Bastrop Fine Arts Guild Texas

Dear Art Lover,     

      After I left the Italian Consulate in Houston on Monday, I drove west and made a couple of stops in Bastrop, Texas.  Many, many years ago when I was branching out to neighboring towns to try to build up my art career, I had gotten involved in the Bastrop Arts Community.  I taught in an Art After School program for elementary children and I joined the Bastrop Fine Arts Guild. 

     Boy, has the guild and the city taken some dramatic leaps forward!  The gallery run by the Guild has moved to 815 Main Street and the space is such an improvement!  It is open and has windows in the front and on one side that allows visitors to see some art even when it is after normal gallery hours.  They also have a classroom in the back.  I was grateful to several artists there who opened the gallery so that a small group of us had time to meet and swap stories.

Bastrop Fine Art Guild Artists CJ, Myrlene, Peggy, Mike, Kelly, with Jeff in front

 

Bastrop Fine Art Guild Artists Peggy, Mike, Kelly, and Myrlene

     In addition to that big change, I drove past a convention center!  All new, of course.  And the Guild members showed me the architectural plans in the works for a new community art center that will be across the street from the Bastrop Convention and Visitors Center.  This kind of thing was never something that I heard any of the Guild members of my time even dreaming about!

tasty dinner prepared by Bastrop quilter Elizabeth Overholser

with my friends in front of one of Elizabeth's quilt [E is second from left]

      Four years ago when I left Texas for a return to what I had started in Italy, there were horrible wildfires in our area.  So many people in Bastrop lost their homes and were displaced for a long time.  I am so happy to see that grants and other wonders are being given to Bastrop to help rebuild this artsy community.

The August Art Sale continues… see postings here on my blog this month or the corresponding album on Facebook.  Offer ends 31 August 2015.

Dana Lounging - Original Oil Art

Today’s listings:

Dana Lounging - AVAILABLE $200
20" h X 10"Oil on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas [framed]
© 2006 Kelly Borsheim 

http://www.borsheimarts.com/painting/room08.htm

 

Dana's Backside  - Offer:  $300
16 x 20 oil on gallery-wrapped canvas
2005 by Kelly Borsheim
http://www.borsheimarts.com/painting/room06.htm

Dana's Backside - Original Oil Figure Painting from Life

Gillian - Original Oil Figure Painting from Life by Kelly Borsheim

  

Gillian    -  Offer  $200

20" X 16" Oil on Canvas framed
2003 Kelly Borsheim
http://www.borsheimarts.com/painting/room05.htm

"Gillian Draped"   - Offer $850
24" h X 48" Acrylic on Canvas (including metallics) © 2003 Kelly Borsheim
http://www.borsheimarts.com/painting/room06.htm

Payment plans accepted; no finance charge, as usual.

Peace,

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor and painter

http://BorsheimArts.com

P.S.  Happy birthday to my wonderful Godmother and sweet Aunt Carole!

Gillian Draped - Original Figure Acrylic Painting from Life

Artemisia Gentileschi Women and Violence

Susanna and the Elders by Artemisia G.

Dear Art Lover,

     I finally finished my May newsletter.  I have a habit of expanding it as I research the topic and then have to edit myself.  Everything is connected you know.  I am sure that you have or you know of that type of person who can enter a library looking for one thing… find something semi-related that is also interesting and then look up from sitting on the floor in the aisle and realize that not only have hours pouring over texts gone by, but they drifted into subjects not on topic!  This is also why I rarely trust anyone who would claim to know everything on any given topic!

So, without further ado, here is the link to the newsletter [with images] about the female painter from Rome who beat the odds of her time… and maybe even of our times, Artemisia Gentileschi:

www.borsheimarts.com/news/201505_ArtNews-ArtemisiaGentileschiCaravaggio.htm

     Related to her story is one for my next art event.  I want to give something back to the Renaissance City for some of the many changes in my life since I first came to touch a Michelangelo in 2004.

You are invited!
Enjoy the party, meet artists, si mangia bene!
Aperitivo (buffet) free to attend
All artworks start bids at 100 euro
Firenze, Italy
drawings donated by Kelly Borsheim
plus many other artist donations

Sunday 17 May 2015
Bidding starts at 17:30 (5:30 p.m.)
Casa Torricelli
Via Manzoni 2 [near Piazza Beccaria], Florence [Firenze, Italia]

Fine print:

There are a LOT of artworks to auction off!
ArtemisiA in collaboration with Le Giubbe Rosse [the artist's café in Piazza della Repubblica]

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Calendar:

• Through 15 May, Cincinnati, Ohio: exhibit of two of my drawings in Manifest Gallery's DRAWN 2015. Be quick! Not much time left.

• In June I will be in Florida and South Carolina. If you want to get together, please contact me.
• In early July, I will be in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Paul, and before that in North Carolina with family.
• In late July, August, and early September, I will be working to carve stone and create bronze sculpture in Austin, Texas.
• October 22-25 finds me at The Artists Fair, at the Bargehouse in London [Yes, England]: www.theartistsfair.com

 

I would love to see you if possible.

Thank you,

Kelly

ExTempore Art Festival Grožnjan Grisignana Croatia

Dear Art-loving friend,

The ExTempore Art festival that I wrote about in the previous post on Grožnjan, Croatia, had a deadline on Sunday, 10 a.m.  All 2-dimensional artworks had to be turned in before that time.  If the earliest registration time was Thursday morning, then each artist had a maximum of three days to create his masterpiece.  I had only spent a couple of hours on Friday working on my surprise entry.  

On Saturday morning, I had taken a walk to another little village up the hill from Grožnjan.  For me it was an escape into sanity to be out in the country air in mountainous areas, dirt roads, and stone buildings.  I returned to meander among the stalls selling antiques at the festival.  

After lunch, Marino locked up his gallery and again we drove out to his home.  I studied the plants in his garden and the woods behind his home.  We are starting off castagne [chestnut] season, the trees loudly and periodically dropping their nuts.  Then I took my obligatory nap, loving being outdoors.

It was not long before I got out the paints and plastic bags I had used as a palette the day before.   I had done some thinking during the night and wanted to add a few things to my composition, despite the short time I had left.  I even painted while another artist from the symposium in Bulgaria where I met Marino dropped by with his wife.  They left and another couple arrived for dinner.  So the hour was getting late and pacing oneself is an important part of the work, at least when there is a deadline and you are at the mercy of others in their lives.

Marino hunts cinghiale (wild boar) and he had prepared a dinner for our little group of artists, including Saša Kosanović and Željka Gradski, artists who have a gallery selling their photography and paintings across the little stone road from Marino’s gallery.  Marino served up his own hunted cinghiale with gnocchi and peppers from his garden:  a lovely and tasty way to dine!  During dinner, I heard about “Big George” … really called “Jure Grando.”  He is said to be the first vampire in Europe.

 

Maybe that was why I woke around 4 a.m. and looked out of my bedroom window back in Grožnjan.  What a joy to see the constellation Orion above me!  So many stars that city life cannot offer.
 

I still managed to get some sleep before really waking around 8 a.m.  Marino suggested that we turn in our paintings early since the crowd would start to gather around 9 a.m.  They actually have a pretty good system in place.  They stamped your empty canvas day(s) earlier to insure new art and when you turn in your piece, they instantly photograph it with a plain background.  I was told they had a long-distance juror, but these images allow them to not only document each year’s entrants, but gives them an easier ability to create publicity or send images to magazines or newspapers, even on the Internet.

After the photography is done, artists wander off to find a place along any wall (except the church’s) to hang the art.  Marino, Saša, and Željka already had nails in exterior walls around their gallery.  Marino took this shot of a sleepy me with my work “Elettricità’”  in acrylic (60 x 80 cm).  The next image is of our artworks along one wall.. .mine, Marino’s and Saša.  [Saša won third place with his photograph (right) and bought drinks for all of us later that evening!]  And two of Željka’s colorful compositions grace the wall in front of her gallery.

We returned to the caffe with the best morning view in Grožnjan and I enjoyed a strudel stuffed with soft sweet cheese and a freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast.  By the time I returned to the registration area, it was obvious that Marino knew his stuff. The line of artists waiting to enter their artworks extended beyond the town’s outer wall.

Back inside again, I was delighted to see an exhibition of … FUNGUS!  I had never seen so many varieties in one place and I loved the display of them against the green moss. 

Although two entries, this pair won Second Prize.  I like them as I composed this image.

This pair of paintings is obviously by the same artist.  The one on the right, however, was a prize winner.

This child hanging from a clothesline was the First Prize entry this year! 

I was surprise to meet a lot of other artists that had participated in the Russalka symposium in Bulgaria that I had attended this past July.  They had created art there in earlier years, but we knew some of the same crowd.   I had an idea that it would be fun to take a group image and share it with our various colleagues.  This was taken inside of Marino’s gallery by the brother of one of the artists.

The 5:30 p.m. awards ceremony was packed with  all sorts of people and the winners were well-chosen.  Afterwards, interviews were taken and the band recommenced while  the party moved on into the dinner hour.  I chose to disappear, not knowing many people anyway, and sat on one of the city walls to watch the sunset.  Life is so very peaceful here!

Calimara was my lunch choice, having received a voucher from the contest organizers.

Saša Kosanović with his award for wonderful photography.

The next morning involved a trip to a few spaces along the coast.  I had come to research a place to live because I must leave Italy for a bit later this year.  People here in Istria were so friendly to me and I have a lot of things to work out, but I may be back for the winter.

I hope that you enjoyed this art festival and I thank you for your continued interest and support.

Cheers,

Kelly

Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com