American Art Collector 930 Dwight Way #7 Berkeley, CA 94710 510.644.3534 American Art Collector 2015 Editors: Tom Palmer, Aileen Kim Jurors: Jan Christensen-Heller, Christensen-Heller Gallery Howard Eige, Painting Instructor, California College of the Arts American Art Collector is published each September. The submission deadline is May 1st. Submission details and past editions are posted on AmericanArtwork.net Copyright © 2015 Alcove Books. Printed in Hong Kong. Information is from sources deemed reliable. Publisher assumes no liability for loss caused by errors, omissions, or other causes. Artists reserve all rights to their images. Front cover, from top left: TRANSFORMATION Peggy Snider STRING OF PEARLS Kathryn Arnold BUDDHAS Nan Buel Back cover, from top left: A BREATH BETWEEN US Cheryl Barnett THE MESSENGER Edmund Ian Grant TRIBUTE TO PABLO PICASSO Zak Zaikine American Art Collector presents a juried collection of original art and fine craft from across the United States. The works shown are hand-made and one-of-a-kind, or part of a limited series. Venues listed are merely a sample and subject to change. Refer to the artist’s website for current show schedules and gallery representation. Some artists also accept direct commissions. Tom Palmer Editor Newton, MA • 617.965.5950 Myra Abelson www.myraabelson.com ANGELIC RHAPSODY. Oil on canvas. 20" x 30" “So much of my inspiration comes from traveling and the rich diversity I find in the world. Sometimes I want to capture a beautiful landscape or one of nature's magnificent creatures. Other times it is an artifact that I find compelling or a carving like the 15th century marble tablet I found in the Duomo Museum in Florence.” Venue: Gunning Point Gallery, Falmouth, MA. 4 Sausalito, CA • 415.302.1320 Chris Adessa www.chrisadessa.com ON THE WATER. Oil on linen panel. 9" x 12" “My inspirations are endless and fleeting as they change with the sun, the fog, the tide, and the passing clouds. I want each blade of grass to rustle in the wind after my last brush stroke.” 5 Kihei, HI • 530.618.2796 Taryn Alessandro [email protected] INDECENT PROPOSAL. Mixed media on Masonite panel. 36" x 24" “Texture and light are central elements in my work. My process is driven by continual introductions of new and sometimes obscure materials. The excitement lies in harmonizing new contemporary techniques with classical styles of painting, creating its own unique genre.” Venues: Sargents Fine Art, Maui, HI; Makawao Fine Art Gallery, Maui, HI; Turnbull Studios, Maui, HI. 6 San Francisco, CA • 415.564.0768 Lennell Allen www.47thavenuestudio.com SOLSTICE AT OCEAN BEACH. Photograph. 20" x 30" “Winter sunset saturates the sky. Night approaches with its usual chill. I wait with camera and tripod as waves beat their own rhythm. I focus on bands of color, horizontal lines of sky, ocean, sand. Solstice at Ocean Beach is near.” Venues: SFPUC Building, San Francisco, CA; Misho Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 7 Maui, HI • 612.825.6824 Marilyn Allysum www.mauilotus.com WISTERIA DREAMS. Watercolor. 24" x 18" “No preliminary sketches mark the threshold. The phenomena of the natural world are reproduced subtly, with effortless and intuitive improvisation, the brush describing and creating in one flowing spontaneous movement, inviting the beholder to inner worlds of joy.” 8 Newport, OR • 541.272.9182 Almine www.paintingsoflight.com FLOWER OF THE DREAM WORLD. Digital art. 9" x 12" “My artwork is seen in dreams before it is executed into its final manifestation. I deliberately avoid gaining inspiration from other artists' work in order to keep the purity of transcendent inspiration.” 9 Bronx, NY • 347.397.0949 Orhan Alpaslan www.orhanalpaslan.com THOUGHTFUL 5. Oil on canvas. 16" x 20" “My impressionistic work is about expressing a moment in life. This painting is one of a series." Venue: Bronx Open Studios, Bronx, NY. 10 Denver, CO • 303.321.0058 Lisa Ambler www.lisaambler.com LUZ-HELECHO (FERN-LIGHT). Watercolor and pastel on canvas. 30" x 36" “I continue to find joy in painting in the Distracted Realism style; finding colorful images in nature and rendering them in a fanciful, abstracted setting.” Venues: Art for the Nations, Denver, CO; Casa Cielo Alegre, Punta Mita, Mexico. 11 Santa Cruz, CA • 831.239.9411 Betsy Andersen [email protected] RETURN FROM THE RIVER. Mixed media on Tyvek. 82" x 56" “Finding the narrative through painting excites me. It is a lot like a place triggering a memory, and it either blossoms into a whole recollection or sometimes it becomes a fiction.” 12 Santa Cruz, CA • 831.320.5329 Michele Indiana Anderson www.micheleindianaanderson.com FALLING INTO PLACE. Acrylic on panels. 36" x 24" “My current paintings are a reflection of a life long interest in the human subjectivity of perception and a pursuit of the true nature of reality. I have been influenced by my philosophical and religious studies in Buddhism. These paintings are a dialog about the shattering of illusion and the nature of impermanence.” Venues: 17th Avenue Studios, Santa Cruz, CA; Open Studios, Santa Cruz, CA. 13 San Francisco, CA • 415.863.8531 Kathryn Arnold http://kathrynarnold.com STRING OF PEARLS. Oil on canvas. 84" x 84" “My paintings feature coincidental, accidental, and unexpected connections. Combining unrelated aspects lead to surprising analogies. By experimenting with aleatoric processes, I create intense personal moments by means of rules and omissions, acceptance and refusal, luring the viewer into fields of color and marks.” 14 Winter Garden, FL • 407.808.0787 Beatrice Athanas www.beatriceathanas.com THE BEST TIME. Oil on linen. 12'' x 16" " Experiencing the aftermath of a sunset on this rocky beach in Greece with the sounds of the waves, I tried to express the mood, a feeling of peace and connection to nature." 15 Santa Fe, NM • 505.983.2852 Douglas Atwill www.dougatwillstudio.com BACK GARDEN HORSECHESTNUT. Acrylic on linen. 30" x 24" “It is mostly my garden that I paint...corners of it with perennials and shrubs in various light. Here is a favorite tree I grew from a seed picked up in France. The tree is now nearly thirty-five feet high.” Venue: Meyer East Gallery, Santa Fe, NM. 16 Calistoga, CA • 707.942.5380 Jocelyn Audette www.jocelynaudette.com EUCALYPTUS. Oil on canvas. 13" x 8" “The joy of discovering new places and a desire to intimately experience and connect with the landscapes that inspire me is a lifelong passion. My landscapes explore the diversity and drama of the land—its plants, its geology, and the sculptural effects of light, water, and weather.” Venues: Casa Design, Calistoga, CA; Boho Gallery, Freestone, CA; Skol Gallery, Ouray, CO. 17 San Francisco, CA • 415.810.1704 Pamela Axelson www.pamelaaxelson.com ASCENT. Pen, ink wash, graphite, acrylic on rice paper and silk. 40" x 30" “I use drawing to record time, layers, invention, a world beyond thought, spacial complexity, the power of line, and the random. It is a primary medium for me. The drawings are unplanned.” Venue: Noonan Building, Pier 70, San Francisco, CA. 18 Bethesda, MD • 301.655.5515 Amy Barker-Wilson www.amberblue.org BRIDGING THE SKY. Mixed media on canvas. 72" x 30" “Layering color and glazes according to structure but without image of idea is for me like an archeological dig of discovery. I feel I go deeper with each layer and what can emerge is little by little revealed. The luminosity that results and the sense of seeing behind appearance in multiple dimensions intrigues me and inspires me.” Venue: Foundry Gallery, Washington, DC. 19 San Francisco, CA • 415.350.3524 Elizabeth Barlow www.elizabethbarlowart.com FEMME FATALE. Oil on panel. 9" x 12" “Inspired by the spirit of the portraiture tradition, but working within the still life genre, I create oil paintings of people using their belongings, rather than their faces, to explore the human experience. I call these paintings ‘portraits in absentia.’” Venues: Gallerie Citi, Burlingame, CA; Elliott Fouts Gallery, Sacramento, CA; District Gallery, Park City, UT. 20 Merced, CA • 510.697.8043 Cheryl Barnett www.barnettsculpture.com A BREATH BETWEEN US. Cast bronze. 36" x 14" x 5" “I abstract the figure because it has such universal identification, profound complexity, and mystery. The human body conveys a multitude of implied messages in a simple gesture. My scale ranges from small to life-size, unique casts to edition copies of twelve.” Venue: Ekasake Sculpture Garden & Gallery. 21 Mill Valley, CA • 415.244.7095 Kate Barrengos www.katebarrengos.com GENEVA. Acrylic, mixed media on linen. 26" x 30" “A simple change in perspective inspired me to paint a series of aerial landscapes of American farmland. From above, endless rows of crops transform into a gorgeous, geometric abstraction.” Venues: Pottery Barn online, Marin Open Studios. 22 Piedmont, CA • 510.339.7925 Laura Basha www.whitebirdrising.com THE ALCHEMIST. Acrylic, mixed media on canvas. 36" x 48" “I begin with an inspired context, an insight, a concept. I design the basic composition, then I allow the painting to unfold itself through me. This takes a quieting of the intellect and a deep listening for the unknown.” Venue: Studios Eleven Gallery, Oakland, CA. 23 Mill Valley, CA • 415.383.3613 Irene Belknap www.irenebelknap.com DISTANCE. Oil on linen. 57" x 35" “My work is figurative out of my imagination. Distance is part of a series of sixteen paintings entitled Dressed In Words. Each piece has a theme and uses poems, excerpts, quotations, or words written by the artist as part of the attire.” 24 Oakland, CA • 510.839.8151 Tanna Bellia [email protected] DOGS ARE FOREVER. Acrylic on canvas. 20" x 20" “Creating art is my sacred practice, my passionate expression of gratitude.