No, not the whole year with regards to news, politics, sports, etc., etc. I thought it would be nice to have one last look at the "Artists of the Month" for 2012. So here is a mini-sampling of the work featured here and in my Art from the Inkwell Monthly Newsletter. Click on the links and names to view larger versions of the artwork and visit the respective websites or galleries of all the artists listed.
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| Forest Jewels |
We kicked off the New Year in January with Barbara Keith, one of my FineArtAmerica colleagues. She works in a variety of media, with a wide-ranging array of subjects,
although big cats are her favorite. She draws on just about anything
that will give her an interesting effect or texture. For example, "Forest Jewels" pictured here, was done on sandpaper. Click on the image to see the full size version.
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| Dark Eagle |
The Artist of the Month for February was Carole Bourdo. Anyone who knows me, or has followed my development as an artist, knows that on my website, on my "Faces West Gallery" page, there is a dedication to two people who were instrumental in getting me started along this artistic journey. One of those people, I am pleased to say, was Carole Bourdo. She was both friend and mentor to me and a great source of inspiration over 30 years ago, when I lived in Colorado Springs, CO.
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| Hand drawn portraits by Laurie Morgan |
The featured artist for March was Laurie Morgan, a young artist from Risca, South Wales. She "liked" my Art from the Inkwell Fan Page, and as I was replying to her, I noticed that she had some artwork of her own posted on Facebook. The link here will take you over to her Facebook Page.
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| Spinner |
The Artist of the Month for April was Carolyn Valcourt, one of my fellow
artists on FineArtAmerica. Carolyn grew up in New England near a horse
farm, and has been drawing horses ever since she was a little girl. She
started out by drawing Saddlebreds and Morgans, but most recently has
focused on western horses, such as Quarter Horses and Paints.
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| 2010 Oregon Stamp Entry |
The month of May Artist of the Month was Doug Walpus, one of my fellow
artists on Etsy. The link here will take you over to his Etsy Shop: DougWalpusArtStudio.
Doug was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and spent most of his childhood
in Omaha, Nebraska. Doug is a self-taught artist who first picked up a
paint brush in the sixth grade, and has been at it ever since. Doug donates 10% of duck related art sales to Ducks Unlimited and 10% of all other wildlife related sales to Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency.
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| Last of His Pride |
I went "International" about this time by joining ArtFlakes.com, based out of Munich, Germany, and wouldn't you know it, my first selection from that association was someone who hails from California! Marc G Doutherd was the Artist of the Month for June, and his work is amazing. This image is a little fuzzy, so to truly appreciate the detail of his work you need to click through to the large version, and from there, explore the rest of his portfolio.
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| "Jiggs" in Graphite |
The month of July brought me to an intriguing story, and consequently my Artist of the Month: Corrina A. Thurston. Corrina is 21 years old, and has only been drawing for about two years.
She has been fighting a number of illnesses for the past three years,
including Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome, which will take her years to
recover from. Due to her illness, she is no longer able to attend
college, or be employed, so she took up drawing (and painting) to occupy
her time and act as a therapy.
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| Ocelot Dreaming |
Isn't Social Media great? Thanks to people "Liking" my Facebook page, and me "Liking" theirs in return, I was
introduced to Lesley Barrett, Scratchboard Artist. I immediately knew
who was going to be my featured Artist of the Month for August.
I think when you visit her website and see her body of work, you will
be blown away, as I was! Seeing as how Lesley lives in Australia, I
doubt our paths would ever have crossed without the World Wide Web and
this social media thing called Facebook.
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| Lion |
My featured Artist of the Month for September was Scott Woyak, a fellow Pen & Ink artist that I came across at
FineArtAmerica. What I find fascinating is
that although Scott discovered that he could draw while in high school,
he felt that he was even better at math and science, and that is the
road that he traveled. He has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, and has spent most of his life
thinking about numbers, equations and software code, always thinking
that he would get back to drawing some day. It took him some 20-odd years to pick up the pen again to start drawing in his spare time, and I'm glad that he did. He has quite an impressive portfolio.
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| Pinot Adoration |
The spotlight in October was focused on Mark Treick (pronounced "trike", like a tricycle). Mark is another fellow FineArtAmerica contributor, and although Mark works with a wide range of subject matter for his
renderings, including pet and people portraits, his lifelike drawings
from a wine drinkers perspective caught my eye. Perhaps that's because Fran & I venture out on a few wine-tasting
excursions each year, sampling the fruits of the vine here in Oregon and
also in Washington, but I digress. Mark's focus is on the life of wine drinkers, and the wine drinking and
wine-making world they work and live in, playing with the images and
reflections that creep into his subjects' surfaces.
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| Water Wheel |
My Artist of the Month for November was Sonny Perschbacher, a retired architect; a graduate of Kansas State
University School of Architecture in 1967. Sonny had practiced for some 40
years before retiring in 2008. During that time, he produced numerous
residential projects as well as a considerable number of architectural
renderings. Lately, Sonny has been branching out, creating works in
pencil, pastels, and watercolors. His pen and ink works have been
ongoing for a number of years and he has done several very
time-consuming "pointillism" (dots only - no lines) pieces (i.e.
trains, clipper ships).
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| What are you looking at now? |
As I finished out the year, I decided to try something new and different, by delving into the realm of photography for my Artist of the Month: Mariola Bitner. Mariola is the new administrator of the Wildlife Group
that I participate in at FineArtAmerica, so I have recently become
familiar with her work. I think that her stunning portfolio is a great
way for me to expand my horizons, and introduce my readers and fans to a
very talented photographer. Photography has always been an inspiration for Mariola, and she strives
to capture life's special moments, the happiness, sadness, wonderment,
color, detail, simplicity and complexity we see everyday.
Finally, I was not aware of it at the time, but I seemed to focus on my Faces West Gallery throughout 2012. In fact, I have another Faces West portrait on my drawing board right now, which will be completed shortly, my first piece for 2013. Below are three of my completed portraits of the past year. I hope you've enjoyed my little artistic walk through the past year and will get a chance to check out some of the artists posted here, and I want to wish everyone a Healthy and Happy New Year!
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| Buffalo Bill Cody |
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| Geronimo |
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| Andrew Garcia - Frontiersman |
