Heidi Alamanda in "Everyone Will Be Famous for 12 Inches" at Castle Fitzjohns Gallery, Lower East Side, New York City

Exciting times! In addition to the annual juried show at the Bowery Gallery, I'm also currently part of another New York City group show entitled "Every One Will Be Famous for 12 Inches" at the Castle Fitzjohns Gallery on the Lower East Side. The theme of the exhibition is 12"x12" - each artist was given freedom to create with only one restriction that it has to be 12"x 12"in size. I contributed an oil painting, entitled "They Don't Know Her," for the exhibition.

Heidi Alamanda, They Don't Know Her
12"x12"
oil on canvas

I attended the opening reception last Friday (August 8th, 2014). The opening reception was a rousing success as you can see from a little video below.

The exhibition runs until August 22nd, and until then you can inquire about the artwork at

Castle Fitzjohns Gallery
98 Orchard Street NY, NY 10002
Phone 212-260-2460/917-244-4868

info@castlefitzjohns.com

Open Monday - Sunday 12- 7pm

A little video of the reception:

Some photos from the opening reception.

Interesting detail fron David Datuna's Mixed Media work.
This isn't part of the current exhibition but you can find it near the entrance door.

Michelle Delecki, Caged

live music by Sullied Accolades

Pretty summer in New York City:

The perfect way to end a nice day in the city? Street food! :)

Heidi Alamanda in Chelsea, New York City Show at Bowery Gallery

I am so honored that my painting, "Painted Images in Her Mind," was selected as part of the 23rd anual juried show currently ongoing at the Bowery Gallery in Chelsea NYC. The group show features the work of 36 artists selected by juror David Cohen., a current editor and publisher of Artcritical.com.You can view all the selected artworks on the Bowery Gallery's facebook or on their website 

We went to New York City to attend the opening reception. It is always a happy thing for me to get out from my studio and visit the city, and it is even a better reason to visit when I actually have the opportunity to share my work with a lot of people :)

I met some other exhibited artists, Bernice Sokol Kramer, Rachel Youens, Rachele Unter, Tom Fitzharris, Meredith Rose, Eli Slaydon, and Françoise Cambilargiu. I was glad I had a chance to view their works in person to appreciate that special quality which you just couldn't get by staring at photos. There were many works there that really pleased my eyes.
Françoise and I got a chance to talk for a bit. Her oil painting entitled, Sardegna 1, was one of  my personal favorites. The painting really captured the feelings of the artist and transported you to a beautiful place (photos really don't do it justice). Françoise is going to return to Paris soon, so I was glad to be able to know her before that.
Coincidentally, she introduced me to another artist, Eli Slaydon, which his work, Pathfork, was also another favorite of mine.

With the charming and beautiful artist, Françoise Cambilargiu, in front of
her painting, Sardegna 1

Bernice Sokol Kramer (L) in front of her work, Accumulations and Collections, Nudes

Eli Slaydon (L)

Lovely chat with Rachele Unter

With artist Rachel Youens

Artist Meredith Rose next to her work, Existence Machine

The turn out was really great. The gallery was packed the whole time I was there. My huge thank you to all kind people at Bowery Gallery for organizing such a great show.

Admiring Rachele Unter's painting, Red Tree-Blue

I also can't say thank you enough to my DH for his never ending support, especially that night for taking me there and being there for me.

The show will be on exhibit through August 16th, 2014.
Bowery Gallery is located at 530 West 25th St. 4 Fl, New York, NY 10001

Heidi Alamanda in Paris

After so many years, I was finally back in Paris again. It's really hard not to fall in love with Paris. It's the kind of city that even after you see some beautiful photographs or read some stories on other people's travel journals, it will still surpass your expectation. It's, of course, aesthetically beautiful, alive and filled with so much energy. You look around and you just can't absorb the whole things fast enough because you know there will always be a tiny pretty details that you will always miss.
We stayed at Bastille neighborhood. It was definitely the perfect location. Our room was quiet and actually quite roomy. Another surprise was a cute small balcony. Perfect!
It was a short distance to groceries, cafes, boulangeries, and metro.

View from our balcony

Away and Now Back with Some Stories of Arts and France

I have been neglecting this blog but, of course, not on purpose. It's a good thing I'm not a writer who has to meet several deadlines. I would be in so much trouble.
We went to South of France not too long ago. We rented an apartment in Nice for our base and exploring the surrounding areas. Nice is a beautiful city and it's one of those things where pictures won't be able to translate certain feelings you can get from a place. The ocean has that gorgeous azure color like a gemstone, which you can see from your google search, but it's way way way better when you experience it with your own eyes. I felt like I was fitter there because we had a chance to walk everywhere, which I loved. I could walk to a boulangerie to get some croissants, pain au chocolat, bagette or some treats, because it was right at the corner of our apartment. How cool was that?
Public transportation was great. We could take buses easily or trams. The rate was flat (1.5 euro) no matter how far the distance was, for example going to Monaco, which was around 50 mins by bus would be the same rate as going to Vieille Ville Nice. The city has many features that I love - many public parks, a lot of Museums, cute buildings, open market, beautiful beach, mountain view, mild temperature.
Other towns/ villages near Nice are also nice. We only managed to see some of them - Cannes, Vence, Saint Paul de Vence, and Monaco. The farthest place we went was St. Tropez by boat.
Leaving Nice was absolutely difficult, but we shall return :)
We took tons of photos from our cell phones, my camera, and DH's camera, so below are only few of them. I may share some on my next posts.

We took printmaking class when we returned home. It was a fun class. I've never tried printmaking before, so this class was pretty much an introduction to familiarize us with different techniques in printmaking. We learned about Monotype, Drypoint, Etching, Woodcut/Linocut, and Xerox transfer. We learned so much from the class and our printmaking teacher was really generous sharing her knowledge and time in the class.

I've been busy painting, drawing, participating in some shows. I will share some pics of the progress next time.

                             

Some pics from our printmaking class

DH made those prints on the right. Those patterns look like they should be on Japanese paper :)