71st Annual Juried Exhibition: Jeff Gola

Liquors by Jeff Gola

I consider my style as expressive realism. It’s a way of working that approaches a certain refinement in some areas but still does not hide the hand of the artist. Although I’ve been painting and drawing for most of my life in a variety of mediums, I’ve been using egg tempera as my primary medium for about 12 years.  I’m drawn to its clarity of color, its crispness and the meditative process that suits my temperament. 

Egg tempera is really not the medium for the quick, momentary impulse.  The process is slow and requires going over the same area many times, crosshatching the quick drying paint in many layers to develop form and to bring out the optical qualities that the medium is known for. Because of that and my attraction to scenes of fleeting light effects, I work on my tempera paintings in the studio, using my personal photos and often pencil sketches with notes. 

Jury Selects Winners for Take a Seat! On View at Morris Arboretum and Woodmere Art Museum

Tropical Adirondeco by Murrie Gayman

At a reception held at Woodmere Art Museum on May 21^st, winners of the collaborative Morris Arboretum-Woodmere exhibit, Take a Seat! were announced.  Forty artists are included in the Take a Seat! exhibition, and 70 Adirondack chairs will be on display at Woodmere Art Museum and throughout Morris Arboretum’s 92-acre garden from May 31^st through Labor Day, September 3^rd.

The variety of disciplines and talent on display in the art form of the classic Adirondack chair is impressive.

First prize went to Murrie Gayman for his vibrant Tropical AdironDeco chairs and accompanying footstool. Gayman graduated cum laude from the Philadelphia Museum School of Art (now the University of the Arts) in 1958.  After successful careers designing interiors, fabrics and wall coverings, he began a new venture in the 1990s creating huge murals for public spaces utilizing scraps of antique barn wood.  His work can be seen in many prominent Bucks County buildings, at the Pennsylvania Visitors Welcome Center in Susquehanna County, and at the historic Moland House in Warwick Township. www.barnwoodmurals.com

Woodmere welcomes Matthew J. Palczynski and acquires work by Modernist painter Arthur B. Carles

Woodmere Art Museum welcomes Matthew J. Palczynski as its new curator. Palczynski, who most recently held the position of Staff Lecturer for Western Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, received his Ph.D. from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art with a dissertation on the Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko. He specializes in art of the 20th and 21st centuries, and continues to teach courses in relation to this period at Tyler.

“We had over 80 candidates for the position,” says William R. Valerio, the Patricia Van Burgh Allison Director and CEO of Woodmere Art Museum, “and Matt was the best fit for Woodmere. His superlative credentials as an art historian, coupled with his experience in museum education will support Woodmere’s commitment to making connections between our visitors and our great collections of the art of Philadelphia.”

“This is a city with a long history of art and a thriving art scene,” says Palczynski. “More and more young artists are choosing to live and work in Philadelphia, and I am thrilled to be part of an institution that is dedicated specifically to exploring and interpreting this new vitality. At the same time, there are so many established artists in the region, and I look forward to giving these artists the greater attention they deserve.”

Music at Woodmere: Philadelphia Big Brass

Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald: Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble with special guest vocalist Tonya Milburn

Hay Maze returns to Woodmere

Woodmere Art Museum invites kids of all ages to experience family-friendly fall programs beginning in September. Woodmere welcomes the return of the large-scale landscape hay maze to the front lawn for the months of September and October. This year’s maze, titled Owl’s Eye, is a labyrinth of concentric circles made with bales of hay, evoking the shape of an owl’s eye. The fall season also includes two new children’s exhibitions featuring artwork by local students, an art installation in the museum’s new Children’s Garden and Friday Night Family Happenings through December. A full schedule of family oriented, art-inspired programming can be viewed at www.wooodmereartmuseum.org.

Building the House of Wisdom: A Closer Look at Violet Oakley

 

In 1911, Violet Oakley (1874 – 1961) created a mural cycle, The Building of the House of Wisdom, for the central hall of the mansion of Charlton Yarnall at 17th and Locust Streets in Philadelphia. The murals were painted on canvas shapes that were inserted into the architectural structure.