REDUX Studio Challenge Award Nominee 

Monet vs. Manet.  carbon-polymer prints on transparency from

digital collages of the artist's face on found photos.  11.5 x 24 inches (diptych)

-Founding member of Punch Gallery, Seattle
-Recipient of 2008 4Culture Site-Specific Project Grant
-Member of KAC's Creative Council

Everyone loves Claude Manet.  I mean Claude Monet. Whatever. Beckman is not alone is confusing these two artists' names.  In keeping with his recent body of work, Beckman has digitally pasted his face onto the bodies of others in found photos, letting him vicariously live the lives of the two well-loved and popular artists.

Julie Alpert: Electrical Box Graffiti in 3 Parts

 2009 REDUX Studio Challenge Award Nominee

Electrical Box Graffiti in 3 Parts. 12 x 27 inches (triptych).  Watercolor on paper.

-Artist Trust GAP Grant Recipient, 2009

-Member, SOIL Gallery

-Stairway Installation at KAC, 2009

These 3 companion pieces contemporize the actions and subjects that caused controversy during the Impressionist era. Like the Impressionists, I took painting out of the studio and examined and responded to a mundane landscape at different times of day recording the changing effects of light. Unlike the pastoral or lush scenes of the Impressionists, these images record a different kind of subject: graffiti, electrical boxes, wheat pastes, and other signs of contemporary culture. My current body of work incorporates found objects and building materials that are signs of contemporary urban consumer waste. My aim is to reuse the leftover, discarded, mundane materials to make something beautiful.

Curtis Erlinger: Photosynthesis

 

acrylic and carbon transfer on canvas.  14.75 x 18.25 inches.

-Currently on exhibit at the University of Missouri
-Exhibited nationally in New York and Pennsylvania
-Exhibited locally at 108 Occidental Gallery, 911 Media Arts Center, KAC, and SOIL Gallery

Photosynthesis addresses a dialogue between Impressionism and the newly established medium of photography. Although the Impressionists were "the first to consciously offer a subjective alternative to the photograph", they nevertheless were inspired by photography in its ability to capture a singular moment. As if looking through the lens of a camera, the backlit figure wearing glasses peers through a wilting sunflower, a snapshot gesture accentuating effects of light and the passage of time (perhaps time passing from Impressionism to Van Gogh’s Post-Impressionism). The surrounding subjective space of atmospheric wallpaper faintly suggests the influence of printmaking on Impressionism; the print is also a nod to Louis Leroy's Impressionist critique: "Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape." Photosynthesis relates to Erlinger's current body of work, as it examines the spectacle of life forgotten – the slippery territory surrounding the object of memory, mediated by the symbiotic relationship between painting and the seemingly unbiased truth of photography.

Doug Parry: Amalia

Amalia. oil on canvas.  20 x 14 inches.

-Exhibited in galleries and museums nationwide for the past 21 years.
-Taught painting for the past 10 years, at institutions from coast to coast, including Pratt Fine Arts Center and Kirkland Arts Center.
-Currently preparing for his second solo show at art 101 in Brooklyn, NY, in 2010

A love for Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes cartoons as a kid led to Parry's discovery of fine art and specifically, the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.  Later, a taste for a more realistic approach re-introduced him to the paintings of Edouard Manet.  Today, Parry continues to focus on the inherent beauty and truth he finds from his subjects, capturing a painterly mood and feel, still influenced by the Impressionist painters.

Eva Sköld Westerlind: Wenatchee River #41

Wenatchee River #41. Archival pigment print. 16"x21"

- Upcoming exhibit at G. Gibson Gallery, opening on November 27th

- City of Seattle is purchasing one of her latest photographs for their permanent collection.

- Artist Trust GAP Award recipient, 2007.

Like an impressionist painter, Westerlind seeks to express a perception of nature in her art rather than create mirror images of the world. In her Anableps photographs, she emphasizes the play of natural light and its reflection and distortions in the water. In Wenatchee River #41, a moment is captured of the afternoon light illuminating a submerged autumn leaf in a quiet bend of the river, giving it majestic importance. Westerlind photographs with the camera partially submerged in the water, capturing the perspective of the so-called four eyed fish Anableps, which can see above and below the surface simultaneously.

Julia Freeman: Matter In a Room #1

Matter In a Room #1. 16 x 24 inches. Fabric, acrylic paint and glue

-Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award Nominee, 2009
-Represented by Seattle Art Museum Gallery
-In KAC exhibit, Return to Departure, 2009

In researching Impressionism, Freeman was drawn to how the Impressionists were influenced by the woodblock prints from Japan which they called "Japonism." Her work relates to this style in that it addresses frozen movement, odd angles and imbalanced compositions as well as the "snapshot" style in these Japanese woodblock prints.

Eric Elliott: Impressionistic Photinia

Impressionistic Photinia. 16"x20". Oil on canvas

Elliott used a Van Gogh painting as influence, being interested in his use of mark making. The direction of marks in the air are in direct relation to the object in the painting and to how the figure and ground become intertwined and interrelated.

- Received the Neddy Artist Fellowship

- Received the Kayla Skinner Award

- Exhibited in the 2009 Northwest Biennial, Tacoma Art Museum

Christopher Hoff: Argus

Argus. 12"x12". Oil on canvas

Monet's paintings of urban and industrialized spaces have always resonated with Hoff. Like Monet, Hoff works directly from observation so when seeing this view, looking south near Jackson Street, he felt compelled to paint.

- Received the Elizabeth Greenshields Grant for a project documenting construction at the World Trade Center site in Manhattan 2004-2014.

- Represented by Linda Hodges Gallery since 2004 and Lawrence Asher Gallery since 2008.

- Appearing in New American Paintings Issue #85 curated by Dominic Molon, Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

Roberta Martinez-Banks: Ice

Ice. Double strand necklace with .5"-1" slabs of amethyst

- Each unique piece represents a celebration of life by a mother-daughter team.

- Display at Lakeshore Gallery, Kirkland

- Display at the New Brendles Gallery, Camano Island

Like musicians and composers such as Debussy or Ravel, who composed pieces that represented reality from an audio perspective; or painters like Degas or Manet who created variations of impressions through paint, Ice, produces an immediate and unique impression of beauty based on slabs of amethyst.

Ben Hirschkoff: Oasis

 

Oasis.13" x 17".  adhesive plexiglass on tape.

This piece, titled Oasis, relates to the Neo-Impressionist style called Pointallism.  This technique relies on the perceptive ability of the eye and mind of the viewer to mix the color spots into a fuller range of tones.  The minimal desert subject matter was chosen to emphasize the illusory nature of this effect.

- Received his MFA from the University of Washington in 2006

- Has been a member of SOIL Artist Run Gallery since 2006
- Was featured in the Kirkland Arts Center exhibition, Dimensional Invention, in 2009.

Al Slatin: Landscape with Flowers

Landscape with Flowers.  18 x 24 inches.  Oil on canvas.

Cable Griffith: First Impressions

 First Impressions. 22 x 30 inches. acrylic on paper

(Not eligible for Studio Challenge Award)

-KAC Exhibitions Director
-2009 PONCHO Merit Award
-2008 4Culture Individual Project Award

Type "Impressionism" into Google's Image Search and you get a mixture of paintings by famous and important artists along side paintings by artists who are... not so much.  Nonetheless, it is a contemporary "impression" of the influential movement to the untrained eye.  Griffith extracted his favorite parts from the first eight results, then arranged and copied the selections..

Barbara Solomon: Montlake at Twilight

 

Montlake at Twilight. 36"x24".  Monoprint

In "Montlake at Twilight" Solomon "paints" a landscape with etching ink a a roller transferring it to paper using an etching press. The scene is of Montlake Boulevard as seen from the windshield of the artists car during the time after sunset when colors become transparent. Solomon addresses impressionism by making the effect of light an important part of the portrayal of a familiar scene. Often Solomon's work deals with skies as backgrounds for flying birds, where in this work the view is broadened to include the entire landscape.

- Recently had works exhibited in the juried KAC members show in August 2009

- Current body of works centers on birds escaping to the skies.

- Studied printmaking at Kirkland Arts Center for the past 3 1/2 years.

Bill Standing: Fall

Fall. Oil on Canvas. 24"x18"

- Solo show at Studio Be, Kirkland, October, 2009.

- Installed a kinetic sculpture at Kirkland City Hall for the 2007 recycled art show.

- Artwork permanently installed in the Federal Way King County Library.

In this piece, Standing has tried to separate the experience of fall colors in the two dimensions of wood and color. Either dimension can be viewed individually but together they form the impression of a colorful forest.

Anna Macrae: Impressions of Summer

Impressions of Summer. 12"x40". Oils with sand

Using a contrasting palette, Macrae utilizes directional brush strokes to convey movementwanted her colors to be vibrant so she first laid down a contrasting palette. Being aware of movement and direction of brush strokes, Macrae began to create this work, adding a twist to the abstract style in which she traditionally works. The awkwardness of the proportions of the canvas also added to the general feel of the painting.

- Exhibited five paintings in the 2007 Street of Dreams Home Show

- Included in the KAC members show the past two years

- Exhibited a 14 piece office installation in the law firm, Bullivant Houser Bailey PC in Seattle