Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2025 i Artists Magazine

How many times have I been standing before a sunrise or sunset—with color so breathtaking that I just have to share it? I pull out my phone and snap a quick shot, but alas, the photo doesn’t come anywhere close to capturing what I see. But here’s the thing ... Even if I were a talented photographer with an excellent camera, it’s still unlikely I could produce a photo that would satisfy me, because it’s not just the spectacle of that sunset that I want to share. It’s the way it’s making me feel—the sense of awe, the gladness in my heart, the gratitude. That’s what I really want to communicate. And, it turns out, that’s a job well suited for poets and painters. In this issue, we’ve sought out…

Capturing the perfect sky in a painting starts long before you pick up a brush; it often begins with the right photo. Whether you’re chasing dramatic clouds, golden-hour hues or a crisp blue expanse, knowing how to frame, expose and compose your shots can make all the difference in your creative interpretation. Photo Know-how • If you have a wide-angle camera lens, use it. You’ll get less compression of the scene, allowing more details to be captured. The entire scene—and, most importantly, the sky—will have a much stronger sense of depth. • Before you click, compare the scene with you facing the sun to the one when the sun’s at your back. Photographers tend to shoot landscapes with the sun to the side or behind them to get vibrant colors,…

Anda Styler’s love of painting is an intense, all-consuming passion, and it has been with her throughout her life. When she was 9 years old and growing up in southern Connecticut, she stumbled upon her older sister’s oil paints one day. “The first tube that I opened was cadmium yellow, the second was cadmium red and the third was phthalo green,” she says. “Paint went everywhere. I was using my fingers—even the ends of my hair—to apply it. It seemed like magic.” Soon after that first encounter, Styler told her teacher, Mrs. Atkins, that she wanted to be an artist. The kind woman replied, “Absolutely, you can do that.” Several years later, after Styler’s family had moved to a nearby town, Atkins and her husband took the teenaged Styler out…

Seemingly marooned in time, the Salmagundi Club inhabits a stately 19th-century mansion on New York City’s Fifth Avenue. Established at a nearby location in 1871 as a club for artists and their patrons, it has occupied the current building for more than 100 years. Stepping into its formal rooms is to experience the club more or less exactly as it was a century ago. Paintings by august members hang on the paneled walls amid grand fireplaces, plush carpets and soft lighting. Head upstairs, and you’ll find a library lined with antique shelving that houses a trove of art and fashion books dating back to the 19th century, arranged in a curious, pre-Dewey system. The club’s former members comprise a who’s who of American painters of the 19th and early 20th…

John Constable (1776-1837) is a giant among English landscape painters. A swath of land where he lived, which he immortalized in his work, has come to be known as Constable Country. Yet, when the artist was in middle age, he was still struggling for recognition. In 1814, he wrote to his future wife, Maria Bicknell, of his “propensity to escape from notice.” She responded, “I must have you known, and then to be admired will be the natural consequence.” Constable had exhibited canvases that he had painted en plein air in small format, but they couldn’t compete with the attention received by the major exhibition pieces created by his rival J.M.W. Turner (English, 1775–1851). Constable’s savvy solution? Paint bigger. For several years, Constable had made studies of the River Stour…

I have been painting professionally for 38 years, and it has been an interesting journey. Although I studied fine art in college, it was never my primary focus. Most of my art education came from visiting museums, studying contemporary artists and reading countless books. Like many beginner artists, I went heavy on detail in my early paintings. As time went on and my experience broadened, my brushstrokes became looser, and my shapes more abstracted. I attribute my stylistic evolution to a combination of practices. REDUCED & SIMPLIFIED SHAPES Not every shape in a painting deserves the same amount of attention; I’ve learned to refine only the most important ones. Some may be left large and abstracted, and some deserve smaller brushstrokes to emphasize key areas—primarily in the foreground—as seen in…

Artist Holly Dyrland, of Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada, explains why she’s captivated by skies as a painting subject. “I grew up a farmer’s daughter, so I’ve always been very aware of the sky,” she says. “My parents always watched the weather because it affects everything a farmer does. It brings life through rain and damage through hail. It brings heat and glorious light. It brings drying winds and clear blue for as far as the eye can see. The landscapes around me today are still rural—flat farmers’ fields.” Dyrland finds endless inspiration in the mutable sky regardless of time of day or season, capturing its beauty and emotion in her impressionistic work. “It has always struck me that the sky expresses the life of the day,” the artist says. “It…

In 2001, oil painter Michael Magrin, a native of upstate New York, and his wife, Kara, a professional photographer from Illinois, relocated from Iowa to Colorado. Upon landing at Denver International Airport (DIA), the expansive 160-mile Front Range view of the Rocky Mountains made an unforgettable first impression. “Once we landed at DIA and started driving, my immediate thought was ‘Oh, my goodness, I can see all the way from Pikes Peak to Longs Peak!’ ” Magrin says. “You don’t get that in the Midwest or on the East Coast, where the line of sight is, at most, about half a mile due to all the trees and the low clouds. There are no long views.” The Magrins settled down on the far eastern edge of Aurora, a Denver suburb…

Some of my earliest memories of looking at the sky aren’t about painting at all—they’re about lying on my back in the grass, watching the clouds drift by, seeing shapes emerge and disappear, and feeling that vast sense of openness above me. There was something hypnotic about it, a quiet game of observation that made the world feel bigger and more magical all at once. Even now, when I take the time to really look at the sky, I’m reminded of that childhood wonder—the feeling that anything could happen in the shifting dance of light and clouds. English landscape painter John Constable (1776–1837) must have felt something similar. His cloud studies done in the Romantic tradition weren’t just about recording the sky; they were about knowing it, understanding its moods,…

As the sketch above shows, sometimes the sky is the whole point of a sketch; it’s the main subject. Other times, it’s just one component. That doesn’t mean that skies have to play a supporting role, however. In my work, skies are never backdrops. In fact, they’re always essential to what I’m trying to express, and they’re often the first things I lay down. Why? Because skies and clouds tell a story. They supply information about place, time of day, season and weather. Beyond giving mere information, though, skies and clouds set the mood for both the viewer and artist. As an urban sketcher who travels widely and works in all seasons, I’m confronted with novel sketching situations all the time. So what’s the first thing I do when I…

When you look at Minnesota painter Carl Bretzke’s nocturne paintings, you see mostly buildings, automobiles and artificial lights, but what you feel is something more—a moment of observation. It’s as if you’re in the shadows, hidden from the amber glow of street lamps and the reds and blues of neon signs, breathing as quietly as possible, waiting. Perhaps you’re watching a figure crossing the street or the tail lights of a car as it rounds a corner. But in his sunset paintings that depict only the natural landscape, you feel like you’re waiting, bearing witness to something special about to happen. Keenly observed, Bretzke’s paintings evoke a moment in time, thanks to a focused discipline fostered by his medical practice of 30 years. A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH As with many artists,…

In 2021, I began work on a monumental painting of a backyard gathering. Measuring 18x20 feet, the painting spans five large canvases that I developed separately in my studio. I assembled the full painting for the first time in the summer and fall of 2024, working on a scissor lift during a nine-week artist residency under the high ceilings of the Bo Bartlett Center at Columbus State University, in Georgia. Although the idea to work at this scale came about initially as a proposal for a potential commission, once I’d thought it through, I decided I wanted to make the painting regardless of the proposal’s outcome. I’ve appreciated having had the time to work on the project at my own pace and that I’ve been able to bring it to…

Much of the world looks to New Year’s Eve as a time for reflecting on the past while celebrating the year to come. For Blue Spiral 1 gallery, in Asheville, N.C., that date holds extra significance. Founder John Cram (1948–2020) opened the gallery on New Year’s Eve, in 1990, making 2025 the gallery’s 35th anniversary. Cram had a vision to offer opportunities for artists in the region to showcase their work in an accessible way. Although Cram died five years ago, he would be proud of the way Michael Manes, his successor and the gallery’s director, carries on his legacy. BUILDING A LEGACY Back then, the downtown area of Asheville was a depressing place of boarded-up storefronts bearing the effects of economic recession in the post-industrial age. Cram took advantage…

After retirement, I was able to focus on my art full time and joined the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA). I didn’t consider myself an artist at the time and joined mostly to take advantage of the resources they offer to learn more and develop my skills. I had also just moved from Las Vegas to a rural area in the Tennessee mountains. For the first time in my life, I saw the night sky without the ambient glow of city lights—and just in time to see a supermoon in all its glory. That experience, along with the SAQA’s call for entries for a global exhibition titled “Dusk to Dawn,” put all the pieces in place to create Tennessee Supermoon. SARA BRADSHAW Bradshaw is an artist, art quilting instructor and…