February was Art-Filled and Fun!

Special note:  If you have visited my website www.burgarellaart.com please forgive the outdated information, as I am in the process of creating a whole new website which will be launched soon.  Stay tuned!

A few delicious morsels since my last posting . . .

Well, Art on the Island (Feb 13-14) was a smashing success.  The Clubhouse on Marsh Island was packed with buyers and lookie-loo's, and just gobs of people who love art.  The food was great, and there was specialty beers and wine flowing, and everyone seemed to be having a jolly-good time.  But most importantly, my "Artbox" won first place prize in it's category (Paintings with Pizazz!)  AND it sold!  Would have liked it for myself, but you have to let your babies go!

"Mona Lisa Artbox" Oil painting on Art Box by Judy burgarella

Then a concert at my friend Geoff's, featuring "Fishing in America" which was fabulous.  Good music, good food, and fun with friends.

Did a couple of demos at the Sebastian River Art Club during my classes this month, one in oils and one in acrylics, and did a demo in acrylics for my upcoming acrylic class in the Vero Beach Museum of Art.  Tried to work out the kinks in demoing the following, but couldn't make it work, so did a demo on a close-up of my granddaughter, Salem, which I will post when it's done--in the ugly stage right now.  But people enjoyed watching the process at the Museum.  The other painting is shown below, and is my 3-1/2-year-old granddaughter Salem who wants to be an "As-s-t" just like her grandma.

"Salem the Artist" Acrylic by Judy Burgarella

A little more tweaking on her face and it will be done--but it will have to wait until after "Under the Oaks," coming up this weekend.  Still so much to do, but I'm getting it done.  Tweaked some old paintings, adding birds and such to get them moving, touched up some frames, having prints made, and I have a few new paintings to show off.

After Under the Oaks, on Wednesday, March 25th is "Plein Air at the Vero Beach Yacht Club.  Fun painting outdoors all day with friends, culminating in an art show where the buyers are serious fans of marine art.  Rain date March 26th.  Looking forward to that, as I cut my art-teeth on plein air painting back in the day in Connecticut.

In between all this I managed to pitch in with a "Move-'Em-West," a big rally at the VB Admin complex near the airport.  When they say "You can't stop a train," that's not true, because we're going to do it.  We, a group of concerned citizens, will not let All Aboard Florida trains ruin our little piece of paradise by cutting through our beautiful shoreline towns with their dirty and dangerous freight trains, high-speed passenger trains flying over our roads, and all of this endangering our peaceful towns.  Enough said.  Back to art.

Then comes my upcoming "Painting Portraits in Acrylic" class at the Museum, and after that I can rest ... I think.  But actually I'll probably get geared up to work for my daughter at her Crimson Key Estate Sale business.  No rest for the weary.  Plus there's babysitting for adorable Salem.  Sandwiched in there somewhere I will paint something that inspires me, I just can't help it.  It's my drug of choice.

Come back again y'all!

Judy Burgarella
Blogger

Art Tour Over--now for AOTI!

SEBASTIAN ART STUDIO TOUR OVER ...
Wow, what a day!  The weather was fabulous, and had hundreds of visitors.  Sales were great, made a lot of contacts for future sales and classes, and met some very interesting people who love the arts.  Got great feedback on the public's visit to other studios ... everyone loved it.

I set up the house with 6 racks of art on the lanai, art throughout the dining and living rooms, with my portrait teaching video on the TV and U-Tube 2-minute portrait video on the computer.  Dozens of paintings were hung on the hallway wall going into my studio, with many small ones hung around the studio.  Had the Mona Lisa paintbox (pictured further down in this posting) in-process on the easel.  At these type of events I usually have a free raffle, and the raffle winners were picked by my granddaughter Salem (3 yrs): for a free 3-hour painting lesson in the media of your choice was Pat Levesque; free palette painting, subject of your choice was Pam Cusanelli; free plein air painting session (outdoors) was Dean Wyesinski.  All materials will be provided by me.

Lots of food, wine and other beverages on the counter.  But forgot to take pictures, it was so busy and I was so distracted.  Friends Rita Ziegler and Christine Thomas, along with my husband Bob, helped greet and guide.  All-in-all, it was a fun and successful day, and I plan to participate next year, God willing.

ART ON THE ISLAND
This should be a fun one.  The Vero Beach Art Club's very first 3D show, "Art On The Island," is scheduled for Friday 5-8-opening reception, then Saturday 10-4.   All three-dimensional art: jewelry, pottery, sculpture, wood-carvings, and paintings only allowed that consist of 3-dimensional items.  And so I thought it would be wonderful to use a paintbox of my dear friend and student, Ruth Steere, who passed away last year, and personally honor her memory in this way.  She would have loved it.  This is the second of her paintboxes that I have painted, the first one was a rooster, pictured in an earlier posting, which was donated as a fundraiser for the Sebastian River Art Club's Rosalee Hume Scholarship Fund.  Below is a pic of it, which is as I type under the high winds of a fan for the final drying, as it is in oil.  Only one little section is still wet, but will be ok by receiving which is over at 2:00.  Talk about squeaking in!

"Mona Lisa Paintbox" Oil by Judy Burgarella

Had such fun painting this one.  And talk about gaining a close and personal appreciation for a master's painting!  The hand by the way is Bob's, who reluctantly posed for about 20 pictures, and put up with me bending his fingers and arm in all kinds of angles.  It's such a different kind of work to show, I wonder how it will be received?  I painted another master's painting a few years ago for a special Sebastian River Art Club Show, pictured below.  Note the remote in her hand and the Superbowl on the TV.  "Whistler's Mother's Obsession."

"Whistler's Mother's Obsession" oil by Judy Burgarella

And so I hope my paintbox meets with approval by art-lovers.  In any case, I believe this show is a great idea for the Vero Beach  Art Club, and I hope that this becomes a yearly event.

Judy Burgarella
Blogger

 The Sebastian Art & Music Festival
January 17th & 18th, Riverview Park, Sebastian, Florida, 

As I type this, I am ready to crash.  Tent shows can be exciting, but exhausting.  And it's all about Sell-Sell-Sell.  That is basically what we're there for, so we all put our creative juices aside and put on our marketing hats to help pay for our addictive habit.

The weather was beautiful, and I was neighbored by a potter and jeweler.  Lots of friends and students came by my tent to chat, and I handed out lots of literature and business cards.  So it was a slow start on Saturday, but in the end I did ok ... not great, but ok.  Moved out some originals and prints, and promoted some upcoming shows: "Art By The Sea," the Vero Beach Art Club's premier show in the Vero Beach Museum of Art, Friday-Saturday-Sunday of next weekend.  I'll be doing Quality Control for incoming art, and helping Dawn Mill as part of the hanging crew inbetween.  Below is a picture of my own entry into that show.  It is painted in acrylic, and is from a photo I took during a visit to the Brevard Zoo--a fabulous place to find painting subjects.

"Flamingo" acrylic by Judy Burgarella

Art By The Sea is a fun show and a wonderful venue for VBAC artists, being that it is in this wonderful museum in Vero Beach.  I will be teaching a 5-week course on portrait painting in acrylics there this spring, and I am currently assisting Christine Thomas with her "Cork and Canvas" classes there, which are a smashing success on about every other Thursday night. 

After Art By The Sea next weekend, I will be getting ready for the 4th Annual Sebastian Art Studio Tour, which will be February 7th, 10-5:00, and includes 13 artists in 11 studio stops, including mine.

After that is "Art on the Island," another VBAC-sponsored show featuring 3-dimensional art.  I've got a doozie in the works for that one, which I will post soon--but right now it's in the ugly stage.

And following that in March will be the BIGGIE ... the Vero Beach Art Club's "Under the Oaks," one of the biggest shows in the state, drawing upwards of 80,000 visitors.  Need to paint some special things for that ... but when time?  Life is rich with exciting ideas, interesting people, fun art events and beauty all around when one is involved in the arts.  It is my drug of choice, my therapy, my food for life ... though only second to my grandchild Salem.

 And so it goes, after Under the Oaks my art-life will slow down and bit, just in time for the blast of hot weather here in Florida, but along with the hot weather comes all of those beautiful tropical birds who migrate up in the spring to new feeding grounds.  It's a veritable zoo here in Florida, compared to where we came from--Connecticut. And also I will spend more time with Salem and her family.  And have more time to get all those painting ideas out of my head and onto the canvas.

Stay tuned for news of the expanding arts district in Vero Beach off 14th, as I hear more about it.

Judy Burgarella
Blogger

 

Fantastic Discovery!

Christopher Chang, in his studio

 I rediscovered Christopher Chang today.  He is one of the most extraordinary artists I have ever met.  He was part of the protest at Tianamen Square in Beijing China on June 4th, 1989, called the Tianamen Square Massacre, which China forbids its people to talk of, and has conveniently eliminated the incident from its history books.  It was a sad situation which we in America watched unfold, this crushing of a democratic movement by young students.  They even erected a "Goddess of Democracy," curiously resembling our Statue of Liberty, which they formed out of styrofoam and plaster.  One young man stood in front of a line of tanks to stop the madness.  In the end hundreds died, some say thousands, and nothing came of it except a burning desire for some to escape that madness.  Christapher's art was sometimes used as propaganda in China, and so somehow he got to the United States, where eventually I was to meet him in the art world.

This was about the year 2000, years after the Tianamen tragedy, but Chris's perception of the world through his life experiences was evident in his passion for his new life, and art life, in the USA.  And so I happened upon his workshop in the Granite Street Gallery in New London, Connecticut.  It was a quaint eclectic group of artists whom I painted with and exhibited with for a couple of years, taking the few workshops with Christopher.  His portraits were extraordinary, rich with texture, stroke and color.  His use of green enchanted my sense of color and to this day when I load my brush with green to apply it to a portrait I think of him.  An interesting legacy--green paint--Christopher Zhang.  But I always tried to paint directly in back of him so that I could see every stroke, every loaded brush, every bodily nuance.  His painting process was dab--jump back--dab again--jump back, stop and stare.  I thought this behavior quite strange and did not understand it at the time, but now I do, as the whole of the painting must be constantly observed for its composition based on the gathering of strokes of color.  And one must not be too judgmental with oneself, but forgiving else the painting will look too labored over and lose its freshness and liveliness.  It's a delicate balance, the seeds of which I learned from Christopher.  I was just one of probably thousands of students by now, but this was my first portrait in oil, and I think my first attempt at the medium, having been mostly a watercolor painter, and new to painting at that.

And so can you imagine that when I visited his website, being curious about him after mentioning his name in a bio I am doing for a teaching job, that right there on his studio wall was his version of the portrait I have in my studio, which I painted at the New London Gallery with him!  I quickly went to my "stash" of unfinished or "unloved" paintings (dogs I call them) and pulled out my "Mustachiod Man" like Chris's.  The model was interesting, but I always hated his open shirt and thought that someday I would change that, update his face to the level of expertise I possess now, frame it and add it to my show collection.  Now I am inspired to do that ... it's on my "todo" list with the hundred other things.  Anyway, here is Chris's and here is mine.  What a world. You can visit his website at www.chriszhangstudio.com

Christopher Zhang's Studio in East Lyme, CT

Christopher Zhang's "Man with Mustache"

Judy Burgarella's "Man with Mustache"

As I look back on this painting which I hate every time I came across it, it's really not too bad.  A little void of contrast, color and values, but I think I will put other clothes on him, darken the background like Chris's, and put a little more color on his hair and mustache.  Maybe.  Someday.  But other shows are calling so I'd better get cracking on some interesting paintings.  Stay tuned, and happy New Year to all!

Below is the latest version of my show schedule:

Ongoing

• Sebastian River Art Club's Art Center, 1245 Main Street, Sebastian. Open Tuesday, Thursday and most Saturdays, 11:00am-3:00pm (Featured Artist for January 2015)
• Sebastian City Hall, 1225 Main Street, Sebastian
• Indian River County Main Library, 1600 21st Street, Vero Beach  772-770-5060
• My art studio (by appointment only)

Future Shows
(As of 1/1/2015)

• Jan 1-30 - Artist of the Month, Dale Sorensen Realty, 1961 14th Ave 772-492-5300 
• Jan 1- 30 - Artist of the Month, Sebastian River Art Club, 1245 Main St., Sebastian
• Jan 6 - 11:00-4:00 Plein Air Paintout on Veteran's Island, Vero Beach
• Jan 9 - April 9 - Indian River County Courthouse, 2000 16th Avenue, Vero Beach
• Jan 17-18 - Sebastian Fine Art & Music Festival (www.sebastianartshow.com), Riverview Park, Sebastian.  Tent Show, over 120 exhibitors, food, music.
• Jan 23-25 - Vero Beach Art Club's "Art By The Sea" at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, 3001 Riverside Dr, Vero Beach. Jan 23 5-8pm (Opening Reception), Jan 24 10-5pm, Jan 25 10-4pm
• Jan 24 - Sebastian River Art Club Park Show, Riverview Park, Sebastian. Tent show, 10am-4pm
• Feb 7 - Sebastian Art Studio Tour.  One of 13 Sebastian Artists whose studio will be open to the public. 9-5 pm  www.SebastianArtStudioTour.com ~ www.SebastianArtStudioTour.blogspot.com
• Feb 13-14 - Vero Beach Art Club's "Art on the Island" at the Marsh Island Club, 9155 Marsh Island Drive, Vero Beach.
• Feb 14-15 - Sebastian River Art Club's Competitive Show, Riverside Park, Sebastian. Tent show, 10am-4pm
• March 13, 14, 15 - Vero Beach Art Club's "Under the Oaks" fine art and craft show, Riverside Park, Vero Beach. An award-winning tent show with over 250 exhibitors. www.verobeachartclub.org
• March 20 - Treasure Coast Art Association's "Essence of a Woman" 223 Avenue A, Ft. Pierce info to come
• May - Florida's Finest en Plein Air info to come

Judy Burgarella

Blogger

One last painting before Christmas!

Pumped out the below painting last night in two hours.  My brush was on fire!  I needed a nice reference photo that would still look good if it was drastically reduced, and this is it.  Hopefully this painting will make the Press Journal's Cultural Connection section, as part of my press release for my Dale Sorensen show in January.  I painted this on a 4"x4" canvas last year as a donation to the SRAC's Food Pantry fundraiser, and thought it would make a good large gallery-wrapped piece, which I think it did.  I used my new ot light to work on it at night, and it worked beautifully.   

"Sandhill Crane" oil by Judy Burgarella

So Merry Christmas to you all, and stay tuned for more new paintings to come!

Judy Burgarella
Blogger

The Christmas Push!

I had to put the push on painting some really fun small giftings, in order to get them to their destinations on time.  The following two are mini paintings fashioned for use as ornaments for the Sebastian River Art Club's fundraiser for the Food Pantry.  I developed this program last year, got the little canvases and other supplies, nagged the SRAC members to paint, had a "backing and hanger" assemblage party.  We filled up 2 trees with these little beauties, then had an opening reception to launch them ... the result of which we were able to donate $700 to the Food Pantry for the holidays.

This year, since I am busier than a one-armed paperhanger with family obligations, some wonderful hearty hands pitched in and took over the responsibility.  I think the paintings are even better this year, and I can foresee this program going over the top each year and becoming quite famous locally.  These little masterpieces are sold for $10 each, and all proceeds go to the Food Pantry in Sebastian.  What a great way for artists to give back and utilize their talents for the good of others.

"Red Hibiscus" mini Acrylic

"Boat Reflections" mini Acrylic

The next painting was for my daughter Tracy and her hubby Turhan, who live in Chandler Arizona.  They lost two beloved cats this year, and Maggie, their Scottish Fold cat, was also failing.  I happened to come across this lovely box in TJ Max, and got the idea to make her a painting to put in the picture frame area.  She already had full-face paintings of all their five cats from last Christmas, but this one would be profile and more contemplative--with less of an "angry cat"-like look that Maggie always had.  Maggie had a craggy nose, flat ears, and a rather mean disposition, so I tried to capture the softer side of her for them to remember her by after her passing.   I finished it quickly, packed it up and mailed it best fastest way, hoping it would get there before Maggie's passing.  It arrived the day after and so was a bit sad for them.   The painting was only 3"x5", but painted with much tenderness and love.

As Christmas approaches my mind begins to focus on my soon-to-come after-Christmas art obligations, which seem like many right now.  And so I must find time to paint for them, in between working for my daughter's www.CrimsonKeyEstateSales.com company, and babysitting for her and Cass's adorable daughter, Salem, pictured below.

And so visit this blog again soon as I bang out paintings for January, when I will be the featured artist in the Sebastian River Art Club's Art Center's "Orange Room" (quite a challenge gathering paintings that go with orange!), and also the Featured Artist in Dale Sorensen Real Estate's office in the Vero Beach Arts District, where my daughter Robin also works as an agent.  Come see my work there during the Gallery Stroll, January 2nd, 5-8 pm.  Then the next month my art studio will be part of the 11-studio "4th Annual Sebastian Art Studio Tour" on February 7th, 10-5:00.  This is my second year participating in this event, although I helped out with publicity on the others.

As I sign off today, all those who see this posting I wish a Merry Christmas, and a new year filled with good health, peace, love, and art.

Judy Burgarella
Blogger

Little Lucy Finished!

Finished this oil portrait of "Lucy," Ruth Steer's great granddaughter.  Ruth had started the portrait even though she had limited time left on this planet.  She tried her best to get it done but her time just ran out.  She was a great lady, an accomplished artist, and I felt privileged to be her art instructor and friend.  She gave me much wise advice on many topics over the years, and I admired her strength, courage and upbeat attitude in spite of her condition.  I hope she would be happy with what I've done to the remains of her painting, which is posted below.

"Lucy" Oil painting by Judy Burgarella

  Another one of Ruth's old wooden paintboxes is on the easel, the design of which I'm very excited about--something really different, but I think it will take a long time.  Also, I recently purchased an old wooden ironing board which will be converted to a wonderful conversation piece--can't wait to work on that one too.  Life's a banquet when you paint--full of adventure, color, and new ideas that just keep rolling around in your head just waiting to come out through your paintbrush!

Friday night I attended Gallery 14's "Our Beautiful Waters" and took 3rd place prize for my "Waiting to Sail" below.  It's always nice to add to my string of ribbons, but it was also nice to receive some gift certificates to places where I don't normally shop. Gallery 14 also featured my "What Lies Beneath" prominently on their front wall.  Finally someone appreciates that whacky manikin creation of mine.

"Waiting to Sail" oil by Judy Burgarella

Last week I finished this tiny painting for the Sebastian River Art Club's ornament tree.  All proceeds from the sale of these little jewels go towards our Scholarship Fund.

"Orchid" tiny oil painting by Judy Burgarella

Got to get crackin' on projects I'm working on for Bob and daughter Tracy right away for Christmas.  They both involve painting on something, which is always great therapy for me to have a goal that involves brushes and paint.

If you're reading this, I hope this inspires you to pick up the brush if you hadn't already.

Judy Burgarella
Blogger