Vignette: Celia Kelly

"Spencer County Farm Lane" by Celia Kelly, oil on canvas, 14x18in, 2017, $300

Celia Kelly is a landscape artist working primarily ‘en plein air’. Kelly enjoys the challenge of “navigating a variety of conditions” – discerning color, form, and space within the constantly changing natural light. Plein air might seem old-fashioned, but a better description might be ‘timeless’’, for many artists a nearly spiritual relationship with the mercurial personality of the environment. Temporality shows up on the list of media for many contemporary artists, yet it has always been a part of the plein air experience, a tradition for painters that dates back several hundred years.

"Springhill #3" by Celia Kelly, oil on panel, 11x9in, 2017, $100

“A few years ago, I switched my focus from painting urban scenes to rural landscapes,” Kelly tells us. “This has allowed me to leave the city, spend an entire day outside exploring vast open spaces. I have come to love the geometric compositions offered through open fields, hillsides, rows of trees, highways, and still waters. I also look at stagnant, standing structures (such as a barn) and see how it fits into this natural environment. One of my favorite subject matters are fields of grapevines, because of the symmetrical arrangement and cultivation is involved within the rows.” 

“I like to describe my painting style as one that straddles a divide between abstraction, representation and impressionism. There is a spiritual connection that occurs between landscape artist and the landscape. I attempt to capture this through the use of color, value, and expressive brushstroke. In other words, I don’t see the need to paint every leaf. When one travels, impressions are made, and I try to do justice to my own impressions of these landscapes through my work.”

Most recently, in August, Kelly participated in the notBIG group show at M.S. Rezny Gallery in Lexington, Kentucky.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BA, Centre College; University of Louisville, post-baccalaureate studies, Painting
Website: celiakelly.blogspot.com

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"Tobacco Storage" by Celia Kelly, oil on panel, 8x10in, 2017, $125

"Yellow Field Stripes" by Celia Kelly, oil on canvas, 18x14in, 2017, $300

"Sunswept" Celia Kelly, oil on panel, 11x14in, 2017, NFS

"Harper's View" by Celia Kelly, oil on canvas, 12x9in, 2017, NFS

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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Vignette: Julio Cesar Rodríguez

"The Fleeting Reflection" by Julio Cesar Rodríguez, 24x48in, oil on canvas (2016)

Rodríguez at work in his studio.

Julio Cesar Rodríguez describes his work as: “…a mixture of figuration and expressionism with an air of surrealism, where I project my individuality as a creator poetically and philosophically.” Certainly the images call to the viewer’s mind Rene Magritte, even if the impenetrable black hat we find here is a fedora and not the iconic bowler of the famous French surrealist painter.

Drawing on his dreams in the most literal sense, Rodríguez recreates images from the narrative his subconscious weaves at night, wherein the human form occupies space as both object and field. The ubiquitous and benign violation of the body in dreams is brilliantly realized in these paintings, but in terms that are unexpectedly accessible and not so disturbing; flesh becomes wood but is not deconstructed into splinters.

“When I'm painting I feel my mind is opened as a theater stage, and my staging begins to establish itself with its own lights and shadows, colors and strokes; and then going to bed trying to sleep with that huge dark hat is the night. It is in this process where I feel I still perched at that stage…floating in my paintings.”

A detail of one of Rodríguez paintings.

Rodríguez has exhibited internationally and has work in private collections in Cuba, USA, Puerto Rico, Canada, China, Mexico, Belgium, Panama, Argentina, Spain, Ukraine, the Dominican Republic, Germany, and Italy. His most recent show was “SLEEPLESS ILLUSION”, was at Revelry Boutique Gallery in Louisville, Kentucky.

You can visit Julio Cesar Rodríguez in his studio on the southeast side of Louisville during OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND, November 5 & 6, 2016. The event benefits scholarship programs for Louisville Visual Art and University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute and tickets may be purchased here. 

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Age: 40
Education: 1988-1995 Fine Art Academy in Holguin, Cuba. Graduated in Painting, Drawing and Photograph
Gallery Representative: Revelry Boutique Gallery

“Fading Flesh” by Julio Cesar Rodríguez, 48x36in, oil on canvas (2016)

“The Mystifying Face of the Moon” by Julio Cesar Rodríguez, 48x36in, oil on canvas (2016)

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Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2016 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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Vignette: Andrea Alonso Salinas

"Gray Center" by Andrea Alonso Salinas, 24x24in, oil on canvas (2015), $600 | BUY NOW

When painter Andrea Alonso Salinas states that she paints, “…places that can only be in the imagination and are simply not possible in the physical world,” she gets to heart of how abstraction is born from an artist’s concentration on reality. It is the artist’s job to interpret and comment on what they see in the world, and to spark that same fresh perspective in the viewer. Not to reassure but to challenge the routine perception of our daily existence.

"Suburb By Sunset" by Andrea Alonso Salinas, 24x24in, oil on canvas (2015), $600 | BUY NOW

In “Suburb,” Alonso Salinas maintains a tenuous foothold on recognizable space, spinning the residential neighborhood into a vertiginous swirl of color and form. In “Center” she has taken up a monochromatic palette, which further removes the particular associations we have seen in her previous work and allows the abstraction to dominate even more than usual.

Alonso Salinas was a finalist in Pitch Night Louisville 2016, sponsored by ArtPrize and 21c Museum Hotel this year. Currently, she is working on interior design projects, and various private commissions. Her artwork will be featured in Art Yellow Book #2 2016, by CICA Museum. Alonso Salinas’s paintings have been exhibited at Revelry Boutique Gallery in Louisville, KY, and the “O” Gallery in Nashville, TN.

Hometown: Monterrey, Mexico
Age: 30
Education: Architecture degree University of Monterrey, Mexico; MBA in Administration, Rioja University, Madrid, Spain.
Website: http://www.art-ark.com

"Hidden Corner" by Andrea Alonso Salinas, 30x24in, oil on canvas (2015), $400 | BUY NOW

"Landscape Through The Window" by Andrea Alonso Salinas, 69x42in (composition size), oil on canvas (2016), $900 | BUY NOW

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Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2016 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

Interested in advertising through Artebella? Contact josh@louisvillevisualart.org for further information.