The Ferrari of paper fiber is Belgian flax: tough, long fibers, strong as leather, beautiful color and surface that will last for centuries. When spun and woven into fabric, flax becomes linen. Flax paper is to drawing what linen is to painting, the ultimate surface. Wearing ugly, ... more »
The following is a press release from North Shore Artists. In what has become an annual event, a dozen artists will gather to exhibit their work from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.on Saturday, Sept. 4 and Sunday, Sept. 5 on the lawns of 280 Ocean Avenue on Marblehead Neck. The rain date for the ... more »
For those of you who may not know, the movement to transform St. Mary's Italian Church into the Salem Community Arts Center is in full swing. A fundraiser, "Cannoli & Chianti: in Concert", will be held this Friday, August 6, from 7-10 pm at the Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Square in Salem. ... more »
The following is a press release from the Salem Arts Association. The Salem Arts Association (SAA) and Artists' Row are pleased to host a summer, three-day art happening at Salem's Old Town Hall in Derby Square, August 6-8. Enjoy fine art, music, fashion and theater all in one place. ... more »
Watch North Shore Arts Association of Gloucester President Andrea van Gestel describe the 90-year-old institution's upcoming gala and auction. This is the NSAA's most important event of the year, and its only major fundraiser. As a non-profit organization, the NSAA relies heavily on ... more »
Who says technology's only for the young? Richard Scott, a retiree and photographer from Salem, has been experimenting with a new medium: digital painting. He works with a digital tablet and stylus hooked up to his computer that allows him to paint virtually onto the screen. His images ... more »
Ellen Hardy, recently elected president of the Salem Arts Association, will be having a show at Salem's Front St Coffee during the month of July. The show titled "Nature's Best Film" is a show of paintings focused on the aurora borealis done in oils. Artist statement: "While we stayed ... more »
Award winners from the Marblehead Festival of Arts, running from July 1 - 5, were presented at an awards ceremony on Thursday, July 1st at Abbot Hall. The Marblehead Festival of Arts is an annual festival featuring art exhibits and events throughout Old Town Marblehead. Among the winners this ... more »
This image hangs above the primary work table in my studio. I drew it in 1965, when I was eleven years old. It was a Christmas gift to my grandfather, and hung in his library until he died in 1972, when it was returned to me. The media is watercolor and colored pencil on construction paper. ... more »
Saturday night, May 22nd was not your typical art opening or fundraiser. No gallery goers gawking at art objects carefully mounted on pedestals spaced strategically throughout a pristine gallery space. This event brought an art loving crowd to raise money for the 1,000 kids who attend ... more »
Gage DelPrete is a recent graduate from UMass Amherst with a degree in 2-Dimensional Studies. If you are unsure how to pronounce his name and have no idea what his degree is in, don't be alarmed. "I get that all the time," he said, clarifying that his name is pronounced "Gauge" and that ... more »
The summer of 2007, I tramped through seventy-seven galleries of painting in the Louvre. Late afternoon in the cafe, hepped up on espresso, I made a short list of galleries I could visit in the hours before closing. My feet ached, my eyes burned, my brain could absorb little more, but I was ... more »
When I meet up with Brian Gordon he is wearing a bright orange T-shirt that pops out against the staid cement and brick of Salem's Front Street. Brian is positive and energetic. Like the comedic 1950's Looney Toon character soft shoeing against a backdrop of a Victorian couple at cotillion ... more »
The story of a city called Gloucester is wrapped up in a quilt 17 feet long. The quilt consists of 100 squares of fabric depicting self-portraits of the characters that make Gloucester a city unlike any other. Each person has a unique story that folds into the larger story of the city, as ... more »
Today our lives are constantly on the go. We seem to have so much to do and so little time that we often forget to look at what's around us. International Slow Art Day, hosted this past weekend at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), countered the hectic pace of our modern lives with an ... more »
What does it all mean? Do you actually spend time analyzing the pieces you're observing? Well, if not, it's about time to start. With PEM's upcoming SLOW ART DAY, staring, criticizing, and pondering have never been so encouraged. The event is an international grassroots art gala, that ... more »
Although the North Shore has seen its fair share of water over the past few weeks, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) thinks you may be ready for a little more. Opening March 27, PEM's new exhibit Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea features 90 pieces of artwork that reveal the ... more »
Bea Modisett is a 2007 Montserrat College of Art graduate. She earned her BFA in Painting and is working on primarily medium to large scale charcoal and pastel drawings. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Boston area. A resident artist at the Vermont Studio Center in 2008, ... more »
We are used to going to Victoria Station to get our usual fix of Cabernet or Eggplant Cannelloni (my favorite). What we're not used to is having the same place that serves the best clam chowder around, give us an ode to several artists and their work. New executive chef of VS, John Andrews ... more »
There's no better way to spend a snowy evening than looking at artwork inspired by summer, watching lush filmmaking and sipping wine. Tonight, join the Salem Arts Association for their opening reception of Seeds of Summer from 6:30 to 8:30 at SATV (285 Derby St.) and then head over to the ... more »
You would never know it was there without someone telling you it existed, and you probably couldn't find it without a map. The Glassworks Studio is tucked into a back corner at the Enterprise Center at Salem State College. Salem State College art professor John Volpacchio, who came to the ... more »
Sixteen ice sculptures will be featured during this weekend's Salem's So Sweet Chocolate and Ice Sculpture Festival in such diverse forms as a slice of pizza, the Eiffel Tour and a storybook dog. The sculptures, sponsored by local businesses, are on display starting Saturday, Feb. 6 at ... more »
A commentary by Salem State art student John Prudent on found objects used in the creative process. more »
"Computers take away your ability to think." You might imagine that's a statement from a baby boomer, but it's a statement made recently by a Salem High School student when asked about her recent work at The Art Corner. Erin Burke's work sparked my interest because she had disassembled ... more »
This story first ran on Art Throb on May 17, 2009. Check out Michael Crockett's new self published book Hazel Eyes Studio Paintings & Drawings by Michael Crockett. During the past several weeks, more times than I can count, I've sat on a couch at Salem's Gulu Gulu Café ... more »
This story first appeared on Art Throb on August 9, 2009. Andrew Carr describes himself as "a normal, all-American kid," and by many accounts, he is. I met with Andrew in his second-floor art studio on North Street in Salem and discussed his work, his passions, and his future, and I came ... more »
This story first appeared on Art Throb on June 30, 2009. Taped to my refrigerator is a reproduction of a painting by Barney Rubenstein, my beloved teacher who died in 2002. It shows a scene outside his studio window in North Cambridge, painted in his distinctive palette of peaches, ... more »
Is graffiti art or vandalism? Max Hill, an 18-year-old who was convicted of graffiti vandalism in Salem, knows firsthand the difference between the two. Last summer, the city asked Hill to paint a mural on the March Street Bridge, near the Carlton School on the Bridge Street ... more »
When Richard Flynn paints -- and he paints faster than he writes -- you'll find his titles as fascinating as his images. In fact, one piece is titled, "Painting is Faster than Writing," and another "The Heart is a Lonely Cupcake." He is an enigmatic fellow bursting with energy and life. ... more »
It all started with a pair of tortoise shell glasses. Old fashioned and round, like something you'd see perched on the nose of James Joyce, they were a more subtle version of his wife, New York designer, Iris Apfel's signature black-rimmed goggles. Curious to learn more about the man in ... more »
New York City interior designer and fashion icon Iris Apfel has been referred to as "a rare bird of fashion," but it seems that even rare birds have their share of look alikes. At Friday's fashion show, produced by Modern Millie at the Peabody Essex Museum, they stood out in the crowd, ... more »
The Witch House and downtown stores will host various artists next weekend for the third annual Salem Open Studios. Twenty-six Salem artists will participate Saturday in 17 different Salem locations. "So many of the artists I know work out of a closet, on their kitchen tables," says organizer ... more »
"Tall, and tan, and young, and lovely, The girl from Ipanema goes walking, And when she passes, each one she passes goes a-a-ah!" So goes the first line of Antonio Carlos Jobim's classic bossa nova song, The Girl from Ipanema. It describes a beauty who catches the eye of all ... more »
It can be said with confidence that a successful female artist before the nineteenth century is quite the rare bird. In the late nineteenth century, the world of art was finally opening up to women. Before then, women were not admitted into art academies or allowed to even view male nude ... more »
By Brittany Bowen When one thinks of the art of the Dark Ages, religious icons and idolatry may come to mind. When one thinks of a Hieronymus Bosch painting, the images typical of that period are irrelevant: Bosch's paintings take their viewers into worlds unknown before he laid his ... more »
Can't get enough of fashion icon Iris Apfel, whose wardrobe is now on exhibit at The Peabody Essex Museum? Modern Millie, Salem's downtown vintage and consignment shop, and PEM will come together Dec. 4 for an entire evening inspired by Apfel. The evening begins with a viewing of the ... more »
The role of fashion in our sense of identity could not be a more fitting theme this month for two shows that just opened at PEM. Both Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel and Valerie Belin: Made Up pose questions about how what we wear informs our sense of self -- certainly a ... more »
Tyson Schroeder is the real deal. A purist. That's why the owners of Experimental Art Gallery & Studio have hosted him three years in a row during Halloween. His previous show, "Knees and Elbows," was sexy and provocative and so is his current exhibit "The Abandoned Well," which ... more »
Here's an activity for the very patient or the chronic self-punishing. Through Oct. 24, Montserrat College of Art is featuring the work of Amy Stacey Curtis, known for her solo-biennial exhibitions of participatory installations in abandoned Maine mill spaces. Visitors to Montserrat's 301 ... more »
As originally seen in Red Skies. more »