John Muir Medical Center Art Show Judging

Aspen Surgery Center, John Muir Medical Center, 133 La Casa Via, Walnut Creek

Monday-Friday December 7-January 15

Juried by Arthur Scott King, Diablo Valley College Art Department

 

Best in Show              Keiko Stong                    Morning Ice

Acrylic/Oil—37 entries

1^st place            Korianna Kisielprice                Chip in the Surface

2^nd place            Joanne Corbaley                      Kansas Harvest

3^rd place            Joanne Corbaley                       String of Pearls

Watercolor—15 entries

1^st place            Keiko Stong                             Morning Ice

2^nd place            George Ehrenhaft                      City Rain

3^rd place            Wendy Oliver                           Peace Rose

Photography—13 entries

1^st place            Mark Pemberton                    Namafjall Hverir

2^nd place            Katrina Martin Davenport            Magnolias

3^rd place            Katrina Martin Davenport                 Lily

Mixed Media/Other—5 entries

1^st place            Yvonne Browne                 Gossiping Bridesmaids

2^nd place            Wendy Oliver                           Sunny Day

JMMC has space for a maximum of 70 pieces of wall art. We started with 31 entrants and 79 entries. JMMC dismissed three quilts that the EBAG show coordinator tried to include as wall art, leaving us with 30 entrants and 76 entries. One entry was dismissed due to lack of wiring, leaving us with 75 entries. With five too many, our juror, Arthur Scott King, looked over all the entries to determine the “bottom” five.

His criteria for dismissal were that these five were not well enough thought out/not fully developed/not fully “cooked.” Conversely, his criteria for awarding the prizes were that the work show evidence of being well thought out/fully developed/fully “cooked.” For example, in one category he went back and forth with the 1^st and 2^nd places several times. Finally, he became sensitive to one of them having a small under developed area, so back it went from 1^st to 2^nd because he could find no such area in the other. When he explained his places, he backed up each decision with well thought out and extremely detailed critiques. He also gave similar critiques to several other pieces. He offered to come to one of our meetings to critique a limited number of pieces from the show, including not only the prize winners but others as well. He suggested we find a way to limit the critique session to about 20 pieces. More about this later.

Acylic/Oil was by far our largest category with 37 entries. The juror included all acrylics in this category, even if they were painted on paper, because he said it’s the handling of the medium that is important, and acrylic handles as acrylic no matter the support. He studied each and every painting in this category, looking for things like consistency, variety of passages, variety of techniques, complexity, composition, color balance, follow-through with shadows, among others.  He complimented two non-awarding-winning paintings, saying that even though they had weak areas, they showed remarkable creative bravery.

The Watercolor category had 15 entries. He looked for things like a combination of techniques in a given painting, such as both wet in wet and wet on dry. Any evidence of an under developed area in a painting was bad news. He explained how an under developed area has an unfinished look to it—as if the artist didn’t know what to do there/didn’t pay an even amount of attention to every square inch of the painting.

He was similarly demanding of the 13 entries in the Photography category. While appreciating a beautiful and inspiring view, he wanted to see more. He wanted the photograph to reinterpret the world with a unique viewpoint. He also wanted to be able to read the photograph as he would a painting, with an eye for repetition of patterns, interesting tonal variations, among other criteria. He appreciated the way his eye was led through the 1^st place photograph and how he kept discovering new nuances. He described the 2^nd and 3^rd place photographs as wonderful examples of the “momentary” viewpoint.

He had the hardest time with the smallest category: Mixed Media/Other. Only five works lined that area of the wall. After much thought, he chose to award only two places, not wanting to “place” a work that fell short of a certain degree of complexity and “finish.”

When he asked if we had a “Best in Show” award, he was answered by a few shoulder shrugs. It was decided that if he felt one piece was head and shoulders above the rest, we’d be happy to add this award. He chose Keiko Stong’s watercolor entitled “Morning Ice,” and gave a glowing and enthusiastic critique of that sophisticated, complex and delicately detailed work of art.

In addition to the few intense hours put in by the juror, EBAG owes a round of applause to the two show coordinators who each spent more than 8 hours at JMMC handling the show, in addition to many additional hours spent preparing for the show. We’d also like to thank Joan Alexander for donating about four hours helping with drop-off and set-up. It takes more than 40 hours of manpower to put on a show like this.

EBAG Artists Works with Area Children to Create Public Mural

A project that began last August has moved forward and is nearing fruition.

From the November 19 Contra Costa Times
Martinez Beavers May Get Mural
By Lisa P. White

” MARTINEZ — If the beavers living in downtown Martinez decide one day to pack up and leave, a permanent reminder of their tenure in Alhambra Creek may remain.

Worth A Dam, the group devoted to protecting and promoting the beavers, has created a public art project to memorialize the toothy, dam-building creatures and the other wildlife living in the creek.

The City Council endorsed the project — a mural of 81 ceramic tiles featuring drawings of beavers, fish, turtles and frogs. The mural will be attached to the concrete wall of the Escobar Street bridge.

In August, children painted more than 100 tiles during the second annual Beaver Festival and the John Muir Mountain Days day camp. Safari West, a wildlife preserve park located in Santa Rosa, donated $200, which covered the cost of the tiles and markers.”

EBAG artists  FROgard Butler, Cheryl Reynolds and Keiko Stong worked with the children to create the tiles and panels that will make up the mural. Many thanks to the artists and to the Organization Worth-A-Dam for their community involvment in this project and in teaching the children about environmental awareness and art.

EBAG Participates in Community Outreach Program

Photograph by FROgard Butler

On October 17th at the Oktoberfest in Todos Santos Park in Concord EBAG participated in a community outreach program to teach children about art and painting.  Children learned how to use water colors.  They experienced many different types of brushes and chose to make lovely paintings ranging from dry brush style to wet on wet.  It was truly surprising to see the concentration on their faces and the joy with which they painted.

Keiko Stong and FROgard Butler were there to help, along with the California Watercolor Association.  Both Keiko and FRO are members of the CWA as well as the EBAG.  It was a pleasure to be there and participate with our youngest community artists.  It was a wonderful opportunity to serve these young artists.

On the same day EBAG participated in the Girl Scout Fly Away Fiesta at Sugarloaf Open Space in Walnut Creek.  The event was well attended by over 150 brownies and girl scouts.  The children moved from booth to booth participating in Environmental Activities.  They included representation from the Audubon Society, Save Mt. Diablo, Worth A Dam (save the beavers), and many others.  Each booth had an activity for the girls to participate in.  FROgard Butler was there to represent EBAG and help the girls with their art work as they decorated draw string back packs and Cheryl Reynolds was there taking lots of photos.  The event was fun, well attended, and in a beautiful location.  The girls and parents appreciated EBAG’s help.

On the following Wednesday I received the following email from Meredith Davis of the Girl Scouts:

From: Meredith Davis

Subject: MANY THANKS!!

Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 2:37 PM

I can’t thank all of you enough for making the Girl Scouts Flyway Fiesta at Sugarloaf Open Space last Saturday a truly awesome event!  We hosted more than 200 Girl Scouts of all ages – from Daisy Girl Scouts in Kindergarten to 11th and 12th grade Ambassador Girl Scouts.  I was walking around all day, and everyone – including the parents – was having a blast.  All of you are to be commended for bringing wonderfully fun activities that captured their interest while they learned a great deal.

On behalf of the Girl Scout Council of Northern California, I extend our appreciation of all your efforts.  We look forward to working with all of you again to bring exciting opportunities to our girls as part of our Green By Nature initiative.

Best regards,

Meredith

Report Prepared By:

FROgard Butler

Education Director

Photographs by FROgard Butler

Atelier Interactive Acrylics

Photography by FROgard Butler

The fifteen EBAGers in attendance at our October meeting learned interesting facts about this relatively new brand of acrylic paints. Atelier rep Tricia Poulos Leonard demonstrated how these slow-drying acrylics can be mixed with water and applied to watercolor paper using watercolor painting techniques. She also showed how the dry paint can be brought back to life using the special “unlocking formula.” To do this, she had begun a painting of pears on canvas earlier in the day. By meeting time, the canvas was dry to the touch, but when she sprayed on the unlocking formula, the paints returned to their wet and blendable state. In addition to the unlocking formula, Atelier also has mediums that can “fix” a paint layer so it can be unaffected by the unlocking formula, slow the drying process even further, or bind paint or collage materials to a variety of surfaces. Similar to Golden Paints “open” line of slow-drying acrylics, Atelier, from the Australian paint products company of Chroma, touts more versatility, and therefore a more rewarding painting experience. One EBAGer won the grand prize of a bag of Atelier products, including a set of 12 paints complete with a demo CD, four mediums, and a fine mist water sprayer. Go to chromaonline.com to learn more.

Pleasant Hill Art, Jazz & Wine Festival

(Photographs by Wenda Pyman and Nina Tyksinski)

Crescent Drive and the plaza were indeed overtaken by the Pleasant Hill Art, Jazz & Wine Festival on the mild-weather weekend of October 10 and 11. EBAG successfully staged two days of working artists, as requested by the realty development company that allows us to use the empty storefront at 105 Crescent Drive.

Thank you’s are in order for our set-up and take-down crews of Walter Crew, Nina Tyksinski, Joan Alexander, Cynthia Tubbs, FROgard Butler, Kori Kisielprice, and Keiko and Bill Stong who worked together handling our display panels and patio umbrellas. We were represented by jeweler (and painter) Rana Miller-Owen and photographers Mark Pemberton, Wenda Pyman, and Kasia Kessler (whose large format camera on tripod, complete with the black shadow cloth drew plenty of interest). One of our colored pencil artists, Glynda Dixon, particularly enjoyed interacting with several family groups, letting the children experiment with her impressively organized colored pencil collection. Participating painters included Walter Crew, Lorraine Botsford, Roz Zinns, FROgard Butler, Kori Kisielprice, Sandy Cornelius, Christopher Georgeovich, Wendy Oliver, Elizabeth Kennen, Nina Tyksinski, Joan Alexander, and Keiko Stong. Painter Sandy Cornelius expressed how beautiful the afternoon (Saturday) was on the plaza, and how she may have found a new member for EBAG, a woman who became very excited at the thought of joining an active and supportive group such as EBAG. As always, our guild benefits when any of us can spread the word about all the positives EBAG offers, such as our monthly membership meetings (with either speakers, demos or critiques), website exposure, exhibit opportunities, and fun outreach events.

Kasia was great in bringing her 6×7 film camera as well as her monster 4×5.  People were fascinated with the equipment, especially the younger ones who only know digital cameras. We distributed a lot of EBAG info.  There were a lot of positive comments with our photography and art work.  People like to see the artists in action.  The location was great, lots of people that filtered through there and enjoying the music.

We thank everyone for their involvement, even if any names were inadvertently omitted.

Abstract Realism

On August 18, EBAG member Egmont van Dyck gave an inspiring and informative presentation of his creative method, which he refers to as Abstract Realism. A failed attempt to hold the monthly meeting at our normal location of the Winslow Center, due to having the wrong key, turned into a successful meeting at member FROgard Butler’s nearby garden home. We caravanned over to FRO’s, leaving a note with her address on the door of the Winslow Center.  Two additional guest visitors found their way to FRO’s and showed up just as Egmont was beginning his talk. We apologize for any inconvenience this last-minute change of venue may have presented to anyone else coming to attend the meeting.

Photo by Mark Pemberton

Egmont uses his career experience in graphic design and professional photography to create his current works of fine art. Applying torn scraps and staples he collects from billboards, particularly Berkeley telephone poles, to either canvas or recycled wood pallets, Egmont creates thoughtful collages that not only follow the basic principles of design, but also document sociological events. He showed us a painting he developed based on an actual section of the Berlin Wall to commemorate the end to that era. His works are reminiscent of the abstract collages of  Rauschenberg, but are actually realistic renditions of sections of industrial walls and cluttered billboards he has observed with his keen artist’s eye, hence his term: Abstract Realism.

Second Annual Beaver Festival

Photo by Erika Goldstein

Three EBAG members helped at the Second Annual Beaver Festival on Saturday August 1st in downtown Martinez.  FROgard Butler, Keiko Stong, and Cheryl Reynolds helped the children create beaver tiles for a future wall display near the Alhambra Creek in downtown Martinez.  Sponsored by the group Worth a Dam, the festival had good weather, good turnout, and many environmental booths, as well as many children activities.

Children and Art go hand in hand and we love to help encourage them to create.  The event was lively with tours of the creek and four different bands playing throughout the day.  It was a perfect opportunity to share both an appreciation of art and environmental responsibility.  We hope to be there again next year and see even more EBAGers participate.  Perhaps a booth with EBAG artists doing pleine aire painting would be a good public educational opportunity.  See you then!

Thank you to Keiko, Cheryl, and FRO for encouraging and helping the children create the tiles.  We look forward to seeing them on display in the future.