Urban Sketchers

 

Jim Sweitzer, Ike from Lombard

Most urban sketchers normalize.

Taking whatever weird thing is in front of them,

 they process it, like sausage, into something that might be expected.

The pieces I like do the opposite.

Rachel Grossman, Trailside Museum

Love the irregularity of the railing.

And all those fortuitous triangles. 

Sondra Pfeffer , Salvage Company

A nice spirit of gentle anarchy.

Sandra Beaty, Caldwell Lily Pond

Well - Ok - this is a piece of sausage.

But it’s my favorite brand,  Cezanne.

This would not have been out of place in his recent show on Michigan Ave.

,

Del Hall’s portraits of the Palette

 

This really is a phenomenal event in the history of our organization.

Del Hall, a retired photojournalist, has been attending our events for about fifteen years and taking shots of our  photogenic membership as well as our models.

Not everyone is in this show- but it remains a pretty good record of the past decade - kind of like a high school yearbook - though I would have-referred a collection of selected paintings and sculptures - rather than just our smiling faces.

(The terra cotta bust in the corner of my above photo is a portrait of Del by Misha Livshultz - whose portrait appears in the upper left corner)

Portrait Society of America - Illinois members

 

 William Chambers

Yikes!

Sir Henry Raeburn has been reborn!

So much power - yet so much stillness.

Like a leaf gently bending to the breeze.

And what a delicious, glowing  inner life for the subject.

Looking up the artist online - this super-retro approach is not typical.

I wish it were.

Just because we're Americans,

our portraits don't have to look like stills from a television sit-com.

Michael Van Zeyl

Wow!

Michael has his own sense of thrill and elegance,

and it’s always changing.

I hope he sticks with this Art Deco vibe for awhile.

Mary Qian

This gentle spirit seems to have been a worshipful shepherd

cut from an early Flemish nativity scene.

$300 Show April 2024

Deborah Weinstein

The crazy thing about this show

(that used to be called "clean out the closet")

is that occasionally really good pieces show up.

I would have voted the above for the Gold Medal

in last month’s competition.

 

Deborah Weinstein

The last time Ms. Weinstein appeared in this blog was 2007

when I photographed one of her drawings at a drawing marathon.

 

Leslie Outten

Feels mythic to me.

I love American Scene paintings.

Clayton Beck 

Simple - powerful

Yet void

of expression.

Must have been a demo.

Lenore Murphy

Not only do the dead vote in Chicago,

they also paint.

I miss Lenore.

Helen Oh

Gold Medal Show - 2024

 

Debra Balchen proposes that we have a separate gold medal for sculpture - and she has worked so hard to study, make, and display this piece - I’m inclined to agree - if only for her.

No other sculptor has given this much attention to lighting as well as pedestal display.

Debra apparently learned a lot in those classes she took in Italy.

Coco has been given such an elegant treatment.

Sondra Pfeffer

Bo Zhang

Tor Muehl

Tor is organizing a class on mask making - with Coco as the instructor.

Kinda reminds me of the Iroquois funny face masks at the Field.

Tim Leeming

No need to list his name-

Tim is our dumpster specialist 

Kuhn Hong

A rather poignant scene where a refugee family’s life all comes down to a few square feet of public pavement in a foreign city.

Tom Zamiar’s  fantasy goddess

meets a stately bust of Coco

by Misha Livshultz

Mary Qian

Mary is giving other competitors a break 

by putting this modest portrait in the show

Leslie Outten

This rustic scene reprises one of the club’s early masters,

the  father of Ivan Albright.

Tony Bedolla 

Shouldn’t Tony be painting portraits for the ruling class

of some country in South America?

Stuart Fullerton

The  quiet, upscale elegance of William Merritt Chase.

Muriel Christensen

 Michael Van Zeyl

I love that gleaming strap over her shoulder.

Erroll Jacobson 

Erroll seems to be moving towards geo-form painting.

Lenin’s Del Sol, City Lights

My pick for the gold medal 

Both the model and the artist appear so bored -

and yet a pre-historic fire-breathing monster

is destroying the city behind her.

What’s not to like?

Andrew Conklin, The Barista.  (Gold Medal Winner)

I put this piece last because I want to encourage our artists to show new work in the Gold Medal Show 

( though actually, we’ve seen Lenin’s piece before as well )

We really should take up a collection to buy it for our permanent collection. It’s a great still-life, and the model, the uber-talented  Cass, may well turn our to be the most famous artist who has ever been a member.

Here she is, working a menial job, and daydreaming of a brilliant future.

Nathalie Gribinski

 

Blue Heart, 36 x 36 , acrylic on canvas

Kinda loud and in your face.

And  especially awkward and wacky

  because it’s figurative.  

Balance - subtlety - mystery - sensitivity 

Not so much.

It seems to say 

"Ok - my heart is blue,

.. what of it ?"

Woman Standing, 34 x 11

Collaboration with Zaach Weber

Oil marker on ceramic, paper mache

Theatre of Dreams, oil marker on canvas, 72 x 48

The sculpture - and painting behind it

announce that it’s playtime.

Ever been to FLW’s Coonley  Playhouse in Riverside?

Both pieces are both fun and elegant enough to belong there.

Working the Line, 36 x 36, acrylic on canvas

State of Mind, 36 x 36, acrylic on canvas 

Mental  noise is that default condition,

in paintings as well as life, when nothing is being sought

beyond a resounding expression of "here I am, folks!"

It’s specific to each person as well as the world in which they live.

If the pieces don’t feel American, that’s because the artist grew up in France, and I appreciate the absence of the popular culture that echoes through so many American minds.

Bowling in Outer Space, oil markers and acrylic on canvas, 8x8x3

As beautiful and soothing as small tropical fish tanks.

A welcome respite from the rest of the show.

 

Two of Chicago's first non-objective painters , Ramon Shiva and Rudolph Weisenborn, were Palette and Chisel members a hundred years ago - but regretfully there haven’t been many ever since.  

It’s refreshing to have work on our walls that is totally free from the demands of illustration.