If your plans find you in New Mexico next weekend, here’s something you might want to see: On March 29 (1-5 p.m. in Los Alamos, New Mexico), Karen West and Santa Fe artist Ke’vin Bowers will unveil Bowers’ newest work, A Slice of Monet—the largest pastel Bowers has created—which was commissioned by West. Here’s the story on its origins, according to the two:

“Ke’vin met Karen in October of 2007 at an Arts and Crafts fair in Los Alamos, where they began talking about his creating a work of art that would fill her 14 ft high wall. Her love of Monet’s water lilies was the beginning of a conversation that led to the commission. Karen had been admiring Ke’vin’s water lily series that Ke’vin had been working on.

“After several months of work, going up and down the scaffolding, A Slice of Monet was finally completed. For protection, it was covered with a piece of Plexiglas measuring 126x54 inches. It took three people to install the piece on the wall of Karen’s home; they stood back and gazed with great satisfaction: It definitely fills the wall and room making a dramatic statement.  

“Ke’vin video taped the time spent working on A Slice of Monet and plans to make a DVD showing the whole artistic process.”

Check out more of his process on his website.

Before inclement weather forces us to flee TPJ headquarters, we’re taking a moment to celebrate National Women’s History Month—particularly appropriate, considering our all-female staff.

The National Women’s History Project (NWHP) is the organization responsible for the observance of National Women’s History Month each March. NWHP chose “Women’s Art: Women’s Vision” as the theme for this year’s month-long celebration, and selected the following artists as the 2008 honorees: Judy Chicago; Harmony Hammond; Edna Hibel; Lihua Lei; Cecilia Rose O’Neill; Violet Oakley; Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith; Faith Ringgold; Miriam Shapiro; Lorna Simpson; Nancy Spero; and June Claire Wayne. Go to the NWHP site for details on events throughout the month—and to celebrate women in history all year long.

Speaking of Judy Chicago, her multimedia project, The Dinner Party, is now permanently on display at the Brooklyn Museum as part of its Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, so the next time you’re in New York, check it out. We got a look at a few works from the Brooklyn Museum Wednesday here in Cincinnati at the Taft Museum of Art; “From Winslow Homer to Edward Hopper: American Watercolor Masterpieces from the Brooklyn Museum” recently opened, and we weren’t about to miss it!

The exhibition features 70 watercolors from the Brooklyn Museum’s fantastic collection, chronicling the rise of the medium in America, and shifts in technique over the years. Anne even spotted some pastels in one of the earlier landscapes—Samuel Colman’s Late November in a Santa Barbara Cañon, California (about 1886-88). It’s truly a gorgeous show, on display through May 11.

Some of Hurley's pastels

The report focused on smart investments for artists, and Gray’s item of choice was his Olympus C-5060 Wide Zoom digital camera. The artist uses the camera not only for reference images, but also for the benefit of clients. Whenever someone purchases one of Gray’s paintings, he or she also gets a photo card of the work and a CD containing the photos shot the day it was created—“to show them the flavor of the day their pastel was painted,” Gray says.

Here are some images from Gray painting on a dramatic day at Ships Point in the Gulf of Georgia on Sept. 8, 2007. As he explained in an e-mail, “The day started out blue with scattered clouds depicted in the pastel, but ended up dark and threatening.”

While trolling around the web today for art news and ruminations (as I am wont to do), I realized I was due for a visit to Maggie Price's site. After all, she's a TPJ co-founder and a regular contributor to both the blog and the magazine and we just love her. Those of you who are wondering what Maggie has been up to lately can visit her site and find out about her recent painting trip to Spain, or the tricks she sometimes plays on herself to get back into the studio, or the workshops she's teaching. But of interest to me today is her recent work as the editor of Confessions of a Brush Peddler, an autobiography by Jack Richeson. From what we hear, it's a real page turner, and we're anxious to get our copy here at TPJ world headquarters.

Here's Maggie's blurb on the book:

Maggie Price is the editor of Confessions of a Brush Peddler, an autobiography by Jack Richeson. From his humble beginnings on the streets of Chicago to positions of power and influence, Jack Richeson chronicles his own growing-up years along with the growth of an industry. It's a history of a way of life that's vanished--of changes that eliminated entire professions, illustrators, graphic artists, layout specialists and typographers. And it's a fascinating account of the gritty streets of Chicago and a tough little Irish kid who fought his way out of the slums and up the corporate ladder. Anyone who was even peripherally involved in commercial, graphic or fine arts in the last fifty years will find this an interesting record; anyone who just likes a good story about the battles and triumphs of life will enjoy it as well.

Read any good art books lately? We're in the process of putting together a summer reading list for the June issue of the magazine and we'd love to hear your suggestions. E-mail us at pjedit@fwpubs.com