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COLLECTOR'S FOCUS
WOMEN ARTISTSsionism in a contemporary context to
reflect timeless values.
The mundane objects of our lives often
take on timelessness, especially when
an artist isolates them as icons in a still
life. Wendy Chidester paints the simple
mechanical elegance of a Boston Pencil
Sharpener, well known to those of us who
used to write with pencils and were either
blessed or cursed to be asked to sharpen
boxes of pencils at the beginning of the
school year.
She says, “My work depicts a history of
objects and machines that have been lost in
the advancement of technology and time.”
Isolated against a neutral background
the device attains a dignity it never had
in its long life. “I capture the wear of ageby scratching into the painting surface,
flicking paint and applying multiple glazes
making the object appear to have endured
on canvas what it has endured in real life,”
Chidester explains.
Harmonia Rosales recasts iconic
Western paintings. She created a stir
when she recast God, Adam and a
group of angels as black women in her
painting The Creation of God, inspired byMichelangelo’s The Creation of Adam in
the Sistine Chapel.
In The Harvest she recasts La Charité
(Charity) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
(1825-1905). Bouguereau strove to quote the
compositional style and loving protection of
the Renaissance Madonna as well as his own
Madonna child paintings while expressing
the more universal concept of charity.
Rosales’ central figure embodies “Mother- George Billis Gallery, Carroll St Bridge Reflected, watercolor on paper, 9 x 12¼", by Elizabeth O’Reilly. 11. Blue Rain Gallery, Salvavidas, Inmate Firefighters of Malibu (after
Delacroix), acrylic and mixed media on panel, 60 x 72", by Erin Currier. 12. George Billis Gallery, White House and Lettuce Garden, oil on panel, 16 x 16", by Elizabeth O’Reilly. - June Stratton, Woodland Vogue, oil on linen, 24 x 36"
“I collect art myself and believe in choosing art that
speaks to me with a ‘meant to be’ feeling. I can breathe a
little easier seeing it and feel honored to be a caretaker
on its journey.” — Brooke Harker, artist
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