"Black and White" 2021 Show

This show will run July 1-31, 2021. Artists from around the world were called to submit their work. There were 139 accepted works and they came from 18 different states in the USA, as well as 12 other countries: Canada, China, Georgia, Germany, India, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Ukraine. A variety of styles and mediums were entered, including but not limited to acrylic, charcoal, colored pencil, digital, graphite/pencil, ink/pen, mixed media, oil, photography, printmaking, stained glass, and watercolor. Other factors, such as the clarity of the images provided and their ability to be viewed online, also contributed to our decision. “Best of Show”, “First Place”, and “Second Place” winners received a monetary award in addition to special recognition.

We were very happy to donate 10% of all entry fees from this show to Heart to Heart. HHI strengthens communities through improving health access and providing humanitarian development worldwide. For more information about them, please visit their website http://www.hearttoheart.org/. Colors of Humanity Art Gallery, LLC is not affiliated with Heart to Heart. It is our hope that this small act of kindness will blossom and grow to help someone else.

Thank you to all the artists who participated! Your talents and skills gave us a diverse body of work to create this attractive show.

Buyers- Please contact the artists directly for sales. Colors of Humanity Art Gallery does not handle any part of the sale or collect any commission, it is solely between the buyer and artist. You may find a link to the artist’s website or email address below their work.

Bio:

Tracy has over 38 years in a design agency setting in Chicago, specializing in package design for major consumer product groups until he retired in 2018. Besides working on his Innovative Narrative Portraits, Tracy spends time teaching Colored Pencil classes at the Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago, conducting workshops to art groups across the country and volunteer work with artist with disabilities at Project Onward Studio in Chicago.

Inspiration:

As a portrait artist my inspiration is drawn solely from my subjects and their hidden emotional truths. To be able to capture those emotions, I model my work in black and white colored pencil on drafting film.

Each subject is a compelling visual portrayal of the human spirit, determination, and courage. I strive to show the viewer that while at first glance, my subjects seem serene and normal, but show a sense of inner fragility. Capturing this inner fragility is what has moved me forward documenting my subjects and their dealing with mental illness and social stigmas.

I started documenting subjects that suffer mental illness after responding to a Call for Artist posted by the Department of Mental Health America of Illinois. This was a peer-led, anti-stigma and awareness project featuring 24 stories written by authors with lived mental health experience interpreted by 24 inspired visual artists that they chose from around the country and Canada. The stories and artworks would be part of a series of community conversations being held in venues across Illinois and nationwide, culminating with the full project premiering at of Mental Health America of Illinois 28th annual Gala and Silent auction.

Corralling a Lightning Bolt:

is the celebration of resisting the polarizing tides of fear that sweep us off our feet and keep us from seeing the truth. There is no controlling life. Instead of letting it all in, the only way to overcome is to rise, let go, and shoot for a higher ground. In the choice to let go of your known way of being, the whole world is revealed to your new eyes.

My process:

Drawing by Subtraction® is a trademarked colored pencil process where I literally strip away the colored pencil pigment from the surface of Grafix® Drafting film using a Tombow® Mono Zero eraser. I then go back and add additional tones, expand values, and add detail with Black Prismacolor pencil.

I was born in Qingdao, a beautiful seaside city in China. My dream was to be an artist just like DaVinci and Michelangelo since I was a child, and to paint the beautiful nature with my own brush.

This is how I embarked on this arduous and enchanting way of art.

Art comes in many shapes and sizes, however, I have a special thing for sketch art. I started drawing with pencil, then with pen later on. I continued working in this field for decades no matter how hard it was.

Since 2017, I began to participate in the international art competition, and in the 2017 American Art Grand Prix (56 countries' artists), my work "the Sri Lanka Farmer" won the 'American Art Prize'. In 2017, my work, A Man with a Knot in his Face, was selected for the International Grand Prix of the Royal portrait society in 2017. In 2018, my two portrait works, Professor Chen and A Man with a Knot in his Face, were selected for the fortieth Ma Sha Ti crown art sculpture Grand Prix. In 2018 I won the Audobon Art Prize at the 40th Drawing and Sculpture Grand Prize in the USA. In 2019, the first prize in the sketch category of the 12th American Art Grand Prix. For three consecutive years, I was named as the best sketch portrait painter in the world by American Art Television.

In 2020, I won the first prize in the sketch category of the thirteenth American Art Grand Prix, and the second highest score in the whole field, as well as the first prize of Newington's Best Works in the 92nd American Professional Artists Federation Exhibition.

I am very happy that Kanon has won another prize. When I painted this work, I paid attention to all the details, including the eyes, the light sense, and even the beard of the characters, all were vividly painted! That's why I have achieved today's success.

I am Aidy Lee. I spent more than a month on this long-term sketch, and I like her look very much! So, I chose her as my model. I don't know what will effect my painting before painting, because this time is a new challenge for me. Finally, I also have full satisfaction! In the past two years, I have realized that I like to draw in the style of realism. Usually drawn with lead.

Because I found that after the technique of technology, I often experience the feeling of being brought into a quiet world. In this world, you are a creator and the world is scarce or is sad or cure. Your thoughts. When you find insufficient, you will find it to defeat your past, only have progress! I think it is necessary to create a good work, you must stem from your love for art itself, because patience is the essential basis for painting.

Colors of Humanity Art Gallery

"Black and White" 2021 Show

Best of Show

First Place

Second Place

Honorable Mention

Noteworthy

"Black and White" 2021 Show