Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is extremely pleased to announce that Marlene Siff has been named as the Gallery’s new featured artist and she will now be promoted by the gallery for the next 14 days in the gallery’s Artist Showcase.
Marlene is an award-winning artist based in Connecticut, USA. Marlene was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 23rd Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified her art to be showcased in this feature.
Marlene’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting her artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below are Marlene’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 images that were submitted to this competition.
Marlene Siff was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx. She was an art honors student at the eponymous High School of Music & Art (now LaGuardia High School of Music, Art and Performing Arts located near Lincoln Center). She earned a B.A. in Fine Arts from Hunter College where she studied with Richard Lippold, William Baziotes and Raymond Parker. She was also elected to Kappa Pi, the prestigious Honorary Arts Society.
Marlene’s work has been exhibited in museums, galleries and universities throughout the U.S. and abroad, including the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, the Katonah Museum of Art, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Mattatuck Museum, the Attleboro Arts Museum, Columbia/Barnard University, the University of Texas, the Walsh Art Gallery at Fairfield University, Eastern Kentucky University and The Capitol building in Washington D.C.
Her work is also in the permanent collection of the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury CT, the Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport CT, B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum in Washington D.C. and in the Brian C. Nevin Welcome Center at Cornell University. Her work can also be found in many private collections, including the collection of Ronnie Heyman.
Since 2015 Marlene has been juried into 126 competitions throughout the United States and has won 37 awards. She works in her home-based studio in Westport, CT.
I am concerned with communicating a sense of harmony, balance, order and spirituality. Every day we are confronted with the fragmentation of our non-linear lives, trying, as in a puzzle, to make the pieces fit together to make sense of it all. My paintings, works on paper and sculpture depict imagery of personal and global events and psychological issues. They are a reflection of the world we live in, expressed through geometric shapes, color, light, space, texture, edges and movement, each interplaying with one another engaging the viewer to participate.
The multi-dimensionality and multi-layering of my work reference what one must uncover to penetrate the illusions of reality to reach the mystery and essence of the soul. In my former body of work entitled Elements of Peace, I embarked on a series of white paintings (in addition to the black paintings and paintings in color) that abandoned my signature bold palette. The white paintings pay homage to people who have been affected by war. White is soft, quiet, spiritual, unadorned and full of infinite possibilities. My intention was to create an architectural space for rest, retreat, connection, reflection and identification.
The love of my family, gardens, ballet, music, and a profound interest in world issues have always found their way into my work. In my interactive body of work 7 Finely Tuned + 1. . . I have decided to formally bring back color and embrace music.
Marlene’s website is www.marlenesiff.com.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox
Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is very pleased to announce that Jeffrey Friedkin has been selected as one of the four winning artists of the gallery’s recent 22nd “Solo Art Series” Art Competition. Jeffrey will now have a month-long solo art exhibition and he will be featured on the gallery’s front page, in the Gallery’s YouTube Channel, as well as in the “Solo Art Series” Archives.
Jeffrey Friedkin is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning fine art and street photographer based in New York City, New York, USA. He will now be promoted by the gallery with an extensive public relations campaign.
For this solo exhibition, the Gallery will distribute, promote and circulate press releases to over 550+ major News Outlets, including Premium FOX, CBS, and NBC Affiliated Sites, with guaranteed inclusion on Google News & Bing News. The Gallery will also provide social media distribution through LST gallery’s broad social media network.
Jeffrey’s photos will also be featured on the gallery’s YouTube Channel and with an event postcard.
The “Solo Art Series” is a series of monthly solo art exhibitions for established artists who have a body of work to present to the public. Artist participants were asked to submit the following 3 components for the “Solo Art Series” competition: 1. Their art. 2. Their artist biography. 3. Their artist statement. These elements were evaluated and judged, which resulted in the selection of the artists who will be featured in individual month-long solo art exhibitions. This was the 22nd “Solo Art Series” Art Competition that the gallery has conducted.
Below are Jeffrey’s Artist Biography, his Artist Statement, along with 20 of his photographs. We hope that you will take the time to read Jeffrey’s information and to take a look at his photographs.
Jeffrey Friedkin is a fine art and street photographer, specializing in capturing the energy, vibrancy and isolation of New York City. Jeffrey is a juried photography member of the prestigious Salmagundi Art Club in NYC. He served on the Salmagundi board and was Chairman of the Public Relations Committee and assists the Chairman of the Photography Committee for the Salmagundi Art Club.
A multiple award-winning photographer, Jeffrey has widely exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the tristate area in addition to a large national and international presence. His work has been featured on various magazines, advertisements and news sites and is held in private collections, corporate businesses and clubs. A series of his photographs have been acquired by the Yuko Nii permanent collection at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center in Brooklyn, NY. Corcoran Legends Realty recently obtained numerous photos for their Westchester County offices.
My photography employs a synthesis of the artistic eye and technology. My work focuses on New York life: the streets, people, architecture and nature. The lush rural landscapes and sparkling seascapes of the Hudson River Valley region equally inspire me and my images tell these stories.
Jeffrey’s work can be viewed on his website.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox
Paul is an internationally acclaimed award-winning artist based in Belgium. Paul was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 23rd Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified his art to be showcased in this feature.
Paul’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting his artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below are Paul’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 artworks that were submitted to this competition.
Artist Biography
Paul Kenens was born in Brussels (1947), the eldest of six children, without a father. As a 14-year-old and the breadwinner of the family, he found work in a printing house. Updated to a color mixer and offset printer for luxury printing, at the time a specialized craft, he discovered his sense of composition and color. Thirteen years later he left the printing house for a year, but never returned. He no longer wanted to depend on third parties and her started acting. In the same period, he discovered the ceramic craft.
Paul Kenens is passionate about this two disciplines, resulting in two parallel careers. As an independent actor in film, TV and theater, he worked in international theater. As a ceramist, he specialized in color glazes, designed decorations and tile panels, copied old Art Nouveaux panels, made ceramic architectural ceramics for protected monuments and performed artistic ceramics commissions for other artists and architects.
In 2010 he decided to paint and enrolled in the academy. Unaware of the gift or experience gained in painting with ceramic glazes, whose final color is not immediately visible, oil painting is one Revelation: "I can see right now that I do," he says.
He sold the ceramic workshop, stopped acting and devoted himself entirely to the painting. In the academy he was soon given the name of an outsider the passion and use of a detailed painting style. He commutes daily between academy and his own studio. In between he follows a Masterclass at the Brazilian hyperrealist Omar Ortiz
Artist Statement
My work starts with photos of a fixed fashion model and I take a few hundred photos per photo session. Different photos are edited and adapted until a certain image can no longer be recognized. The chaos in the head must be given a direction, the reminiscences that are attached to it at that moment and the intimate feelings that it arouses channeled. Multiple versions are made in an atmosphere of excitement. During the preparation, uncertainty about the future painted version flashes in all directions. One must first fall a little in love with the subject in order to paint.
I paint the first layer as detailed as possible, as if I want to finish the painting in one layer. Then I paint over the entire canvas in the same way. Shapes and colors are adjusted. I like saturated canvases without painting pasty. They bring depth to the color.
Although the starting point is photographic material, it is always a challenge to distinguish between photorealism and a painted image. Each painting is an attempt to increase the distance between the two. The whole of my work is not sterile but emotional, it shows what moves me. I view the painted canvas more critically, each time from a different state of mind or point of view, with correction as a result.
My titles sometimes raise questions, make the viewer think, it gives the viewer the opportunity to fill in their own interpretation. In the end it comes down to the fact that I partly reveal the inner through the choice made.
Paul’s website is www.paulkenens.be.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox
Heather is a nationally award-winning artist based in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. She will now be promoted by the gallery with an extensive public relations campaign.
For this solo exhibition, the Gallery will distribute, promote and circulate press releases to over 550+ throughout the gallery’s press release networks and on art news websites. The Gallery will also provide social media distribution through LST gallery’s broad social media network.
Heather’s art will also be featured on the gallery’s YouTube Channel and with an event postcard.
The “Solo Art Series” is a series of monthly solo art exhibitions for established artists who have a body of work to present to the public. Artist participants were asked to submit the following 3 components for the “Solo Art Series” competition: 1. Their art. 2. Their artist biography. 3. Their artist statement. These elements were evaluated and judged, which resulted in the selection of the artists who will be featured in individual month-long solo art exhibitions. This was the 23rd “Solo Art Series” Art Competition that the gallery has conducted.
Below are Heather’s Artist Biography, her Artist Statement, along with 25 of her paintings. We hope that you will take the time to read Heather’s information and to take a look at her artwork.
Artist Biography
Heather Coen in an award winning artist based in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Her paintings have been recognized and published by every major art magazine in the United States including, Art of the West, Plein Air Magazine, American Art Collector, Colored Pencil Magazine, Southwest Art and others. She began her career by apprenticing to two major artists and then, over the coming years, took classes and workshops to hone her skills. Recently, although her career was halted by a tragedy, she has risen from the ashes and began painting with a vengeance.
She belongs to such prestigious national organizations like Oil Painters of America, Women Artists of the West, National Oil and Acrylic Painters as well as a number of local art venues. She currently has work in three different galleries in two different states including Jackson Hole and Cheyenne, Wyoming and Estes Park, Colorado.
Heather is a landscape, still life and wildlife artist. Her work comes from her many travels all over South America, Canada and the United States. They are created over many months by adding many layers of paint or pastel on a canvas or surface.
Heather believes she is, “Creating a legacy, one original at a time.”
Artist Statement
Having been born with a paint brush in my hand, my mother survived and passed on many of her artistic skills to me. Apprenticed to three master artists over a six-year period, I launched with advantages. I soon became the President of a local art organization and learned the inner workings of shows, exhibits and keeping a herd of cats going in somewhat the same direction. I was the prize coordinator for the Women Artists of the West 50th Jubilee Show which happened to coincide with the outbreak of COVID. The organization could not hold the National Show and everything had to be coordinated and shipped. It took weeks.
Overcoming adversity is a part of every artist's life. I've found that persistence, ethics and just plain being stubborn helps. I have drawers full with awards and ribbons. I became a Master Signature member of Paint America after winning a number of competitions through their venues. It took me eight years to accumulate enough points.
I also have my Signature designation with Plein Air Artists Colorado and Pastel Society of Colorado. Moving from the mountains of Colorado to the hot, dry desert in Arizona, I found that plein air work helped tremendously in changing my palette and way of thinking. It was not an easy transition.
Heather’s website is www.painthewild.com.
YouTube Video Presentation
Paula is an award-winning, self-taught pencil portrait artist based in Brisbane, Australia. Paula was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 23rd Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified her art to be showcased in this feature.
Paula’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting her artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below are Paula’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 images that were submitted to this competition.
Artist Biography
Paula Prentice is a self-taught pencil portrait artist based in Brisbane, Australia. She has been drawing almost daily since rediscovering her love of portraiture in 2018. Socially isolated by choice, Paula focuses mostly on self-portraits, exploring the effects of light and shadow in creating mood and narrative. Paula takes and edits her own photos to find the exact look, feel, and story she wants to portray in each drawing. The chiaroscuro quality she achieves evokes an emotional power and depth. Paula is strongly influenced by the work of graphite photorealistic artists such as Dirk Dzimirsky, Cath Riley, and Jessie Babin.
Believing that every portrait is a mirror, Paula's work goes beyond realistic likeness to an exploration of human nature. Her goal is for each drawing to represent an inner truth that is recognisable to the viewer, inviting connection and conversation.
Paula's work has been shown in many exhibitions online and in galleries around Brisbane. In 2020 she was awarded a Special Merit and a Special Recognition in Light Space& Time Online Art Gallery's online Spring/Summer "Created in Isolation" exhibition. In 2019 she received an Honourable Mention in Aspire Gallery's "Foot Square" competition in Brisbane. Her work has also been shown as a finalist at the Royal Queensland Art Society and Lethbridge Gallery in various exhibitions.
Artist Statement
Faces intrigue me. How do we "read" a face? How do we understand what a person is feeling when there are no words? What is the essence of an expression? Where does it lie? These are the questions that drive me to draw my own face over and over again, as if searching for some truth of identity or undefined inner state.
I believe that portraits are more than representations of character. I believe all portraits are mirrors. We look at a face and see ourselves somehow reflected there. That recognition creates a connection that goes beyond space and time.
For someone who is socially isolated by choice, creating this connection is the most powerful conversation I can have with the world, and the most truthful. It is an honesty that reveals and conceals, is both intimate and private, vulnerable and protected. My self-portraits are my way of communicating with the world and with myself. The process of creating them heals me. They also have the potential to heal my broken relationship with society and the world at large. For these reasons, my art is my therapy. I can see my growth and change. I am emerging, not just as an artist, but as a human being.
Online, Paula goes by the pseudonym of Paradoxis. Her work can be found on https://www.instagram.com/paradoxis50/ and https://paradoxisart.webador.com/.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox
BerniE. is an award-winning artist based in Southern California, USA. BerniE. was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 23rd Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified his art to be showcased in this feature.
BerniE.’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting his artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below are BerniE.’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 artworks that were submitted to this competition.
Artist Biography
BerniE. is an artist, sculptor, songwriter, and producer based in Southern California. His clientele list includes the University of Irvine, California, Loma Linda Hospital, St. Bernardine Medical Center, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Oprah Winfrey, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi (King of Nigeria), NBC Studios, CBS Studios, and Stevie Wonder, to name a few. His work can be seen at California State University at San Bernardino, on the grounds of the Murillo Observatory. Also, at CSUSB’s Legacy Fountain, you can observe his bronze seated sculptures of Drs. Evan, Fau, and Karnig, the three former Presidents of the University, and a bronze bust of Booker T. Washington are on permanent display at the Historic Mission Inn Hotel & Spa in Riverside, California.
Most recently, BerniE. installed a bronze bust of U.S. Vice President Kamala D. Harris at the Inland Southern California Civil Rights Museum, in Riverside, California. BerniE. seeks to share his creativity, vision, and sculptures of his works on the public market. BerniE.’s artwork is available nationally through art galleries.
Artist Statement
I love all media of art, but, 3 Dimensional Sculptures are my favorite to create. It is an honor and it gives me a sense of pride to install a sculpture in the home of a private client, a corporate building, a public museum space, or a park. I love to connect those who view my artwork with an emotional experience through commissioned sculptures, historical statues, and monuments.
BerniE.’s website is https://Bernieart.com/.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox
Catherine is an award-winning artist based in New Mexico, USA. She will now be promoted by the gallery with an extensive public relations campaign.
For this solo exhibition, the gallery will distribute, promote and circulate press releases to over 550+ major News Outlets, including Premium FOX, CBS, and NBC Affiliated Sites, with guaranteed inclusion on Google News & Bing News. The Gallery will also provide social media distribution through LST gallery’s broad social media network.
Catherine’s art will also be featured on the gallery’s YouTube Channel and with an event postcard.
The “Solo Art Series” is a series of monthly solo art exhibitions for established artists who have a body of work to present to the public. Artist participants were asked to submit the following 3 components for the “Solo Art Series” competition: 1. Their art. 2. Their artist biography. 3. Their artist statement. These elements were evaluated and judged, which resulted in the selection of the artists who will be featured in individual month-long solo art exhibitions. This was the 23rd “Solo Art Series” Art Competition that the gallery has conducted.
Below is Catherine’s Artist Biography and her Artist Statement, along with 15 of her artworks. We hope that you will take the time to read Catherine’s information and to take a look at his artwork.
Artist Biography
Catherine Kirkwood has been painting since she was a child. At age 12 she began oil painting lessons and art was her passion all through school. She attended the School of Art at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y. She also spent a year at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, Ca. and received her B.A. in drawing from the University of New Mexico. She continued at the University of New Mexico and received her M.A. in painting in 1974. From there she moved to New York where she worked and painted for several years before moving to Santa Fe, N.M. where she currently resides. She has shown nationally and won numerous awards for her work.
Catherine has always been a realist and her work is involved in images from the natural world. For many years she painted the southwest landscape and then became intrigued with water. She has painted water gardens over many decades and after a two year move to Miami, Florida began using plants and flowers in her work. In the past year she has been photographing at a local flower farm which has resulted in large canvases of flowers enlarged beyond their true size.
Complexity is a feature of Catherine’s work. She involves herself with detail and the paintings are full. It is the artist’s hope that the viewer will be able to visit a painting many times and still find new elements to explore visually.
Artist Statement
I have been painting for as long as I can remember and don’t think I ever seriously considered any other path in life other than that of an artist. I lived in New York City for several years in my mid-twenties but am happier in the country. My work is rooted in nature and that is where I gain inspiration. I have always been drawn to realism although I am straying further away from strict adherence to the photograph as I progress along in my career. I spent years drawing but a brush is really my most natural tool. The color and richness of oil paint along with the extended period of workability make it my favorite medium.
I grew up on the East Coast and spent my summers swimming and in the winter, I walked the beach for solitude and contemplation. My series of water paintings started in Santa Fe in the desert southwest, away from water. I am drawn to the quiet and “otherworldliness” of water, the sense of things hidden in the depths. I am visually fascinated by the different layers one sees when looking at the water—the reflections of the sky, the movement on the surface and the abstraction of what is below the surface. Water lilies and koi add another dimension of color and form above and under the water.
I consider myself an interpreter of nature and as an artist, someone who greatly appreciates the beauty of nature through using it as my model.
Catherine’s website is www.catherinekirkwood.com.
Giovanni is an award-winning artist based in Italy. Giovanni was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 23rd Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified his art to be showcased in this feature.
Giovanni’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting his artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below are Giovanni’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 artworks that were submitted to this competition.
Artist Biography
Born in Catania (Sicily) where he lived for many years and where he completed his artistic studies at The Naked School in Catania at the BB. AA academy and at the beginning of the 90s he began his pictorial activity. In those years he worked as a collaborator in galleries, cultural associations that allowed him to enter the most stimulating environments to be able to deepen his desire for further knowledge of the history of art, encouraging him and enriching him with that culture that encouraged him to undertake the artistic activity.
Along the way, the artist, who initially devoted himself to the figurative, has often felt the need to confront various masters of contemporary art in order to arrive at the synthesis of a more immediate reality where gesture, shape, color and the line let the emotional contents determine passions, tensions and discomforts thanks also to the partnership with the informal abstract artists of his hometown.
The works of Giuseppe De Gregorio, Manlio Bacosi, Emilio Vedova have revolutionized the way we see him, what he says to himself and how much he feels.
He currently lives and works between Catania and Rome.
Artist Statement
In my works I try to make you feel a human vibration that enhances feelings through shape, line, color and intentionality; the encounter with the unexpected, for the opening of new worlds and new possibilities of vision where the work itself is understood as a result of the encounter between man and nature in an alternation of empathy between pure form and its complexity. Strongly attracted by the material relationships that the eye is able to grasp in the surfaces of objects, along the walls of the city or even more in the memory of the already state.
I am intent on developing a discourse on structurality, and particularly on the technique in which color is assumed in its linguistic value. This also applies to signs, which are admitted to constitute an alphabet without a code that guarantees a form that reflects an idea or trace and document an emotion. And so in the color they are inserted into the layout, into the diagram of tensions, of the rapidity, of the cadence which the gesture encounters as it explores the interior space and the surface to be painted. In search of a point of access or contact.
Giovanni’s website is www.giovanni-pigreco.com.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox
Jaimie is an award-winning artist based in Texas, USA. Jaimie was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 22nd Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified her art to be showcased in this feature.
Jaimie’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting her artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below are Jaimie’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 images that were submitted to this competition.
Artist Biography
Jaimie is a lens based interdisciplinary artist. Her work is rooted in place in a spiritual way within the natural world. She also studies nature through still life botanicals. Currently exploring digital with edited and some composited images, she prints the images on special papers, then further manipulates with hand-coloring, painting, and sometimes encaustics. The results are often described as ethereal. Whether representational or abstract, she seeks the little mysteries found when light models on forms and color.
Jaimie has a long use photography of traditional film and silver gelatin, Cyanotype, Van Dyke, Photograms, photo manipulations, infrared, and other alternative processes. As a fine art major, she began exploring hand tinting, coloring, and painting of photographs with oils, pencils, and water based media. She used 35 mm, 2 1/4 x 21/4, and toy cameras. Her work is archival; made with materials for longevity. She has been in many galleries, press, and venues. Pieces are in private, public, and corporate collections. All pieces are in limited editions of 10 or 15 in one or more sizes.
Jaimie was born in Ohio, and has lived in a variety of places in many states, The Netherlands, and Gabon in Africa. She earned a BFA from University of Montana with a certificate to teach. She has been an art educator in Houston for 30 years.
Artist Statement
Where Land Meets Sea
Rushing onto the land, then retreating back into the sea, tides are at once both constant and ever-changing. The water shapes the shorelines into a surprising and beautiful place of discovery. As a Thalassophile, a lover of the sea: I long for the eternally rhythmic and mesmerizing sounds at the water’s edge and draw healing strength from their energy.
Wandering the beaches, berms, and beyond, I search for revelations in the natural shorelines. I find relationships between the depth of the sea and our deep inner beliefs. Focusing on natural environments, looking for mystery, I am creating the visualization of my dreams.
In order to better convey the mystical, I print my images on archival hot press natural and Japanese papers. I embellish with hand-colored oil pencils, pan and stick dry pastels, and other media. In building layers of color, I try to reflect the deep and ageless stirrings of the sea.
Jaimie’s website is www.jladyshphoto.com.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox
Maureen is an award-winning photographer based in Colorado, USA. Maureen was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 22nd Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified her art to be showcased in this feature.
Maureen’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting her artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below are Maureen’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 images that were submitted to this competition.
Artist Biography
Maureen Ravnik was born in Minnesota. After attending college in Colorado, she stayed and never looked back. Working and traveling opened her eyes to the wonders of the American west and reawakened childhood tendencies to creatively document her discoveries. She began making images of the American west in hopes of preserving the history, the culture, and the dreams that shaped the west. Today, Maureen’s time is spent outdoors capturing the scenery, wildlife, and exploring other methods for interpreting and sharing what she sees and experiences along the way.
Maureen has accomplished many things with her photography including images placed in the Audubon International Top 250, local, national and international juried photography exhibitions, winning placements in monthly club competitions, state park calendars, images selected for use by the City of Littleton, Colorado, and many images selected as editor picks on National Geographic and for publication. Her work has been the subject of several newspapers. She has co-authored 2 books that document the history, beauty and environment of the second largest natural area in the country. Maureen has also served as a juror for the Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts in Colorado.
Maureen’s goal is to continually look for new ways to challenge herself. That is what inspires her to never reject possibilities in subject matter.
Artist Statement
My techniques are largely self-taught. I am deeply inspired by Ansel Adams and Art Wolfe. My work is delivered in an array of styles that arc between passionately abstract and doggedly figurative.
Maureen’s website is www.maureenravnik.crevado.com.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox
Rich is an award-winning artist based in Long Island, New York. Rich was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 22nd Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified his art to be showcased in this feature.
Rich’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting his artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below are Rich’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 images that were submitted to this competition.
Artist Biography
Rich DiSilvio was born in NY and lives on Long Island. He studied art in college and at the Traditional Academy of Painting, under a protégé of Norman Rockwell.
With a solid foundation in realism, DiSilvio ventured into surrealism, fantasy, and sci-fi art, being inspired by such artists as Salvador Dali, Frank Frazetta and Roger Dean. DiSilvio’s goals as he states “is to focus on the one ability that humans have that no other earthly creature shares, namely the imagination.” He works in oils and acrylics, with an emphasis on digital and photo-manipulation in recent years.
Rich’s art and new media work in the music and entertainment industries earned him an international presence, having worked on projects for Pink Floyd, Yes, Moody Blues, Alice Cooper and on various films. Additionally, as an award-winning author, DiSilvio has written about famous artists in fiction and non-fiction, with his "Arnolfini Art Mysteries" series being perhaps the most notable.
Meanwhile his award-winning fine art has appeared in galleries across the USA, from New York to California. His works appear in private and corporate collections, in the 9-11 Memorial Museum and Italian-American museum in NYC, while his painting of the famous composer Peter Tchaikovsky resides at the Tchaikovsky Estate Museum in Votkinsk, Russia.
Artist Statement
The Animal Series is based primarily on two premises, namely that our fellow inhabitants have always enamored humans, be they domesticated and friendly or wild predators. As such, they make appealing subject matter.
And second is that the human species differs from the animal kingdom in its ability to create what does not exist, as the imagination is not something our fellow creatures share. Thus, this series celebrates those combined aspects, to be either whimsical or provocative.
Rich’s website is www.richdisilvio.com.
Ilona is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning digital artist based in Australia. She will now be promoted by the gallery with an extensive public relations campaign.
For this solo exhibition, the Gallery will distribute, promote and circulate press releases to over 550+ major News Outlets, including Premium FOX, CBS, and NBC Affiliated Sites, with guaranteed inclusion on Google News & Bing News. The Gallery will also provide social media distribution through LST gallery’s broad social media network.
Ilona’s art will also be featured on the gallery’s YouTube Channel and with an event postcard.
The “Solo Art Series” is a series of monthly solo art exhibitions for established artists who have a body of work to present to the public. Artist participants were asked to submit the following 3 components for the “Solo Art Series” competition: 1. Their art. 2. Their artist biography. 3. Their artist statement. These elements were evaluated and judged, which resulted in the selection of the artists who will be featured in individual month-long solo art exhibitions. This was the 22nd “Solo Art Series” Art Competition that the gallery has conducted.
Below are Ilona’s Artist Biography, her Artist Statement, along with 15 of her digital paintings. We hope that you will take the time to read Ilona’s information and to take a look at her artwork.
Artist Biography
Ilona is an image-maker and a digital artist. Taking images gives her as much fun as processing them. Digital tools and painting helped convert her photos and composites into digital art.
Learning new ways of making her art different gives her pleasure; she evolves and moves on, so she does not get boring to her viewers or bored with herself.
She is regularly published in International Art Magazines and participates in numerous Art Exhibitions. It is incredible what we can produce in the digital age, and it is fun.
Artist Statement
In these last two years, we had so many restrictions. We couldn’t travel overseas and sometimes not even to the next suburb. My art is my sanity. Some of you probably think the word sanity is not coming to mind when you look at some of my artwork. I kept swamped during this time. I also tried to get inventive and created my models in the digital world.
For this exhibition, I came up with the idea to paint portraits in the style of Art Deco. I painted the illustrations in Procreate on my iPad. It is fascinating that my art lets me bring my fantasy to print and that I can share my somewhat warped ideas with the viewers. I hope that my work evokes questions and triggers your fantasy.
Ilona’s website is www.zolof.net.
Donna is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning artist based in Dublin, Ireland. Donna was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 22nd Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified her art to be showcased in this feature.
Donna’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting her artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below are Donna’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 images that were submitted to this competition.
Artist Biography
Donna McGee has developed a unique style in her art. Encompassing a diverse range of influences arising out of her love of travel, not least, to the spectacular coastlines of Ireland. Observing and capturing the restless elemental forces of this landscape and celebrating its timeless beauty is central to her work.
Donna is drawn to the allure of stormy skies, vibrant sunsets and the transformative effects of the ever-changing light, revealing a sense of the extraordinary in the ordinary. It creates an emotional response and a spiritual connection within the wonder of nature. She likes to work in oils and coupled with the use of a palette knife and the build-up of rich, tactile texture, her interpretation of the subject matter is transformed rather than merely recorded. She also enjoys the freedom of expression in the painting of abstract.
Creating art is an avenue for Donna to connect with a very large community of like-minded people. She is self-taught, but returned to college a number of times to study in the field of digital media production and marketing as she felt those skills were a must to survive in the art world. She appreciates the value in knowing that her work as an artist brings joy to others and considers it an absolute honour. It enables her to continue her passion in life— that is of course, painting!
Artist Statement
As a visual artist, working for over 20 years from my studio in Dublin, inspiration surrounds me by observing the timeless beauty of the Irish landscape. Expressing the extraordinary in the ordinary and a wish to share that magic with you. Taking note of the transformative effects of light on the subject matter can create mood and atmosphere – a luxurious mix of photo-realistic / abstract / ethereal / surreal qualities.
I like to paint places that I have visited that linger on my mind. Forever, drawn to the allure of brilliant sunsets, stormy skies contrasted against the rhythmic force of the ocean. I am spoilt for choice with Irelands’ stunning scenery – the Wild Atlantic Way – 1,600 miles of rugged coastal beauty. Also, Ireland’s Ancient East, the land of myths and legends, and the birthplace of Irish culture.
Oil paint is my favourite medium because of its vibrancy, a fusion of tones or rich and vivid colour. Coupled with the use of a palette knife, great tactile effects with layers of texture can be achieved. Best results happen when many layers are built up but it can be a slow process because of the drying time. I like to take creative license by adding surrealist elements to add to the mood of a painting. My process tends to me more intuitive rather than analytical as I am self-taught.
Donna’s website is www.donnamcgee.ie.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox
Judy is an award-winning artist based in Savannah, Georgia, USA. Judy was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 22nd Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified her art to be showcased in this feature.
Judy’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting her artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below are Judy’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 images that were submitted to this competition.
Artist Biography
Judy Orcutt is a photographer from York, Pennsylvania. It is a lovely scenic area surrounded by Pennsylvania Dutch influence and rural beauty. She is a mainly self-taught artist. She has had art experience in calligraphy, pressed flower art, encaustics, and cold wax art. Her photography experience has been in the studio and with landscape work. Her delight is in photographing flowers and she has specialized in scanography which is what she is submitting here.
The flatbed scanner gives high resolution detail and consistent light and depth of field and shows great detail. It almost creates a 3D look. She finds this to be dramatic and enticing. She combines different botanicals and when the image is completed, there is an intense period of cleaning it up in PhotoShop as there is much debris. Her work is currently hanging in the Penn State Medical Health Hospital in Lancaster, Pa. Her work is also in many private collections. She now lives in Savannah, Georgia where coastal photography is calling her.
All of her art comes from the heart. She is a 25-year breast cancer survivor!!
Artist Statement
I fell in love with plants and botany when I studied them in Pharmacy School. The intricacies in design and the beautiful colors and the interactions with insects have fascinated me. Of course, the sheer beauty; and the gift we have been given fills my heart. I want to capture that to the best of my abilities. I have found that scanography (using the flatbed scanner as if it were my camera) is the best tool for me to accomplish this. The depth of field is shallow and that gives exquisite detail. It is almost as if the flower were in 3 dimensions. I hope you love my flowers as much as I do!
Judy’s website is www.quilligraphy.com.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox
Im is an award-winning mixed media sculptor and installation artist based in Washington State, USA. She was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 22nd Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified her art to be showcased in this feature.
Im’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting her artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below are Im’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 images that were submitted to this competition.
Seoul, South Korea-born Kyung Hee Im is a sculptor, an installation artist, and an educator. She moved to the USA in 2011. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from the University of West Georgia, and a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of North Texas. She taught 2D and 3D Design, and sculpture at the University of North Texas and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Im joined as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Design at Central Washington University in 2022. She has exhibited her artwork nationally and internationally including in South Korea, Carrollton, Georgia, Denton, Dallas, and Fort Worth, Texas. Also, she had several group and solo virtual exhibitions. She won first prize in Materials: Hard + Soft International Contemporary Craft Competition and exhibition in 2021, and was an honorable mention in Envision Arts at the CoLab gallery in Denton, TX.
My artwork explores cultural differences, connectedness, intimacy, and isolation with respect to digital communication tools and complex networking systems. My pieces highlight how physical isolation has become exaggerated in a post-internet world and the ways in which people maintain relationships through complex networking systems. My works depict the tension between feelings of alienation and the fragility of remote relationships.
The sculptures portray bodies that are often fragmented, their parts isolated from one another in space but also bound together by a network of fragile threads. The threads in my works represent intangible connections which are in a state of constant flux – sagging down or pulling taught under tension, getting clumped and twisted together, and becoming uniquely entangled with each and every movement. The pieces encapsulate my creative and academic interests, which are the various ways in which the arts intersect with new forms of technology, both in terms of form and content.
Im’s website is https://kyungheeim.com.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox
Liza award-winning photographer based in Los Angeles, CA, USA. Liza was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 22nd Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified her art to be showcased in this feature.
Liza’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting her artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below are Liza’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 images that were submitted to this competition.
Artist Biography
Liza Botkin was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from The Brearley School and attended Syracuse University and Hunter College. In 1971, Liza moved to Los Angeles where she worked 9 to 5, mostly in the entertainment industry.
After working as a studio manager for Michael Childers, she purchased a Leica CL camera, took a photography course at Fairfax High School and her photography career began.
During the 70s and early 80s she roamed the streets, department stores, markets and public gatherings of L.A. She entered competitions and was chosen to be in several publications and shows. In 1983, she stopped shooting, got married and her Leica sat in a drawer for the next 15 years. In early 1998, at her husband's urging, she brought the Leica out of the drawer, built a darkroom, and she’s been shooting and printing ever since.
Liza still hangs out in malls, markets and places where large groups of people tend to gather. She takes her camera with her every day, shooting "from the hip" because she doesn’t want people to be aware of her. She takes pictures where the subjects are weirdly but humorously interacting, in moments that amuse her and makes her smile when they come up in the developer.
Artist Statement
I was born and raised in New York City, but my photographic career began in Los Angeles in the 70s while I was working for photographers Michael Childers and Lou Stoumen, from whom I learned how to print.
I consider myself a street photographer, shooting from the hip, taking my camera with me wherever I go. I wander the streets of Los Angeles, spending much of my time in malls where, for many years, I’ve been documenting the preoccupation many people have with shopping.
Though I’ve never studied the art of photography in an academic setting, my work is deeply influenced and defined by that of Henri Cartier-Bresson. I, too, search for what he so aptly called “the decisive moment.”
Liza’s website is www.lizahbotkin.com/.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox