Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2025/No. 242 i American Art Collector

Welcome to the December issue of American Art Collector! December is a great time of the year regardless of the climate. Here in Arizona we decorate trees and cactus and the art season is in full swing. Holiday cheer abounds. In New York they are bundling up and layering fashionable clothes for a cold winter’s day of gallery shopping. In Dallas, it’s around 62 degrees, sunny and crisp, and a perfect day for art collecting. The point is, no matter where you live and travel to explore the arts, the weather is part of the mood—and December doesn’t let you forget it. You are likely traveling more this time of year, seeing family and attending holiday events. It’s loaded with busy excitement. American Art Collector is aware of this as…

The commission to paint Governor Roy Cooper’s official portrait came through artist Ying-He Liu’s long-standing professional connection. Jean Daniel, President of J. Daniel Portraiture & Fine Art in Raleigh, North Carolina, presented a select group of artists to the North Carolina Executive Mansion Fine Arts Commission. After reviewing portfolios and holding discussions, the governor and Mrs. Cooper chose Liu for this significant project. The setting for the portrait was as important as the subject himself. North Carolina’s Governor’s Mansion, built during the Civil War period, and now serving as both residence and museum, houses an impressive collection of gubernatorial portraits by celebrated artists such as Daniel E. Greene, John Howard Sanden, Ron Sherr, Michael Shane Neal and John Siebels Walker. Their works set a high standard and serve as inspiration.…

One of the first plants to emerge through the snow in marshy areas of the eastern United States is the aptly named symplocarpus foetidus. The fetid odor of its flowers earned its common name, “skunk cabbage.” Its scent attracts pollinators, however, and its appearance is a sure sign of spring. Jeremy Miranda lives in southern Maine along the Salmon Falls River, bordering New Hampshire. After Maine’s long winter, skunk cabbage is a welcome harbinger. “It’s so green, so ahead of everything,” he says. “There’s a divine energy to the stained glass effect of the sunlight shining through its leaves in contrast to the context of its surroundings.” Miranda’s still life paintings often feature the plants that his wife, painter Michelle Morin, grows in their garden. His studio window frames a…

This December, Arcadia Contemporary is presenting a rare joint show featuring Miriam Hoffmann and Caroline Nelson, two artists whose work is distinct in style, but who share an acute sensitivity to the nuances of figurative portraiture and the skill to bring them to life on the canvas. Nelson’s soft, atmospheric portraits and figurative scenes are deeply rooted in old painting traditions she says have vanished from standard university art training. She feels it is her duty to uphold them by bringing classical paintings into the contemporary world. “My visual language in painting is a focus on the rich depth of color, beautiful rendering, strong light and accurate form modeling,” explains Nelson. “Beyond the constant pursuit of creating a technically proficient image, I am also searching for how to represent themes…

Looking back over the past 10 years, around which time he started to pursue becoming a professional painter in earnest, Tad Retz sees his artistic evolution in a series of three major breakthroughs—all related to the teacher he was studying with at the time. His first mentor was Vermont impressionist painter Mark Boedges who was influenced by the teachings of artist Richard Schmid. It was Retz’s introduction to painting from life. A couple years later, he was invited by John Burton to study with him in Carmel, California. “The big takeaway [from my time with John] was learning to see form three-dimensionally and how to apply it on a two-dimensional surface,” Retz says. “It was a huge break-through for me.” Retz became fascinated with the underpaintings in his work, more…

Zoltán Boros was born in 1976 in Subotica, a city once located in the southern region of Hungary, but now a part of Serbia. Now living in Pest, Hungary, Boros has been interested in wildlife and hunting-themed artworks since childhood. His artwork is primarily based on native wildlife species, and as a hunter himself, Boros can directly observe the behavior of the subjects he captures in their natural habitat. A self-taught artist, Boros has received international recognition for his wildlife art, with artwork appearing in exhibitions around the globe, including the Weatherby Auction in Reno, Nevada, Holt’s Auction in London, and exhibitions in Spain, Germany, Austria, Canada, the Netherlands, and his native Hungary. The artist works with both pencils and oil paints and is captivated by the rich world of…

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1 Zienna Brunsted Stewart sells four pieces in a pop up art show “I had a pop up exhibition at a jazz bar in Santa Fe called Tonic,” explains artist Zienna Brunsted Stewart, whose work has been featured in American Art Collector on numerous occasions. “The owner of the place, Winston, I’ve known for some time and he offered the front room of his place for me to do a little show.” The September show, titled Make Believe, only hung for one afternoon. Out of the 25 works on display, four sold. The couple that bought Nature Spirit are friends of Brunsted Stewart. “Blake is a photographer in town that I’ve modeled for a few times…Carrie, the other half of the couple, keeps goats and horses,” says the artist. “My boyfriend…

“Magazine time,” as I like to call it, is a funny thing. This is the December issue but I’m writing this on the last day of October as we wrap up another edition of American Art Collector and ship it off to our press, so it can arrive at your door (and on newsstands) by the end of November. Essentially it’s like living in the present and the future at once. It’s probably not the most Zen way to live but if you work in print media you’ve accepted it’s a labor of love, and maybe, like British writer Douglas Adams once said, even “love the deadlines [and] the whooshing sound they make as they fly.” We know that working so far ahead can also be challenging for our gallery…

The artists highlighted in Oil Painters of America’s The Virtuosos of the OPA show are known as the “best of the best.” This prestigious showcase brings together original artworks by the organization’s top Master Signature and Signature artists—nationally and internationally acclaimed painters who have undergone a rigorous selection process. Approximately 40 works will be on view by artists like Edward Aldrich, Albert Handell, Michael Situ, Jing Zhao, Aimee Erickson, James E. Tennison, Calvin Liang, Ann Kraft Walker and many more. Acclaimed artist Daniel J. Keys, protégé of master artist Richard Schmid, will serve as this year’s Juror of Awards. Among the superb paintings in the show is a floral still life titled Dance of the Dahlias, by OPA Signature artist MaryBeth Karaus. The painting depicts a vase of white and…

This holiday season, Blue Rain Gallery presents another opportunity to build up your small works collection or that of a loved one with its Annual Miniature Works Show. The event, which takes place at their Santa Fe location from November 28 through December 9, will showcase many gallery artists including Deladier Almeida, Karen Clarkson, Erin Currier, Tony De Luz, Hyrum Joe, Robin Jones, Chris Pappan, Paige Pierson, Mark Pugh, Kathryn Stedham, Helen K. Tindel, Dennis Ziemienski and others. Collectors can expect a diverse selection of contemporary realism, as well as Native American and Western art—all 12 by 12 inches or smaller. Among the offerings is a rare, small-scale still life by hyperrealist painter Lew Brennan. “Martini Time is an oil on canvas painting that makes up a part of my…

In elementary school, artist Amanda Kazemi would sit on the playground, watching the gray skies as they parted to reveal fleeting rays of light. “These overcast days symbolize life’s ebb and flow and inspire my black-and-white charcoal drawings,” she says. Through anthropomorphic animals, plants and people, Kazemi’s artwork explores themes from classic literature and fables, reflecting her Mexican-Iranian identity. “My art tells the story of my ongoing journey, shaped by community, solitude and curiosity,” says the artist. In one of Kazemi’s recent pieces, titled Precarious, a woman sits on the ground resting her head inside the mouth of a coyote. “Sometimes I walk around in public and focus on the precariousities I encounter. There’s this rebalancing act constantly happening right before our eyes between life and death,” she says. “For…

Michael James’s paintings are rooted in the human story—acts of endurance, quiet dignity and the emotional truth that connects us all. “By utilizing chromatic stylized realism, I seek not to replicate life but to interpret it—to reveal the unseen rhythms of the human experience through amplified color, light and gesture,” he says. “The goal is not imitation, but illumination: to express how a moment feels rather than merely how it looks. “I am drawn to people whose stories often go unheard—workers, families and dreamers whose labor and love sustain the world around us. In my exhibition The Hands That Feed Us [on view at MOAH: CEDAR in Lancaster, California, through November 30], I explore the humanity of migrant farmworkers, honoring their strength and sacrifice while reflecting the broader story of…

Creative roots run deep in Frances Featherstone’s family tree and her artistic heritage is in full bloom in the British painter’s latest body of work. Featherstone’s grandfather was an architect active during the height of modernism, so she developed an appreciation for interiors, exteriors and design from an early age. Her parents, also artists, met in art school. Her mother became a silversmith and noted jewelry designer. She was also passionate about interior design, and was inclined toward bold, clashing colors and patterns. Her father was a furniture designer. “I grew up with an awareness of buildings as works of creative expression, of interior spaces and furniture as choices for how to create the mood and feel of our everyday lives,” she says. In an interview with Angela Adams, an…

When it comes to Florida, one can’t help but zoom in on Miami during the first week of December when the city is positively bursting with art shows. The exhibitions officially listed as part of Miami Art Week exceed 20, with the centerpiece the renowned avant-garde Art Basel, where leading galleries from five continents show significant works by masters of modern and contemporary art, as well as the new generation of emerging stars. There are several other big-name satellite shows taking place concurrently, including Red Dot Miami and Spectrum Miami (see our coverage on Page 108), conveniently located under one roof; the well-attended Art Miami and its sister fair CONTEXT Art Miami, Scope Art Show and the list goes on. And this doesn’t include all the other gallery and pop-up…

For Timothy Rees’ newest solo show at Bonner David Galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona, the painter says that his work is evolving in exciting ways, including in the areas of paint, subject, composition and also in an unlikely direction as he adds gold leaf to his paintings. The glimmering medium is famously fussy: even an imperceptible breeze can make it impossible to handle, moisture and skin oils can gum it up, static can tear it, special tools are needed just to work with it and, because it’s gold, the thin sheets (estimated at 300 atoms thick) ain’t cheap. These are all flashing warning signs, but Rees plowed through them. In other professions this is called recklessness, but in art it’s called exploration. “I actually started working with gold a long time…

Canadian artist Jessie Babin has loved drawing since a very young age, eventually going on to study at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, where she earned a BFA in fine art. She began her career as a full-time artist in 2013 and has exhibited her work in both group shows and solo exhibitions across Canada. Most of Babin’s works are created using graphite or colored pencil on paper. “Portraits and figures have always been my favorite subjects,” she says. One of her most recent works, Tension I, depicts the muscles in a woman’s neck as she tilts her head backward. There is a distinct cut running down the center of the drawing. “I wanted to incorporate the element of risk in this piece by planning to cut directly…

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