Rachel Li has been taking art classes since she was 13. “I’ve always had a passion for drawing," she says. She took classes at Grand Central Atelier when she was in high school and later attended its Core Program, graduating in 2018. Today, at 24, she teaches drawing and painting in the same program. “I love teaching," she admits. “I was drawn to the Core Program because they draw from casts with pencil and graphite in the first year and I wanted to study that. I didn’t think about oil painting until the second year of the program which focuses on painting."
Arcadia Contemporary, Mary Lynn (detail), oil on panel, 24 x 21", by Rachel Li.
Carolyn Kramer Gallery, Hesitation, oil on aluminum, 48 x 36", by O’Neil Scott.
Trained rigorously in the classical tradition, she has avoided the pitfall of imitating painters from the 19th-century ateliers. “Even if I could imitate them," she says, “I wouldn’t want to. I think the colors we use now are different and we play with paint differently."
Her oil portraits elicit a feeling rather than a narrative. “I like to pick a model who has a unique look. The model in Mary Lynn is a dancer and has a sort of masculine look to her face. I love her milky complexion and she had a sad look when she was posing.
I think art speaks more of the artist than the model. When I painted that, I was struggling with my career, just getting out of school and trying to figure things out. The painting is a reflection of that," she says. “I love the figure and portraits and want to capture different types of people. I want to paint something very beautiful—calm, bright, not too dark—that has a feeling behind it. Eventually I’d like to do bigger paintings with more figures. For now I’ll just keep painting and get to different levels. It’s never ending."
Keep Contemporary, Afloat, oil on panel, 24 x 18", by Zienna Brunsted Stewart.
RJD Gallery, Surrender, colored pencil on Bristol board, 17 x 30", by Jesse Lane.
O’Neil Scott attended Syracuse University on a football scholarship, taking art classes which he had to drop because the long studio sessions conflicted with his training schedule. He majored in information technology and later earned an MBA at the University of Delaware. Self-taught and practical, he supplements his art income with IT and other work, but his passion for art and for the people he paints, takes priority.
His large portrait and figure paintings address the contemporary human condition and draw the viewer into a feeling of empathy with the sitter, a fellow human being with whom they might hesitate to engage in their daily life. Hesitation addresses the issue directly. “It’s about skin color and how it affects how people think about you," he explains. “It influences the way you’re treated. People see you and there’s a slight hesitation because of the skin color."
Scott grew up in a poor environment in Jamaica before coming to America and playing football. In 2018, Carolyn Kramer gave him an exhibition at her gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts. At the time he wrote, “I have experienced a large amount of injustice just being a black male in America. As a marginalized American, I think I have a higher sense of empathy for others. I easily relate to situations around equal rights, whether it’s Black Lives Matter, women’s rights or any other civil rights movement. Injustice for some Americans is an injustice for all Americans. We can only move forward together, recognizing that we all come from one race, the human race.”
PoetsArtists, Favor, oil on linen, 48 x 36", by Megan Elizabeth Read.
PoetsArtists, Beauty Won’t Hurt You, oil on linen, 18 x 24", by Junyi Liu.
PoetsArtists, Abyss, colored pencil on Bristol board, 27 x 40", by Jesse Lane.
New Editions Gallery, Haute Couture at Keeneland, Spring II, acrylic on canvas, 39 x 26", by Carlos Gamez de Francisco.
New Editions Gallery, A Positive Attitude, watercolor, 41 x 29½", by Carlos Gamez de Francisco.
Zienna Brunsted Stewart has studied with Odd Nerdum, Daniel Sprick and Sean Cheetham. “I learned a lot from them technique-wise, theory-wise and subject matter-wise," she says. “And from the way they live their lives as people, what they surround themselves with. They have a way of painting portraits or figures that breathe life in a way that they seem more alive than you do standing in front of it.”
She was inspired to paint Afloat visiting hot springs with a friend. “I struggled over painting it,” she says. “I’ve learned so much since then. I wanted a light body against a dark background but it wasn’t working. One day a shaft of light came through the backdoor of my studio and highlighted part of the painting. It was a happy accident.
“At the time, I thought I was painting dreams—sleeping dreams," she continues. “But I realized I was so wrong. There are so many states in our minds when we are awake that can be as abstract as a dream or a memory. Just living, there is so much everywhere. We’re constantly absorbing information through our senses. A painter can get lost in visual senses, though. You need to use all of your senses. I want to live more dynamically. I’m trying to be more cognizant."
Frances Roosevelt, Blue Creek, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40"When Jesse Lane drew a portrait of his wife, Kinsey, with water running down her face, she said, “You could be ‘Jesse Lane the guy who does water portraits!’” He is now the guy who does water portraits, not in oil, but in the difficult medium of colored pencil. “When I was in high school I saw student work in colored pencil and I said, ‘I want to be able to do that,’” he says. He builds up very light layers of pencil and adds color to the passages of water making the dry medium appear liquid. “People underestimate colored pencil,” he explains.
“I want to be able to make my subjects relatable. I isolate them, showing a small portion of their bodies. I take that one thing that makes them special,” Lane says. “In Surrender I highlighted the curve of the model’s right arm and shoulder and then his left arm and hand which create an opposite curve. His eyes are closed which creates an inward feeling of him inside his own thoughts. The water is renewing, washing away the old. I want to tell stories without giving away the whole story.” Part of his own story is his letting go of a past in which he struggled with dyslexia and consequent feelings of inferiority, and moving on to new things—like becoming a full-time, award-winning artist.
New Editions Gallery, Haute Couture at Keeneland, Fall, acyrlic on canvas, 39 x 24", by Carlos Gamez de Francisco.
In the pages of this special section are works by some of today’s emerging talents, who are just starting to forge their paths in the art world. Their subjects, mediums and styles are diverse, and they highlight the unique points of view of each artist. This provides collectors with a wealth of material to select from, and shows there is a bright future ahead for up-and-comers.
PoetsArtists includes a number of members who are emerging artists, including Lane, Megan Elizabeth Read and Junyi Liu.
Lane says, “My work captures intimate moments and gives glimpses of an inner private world…providing a window to our own introspective thoughts and our own mystery.” Abyss was inspired by falling in love and how it “can make us feel weightless,” “vulnerable” and having deep feelings like an abyss.
Over the last few years, Read has “thought primarily about the concepts of emotional expansion, contraction, vulnerability, armor and other contradictory themes such as the perpetual or constant versus the transitory and contemporary. Read says, “I suppose I am a bit preoccupied with the small tensions involved in just being human and I want to express that.
Frances Roosevelt, Sunset Blues, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40"
Townsend Atelier Gallery, Amour, oil on panel, 8 x 10", by John McLeod.
I consider my figurative paintings in some ways aspirational portraits of multiple selves: who you are, who you want to be, and all of the [versions of you] that must constantly coexist."
Liu observes how people live in the city. “I have great sympathy for the insecurity of women nowadays," the artist says. “They keep seeking comforts from different sources, with the hope of achieving inner peace. However, that seems to be harder and harder. These portraits of ordinary young women living in NYC are my attempts to reveal their vulnerability.”
Inspired by the glamour and elegant couture of the past, Carlos Gamez de Francisco, who is represented by New Editions Gallery in Lexington, Kentucky, playfully nods to the fashions found during racing season at Churchill Downs and Keeneland racetracks in Kentucky in his latest series titled Keeneland Couture. Classically trained but with an eye to the future, this hardworking and dedicated young artist from Cuba has the boundless energy and enthusiasm of the younger generation mixed with a desire to capture and manipulate history.
Frances Roosevelt, Clouds Like Sparks, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36"
Growing up in Charleston, South Carolina, Frances Roosevelt was drawn to the beauty and culture of the Sea Islands, especially the back waters and marshes. Now living in Pennsylvania, she enjoys painting the fields and skies of southern Chester County, mostly from memory in a loose, somewhat abstract and colorful style. She looks for “a strong evocation of a sense of place rather than detail and perfected brushstrokes.”
May 1 through June 8, Townsend Atelier Gallery will present Strength and Vulnerability, a new collection of figurative oil paintings and abstract sculptures by artist John McLeod. The show offers visual experiences that describe an often-hidden aspect of human existence: the relationship between strength and vulnerability.
“Strength and vulnerability are often perceived individually but, in truth, they frequently co-exist,” McLeod says. “Maybe it’s the fragility of a new life—growing and changing—or perhaps a personal journey we may have through some wonderfully or painfully transformative event…however it occurs, this duality is an ever-present and wondrous part of life. One of our greatest potentials for growth, I believe, is when we strive to see both our strengths and weaknesses and decide to walk with purpose toward something greater.” 
Townsend Atelier Gallery, Beacon, oil on aluminum, 48 x 48", by John McLeod.
Shima Shanti, Journey into Silence, encaustic painting with beeswax and fire, 24 x 24"
San Diego artist Shima Shanti’s encaustic paintings portray the liquid imagery and interplay of water and spirit. Using only natural elements of beeswax, pigment and fire, Shima endeavors to preserve and revive the ancient and alchemic medium of encaustic.
Her paintings reveal the underlying peace that shape our natural world. Beyond what appears to be turbulent wind and crashing waves, her work unveils the rhythm and flow of water in motion in synergy with nature and spirit.
Debbie Mueller’s artwork is inspired by the dance between light and shadow. “My aha moment as I search for inspiration for a painting is where I know I can convey a sense of illumination in my work. Whether in a landscape or a still life, I want my viewers to feel the warmth of the light on my subject, and allow that warmth to feed their spirit,” she says.
Mueller will participate in the National Oil & Acrylic Painters’ Society’s Best of America Small Works exhibition, at McBride Fine Art Gallery, opening April 5, and in the Oil Painters of America’s 29th National Juried Exhibition with her painting Beyond the Lobster Pound. The OPA exhibition will be held at R.S. Hanna Gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas, this May. —
Featured Artists & Galleries
Arcadia Contemporary
39 E. Colorado Boulevard,
Pasadena, CA 91105, (626) 486-2018
www.arcadiacontemporary.com
Carolyn Kramer Gallery
21 Pleasant Street, Provincetown, MA 02657
(508) 776-0503
www.carolynkramergallery.com
Debbie Mueller
(603) 767-5645
debbiemuellerart@gmail.com
www.debbiemuellerart.com
Frances Roosevelt
(610) 299-3219
fhroosevelt@kennett.net
www.francesroosevelt.com
Keep Contemporary
142 Lincoln Avenue,
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 557-9574
www.keepcontemporary.com
New Editions Gallery
500 W. Short Street,
Lexington, KY 40507
859- 266-2766
ftyork@windstream.net
www.neweditionsgallery.com
PoetsArtists
www.poetsandartists.com
RJD Gallery
2385 Main Street,
Bridgehampton, NY 11932
(631) 725-1161
www.rjdgallery.com
Shima Shanti
San Diego, CA
(619) 920-1954
shima@peacewaters.com
www.shimashanti.com
Townsend Atelier Gallery
301 E. 11th Street,
Chattanooga, TN 37402
(423) 266-2712
www.townsendatelier.com
Powered by Froala Editor
