Summer Suite 2025

 

Paula Herrera

The Frida Kahlo of cat sculpture?

Sure is strange and intense. 

I’m guessing that 50 years from now

these kittens will be far more collectible than whatever the rest of us are making.

Might this be called a an accessible, upbeat, folkloric aesthetic -

similar to her career as a musician.

The famous Chicago Imagists also have a taste for tchotchkes,

but unlike them, Paula makes her own.

Mark Huddle

A tribute to Reginald Marsh?

Kinda —-

but less a window onto a sordid under world

and more like a grid based abstract design

interacting with text.

Quite post-modern

and appropriate for a graduate of DOVA at the U. Of Chicago .

Again .. more like a playful interaction of grids in space than a view of an actual place.

It’s rude to look into people’s windows,

and certainly not much to see here.

A possible tribute to Roger Brown.

A rather phallic cityscape.

The magic trick of cityscape,

or, actually all mimetic art,

is to simultaneously achieve power in the graphic design 

and credibility in the imitation.

This piece comes closest to pulling that off.

The careful rendering of brickwork brings to mind this piece from Vermeer:

A more welcoming view into a more modest urban space.

(and world class  magic from the 17th century)

Joan Stachnik

Mary Klug

Bodo Stolezenberger

The Influence of Richard Schmid

 

Libby Givan Whipple

What a delicious ambience.

If you were expecting the usual suspects for this kind of show, you would have been surprised.  Just how many talented students did Richard Schmid have? We may never know, so many have studied with him one way or another.

This show introduces Libby Whipple an Indiana native who learned through Schmid’s books and seminars.  She certainly has a knack for composing with light, form, and space.

Several Schmid paintings traveled to this show as well

They all feel so effervescent and lively

Richard Schmid: Clayton Beck Painting, Putney,  Vermont, 2007

Delightful drawing of these small figures.

Illinois Portrait Society

 

Jean Lewis

An arresting narrative design

though not very painterly.

Seems to say:

“Awww, ain’t she cute”

…in a long tradition at the Palette

beginning with the barefoot boys of Adam Emory Albright

Tony Bedolla

Deliciously painterly and formally precise.

A striking presence

but otherwise unremarkable 

In a room of great portraits it would disappear as well crafted but ordinary.

A fine portrait but less notable as a painting.

(Note:  the same could not be said of his stunning, tragic portrait of Jessie on the OPA website.)

Mary Qian 

A character in Mary-world

that crackles  with the life of paint

rather than the subject.

airy, luminous

uniquely Mary

Michael Van Zeyl

My favorite Van Zeyl portrait to date.

No fancy flourishes,

it’s all about the beaming subject

Don Di Sante

Seems to answer the question

“How are you ….. really?”

Not really enjoying his golden years.

Tony Armendariz

A fine illustration.

I like gnarly

Christiane Bouret

An elegant person having one of those days.

Daniel Albo

Sometime in the early eighties, before South Asian sculpture filled the central corridor of the Art Institute, a very small gallery was located at its western end - and it was used to display very small sculpture.

Some pieces in this show, like the above, would have qualified to be there. They’re amazing.

An Eskimo ivory?

Daniel’s world is filled with sexy, glamorous, somewhat dissolute young people.

I like them.

Time machine

 

Around  the turn of the millennium —

back when Chris and Tor were still on the board, Misha was still  “under the board”, Mike had just graduated from high school (just kidding), Yeongchi was sculpting the portrait of the director of R.I.C. (his boss), and Susan had just begun her very popular sculpture class…..  

The above candid snapshot was taken in the coach house studio.

Left to right:

Misha Livshulz (hands only), Chris Miller, Tori Muehl, Mike Vest, Dr. Wu, Susan Clinard,

The model was Jerry Warshaw.

God  knows how this photo survived

pinned to the studio wall all this time, now somewhat worse for wear.

25 years later - by pure chance - all but Susan were reunited one day in the Sunday afternoon sculpture workshop.

( Susan now has a sculpture studio in New Haven where her husband, Thierry, runs a bio research laboratory at Yale )

As I have said many times :

The Palette is a paradise for figurative artists.

Why would anyone ever wish to leave?

So many things can happen over so much time,

calamity can strike at any moment.

We all are are so lucky to have survived,

to still have the Palette, and still have each other.

Though it is troubling that not one new face was there for the photo,

even if a few more recent members did arrive later in the afternoon,

Susan Clinard 

Below, Susan has shared two more photos from that workshop:

The gentleman in the center is Dr. Ed Mccarron.

Cannot identify the lady.

And here she is giving a demo back in the day:

….damn, but she was a fine looking woman

(As well as a talented sculptor!)

Gold Medal Show 2025

 

Julia Sulzen, Evening

Every so often, a really accomplished artist joins our quaint organization- and I feel it’s my duty to vote that person our Gold Medal.  Not to mention that this is a wonderful cityscape— so luminous solid, and brooding. I so much want to enter it.

Sondra Pfeffer ,  Bad Hair Day

I don’t collect sculpture - I make it.  Every shelf and pedestal  in our house is  already taken.

But if I did collect - this is one I’d like to live with.

The bad-hair lady has a joyful presence - and that's what a sculpture will not have unless the sculptor welcomes it into the surrounding space.

Andrew Conklin,  Three Pairs of Shoes  (second place)

Such sharp, elegant , lucid 17th C. Dutch figurative painting is so rare in contemporary art.

Kinky?   Perhaps.

Those tootsies sure look delicious.  No wear and tear on either the feet or shoes.

Helen Oh, Debra Balchen,  Muriel Christensen, Lenin Del Sol

Misha Livshulz

So sweet and peaceful.

Maurise  Thomas,  Chill

Another new member?

Quite distant from the refined technique and ambiance usually found on our walls,

Maybe that’s why I like it.

Hope to see more of his work in future shows.

…though we might note that the wall space  above the radiator is often given to pieces in questionable taste.

Thomas Zamiar,  Letting Go

Imagism remains Chicago’s home team 80 years after the Hairy Who - and, frankly, I wish we would move on.

For many, it's a career choice.

But it came as naturally to Tom as it did to H. C. Westermann.

Tobin Richter, Estate Bar Roof

A strange sense of spatial depth - I like it.

And I’d like to have cocktails up on that airy terrace.

If all the people were black, this would likely have gallery representation.

Jessica Smit Mattingly, Nocturne

Vienna, 1900.

A good place to be.

Errol Jacobson,  Urban Rain

Two things about Errol’s world;

1. It rains every day

2. Everyone is serious about getting to where they’re going 

It’s a tough world out there.  We’ve just got to plug away at it.

Debra Balchen

Related to the cone heads?

Todd Britton, Self Portrait #1

Can’t figure it out.

I suppose that’s the point.

***********

..after the awards were given:

Don Di Santi,  George. (Honorable mention)

I didn’t notice this first time around, but it’s a strong portrait of the strange fellow who often comes to our shows and book sales.

Lenin Del Sol. — Gold Medal Winner

Lenin is in the long line of  distinguished illustrators who joined the Palette and Chisel over the past 120 years.  Hats off to them all - but I look for something else.

Apparently I am in the minority here.