Wet Paint 2019 Show

This show will run September 1-30, 2019. Artists from around the world were called to submit their work. There were 66 accepted entries and they came from 12 different states in the USA as well as 4 other locations: Canada, Costa Rica, Russia, and Ukraine. A variety of styles and mediums were entered, including but not limited to acrylic, ink, mixed media, oil, and watercolor. The judging criterion was originality, interpretation, quality, demonstration of ability, and usage of medium. 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 Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity’s vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live. For more information about Habitat for Humanity, please visit their website https://www.habitat.org/. Colors of Humanity Art Gallery, LLC is not affiliated with Habitat for Humanity. 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.

I was born in 1937 in Krasnoyarsk region of Western Siberia. Childhood passed in village Maina in worker's family. While studying at school enrolled at the Moscow Krupskaya Correspondence public University of arts. The first training in drawing lasted two years and took place by correspondence with Moscow teachers. I had a craving for drawing, which was supported and developed by my first teachers.

In 1960 I entered the Krasnoyarsk Surikov art college, and in 1968 went to painting program at Far Eastern State Institute of Arts in Vladivostok. In 1973 after graduation went to work in Kemerovo on distribution, henceforth Kuzbass (Kemerovo region) became my second homeland. At the same time I began to participate in exhibitions: city, regional, zonal and regional. I worked 43 years Kemerovo regional art College, where I taught students drawing, painting, composition, sculpture, plastic anatomy and painting technology and at the same time engaged in creative work.

It's been about 15 personal exhibitions in Siberia. And I continue to work on new artworks. I find inspiration in communicating with people, in traveling and in nature.

Portrait is the main theme of my work. It's important for me, because the personality is always very interesting. It is not easy to convey the character of a person. Sometimes it takes a long time to think it over. Peasants are very close and comprehensible to me because I was born and grew up in a village. Depicting of the village workers was really relevant and significant in the Soviet Union. So in the 1980-ies I wrote a series of oil paintings. Large, heavy milkers and farmers, with big work-worn hands, tanned strong stableman and herdsmen, tired, sage, kind and simple people. They have the peace, humility in front of a fate. It was important to draw a simple, individual men, his experience, personal attitude to life at that time. Looking at the faces and characters of people who survived the war I see a reflection of all the hardships associated with it. Image of a common Russian person from the countryside was formed - tired, even exhausted, plainly dressed and understanding everything.

Portrait of BalanKina Evgenia Mikhailovna was written in 1988, she worked as a milkmaid in the Russian village, daily hard work have left their prints. In the large figure of a woman there was spiritual and physical strength. The kindness of the Russian character expressed through hands lying quietly, staring straight eyes, face, early wrinkles. Various details convey my personal attitude - warmth, respect for the worker, whose main job is to live and work on the land.

Images of elderly people with difficult life encourage me. Their life experience affects my perception. Later portraits are different, they are more general, brighter reveal an artistic image. At the same time I remain faithful to nature, strive for the portrait to give a precise, vivid image.

The range of my artwork covers portraits, landscapes and still lifes in various techniques - oil, pastel, charcoal, watercolor. I try new techniques, images of nature, seeking clear expression pattern. It is important for me to remain faithful to the classical realistic painting, the beauty of people, life and nature.

Artist Statement

I want the viewer to share my interest in everyday objects that are unique to ‘the city’. All too often, people may find themselves rushing from place to place without noticing the beauty, history, diversity and culture that surrounds them. They may not have an opportunity to appreciate the street performer, the antiquated storefront, the interesting window reflection-things that contribute to making urban living worthwhile and enriching.

I also strive to capture remnants of the ‘old’ city on canvas before they become fleeting memories- the city of five-story walk-ups, ornamental windows and hand- painted signs. I think it’s important to remember these things.

My art allows people to ‘slow it down’. It gives the viewer a chance to focus on some of the overlooked details that are an integral part of their daily lives; hopefully the viewer will come away with a greater appreciation for their surroundings and share my love of ‘the city’.

Biography

Elliot Appel was born in New York City in 1952. As a child, he was fascinated by film and frequently sketched pictures of the celebrities he admired to see if he could capture a likeness. Mr. Appel continued sketching in this way through high school, and his first major encouragement was finishing second place in a poster-making contest for a play that was to be performed at his school.

Subsequently, Mr. Appel enrolled in New York’s City College, registering for a degree in liberal arts but left college after one year to ‘see the world’. A self-taught artist, Mr. Appel spent the next few years traveling through Europe, fortifying the education he’d begun with trips to museums in Paris, Geneva, Florence, Milan, Venice, Rome and Athens In his early twenties, Mr. Appel’s cityscapes and storefronts call to mind the iconic images of American artists like John Sloan or Edward Hopper, who were influenced by film, and whose crisp, light-flooded takes on modern realistic street scenes inspired American film sets for decades. Appel’s images of old New York City storefronts, with their graffiti-covered doorways, city grime and sharp perspective both confront and draw the viewer into the vital, cinematic-like worlds that he creates. He has often said that he tries to capture “details of every day life that people may not notice or take for granted as they rush from place to place.”

A long-time resident of Bayonne, New Jersey, Mr. Appel has exhibited his work in Soho, Lever House, Lincoln Center. the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Staten Island and the Monmouth Museum. He has had one person shows at the Hoboken Historical Museum and the Watchung Arts Center in New Jersey. Most recently, he has exhibited his work at The Painting Center in Chelsea, the Ridgewood Art League, and the National Art League as well as online exhibits with the National Oil And Acrylics Painters Society. He is the recipient of several awards and has developed a loyal following within the tri-state area.

email: eappel370@gmail.com

Website: elliotappel.com

Facebook: Elliot Appel

Instagram: @appelpaints

Biography

Sandra Burm is a self taught artist best known for the realism she puts in each painting, using the most detailed brush possible to bring her paintings to life. Sandra's paintings are so real, it's as if you could step inside them. Pick up that leaf, or flake the rust off a car bumper. Her style of painting is realism, and the more detailed the better. Sandra has practiced her art since she was 3 years of age when picking up her first crayons she was drawing her favorite cartoons she saw on TV before she even knew her colors. She attended the College of DuPage and has been painting on and off all of her life. Sandra is a award winning artist and photographer as well, taking Best of Show ribbons in multiple contests throughout Georgia and also in online shows. Sandra works in a variety of mediums and also does wood crafts. Sandra grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago, Illinois and now is presently living in a northern suburb of Atlanta, Georgia where she is doing her fine art painting and photography full time.

About the piece

"The General Store" is an actual building, located in northern Georgia. What caught my eye was the old 1950's truck, parked alongside the vintage gas pump. I decided to make the focal point of the scene, centered on the vintage truck, still pulled up to an old gas pump. The rusty old advertising signs on the building reminding us of times gone by, I added some of my own touches with differing signs and added in several other old items to enhance the scene.

I changed the sky and background also the building to make it my own story to tell on canvas. I wanted to capture the essence of what life was like back in the day at The General Store. This place had everything I love about painting Americana, the detail of the patina, and the cracks in the truck windows, lots of old advertising signs, on a rustic building out in the country.

Colors of Humanity Art Gallery

"Wet Paint" 2019 Show

Best of Show

First Place

Second Place

Honorable Mention

Noteworthy

"Wet Paint" 2019 Show