Laura Waller received a $500 Award of Excellence for her “Approaching The Harbor” painting on February 6th, 2014 from Exhibition Juror Carl J. Samson at the Visual Arts Center of Punta Gorda’s 9th Biennial National Art Exhibition from a competitive field of 450 entrants from 35 states.
Opening Night of Exhibition of Laura Waller’s Oil Paintings had the largest turnout ever at the Center. Ninety-one people came to see the art work on the night of September 6th, 2013.
The gallery in the Wildlife Center
The Artist in front of “Dinghy No. 2”
Discussing “Detritus” with a collector
Paintings from Monhegan
Laura Waller and fellow artist, Russell Wray
Opening night visitors
Artist Laura Waller discusses the work with visitors
Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge in Rockland will hold an open house and reception with refreshments for its new exhibit on Friday, September 6, from 5 to 8 p.m. during the First Friday Art Walk.
Russell Wray, new to the gallery, reflects in his sculptures on the relationship between humans and other animals. In her photographs, Blaise Botti strives to capture the natural habitat in the hope that people will become aware of the beauty that surrounds them, and want to protect it. Laura Waller of Rockland recently won Best of Show in a statewide Florida juried exhibition featuring three of her oil paintings of Maine scenes. Lori Davis seeks to educate as well as inspire with her photographs.
The exhibition will continue through October. The visitor center is located in Rockland’s South End in the Captain Snow house, the large white building just behind Triangle Park where Water Street and Route 73 meet. The visitor center and art gallery are open Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Contact: Carney M. Doucette
[email protected]
9 Water Street, PO Box 1231, Rockland, ME 04841
TEL: 594-0600 X5 or (C): 975-9994
Come view this fall’s exhibition at the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge on Friday, September 6 from 5-8 p.m. during the first Friday Artwalk in Rockland. Meet the artists, enjoy some appetizers and learn more about the conservation work from National Wildlife Refuge staff and volunteers.
Russell Wray, a new sculptor to the gallery, has a predominant theme showing the relationship between humans and the other animals.
“Entwined Fates” by Russell Wray – basswood, casein paint, string 40″ h. x 35″ w. x 16″ d. The piece depicts a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, entangled in fishing gear, but on another level is about the interconnectedness of humans and right whales, and all the other species.
Blaise Botti, photographer, strives to capture the natural habitat in the hope that people will be aware of the beauty that surrounds them, and they will want to protect it.
Botti Photo: “After a successful fishing hunt, the male osprey prepares to feed their baby osprey.”
Laura Waller is a professional painter right here in Rockland. She recently won Best of Show in a statewide Florida juried exhibition featuring three of her oil paintings of Maine.
“Approaching the Harbor” oil painting of Camden Harbor by Laura Waller
Lori Davis captures spectacular moments in nature and brings them back to share with others, hoping her photographs will educate as well as inspire her audience.
Preening Puffin Portrait by Lori Davis
The visitor center is located in the south-end of town and is housed in the old Captain Snow house, the large white building just behind Triangle Park where Water Street and Route 73 meet. The visitor center and art gallery also are open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This exhibition will be up through October, 2013.
More than 100 artists submitted nearly 300 pieces for consideration in the Alliance for the Arts’ 27th annual All Florida Juried Exhibition. This year’s juror, Frank Verpoorten, director and chief curator at The Baker Museum of Arts in Naples, narrowed the list to 50 pieces which were presented to the public on May 31. Winners were announced during the reception and prizes were awarded. Laura Waller was awarded $750 for Best in Show for her oil painting Owls Head. Bonnie Langenfeld won a $250 Golden Paints gift certificate for her second place fiber art piece Everglades Avenue. Megan Kissinger won $100 for her third place acrylic painting In Singing, Not to Sing – The Oven Bird. Judith Anderson and Deborah Martin both won Jurors’ Choice awards for Whaleback Light (paint/fiber) and Elephant I (mixed media on Kozo paper), respectively. The juror led an hour long gallery walk on June 1, which was attended by more than 60 people.
The All Florida Exhibit is sponsored by FineMark National Bank & Trust. It remains on display in the Alliance Main Gallery through Friday, August 2 during normal business hours (Monday thru Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. during GreenMarket).
The Alliance for the Arts is located at 10091 McGregor Boulevard, just south of Colonial
On view now through August 2 at the Alliance for the Arts is the 27th Annual All Florida Juried Show. Judged by new Baker Museum Curator Frank Verpoorten, Best of Show honors went to Tampa artist Laura Waller for her oil on canvas titled Owls Head.
The painting is awash in subtle, soothing earth tones: umbers and ochres, cadmium and veridian greens, and soft cerulean blues that contain a tantalizing hint of violet contrasted with puffy wisps of cirrus clouds reflected in the foreground water, which also mirrors grass covered spine of land crowned by a white clapboard bed and breakfast shimmering in the late afternoon Maine sun. The depiction is as relaxed, cozy and, yes, romantic as the red chimneyed inn peeking at the viewer through a haze of shrubs and trees. And this is precisely the feel that Waller seeks to evoke in her viewer.
“I’m exploring softness in this painting,” Waller divulged at the opening night reception for the All Florida show. “Our world is so confrontational right now. I want collectors to be able to come home, turn off the televisions, tune out the world and find their balance, their equilibrium within the four corners of my paintings.”
Waller knows first hand the rigors, stress and hard-boiled reality of the financial, business, and political world. Her highly successful career as a financial planner spanned more than three decades. But at the end of 2011, she decided to focus full time on her career as an oil and watercolor painter. As evidenced by her Best of Show, she’s now enjoying critical acclaim in her new avocation.
Waller describes her seaside landscapes as a cross between realism and impressionism, and there are definitely elements of both genres in Owls Head, which mariners named as such because they thought the shape of the promontory resembles the head of an owl. But the chief characteristic of the painting is its softness. Waller applies paint to canvas so sparingly, it’s as if she were trying squeeze the last bit of pigment from her tubes of paint rather than making a run to the art supply store. But Baker Museum Curator Frank Verpoorten noted in his Gallery Talk that Waller intentionally allows “portions of the linen [to] show through so that her colors vibrate.”
This intelligently translucent quality is just one of “many features that make it a beautiful work” in Verpoorten’s cultured opinion. Drawing on his 15-year career at various museums and cultural institutions in New York and Brussels (which include stints at such venerable places as the MoMA, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, and the Dahesh Museum of Art, and as Cultural Attache’ for the Representation of the Government of Flanders), Verpoorten knows good art when he sees it, and he not only awarded Waller Best of Show for Owls Head, he accepted two of Laura’s other submissions into the exhibition as well.
What turned out to be one of the most memorable nights in Waller’s life almost didn’t happen though. She wasn’t planning to enter her work in the Alliance’s All Florida show, but then good friend Barbara Hill talked her into applying and the rest is history, which makes the experience supremely satisfying for both the artist and the Fort Myers Public Art Committee’s seasoned art consultant, who has an unerring eye for good contemporary artwork herself.
The 27th Annual All Florida Juried Exhibition hangs in the main gallery of the Alliance for the Arts through August 2. Drop in and take a look. The show contains 52 strong compositions by some of the most talented emerging and mid-career artists creating works today in the State of Florida.
The Alliance for the Arts proudly supports artists and arts organizations in our area as the state designated Local Arts Agency for Lee County. The Alliance for the Arts galleries and gift shop are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 1:00 on Saturdays.
The Alliance is located at 10091 McGregor Boulevard, just south of Colonial Boulevard. To become a member, please visit http://www.artinlee.org or telephone 239-939-2787.
The 27th Annual All Florida Juried Exhibition opened on Friday at the Alliance for the Arts. This year’s show contains a particularly strong group of works in a diverse array of genres and media. It is all the more interesting because the exhibition is Southwest Florida’s first chance to gain insight into the curatorial taste and sensibility of new Baker Museum curator and director Frank Verpoorten, who juried and judged the show.
Verpoorten has more than 15 years of experience at cultural institutions and museums in Brussels and New York, and has served in curatorial roles at the Museum of Modern Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, the Dahesh Museum of Art and, most recently, as Cultural Attache’ for the Representation of the Government of Flannders (Belgium) in the United States.”As a curator, I have a lot of experience with emerging artists,” Verpoorten said Friday night. “There is something exciting about scouting for new works.”
While Verpoorten is clearly a man who knows what he likes, choosing the 52 works for the show from the nearly 300 submissions was not without its challenges. “Exhibitions are normally broken down by genre or medium,” Verpoorten explained. “What’s unique here is that there is such a wide array, from fiber and photography to painting and sculpture. It’s not easy to compare across disciplines.”
Nevertheless, Verpoorten resisted the natural temptation to choose the best works in each genre and medium, vying instead to select the 50 most compelling and evocative works. In that process, he focused on works that demonstrated intellectual creativity, composition and adept execution. From that perspective, the 27th Annual All Florida Juried Exhibition is a resounding success.
Best of Show honors went to Laura Waller for her oil on canvas titled Owls Head, who was one of two artists who had three works juried into the exhibition. Bonnie Langenfeld was awarded second place for her intricate and alluring fabric and thread Everglades Avenue. Third place went In Singing, Not to Sing – The Overbird, an acrylic by Alliance art instructor Megan Kissinger, who was the other artist to have three paintings juried into the show.
Judith Anderson and Deborah Martin received Juror’s Choice awards.
The 27th Annual All Florida Juried Exhibition will remain on view at the Alliance through August 2, 2013.
The Alliance for the Arts proudly supports artists and arts organizations in our area as the state designated Local Arts Agency for Lee County. The Alliance for the Arts galleries and gift shop are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 1:00 on Saturdays.
The Alliance is located at 10091 McGregor Boulevard, just south of Colonial Boulevard. To become a member, please visit http://www.artinlee.org or telephone 239-939-2787.
Art Collector Maine
Featured Artist September 5, 2012
River Arts Gallery
The Free Press, Rockland, Maine
December 5, 2011
The Jonathan Frost Gallery, at 21 Winter Street in Rockland, will present a holiday show from December 2 to 24. The “Small and Affordable” exhibit features work by 30 artists in all media, including painting, printmaking, assemblage and sculpture. A reception, to which the public is invited, will open the show on Friday, December 2, from 5 until 8 p.m., with holiday refreshments and live jazz performed by Steve Lindsay and Friends.
Holiday show artists include Joseph Adolphe, Siri Beckman, Barbara Beebe, Susan Beebe, Phoebe Bly, Carolyn Caldwell, Melissa Derbyshire, Jonathan Frost, Hugh Gumpel, Kathryn Frund, Liz Gribin, Gints Grinbergs, Peter Haines, Alison Hildreth, Constance Kiermaier, Lorraine Lans, Richie Lasansky, Steve Lindsay, James Loffer, Edward Mackenzie, Ann Makuck, Holly Meade, Gary Milek, Jessie Pollock, Steve Porter, Mimo Gordon Riley, Phil Schirmer, Gretchen Dow Simpson, Laura Waller and Joseph Wheelwright.
For more information, call or email the gallery at 596-0800 or [email protected], or visit www.jonathanfrostgallery.com. – See more at:
http://freepressonline.com/Content/Art/Art/Article/Holiday-Show-at-Jonathan-Frost-Gallery-Opens-December-2/61/172/16276#sthash.vwJQfVRa.dpuf
