Current Exhibition

Our second Art competition “Painting & Photography” started in August 2021 and concluded on September 02, 2021. Art Room Gallery received entries from many countries around the world: USA, Japan, Iran, Israel, Taiwan, Germany, Spain, Georgia, Hong Kong, Australia, United Kingdom, China, Sweden and Mexico. The Painting & Photography theme in this competition included a diversity in types, styles and mediums (oil on canvas, acrylic, pastel, watercolor, charcoal, digital, photography). The following evaluation criteria has been used for judging the artwork: creativity, interpretation of the theme, originality and quality of art, overall design, demonstration of artistic ability, and usage of medium. Jury decided to select 66 artworks for inclusion in the exhibition. Aside from First, Second, and Third place Jury also presented Merit awards and Honorable Mention awards.

Thank you, and enjoy the exhibition!

Statement:

Marti White is a mixed media artist living and working in Tucson, Arizona. Marti’s work is show locally and nationally as well as online. Marti’s work is primarily abstract in various media which include acrylic, mixed media, watercolor and collage. She usually does not begin a work with a plan beyond her color choices and substrate or media used. She lets the painting evolve, showing her as she goes along what it wants to say. Marti is active in several arts organizations in the Tucson area. She is a Signature Member of the Contemporary Artists of Southern Arizona for which she served two terms as president. She is a Saguaro Fellow of the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild and a member of the Acrylic Painters, USA. Marti’s work has won many awards in local shows as well as national exhibits and online shows. Marti has been making art for over fifty years. She began working in oil, but quickly became interested in the fluidity and spontaneity of watercolor which she worked in for over twenty years when she lived in the Midwest. After moving to Arizona, the climate and the lifestyle of the Southwest seemed to call for a change in her approach to art-making. She began working in mixed media and collage and then in acrylic. Recently Marti became intrigued with the idea of what lay behind the surface of a painting. She found the idea of light passages or openings she calls “apertures” drew the viewer into a work and allowed them to see their own story in the painting beyond what she might see herself. This opened up a new way for the work to communicate.

Statement:

I am a primarily self-taught photographer who began exhibiting my images about fifteen years ago. I seek to share images with which I has a strong and instinctive personal connection. Images may be simply documentary, invoke a sense of time and place, or resonate as an abstract blend of color, shape or form. Others provoke an indefinable question that does not readily yield answers without further study and reflection. My creative process follows an intuitive yet patterned path, searching for the combination of elements that produces an instinctive but undeniable connection. Most often the images that provoke the strongest connection are those that do not produce an immediate reaction but provoke a response through repeated contact and consideration over time. I exhibit widely and have received awards in local, regional, and national exhibitions. My photographs are also included in several corporate and private collections.

Statement:

Barbara Lawrence was born in San Francisco and has spent most of her life in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her B. A. degree from San Francisco State University and an M. A. degree from San Jose State University. She taught Life drawing and Advanced Painting at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto and is currently painting full time in her studio in Santa Cruz. One person shows include the Memorial Art Galley at U.C. Davis, the Monterey Conference Center, the Pope Galley Santa Cruz. the Distinguished Art Series Santa Cruz Art League, San Francisco Introductions at the Ebert Gallery and the Miyares Gallery, Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa. Her work can currently be seen on her website at barbaralawrenceart.com Barbara was the featured artist in the spring 2015 and 2017 landscape issues of the on line ARTIST PORTFOLIO MAGAZINE. She was also the May 2020 ART SPACE AND TIME featured solo artist. Juried shows Barbara has participated in include: "I'll bet you can't paint a portrait - The Genesis of Bay Area Figurative Art Now;" the Art Space Gallery, San Francisco, juror Theophilus Brown, California Landscape of Dreams." presented by the Winfield Galley (Carmel) at the Fresno Art Museum, "California" at Cabrillo College, juror Ruth Braunstein. Barbara is inspired by the rich tapestry of life in the Monterey Bay Area and paints both on location and in her studio. Her work is characterized by recognized subject matter with an interpretation that synthesizes the essence of the subject with some of the qualities of abstraction. Her work includes landscape and figurative paintings.