Year: 2010

Upcoming Art League Workshops

The Art League offers tons of workshops throughout the year, but we offer even more in the summer when people don’t have the time to dedicate to a full eight or nine week class. Here’s a taste of what’s coming up. Check out our website and see what’s happening throughout the summer!

Gestural Florals with Jackie Saunders, June 26 and 27
Participants paint flowers as living, moving little people. The individual personalities of flowers are captured with rhythmic contour line and fresh washes of undiluted pigments mixing directly on the paper. Students are encouraged to strive for a lively expression, not botanical accuracy. A small model fee is charged. 

This workshop begins with camera resolution and file formats followed by an overview of Photoshop interface- menu bar, tools, and palettes. Students learn how to use the adjustment tools for contrast and color correction, image sharpening, black and white conversion, and resizing of images for print and the web. Participants follow along by applying to their images the tools and techniques demonstrated. 



 Each day introduces a different medium, with the emphasis being on unusual and unique approaches to materials and their uses. The class can accommodate both the Realist and the Abstractionist in creating art that encourages exploration. Some techniques covered are: oil pastel and wax sgrafitto drawing, ink and crayon etching, multiple paper stencil monotypes, and multimedia collage. A materials fee payable to the instructor covers some items. 
Art Classes

Reception for David Carter at National Harbor TOMORROW!

David Carter— Drawings & Paintings 
Currently on exhibit through July 3, 2010
Reception: Tuesday, June 8, 6:30-8:30 pm

Artist’s Statement
There are worse torments than reading an artist’s statement.  Some things ostensibly written for other people to read are even more tedious and less satisfying than a typical artist’s statement. Insurance policies, for example.  The writings of Hegel come to mind. But statements like this one are usually high on the list.

Verbal explanations about visual experience often seem to miss the point. We (artists) know that.  We’ve read our statements, and we don’t like them either.  So, we clam up.  It feels like less harm done that way.  “Silence is so accurate,” Rothko said.

But there’s just no separating thought and sight. That’s my premise.  We think with our eyes; we see with ideas. Words do what they can. And the images in my paintings are born of ideas – or questions – that, frankly, are difficult to express in any form.   No mystery or distortion is invented along the way for artistic value; it’s all there from the start. The struggle is to be direct, clear, and vivid in expressing notions that by nature resist description, shed clarity and elude precision.

And yet the questions expressed in my paintings are questions anyone might find familiar. Familiar, but regarded as unimportant. Or not regarded at all.  Some may have occurred to us first (and last) when we were children.  Since then we’ve probably come to dismiss them as mysteries so fundamental, and so difficult, they should be ignored. We are fish; they become the water we’re unaware of.

Whatever your take on these images might be, I hope one or two stick with you.
If they give you something to still think about later – that would be even better.

The Art League at National Harbor
120 American Way
Oxon Hill, MD
Exhibits

Registration Still Open for Summer!

Registration is still open for summer classes at The Art League School! The summer term begins the week of June 28, and classes are offered at all levels in virtually all of the fine arts, including drawing, painting, pastel, printmaking, photography, ceramics, sculpture, the fiber arts, and more! Classes are offered to students of all ages (five through adult).
Week long Summer Art Camp is offered for kids and space is still available!
Visit school.theartleague.org for more information or to register or call 703-683-2323.
Art Classes

18th Annual Arts on Foot


The Art Market at The Washington Examiner’s ARTS ON FOOT will operate from Wednesday September 8th through Saturday September 11th, the festival day. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the Art Market will be set up on the wide F Street sidewalk between 7th and 9th streets, adjacent to the Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture.  On Saturday, the Art Market will expand to incorporate approximately 30-50 more artists on F Street. When applying, artists must choose to participate for Saturday only or for all four days.  Artists may be accepted for all four days or for Saturday only.


DATES:
Wednesday, September 8th through Saturday, September 11st

EVENT HOURS:
Advertised hours for the market will be 11am –7 pm Wed, Thurs and Fri. Sept 8-10. 11am – 5 pm Saturday, Sept 11.

Applicant Criteria 

The Art Market highlights the work of local, regional and national artists.  All work must be original and completely artist-produced; imports and re-sales are not permitted.  Artists are selected by an independent professional jury comprised of a panel of accredited fine art and fine craft professionals unaffiliated with the festival organization. The jury will review digital images on the following criteria:
·  Uniqueness
·  Craftsmanship
·  Professionalism
·  Market Appeal
·  Display 
The Jury will form a waitlist.  Waitlisted artists will only be notified if space becomes available.  All booths will be assigned in advance. All artists participating for four days will have the same booth assignment.
 
Application Requirements
·     Completed application form, available at www.diversemarkets.net
·     4 images representative of the artist’s work, including one booth photo
·     Artist statement /description of work
Fees 
A $30 non-refundable fee upon application (online via PayPal, or by check).  Upon notification of acceptance, the space fee will be due.  $175 – Saturday participants,  $475 – Four-day participant.  Arts on Foot will issue a $50 fee for returned checks.  Checks payable to:  Diverse Markets Management.
Timeline
·     Application Deadline                      Friday, July 9, midnight
·     Notifications Emailed                     Monday, July 26         
·     Acceptance and Payment Deadline       Friday, August 6
·     Artist Guidelines                            Monday, August 23
·     Art Market                           Wednesday, September 8 thru Friday, September 10
·     Art Market & Arts on Foot              Saturday, September 11         

More Info

Complete information and online application are available at www.diversemarkets.net. Contact [email protected] 202.543.3370 for more information.

News

Handcrafted Alexandria

The Art League is part of Handcrafted Alexandria – a collection of thirteen creative businesses in the Old Town and Del Ray neighborhoods of Alexandria, Virginia. Each business features one-of-a-kind handmade items and invites you to explore your creative side with classes and materials for your own projects.


The Spring Shopping Event is NOW through June 1. Visit 10 Handcrafted Alexandria businesses and enter for your chance to win the Grand Prize Weekend Getaway! Click here for more details.
News

It’s Like a Concert Tour With Sketchbooks!

  The Sketchbook Project: 2011
The Brooklyn Art Library creates this project where artist can pay $25 to receive a Moleskin sketchbook to fill up and send back by January 15, 2011. Then the Brooklyn Art Library barcodes and if you want digitizes the sketchbooks so that the artist may see how many people look through their particular book!
The Sketchbook Project has different themes that your sketchbook can be based off of, either you may pick your theme or you can have them select it for you (kindof like a surprise/challenge!).
Then, not only are the books on display in Brooklyn, but they also travel across the United States! Check out their website for more information! http://www.arthousecoop.com/sketchbookproject/
Many of The Art League Staff are participating, and we hope some of you will too!


News

Interview with Curves Juror Warren Perry

by Nancy Jacques

“What I discovered the moment I began reviewing the work was the multiple lenses committed to bringing the human form into representation. This was what I hoped and expected I would experience. The word surfeit comes into play. There was a wealth and a quality canon inside these submissions. There were two criteria I employed in considering the works: One, was the human form represented in terms of that one titled word- curves, and two, how was the work provocative, new, or simply excellent. I hope you enjoy reviewing these works as much as I enjoyed experiencing them.

Some of these works are charged with the mystical beauty of the human form while others are more suggestive, exuding sexuality in both latent and more obvious ways, and others yet represent the verdant splendors of spring and the allegories of our place in nature. The winner (US 180,384 2007 by Nancy Jacques) was chosen because it not only defined perfectly the challenges of the competition, but it also was the most courageous and risky and resonant and beautiful work in the group. It contains curves and absences, the flesh of our beauty and the absence of flesh in our diminishing, the curves of our sexual wonder, and the horror of our gossamer and limited span in this world that tolerates the simultaneity of our prowess and our weakness.”

Click here to continue reading.
Exhibits

Paint the Forests 2010

PAINT THE FORESTS 2010 is a national competition sponsored by the Redwood Forest Foundation. It is designed to showcase the beauty and the plight of forests throughout the United States. Images may depict scenery, logging, restoration, examples of egregious practices, beneficial aspects of forestry management or anything to do with the forest flora and fauna.

APPLICATION FEES AND DEADLINES: JUNE 30, 2010 ($35/$25). Late applications will be accepted until AUGUST 18, 2010 with a $10 late fee. Submission is by digital file only, JPEG format.

FORMAT & MEDIA: Work can be no larger that 196 square inches, unframed. Oil, watercolor, scratchboard, acrylic, gouache, alkyd, tempera, casein, mixed-media and pastel are acceptable. Pen and ink artwork is also acceptable. Digital photographs or digitized film photographs will be accepted. Sculpture, computer-generated art, panorama photographs and abstract art will not be accepted.

Please follow the link above for application materials and further information.

News

Curves Exhibit

an exhibit of artworks based on the human figure
May 5 – June 7, 2010

This exhibit is presented in conjunction with Minds Wide Open: Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts. The Curves exhibit will feature a sculpture by Art League and Torpedo Factory artist, Lisa Schumaier for visitors to “dress” with strips of paper. Each strip can be written with a remembrance or a victory over breast cancer for a small donation. Donations will be given to the Avon Foundation through the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer team, “The Traveling Sisterhood of Tata’s.”

Receiving is May 3, 6:30–8:30 pm and May 4,10:00 am – noon. We will be accepting donations from artists of pink paper (scrap, painted, printed, etc) to provide the strips. Please bring any pink paper donations to the front desk! Thank you!

Exhibits

Introduction to Platinum/Palladium Printing

Introduction to Platinum/Palladium Printing with Scott Davis

June 26-27, 2010, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Art Reactor Studio

5614 Baltimore Avenue

Hyattsville, MD

This class is an intensive, two-day immersion. Students will walk away from the class with a solid foundation in pt/pd printing. Day one will cover:
  • History of the technique.
  • Historic/contemporary practitioners
  • Technical basics – chemistry, equipment, paper
  • Major controls – negatives, exposure, processing
  • Fine controls – contrast control, process variations in the classroom. 
The discussion will be supported by extensive hands-on learning opportunities. Students will learn to choose subject matter and expose and process film to produce negatives suited for platinum/palladium printing. We will produce negatives for use the following day in the printing session.

On day two, we will walk through the entire process: we will set up the work area, choose materials, prepare chemical solutions, coat paper, expose and process prints, and discuss basic troubleshooting.  Advanced topics to include variations on the standard  platinum/palladium process will be touched on. We will also discuss the future of this beautiful process, and how it can be combined with new media, with some examples provided. Students will have several finished prints each to take home. Information will be provided on inexpensive options for making a home UV exposure unit.

A substantial discount can be arranged for buying materials at Bostick & Sullivan for students following the class if they wish to continue working in the process.

Instructor bio:

Scott Davis is an internationally recognized platinum printer and published author on the subject of platinum/palladium printing. He has been practicing the craft of fine
art photography for over 14 years, with extensive experience in silver based and alternative photographic processes. He received formal training at Maryland Institute College of Art and the Center for Alternative Photography in New York. His work has been exhibited nationally and locally, and published in magazines including Metropolitan Home and the online journal Creative Image Maker (www.creativeimagemaker.co.uk).

Art Classes

For Earth Day: Safe Disposal of Artist Materials

Kim Hall writing for Art Calendar magazine said it best: “Paints, solvents, or any art materials, for that matter, are not inherently dangerous. The dangers come from improper management of the materials. As artists, we often become complacent to the dangers of our studios because of deadlines, lack of safety equipment and resources, and lack of easily accessible information. However, in order to keep our families and us safe, learning about studio hazards and materials management needs to be a priority.”

For Earth Day 2010, let’s strive to remember the impact we have as artists on our health and on our environment and remember that it’s our responsibility to dispose of our materials in an appropriate manner. Here are some helpful tips courtesy of Utrecht Art.

Artful Resources

Review of Fierce Sonia’s Paper Dolls Exhibit

WOW! What a fantastic review by Lenny Campello of Fierce Sonia’s Paper Dolls exhibit at The Art League.

“For “Paper Dolls”, Sonia used her camera like a weapon; trained it onto her own body, put a focused mind to work on the photographs, and created a memorable set of images that make her solo debut one of the best, if not the best, photography shows that I’ve ever seen at the Art League.”
Full article here: http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/
Exhibits

Art Whino Exhibit: The Gamies The Art of Jophen Stein


Entertainment has held a position of helping people cope with the everyday drudgery of life. The Game show, moreover, offers both the value of entertainment and a promise at a chance of making life better. Loosely based on Franz Kafka’s The Trial Jophen Stein’s latest series The Gamies explores the idea of systems that are in place but not fully understood. From the exhilaration of winning to the disappointment of losing The Gaimes is a look into the bipolar effects of game shows as entertainment.


Saturday, May 15th, from 6pm – Midnight

Location: Art Whino Gallery
173 Waterfront St.
National Harbor, MD 20745

Show end date: June 12th

The event is FREE and open to the public.
News

The Washington Post’s Real Art D.C.

Competition for local artists – check it out! (click link above)

Real Art D.C. is seeking works by local artists
Friday, April 9, 2010; C08

Attention artists:

Jessica Dawson is hitting the studios to uncover Washington talent.

It’s all part of Real Art D.C., the Washington Post’s exciting new platform for contemporary art in the Washington region. There’s also a related competition open to all area artists.

What is Real Art D.C.? An online virtual gallery of works by local artists that will allow Post readers to discover and connect with Washington’s newest talents. Artists themselves will post their own work — and so will dealers and teachers on their behalf — and anyone can click through and see the spectrum of local creativity.

Here’s how it works: Upload images at http://www.washingtonpost.com/real-art-dc. Next month our Galleries columnist will begin sifting through the uploads to Real Art D.C. and picking 10 artists from the virtual gallery to spotlight in a new online feature.

Throughout the spring and summer, she will choose a new artist-finalist every few weeks and visit the artist’s studio, reporting about what she finds on the Real Art D.C. site. The 10th finalist will be selected sometime after Sept. 30, the last day of submissions to Real Art D.C.

Once the top 10 are chosen, we’ll open up voting so that washingtonpost.com users can choose the finalist they like best. The winning artist will be profiled in our pages (and, of course, online).
Artists, surprise us. Challenge us. Corcoran, MICA and VCU students — show us your work. (And self-taught talent, too!)

See you in the studio!

News