Ian Russell - Water Color Art

Artist's Statement & Philosophy

I love the beauty of the Southwest and the breathtaking intensity of the landscape. As difficult as it is to explore these places by foot it is even more challenging and rewarding to bring what I experience to life through the images that I paint. I have painted places and people that have touched my life since I was a teenager. I strive to capture the element of a place, or a human life, that makes the ordinary exceptional. To show true beauty I often find it best to depict things as they really are, not as we imagine them to be.

I love to paint and communicate my passions through my work. To gain national and worldwide recognition as a painter is a goal I work on daily. I have always used my art as a way to support myself financially as well as find peace with my world. I believe that my paintings showcase the wondrous beauty of Arizona and the spectacular sights that await the adventurous spirit.

Biography

Born and raised in the San Francisco region of California, Ian was inspired as a child by the Old Masters works that filled many museums and galleries in the area. Ian's appreciation for the fantasy art of Frank Frazetta and modern master Norman Rockwell infused him with his passion to learn to paint. With oil paints out of his price range, watercolors were the natural choice for Ian to develop his talents. In 1985 Ian was transplanted to Prescott Arizona to finish his high school career. During this transition, art became the major focus in his life. By graduation in 1988, Ian was enjoying success as an artist by showing in galleries in Prescott and statewide.

The early 90's found Ian developing his skills not just as a painter but also as a master bronze foundryman. Over time it became apparent that Ian's true passion was not only to create art, but to help market and sell his works and the creations of others. In 1995 he opened A'Loft Gallery of Fine Art in Prescott. He enjoyed running his successful gallery for seven years until he decided to concentrate on his own art. For several years he built a collection of new pieces and in 2007 he opened the Ian Russell Gallery of Fine Art to showcase his latest works along side his vast catalogue of past creations.

Achievements:

• 1986-1989 - 1st Place Prescott Fine Arts Scholastic Scholarship competition.
• 1991- 1st Place & Best of Show. Elizabeth Prince Gallery. National Juried Competition.
• 1996 - One Man Solo Exhibition. Eclectic Junction for Art. Chicago, IL.
• 2001 - Peoples Choice Award. Phippen Western Museum, Memorial Show.
• 2002 - One Man Solo Exhibition. Talaqupaque, Sedona, AZ.
• 2004, 2005 & 2007 - One Man Solo Exhibition. Wil McNabb Jewelry Studio and Gallery. Flagstaff, AZ.

Education:

• 1985-1988 Prescott High School. Prescott, AZ.
• 1988-1989: Yavapai Community College. Prescott, AZ.
• 1989: San Francisco Art Institute. San Francisco, CA.

 

Rich Charpentier - Photography

Artist Statement:

Interested in sharing my new found home with family and friends, I began the task of learning new photographic techniques to truly relay the vivid colors and textures of the Southwest. I’ve spent countless hours studying digital photography techniques trying to find the right blend of tools that allow me to capture and share photos that are beyond unique. I discovered Prescott March 13th, 2007. Since pulling into town I’ve hiked, cycled and climbed all over the Prescott, and expanded my explorations whenever time permits. During all my activities my camera comes along,
and I keep working on sharing the majesty of Northern Arizona.

Biography:

Raised outside of Worcester, MA., Rich grew up enjoying hikes along old fire trails, spending time exploring stone foundations of colonial homes, and swimming away his summers on Manchaug Pond. While not a photo buff during his youth, he did enjoy everything about the outdoors, which
continues to this day.

Transplanted to Florida in 1984 Rich took up new outdoor activities. Surfing, windsurfing, and skateboarding took the place of long hikes. After relocating to Orlando for college the next adventures took place on bicycle. That’s when he began dreaming of long distance cycling, long distance hiking, and other adventures.

After relocating to New Hampshire for Graduate School in Economics Rich discovered a new passion. Digital Technology. For nearly a decade he worked in the Wireless Engineering field for such companies as Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless, and US Cellular. Interestingly enough, he carried his tech passion along with his passion for the outdoors and found ways to combine them. In 2001 he hiked the Appalachian Trail, and fellow hikers gave him the Trail Name of Gadget due to the technology carried in his pack. A Canon Digital Elph documented the hike along the trail, and was his first real exposure to Digital Photography.

After a severe illness in 2005 Rich hit the road with a 25 foot Airstream. The goals were simple. Heal, see the country, and find a new place to call home. Along his travels he continued combining his love for travel and digital tech, authoring the book “The Digital RV” and writing mobile tech columns for travel magazines. During this time he also expanded on his knowledge of digital photography.

In 2007 Rich discovered Prescott and decided to remain as a resident of the town. Here he continues to work on perfecting photographic techniques in order to relay the true scope of the Western sights he sees for family and friends back on the East Coast. The number of subjects to shoot is almost overwhelming, and he doesn’t see an end to photographic opportunities for quite some time.......

Gary Persello - Bronze Artist

Eager to draw from life and his vivid imagination, Gary has been rendering and modeling on the drawing pad and in sculpture since early childhood. By age twelve, he was designing silk screen logos for local businesses and his own comic characters were printed on a line of T-shirts by the age of sixteen. With several oil paintings already commissioned to him, Gary graduated with an Associate degree in Commercial Art at seventeen.

His formal fine arts education continued at Kent State University in Ohio. He later graduated with honors from the Pittsburgh Art Institute, majoring in Visual Communications with strong emphasis on Sculptural Special Effects.

Gary spent a total of fifteen years working at a local bronze foundry which helped him evolve into the competent and creative Bronze Sculptor that he is today. It allowed him to master all aspects of the casting process including mold-making, pulling and working waxes, welding and assembly, rough and finish chasing, and his specialty, multi-color patinas. To this day, Gary still executes all of these steps himself on every bronze he produces, an uncommon practice among bronze artists of today. His work thus represents a caliber of excellence in artistry and craftsmanship rarely found in contemporary bronze sculpture.

In recent years, Gary has been recognized for his efforts with several honorable awards including Best of Show Peer Choice at the Sedona National Sculpture Walk, First and Best of Show in the Science Fiction Westercon in Phoenix, Arizona, and First for Best 3-Dimensional work at the World Fantasy Art Show in Atlanta, Georgia. This experience led to a 1993 "Chesley Award" from the American Science Fiction Artists Association for Best 3-D. His work has also been featured in several books, including Spectrum 1, The Frank Collection, and The Chesley Awards Retrospective.

Rick Geib - Bronze Artist

Rick Geib, bronze artist, started working in ceramics in 1995. In 2000 he became employed at a bronze foundry learning all aspects of the lost wax process.

"Surrounded by art and artists at the foundry, I began to learn about composition and refinement as well as all aspects of the lost wax casting process (ceramic shell and vacuum investment). I tr to put myself in technical and artistic situations which are beyond my ability, I find immersion education invaluable. All stages of my sculpts, start to finish, including all post sculpt production are performed by myself. I make my own clay, tools and methods of armature which fit my style. I am almost completely self-taught, both artistically and technically. The friendship with fantasy artist Gary Persello has been the closest thing to formal instruction I have had. I did not even take art classes in high school, so I feel the work is really coming from an honest place, intuitive and free of academic authority. With the medium of bronze there is a large skill set to acquire (if you do all the work yourself) and it takes a very long time to master all the steps. I see every stage of creating as an adventure. It is as much a joy to create and experience the process as it is to create the sculpture itself.

To me, creating is about personal growth, the challenge of being honest with myself. My intention is to create sculpture that draws the view in and elicits feelings of harmony, peace and wonder, to create strong spatial presence with minimal material."

Rick currently lives in Prescott, Arizona. There he works freelance at his home studio performing various aspects of post sculpting production for local artists and foundries and tries to maintain a sense of humor.

David Riley - Acrylic Painter

David Riley grew up in Kalamazoo, MI and attended college in Savannah, GA. David received his Bachelors and Master's degree in Fine Art from the Savannah College of Art and Design, and was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award. After graduating David moved to Prescott, AZ. where he currently works as a freelance illustrator, gallery artist, art instructor and is a Professional Ballroom Dance instructor. He has shown his artwork in many galleries across the United States, and in Lacoste, France. He currently shows his artwork in Prescott at the Ian Russell Gallery of Fine Art.

David enjoys painting a wide variety of subjects, and is often driven to paint by the desire to capture the human emotion. Many of his works describe the subjects in a narrative way, depicting a human response to a subtly implied situation or event. David recently began incorporating his surrounding landscapes into his art, trying to capture the moods and sensations provided by the breath-taking views of the West. He primarily uses acrylics, combining washes, dry-brushing, and heavy paint application on textured surfaces.

 

Megan Dean - Jewler & Print Artist

Megan Dean is a native of Arizona and a resident of Prescott, AZ. Megan received her Bachelor's of Fine Art from the University of Arizona in 2003 and thereafter returned to Prescott.

Megan is a printmaker as well as a beaded jewelry artist. In printmaking she works predominantly with the techniques of monoprint and relief. Megan continues to take classes and work in the Printmaking department at Yavapai College. Megan is an avid reader and is also interested in gardening, cooking and spending time with her friends and family.

In her jewelry Megan uses lots of copper, reflecting on her Arizona upbringing as well as a nod to many of her family members that worked in the copper mines of Morenci, AZ. Megan uses semi-prescious stones, glass, and natural elments such as bone, horn and freshwater pearls in her work as well as high quality metals like niobium for her ear wires. Niobium is perfect for anyone with sensitive ears. Adornment and the history of beads is of unending interest to Megan and everything she creates is one-of-a-kind.

Megan's visual art can be seen at the Jerome Artists Cooperative Gallery in Jerome, AZ. Megan's goal is to be a working artist, a continually kinder and smarter person and to be "the change you wish to see in the world."

 

 

 

Karen Boomer - Glass Art

Artist Statement

My art is about self-discovery. I create it to excite the intellect and stir the imagination of its viewer. When viewers move around my pieces, they'll notice hidden patterns, light changes, and unexpected details they didn't see at first. As they discover the hidden possibilities in art, I hope they discover unrealized potential in themselves. This is my art's purpose: to inspire others to be who they're meant to be.

By examining our inner selves, we recognize the transformative moments that lead to enrichment, enlightenment, and balance. When I fire glass in the kiln or flame, I explore astract concepts about the changing nature of life and how we discover true purpose and fulfillment in the midst of change.

Glass is uniquely appropriate for this vision. It is both solid and liquid, transparent and opaque, reflective and refractive. My approach to glass is analytical and intuitive, abstract and natural. Pieces have a feeling of both stability and fluidity. The intellectual challenge of solving a puzzle is mixed with fun.

I've grown as an artist in the last few years and my art reflects this in scale and complexity. Subjects are drawn from new concepts I discover every day. Always with me glass continues to show me the way to balance change with the inner peace, a quality I hope transforms others' lives as it has my own.

Rob Drexel - Raku Pottery

Way back in that innocent time 'bout 1955, Rob was born to the quintessential middle-class post-WWII American family in Phila, PA. Rob grew up in the emotional devastation of a normal, nice family where the only really decent thing for him to have done with his life was be a doctor, lawyer, corporate magnate (political incorrectness deferred).

Despite this severe handicap in pursuing a "real" artist's life, and without the necessary years of psychotherapy, drugs, and anti-social behavior, his artistic urges survived. In college Rob "delighted" his parents by switching majors from docotr-bound premed to unemployment-bound theater arts. After 15 years as an entrepreneur, he scraped his face off the pavement yet again, sat down at a potter's wheel for the first time in 1991 and frustrated the hell out of his fellow students in his only formal ceramic instruction - 8 beginning throwing classes.

Well, now it's 2009 and after almost 19 years of pottery some interesting years living in Europe and a short stint in Costa Rica, Rob and his Swiss partner Nikola are back in the states finishing their own mostly-green home in central New Mexico and enjoying the new Kiara! Rob's work is again finding it's way into fine upscale galleries from sea to shining sea (CA, NJ, CO, KY, AZ, NM, and....)

John Skurja - Bronze Artist

John Skurja was born in Prescott, Arizona. He loved and excelled in art throughout his early school years. He received his Bachelors Degree in Art Education from Arizona State University in 1972 and he obtained his Masters Degree in Art Education in 1978 from Northern Arizona University.

John has produced numerous drawings, paintings, etchings, serigraphs, jewelry and sculpture. His passion for sculpture was sparked when he started working for a fine art bronze foundry, Noggle Bronze Works, in Prescott during 1972. After teaching Art at the Prescott Public Schools for six years he purchased and co-owned a foundry for five years. In 1986, he started his own foundry, Skurja Art Castings. Today, with over thirty-seven years of foundry experience, his foundry business produces exquisite bronzes for well-established sculptors throughout Arizona and the United States.

John juggles between running a successful business and seriously pursing his artistic career in sculpting. He continues his passion for art by vigorously studying, observing and learning where ever possible. “For me, creating sculpture is personal. It is a time for my heart and soul to come forth, to guide my hands through the creative processes, manipulating and interpret ting thought and materials into design and form. My intent is to evoke a response from the viewer. In the case of my frog sculptures, hopefully that response is one of pleasure and joy! I feel so very fortunate to love my work and to work at what I love.

John is currently and exclusively showing his bronzes at the Ian Russell Fine Art Gallery.

“Skurja frog sculptures” can be found in a growing number of private collections worldwide.

Outdoor public placements of John’s work include: Cypress Gardens, Florida; Yavapai Community College Sculpture Garden, Prescott, Arizona; Na Aina Kai Botanical Gardens, Kilauea, Kuai, Hawaii; Detroit Zoo, Michigan; Desert Samaritan Hospital Children’s Garden, Phoenix, Arizona; Public Garden, Texas.

Scott McCormick - Bronze and wood sculptor

Information Coming Soon

Mike grew up in Aurora, Illinois, attended the University of Illinois and received a BS in Chemical Engineering. He moved with his wife after graduation to Bartlesville, OK and worked for Phillips Petroleum Company. Evenings were spent getting an MBA from Oklahoma State University. He moved with his family to Phoenix and worked for Honeywell, Inc.

Mike was inspired by his grandfather to create things out of wood. Starting early in life he honed his woodworking skills building furniture for himself and others. For several years he worked professionally for a company focused on high end cabinets and furniture. During this time he learned new techniques with veneer. His latest furniture designs focus on the most beautiful woods of the world.

He creates custom pieces to meet the size and designs for customers and designers. Especially popular are elegant pedestal tables made with exotic woods such as purple heart, bubinga and padauk, and classic woods like cherry and oak. From small boxes to large rocking chairs, Mke has the skills and artistic eye to create exquisite custom pieces.

Steve Failows - Kalediscope Artist

Stained glass artist Steve Failows has taken a popular toy often found in gift shops and transformed it into a collectable art form sold in exclusive galleries around the country.

Ranging in size from small tabletop styles to grand floor models. Steve combines an assortment of low-fire glazes to match the variety of bases that support his one of a kind kaleidoscopes.

The fun and nostalgic nature of the kaleidoscope has fueled Steve's passion to create since he made his first piece in 1984.

Patti Ortiz

I graduated cum laude with a BFA from the University of North Texas 1980. My studies revolved around literature, art history, art education and a wide variety of studio work that includes, advertising art, ceramics, drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture.

Following twelve years of working in the retail book industry, I took some time to travel and eventually found work in Grand Canyon National Park. It was while working at Phantom Ranch that my desire to produce art emerged once again. I have been working as a professional artist within the Northern Arizona art scene since 1995.

I have a modest approach to endorsing my work. My trademark signature nestles somewhere within the piece or on the back and the constellation PLEIADES makes a cameo appearance somewhere within each piece.

Fitch Pottery - Functional Pottery

Information Coming Soon......

Spoon Fed - Handcrafted Utensils

Information Coming Soon