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Fine art

The Armonk Outdoor Art Show: A Celebration of Art and Community

September 1, 2015 by The Inside Press

Byram Hills High School AP Art students are also juried for participation in the show.
Byram Hills High School AP Art students are also juried for participation in the show.

By Sarah Jane Weill

The Armonk Outdoor Art Show, ranked as one of the “Elite 100 Fine Art Craft Shows” by Art Fair Sourcebook as well as one of the “Top Fine Art and Fine Craft Shows” in the New York Metro Area by Sunshine Artist Magazine, is back for its 54th year this September. With approximately 8,000-10,000 visitors from the tri-state area annually, there is a lot of anticipation leading up to the show.

A community-supported event, there are approximately 300 people working on the completely volunteer-run show. In particular, the five co-chairs: Stacy Wilder, Marian Hamilton, Debbie Heidecorn, Ava Zukowsky, and David Africk begin working on the next year’s Show almost immediately after the conclusion of the current year’s event. There are always things to be done to “keep it fresh,” says Wilder of the preparation. “What does change is not always noticeable…much of it is ‘behind the scenes.”

The Art Show consists of about 185 exhibitors, 42 of which will be new to the event. All artists have to apply, with the exception of the previous year’s award winners who are automatically welcomed back. The applicants are reviewed by the Art Show jury, which is comprised of about twelve local jurors, all of whom have varied professional art backgrounds. “The Art Show jury meets twice a week in the spring for about six weeks reviewing applicants,” explains Judy Moniz, who is in charge of the jury. “The show is quite competitive,” she adds. This year, there were approximately 550 hopeful applicants.

The nationally recognized show welcomes thousands of visitors each year from all over the tri-state area.
The nationally recognized show welcomes thousands of visitors each year from all over the tri-state area.

The artists are divided into eight categories: printmaking, drawing, pastels; oils and acrylics; photography and digital art; sculpture; watercolors; mixed media; fine arts; and wearable art. Awards are given for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Honorable Mention in each of the categories. There is also an award for Best-in-Show, which, last year, was presented to Robert Hessler for his work in pottery. At the end of the first day of the Show, three new judges, all of whom also have professional art backgrounds, decide the winners following detailed discussions and careful scoring of all the artists’ work. The distinguished ribbons are then handed out on the second morning of the show. “Artists from throughout the country, as well as from Canada and Israel, will be exhibiting this year,” Moniz says.

For the second year now, there will also be a booth of high school student artists at the Art Show. Approximately ten artists from the Byram Hills’ AP art program will be exhibiting. These students also had to apply to the Art Show, and were juried for selection. The addition of local student artists establishes another great connection to and within the Armonk community.

The Art Show puts out a detailed directory displaying all the artists and images of their work. This is a unique approach for this type of event and, as a result, it is very “popular among the artists…it’s a big draw,” explains Wilder. “A lot of work goes into making [the directory], ” she continues, “it sets the show apart” as it showcases the artists beyond the Art Show itself. The student artists and their work will also be fully featured in the directory this year.

There’s a lot to do at the show, for people of all ages and interests. Primarily, attendees visit various artists’ booths and have the opportunity to engage with them and learn about their work firsthand; a truly unique opportunity for art-lovers of all kinds. Free guided-tours are also organized at the show, during which tour guides escort people through the event at scheduled times; each tour focuses on different aspects of the show, specifically planned so that all interested attendees will be able to find at least one tour that appeals to them.

The 185 juried artists offer a wide range of art to suit every taste and budget.
The 185 juried artists offer a wide range of art to suit every taste and budget.

Personal shoppers are likewise available to help those looking to purchase art, perhaps with an eye toward some home decorating. There are also events for children: an art booth at the back of the show featuring sand art, face painting, and other crafts, as well as a scavenger hunt that takes place throughout the whole venue. A food court with a wide selection tasty treats including some organic options, completes the scene.

This year, a transportation feature is being added to the Art Show. Castle Cab, an Armonk-based taxicab-company that uses App on-demand and advanced reservation requests, is acting in partnership with the Art Show to help bring more people to the event. Primarily, this will help New York City residents get to the show, as transportation can be difficult. Attendees who take the train from Grand Central Station to North White Plains will find will find Castle Cab cars waiting for them upon arrival. For a flat fee of $10 per car, instead of the usual rate of $18, the cars will take their passengers directly to the show and drop them off at a premium entry spot. When visitors are ready to leave the Show, the cars will be standing by to take them to the station. Or, if people are looking for a bite to eat or to do some sightseeing in town, the cars will accommodate travel to any local destination–to or from the show–for half price. This is an exciting new development and partnership, and will hopefully be a big draw for even more attendees, especially from places farther away.

art show 5The connections to the community deepen as net proceeds from the Art Show go to the North Castle Public Library. The annual event is the library’s biggest fundraiser, and benefits many aspects of the library including new programming, children’s programs, technology and facility upgrades. A recent example of funding allocation is the wonderful indoor playground in the children’s reading section. “The show has three levels of sponsorship,” Wilder explains, “gold, silver, bronze and also additional sponsors and community supporters”. All are listed in the Art Show’s directory, which is also great exposure for sponsoring local businesses.

The Art Show will take place the weekend of September 26th – 27th, 2015, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. The event goes on rain or shine. Admission price is $10, or $8 for senior citizens and coupon holders. The discount coupon is available for print on the Armonk Outdoor Art Show website: armonkoutdoorartshow.org. Ages 18 and under are free. There is ample free on-site parking for those driving themselves, as well as senior and  parking. No dogs are allowed, not even art-loving ones!

With so much to see and do, the excitement for the Art Show is palpable. This event has become one of huge importance to the Armonk community. Not only is it a great place to see a variety of talented, diverse artists, but it is also a perfect opportunity to go out and enjoy the experience of being with people who share an enthusiasm for art and the town itself. Events like these are truly special, and so it is no surprise that after all of the hard work, year after year, it is a great success. Of course, this year will be no different!

Sarah Jane Weill attends Bowdoin college. She is a graduate of the Horace Greeley High School class of 2014.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Armonk Cover Stories Tagged With: Armonk, art show, community, Fine art, Inside Press, theinsidepress.com

Jasper Johns & John Lund: Masters in the Print Studio at the K.M.A.

April 24, 2014 by The Inside Press

Untitled, 2011 Intaglio 43 ½ x 33 5/8 inches Edition of 60 United Limited Art Editions Art © Jasper Johns and ULAE/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Published by Universal Limited Art Editions
Untitled, 2011 Intaglio 43 ½ x 33 5/8 inches Edition of 60 United Limited Art Editions Art © Jasper Johns and ULAE/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Published by Universal Limited Art Editions

An extraordinary and little known story is being told in the Katonah Museum of Art’s exhibition, Jasper Johns & John Lund: Masters in the Print Studio. This is the first museum exhibition to explore the working relationship of these two masters. Over the past 30 years, Johns and Lund have forged a rare artistic collaboration: side-by-side. Master printer Lund has helped Johns, one of the most prolific and prominent printmakers of the 20th and 21st centuries, achieve precisely the desired effect he seeks for his prints, 47 of which are featured in the exhibition.

“We are thrilled and honored to have Jasper Johns in our museum,” says Ellen Keiter, Director of Exhibitions who curated this show. “We were attracted to this story of the relationship of Johns and Lund. It’s a new angle and new story that hasn’t been done.” This one-on-one relationship is uncommon in the print world. Johns and Lund first worked together in 1973 at Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), the fine art print publisher, where Lund was a lithography printer. A decade later, Lund became integral to Johns’s printmaking process as the exclusive printer to work on the artist’s intaglio prints. In 1996, Johns established a private print studio at his home in Sharon, Connecticut and Lund and his family moved up to live on the property. “Jasper Johns and John Lund had an amazing relationship,” says Keiter. “The exhibit is rich with narrative and celebrates the contribution that Lund made to the print world.” The exhibition shows the printmaking process and offers a glimpse into Johns’s private print studio through a selection of recent photographs.

Shrinky Dink 3, 2011 Intaglio 28 ¾ x 31 ¾ inches Edition of 57 United Limited Art Editions Art © Jasper Johns and ULAE/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Published by Universal Limited Art Editions
Shrinky Dink 3, 2011 Intaglio 28 ¾ x 31 ¾ inches Edition of 57 United Limited Art Editions Art © Jasper Johns and ULAE/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Published by Universal Limited Art Editions

Keiter says the exhibit attracts a broad audience of all ages who are interested in prints in general and how they are made. “We have a great line-up of programs.” They include field trips to ULAE and the Museum of Modern Art and panel discussions with such noted experts as Bill Goldston of ULAE and Wendy Weitman, former curator of Museum of Modern Art. John Lund will join Keiter for a Curator’s Tour and there are many printmaking programs for children.

The exhibition Jasper Johns & John Lund: Masters in the Print Studio will be on view at the Katonah Museum of Art through June 15. For more information on the exhibition and programs visit the museum website: www.katonahmuseum.org

– Ronni Diamondstein

Untitled, 1998 Intaglio 41 ¾ x 81 inches Edition of 44 Universal Limited Art Editions Art © Jasper Johns and ULAE/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Published by Universal Limited Art Editions
Untitled, 1998 Intaglio 41 ¾ x 81 inches Edition of 44 Universal Limited Art Editions Art © Jasper Johns and ULAE/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Published by Universal Limited Art Editions
Flag On Orange, 1998 Etching and aquatint 26 ¾ x 19 ¾ inches Edition of 27 Low Road Studio 1 Art © Jasper Johns and LRS Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Published by Low Road Studio
Flag On Orange, 1998 Etching and aquatint 26 ¾ x 19 ¾ inches Edition of 27 Low Road Studio 1 Art © Jasper Johns and LRS Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Published by Low Road Studio
Cup 2 Picasso, 1973 Lithograph 19 ¼ x 12 ¼ inches Edition of 11 Universal Limited Art Editions Art © Jasper Johns and ULAE/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Published by Universal Limited Art Editions
Cup 2 Picasso, 1973 Lithograph 19 ¼ x 12 ¼ inches Edition of 11 Universal Limited Art Editions Art © Jasper Johns and ULAE/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Published by Universal Limited Art Editions

Filed Under: Gotta Have Arts Tagged With: Fine art, Inside Armonk, KMA

The Portraits of Laurel Stern Boeck

March 7, 2014 by The Inside Press

Governor Jodi Rell
Governor Jodi Rell

By Sarah Ellen Rindsberg

It’s not every day that one receives a call from Jodi Rell, former Governor of Connecticut or meets with Dennis Hastert, former speaker of the House. For Laurel Stern Boeck, one of the nation’s foremost portrait artists, working with accomplished and fascinating clients are a unique perk and all in a day’s work. Her success in the competitive field of portraiture is evident in her many prestigious commissions, including esteemed men and women in politics, military, business, judicial and academic circles.

The art of portraiture became the center of Boeck’s world at an early age. “I have always loved drawing and painting. I focused on capturing faces, spending day’s just drawing eyes, then noses, and then mouths. I remember examining the structure of each part of the face, the real character of the person developed as my skills and technique became more advanced.”

While attending the School of Visual Arts in New York, Boeck studied illustration and design.  She worked as a freelance illustrator and became an art director for an ad agency in NYC.

Kenneth Standard of the Harvard Club
Kenneth Standard of the Harvard Club

She continued pursuing her love of portraits while working, and found her mentor in master artist John Murray. She studied with him for many years, learning the craft and techniques of the Old Masters. “That journey toward excellence was one of the most rewarding times in my life.” Boeck recalled, “Each day that I grasped a new concept or mastered a difficult technique was thrilling.”  She honed her skills and developed her own unique style, which led to her first portrait commissions, and launched her artistic career.

Boeck’s classical representational style portrays the extraordinary spirit as well as the fine nuances of her subjects. Boeck is widely known for her attention to detail; the appropriate treatment of a client’s hands is as important as the subtle mixture of flesh tones. “I try to be very faithful to the topography of the face, “she says. “Ultimately I want the portrait to reflect the person, if I am faithful to what I see, their personality will come through.”

A most recent representation of her philosophy appears in her portrait of the editor and publisher of this magazine, Grace Bennett. The result is stunning. (See Grace’s own sidebar about the experience!)

Painting has provided her with a wonderful work/life balance. After a day trip to Washington to meet with a subject, Boeck lands at Westchester airport to spend the evening with her husband and children. Most days she paints in the spacious art studio she designed and added to her Bedford home. Part of her mission is to nurture other artists. She does this by teaching at the Katonah Art Center, hosting a painting workshop in her studio and with a personalized mentorship program for artists looking to accelerate their careers and broaden their horizons.

Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House
Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House

Boeck believes “the best portraits both capture the essence of the subject, and are infused with the spirit of their life.”  Along with famous subjects, Laurel also commissions everyday portrait and event work.  For more info, please visit: www.boeckstudio.com

 Sarah Ellen Rindsberg thinks Boeck’s portrait of the publisher masterfully captured Bennett’s entrepreneurial spirit and vivacious personality.

On Being Painted by Laurel…

Laurel and I were introduced by a mutual friend. I love art and was intrigued by an offer to sit with an artist who gets to paint all day. It sounded like a dream come true. Little did I know the surprise awaiting me in Laurel’s Westchester studio!

North light windows, a plethora of tubes of paint, brushes galore and several easels filled a high ceiling, airy sunlit room; an office area upstairs accommodates the business of doing art too. Paintings were in full view everywhere, from large and small finished commissions to small, unfinished but still delightful oil sketches.

Grace Bennett
Grace Bennett

Laurel and I hit it off right away; following tea and treats, her welcoming spirit put me at ease as she spent time considering how to pose and light me on the large model stand.

The sitting proceeded accompanied by conversation and enjoyable background music (she says the music helps her too!). Only on a few occasions did she suggest stillness and silence while working in the area of the eyes or mouth. “I do not mind movement,” she said. “It helps to keep the freshness and eliminates any stiffness in the pose. The true nature is then revealed.”  Posing breaks were granted every 20 minutes or so. I was amazed at the painting process and certainly very pleased to view such an appealing representation of myself on canvas!

–Grace BennettGrace-sitting-in-progress_edited-1

Filed Under: Gotta Have Arts Tagged With: Design, Drawing, Fine art, Illustration, Paintings, Portraits

The Greeley Gallery

March 7, 2014 by The Inside Press

Stephen Ku “Fracture”
Stephen Ku “Fracture”

Intro by Stephen Ku

The talent of Greeley’s art department is at once distinct and indistinct.  It, by its very nature, is one of the many examples of the students and their successes as being part of the school.  Students who have matriculated in this department make it a goal of theirs to refine their work to a stage where it is representative of their commitment. What results is a slew of creative works [here we highlight Greeley Seniors] that have the capacity to confound  and inspire other students to imagine and develop their own work.

At times it may seem as though there is an aim to score higher than others with one’s assignments; however, this presupposition is, essentially, irrelevant because it is counter-productive to think of drawings as one would a test or evaluation.  The only direct correlation between the two is that they require one to place lines, whether it be with pen or ink, on a page. It is with this mind set of individuation that seems to perpetuate the growth of individual work.  Work that addresses subject matter ranging from absurdist humor to dynamic compositions of hands and feet to self-consciousness to childhood tales with a plot twist. In just the same way that we strive to develop our proficiency in conventional academics, there is a similar effort in the art department.

I, myself, have only recently endeavored to advance myself in this area having begun in a physical three-dimensional plane and now finding myself spending more time in a physically two-dimensional plane that has the capacity to express three dimensions.

 

anxiety
ari-bennett-work
found-objects-angela-sun
fracture-16
illumination
Ocular-Migraine
pearce_portfolio_01

Filed Under: Gotta Have Arts Tagged With: Fine art, gallery

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