JoAnn Clayton Townsend, September Artist in Resident, Stone Tower 1st Floor

http://gaithersburg.patch.com/articles/a-portrait-of-the-artist-joann-clayton-townsend

Great Review of the First Annual Drawing Exhibition!

http://potomac.patch.com/articles/four-artists-discuss-underrated-medium

J. Jordan Bruns, in cooperation with The Friends of the Yellow Barn, is holding a drawing exhibition open to ALL members of the Friends of the Yellow Barn.  The exhibition will take place on Saturday and Sunday, August 20th and 21st, 2011, from 12:00pm-5:00pm.  An opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Saturday from 5:00-7:00pm.

Eligibility Requirements 

·  All work must be created with a drawing medium (no paint!)

·  Artists must have framed drawings, ready to hang

·  Artists must be a "Friends of the Yellow Barn Member"

·  Artists must be willing to share the promotional and reception costs

To Participate:

1-3 drawings can be submitted to the exhibition, no size restrictions

Please send the information: Name, Title, Medium, Price for each piece and make sure that the info is on the back of the drawing upon drop off.

Email J. Jordan Bruns, Yellow Barn Studio Manager, at jordan@jjbruns.com to let him know you would like to exhibit. 

Include a jpg of one of your drawings if you would like to be included in the promotional material.

Please indicate if you are able to 1) help hang the exhibition on Friday night or 2) able to gallery watch while the exhibition is running on Saturday or Sunday, 12-5pm.

You must have your work dropped off at the Yellow Barn on Friday, August 19th at 6:30pm for installation. 

Rachel Collins at Art Space

Ebb & Flow

featuring watercolors by Rachel Collins and sculptures by Jessica Beels

Exhibiting:  July 7th - July 31st

Opening Reception and Gallery Talk:  Saturday, July 9th, 7:30pm-9:30pm

The soft colors and ethereal feel of these paintings and sculptures immediately transport you to the beach.  Shells and bones washed up by the tide, while intriguing enough as pure form, are even more interesting as reflections of what used to surround or inhabit them; their structure wholly revealed only after their original function has ceased. 

Rachel Collins’ watercolors and Jessica Beels’ paper sculptures explore the spaces in and around shells and bones as landscapes and abstracted forms, examining light play and shadows and revealing inner structures and hidden echoes. 

ArtSpace is extremely pleased to be presenting this exhibit by talented local artists.  “This is a wonderful summertime exhibit that will capture the imagination of all viewers and evoke a youthful sense of the wonder of nature and the forms and structures around us,” said Robin Carroll of ArtSpace.  Rachel Collins watercolors are beautiful and Jessica Beels’s sculptures are airy and light.

J. Jordan Bruns on Artistspeak

http://arttistsspeak.blogspot.com/2011/06/jordan-bruns.html

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?

Image a tall stone tower.  Let's say 5-7 stories tall.  It will have a spiral staircase in the center, and at the top of the stair case, a big white cube-shaped room with tons of strategically placed sky lights and very nice track lighting that adjusts with the time of day.  White walls, very clean oak hardwood floors with comfortable benches placed around the hole in the center of the floor where the stair case emerges. Climbing the staircase would make the viewer a bit dizzy, which I think would be kind of fun.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?

Well, I'll answer this question as it applies to painting. Good painting asks questions.  It's at its best when the viewer has to work to connect the dots. This means that not everything is explained at first, and the viewer is forced to ponder, decipher and examine the painting to get the most out of it.  I get very bored when people try and paint a painting just like a photograph. It's equivalent to someone giving you $10,000 for doing nothing; the work would not be worth as much as if you had worked for the $10,000, except for the emotional worth. Good painting asks questions of/for the viewer, and when/if that happens, it is more rewarding and enjoyable.  People grow from art.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?

I don't expect anything, really. However, I do wish that everyone did not just see the post apocalyptic world in my work.  I don't deny that there are elements of destruction, but I still see the rebirth in it too. The themes I explore are akin to a yin and yang. I think everyone is just so depressed about the state of our economy, jobs, wars that everyone just looks for the negative in every situation.  At the same time, I don't want to be known as the guy who is "so cheerful in person, but paints such disturbing subject matter!"

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?

I would say, "Have fun playing chess for the rest of your life!" I remember going to Philadelphia and seeing some of his work.  Duchamp painted a painting for every art movement from Impressionism to Cubism, and Philly had one of his from each - all in a row.  It looked like he mimicked the movement, got all he could out of it, and moved on.  As if all of Cubism could be explained in one painting! This is not to say I don't agree.  I think that there needs to be a balance between retinal and thought-provoking.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?

I think it kind of depends on how artists persevere. When painting first had to deal with photography, everyone said that "painting was dead." Painting evolved, thankfully, and was more interesting, said more, and it truly was better off. Now, photographers have to deal with all the Sunday afternoon digital photographers.  Everyone is a photographer now, and the skill and craft loses some importance.  Not everyone is trained to understand what makes good pictures. I think that when everyone can do art as well as everyone else, art will cease to exist.

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.

How about the age old battle between form and content.  Which is more important?

Free Forms and Faces

Great Review of Tom Semmes!

Yellow Ban instructor, Tom Semmes, is reviewed in the Gazette for his exhibit in Orchard Gallery.  Check out the great article below!
http://www.gazette.net/stories/05042011/entemon112329_32535.php

"An Evening with the Arts: A Benefit for the Children's Inn at NIH"

Friday, May 20th 2011 

6:30-9:00pm

The Bumper Car Pavilion at Glen Echo Park

Tickets are $40 and available at 

www.niharts.com

The Washington Conservatory of Music will perform "Music from the Village, Dave Brubeck to Miles Davis", while artists Jordan Bruns, Walter Bartman, Jackie Hoysted, Margaret Panas, and Lida Stifel will render their unique expressions of the performance in paint.  Guests will be entertained with extraordinary sounds and sights and have the opportunity to purchase the original artworks created that evening through a silent auction.

  All ticket and art sales benefit the Children's Inn at NIH. 

The Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health is a residential "place like home" for sick children and their families.  Families stay in residence with the child while he/she receives ground-breaking medical treatments at the NIH.  While the NIH takes care of the child's medical needs, The Inn tends to the child's heart, soul, and spirit.

Graciously sponsored by The Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery, Banfi Wines,

Plaza Art Materials, Gamblin Paint, Norman's Farm Market and 

The Arts and Humanities of Montgomery County

Instructor Tom Semmes at Orchard

Tom Semmes


Orchard Gallery
7917 Norfolk Ave in Bethesda, MD
orchardartgallery.com


April 22 - May 12
Reception 
Saturday April 23 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm

Opening, Saturday April 9th from 5:00-7:00pm

Art Opening for "An Evening with the Arts"


Featuring the work of:
Walter Bartman
J. Jordan Bruns
Jackie Hoysted
M.M. Panas
Lida Stifel


From 5:00-7:00pm
The Pop Corn Gallery at Glen Echo Park
7300 MacArthur Blvd.
Glen Echo, MD 20812 


This exhibition features the work of the five artists painting in the May 20th, "An Evening With The Arts: A Benefit for the Children's Inn at NIH".  Tickets of the the May 20th event are available at www.niharts.com.  All proceeds go to arts supplies for the Children's Inn at NIH. 

More Great press from Christine Lashley!

Click here!

Christine Lashley

Check out the giant image by Christin Lashley!  This was featured in last weeks "The Weekend Section".

Review of the Instructors Show at the Pop Corn Gallery

Check out the great review of the Instructors Exhibition!
Click here!

Jordan Bruns

Great review of instructor Jordan Bruns!

Christine Lashley

You are invited to Christine Lashley’s solo show:

Artist in the Garden

On exhibit: March 30 - May 1, 2011 at ArtSpace Herndon

Opening reception: Saturday, April 2, from 2-5pm

Christine will demonstrate painting flowers April 2, 2-3pm

750 Center Street, Herndon, VA 20170, 703.956.6591(www.artspaceherndon.com).
Hours: Tue/Wed/Thurs 10am-2pm, Fri 10am-8pm, Sat/Sun 12pm-5pm, closed Mon.
Located near the Fortnightly Library and W&OD bike trail in downtown Herndon.

"Iris Garden" oil, 30 x 40"

SPECIAL PLEIN-AIR WORKSHOP
Paint Flower & Gardens with Christine on April 28 & 29 from 9:30am - 3:30pm at Tree Frog Nursery in Great Falls, VA (indoor studio space at ArtSpace in case of rain), tuition $190. More details and register online at www.christinelashley.com (classes) or click here.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Long-time gardener and environmentalist, Christine Lashley, will exhibit her impressions of natural spaces, from the formal gardens of France and Italy to her own Certified Natural Habitat backyard. Christine’s artwork explores the role of plants in our lives in traditional and less conventional ways. 

Christine Lashley earned her BFA at Washington University in St. Louis, after studying in Paris at the Parsons Art Institute and the Sorbonne. She has held many solo shows in different areas of the country and has competed in numerous juried exhibitions, winning many top awards.  Christine’s work has been featured in publications such as: American Artist Magazine, Elan Magazine and The Washington Post.  She has earned signature membership in several juried art organizations. An art instructor for over 10 years, she is a faculty member of several art academies  in the DC area, including ArtSpace.
MORE UPCOMING EVENTS:
- Spring Plein-Air Watercolor, Yellow Barn/On-location, Fridays May 6 - June 24, 10-12:30 (only 1 spot left!)
- Summer classes in watercolor, Yellow Barn, see my website for 3 class offerings. Enrolling now.
- Baltimore Watercolor Society Annual Juried Watermedia Show, Strathmore Hall, MD, April 5- May 21

Christine Lashley
christinelashley.com

Artists Speak

Hey Artists,
Check out "Artists Speak", http://arttistsspeak.blogspot.com/
Great place to get yourself know!

Gallery 322 New Website

Check out the new webpage of Co-Opp gallery in Frederic, Gallery 322.  Started by Yellow Barn Director Walt Bartman.  http://www.gallery-322.com/

Yellow Barn Instructors at the Pop Corn Gallery, Glen Echo Park

Come check out the Yellow Barn instructors showing their work in the Pop Corn Gallery.  The show will be open Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00-6:00pm this March.

PLEIN AIR COMPETITION AT RIVERBEND PARK

In fact a series of competitions--twice a month--the first to be a a week from this Saturday--that's Saturday, March 12, 2011.

All painters are welcome to compete for the $100.00 prize--winner to be determined by vote of the participants.

There is a $10 entry fee--with ALL proceeds going directly to the park.

The rules are simple: show up at the park between 7am and 9am and have your canvas stamped--all artwork must be produced on the day of the competition and on the grounds of Riverbend Park.

Prize money will be contributed by local sponsors.
Have your canvas turned in and ready for judging by 12:30pm. There will be a grace period of five minutes, after which artwork will be disqualified!

If fewer than four artists show up there will be no competition, so encourage your friends to take part.


In fact, please forward this notice to every artist you know!

Questions? Phone Jack Warden at 703-437-9681.

Thanks for your interest and good painting to all!