pam's big adventure

yet to be titled digital image    pfarrell 2009

I've been meaning to see Roxy Paine's Maelstrom, installed on the Metropolitan Museum of Art roof sculpture garden. But as with many things in my life, these days, I am relying instead on the 'net (and Joanne Mattera and her blog) to provide a vicarious experience. Thanks Joanne! 

Perhaps somewhat inspired by Maelstrom, the image above is the latest in a series of digital pieces I began early last spring and posted on my photo art blog. I've been alternating between trees and water, water and trees.I've been preparing several images from this series to have printed in a large format, and I'm heading to Philly's Silicon Gallery this week to avail myself of their 60" printers and digital printing expertise. Also along for this adventure will be my friend Randy Carone, who provides me invaluable technical advice and assistance. He also plays a mean slide guitar. 

While I have a fair amount of printmaking experience from back in the day, this is my first foray into large format digital printing. Very exciting. I'm trying to suspend my expectations and just go with whatever happens. As my friend photographer John Carlano counseled, these larger images will be "different pictures." So, I'm off with that in mind...

Sue Katz: What's the Big Idea?

I met Sue Katz at the 3rd Annual Montserrat Encaustic Painting Conference in June, when I attended her presentation "What's the Big Idea?", which discussed content in art--her own, and that of a number of other artists. Sue is presenting "What's the Big Idea?" in an open forum that is part of her show with Jozan Treston at Gallery A3 in Amherst, Massachusetts. One of Sue's pieces from the show is below with a short statement. Check out the gallery link for more info.

SPIRALING OUT, 36"x66", encaustic on wood and metal, 2009, Sue Katz

Basically every found object in this piece is old and worn except for the panel with cream white and copper-colored encaustic - proportions aren't exactly two squares in a rectangle now - one member of my family's generations has died and another is declining - so out and into new directions - and so it goes - life keeps happening!

west prize painting faves

Here are my fave paintings from this year's West Prize applicants. I have thus far only searched through the paintings category. I don't know if it's me or if the thumbnails are especially small this year, but my eyes were rather fatigued after the painting category. I might just come back in a few days with picks from other media.I've chosen pretty much at random, and these appear in alphabetical order, though I admit to including the work of a few buddies.


henry bermudez

jaq chartier

cora jane glasser

cynthia ona innes

michelle mackey

michelle marcuse

govinda sah

stephanie serpick

vilma vissers

jesse whittle

Carl Plansky 1951-2009

Carl Plansky, visionary paintmaker, founder of Williamsburg Oil Paints, and artist, died Saturday, October 10, 2009, from a heart attack. His good friend Richard Frumess of R F Handmade Paints offers a tribute to him on his blog.

I did not know Carl Plansky, but I've used his paints for years. I've always thought of them as paints made with artistry. His inspired contributions will live on in the works of countless artists.

THE REAL - THE ABSTRACT - THE ART OF HUNTERDON

A group invitational exhibition presented by the
Hunterdon County Cultural and Heritage Commission featuring work by:

Malcolm Bray, Susan Blubaugh, Sheila Coutin, Alexander Farnham,
Pamela Farrell, Penny Gagne, Barbara Osterman, Bruce Rigby, Rhoda Yanow

I'll be at the reception Friday, October 2, 5-8 pm
Hope to see you there

October 2-30, 2009

Prallsville Mills
In the newly renovated Sawmill

Rt. 29, Stockton, NJ
on the Delaware River 3 miles north of Lambertville

Exhibition open Tuesdays-Sundays 12-5 pm


image: Ophelia (grey) 2009
36 x 36" encaustic on panel

nice post on Joanne mattera's blog...and good folk

Joanne Mattera, as part of her What I Did This Summer series of blog posts, has pics and text about her visit to my studio in NJ and Steven Alexander's studio in PA. Quite the contrast between the two in space, style, work, and uh, neatness. Thanks Joanne! It was a pleasure to have you.





This is a pic of the studio in its current state, with a roof added to the front and french doors replacing the wood ones. The roof allows me to have the doors open when it rains, adds indirect light, and keeps some of the direct sun from heating the building too much in summer. Oh yeah--and it's a really nice place to sit for cocktail time in the evenings.

I just have to add a few thoughts about the goodness of folk. Our neighbors, Ken and Nan Yard, and their two sons, Forrest and Clinton, have been friends from the beginning. We've been here 16 years, and were greeted on moving day by 2 little boys bearing a bag of veggies from their garden. (I know now their mother sent them to "check out the new neighbors.") Well, the two little boys have now completed college and grad school and have become wonderful young men.

Ken, a class A carpenter and cabinetmaker builds my painting panels. He also did the finish work in the studio. One day, he surprised me by offering to build the roof onto the studio and install the french doors. All I had to do was supply some additional labor (Rocky, my husband) and cover the materials. Quite an offer!!! A couple of months later, and I have my completed studio, and Ken and Nan have some very happy neighbors and friends, and a large, colorful, encaustic waterscape hanging near their spa room.
All that's left is to finish the landscaping in the front, which will be tended to in the spring. Thanks, guys!

THE (DARK) SHOW

Today, Michelle Marcuse, Rob Solomon, and I hung The (Dark) Show at StrataSphere Gallery in Philadelphia. This collaborative effort came about some months ago when the three of us jokingly commented that since we all had a tendency to use a dark palette in our work, that we should show together; hence, The (Dark) Show. As collaborative efforts go, this has been a very positive one--negotiations for hanging space in a relatively small exhibition space went smoothly, with all of us contributing our thoughts about what goes where. No easy feat considering how group dynamics can go with three individuals interacting. A short essay below discusses the ideas behind the show.

Foreign Soil No. 5 18 x 18"
encaustic on panel 2009

The (Dark) Show

In The (Dark) Show, Pam Farrell, Michelle Marcuse, and Rob Solomon address the dark with a grain of salt, or perhaps a broad brush. Art history abounds with references to dark as a theme. For some, the dark suggests the unspeakable, the unknown, evil, the sinister, gloomy, and ominous. For these three artists, choice of palette represents more than a proclivity for dark thoughts. Light emerging from dark, shining a light in the dark, a playful interaction of opposites, and an exploration of space and time all offer the viewer an open-ended experience to explore individual ideas about the dark, to see beyond the expected.

Pam Farrell’s work references natural phenomena and elements such as water, weather, and geographic formations to explore concepts of lacunae in terms of loss, memory, and identity. Using layers of pigmented beeswax built up and scraped back, the process allows the obscured and indeterminate to surface. Mark making is the experience; the mark is the trace. Remains, vestiges, scars, memories, clues, and the barely discernable are revealed; traces of memory and experience that cannot be expressed with words become more evident.

Michelle Marcuse uses monochromatic coloring to suggest a subdued, sometimes anxious atmosphere, one that at times appears veiled and mysterious. At first glance there may seem to be an identifiable space where specific elements are in a state of isolated flux. But Marcuse invites the viewer to explore more closely her fields of concentrated, quiet energy. Existing within silence, the fields are slow in time, with the energy moving in from the outside. The impressions suggest a distanced level of reality…seen as uncategorized extracts from a space that runs counter to our own.

Rob Solomon's current work blurs the line between painting and drawing: paintings of drawings or diagrams; diagramming paintings with collaged canvas insets; drawings embedded into painting, and paper supporting canvas overlays. The work integrates multiple processes and materials, including dyed and bleached paper, graphite on raw canvas, mars black pigmented beeswax, and black ink-based photographs. The work explores opposing elements within a theme: patterns and patterns breaking, order and destruction, making and breaking symmetry, framing and re-framing within the canvas, and delight and despair.

August 29-October 3 2009

Reception: Saturday, August 29 2-5 pm

For more information: The StrataSphere Gallery