Now that I am living back in Savannah, GA, it's lovely to have work in a local gallery. It's even lovelier that it's an absolutely stunning space chock full of beautiful fine art and handmade delights by fellow Savannah College of Art and Design alumni. I currently have four pieces available for sale there including these two:
Kia 26" x 18" chalk pastel { framed }
Repose 17" x 35" oil on linen { framed }
See other work on their website.
The funny thing about the internet is you never know where an image will end up. Well, I was quite delighted when I discovered a painting of mine in a post on a interior design blog that I happen to love called Apartment Therapy! They put together a round-up of items inspired by the idea of "Sleeping Under the Big Top". Check out the post and blog here. Below is what the post looks like:
Amy Lind - Recipient of Southwest Art Magazine Editor's Award of Excellence
Katie 21" x 16" oil on linen { CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT ROBERT LANGE STUDIOS }
I am delighted to announce that my painting, Katie, received "Southwest Art Editor's Award of Excellence" at The Bennington Center for the Arts recent show Artists for the New Century! The editors of three national art magazines, American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur and Southwest Art, selected 75 artists to be in the show. The three editors then each chose their favorite piece from the show to receive an award. It was a tremendous honor for me to have even been invited to participate in the show alongside such spectacular spectacular artists. The other two winning artists/paintings are amazing, and I am completely humbled to be one of the three winning artists! Congratulations to David Hettinger and Julio Reyes.
David Hettinger - Recipient of Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine Editor's Award of Excellence
Reading and Texting 24" x 30" oil on linen
Julio Reyes - Recipient of American Art Collector Magazine Editor's Award of Excellence
Plea 40" x 36" oil
I am pleased to announce that my work has been chosen to be a part of the prestigious Art Renewal Center Salon two years in a row! (see my work in last year's salon) This year three of my paintings are finalists in the Figurative Category - see below.
"Prelude" is currently available at Robert Lange Studios in Charleston, SC
"Hello Up There" is a part of the Savannah College of Art and Design's permanent collection
"Worthy of Love" is currently available at The Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ
After living in Savannah again for almost a year and a half now, I'm excited to debut my work in this lovely town of mine at one of my favorite local haunts, The Paris Market & Brocante! They have asked me to be their featured artist for the upcoming First Friday "Art Shop and Hop" at stores and boutiques along Broughton Street. Each store is showcasing artwork by a different local artist for this month's Shop and Hop theme "an evening of art". I am so lucky, because I love love love the aesthetic of Paris Market and think my paintings will look right at home there! :)
So please come support local artists and boutiques. Participating Broughton St. stores will be open late from 6-9pm Friday, June 1. You will undoubtedly find beautiful goodies and treasures at the Paris Market! I'll be there from 6-9 and would love to see/meet you! My work will stay on display through July 5.
This painting (among others) will be there:
"Flora" 29" x 21" Oil on Linen {framed}
They created two beautiful window displays with my paintings!
Well that's all for my sneak peek. Feel free to hop on over to The Paris Market's blog to see a bit more about the event and what you will find there! Guess you'll have to come and see the rest!
"American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur and Southwest Art, at the request of The Bennington, have nominated 75 artists to take part in this year's Artists for the New Century. The show includes artists who in the past five years have garnered an increasing amount of respect and recognition from peers and collectors alike due to their impressive talent and consistent technical ability. This will be a wonderful opportunity to become familiar with and purchase art by some of the best new talent on the representational art scene. The paintings will be on exhibit June 9 - July 15, 2012 and all work will be for sale." I am beyond honored to have been invited to participate in this fantastic show, especially alongside such amazing artists!!!
Katie 21" x 16" Oil on linen {framed}
I will have these two quick oil studies from life as well as a full figure painting in this group show. This show is put on by the Savannah College of Art and Design exhibitions, and it will be on view at Gutstein Gallery (201 E. Broughton St., Savannah, GA) from June 18 – Aug. 5, 2012 with a reception on June 29, from 6-7:30 p.m. '"Figuratively Speaking" highlights SCAD artists who depict or use the body in original and dynamic ways. The human figure has been a source of visual reference and reverence, greatly impacting aesthetics in both art and design for centuries. The body has signified the ideal form in both art and architecture, expressing emotional and theatrical sentiment through pose and gestural mark-making and representing political and social forces through an array of conceptual expressions across all artistic media."
LEFT: Porcelain 20” x 16” Oil on Linen {framed}
RIGHT: Profile Study 9” x 10”Oil on Linen {framed}
Tonight - Friday, May 4 - is the opening reception for Robert Lange Studios invitational group show. Works from 35 artists will be on view throughout the gallery. Each artist was asked to depict the same subject in two or more different canvases, interpreting the idea that "everything changes." Here are my paintings for the show. It was fun to take a quick break from the figure and paint another one of my loves, SWEETS! And in particular --- cupcakes!! My job sure was tough when I had to eat that cupcake... : )
TOP: Temptation 12" x 16" Oil on Linen {framed}
BOTTOM: Tempted 12" x 16" Oil on Linen {framed}
I am honored to have the below painting juried into this year's Scottsdale Salon of Fine Art, which opened April 20th and lasts until May 20th. The show features representational figurative, portrait, still life, floral, landscape, interior, wildlife, and western themes. Check out all the work here. If you're in the area, I recommend stopping by to see all the fabulous work in person! The Salon is hosted by The Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ and is on view in the 10,000 sq. ft. space in the upper level of their gallery.
Worthy of Love 13" x 14" Oil on Linen {framed}
I'm a little late posting this, but that doesn't mean I'm not super excited and honored to be one of Oxford American's "100 under 100 New Superstars of Southern Art"! Each year, this fantastic magazine puts out a "visual south" issue. This year, I was nominated by a fellow southerner and VERY talented artist Cedric Smith. Both his paintings and photography are equally wonderful. On top of selling his work at galleries in Paris and NYC (to name a few places), he has recently started a successful and amusing blog consisting of his photos documenting stylish people in everyday life around town. Check it out: yourewelcomesavannah.com. And here is his website of paintings: cedricsmith.com
The printed magazine includes the first 40 of 100 "stars" and sadly I am much closer to 100... Here is what the bit about me looks like online. I cannot express enough how grateful I am to the very talented and dear gentleman, Cedric Smith, for thinking so highly of me and saying so. Your words are truly too kind but much appreciated. Click here to see the other 41-100 stars!
Here is a blurb from the Oxford American's website regarding their Visual South Issue (February 2012, Issue 76):
"This new "Visual South Issue" is the result of joggling a massive crew of curators, critics, established artists, and "Art Insiders" to nominate THE NEW 100 SUPERSTARS OF SOUTHERN ART.
The FINAL LIST is overwhelming in its quality and collecting all this great new art left us kind of numb—in a good way."
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On: Things About Me (the children's picture book that I painted) has made the rounds - from various online sources to more notably being featured in Entertainment Weekly, People Magazine, and TIME Magazine.com. As if that all isn't exciting enough, I just found out that the book made last week's New York Times Best Sellers list!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm absolutely over. the. moooooon!!!
Congrats to all involved in making the book so spectacular - especially Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp (co-creators of Marcel and authors of the book)!!
For more on the book, including a glimpse inside, click here.
I'm a little late posting this, but Marcel the Shell With Shoes On: Things About Me (the first children's book that I painted) was on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams. Nightly News anchor Brian Williams went to the co-authors' home to interview them and little Marcel the Shell. Check it out!
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Hey y'all. This is a busy season for me as far as group shows go. I will have new work in the following spectacular shows across the country: ROBERT LANGE STUDIOS, Charleston, SC - "Fortunate" November 4 through Thanksgiving weekend
{ Put all your unhappiness aside, life is beautiful, be happy 36" x 24" oil on belgian linen }
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WATERHOUSE GALLERY, Santa Barbara, CA - "Great American Figurative Show" opens November 19
{ Be Still 30" x 24" oil on belgian linen }
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JEREMY LIPKING OPEN STUDIO, Agoura Hills, CA - "Exhibition of paintings by Jeremy Lipking and Friends" opens December 3 and lasts for a week
{ Unveiling Grace 24" x 28" oil on belgian linen }
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I promise that all of these shows are worth checking out. Lots of fantastic work by some amazing artists!
I don't know what I did to be a part of something so spectacular, but the children's book I had the honor of painting images for was just featured on TIME.com! TIME magazine, ladies and gents. That's right. And the co-creator of Marcel the Shell, Jenny Slate, actually mentions MY NAME! This is all a bit surreal... Watch the video above for a good glimpse inside the pages of the book, and then follow this link to read the article that accompanied the above video in the TIME feature.
Some screen shots of the article headline and video on TIME.com:
I love the "Sold!" section in the back of American Art Collector magazine where they tell a handful of fun stories about paintings that have sold straight from the pages of their magazine! I was lucky enough to experience this and have the story appear in their October issue. I'm often cooped up in my studio and not fully aware of the interactions between my collectors and gallery. So hearing stories like this about how someone fell in love with my work is so fulfilling! Thanks to Lyle Sarnevitz for sharing your story (and of course for adding my painting to your fabulous collection of work!). And the story goes...
Amy Lind's painting of a show girl titled "Star" appeared in November's American Art Collector as part of a group show Robert Lange Studios hosted called "Women Painting Women." Lyle Sarnevitz, a Charlotte collector, fell in love with the piece but when he visited the gallery website discovered it was over five feet tall and four feet wide. His large collection of over 80 contemporary realists meant he had little wall space left. Even though the piece would not fit in his collection, he tore out the image from the magazine and kept it. The next month Lind's paintings were again in the magazine and one of the works even graced the cover.
"I couldn't stop thinking about the piece," says Sarnevitz, who six months later had to see the painting in person so he drove down to the Charleston, South Carolina-based gallery. "The second I walked in the gallery I knew she would be coming home with me, even if I had to rearrange my entire house to make space."
In addition to this, the October issue of American Art Collector also highlighted my wonderful gallery, Robert Lange Studios, where I have been showing my work at for five years in a new feature called "Gallery Watch." Congrats to the fabulous gallery owners Rob and Megan Lange and gallery director Carri Scwabb for growing such a gem of a gallery! I'm so lucky to work with y'all and call you good friends! (If you look closely at the photo below, you'll see two of my paintings on the left).
A few blog posts back, I mentioned that I had the pleasure of painting images for the upcoming Penguin Children's Book "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On: Things About Me." The book doesn't come out until November 1, but just to butter you up they have pre-released five spreads from the book alongside an interview with the co-authors and creator of Marcel. Check out the link to the exclusive by Whitney Jefferson on Jezebel.com, and see the content below as well. I couldn't help but highlight the parts about me in red. : )
First Look: Marcel The Shell's First Children's Book
Marcel The Shell is making the leap from overnight viral sensation to the subject of a new children's book, Marcel The Shell With Shoes On: Things About Me (on sale November 1). We spoke to Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp, authors of the book and creators of Marcel, and found out that there as so many more things we've yet to learn about the little shell. And we've also got ten lovely pages from the book.
Jezebel: Marcel The Shell's debut was an extremely successful viral video, racking up over 11 million hits on YouTube. What made you decide that the character would make for a good book?
Dean Fleischer-Camp: Well, Jenny and I both have a real love for children's literature; we actually read a lot of kids books. We always wanted to do something with children's literature. We did not make Marcel specifically for kids, but once it sort of got popular with young people it seemed like it would be a nice next step.
Jenny: I think although Marcel originated in film, the character can be put out there in many different forms of art. When it was suggested that some people were interested in it being a picture book, it was an immediate yes just because it's a world we wanted to be involved in, and also we read a lot of picture books. Like ones that we liked as kids and new ones, they're really refreshing and a like a peaceful, playful thing to read kids books as an adult.
Jezebel: So you read a lot of children's books as adults — what are some of your favorites?
Dean: I always loved anything by Roald Dahl, and I really loved Shel Silverstein. Oh! Harold and the Purple Crayon is like one of my all-time favorites.
Jenny: I really liked books like the Ox-Cart Man and Miss Rumphius, which are Barbara Cooney books. But then I also books that were more like me as a kid, like kids that had problems. There was one book called like I'm Telling You Now that was this beautiful watercolor book about this boy who did all these things that he wasn't supposed to do … but he was only curious, I love those. I loved the Courduroy books! There are so many.
Jezebel: One of the things that really stands out in the book is the artwork, by Amy Lind. Did your publisher hook you up with her or were you familiar with her work beforehand?
Dean: Our publisher set us up with a bunch of different ideas for artists and [Amy] just had a really great sense of light. We really wanted that photo realist oil painting style and that's not really a style that's practiced as much as it used to be.
Jenny: It's also really the only way we felt comfortable with making the art for the book. We didn't want it to be photographed because we felt that would just accentuate that it wasn't a film … We just thought, if we wanted to take it further and still make it Marcel, how would we do that? It's sort of honorable when someone has an oil painting of them. There's an oil painting of my grandfather in his Marine uniform hung in my grandparent's house and he was so handsome, and such a rich, beautiful painting of a time where he was really proud of himself. We thought it would be a really nice way to honor Marcel.
Dean: I thought it was really funny. Because oil paintings are such a proper way to honor someone with a rich history it's so funny to take this little scrappy guy who's a shell with one eye and sort of pay tribute to him [that way]. It's kind of like that oil painting of kramer.
Jenny: I think that's a media quote that you'll regret saying. It'll be all over the internet that our book is like a big, hardcover oil painting of Kramer? Who wants to read that?
Dean: That's the reason it's funny to me!
Jenny: Yeah, it's true. I think Amy did a great job on the paintings. They're based off of photographs that Dean took with our friend Dave Erickson and I feel like he doesn't say it, but he did a beautiful job on the photo shoot and actually lit it so that you can see the day transitioning to the night. What it came down to is that he's compulsive and Amy is so talented...she just did such a good job adding a richness to something that was already so special.
Jezebel: When I read the book, I have to admit that I read it in Marcel's voice, a credit to you. Was his distinctive voice part of why you decided to include it in the audiobook?
Jenny: Sure; especially [since] there are so many kids books have an audio component, we should. Plus I always wanted to read an audiobook.
Jezebel: I can already tell kids are gonna love Marcel; by now you must have been approached to turn him into a TV show.
Jenny: There's definitely more Marcel coming and yes, we are in the development process of a TV show. The future's open for him. I think we'll do as much with him as we can until either he changes for us or there isn't anything more to say. But for now, there's so much more to say. There's so much more about Marcel that we haven't even told you yet. I don't even know if I can say it! Marcel has some pretty amazing talents that he's really proud of and there will be a lot more.
Jezebel: Does he have friends? What are these talents?
Jenny: Marcel is really a good singer, but he doesn't think he's a good singer. He he knows that he's good for his shell but he doesn't think that he's good for, like, a person. He makes up a ton of songs.
Dean: He's enrolled at the academy with kids and he's the best in his class. So, he goes to school, he's being classically trained.
Jenny: And he has kind of like an opera voice but he does covers of Seal and No Doubt. He loves Seal. He gets so excited when he sings "Kiss From A Rose" that he can't even remember the words.
Jezebel: Do you think we'll ever get to see a live version of Marcel The Shell? Perhaps around Halloween at a Big Terrific show, singing "Kiss From A Rose"?
Jenny: (laughs) I don't know! I'm not opposed to it. My dream is to go on [NPR's] Terry Gross and be interviewed as Marcel, and be the voice so you wouldn't have to see me doing it. I'm kind of afraid that if people see me that they won't see Marcel anymore and they'll just be like "That Jenny Slate makes a weird face when she does that voice!"
Jezebel: Oh, never. Anything else we should know about the book before going out to buy it?
Dean: There's another one coming!
Jenny: If you look in the book, there are pictures of me as a little girl sort of hidden within the painting. The movie [in the book] has got Marcel and his Grandmother, whose name is Nana Connie. [She] will have a big part in the television show and in is in the second book, hopefully.
Dean: We shot it in our apartment in Brooklyn so there are lots of props that are from our real-life apartment
Jenny: Yeah, it is nice that it's our house. In the first picture you can't even really see Marcel, it's from afar, and that's looking into our bedroom. Also, Dean lettered the entire book. It's not a font, he physically lettered all of the inside pages!
See link on BuzzFeed.com for larger images.
My painting "Jazmine Profile" was one of five paintings to win an Honorable Mention in the Figurative Category in the prestigious Art Renewal Center 2010-2011 Salon! Also, two of my paintings "Profile of Annie with Dreadlock" and "Profile of Tarren" were among 100 Finalists in the Figurative Category.
I am more than honored to receive such wonderful accolades and to be in such great company alongside masters and amazing paintings! The work they selected for this year's salon is definitely worth checking out!
Profile of Annie with Dreadlock 18" x 24" oil on linen
Profile of Tarren 24" x 18" oil on linen
I'm SOOO excited to finally announce what I've been working on for the last few months... The incredibly cute and hilarious "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On" (as seen in this 3 1/2 minute YouTube video) can now engage with you via a children's book thanks to Penguin Books. Genius Co-Creators and Writers Dean Fleischer-Camp and Jenny Slate (of Saturday Night Live fame) birthed the most lovable little shell, and it was my absolute honor and pleasure to take part in bringing him to life through oil paintings for the book.
It will be released in stores November 1, and is available for pre-order online now. Before the book comes out, I URGE you to take a few minutes to watch the amazing video that the book is based on. It is an award winning, simply adorable video that will have you in stitches, I promise!
Also, a huge thank you to Emily Osborne, the fabulous graphic designer who I worked closest with on this project!
In August 2010, Poets and Artists ran a wonderful feature of my work! Now there is an update on me and my work in the "Past Contributors" section of their February 2011 issue. Check it out for lots of great art!
It's been a whirlwind catching up with life after my show and the holidays. I'm finally getting around to posting some photos of my solo show opening, which was a blast!! Thanks to fabulous gallery owners Rob and Megs and wonderful gallery director Carri for all your love, encouragement, and support! :)
"Circus of Wonders" opened December 3, 2010. Some works still available for viewing and purchase at Robert Lange Studios.
Attendees were welcomed with a red velvet curtain...
Me with adorable Gallery Director Carri Schwab
My dapper husband, Josh, and me
Josh and me with fantastic gallery owners Megan and Rob Lange.
