Portraits: Actual and Imagined, in Bladenboro

I installed work today in BVAC Gallery, in nearby Bladenboro, North Carolina.  On display are portraits completed from 2002-2011, of fellow artists and friends from my years in Maine.  If you want to make a quick trip to this charming town, the show will be up through June 7th.  Regular gallery hours are 2-4pm, Saturday and Sunday, and all other times by appointment.  The show is sponsored by the Bladenboro Historical Society, so call ahead for an appointment or directions.

I will be attending an artist reception on Saturday, April 12, from 2-4pm.   Hope to see you there!

In Training: Art Fields Portrait Competition

How do I get myself into these things?   A week ago I received notice that I have been accepted into  the ArtFields Portrait Contest.  It's a side-event of the larger ArtFields festival in Lake City, SC, and will consist of four rounds where the 24 artists will have an hour to create a portrait.  Each round will be judged and winners who pass elimination proceed to the next round.   When I heard of the contest, it sounded interesting in idea-- art as performance sport.  I briefly entertained the notion of dressing up like the late wrestler Macho Man Randy Savage, complete with gilded cape, and trash talking my opponents as they work.   Maybe if I was actually a performance artist, and if this wasn't in the polite South....

More than that, I'm not really a portrait artist.  What, you might ask?   Sure, I use the historical portrait form in 50% of my work., and I paint illusionistic images of people.   Yet, I rarely paint from perception these days.   I often make my people up completely from imagination.   Of course, this ability comes from years of practice from direct observation, but I am more than a little rusty these days.   And I have never painted a portrait in only an hour.   I more often keep painting over and over an image until it looks right, which may take twenty or a hundred  hours. After all, there are whole schools and societies of professional portraitists who do this for real on a daily basis far better than me.  But I like a challenge, and heard of the bigger ArtFields contest too late, and thought that this would be a good excuse to get into fighting shape and see what this Lake City is all about.   While I hope to make it at least to round two, it's going to be fun either way.   If you are in the area, the event is Saturday, April 27, 2013 from 10 am-4 pm on The Green in Lake City, SC.

Oh yes, and the above drawings were my first warm ups from a life model.   Paintings on the way soon.

Postcards to Siena

I recently sent three little collages to Siena, Italy in response to an open exhibition call by the Siena Art Institute.   They're made up of scraps of interesting paper and spills that I had been keeping for years, embellished with bits of odd sketches that I had also been saving.   While the show called for any work that's the size of  postcard, I couldn't help but think of the idea a bit literally by adding some text to the images.

Last check, the Institute had over 1000 submissions from around the world that will go on display and end up filed somewhere in their permanent collection.   There's a sweet irony to the thought that I rescued these little drawings from obscurity to only to have them lost and reburied in a new pile of work on the other side of the planet. Although artists often strive for solo attention,  this project better resembles the demographics of art-making in a global context.  Who knows---by today's deadline, these three might be tucked in amongst 10,000!

UNE Pics

 

Here's a few images from last week's opening at the University of New England's Art Gallery.   The show was packed, inside and out, with both art and artists.    It's up until July 20 in case you've missed it.   Thanks to curator Nancy Davidson for inviting me to be a part of this wonderful exhibition. 

Eastern Michigan Show

Though the show "Figurative Work" at Easter Michigan University is coming down soon, I thought I'd give a quick link to a nice photo album of images from the show that was posted up on the EMU Art Galleries Facebook page.  It's especially nice to see all the great work that was present from the exhibition since I was unable to attend. Thanks to the staff for the fine job in documenting.

Przasnysz Photos

Some photos from the Przasnysz opening in Poland, courtesy of Stefan Niedzialkowski, featuring installation views and gallery staff present at the October 2 opening. 

Hello Przasnysz!

I just received digital copies of the show announcements from my upcoming show in Przasnysz, Poland, small town two hours outside Warsaw.   This solo exhibition features works on paper from the Night Fictions series.   The show opens October 2, 2010 and will be on display for a month in the Gallery "Na Pietrze"  in the Joseph Stanislaus Ostoja-Kotkowski Center of Culture before traveling to other venues throughout Poland.  I am very honored to have been offered this opportunity, and by the very nice work done on the poster announcement above and the card announcement below.   My thanks to gallery director Krzysztof Gadomski and Stefan Niedzialkowski who first introduced us.  A big thanks as well to the gallery staff!  Dziękuję bardzo! 














(In case your Polish is a bit rusty, the announcement is a pretty direct translation of the bio listed on my website.)

Mime Drawings

Among other images updated yesterday were high resolution shots of from the Studio Mimow series.   You can follow the link to those as well as my 2007 artist statement about the drawings. I'm eager to get started on more drawings to flesh out the series, maybe another three for this summer....

Evite for Monmouth opening

Everyone is invited!  Though, I'm not sure if I'll be able to make the opening.

Still Kicking

Of course the last day of "Night Fictions." was last Wednesday.  (I would have taken pictures of me moving paintings back to my studio, but the deluge made things a bit dicey.)   If any of you missed my show last month at Susan Maasch Fine Art, or just wanted another dose, I still have a few paintings up in the new group show that opens this Wednesday at the gallery. It's concurrent with an exhibition of prints by Max Beckmann at SMFA, which is concurrent with the "Modernism and Masquerade: Max Beckmann"  exhibition opening at the Portland Museum of Art on March 13.   I've long been a student of Beckmann's painting, so it's a thrill to have any association.  (Maybe some museum-goers will wander over?) Also, kudos to SMFA's new website update. It  looks great, and I'm happy to be represented!

SMFA Reception

While the rest of the nation has been getting so much snow, the streets of Portland are unseasonably clear.  Accordingly, last Friday's art walk was unseasonably well-attended for February.  The opening reception at Susan Maasch Fine Arts had a steady stream of people all night and it looked like the town was still in full swing at closing.  Thanks to all my friends, students, and colleagues who stopped by to show their support. 

Sightings Continued: Arabica

Another place I've been asked about lately is Arabica.  Yes, I do have two paintings up there as well this month, featured in partnership with Susan Maasch Fine Art.  (Which makes three venues if you've been counting this month.) Unlike my conceptual exhibition through the window of Otto's, you can actually see two paintings from the "Night Fictions" series that didn't make it into the solo show on Congress street.   (Four venues, if you count conceptual exhibtions.)  Like Ottos, Arabica gets an immense amount of Portland traffic and is a hub of town activity. Arabica is open on Monday and Tuesday, so you can check out the preview on the off days that you are not camping out in SMFA proper.

SMFA Photos

Some photos of the exhibition for my friends and family far away. For Portlanders, a preview of what you can stroll in and see this Wednesday!

Occasional Sightings

I've been asked a few times this week about the portrait that's hanging in the window of Space Gallery.  It's mine alright--- a self-portrait that I submitted it to their current exhibition, "Free For All 2."  You may also notice it's the painting I've been using for my profile picture online for sites like Facebook and Blogger. I imagined that this salon-style survey of Portland artists would be this huge mishmash of colliding images, much like the internet, so I entered the painting under the new title "ID."  A chimera can always use another head, I figured, and it would be my own little conceptual appropriation of the show.   Rather than my head peeking out of a sea of pictures, the curators went ahead and hung the painting in the front window---and nicely, I might add:   plenty of white space and not at all the side-by-side chaos that I imagined.  I've only peeked in to the gallery, but it all looks like a fun exhibit showing a wide range of Portland's talent.   It's up until February 18th, so it seems I will be part of dueling windows on Congress street for almost a month.

SMFA Installation

I really enjoyed watching the highly skilled team at Susan Maasch Fine Art go to work on Saturday.   It's an honor to have so many talented people carefully consider everything down to the finest detail.   As you can see, it was a hive of activity so I tried to stay out of their way.  With the exception of snapping pictures of them working, that is....  Thanks again to Susan Maasch, Matthew Rosler, and all of the great team at Susan Maasch Fine Art for all of their hard work.

Solo Date Set

The date for the SMFA opening is set for Friday, February 5th, 2010. Note it's a month later than the earliest projection, but we're all but guaranteed that my fictions will match reality.   So mark your calenders, and place your snow boots by the door. 

Had a very good studio visit with Susan Maasch today.  It seems the hardest decision to make for February is what paintings to include.  Having too many to choose from is a good place to be.   Tentative estimates include 6 or seven framed works on paper, 6 linen panels, 4-6 large panels, and probably both of the very large canvases. This week we'll be selecting images for the show announcements by Friday.   If you'd like to be on my mailing list, send me an email (leaving in blog comments field is not recommended) and I'll mail you one personally.

Eastern Michigan University

I have a painting on display in Michigan as part of the exhibition "Contemporary Painting" at Eastern Michigan University's Ford Gallery until November 5.   My thanks to old friend and master painter, Michael Reedy, for inviting me to participate in this national invitation exhibition.  I just got word from Michael that the painting is on the university's homepage at http://www.emich.edu/.  If you wait long enough, it comes into rotation.

With Picasso

Back from Poland last week, I'm just now posting some installation shots of the "Lust and Desire" show  ongoing at Susan Maasch Fine Art.   As you can see, my drawing has prime placement in the front window (and has already sold as a result.)  Two paintings are still available.  Here you can see me hanging with Pablo Picasso (left) and Tim Clorius (right.)  Just out of frame to the right is an awesome little Mapplethorpe Polaroid, going for the price of about four of my paintings. (Being alive=priceless.)  As the show goes into it's second half, things will get rotated around a bit, giving someone else a shot at the window.  The revised installation will be open for this Friday's Art Walk and I'll be sure to stop by.

Gallery News

I had a very productive studio visit with Susan Maasch and her team yesterday. They selected two works from the sleep series, a large a painting and a drawing for their Eroticism group show in August. I'm dropping both off next week in advance of my travel to Poland, which will include a meeting with Zofia Kruk, the director of the Raven Gallery in Kracow.

Most exciting, we began planning a solo exhibition of my new work at Susan Maasch Fine Art in January! This will be my first one-person show in the gallery context. So far we're thinking you will see one of the large canvases, the series of night fiction panels, as well as a selection of the nocturnes-on-paper. It's a little far off to announce too many details, but I suspect the paper pieces will be very affordable and will sell out quickly. If you'll pardon my advice to new collectors, the value is guaranteed to only go up from here, so this is the last opportunity to get a Begnaud on the ground floor. If there's a nocturne that you've got your heart set on owning, give Susan a call now and place a reserve. It's not uncommon for shows to sell work before an opening, so don't wait and be dissapointed.

Theater

One of my paintings last week was featured on stage in a performance in Warsaw, Poland.
A performance of The Mimes Studio of Stefan Niedzialkowski entitled "Anxiety" ran during the International Mime Art Theatre Workshops for three nights on May 30,31, and June 1. According to their website, "The performance "Anxiety" shows anxiety of human being, especially anxiety accompanying the artist in his artistic work and difficulties of daily life. " I am very proud to be small part of their work. Apologies to the lack of notice for the international travelers out there. I hear all three nights went very well, and my congratulations to Stefan and the actors of the Mimes Studio.

The painting featured was a gift to Stefan and his wife, Ela, a few years back. It's exciting to have some work shown anywhere, but especially outside the gallery context, although it's not the first time I've had a painting on stage: For the pre-blog record, I produced a painting for another play, American Midget, written by Jonathan Yukich, for its debut in Los Angeles in 2007. It was directly relevant to the plot, so maybe that's why I was never mentioned in the reviews... Theater is close to my heart, so if there's any directors out there, I'm always open to an interesting collaboration.