Self-Portrait: Breathe
On Sunday, January 8, the six members of North American Watercolor Artists met as a complete group for the first time in Bethesda. Strathmore Mansion hosted the opening of our Stepping Over The Line exhibition, curated by Harriet Lesser. Exhibiting at the same time on the second floor of Strathmore is Shahla Arbabi. We had a chance to stretch a bit in this show, unconstrained by the limitations imposed on us by the various biennials. I introduced a couple of new ones, ¡Barcelona! (which sold at the opening, thank you!) and Self-Portrait: Breathe.
¡Barcelona!
A great crowd at the opening, and Strathmore did a wonderful job of putting it all together. Many thanks to Holly Haliniewski, Director of Fine Art Exhibitions, and of course to Harriet for her expertise, encouragement, and enthusiasm.
I'm very grateful to my colleagues for making the trip: Kathleen Alexander from Hawaii, Keiko Tanabe and Tom Schaller from California, Carol Carter from St. Louis, and Mark Mehaffey from Michigan. On Monday, a few of us went to the National Gallery in D.C. to meet with the curator of works on paper, and were shown twenty-five watercolors from the collection. Sargent, Homer, Wyeth, and many others of note - all without glass, but with firm instructions about not sneezing!
NAWA's next stop will be Colombia, stay tuned.
Strathmore
Art Talk on Saturday, January 21 at 1 PM
Children's Talk and Tour at 10:15 the same day.
Stepping Over The Line hangs until February 4.
10 comments:
It's been great fun seeing all the works at the show featured on artist blogs; and wonderful to see 2 new ones - that self-portrait rocks! Congrats on the sale, too; those never hurt!!
Nice Nick! Love the new paintings! I particularly relate to "Breathe" as I find I tell myself that in stressful situations. Congrats on a beautiful show and thanks for giving us a peek at it on your blog. I love seeing other artist's successes! Very inspiring!
Rhonda - you're a faithful blogpal, sorry I'm not keeping up my end of the bargain! It was great fun to have all six of us in one place, and I suppose just about every watercolor artist in these parts was there.
Tonya - hi Tonya, again I'm pretty out of the blogosphere, need to come over and see what's happening. I was just going to tell you that what little online art time I have now is spent on FB , only to discover we're "friends" there! lol How's that for building close personal relationships via social media? ;)
Hi Nick,
Hope you guys had a good time, would've loved to be there...
Just love the building, nothing like that out here..congrats on all your success!
Incredible show, you guys!! I finally had a chance to go over to Strathmore and see it, and my son and I were blown away!! I love the monumental size of your paintings, Nick, and the execution of everyone's work in the show was dynamite, flawless, and unique. Hope to go over again before it closes, and put it on my blog so my students will go over and see it.
Frank - thanks for stopping by, and just today I saw that fantastic skater pic of yours - they definitely set that apart from the zillions of streetscapes out there. A smoker!!
Susan - we'll take all the good reviews we can get.Nice to see a watercolor show there unconstrained by the limitations normally imposed. I know those society shows have to do that, but it doesn't make for the best art. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Hi Nick...Love all the pics of the show--absolutely WONDERFUL paintings! I esp. love your self-portrait.
I think last year you had a workshop in lower Michigan...will you ever have another one or, by chance, do you think that you could possibly have one in the upper peninsula? I know who to contact if interested...let me know.
I'm headed in a new direction, I think. I've been working with Yupo paper lately--have a new painting posted on Wetcanvas (eeek!). I'm not real fond of Facebook because of privacy issues, etc...so don't have an account (yet). What specifically do you like about it (besides the fact that everybody(?) seems to be on it)? If you get the chance, please check out my new one and maybe send me an e-mail of what you think. Thanks...sorry this got so long...(mrosevear1@charter.net)
Michele
Michele - thanks for stopping by, appreciate the nice words. I don't solicit workshops, so if you have an idea about one, tell them to contact me. The current schedule is on the page of my website, always being updated, many more pending:
http://www.nicholassimmons.com/news/indexworkshop.html
Your new work sounds interesting, keep pushing the limits if you can. Website? Sorry, but there's no way I would visit WetCanvas again, and they banned me "for life" anyway. lol Did you notice all the cool people are long gone? Quit out of disgust, driven off by the mods, or banned. On Facebook at least you have control over your own page and posts, you can edit, delete, or shut down your page completely. Why be at the mercy of losers like those w/c forum moderators? Get outta there!
Nick...
I haven't been "on" Wetcanvas very much anymore--things really HAVE changed and, yes, I HAVE noticed. Have to keep up with the times, I guess, and get on Facebook. I've just been hearing so much crap about it lately--waste of time, privacy problems, etc...I'd love to get a website too at some point.
Have to keep painting! The stuff I'm doing now has really got me excited so I'm hoping that it continues. To me, just seeing your paintings (and watching your DVD) gave me the courage to just try new things that I don't think I would have tried otherwise--thanks!
As others have mentioned...you've really inspired me!
P.S.--I'll see what my local contact has to say and get back to ya.
Michele
Michele - thanks very much, and glad to hear you're fired up!
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