News
May 2011 Exhibition - Past Perfect Sale June 18 2011
Exhibition Dates: May 7 - 28, 2011
Arts on Douglas is pleased to announce the opening reception for the participating artists of the Past Perfect Sale. This sale was open to all the artists represented by the gallery. This rare event creates an occasion for our artists to clear out their studio space of older and/or slightly damaged work while simultaneously providing the public with an opportunity to purchase artwork from their favorite artist at a discounted rate.
Jean Banas - New Smyrna Beach
Marc Barrett - Orlando
Hope Barton - St. Augustine
Donne Bitner - Orlando
Tom Brewer - New Smyrna Beach
Judi Dold - New Smyrna Beach
Rene Guerin - Vero Beach
Georgina Holt - Winter Park
Jane Jennings - Port Orange
Jeff League - Winter Park
Rodney Lints - New Smyrna Beach
Gustaf Miller - Vero Beach
Gretchen Nass - New Smyrna Beach
Audrey Phillips - New Smyrna Beach
Marilynne Roland - New Smyrna Beach
Jo Sinclair - St. Augustine
Wendy Tatter - St. Augustine
Trish Thompson - New Smyrna Beach
Barbara Tiffany - Orlando
Anna Tomczak - Lake Helen
Barbara Wagner - New Smyrna Beach
John Wilton - DeLand
As a regular feature, Arts on Douglas stages a continuing series of group exhibitions of works by all artists represented by the gallery. Unparalleled in scale of its exhibition space (5000 square feet) and artistic stable of 60 Florida artists, Arts on Douglas furnishes viewers a unique opportunity to enjoy a wide range of artistic style and temperament under one roof.
Examples of artwork exhibited include: the vibrant batik fabric wall assemblages by mixed media artist Jane Jennings; the serene meditative landscapes by Riitta Klint and the provocative wood and stone sculptures of Enzo Torcoletti.
April 2011 Exhibition - Audrey Phillips March 12 2011
Finding the Light
On Exhibit: April 2-30, 2011Opening Reception: Saturday, April 2, 4 to 7 pm
Gallery Talks: Friday, April 29 @ 11am
Free and open to the public
Finding the Light, a solo exhibition of the work of Audrey Phillips, opens at Arts on Douglas Fine Art and Collectibles in the downtown arts district of New Smyrna Beach on Saturday, April 2, from 4-7 p.m. The show runs through April 30, with an artist’s talk on Friday, April 29 at 11 a.m.
During the 1960s and early ’70s, Phillips grew up in the Florida Panhandle, where her family fished in the crystal-clear waters and combed the pristine beaches of pure white sand.
“Three miles offshore, where the shoreline was no longer visible, you could see straight down to the ocean floor through 25 feet of turquoise water,” she recalls.
Since that time, she has had a full life that has included many unexpected turns. Ten years ago, Phillips began painting as a way to heal the deep grief she experienced following the tragic murder of her mother in Panama City. The compelling story of her path toward healing through art drew the attention of AARP, which featured Phillips in its recent film Inner Genius as well as an article in the September/October 2010 issue of AARP Magazine.
Last April, Phillips was flown to New York City for the making of the film Inner Genius. During this exciting time, the tragedy of the Gulf Oil Spill hit the media. Her shock grew as she slowly realized that the beaches and waters she remembered as places of beauty and respite would be blackened by gallons of oil spewing up, out of control, from the ocean’s floor.
When she returned home to Florida, Phillips began expressing her feelings about the Gulf through art, finding initial inspiration in a piece of decorative paper she had picked up as a souvenir in New York.
“The paper’s swirling design represented interconnectedness to me,” she recalls. Soon, she began to see a correlation between the swirling motif and the ravaging oil spill.
Her first few abstract paintings were filled with light and colorful inspirations of her fond family memories on the Gulf. But not long after this, she found herself reflecting on the darkness of the new situation in the Gulf waters. She was attracted to the intricate details of engraved depictions of sea life by Albertus Seba from the 1700s. The work of Ernst Haeckel, a naturalist and artist who depicted thousands of species in the late 1800s, also drew her attention. The otherworldly, almost abstract quality of the images fueled her work as she dwelled on the black curtain of oil slowly covering precious sea life.
"As I created these pieces, I took the perspective of a small organism in the Gulf, looking up through the waters towards the sky. I imagined that the invasion of oil must look like a storm coming ashore, with an eerie darkness slowly settling in. The threat of the oil stirred a protective spirit in me."
To give voice to this in her work, Phillips created mixed-media pieces that integrate parts of illustrations. These arrestingly beautiful dark-and-light pieces express her awareness of the fragility of nature and our need to protect it.
As this body of work progressed for the upcoming solo exhibition, Phillips became more hopeful as she thought of “nature’s innate intelligence and its ability to heal.” Following this lead, her paintings moved beyond the subject of trauma to the more universal themes of spirituality and healing in the lives of human beings. Finding the Light, a large 72 x 36-inch painting incorporating both light and dark forms, reflects Phillips’ personal transcendence as well as the perceived duality and richness inherent in all life.
March 2011 - Lee Dunkel and Jane Jennings March 12 2011
Lee Dunkel - "Fifteen Preludes to Lyonia"Each month one of the 59 artists represented by Arts on Douglas Fine Art and Collectibles, the downtown New Smyrna Beach art gallery, is featured in a solo exhibition. During the month of March, the gallery will be showcasing 2 solo artists: Lee Dunkel and Jane Jennings.
This body of work by renowned photographer Lee Dunkel was created at the Lyonia Preserve in Deltona, Florida. It is a prelude to a larger body of work that will be presented at the Southeast Museum of Photography in October of 2012.
The Lyonia Preserve is known as an “upland” landscape, meaning that it is high and dry. There are few upland areas left in Florida. Since 1994, restoration efforts have been made to remove overgrown sand pines, creating bare sand areas with low-growing vegetation preferred by native scrub species.
Dunkel describes her work in Lyonia:
“The austere landscape at Lyonia is almost a Zen experience, with its pure white sand and sparse vegetation. At first I thought there was not a lot to photograph, because, as a whole, it looked more forbidding than enticing. But the more I returned to it, the more I saw. I worked with the changing light, weather, and seasons, finding beautiful details in the plants and terrain.”
There is a book accompanying the exhibition called Nine Portfolios 1985-2008, featuring the artist’s black and white photographs from 1985 – 2008. Lee Dunkel will be giving a gallery talk on Friday, March 11 at 11am to discuss her work and artistic process.
Distinguished fiber artist Jane Jennings uses batik fabric to create delicately crafted assemblage sculptures. The title of her new show, The Language of Luminosity: Batik Assemblages springs forth from a collection of new work using cotton batiks as an art medium.
The title of this show has a dual meaning: It is first the result of inspiration from the radiant hues of hand-dyed and hand-printed fabrics made in Indonesia and secondly, the concept of spiritual enlightenment subtly expressed in visual form. Several pieces in the show incorporate a natural theme with a fantasy element normally unexpected in Jenning’s work. In contrast, the multi-dimensional wall pieces included in the exhibit are meant to emphasize the absence of nature and the stark coldness of city life. Regardless of subject matter, the luminosity of batik patterns and vivid colors opens a world of artistic possibilities for the fiber artist.
Jennings will be giving a gallery talk on Friday, March 25 at 11am to discuss her work and artistic process.
- Previous
- Page 22 of 22