Art Excursion at The Seton Art Gallery and Some Shots Around Downtown

DH took me to see UNH Theater's performance of "Stepping Out" last week. It was fun to see students from different educational backgrounds poured their heart to do something else that they enjoyed.
The first show of "Stepping Out" also coincided with the opening of art exhibition at the Seton Art Gallery next to the theater. The Seton Gallery always has an interesting and engaging program. This opening was a two person show, with Marion Belanger: Open Space, and Anna Broell Bresnick: Waldszenen.

According to the gallery's website:

"Belanger' Open Space is an investigation of a rapidly disappearing landscape of the endangered farm, field and stream.  Her photographs hold subtle traces of the human presence, and portray moments of quiet beauty.

Bresnick's evocative drawings and sculptures counter the false assumption continually made about the ecological health of our planet and expose nature's increasing inability to repair the destruction caused by human desire and greed."

You can also check out the artist websites:
http://www.annabroellbresnick.com/index.html
http://www.marionbelanger.com/Site_3/Home.html

DH took some photos of the opening:
(all photos by David F. Luecke, © Alamanda Art. Original works © their respective creators. All rights reserved.)

 

Anna Broell Bresnick
Necessary Departure

Anna Broell Bresnick
Nests on Fire

Anna Broell Bresnick
Rain Drop

Anna Broell Bresnick
Wipe Out

Anna Broell Bresnick
Reclining Nature

Marion Belanger
Open Space #8

Marion Belanger
Open Space #7

Gallery Director Kerry O'Grady

Anna Broell Bresnick
Nasty Nesting

Anna Broell Bresnick
Apple Book

Me, with two of Marion Belanger's prints

We recently went to downtown, mostly to check out Artspace and do Asian grocery shopping. Unfortunately, Artspace was currently closed for installation of the next show. I should've checked their website. So we went visit the English Building Market to see some pretty things. They have this whole store filled with vintage stuff.  It was really neat and unique.

Two New Oil Paintings and Some Thoughts

We did photo shoots last weekend for my two latest paintings. I posted both below, but you also can check them out on my website.

I've been pondering some about myself in relation to my world in my paintings lately. It's always difficult for me to articulate the connection between elements in my paintings and my feelings into words. I let my brush strokes created the images that struck my heart without questioning or analyzing further the reasoning behind that. I'm introverted  so expressing my thoughts to others never comes out naturally. I was raised to always analyze the situation before saying something, so I won't wind up offending other people's feelings. That over analyzing habit has made me a quiet person whenever I am in a new environment:) It had always been a challenge, then I had to move here where I had to learn of how to think and express myself in my own voice but with a language that I didn't grow up with.

My paintings allow me to express whatever it's inside me without over analyzing the reason.  My growth and artistic journey as an artist actually make me in tune with my feelings without analyzing it. I still can't express it thoroughly, but I understand more of my feelings. These two paintings are dealing with my captured memories during my journey. Remember how people always say to others about lost thing or person? They will say that that person or moment will stay with you in your heart. Whenever you miss it, you can always remember it. I think it's just a way for someone to console others' sad feeling or broken heart. I feel that once an event has passed, I just couldn't capture it back. I could try to convince myself that I've wrapped that beautiful moment into unforgettable memories, but then I realize that I've forgotten certain details. Once it's gone, it's just gone and I can't recreate it and all memories seep into this longing feeling over time. It makes me aware of my mortality as a human that one day I will want to hug the memories of certain things that soothe my heart, but those memories will be more and more imperfect and incomplete with time.

Secret Cabinet of Beautiful Memories

oil on linen

16" by 20"

2011

I Opened My Eyes and It Was Beautiful

oil on linen

16" by 20"

2011

Heidi Alamanda Visits Martin Wittfooth's The Passions at Lyons Wier Gallery

I haven't been out to NYC lately for attending some art openings or for other fun exploration. Mostly I've been busy with my own art, but I wish I had more time to see more of art shows. Pushing myself to step out to a destination is always challenging when I'm focused and time is a constraint. Sometimes I feel bad since I truly enjoy seeing other people's art. Seeing other artists' creation always makes me grateful because I'm so glad that these people with talent and different styles of artwork are sharing their arts to the world.

I had planned attending my friend's, Martin Wittfooth, opening a while back since he announced the official date.  The only painting I've previously seen in person of Martin's was a small sized painting for Cotton Candy Machine's inaugural show.  I've been wanting to see more of  his paintings since then, so I was glad when he told me about his upcoming solo show at Lyons Wier Gallery.

Martin Wittfooth's solo show entitled The Passions featured eight huge oil paintings on canvas and three charcoal drawing studies. He also released a limited edition of twenty giclée prints of one of his paintings, The Sacrifice.

If you see Wittfooth's work either in person or online, you will sense the influence of Dutch old masters' style. This new body of work really showed his mastery of classical technique. The merging of the modern setting world that symbolized the suffering animal kingdom as martyrs as a result of human-created environmental disasters, and the aesthetic manner of Dutch masters, really pulled me as a viewer to contemplate deeper beneath each of Wittfooth's painting throughout the body of work.

Personally, the classical aesthetic of his paintings brought me to the serene feeling of how beautiful the world we live in, then the chaotic surrounding suddenly strucked me to the realization of the suffering that I couldn't control.

There are always small things when I go or look outside that remind me of how amazingly beautiful this world is, but I fear that the uncontrollable human-created disasters  slowly creeping and may turn everything into faded memories one day. Martin Wittfooth's works reminded me of that feeling. His works are not only captivating but they also make me think.

Martin Wittfooth "The Passions" runs until November 12, 2011 at Lyons Wier Gallery.

Lyons Wier Gallery 

542 West 24th Street

New York, NY 10011

Phone: (212) 242-6220 

gallery@lyonswiergallery.com 

www.lyonswiergallery.com

Photos from the opening
(all photos by David F. Luecke, © Alamanda Art. Original works © their respective creators. All rights reserved.)

The Coronation

The Rapture

The Ecstasy

Sebastian - charcoal drawing study

Pieta

Martin with his painting "The Sacrifice" as the background

Martin Wittfooth and Jenny Morgan

Martin, Martin's beautiful Mom, and me

Sebastian

The Baptism

The Sacrifice (limited giclée)

Martin and Victoria Selbach

Details from The Rapture

Details from The Baptism

Details from The Baptism

Domini Canis - charcoal drawing study

Domini Canis

Some other photos of NYC at night on our way for dinner at Olieng restaurant after the opening

and finally food!

Painting in Progress

I've been so busy that partial part of this blog post has actually been sitting in my draft for a month. I've been busy and away from any forms of social networking. I still checked it sometimes but not as frequent. Often times, I just feel a huge distraction from any social medias. I need to pull myself away to focus more on my art and not polluted with other thoughts that would thwart my direction:)

Fall is already here and I hope you've been enjoying it. I love it that It looks and smells like Fall. Fall is one of my favorites season besides Spring. Everything looks so mellow in the Fall:)

Here's a peek of an underpainting stage that I previously worked on and layer of colors stage that I'm currently working on

More progress and Some Random Drawings

I'm trying to console my poor lonely blog after being neglected for two weeks. Sometimes things just happen and they really keep you from doing other things as planned. I'm completely amazed by anyone who still can put their paintings/drawings out there constantly while maintaining their Twitter, Facebook, and now Google+ regularly, and talking to people there regularly. They must have like a set of invisible octopus hands to type and do other things :)

Here's the latest progress. Some layers and additional touch are still needed here and there, but the major things were done. I just needed to focus on the small bits, but that's actually the hardest part because it's when my attention is kind of diverted. However, I've learned over time that it always feels better to nurture my emotional connection to the piece than to try finish it in a rush and neglecting that feeling.

Japan Cinema Creative Interviews Vol. I, painting in progress shot and other artsy things

Hello hello,
I have been slow in updating this blog...whoops :)  I'm still working on this painting (picture below) and it takes longer than my previous paintings since there are a lot of new challenges in this piece; something that I've never experienced before. Producing like a racing machine and leaving my soul somewhere in the middle of that sprinting aren't my goals. I need to translate what I feel onto canvas. If it has to take a bit longer than I will embrace that process :)

Other exciting news. I'm part of Japan Cinema Creative Interviews Vol. I. I wrote before about my interview with Japan Cinema. Well, Marcello Milteer compiled those creative interviews into a book. You can purchase the book here, and also check out their inspiring website.

Book cover (not my artwork :) )

I've been having an affair with acrylics and colored pencils in between working on my current painting :)  Sometimes I just need to keep myself creatively fresh by doing something different and experimenting a bit. I'm sure my painting will understand that..hehe