The Reception at Ranazul

It has already been over a week since the reception at Ranazul. That means means there are less than two more weeks to enjoy the show. I wanted to share some photographs from the reception. It was so great to see everyone who arrived to enjoy my art, discuss my gallery wrapped presentation, and share stories behind the paintings. Visiting with old friends and meeting some new ones was a joy.

Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

Copyright April M Rimpo 2015 All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution, but all other uses are prohibited.

An Exhibit in an Alternative Space

Winter (Part I)

Typically I exhibit in national watermedia exhibits, commercial galleries, artist owned galleries, and local art centers that hold monthly exhibits. On rare occasion I have also exhibited in alternative spaces, such as doctor's offices, restaurants, and small business stores. It so happens that I arranged an exhibit in a local restaurant a couple months before the discussion in a weekly art business forum turned to the topic of alternative spaces. 

Winter (Part II)

A synopsis of the forum discussion is that you never know when someone will see your artwork, fall in love with it, and want to make a purchase. So displaying in alternate spaces, although somewhat of a long-short in terms of sales, is worth the risk. Several examples were given by artists who had successfully made sales through alternative venues. These alternative venues may not be the primary places where you want to attempt to make sales, but there is no reason to ignore the possibility.

Summer (Part I)

When I first shifted from part time to full time art, I displayed prints of my artwork in my dentist's office. She invited me to do so and posted images of my work in her office on Facebook.  When asked, her receptionist provided my contact information to their patients and I did receive some calls. Although I did not make any sales as a result, I know there was some increased awareness of my artwork as a result of that venture.

Summery (Part II)

This month my artwork is on display at Ranazul tapas wine bistro in Fulton, Maryland. A few people had suggested this venue to me, so I decide to learn more about it.  It turns out the owner's brother is an artist, so when putting together the plans for the building she included a gallery room as part of the layout. Her goal is to support local artists with exhibits each month. What better way to foster a partnership between the artists and the restaurant? I loved the idea, submitted my artwork, and was accepted for a show. Ranazul provides the space, tapas and beverages for the reception, and takes a very reasonable commission on sales. The artist is responsible to install the exhibit, advertise the reception, and take-down the exhibit at the end of the show. A very equitable relationship. 

Summer (Part III)

If you decide to look into alternative venues, be sure to find out the responsibilities of each party so there are no surprises.

Included here are images of my exhibit, Summer and Winter. The reception is on November 8th at 4PM. Come check it out!




Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

Copyright April M Rimpo 2015 All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution, but all other uses are prohibited.

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Cardinal In Winter - Day 25 of the #jan30in30 Challenge

Cardinal in Winter, 5" X 5" Fluid Acrylic by April M. Rimpo

Cardinal in Winter
Fluid Acrylic on Paper Mounted on
5" X 5" X 2" deep cradle wood panel
SOLD

Cardinal in Winter is the fourth in a recent flourish of small bird paintings. The owner of one gallery that represents my art asked if I ever did birds, which I do. Often I paint pigeons. 

My family seems to have a thing about pigeons.  An uncle had a pigeon coop when he was young. When my son was about seven years old we took a trip to Europe. Most days we started out in museums and by afternoon stopped at a park where our son could play with the other children. The language barrier never bothered them. Other days we'd go to a Catheral to see the architecture and amazing art treasures located there.  This was in the 1990s and at the time you were encouraged to buy small bags of dried corn and feed the pigeons.  We did and my son just loved every moment of it.  We have countless pictures of him feeding the birds, them landing on his arm, etc.  The glee on his face has resulted in a few paintings.  To see my pigeon paintings you might want to look at Pigeons: Evolution of a Series. But I digress.

The gallery owner didn't think pigeons would sell in her gallery (I'm grinning since our family's fetish may not be common), but since I have always enjoyed painting pigeons, other birds were a nice diversion. You may recall I shared Chickadee on Day 11 of the Challenge, Morning Song with a Golden Finch on Day 14, and Dove on Day 24.  

Cardinal in Winter was a fun painting to do.  I started with a couple photographs I've take of a female Cardinal in my yard.  I combined her with a photograph I had taken of a holly bush one winter and figured out a cropping I thought would be a nice design.  Now the poor females a never brightly colored since they need to be well camouflaged when taking care of their eggs and chicks, so I knew I needed to convert her to a male.  I had photographs of the males as well and used those for the color reference.

You may have noticed I am using paper that was prepared for the yoga series. It was perfect for a sky background in the winter with pale blue and lots of little white spots. I will mount this paper to a 5 X 5" deep cradle Aquabord since I like the presentation of the deep cradle.  Once varnished it will be ready to go.

"Church Road" 24" X 18" fluid acrylic on gallery wrapped paper

Church Road by April M Rimpo

Church Road is likely my last snow scene for the season.  I snapped the photo last fall, which means I had to figure out the snow on my own.  It was fun to determine where it might collect on the roofs and where it might pile up as the neighbors cleared their sidewalks and paths to their homes.

Church Road

Fluid Acrylic on Varnished Gallery Wrapped Paper

$995 for Original Painting

Available for purchase here

#HoCoArts

"Fresh Snow" 24 X 24" watercolor and fluid acrylic

Fresh Snow by April M Rimpo

Fresh Snow

Watercolor and Acrylic

24" X 24" varnished and gallery wrapped paper

Available on my website

I've always found snow scenes intimidating, but decided to rise to the challenge this year and give it a try.  A fresh snow gives me a sense of calm, provided it is not so deep that I have to go out and shovel it for hours.  I thought back to all the lovely colors I'd been using this year and selected some that I thought had a calming effect on me and thought about which ones would be a good way to capture the light.  

Much of painting snow is really capturing the light since the snow is "white" and is a perfect surface to allow you to see it. Currently we have no snow on the ground so I went back through photographs I have taken the morning after a snow fall and really concentrated on the colors in the snow.  And there they were pale yellows, lavenders, and warm blues.

About a week after completing this painting I was fortunate to attend a talk by Lee Boyton, who studied painting the light with Henry Hensche at the Cape School of Art in Provincetown, MA. According the Lee's bio "Henry opened Lee's eyes to the poetry of using color to capture the subtle and ever-changing effects of light." During Lee's demonstration I found out that what I had stumbled upon in this painting was part of the philosophy of the American Impressionists and what was taught at the Cape School of Art.  I think the concept Lee portrayed in his demonstration is one I am innately drawn to and will definitely pursue this more in my work. 

"Icicles", 26.5" X18" fluid acrylic and watercolor.

Icicles by April M Rimpo

Yesterday the Mid-Atlantic region what glazed with ice.  Lots of people shared their photos of beautiful chrystaline scenes.  This storm reminded me of another we had a few years ago that had resulted in my painting, Icicles.

I've loved icicles as a child in New England when they grew from the gutters into long swords. Here in Maryland the icicles create amazing fringe on the plants and trees.  The ice encapsulate berries and seed pods.  Trees bend like they are bowing to Mother Nature.

Creating the delicate pale pastels of the ice while achieving the bold and varied colors of the leave led me to use a combination of watercolor and fluid acrylic.  Combining these two media let me use their strengths to capture this icy scene.

Below are photographs that show a few of the steps along the way.

Icicles

watercolor & acrylic on paper, matted and framed 35.5" x 27"

$1000 shipped within US