AWA NEWS

The Latest from American Women Artists

Carrie Waller Abundance

American Women Artists is now accepting Associate Artist Members. Women who draw, paint, or sculpt in a representational style – whether with a contemporary or traditional approach – are welcome and encouraged to apply for membership. For details, please click on Join Us under Quick Links in the box to the right.

 Join Us and Be a Part of a Great Group!  

American Women Artists is now accepting Associate Artist Members. Women who draw, paint, or sculpt in a representational style – whether with a contemporary or traditional approach – are welcome and encouraged to apply for membership. For details, please click on Join Us under Quick Links in the box to the right. 
 

 

“When I think of death, I only regret that I will not be able to see this beautiful country anymore… unless the Indians are right and my spirit will walk here after I’m gone.”

                                                     Georgia O’Keeffe


Visions of the Southwest   

 121

An American Women Artists exhibition, Visions of the Southwest, consisting of Master Signature and Signature members will open November 3, 2012 at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. A paint-out will be held on the museum grounds Saturday morning with all members.  We are pleased to announce our guest artists for the museum show. Nancy Bush, Jane DeDecker, Gay Faulkenberry, Louisa McElwain, Joan Potter, Sherry Salari Sander, Linda Tippetts, and Star Liana York.

The Arizona Sonora Desert Museum’s mission is to inspire people to live in harmony with the natural world by fostering love, appreciation and understanding of the Sonoran Desert. The Museum’s Art Institute promotes conservation of the Sonoran Desert region through art classes, art exhibits, and stewardship of the Museum art collection for area residents and visitors.  

All AWA paintings and sculpture in this exhibit will have a southwest-focused theme. Come join us in the Ironwood Gallery for the opening reception, November 3, 2012, 2:00 to 4:00pm to see each individual artist’s personal expression of this beautiful region of the United States.  

Exhibit dates: November 3 through January 6, 2013   

________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

American Women Artists 15th Annual National Juried Competition

Held simultaneously with the Visions of the Southwest Exhibit, the Annual Juried Gallery Competition is open to all Associate members. Also exhibiting their work will be the Master Signature and Signature members. The newly renovated K. Newby Gallery in Tubac, AZ will host this year’s show.

“Our mission is to provide exceptional choices and services to our collectors while supporting our artists and charitable organizations we believe in. We represent artists who have achieved the highest levels of recognition in the art world alongside emerging talent whose work is breakthrough in style and technique and an enhancement to our collection.” K. Newby Gallery and Sculpture Garden 

Dates to remember: 

 

Exhibit – November 2 through November 25, 2012

Deadline Reminder, Final acceptance of all submissions July 5th, 2012.                                                 

Find particulars on the AWA web site              

 
Focus on Bonnie Conrad – Signature Member

Bonnie Conrad

Signature Member Bonnie Conrad portrays images of America’s western and rural heritage. Subjects range from Native American to cowboy or women, children, and animals in a rural setting. Having lived on several ranches, including Wyoming, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, and Texas with her ranch manager husband Roger, Conrad has been exposed to the West up close and personal.

It drew her in and she paints it with exuberance. Ms. Conrad dressed her five daughters in pantaloons and long dresses and posed them in the icy Shoshone River “washing clothes” and rounded up her husband’s “hands” in a rare spare moment and bid them to run their horses through the river “one more time” and joined in the bloody “fun” at branding time.  

In her paintings you can see the palpable excitement of the cowboys behind the chutes at rodeo as they ready to try their skills on a testy bronc. Ms. Conrad was so interested in seeing what was going on “out there” that she wasn’t watching “right here” which resulted in a nasty stumble over wagon tongues. The Conrad family has 4-H’d and joined pow-wows and danced at Crow Fair, drove a rickety bus down through seven vegetative zones of the Copper Canyon to visit the Tarahumara Indians, the purported least “civilized” tribe on the North American continent.

In addition, this adventurous family has hiked down to the White House ruins with a 50 lb. pack of “artists paraphernalia” so Bonnie could paint the Navajo Bead workers and the colorfully chiseled walls of Canyon d’Chelly. They all felt the Spirit of the Anasazi ruins of Mesa Verde and puzzled over petroglyphs of southern Utah.

The Sears Gallery at Dixie State College is presenting Ms. Conrad’s exhibition, There are Always Stories to Tell, June 8 through August 24, 2012 in St. George, Utah. Learn more about this amazing artist at her website. 

 

Spotlight – New Associate Member – Fran Kievet 

American Women Artists is proud to feature one of our many new Associate Members, Fran Kievet.  “For forty years I have been observing, questioning, analyzing, and practicing visual arts as a graphic designer and as a painter. What is apparent is that some art moves almost no one, some art moves many, but a few exceptional pieces move almost everyone. In fine art painting, “IT” isn’t so much the subject matter but how the subject matter is put down on a simple piece of canvas or paper with any media.”  

Ms. Kievet is a member of the Salmagundi Club 2010, American Society of Marine Artists Signature Member 2010, Oil Painters of America 2000-2010, WAOW (Women Arts of the West) 2001-2003, Northwest Pastel Society 1998-2002, Oregon Pastel Society 1998-2002   Welcome Fran!  

 
Patricia Davis Semper Fi 

Spotlight – New Signature Member – Patricia Davis

 
“For me representational sculpture must go beyond simply the rendering of the subject. The art is found in the handling of the form certainly, but it is the more intangible representation of the animal’s “being” in the moment that I try to communicate in my sculpture.

I am inspired by the incredible design in all natural form as it moves and
changes. Using this I try to capture the essence of the animal portrayed both
physically and emotionally in a particular moment, rather than simply copy the
tangible form. The challenge is always, to put life in the metal!”

Shown here is a detail of the Semper Fi  monument Ms. Davis created to honor the search and rescue dogs who worked so valiantly at the 9/11 site in New York City. AWA is proud to have Patricia Davis as a new Signature member. Welcome! To read all about this project go to Ms. Davis’ web site.     

 
Like us and Share us to stay in touch on FaceBook. And remember—to forward this email to a friend and have the links arrive intact, use the forward email command at the bottom of the newsletter.

Member News

Exhibit Announcement        
Joy Beckner, AWA Master Signature Member, presented a solo show in May 2012 that consisted of canine bronzes, sterling works, along with a miniature bust of Scott Joplin, at the Margaret Harwell Art Museum in Poplar Bluff, MO. 

  Congratulations to our AWA members, Jackie Kamin, Nancy Boren, Carol Swinney, Elizabeth Robbins, Kim Casebeer, Romona Youngquist and Paula Holtzclaw, who will be exhibiting in the 21st Annual OPA National Exhibition.  It will be held this year at Evergreen Fine Art Gallery, Evergreen, CO. June 22- July 21, 2012.

Margret Short,  AWA Master Signature Member, is researching a new pigment project for her ongoing Lessons Series, called Lessons from the Spider Woman. This is project number five and is in preparation for the upcoming AWA Southwest themed exhibits in Arizona. Follow the stories at her blog.