It’s a Surreal World opened on Friday, April 4, 2008, at the Progress Energy Art Gallery in New Port Richey, Florida. The featured artist of the evening was Patrick Stickney who explores dreams, meditations, and myths in his paintings.  He works in various media depending on what fits the subject matter and his inspiration of the moment – acrylics, tempera, charcoal, ink, colored pencil, paper collage, photo montage, and even enamel spray paints.

The exhibit also included three soft pastel paintings featuring my new goddess series: Polyhymnia, Summoning Brigit, and Mari, Goddess of Dreams.  This series explores various archetypes from the religious to creative muses with dreamlike imagery.  Polyhymnia features a nude transposed against a guitar with little cute goldfish swimming around.  Summoning Brigit is another goddess posing nude this time with a long flowing piece of silk amidst a colorful background with a hidden light bulb.  And finally, Mari, Goddess of Dreams, has a nude cradled by heavenly wings against a full moon and imagery of transformation symbolism with the butterflies against a stark ocean view with deep red poppies.

The exhibit also featured a new mixed media painting created just for the exhibit entitled, It’s a Surreal World.

[Featured in the photo: Polyhymnia, It’s a Surreal World, Summoning Brigit, Mari, Goddess of Dreams, Shakti, & Chaos Theory]

Along with these new paintings, the exhibit also features three large scale metallic prints of original paintings that have sold in prior exhibits and on my online Etsy store, Surrealmuse Studios: Shakti, Chaos Theory & Original Desire.

Other exhibiting artists include Eva Diana Berman who was born in Germany and grew up in Bavaria.  For this featured exhibit, she selected works from her portfolio that explore the discrimination, aggression, and violence that impact women, and explains:

Today, on a regular basis we are reminded of the fate of some of these unfortunate women. Some are scarred forever, some go missing, and some become pioneers to stand up for women’s rights.

It is these facts that prompted me to create the “Fractured Roses” series. Through the use of slashes and breaking up the planes of the canvas I intend to invoke feelings of uneasiness in the viewer as a reminder of the vulnerability of women.

Another exhibiting artist, Melissa Fiorentino, who’s influences range from Michelangelo to Piet Mondrian, strives to bring a convergence of the human passions, emotional thrills, despairing nightmares and the conquest of dreams together to the conscious and unconscious level of the human aspirations.  A variety of color schemes, intense and sometimes risky subject matter help Fiorentino’s work to project a very shocking and different motive . She tends to have a unique style bringing a representational piece, abstract and a portrait all into one. It is a way to allow for there to be a reality and dream or nightmare enclosed onto one image. As Melissa explains in her artist statement:

Nothing speaks to me more than our own emotion .. Basically my main goal is to … [bring] together a surreal and abstract idea of what a person feels while they are experiencing life.

Featured below, another one of Melissa’s paintings encompasses an esoteric metaphysical feeling next to Sherry Shamback’s Spellbinding Garden & Altar Stones, spiritual words encased in cement. The small round ones have astrological glyphs on them and double as (stick) incense holders.

Branden Lukes, another exhibiting artist of the evening, displayed very large paintings that were done on different types of wood.  It is surprising how the different textures of wood in each piece really contribute to the whole experience work.  His use of  simple colors and sweeping black lines is evocative of modern comic books, anime, tribal tattoos, and finer graphic novels.

The exhibit also includes works of art by Virginia Erdie, Kathrine Jakob, Wes Trigger, the curators of the event, Paula Showen and Michelle Collins, along with many other gallery members.  It’s a beautiful exhibit so do check it out if you’re in the area now through May at Progress Energy Art Gallery:

6231 Grand Blvd.

New Port Richey, Florida 34652

Phone: (727) 848-6500

You can read more about the exhibiting artist bios & artist statements here on PEAG’s website.

After after the art exhibit, we wandered the streets of New Port Richey and discovered the festivities of the Annual Chasco Fiesta that featured pow wow dancing and various vendors from food to arts & crafts.

This week’s theme at Illustration Friday is “Leap”, which is the perfect opportunity to share this soft pastel painting I’ve been working on the past month.

It represents a leap into experimenting. The semi-nude woman appears in a half awake dream state. The wings gently hold her as she chases butterflies, creatures of transformation and renewal, while the deep red poppies are in full bloom alluding to endless possibilities.

We must continuous challenge ourselves to evolve, to experient. As Marcel Proust once stated:

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

So if you find yourself emerged in creating from comfort, challenge yourself to try a different medium or style. These experiments in time will lead to inspiration, and possibly even a new direction with your artistic path.

Created for 4×4 Friday’s theme, Music, using soft pastels. I’m still working on the shoulder, and am debating on whether to leave the background simple or not. Please feel free to leave your thoughts and feedback…

Believe, my 2007 Christmas design, is inspired by vintage photography provided by lorivintage55stock and the Lumos font.

Tell me what you think.  I’d love to hear your comments!

A fellow art blogger, Bob Martin, wrote a post the other day on how it’s difficult for him to keep his paintings simple:

It is as if I need to prove that I’ve put a lot of work into a painting in order for it to have value. Of course the value is in the ease in which the painting is able to communicate its message.

In my response, I explained how I had the opposite issue of wondering if my paintings are too simple.

But sometimes I also think that it gives them a timeless feel…something that can be enjoyed for years to come as painting fads come and go.

Take my latest painting as an example for this debate on simplistic versus complex paintings. Right now, it just has a simplistic background, one of my signature elements of style. But the other day, I was debating on maybe adding some symbols on the side of the piece. Nothing too bold. Just something to fill the empty space and create a circular flow to the painting. What do you think?

To me, each painting marks a moment in time, translating emotions into color.

Not all of my pieces will strike the same chord with everyone at an art opening. It all depends on where you are in your own life. Some pieces invoke a sense of passion and desire. Others explore the depths of pain and suffering that life can also bring.

So yes, they do hold a tremendous amount of thought in each piece even though they might come across to some viewers as simple. But with all art, there is always more behind the surface of a painting that we might never know without talking to the artist first hand.

[Submitted for this week’s theme, “Dear Diary“, at Inspire Me Thursday]

The online Art Gallery has been updated with hover graphics embedded directly on the same servers for quicker page load times. No more transfers to flickr! Yea!

In addition, the Gallery has been broken up into five different collections. The first and most comprehensive gallery features 20 of my soft pastel Portrait paintings. My entire portrait painting collection does include more pieces so I’ll be expanding this gallery soon.

The second gallery features 12 selections from my original Pastel Journal. These were always created on the spur of the moment without any pre-planning. Starting first with the images ,and then, the words.

The third gallery features some of my Abstract paintings. Ranging from tribute pieces created in honor of Paul Klee and Jackson Pollack to studies in pointism and cubism. The Abstract Gallery also features some of my own takes on musical studies, mantra art, abstract flowers, and the prozac generation.

The Project Gallery includes eight projects ranging from explorations using mosaics to pressed flowers…even hundreds wine cork thanks to my Uncle Paul. The Project Gallery also features my impressive collection of homemade Magnetic Poetry that includes over 650 words and only took one Sunday afternoon to create.

And to give you a taste of what my surroundings look like when creating, here’s six shots of my Studio including Cleo, our little artist cat.

Here is the finished piece of artwork I created at the Art after Dark event at the Tampa Museum of Art. It’s part of my recent series in exploring abstract designs. Since I’m working with larger works of art now, it’s taking longer to scan them in. I’ve actually got a stack of new work awaiting to be scanned and finally framed.

So far this weekend’s been pretty amazing. We checked out the 2012 show on Friday night. Brian got a ton of great footage that he’ll be going through soon to upload another YouTube video. Then today we had a little party at our place with some new and old friends.
Next Friday, we’ll be going to Permission to Spreak Freely @ International Bazaar in Centro Ybor. It is a venue for all artists and musicians to perform or show pieces of their creative abilities whether it’s through spoken word, visual creations, dance…you name it. It’s a great way to get exposure, make new friends, or just be entertained. So come check it out if you’re in the area.

My latest soft pastel creation…a tribute to high heel boots! they can be a woman’s idea of paradise if you know what I mean…which is also the reason for submitting to this week’s theme at Illustration Friday - Paradise.