Vanguard Artists 2014 Officers

The 2014 slate of officers for Vanguard Artists was announced at the February 1 meeting. Pictured above are Secretary Joan Widman, President Louise Carroll, Treasurer Nan Adams and Vice President Diane Freeman. Thank you all for your service to our organization!

From Kristi Herring

Hi Everyone,  Just wanted to invite you personally to the Arts and Craft Fair

next Saturday (Nov 2nd) I have lots of new and exciting paintings and gifts.

 

Come and see my “Western Art”.  Or just stop by and say HI!

  Kristi Herring

Sharon King at Birt's Bistro

Kristi Herring visited Birt's Bistro and took photos of some of her paintings displayed there. The photos are below. thanks for sharing, Kristi!

2013 Fall APAA Juried Exhibition

Barbara Lang sends along the following invitation. It can be viewed here: This looks to be an exciting show! It is also available here below, just click on it to enlarge it for easier reading.

Sharon King at Birt's Bistro

Vanguard Artist, Sharon King, will have her artwork displayed at Birt's Bistro 16752 N Greasewood Street, Surprise, AZ. This display will go through November 4th, 2013.

A reception will be held in her honor, which includes appetizers and music on September 26th, 2013 from 5-7:00 PM.

 

Let's join Sharon to celebrate her art for his event!

Problems with Slideshow on iPad

Has anyone tried to run their blog slideshows on an iPad? One of our members can run it on her laptop but it doesn't work on the iPad. Any suggestions would be appreciated...thanks, Susan

Vanguard Artists Challenge - Abstract to Realistic and Realistic to Abstract

Thanks to  Aileen for this successful and fun challenge. I say fun, but I found it so difficult that I aborted my effort three-quarters of the way through the painting! Even the chairwoman, Aileen, confessed to finding it difficult to step outside of the box and do something she normally didn't paint. However, all who participated must have found a way because all of these were just super. The consensus was that using the format for each artist to describe their process for their challenge painting was appreciated by all.

I think we agree that these challenges are both fun and inspiring. Great job you all did!

New Member Application Form

If you are interested in sponsoring a new member for Vanguard Artists, please click on the link on the sidebar for this. If you have trouble opening it (mainly MAC users), please e-mail me susanroper@cox.net and I will send it to you.

Lord of Life Lutheran Church Vanguard Exhibit

Kristi Herring sent these photos of the recent hanging of the new Lord of Life exhibit by Vanguard artists Liz Mullen, Sharon King and Anne Breza. She is the Vanguard photographer and it is special that she brought her camera along while she and a friend visited the exhibit.

 My apologies to Sharon King and Liz Mullen since their two paintings were not included since Blogger would not let me rotate them and they were laying on their sides! After three different programs let me down, I will just invite you to go to the church and see these lovely paintings in person! ...Your blog administrator.

September Challenge

It has been brought to my attention that there is confusion regarding the September Challenge. I asked Aileen to clarify for us, and this is what she said:

The Challenge is one painting per artist.  If an artist paints in a realistic form they are to push them selves and have the majority of the painting on the abstract side with a hint of realistic.  If a painter works more in a abstract form they are to have the majority realistic with a hint of  abstract in their painting.  

There are many different ways to handle this challenge

If people will google abstract to realism or realism to abstract they will see many examples.

What this means to me, personally, is that I have an almost-finished painting for the challenge that is wrong! Oh well, at least I am painting!

Video Test

This is a test to see if I can make this wonderful video, compliments of Judy Lawson, available on the blog.

Please click here.

Mary Lou Harvey

It was with great sadness that we learned of the loss of our dear artist friend, Mary Lou Harvey. We will forever miss seeing her always-smiling face and, of course, her wonderful watercolors.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, June 15 at 11:00 at:

Sun City West Christian Church
20803 N. 151st Avenue
Sun City West, AZ  85375

A Mary Lou Harvey Scholarship Fund has been established with Arizona Artists Guild. AAG was founded in 1928 and is a 501-C3 nonprofit organization led by volunteers dedicated to providing and promoting opportunities for all visual arts. To honor Mary Lou, you make make a donation to:

Mary Lou Harvey Scholarship Fund
c/o Arizona Artists Guild
PO Box 41534
Phoenix, AZ  85080

If you have any questions about the scholarship fund, please feel free to call Ruth Ann LeFebvre at 602-548-0256 or Pam Bleakney at 623-214-8429.

Finished Mural

Kristi Herring photographed and submitted these photos of the finished mural posted prior to completion earlier. Aileen Garvey and Liz Mullen finished this to perfection! This is just so bright and fresh and shows how much talent these two Vanguard members have. I will want to go to see this one for myself!

Lord of Life Exhibit May, 2013

Pat Knorr sent these photos of the installation of the paintings at Lord of Life Church yesterday. This exhibit will be hanging until the end of July, please stop by and enjoy these paintings. Lord of Life Church is located at the corner of RH Johnson and Meeker in Sun City West. I have collected the photos into a slideshow, it looks like they had fun together as well as brought many great pieces of art.

AWA Show

I received this from Vanguard member, Judy Lawson:

The reception is tomorrow, Thursday from 5:30-8:00 with the Awards 
Presentation from 7-8 pm at the Glendale Adult Center located at 5970 W. Brown 
St. in Glendale.  It is just North and slightly West of the Glendale Library. 
Hope to see some of you there.  I'm sending this to the out of town friends & 
family cause I think the invite is pretty. 
I have 2 paintings in the show & have been told I am getting an award for one of 
them :) 

So, Please attend if you can and show support for one of our Vanguard 

members!

Note from bog administrator...I made one last effort to get this pretty invitation to 

publish on the blog and it worked this time. Sorry for the delay!

Arlen Madole at Birt's Bistro

Kristi Herring sent the following photos of Arlen's show at Birt's Bistro. She added that if anyone hasn't seen this to please stop by as it is a great show!

Reflections Challenge

Our April Reflections Challenge was very successful, with too many beautiful paintings to make choosing winners very easy. But, we had winners, all of whom provided wonderful paintings. above, we show Diane Locati, the First Place Winner. Below is Arlen Madole, the Second Place Winner.

The Third Place Winner was Diane Freeman, shown below. Congratulations to you all, well-deserved!

Below are photos of the "judges". Good job all!

Wow, Ladies!

Elizabeth Mullen and Aileen Garvey have been commissioned by the Sun 

City West Recreation Center governing board to design and produce a 

10' by 20' mural honoring and dedicated to the Sun City West Volunteers.

The theme is to recognize the many volunteers in this community and how 

very much they do for us.  It is a "Thank you" to the "Sun City West 

Volunteers are the Heart of our Community", which is spelled out on 

the mural. 
 
The work can be found on the interior court yard wall across from the 
administrative offices of the RH Johnson Recreation Center.  It is 

currently in progress with an expected completion date of 4/18 or 4/19.

Please come and visit us.  We work from 2:00 until dark as that is 

when the wall is shaded. 

Kristi Herring said:  "I stopped by to see what Eileen Garvey and Liz Mullen were doing while painting the mural at the RH Johnson Rec Center. They were working hard with their beautiful mural".

Kristi provided these photos to document their progress and share with us. Thanks, Kristi!

Brian and Kristi's Event

Brian Spencer and Kristi Herring will be the featured artists at the Gas Light Inn, 5747 W Glendale Avenue, Glendale, AZ on April 1.For reservations call 623 934-5466. Their open house is April 12th from 6:00-8:00 PM with live music by the Haymakers. Kristi says:  "please stop by and LET'S PARTY"!

Sun City West Arts and Crafts Fair

Many Vanguard members also participate in the Sun City West Arts and Crafts Fair. This will be March 23 from 8:00-3:00. Dyanne Locati will be in the clay area, Kristi Herring will be in the art area.Many more Vanguard members will be represented here also.

Kristi Herring invites all to stop by her booth and see her new art and gift ideas. She will have paintings, cards, bookmarks, coaster and mouse pads.

Should be a fun day!

Foundation Open House

Anne Breza sent this  to me for inclusion in our blog. It looks like we were well-represented, with very professional signage and artwork! Thank you to all who helped to make this event happen.

Anne says:  Brian, Diane Freeman and I manned the Vanguard table at the Foundation Open House last Saturday. Mardelle prepared the brochures about our art and Nan Adams supplied her watercolor greeting cards for display.

Peoria Fine Arts Association

My apologies to Judy Lawson, who provided me with this press release earlier and I could not get it to publish on the web in time to announce the Artists Reception. However, the show runs through March 22, so please take the opportunity to see this show.

Please click on the image to enlarge it for easier reading.

Diane's Finished Painting

Diane Eason has finished the painting she submitted for critique here. I like how it finished, so rich-looking!

Colorado Barn Finished?

I am submitting this as a finished painting, but know that there might be something I have missed, so please let me know if you see anything glaring that needs to be addressed.

Pat, thanks so much for your comment on the foreground foliage. I tried to make them different sizes and shapes, but don't think I made much difference? For some reason, my brush wants to paint symmetry!

From Diane Eason

Vanguard member, Diane Eason, sent this WIP this morning for your critique. She says she has looked at this one so long that she feels she needs some fresh eyes to help her finish it.

Anyone see anything to help her?

To kick off the new feature described below, I will submit my newest project. This is the first WIP of a quarter-sheet sepia monochrome I am using as a study for a larger painting later. I love working in sepia, I guess I am a valueist more than anything else. Love the values.

I will paint the barn next since it has the darkest darks and will adjust the mid and lightest values after that. The gray in the fenceposts is from the masking fluid, they will be sepia tone later.

If you see anything problematic, let me know, otherwise check in again to see my progress on this.

Please join me in sharing your projects, it is so interesting to see how we all work and our process.

New Critiques here on the blog!

As spoken about in yesterday's Vanguard meeting, I proposed adding a new feature to our blog. Many agreed that it would be a helpful feature. I thought it would be interesting for us to see WIPs (Works in Progress) of our paintings added to the blog and any problems you feel you are having discussed as a critique format here on the blog.

So, send me your photos of what you are working on, whether you are having problems or not, just show us your process and progress. I will then put them on the blog, along with your comments, and critiques. Remember, my e-mail is in the Vanguard roster, so please participate in this and let's see if this will help us in our painting journeys.

It will be interesting to have you submit your WIPs here and then, after receiving interim critiques to have you bring the finished pieces to the monthly critique meetings so we can see them finished.

If you have any questions or problems dealing with this new process, please e-mail me....Susan

This announcement comes from new member Helen Tomich:

Helen provided the location as 99th Ave just south of Bell next to the Library.