Superpalm Mural, by Florida artist Elizabeth Barenis, was commissioned by the city of Dunedin in 2022 for their Parks and Recreation building.
Her solo exhibition, Tropical Splendor, is on view at Morean Arts Center in St. Pete until 9/24/24.
“THE RIVER. THE REALMS.” 2021, Acrylic on canvas
“THE RIVER. THE REALMS.” 2021, Acrylic on canvas (detail)
“HANUMAN WITH MIRROR”, 2014, Oil on canvas
“HANUMAN WITH MIRROR”, 2014, Oil on canvas (detail)
“HANUMAN WITH MIRROR”, 2014, Oil on canvas (detail)
Nancee Clark’s paintings for Insights and Follies at Dunedin Fine Art Center create a dreamlike world, a jumping off place for your imagination to fill in its own stories.
The artist’s statement about her work-
I find humor in life’s absurdities.
Some time ago, after the impact of family tragedy, a shift happened in my painting. The new direction began with a series of colorful monotypes using images of monkeys on fruit strewn tables looking at themselves in mirrors, monkeys throwing up. The animal was a stand-in for human; the table a stage, and the monkeys a reflection of ourselves.
In current paintings, I create my own strange space, a gap space of irony, populated with intimate, playful, ambiguous narratives of human folly. They are my visual response to life’s ever-changing moment — where what is expected is not what actually occurs. A world where the observed and the observer occupy the same space. With a delight in illuminating the absurd, I offer wickedly humorous metaphors revealing keen, often poignant observation of human behavior.
The launch pad for my paintings is my sketchbook. It fosters idea generation by providing a free pass to just draw anything. Some sketches become formal paintings that evolve to a new version of the original idea. Some just remain in the sketchbook.
Drawing is primary to my painting; it is the skeleton and the continuing definer of the imagery.
My painting process is intuitive and spontaneous. Staying at the ready for chance opportunities, I play with illusion and sleight of hand. Discovery is sometimes funny, and I have found laughter to be a part of the evolution of my work. The final painting usually arrives as a blend of intellectual formal decisions, intuition and chance.
This exhibition is on view until 12/22/23.
“THE RING GAME”, 2017, Oil on canvas
“WAKING”, 2018, Oil on Canvas
This past weekend was Studio Waltz, an annual artist studio tour that takes place around Dunedin and Palm Harbor. One of the stops was The Mosaic House of Dunedin.
Carol Sackman and Blake White’s magical home has so much going on you almost don’t know where to look first. The couple teach classes from November thru April and can be contacted for tours of their home.
The Mosaic House was also featured in a gallery exhibition at the Dunedin Fine Art Center last year.
Spotted while at their home was a mural, pictured below, by former local artist Jennifer Kosharek, pictured below. She recently relocated to Alaska.
Featured artist at Art Harvest- Michelle Mardis
Paintings by John Maurer
Paintings by John Maurer
The weather this past weekend was perfect for enjoying two big outdoor art events in the Tampa Bay area- the annual Art Harvest juried art show in Dunedin and the autumn edition of the biannual Art in the Yard event in Gulfport (the next one is next year in March).
Wendy Boucher’s collages made entirely of paper on canvas
More work by Wendy Boucher
Linda Heath’s work
Linda Heath (work above) uses the Gyotaku technique to make prints from the fish she catches in the Gulf of Mexico.
Below are a few artists from Art in the Yard-
A homemade sign from Art in the Yard
Art in the Yard is a great way to interact with local Gulfport artists and to see their creations. Stopping at the home of The Oiseaux Sisters (Susan Andrews and Carolyn Fellman), is a journey into their whimsical world. The head above was filled with little cards with their website and a different word, like a fortune, on each. My card read “Surrender”. All around their property you can find work hidden among the vegetation, on walls, and in among tables of materials they use for their work.
Outside at The Oiseaux Sisters’ home
Outside at the The Oiseaux Sisters’ home (the upper left work is a recreation of an image of Tallulah Bankhead turned into a movable figure)
Mixed media works by Dorian Angello
Jayne van der Voordt’s house had lots of fun decorated mannequins and mannequin body parts
Rachel Ratcliff, “Roll of the Kaleidoscope”, 2021, acrylic on canvas
Richard Logan “Sea Oats”, 2022, photographic transfer on metal with etched glass
Steven Spathelf, “Orange Blossom”, 2022, acrylic on canvas
This past Friday the city of Dunedin, Florida, celebrated the opening of its new City Hall. As part of the celebration, the building and all of its offices were open to the public. It was the first opportunity to see all the wonderful art by Florida artists- selected and commissioned by Elizabeth Brincklow.
Pictured above are works by Rachel Ratcliff (wave painting) and Richard Logan (photography). The third work is by Steven Spathelf whose oranges can be seen adorning buildings and homes all around town.
Scroll through the pages below to see the other works on view.
Christopher Skura, “Keep the Dream from Ending”, 2022
Christopher Skura, “Keep the Dream from Ending”, 2022 (detail)
Christopher Skura “Sketchbook Drawings”
Christopher Skura, “The Turnaround”, 2021; “Sketchbook Drawings”; “Head Cult”, 2022
Christopher Skura, “Story Bored (Cast of Characters)”, 2021
Christopher Skura, “Gob Stopper”, 2018
Christopher Skura’s exhibition The Beginner’s Mind (starting over after Covid) at Dunedin Fine Art Center is an interesting selection of his drawings, paintings and sculpture.
The artist’s statement on his work from the gallery wall-
Working in my Woodstock, NY studio during the 2020 Covid pandemic influenced my creative process by making my working method more direct and immediate. I have begun a routine of drawing everyday in sketchbooks. Out of these small drawings have come many sculptural ideas. Each imagined form serves as a kind of placeholder and represents someone we have lost. Drawing quickly with paint marker, my natural, hardwired shapes have become more pronounced. The goal is to work with a “beginner’s mind” and utilize the flow-state to achieve a direct expression.
All of my work comes out of extensive sketching and drawing. Very rarely do I recreate exact drawings as sculpture but I use them as a spring board to begin experimenting. Most of these drawings are small and done very quickly. By hesitating less, I have focused on completing an artwork in one or two sessions as opposed to laboring over it. The surfaces on the new works have become less concerned with refinement and I feel this has created a warmer and more active surface.
The style of my most recent artworks is influenced by the “street” art that blanketed my New York City neighborhood during lockdown. The images reference psychology, structural systems, emergence theory and the architecture of the human body. Improvisation and freehand drawing are emphasized for phenomenological effect and I try to capture the speed of living in Lower Manhattan. Some of my forms are organic and plant-like but others suggest the machinery of a man-made environment. This duality reflects my visual experiences growing up in the lush Florida landscape and my current life living in New York City.
The forms speak to the effects of time on the human body and the natural world. Each work imagined is a small psychological portrait of something struggling to survive or already gone.
Orange Tree
One Line That Connects Us
Orange Tree by Angela Warren is one of several of her works currently located at the Fenway Hotel in Dunedin, Florida. Organized by Creative Pinellas, Beyond the Walls 2022 places Pinellas County artists in several different hotels in the county.
Warren is also part of Arts Annual 2022 at the Creative Pinellas Gallery. For this exhibition she created the interactive work shown above, One Line That Connects Us.
From her Instagram about the work-
Last summer I took some time to brainstorm this work. I wanted to do a piece that would engage people in the gallery and encourage others to participate in creating. My idea/the concept is that we are all literally connected with one line, there’s so much that divides people but art is a way to connect us together! đź’ś
One Line That Connects Us:
This is an interactive art piece.
This year was hard. The recent hurricane Ian, the pandemic, various wars…these things pushed us further and further away from each other. It’s time to come back together!
During the 2022 Arts Annual opening on November 11th, I invite friends to have their portrait drawn by me in a “blind contour” style. If guests are feeling extra brave and want to take a turn, it is highly suggested!
The two rules are, no looking at the canvas, and no lifting your marker. This allows for an intimate interaction between the drawer, and the drawee. Once there are a good “community” of drawings, we can fill in each others portraits.
The picture above is from one of the earlier days of the piece. Check out her Instagram for more updated shots or better yet, see it at the gallery.
Tomorrow, 12/15, Creative Pinellas is having a party to celebrate the exhibition, from 6-9pm. It’s a great way to experience the show and meet the artist participants.
Study for Milltown Icon, 2003
Dunedin Fine Art Center is currently showing three exhibitions based on the theme of Architecture. The images above are from Rust to Rust: Janos Enyedi and the Architecture of Industry. The work combines painting, photography, and sculpture. Parts of his work appear to be metal but are actually constructed using illustration board. His creations are an impressive exploration of the fading industrial landscape of America’s Rust and Steel Belts.
Janos Enyedi’s discussion of his work in 2009 (from the gallery’s wall information)-
“While I have a special affection for industrial landscapes, it is not industry itself that captures my imagination. What draws my attention is the simplicity and directness of the industrial architecture and the elements that support it.
Nowhere else is the Modernist tenet “form follows function” as explicit. The realm of industry is filled with large iconic shapes- water towers, smokestacks, complex steel structures, monitor roofs, images that we all know.
Most people, if they bother to look at industry at all, see large, dirty hulks. I see other things. There is an old saying, “The Devil is in the details”.
When it comes to industry, I see “Angels” in the details. I see I-beams and angle iron and the shadows they cast on corrugation: torch-cut edges, the staccato of rivets, the patterns of safety plate and rust- always the rich, amazing and beautiful patina of rust.”
The exhibition also includes works that allow you to see a bit of his creative process, including some of his sketches.
Also on view is We Built This City, a multi-media exhibition of work that “investigates the connection between Architecture and Music- conceptually, loosely, physically-poetically”.
Paula Scher– You Me
Vanessa Diaz– Decadent Ledge
The third exhibition Carol Sackman and Blake White: The Mosaic House of Dunedin, includes bright and colorful mosaic work borrowed from their famous home.
All these exhibitions are on view until 12/23/22.
Little DĂa de los Muertos mural in Dunedin, Florida, by Anna Hamilton Fields.
