mixed media – Circle Foundation for the Arts

Cynthia Coldren

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"My abstract paintings are a blend of deliberate shapes and spontaneous brush marks. Using the fundamental components of color, shape, texture, line, and space, my paintings are intentional contrasts and visualizes the joining of opposites — multiple colors, diverse paper fragments and linear marks come together to express a strong connection among disconnected things.

I use acrylic paint on canvas, sometimes on heavy watercolor paper, and add hand-painted paper forms to create visual complexity and interest. I frequently add geometric patterns and script-like marks, painting and smoothing each layer to create a more organic composition. My use of fine cross-hatched lines and paper fragments are hallmarks of my current work, unifying elements that counter or complement the developing painting.

By including structural lines and marks within my abstractions, I can weave the familiar with the ambiguous. I feel this “joining of opposites” speaks to the world we live in, and gives the viewer a point of connection with abstract art."

Abstract American painter Cynthia Coldren explores contemporary concepts such as order and chaos, structure and ambiguity using acrylic paints, inks, and mediums on canvas and paper. She studied Fine Art as an undergraduate student before completing her BAS in Communications and Management, supporting a corporate communications career. While her early work embraced photorealism, she transitioned to an abstract style over the years, evolving a strong textural focus.

Cynthia lives in Richardson, Texas. She has received recognition and awards in recent art exhibitions, gallery shows and juried competitions both online and in North Texas. She is a member of the Texas Artist Coalition (TAC), the Visual Arts Guild of Frisco (VAGF), the Richardson Civic Art Society (RCAS) and the International Society of Experimental Artists (ISEA).

Eva Maria Jones

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Eva Jones’ creative journey began after winning an art scholarship to Northern Arizona University in 1976. She majored in Commercial Art and minored in Fine Arts. Shortly thereafter she began a family and left school. She then became a freelance artist taking on commissions and partnering with a printing company, providing them with illustrations and clip art. Eva eventually returned to school in 1992, and graduated with a nursing degree in 1997. In 2018, Eva officially retired as a RN to pursue fine arts as a career.

“Zentangle’s” intricate repetitive designs coaxed her into revisiting her artistic roots and has greatly inspired her love of using intricate details in her work. Since emerging as an artist, she has participated in numerous exhibits and has received recognition at almost every endeavor she pursued.

List of exhibits are as follows: Envision Art’s “Fervor” exhibit 1/2019, Frisco TX and was featured on their online magazine; Envision Art’s “Conduit” 8/2019, Frisco TX, winning honorable mention; Gallery 25N online exhibit “Abstract 2019”; Space Light Time’s online “Landscapes”2019, special merit; Space Light Time online “555” 2019, special recognition for 2 entries; Carrollwood Cultural Center’s “Women Who Take Joyful Ownership” 2019, 2nd place, “Waterworks” 2019, honorable mention, “Emerging Artist” 2019, honorable mention.

Even though Eva has had a late start in her career, her passion is to exceed all expectation and to be prolifically good.

Jeff Pullen

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American Artist, Jeff Pullen began his career as an exhibiting artist in 1970, after studying with Ernest Briggs, a well known Abstract Expressionist. He holds BFA (1970) and MFA (1977) in Painting from Pratt Institute, New York. Since 1970, he has had over fifty (50) one-man exhibits throughout the United States and participated in over sixty (60) group shows nationally and abroad.

"I am fortunate enough to have my work included in numerous private collections as well as several public. In 2009, I had a book published, "Invisible on the Periphery" of short stories chronicling many people met during my forty-plus years as a painter."

Maryse-Anne Couteau

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Maryse-Anne Couteau is a self-taught artist living and working in France. The pencil has long been her favorite medium and she employs a coloring pencil technique, not widely used by grown-ups! In recent years she has also been working in ink.

In her early work, Couteau used very little color and instead focused on fine graphics to successfully suggesting volume with a black stroke gently underlined in color. Color increasingly imposed itself and eventually supplanted the line. At first, her tones were quite assertive but gradually became more refined. By superimposing different colors, Couteau creates mixes and nuances, which are a strong characteristic in her work.

Although the human body and face have a great place in her world, Maryse-Anne Couteau is not limited to any particular style or type of representation; staging objects as well as animals and people. The artist finds an inexhaustible source of inspiration in the real world; the fertility of her imagination and her keen sense of observation intermingle a wonderful inner universe and a precise and detailed reality.

In her surprisingly original compositions, we see the impossible desire to get right up close to the subject and reach its very essence. The covering, the sliding, the transparency of surfaces, in reality opaque, the repetition of shapes at different scales or the modification of angles of view on the same subject testify to a wish to see higher and deeper; to embrace the subject in its totality instead being limited to the superficial; to see further by projecting into the future and the past; to explore beneath the surface of things; go beyond the limit traced by the outlines and reach the infinite riches that hide in every aspect of reality.

After years of studies and a professional life, which was far from artistic, Maryse-Anne Couteau has decided to invest herself entirely in drawing and has devoted herself for nearly thirty years to her passion.

Arthur Dworin

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Born in Detroit, Michigan, 1943, Arthur Dworin studied at Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts (now: College for Creative Studies) Art Students League, Woodstock and has had fellowships with Arnold Blanch Fellow, Ossibow Is and has a resume which includes many solo shows. Visit his website to read his full biography.

Dworin improvises with forms that resonate musically with his own spiritual explorations. I hope that “the spirit in these works will act as a key to awaken what is already deep within the observer, anew with each viewing, bringing a greater awareness of our inner and outer universes.”

Svetlana Nelson

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"I am a 63-year old US citizen who emigrated to North America in 2000. I support five non-profit organizations. While having a conversation in 2017, someone asked me what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I answered that I wanted to make art and become an artist even though I had never drawn or painted before. For the next seven months, I dedicated myself to taking courses and studying art at the Lowe Mill, Huntsville, AL. When I felt I was ready, I began painting seriously and have completed over 150 paintings to date (October 2019). I paint every day and continually produce new work. I began painting representational works like landscapes and still-lifes, but have since discovered that my true love is abstracts.

For me, being able to paint in such bright colors helps to make the earth a better more beautiful place. My paintings originate entirely from my soul and mind. I have many many ideas for future work and hope to continue bringing happiness and beauty to others through my art for the rest of my life."

Lucia Brauburger

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German Artist, Lucia Brauburger was born in 1965. She only discovered painting as a form of expression a few years ago and has since not stopped creating works on canvas. As an author and the owner of a communications agency, the Mainz-based artist delves deeply into the significance of interdisciplinary work and innovation. She sees her pictures as a complementary component of this activity. Lucia is a member of the artists' Association [KUN:ST] INTERNATIONAL.

Talking about her work, Lucia describes: “My pictures point in two directions. On the basis of scraped lines and arbitrarily applied colour fields they create abstract landscapes and combinations of figures that build on seemingly archaic forms and deliberately eschew contemporary references. They show a reality that departs from the fast-lane, leveling obsession with the future; turning away from the material, visible and contemporary and towards the ’twas-ever-thus.

The second group acts as a mirror of my female perspective: I play with prototypical depictions of women, convey the arbitrary reproduction and reduction that lies behind these portrayals. The digital manipulation exaggerates this even further, like a collage. But in fact, this exaggeration is part of the reality that women are confronted with every day.”

In recent years, Lucia Brauburger´s works have been shown at the following exhibitions and art fairs:

2016 - Berliner Liste |Berlin, ART.FAIR Köln | Köln, Luxembourg Art Fair | Luxemburg

2017 TaunusTurm | Frankfurt am Main, ART MARKET BUDAPEST | Budapest

2018 Galerie im Medienhaus Mainz GIMM| Mainz, ART SALZBURG CONTEMPORARY | Salzburg, Associazione Culturale Sei l´Arte | Turin

2019 ITSLIQUID International Art Exhibition 2019|Venedig, Discovery Art Fair | Köln, Discovery Art Fair I Frankfurt/M.

Sally Lywood

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“I am British and live in Norway. I have always drawn and painted from a child but serious artistic activity began with a one year stay on the Cook Islands, South Pacific in 1997/98. When I came back to Norway I continued doing art professionally and have continued ever since. I am part of an artist's cooperative. My work at present is mainly in collage and textile.”

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Varatun gård, Sandnes, Norway 2016/17

Anne's Gallery, Sandnes, Norway 2013

Galleri X-IA, Sandnes, Norway 2005

The Crossroad Gallery,Sandnes, Norway 2004

Painted Penguin Gallery, Caldbeck, Cumbris, England 2003

"Artist of the Month", Vaux Gallery, Stavanger, Norway 2001/2

Fotland Bygdemolle, Time, Norway 2001

Tanta Molla, Stavanger, Norway 1999

National Museum, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, South Pacific 1998

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Art Nordic, Copenhagen, Denmark 2018

Florence Biennale, Italy 2017 (juried)

Art Studio, Sana Don Piave, Venice, Italy 2015(juried)

NFUK members exhibition, Oslo City Hall Gallery, Norway 2014/16 (juried)

NFUK members exhibition, Stavern, Norway 2014/17 (juried)

Galleri La Pigna, Rome, Italy 2013

Anne's Gallery, Sandnes, Norway 2013

Utstein Gallery, Norway 2012

Framers Gallery, London 2010(juried)

Nordic Pastel Forum, Finland, Denmark and Norway 2007/8/9

Bankside Gallery, London, England 2007 (juried)

Nordic Pastel Forum, Falkenburg, Sweden 2006

Gallery X-IA, Sandnes, Norway 2005-14

Gallery 18976, Kristiansand, Norway 2005

Sola Culture Hall, Sola, Norway 2004/5

Nina Hosali prize (Runner Up), Free Painters Society, London, England 2007

ARTISTIC PROJECTS

Large mural, Jan Svela Co. Ltd, Bryne, Norway 2017

Art Project for Children at the British School, Gausel, Norway 2012

"First Grade Art", Grannes School, Norway 2007

"Marks in Signs". Childrens project, Time and Aalgaard, Norway 2006

"Artists of Tomorrow", Kindergarten Art Exhibition, Gallery X-IA, Sandnes, Norway 2006

Jaco Putker

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Jaco Putker is a contemporary artist and printmaker from The Hague, The Netherlands. He combines digital and traditional techniques to produce images that are both playful and sinister, nostalgic and magical.

His preferred medium is photopolymer, or solar plate, etching. This technique is a non-toxic way of etching which allows for photorealistic depictions. Rather than impose a meaning to his work, Jaco Putker invites the viewers to associate freely and give his etchings personal significance through individual perceptions and filters.

The titles of the etchings are non-descriptive and give no handle as to the meaning of the works. The artist considers his works to be illustrations to fables that don't exist but hopefully take shape in the viewers' minds.

Jaco Putker was awarded the Dutch national Business Art Service competition for Graphic Arts in 2010. He won the Awagami Paper Factory Prize (at the Awagami International Miniature Print Exhibition) twice; in 2015, and again in 2017. In 2017 he won the ON PAPER International Printmaking Award 2017.

His work has been exhibited throughout Europe, as well as in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, China, Australia, Argentina, Canada and the USA.

Diane Holland

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Diane Holland is a graduate of San Francisco State University. Although her paintings are primarily oil on canvas, she uses many different media and has been known to spontaneously use whatever materials happen to be present. The canvas, or whatever she decides to use becomes an exploration of a mood, a vision or an idea. When she paints an abstract, it is rarely thought out. Her goal is to dramatically exert strength, spirituality, liveliness, and beauty to defy what she depicts as the dark side of life. At times she is inspired by her environment, an incident, a person or a place. At other times she is completely absorbed in studying other works of art including those of masters such as Picasso, Chagall, and Monet. Her paintings are a culmination of an undefined process used to create the ultimate effect.

Diane Holland was born in Santa Monica California. Radiating a simplified visual design which is accompanied by a bravura color palette, the controlled circumference of visual vocabulary is readily apparent in the artistic lexicon of geometric rectangles, squares, and circles. Colors, textures, and design are clearly represented in Diane Holland’s abstracts. The use of oils along with other mixed media are set in motion by brilliant colors, lines, and textures to bring about beauty, energy, and strength. The designs were created with unlimited expression for space, time color, and form.

Cynthia Coldren

Eva Maria Jones

"The evolution of my paths is symbolic of my work transitioning from realism to that of abstraction. My inspirations have been Van Gogh's "Starry Night", Calder’s mobiles and Kandinsky's abstractions. For me, "Art is not what you see but what you make others see." Edgar Degas

Jeff Pullen

Maryse-Anne Couteau

"I draw with colored and black pencils, and also with very fine Rotring. Anything can inspire me but I enjoy drawing the human body in a fantasy world."

Arthur Dworin

Intimate, spiritual and classic handwriting

nonverbal unfiltered observations and emotions

moving parts suspended, though frozen in place, ever changing

A meld. Choreography of Ancient/futuristic symbolic objects in a kind of time loop.

Emergence.

Svetlana Nelson

"I have opted to focus on the personal, the quietly perceptive and philosophical. My works, portrayed in lavish colors that reveal a unique eye for contrast and texture."

Lucia Brauburger

"My art is a mirror in two ways. It shows inner reality as well as what I see. As Jackson Pollock said: "Painting is self-discovery." Yet it is much more than that..."

Sally Lywood

"My art is definitely inspired by Norwegian nature; high mountains and deep fjords, Constantly changing light. As a material, I have been fascinated by transparent/translucent mediums like tissue paper and now tulle which give such a variation of tones and depth as the layers increase."

Jaco Putker

Jaco Putker composes vivid, fantastical scenes reminiscent of strange dreams that transcend the boundaries between magical and dangerous, nostalgic and futuristic.

Diane Holland

“Art is a reflection of one’s own inner being. It is an expression from the artist that surfaces through the use of subject, form, color and space,"