Congratulations, Clair Hartmann, for the $1200 sale of Dane on de Kooning during the final weekend of Strathmore Unleashed! in Bethesda, Maryland.
As I reported at the beginning of June, Hartmann's Shore Leave, also at Strathmore Unleashed!, sold for $1800.
Visit Clair Hartmann's website.
Speaking of de Kooning, did you know he was a dog artist?
Artist Clair Hartmann dropped me a note to let me know her painting Shore Leave sold for $1800 at the “Strathmore: Unleashed!” exhibition in Bethesda, MD.
At 40″ x 30″ Shore Leave is largest painting Hartmann has created to date. The prolific and highly accomplished artist who honed her craft at the Wilmington, NC farmers market says she “is thrilled to sell a painting at such a fancy gallery!!”
I am sure Shore Leave’s new owners are equally thrilled. Click on the image to see it larger. It is an exquisite painting.
“Strathmore Unleashed!” is a multimedia celebration of dogs in art. I (Moira McLaughlin) worked as an advisor on the project. The exhibition runs until June 23, 2012.
Visit Clair Hartmann’s website.
Visit Strathmore.
I am thrilled to announce that the exhibition I have been working on as an advisor, Strathmore Unleashed!, is opening this weekend, April 28, 2012 at Strathmore, the fine arts and cultural center in Bethesda, MD.
My involvement with Strathmore Unleashed! began in February when curator Harriet Lesser contacted me looking for dog artists who depict "an alternative approach to our relationship with our dogs." She wanted work that expressed a "depth of feeling and intensity in a mostly non-verbal way." She also wanted to include my video tribute to 5,000 years of dog-centric artwork entitled "Dogs in Art."
"Yes," I told Harriet. "I would love to be involved."
Not only was this a meeting of the minds between Harriet and me, both artists who take dog art seriously, but it was also a tremendous opportunity for me to look back at the last five years of my blog Dog Art Today. I reviewed every single article, over 1200 posts, and thousands of artists. I was reminded of works I had forgotten and fell back in love with old favorites.
I gave Harriet a four-page document of artists to consider, and she did the outreach and coordination. When she sent me the list of her selections that included Jane O'Hara, Clair Hartmann, Anna Dibble, Kaththyn Freeman, David Corcoran, Marjorie Weiss, Heather LaHaise, Kent Ambler, I was so proud to be a part of this prestigious group. I was also excited that she chose to include my sister Sheila Cameron's work. And since my parents' dog, Minnie, and my sister Regan's dog, Logan, are both in my "Dogs in Art" video, Strathmore Unleashed! is truly a family affair.
Strathmore Unleashed! will also feature five doghouses, from futuristic polypod structures to scale models inspired by the Sydney Opera House, photographs by the iconic William Wegman, large scale installations by Dale Rogers, and a fiber sculpture by Ann Citron.
Most exciting is that for the opening reception on Thursday May 3, 2012 Strathmore Unleashed! will host a special Yappy Hour from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. for dog owners to bring their pets to the exhibition. It is free and open to the public.
Strathmore Unleashed! runs from this Friday April 28, 2012 to June 23, 2012. The exhibition also includes an art talk, a children's drawing session, and special tours.
If you're in the Washington D.C. area, plan a trip to Strathmore Unleashed! Please send photos if you go.
View the invitation.
Read the press release.
Teresa Berg and Bev Hollis, two of the most talented and successful dog photographers working today, have scheduled another Unleashed: Fine Art Pet Photography Workshop. This one is in Dallas, Texas, June 2-4, 2012. Space is limited.
**Warning** Watching this video will make you want to move to Virgina, buy a farm, and become a full-time pet photographer:
Visit Unleashed: Fine Art Pet Photography Workshop for information.
If you are unable to view the video in your browser, click here to watch it.
Aspiring pet photographers or established ones looking to sharpen your creative and business skills, here is a great idea: the Sit! Stay! Learn! Pet Photography Seminar at Imaging USA in San Antonio, Texas on January 15, 2011. The day-long event is taught by three prominent pet photographers, Barbara Breitsameter from Chicago, Teresa Berg from Dallas, and Bev Hollis from northern Virginia. The workshop is an abbreviated version of the three-day Unleashed seminars that the women have taught for the past several years to rave reviews. The intensive Sit! Stay! Learn! program will focus on lighting, shooting techniques, sales strategies, and marketing.
I am a big fan of these photographers' work, and think it's a terrific idea to learn from three experts with different styles and strengths.
If you can't make it to the seminar in San Antonio, here is another option: the ladies have created a handy wire-bound flip book called Dog Shots, Tips & Tricks for Pet Photographers. It features helpful hints, inspiration, and 30 favorite set ups and exposures. The authors call it "the next best thing to having us in your camera bag."
Order your copy here.
For more resources and information about other seminars by this talented trio visit Unleashed.
Kimberly Merrill’s Unleashed show opens this Saturday, April 25 at Lora Schlesinger Gallery in Santa Monica. It looks like a beauty. The artist, a divorced empty-nester who decided to go to art school ten years ago and went on to get her BFA and MFA and now teach at Laguna College of Art and Design, became interested in the history of dog portraits and began her own series a year ago. This is her first solo show.
What I like about her work is not just her mastery of oils, the high-wire act of painting, in my opinion, but also her return to the primal aspect of dog portraiture. As she writes in her artist’s statement:
Merrill’s dogs have personalities, but they have animality too. It is a delicate balance she manages with a stunning expertise, inspired, she says, by 18th century painter, Jean-Baptise Oudry, renowned for the soulfulness of his exotic animals in captivity. I also see shades of one of my favorite 19th century dog artists, Monica Gray, one of the many painters Merrill must have seen in another of her inspirations, William Secord’s book, Dog Painting 1840 – 1940
Above all, I am inspired by Kimberly Merrill as an artist who found her passion by starting a new chapter in her life, and who is not afraid to look back several centuries in order to capture dogs anew.
Napoleon
Chiquita
Whistler
Kimberly Merrill Unleashed at Lora Schlesinger runs April 25, 2009 – June 6, 2009.
Visit Merrill’s blog, Contemporary Canine, for more information. She also paints pet portrait commissions and can be reached at 949-422-8508. Having a Merrill original of your dog would be simply brilliant. If you get one, I would love to see it.
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