Carlo Russo is teaching some workshops. Follow the link for more information
Category Archives: Artists
Broad Street Review: Rick Buttari at F.A.N. Gallery
You can read a nice review of Rick Buttari’s work by Andrew Mangravite here. Broad Street Review: Rick Buttari at F.A.N. Gallery.
Interview with Rick Buttari
Rick Buttari, Water Ice Factory, 10 X 14 inches, Oil on Linen
Rick Buttari will be showing new paintings for the month of September and F.A.N. Gallery.
We got the chance to ask him a few questions about his work.
Rick Buttari, Beach Scene With Orange And Yellow, 6 X 20, Oil on Linen
KM: What is your first creative memory?
RB: I remember seeing photos of celebrities in magazines and wondering if I could draw them, or more specifically, what about that flat image on the page translated to a three-dimensional living thing when you transferred it to a sheet of paper. I remember taking tracing paper and tracing the outline of a picture from McCall’s magazine, something my mother subscribed to. It looked crude and mechanical but something made me want to try it again and figure out what kind of marks on the paper would make it seem like that person. Then I started to draw pictures from my own Sport magazine, baseball and football players. Somewhere on a sheet of paper inside a scrapbook I have a drawing of Sandy Koufax, probably the first freehand drawing I made. I guess I was about 10 or 11.
Rick Buttari, Gawkers, 10 1/2 X 10 inches, Graphite on Paper
KM: How do you choose your subject matter?
RB: I don’t know if I choose subject matter as much as choose a sense of situation that feels right. I’ve noticed, and been told, that a lot of my work has kind of an objective distance from the subject, like I’m sitting far away and observing, not part of the scene.
Rick Buttari, Shirt Corner, 13 X 20 inches, Oil on Canvas
KM: Your paintings are so realistic and detailed. How do you know when a painting is done?
RB: I was going to say that I listen for the singing of angels to let me know, but that hasn’t worked lately. I work at home upstairs in a very small studio. When the painting’s in progress I bring it downstairs to the living room and lean it against the television cabinet and look at it from further away than I can get in my studio. When I can look at it and take in the whole image in one gulp without my eye wandering restlessly, I assume it’s done.
Rick Buttari, Lighthouse, 13 X 20 inches, Oil on Linen
KM: What inspires your work?
RB: You know, you spend a lot of time looking and thinking. You look at, say, the light that’s hitting the side of a building and you ask yourself if there’s something there for me, something I can make of it that might be a little different than what somebody else would make of it. Or something that seems so important at the time that you can’t NOT paint it.That’s the whole ballgame isn’t it, trying to figure out what it is that you’re trying to figure out.
Filed under Artists
Allen Bentley joins F.A.N.’s Summer Show
F.A.N. Gallery is pleased that Allen Bentley will be showing with us this summer. Allen is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania and Western Carolina University.
Allen Bentley, Thresh, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches
Allen says of his work,”The pursuit of real interaction drives so much of our relationships. Whether under water or in dance, my work explores intimacy and connection through motion. Energy and passion, rhythm and play guide my figures through moments of reaching, spinning, holding. We chase one another in the hopes of finding a similar resonance, an affinity with another.”
Allen Bentley, Draping, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches
Allen Bentley, Driven, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches
A Few Questions with Kathleen Weber
Kathleen Weber, “Tavern In Olneyville,” 24 X 30 inches, oil on canvas
Kathleen Weber will be showing new landscape and genre paintings at FAN Gallery in June. Her paintings depict everyday life in saturated color.
What is your first creative memory?
My first creative memory is having a fist full of crayons, drawing a sailboat on some scrap paper my mother had. She ooh’d and ahh’d- big mistake! And I ended up becoming an artist instead of a doctor.
Kathleen Weber “Coco Pazzo,” 20 x 20 inches, oil on canvas
How has your painting practice or style grown or changed in the last year or two?
In the last couple of years I’ve been doing a lot more portraits. After reading about Anders Zorn and his limited palette- black, white, yellow ochre, and cad red light- I spent a lot of time using just those colors to see what I could make them do. You can get an incredible range of skin and hair color, and I’ve ended up teaching portrait classes where the first class is spent just doing a color chart so that everyone can see the range it is possible to achieve with such a limited palette. I’ve added other colors now when I do portraits- I love burnt sienna and I really missed blue! But that basic palette remains.
Kathleen Weber, “Windows,” 18 x18 inches, oil on canvas
What is the most challenging part of painting figures?
Some years ago I was in a gallery where I had some work and a woman told me that she never bought paintings with people in them. When I mentioned this to a friend who has bought a lot of my work, he said, “what, she wouldn’t want the Mona Lisa, or Nighthawks?”
I actually think that the most challenging part of painting figures is creating the atmosphere around them. Of course you want to be able to draw them well, but with enough practice that’s achievable. They can teach that in art school. What they can’t teach is, what’s inside you that’s different from the next painter? What do you paint when you stop imitating painters you admire? That’s something you can only figure out by spending a lot of time in front of your easel. I’m still working on that.
Do you have a creative habit? How do you shape your art making practice to nurture your work?
Now that the good weather is here again, I hope to get outside and paint landscapes for a change, because although I do a lot of work from photos, I actually prefer working from life. I try to get some of the energy of plein air in my studio work.
Kathleen Weber, “Yellow House,” 20 X 24 inches, oil on canvas
Carlo Russo wins Purchase Prize at ARC
Carlo Russo, Dreams of Ophila, 29 x 22 inches, oil on linen
We just found out some good news from one of our artists, Carlo Russo. His painting, “Dreams of Ophelia” won a purchase prize awards at the 2013 Art Renewal Center Salon, as well as winning 3rd place in figurative category. Carlo’s painting “the blue dress” was a still life finalist too.
Carlo Russo, Blue Dress, oil on linen
Congratulations to Carlo Russo!
May 2, 2013 · 10:55 pm
Interview with Serge Zhukov
Serge Zhukov, “Drawing Lesson 3.,” 36 X 24 inches, Oil On Canvas
F.A.N. Gallery will show the work of Serge Zhokov this month. Serge is a wonderful painter and a master at creating mood through is landscapes and figures.
Victoria Donohoe of The Inquirer said, “his figure drawings give us an easy sense of his subjects’ reality, but it’s the delicate mix of senses and substance that imbues the oils with an air of uncontrived refinement, while their milky hues set the spirit that appeals to the sophisticated eye.”
Serge Zhukov, “Harmony In Red,” 12 X 24 inches, Oil On Canvas
I was able to ask Serge a few questions about his influences and how he works.
Who are your influences? Favorite artists or books or music.
My influences, naturally, are constantly changing throughout my life. At one point in time, I skipped through pages in Art History books, which were devoted to Giotto and De Chirico. Now they are my favorite artists. I am certainly influenced by Piero della Francesca, Giorgione. I can examine works like “Legend of the True Cross” or “Pastoral Concert” for hours. I like Balthus, mostly his late works. In literature, it’s Stanislaw Lem, Hesse, Sasha Sokolov, Osip Mandelstam.
Serge Zhukov “Still Life With Glass Pitcher,” 12 X 24 inches, Oil On Canvas
How much planning and preparation go into your paintings, do you do a lot of drawing first and then move onto the painting?
It’s difficult to say. If, I have a clear idea about my next project, then painting goes smoothly. However, I have to envision the entire image in my mind first, prior to drawing. I do a lot of drawings. Often my vision is altered when I actually start painting. It happened with “Drawing Lesson 1” where my original idea changed after creating several drawings.
Serge Zhukov, sketch of “Drawing lesson” 11×14 ink on paper.
What is your first creative memory?
I mixed toothpaste with watercolor paints and colored a window glass. I was 5 years old.
Serge Zhukov, “Evening Shadow,” 48 X 36 inches, Oil On Canvas
Filed under Artists
Interview with David Bottini
David Bottini, May Meadow Breeze, 30 x 40 inches, acrylic on canvas
David Bottini will be showing his large landscape paintings at the gallery for the month of March. I feel like David’s paintings are a preview of spring and summer as we fill the gallery with his light infused landscapes.
KM: What is your first creative memory?
DB: It is toddler pre-memory, but my parents describe a naptime where I apparently woke-up and stood in my crib tearing off a wall collage that my mother had made – they discovered my “revision” when they checked-in on my nap … maybe I was exerting an emerging aesthetic?
I also remember loving crayons and paper – I am the youngest child, so I recall having crayons and piles of tractor-feed computer paper (my father was a computer programmer in the sixties) that I remember loving to fill with doodles and images. I spent considerable time with my grandfather (he lived with us) – so I always enjoyed the wanders into the woods and time spent in the garden with him … perhaps the seeds of my love of nature were established in those early years.
David Bottini, Summer Leaves, 24 x 12 inches, acrylic on canvas
KM:How long have you been painting?
DB: I had my first formal classes at 10 … worked at my art throughout high school. Really focused and engaged in the process during college and graduate school. So … 40 plus years of working to make paintings … perhaps the past 20 where I sense I am becoming a painter.
KM:Why do you paint?
DB: The reason has changed over the past 30 plus years. I originally painted because it allowed me to engage a fascination with paint, design, and color. As the years passed, and my technical prowess became more intuitive, I have come to see painting as the primary way I can share an articulate experience of the peace and contemplative solace that I find within nature. Painting is now (excuse my cliché) a lifestyle … I cannot imagine not working in the studio, and viewing my life experience through a painter’s eye. I sense that my reasons for painting will continue to evolve as I mature physically and creatively.
KM: Do you already have an image in your mind prior to painting or does it develop as you get started?
DB: Not a specific image so much as a sense of light, and the “feel” of a place. As I work from sketches and many photos for reference, I build a painting that conveys the experience I recall from that place.
David Bottini, March Snow, 40 x 40 inches, acrylic on canvas
KM: Can you tell me a little about your studio practice?
DB: I work in a traditional process that begins in direct experience. I take walks or go out for hikes 3 to 5 times each week. There are always places that attract me – I am drawn to a sense of both enclosure/embrace and some path that is implied or physical that leads outside of the area of embrace.
I generally take many (typically 45- 70 images) from any given location as reference. I will usually return for some very loose sketches.
In the studio, I generally begin with loose paint sketches on paper and then, if the subject/place engages my design interest I will move to a canvas study. I often work a 5 x 7 up to 11 x 14 inch range as my first iteration. If my interest is piqued, I return to a larger (and always revised) larger scale iteration. It is not unusual for my work building a larger canvas to involve weeks of engagement as I build 30 to 40 layers of glazes.
I see a similarity between developing a friendship and building a painting, if the subject is nourishing and continues to engage my art and design interest, I will pursue and maintain a dialogue with the subject. There are places that feel almost archetypal and have had me returning to the visual theme for years of paintings.
David Bottini, Sparkling Summer Morning, 24 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas
KM: What artists do you admire?
DB: I have a wide range of artists who inspire and instruct my work in the studio. I love Andrew Wyeth’s rich low-key palette and evocative handling of a familiar Pennsylvania landscape. I continue to be moved by Mark Rothko’s luminous color and still compositional space. I am awed by the luxury and vibrant energy of Maxfield Parrish’s compositional clarity and saturated palette. Corot pulls me into his deep environmental space and carries my eye through his composition with rhythmic brushstrokes and his use of a dark and subdued palette. The American Luminists and 20th Century graphic design represent bodies of work that offer me endless hours of visual study and inspiration. There are many others – including work done over the years by my students, who often make marks that are fresh, raw, and without analytical baggage.
David Bottini, Autumn Arrives 20 x 16 inches, acrylic on canvas
KM: What do you do fun or to recharge yourself?
DB: I enjoy taking long walks and hikes into the woods whenever possible. I also enjoy any reason to take a train trip as well as reading food columns to find a bartender using small batch liquors and creative cocktail recipes. Eating small plates at wonderful bars is one of my favorite luxuries.
David Bottini: New Paintings
David Bottini, May Meadow Breeze, 30 x 40 inches, acrylic on canvas
New Paintings by David Bottini opens Friday, March 1, 2013
March 1 – 30, 2013
First Friday Opening Reception March 1, 5-9 PM
David Bottini’s realist landscapes explore light and atmosphere. His approach begins in direct observation and is enhanced and developed in the studio using a traditional glazing approach. His work draws from training in classical realism as well as his passion for a post-modern abstract sensibility in composing a viewpoint.
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