Reginald Bronze

Dear Art Lover,

     Flashing back a few years, I want to feature one of my favorite works.  I like the subtlety of movement in it and the exaggerated proportions in the bronze figure. 

     Reginald was a model that I met during an Open Studio in Austin, Texas. Back in 2000, I did not see many black models or even black artists. I asked him if he would pose for me to create a walking man figure. My studio being over a 30-minute drive from town, I went to his flat in central Austin (for he did not have a car and walked anywhere he needed or wanted to be within reason).

     He posed in his small living room, while I sculpted in his even smaller dining room. It was a wonderful experience for both of us and I was very pleased in 2002 when the bronze Reginald was exhibited in the City of Austin's Dougherty Art Gallery. He was also featured in most of the press received for this July event. The show was titled, "From Paper to Bronze: Sculptors who Draw" and I had invited another artist, Marian Waldrip, to exhibit with me in my first (and only, I think) 2-person event. We even did a LIVE life drawing one evening during the exhibition.

     I hope you enjoy the naturalness I tried to capture in Reginald's body.  I have only ONE of these bronze sculptures Reginald left. He is half-life size [34" H x 12" x 13"] and is priced at only $9500, but until 15 February, you may acquire him (even with my NO-finance-charge layaway plan) at $8075.  Let him greet your home visitors!

    Take advantage of my 15th anniversary Savings until 15 Feb. 2016.. on this or any available artwork. See the special offer from Don Elliott at The Franklin Barry Gallery, as well, here: 

http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/20160111_ArtNews-NitramCharcoalDrawing.htm

And please share this promotion with anyone you think may be interested in it.

Thank you.

Peace,

Kelly

http://BorsheimArts.com

Don Elliot Franklin Barry Gallery Indianapolis

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Happy birthday to Don Elliott!  Recently one of my long-time art newsletter readers asked me how I have built my art career.  Hmmm, I thought my art newsletter was a large part of sharing this journey.  Hahha, oops!  But, nonetheless, one of the things that I do is exhibit my art and do it in a place that permits me to meet new people.  Such was the case when I invested a whole lot of money to exhibit in New York City in 2005 (when I lived in central Texas).  

That event cost me around $10,000 (all on credit cards, I may add, a scary risk for me).  However, before that exhibit weekend was over, I had met Don.  He became one of my collectors then, as well as my new gallerist.  I remember clearly when he said to me, “Kelly, I love your work, but I must admit that it is going to take some time to develop a market for nudes in Indianapolis.” 

Not only do I appreciate his honesty, but I also feel really grateful that he has stuck by me all of these years when another gallerist might not have taken on the challenge of the Midwest.  Don has placed my artworks in collections in the USA and in Canada.  When I need advice on selling, I call him. When I need a frame that compliments my art, I give the project to Don.

 

So, “Cheers!” to a great guy.  Here are just a few of my artworks that he currently has on exhibit at the Franklin Barry Gallery… go on, visit.  Indianapolis has a lot to see!  [Don even has some notecards of images I took of the city during one of my many visits there.]

Franklin Barry Gallery / The Frame Shop
617 Massachusetts Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
Tel. 317.822.8455
Contact: Don Elliott Web site: www.franklinbarrygallery.com

“Lei” and “Lui” sold together or separately.  36” x 10” oil on canvas

“Towards Siena” 24 x 16 inches, oil on board

“Il Dono” (“The Gift”), 25 x 18 inches, charcoal and pastel on brown Italian paper

“Daydreaming of Yesterday,”  18 x 25 inches, charcoal with pastel

“L’Inverno” (“Winter”), 18 x 25 inches, pastel with charcoal

One of my functional bronze artworks: 

“Oh Boy!” (5 male figures in relief, wall hung), 15 x 9 inches, bronze mirror

And these artworks that are not on my Web site, a charcoal drawing “After Prud’hon” and a small acrylic painting from Fiesole, Italy, titled, “Buon Appetito!”:

Franklin Barry Gallery / The Frame Shop
617 Massachusetts Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
Tel. 317.822.8455
Contact: Don Elliott Web site: www.franklinbarrygallery.com

Happy Birthday, Don, and thank you!

Yin and Yang

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote to you. On my end, I drove over 18 hours to a suburb of Chicago to visit Dilbara Arapova, the wife of my dear (and late) friend Vasily Fedorouk. Our visit was barely 24 hours, but we packed a lot in. I took this shot from their living room, enchanted by the morning light and shadows. Three of Vasily’s sculptures can be seen in part here.

Then I drove another four hours to get to Indianapolis to see my good friend and gallerist Don Elliott. He owns the Franklin Barry Gallery and was featuring my work for the art event. The First Friday Gallery Walk was a lot of fun. Fewer partiers and more people really interested in original art. Labor Day weekend turned out to be a better turnout than I expected! I was really happy getting to visit with kids as well as grown-ups; reconnecting with familiar faces and making some new acquaintances. We got to share stories. And I got updated on the travels of several patrons of the gallery that I have met in years past. This next image shows our little “after-party dinner” at a nearby restaurant.
Don is sitting next to me, while artist Travis Little and I hold down the end spots of our group of friends. What a day! I think that Don and I arrived at his home around 1 a.m.

I did not leave the gallery until they closed on the next day, only to drive another more than 18-hour drive back to Texas. I slept maybe 3 hours along the way, so once I returned to my home studio, I fell into a coma-like nap on Sunday. I woke to a call from John B. asking if I was close to the wildfires. Well, that was a bit sobering for an eye opener! He ended up coming over to help me pack what we could. Thankfully, I had not unpacked the art in my car that I brought back to Texas from Indy. The frustrating thing was that there was so little information. Not on TV, not radio that I found, and even the Internet offered little. As the hour got later, John just told me to give up. He believed that the authorities were more focused on getting everyone out than they were in talking about details about the fire. But then, lack of accurate information is often the case in emergencies. John, Cat (the abandoned kitten that now has a home here), and I drove off around 5 a.m. to Austin.

We drove back about seven hours later, around noon on Monday, September 5. These next three images were shot through the car windows. The first image was a fire we passed near a propane supply place not far from the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. This fire had not been reported on the news that we had seen.

The middle image of this series was taken on Farm-to-Market Road 812, just inside the Bastrop County border after leaving Travis County. I must say, it is really difficult to tell distances on things like mountains … and smoke.

And this third image was shot just as we turned onto Greystone Lane. This dirt road goes for about three-fourths of a mile before my driveway starts. That may have been the closest the fires got to our neck of the woods, but it was hard to tell. We had received a call that the fire had jumped a road near the Cedar Creek post-office (a 10-minute drive by road, not sure about crow-flying distance). But I never saw anything that confirmed that the fires had moved that far south.

For the next few days, John and I returned to the house during the day, working and cleaning up dead leaves, plants, and trees, and moving it from the house. We spent the nights in Austin at John’s place with Cat.

In all honestly, I feel a bit daft showing you these not particularly dramatic images when Facebook enabled me to see more of what was going on in the thick of it. Several of my friends have lost their homes in nearby Bastrop. Too many more that I did not know have lost so much. The drought this year and the 3-digit temperatures have been with us longer than “normal” and apparently this is the worst dry spell Texas has had since recorded history.

Still today (the 9th), I have been back in my outdoor studio carving marble and working indoors during the hot time of day again. I have been sorting things and trying to figure out what I have that can be donated to many of my artist friends who are now homeless. I finished my last book edit yesterday for my project “My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy” and I must say that I cannot wait to hold the book in my hands! So, good things and horrible things: what a summer of yin and yang.

Indianapolis and Chicago

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I recently returned from my visit to Indianapolis for two art events at the Franklin Barry Gallery. I was charmed to meet my formerly only-through-Facebook friend and fellow artist Travis Little. Travis also has some of his mixed media figurative works at the gallery. He not only supplied the digital projector for my presentation of “My Life as On of the Madonnari (Italian street painters)”, but he also showed me around downtown Indy a bit whenever we found time away from business. I am afraid I teased him about being a groupie because he was so friendly and supportive, as well as complimentary of my work. I am honored to have made his acquaintance for real.


I hope you enjoy this self-portrait I took on a timer of Travis and me showing off some of our artwork in the gallery while owner Don Elliott was busy choosing frames and taking care of the details for the upcoming exhibit. I wanted to share this cool story: that morning I had a minor “ironing incident” with some olive oil and my skirt and Don ended up pulling some of his mother’s dresses from a closet. So, this may have been the first time I have ever worn orange before! [Don gave me this dress and the vintage slip that went with it before I left his home. How cool was that?!]


I love seeing how Don and his assistant Chuck frame my drawings and paintings. I was delighted that Don chose a thin metallic magenta frame for the oil painting “Insatiable.” I do not have an eye for framing, but this choice made this painting even more colorful and fun. For November, Don has featured this colorful large sensuous mouth in the front window of the Franklin Barry Gallery aka The Frame Shop. He also exhibits several of my series of “Lips” stone carvings. See them if you can!


-----


The morning after the First Friday Gallery Walk in Indy, I headed to Chicago to see the family of my late friend and mentor Vasily Fedorouk.. Vasily’s wife Dilbara and I enjoyed our time together and spoke a lot about ways in which we can keep alive the memory of Vasily and his art. I was thrilled to see my friend’s latest marble sculpture, but so sad to realize this was also his last. Although I am tempted to share images of this composition with you, I defer to his family on this point. Instead, I hope you enjoy this image of a vine growing in their back yard. Can you tell me what plant this is? I have never seen one like it before.

Portrait Painting of John Henderson

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I signed my portrait of John Henderson today. I wrote about starting this portrait earlier on this blog and wanted to share with you something of my subject.

Via Don Elliott at the Franklin Barry Gallery, art collectors John and Sara Campbell sent me two small photos they took of their friend “Big John” Henderson during events at the Highland Golf and Country Club in Indianapolis. John C. wrote me this in early February:

“John Henderson (or "Big John") as everyone calls him, has worked 13 years as the dining room manager at the club. He is one of our most beloved employees. He is from St. Louis and has one sister, Darlene. He has gone back to St. Louis and his sister is caring for him. He probably has only a few days left. The cancer hit him very quickly. He worked right up until before Christmas. He is about 6'4, maybe 220-30lbs. A very big, strong man. Big hands, yet long fingers with a sort of delicacy; long, muscular arms.

He worked out a lot, kept a Bible in his podium and regularly attended Church. While he was wild one in his youth, he settled down, found Jesus and was very happy with that. He never had a cross word about anyone and always looked for the best in people. He worked constantly. Had two other jobs a few years back, but cut back to just the club and one other later. Children loved him. He was always taking care of them, getting them ice cream and sodas. He loved being around them, probably because he didn't have any.

There was always a big closed mouth smile on his face. His voice was deep and so was his love of people. WE were his family. We went to see him last Monday in St. Louis. He'd lost about 30 lbs was curled up in bed and only came around slightly for a few minutes. It was a very hard visit for us.

Just to give you an idea how much he was thought of: even though he has insurance, several of the members got together and in a week and a half, raised over $60,000 to make sure he had the best of care. He always wore a black vest, black bow tie and short sleeve white shirt (even in winter). We are renaming the dining room in his honor and they wanted a portrait of him to hang in there so he'd always be with us.”

“Big John” Henderson died on Tuesday morning, February 10, 2009. He was 52 years old.

Portrait Painting

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

It is a joy to hear about a person who gives to others with an open heart. I learned of such a man recently when I was commissioned to paint his portrait.

Franklin Barry Gallery owner Don Elliott in Indianapolis sent me two snapshots taken by my American patron of the man I am to paint, “Big” John Henderson. I am not fond of working from photos, especially flash photos, however, sometimes that is all we have with which to work.

“There is nothing so intimidating as a white canvas.” I do not know who originated that quote, perhaps someone who is not a “clean-freak.” In any event, my first step was to apply a light wash of ‘rootbeer color’ on the canvas. Many years ago, I was visiting my friend Rebecca Neef in Bastrop, Texas, and I saw a copy she painted of a work by the late John White Alexander. I immediately fell in love with the rootbeer-colored glaze that Rebecca used on the dress of the figure. Turned out that Rebecca made the paint herself, having studied classic pigment making. She called it ‘asphaltum’, but decided ‘rootbeer’ was a more romantic name. I bought the paint from her straight away. I love this juicy color!

Winsor and Newton (W and N) now makes a similar hue called “Transparent Brown Oxide” and Rebecca said she stopped making asphaltum after she discovered this. So, having used up most of Rebecca’s pigments, I now use WandN.

Next, I posted my printouts of the images I received via e-mail and figured out my design of shapes on another sheet of paper. I later transferred my final portrait design to the canvas.

The transfer (vs. directly painting on the canvas) allows me to play with my design without ruining the background color, not having decided how much of I want to keep. It also allows me to move the figure around until I am pleased with where he sits in the composition.


Now for the goodie: Don Elliott asked me to continue my portrait special and so, I will. Here is the basic information on this offer:

From your photographs or from life, when possible:
You may choose:
Half life-size or smaller in pencil: $300 per head/person
Life-size (approx.) in charcoal: $500 per head/person
Life-size oil painting – monochromatic (sepia): $700 per head/person
If you prefer color, a life-size pastel drawing: $600 per head/person, life-size
Plus, FREE SHIPPING from Florence, Italy.

Contact me for details (just respond to this blog or visit my site).
Please let me know if this is a gift or if you are having another deadline (such as an anniversary party or wedding) so that I can make sure you receive your original art on time. All submitted photographs must be accompanied by permission from the copyright holder for a one-time use to create a painting from the photograph. And of course, if you were here in Florence, Italy, I would love to make a drawing of you from life.

Thank you for your continued interest and support. More to come . . .