Artopolis 2008

Pamela Johnson



This year's Artopolis
at the Chicago Merchandise Mart
was the biggest ever

with THREE full floors of display.
(300,000 square feet ?)


But there really was very little space
for un-temporary art.

The 12th Floor was filled with "Art Chicago",
which is supposed to include the most prestigious
national and international dealers
of contemporary art.
(but was really mostly galleries from Chicago)

The 7th Floor was filled with "Next",
which was billed as

"170 of the best young galleries from every major international center of art production."

(so if the 12th floor was supposed to be the big leagues,
the 7th Floor was AAA)

And the 8th Floor was split -- one side was the
"International Antiques Fair" (which had most of the
Palette and Chisel stuff) -- and "The Artist Project"
which was an indoor, juried street fair -- i.e. the
artists represented themselves.


In my humble opinion,
the 7th Floor was a vast, unforgiving desert
(without a single oasis)
while the juried street fair
was at least hit-or-miss.

'Art Chicago' seemed to have fewer
landscape, still-life, and figure paintings than ever before,
so all that was really left was the Antiques Fair
(plus those "Art Chicago" dealers who were selling historical art)


Why doesn't the Merchandise Mart
host an exhibit of traditional or non-cutting edge galleries ?

Unlike Art Chicago,
which is apparently a pale shadow of Art Miami,
it would be one-of-a-kind in the world.

And... I really doubt very much got sold off that 7th Floor,
except perhaps as materials to be recycled.

**********

Not a single, current P&C member could be found anywhere,
but at least Pamela Johnson,
a recent member,
had rented a booth in the "Artist Project" show.
(it cost her $1500,
but she sold several paintings to a gallery,
so it was worth it)




Catherine Maize
was another living (though former)
P&C member who appeared at the show,
and her gallery was part of "Art Chicago" up on the 12th floor.







Fred Mulhaupt


And all the other P&C artists in the show
were dead white men
(in the Antiques Fair)









Frank Dudley








L.O. Griffith

(this was the same painting shown last year,
but I really like it -- it only costs about $2500
and here's a detail.

It's a plein air from Gay's Mill, Wisconsin,
home of a delicious apple pie,
and a sweet, quiet little floating stream.





Karl Krafft






J. Jeffrey Grant


And finally this view of Gloucester
(which was priced at $65,000)

Exhibit: Kishio Takeda

self portrait



(note: not that it's as important
as Kishio's wonderful cherry blossoms...
but mention must be made
of the quality, quantity, and variety
of appetizers at the opening.
If only every P&C exhibit were this ...
this...
appetizing)

Must Dho Shomding Fur De Klib

Sometime around 1906,
P&C members added several
rooms to the clubhouse
in the Athenaeum Building


And in those days,
apparently,
the members did the
remodeling work themselves!

Here are the noble volunteers who are pictured above:



H. Borgerson
Wilson Irvine
Fred Larson
Oswald Cooper
August Petryl
Watkins Williams
T. B. Thompson
Adolph Maier
Carl Mauch
Joseph Birren
Harry Engle

Fred S. Bertsch
E. Jan Krasa
Frank Dudley
Max Gundl
A. H. Ullrich
Samuel Stoltz
Robert W. Graffton
L. O. Griffith
Albert Kunze
George F. Schulz
John W. Cotton
George A. Rieman
Joseph Lucas
F. L. Arnold
Max Gundlach

Mac ??

(and I can't figure out
who did the cartoon)

Pamela Johnson

Looks rather tasty, doesn't it ?
(and just imagine it at 64" high)



A local art blog

has announced

the upcoming exhibit of

Pamela Johnson

at the


Artist Project in Artopolis,

next week at the Chicago Merchandise Mart


To quote the bio from her website:


Pamela Michelle Johnson attended California Polytechnic State University is San Luis Obispo, California, and graduated with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and an art minor with honors. After graduation, she continued to pursue ceramics, painting and figure drawing independently while working for four years as an engineer in the construction industry. In 2003, she was awarded an artist in residency at The Institute of Ceramic Studies at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Shigaraki, Japan. This experience was influential in her development as an artist and decisions regarding her career path.

Shortly after her return from Japan, Johnson decided to seek new direction in her life and to focus on art as a career. She uprooted from her native California, left her career in engineering, and made a new home in Chicago. There she found a thriving emerging artist culture that provided her with opportunities to continue to develop her own work within a community of other working artists. She became a member at the Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Art to work on her figure drawing in open workshops, and began exhibiting her work in galleries and art festivals. Her body of work continues to evolve through her more recent American Still-Life and Houses series.







... and here's one of the drawings from
one of our workshops.

(the model here was Candace,
and since the view is so close-up,
I'll bet it was done in my
Monday night workshop in the
small 2nd floor studio)

Ezra Winter Wins the Prix de Rome

Ezra Augustus Winter 1886-1949

Chicago Evening Post (1910)

CHICAGO MAN WINNER OF ROME
ART PRIZE

Ezra Winter's painting, "The Arts"
Ranked first among works of many American Artists.

Award brings him $3000 - contested for by more than 200 students and artists representing most of the American and Foreign schools. The winner will receive his award at the rate of $1000/year and will live at the American Academy in Rome during the period.

Kenyon Cox and S.D.Millet were members of the committee which made the award.
In the contest a year ago, Mr. Winter was given second place.

Last year's winner, a young man named Wolff of Philadelphia was murdered in Rome a few months after he arrived. For several months he was reported as lost, and then after several weeks the body was found in the Tiber.

The final contest this year was held at the Art Institute. It lasted about twelve weeks. The contestants all sent in drawings and paintings. Then a select few were required to draw and paint certain things within a limited time. Finally, a still smaller number were asked to make schemes for a painting. The final test was the completion of the scheme.

"Ezra Winter came to us from a small farm near Traverse City Michigan. He studied at the Academy about two years and then began to work as an illustrator. There had never before been a winner who had so little art training. Some of the contestants had been in various schools for as long as twelve years"

(and he was also a member of the Palette and Chisel)

Which began a career in public art
that included murals in the Library of Congress




The John Rogers Clark
Memorial in Vincennes , Indiana







and the Guardian Building
in Detroit, Michigan

Plein Air Painters - April 2008

Charlotte Arnold



No big surprise here...
that all these paintings come
from the Winter of 2007-2008

Hot buttered Rum, anyone ?









Vladimir Tartakov






Pablo Saban


(How come Edward Hopper never painted
his buildings in the snow ?
Did his hands get too cold ?)






Pamela Valvano Gibson

Logan Square.




Sergio Rocha


Oz park.





Stephen Gianinni



Hyde Park.

(and when did these big ugly buildings
ever look so good?)



Stephanie Weidner



Got the point by now?

This is why so many early P&C members
moved to California or the Southwest.




Beck Anstee

(and check out her blog entry here )







Bill Gram








Pablo Deleon

Logan Square.



Barbara Herring



... and then there some painters
who want to remember last Summer






Don Yang



Don Yang

Open House: 2008

The P&C
invited the public
into the workshops this Saturday


where they could see
the Masters at work






not bad for 3 hours,
but will it ever get any better?



Meanwhile,
Diane Rath was giving a floral demo
in the main gallery

(and that's where the crowd went)





A local troop of boy scouts
being given a special tour









The highlite
of the day

being Stuart Fullerton's
History of the Palette and Chisel Club 1895-1921






the era when it met in the Athenaeum building
on Van Buren between Michigan and Wabash










The lecture was essentially a tribute to
the founding members,
especial Frank Holme,
who was identified as the ringleader
of the high-spirited fun
for which the club became renowned.


But it was also a tribute to Frank Hensley,
shown above on the screen behind Stuart.


Frank served as un-official club historian
for several decades.

He loved American Impressionism,
so he was especially interested in many
of the early club members.

New Marathon cartoon

Brian Kotwica has drawn another cartoon to announce an upcoming drawing marathon.

Can you guess the names of the famous artists in attendance ?

The first person to give the correct answer gets to go to the front of the Bar-B-Q line at the Memorial Day Drawing Marathon, May 26