First Friday on Sante Fe Drive

First Friday Art Walk on Santa Fe

Our Cherry Creek Art Gallery artists are participating in the First Friday Art Walk on Santa Fe on August 2nd. For this event the street is closed down and food, drinks and entertainment are available throughout the area. Stop in and see us at Skylight, 833 Santa Fe Dr from 5-9:00, during this enjoyable evening. We'd love to see you at the event! By the way, many seasoned Colorado artists have recently joined our group. Visit cherrycreekartgallery.com to see what we're up to!

Cherry Creek Art Gallery Artists:

Jean Brodie Denise Dambrackas Mary Dunn Victoria Ekelund Carm Fogt Kris Iltis Anita Mosher Solich Rogers Naylor Lynn Nebergall

Jeannie Paty
Dena Peterson

Linda Petrie Bunch

Lawrence Pritchard
Melissa Renaud
Sascha Ripps
Christine Segal
Cheri Vilona

Weekend Warriors

Weekend Warriors II, 9x12, oil 

In an effort to keep clutter down to a minimum, I was thinking it was time to ditch these favorite pair of Birkenstocks. Because they have been such faithful and easy shoes, I thought I should do another portrait of them first. It was also a diversionary tactic to avoid working on any of my other paintings in progress too. In 2002 I painted them thinking it was time to toss them then. Forgotten by me until I just went for this photo of the first version, I called them Weekend Warriors back then too! The first version sold soon after I painted them and bought to hang in his office to remind him that the weekend was coming...

My father, 6 months before he died, bought these Birkenstocks for me while we were in Phoenix for my sisters  Master's Degree graduation. That was 37 years ago. My son was a babe in arms. When I painted the first portrait I was fairly new to oil painting and still very graphic and flat in my approach to painting. I still like the original and I am happy that they still look like the same pair of shoes if not a little more worse for wear now. They are only used for gardening or quick dog walks. They are still a very solid pair of shoes having been made with a heavy leather yet malleable enough to fit the form of my feet, horrific bunions and all. The sole was replaced in recent memory and still has many miles on them. But one of the shoes hurts the top of my foot now, which is a new development. Enough to be quite painful if I am not wearing socks. Who wants to wears socks in the summer to work in the garden? Not me, at any rate.
I had sent the new image to my family saying I was planning on tossing the shoes but how did they like the painting? Well, the uproar from them was deafening even though 2 were in Greece at the time and my sister in California. I am not, under any circumstances, to throw these shoes away. What is a little pain with such stalwart supporters of my feet? Even if I choose not to wear them they are a memento that they all were unanimous on keeping in the family.
So there you have it. I haven't tossed them yet, and I will keep them, for now. I enjoyed painting them again. The portrait will go into the next pop up show that is upcoming the First Friday of August. More on that soon.

A World to Discover Part 1

Recently, on a road trip, I made some discoveries I would like to share. These are little gems hidden in places I had not heard of before I did a little research. Well, that isn't quite true as the first place I want to talk about was at Bethany Lutheran College and I had heard of this museum before...Bethany Lutheran College is where Birger Sandzen taught. If you don't know who Birger Sandzen is, he was a Swedish immigrant who taught art at the college in the small Swedish town called Lindsborg. I wanted to see the campus and the museum there in his name. I was fortunate to have seen the collection of Birger Sandzen held by the college a few years back when it was sent to Colorado Springs Fine Art Center while the museum in Kansas underwent renovation. Or I might have been very disappointed. The front room was Birger's work, and some of the side hallways held his etchings and drawings. But that was the extent of his work on display. Prime examples to be sure. And the room did him and his work justice. It was to be left wanting more.

It was visually delightful. He handles color and thick paint with such ease. The textures he portrays makes you want to reach out and touch. The disappointment could have come from it not being ALL about Birger Sandzen as it was in Colorado Springs...however...in the second gallery was a Kansas artist. His name is Aaron Morgan Brown. I was quite intrigued by his work. The first one that caught my eye was the kid in the museum with all these huge ancient sculptures. In this painting there is a tea cup on the  half wall as if the horses head were going after it. On the floor at the base of the wall is a hammer. And the kid looking into the next gallery holding an apple. It just gets you thinking in a very different way. So I went back and started over and really started to delve into each painting a bit deeper. Every painting drew you in a very different way. Photo realism yet with a decided twist that all is not what it appears. On his website he calls it "constructed dreaming." I have included a few for you to see but please go to his website for a visual journey. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.