The Women's City Club of Pasadena - New Art Program

I have been given the unique opportunity to create an Art Program for The Women's City Club of Pasadena at The Blinn House, an historic property located in Pasadena, California.  My plan includes rotating the exhibitions every three months to coincide with the changing seasons and to feature artwork which will compliment the lovely original architectural elements of the home, which was built in 1905.

"Spring Forward" - Celebrating Southern California Women Artists is my first curatorial effort at this venue.  The 56 piece exhibition features the work of seventeen professional women artists - all painters.  Most of the artists are award winners and a few have been painting for over 30 years.

 

Each week during Spring Forward (May 1 through July 30, 2011)  I will profile several of the artists who are participating in the exhibition.  I would like to invite you to follow me on this blog so I can introduce you to them and their work.   

Meet Ruth Olenick

"All my life I have loved art; studying it, creating it and being influenced by its rich exciting past and present. I feel a special affinity to Pierre Bonnard, the post-impressionist who was so uninhibited and filled with such joie de vivre in his approach to painting. I too feel this joy and freedom when I paint. Whether using brush or palette knife, I love oil because of its depth, richness and beauty and the gorgeous colors I can achieve.

My landscapes, interiors, people and florals are drawn from my imagination. They are vibrant, happy paintings that delight the senses with lush color. Though influenced by impressionism, my work is very much my personal statement."  

Biography:  Ruth Olenick is a Chicagoan by birth. She lived for many years in Scottsdale, Arizona and is now a resident of Simi Valley, California. She began her studies at the Art Institute of Chicago and then studied privately with Quak Wai Lau and Carl Schwartz at the Fine Arts Center in Chicago and later at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee and the University of Minnesota.

Ruth’s work is loved for its captivating use of light and color and for her subject matters that seduce and delight the senses with their warmth and intimacy.  She has exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions and been represented in galleries all over the United States,  Hawaii, Germany and Sweden. Her paintings are owned by collectors worldwide and reproductions of her work have been published extensively in the United States and Canada. Her work has appeared on the cover of Bigelow Tea Company 's 2007 Christmas Gift Box, for Art in Motion, Inc. and by Haddad Fine Art Publishers, Inc.  Her work was also featured in the movie Risky Business.

Meet Merrilyn Duzy

"My landscape paintings are part of an on-going series expressing my feelings about nature and my response to our environment. I seek to recall my emotional reaction to a scene. In both of the paintings, “Yellow Fields: Humlebaek” and “Gorman Series: Flowering Hills IV,” color drew me in.

I was amazed, delighted and enchanted by the magnificent colors that covered the land as far as I could see. I never saw such intense yellow as I saw in those Danish fields of the flowering canola seeds. Every year the wild flowers bloom in Gorman, but some years they are sparse and scattered. I was lucky in that the one time I visited during the spring blooming it was a very good year, with an abundance of glorious golds, oranges, reds and purples, a rainbow made solid.

In all of the landscapes color plays a primary role. I respond to color in an intense way and it resonates within me. I enjoy and delight in the pure pleasure of painting, the mixing of the colors; the utter sensualness of applying pigment to canvas and paper. Textures and contrasts also intrigue me. I combine the textural use of a palette knife as applied in the land against the smooth, subtle blending of the sky.

I think of my life as an artist like a tapestry woven of many threads, colors and patterns. My feelings about our planet and our environment are part of my life and art making."

Biography:  Merrilyn Duzy is an artist first and foremost; she is also a teacher, lecturer, curator and art collector.  Her formal art education culminated with her Master of Fine Arts degree from the Los Angeles Otis Art Institute.  Her informal education includes extensive traveling, and her on-going arts advocacy.  In addition Ms. Duzy's education is enhanced by her extensive research for her lectures: "Walking Through History: Women Artists Past & Present," "Symbols, Signs & Space: A Personal Journey, " and "Sex in History: A Pictorial View," her most recent lecture, which encompasses 5000 years of erotic art.

The Women's City Club of Pasadena at The Blinn House

160 N. Oakland Avenue

Pasadena, California 91101

"Spring Forward" May 1 - July 30, 2011

Art Viewing Hours: Monday - Friday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Art Chat with the Curator: Fridays from 3 to 5 pm

http://www.womenscityclub.com/

Contact Margaret Danielak at margaret.danielak@gmail.com or 626-683-9922 for pricing information.

Paintings Above:

The Florist
Ruth Olenick, Artist  Oil 20 x 24" 
Gardeners in a Red Field 
Ruth Olenick, Artist  Oil 20" x 24" 
Gardeners in a Blue Field
Ruth Olenick, Artist  Oil  24" x 30"
Country Manor
Ruth Olenick, Artist  Oil  24" x 30"
Gorman Series - Flowering Hills VII
Merrilyn Duzy, Artist  Oil  24" x 36"
Yellow Fields, Humlebaek
Merrilyn Duzy, Artist  Oil  28" x 42"