Rex Lewis-Clark

At the latest manifestation of Alexey Steele’s Classical Underground series on November 9, the audience was treated to a special performance by Rex Lewis-Clark. Rex was born blind and with severe brain damage, but despite his inability to perform simple tasks like tying a shoelace, when playing, he’s completely focused. Music is his world, and saying that he plays the piano beautifully is only a small part of the story – he only needs to hear a piece once to be able to play it back verbatim from memory.

Along with Brahms’ Waltz Medly Opus 39 and Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu, he even played an improvisation off of a Chopin Nocturne. His mother Cathleen Lewis has written a book about their life of music and struggles together, titled “Rex.” Proceeds from the book help pay for Rex’s piano and voice lessons (yes, he apparently also sings well too!) [Buy "Rex" on Amazon] Rex is easily able to do what we all struggle to do as artists (and, I would imagine, musicians) – focus. As soon as he sits down on the bench, other distractions are tuned out.

Here is the story and video of Rex featured on 60 Minutes in 2006.

Alexey Steele and Classical Underground featured in the Los Angeles Times, August 2009.

Big Sur

The Edge of the Sea, Big Sur, 11″ x 10″, Oil on panel, © Eric Merrell

I recently sneaked away for a week of painting up in Big Sur, the absolutely amazing coastline between Monterey and San Luis Obispo. After a hasty packing and evening departure, I arrived in darkness and heavy fog just before midnight and set up my tent at the Kirk Creek Campground amidst a number of curious raccoons. I met artists Andrew Dickson and Joe Forkan at the campsite there, as they had arrived a few hours earlier and were already settled in. We painted up and down the coast, often just walking down to the water from the campground. I love the atmosphere there; it can go from a sunny afternoon to cloudy in minutes, with heavy fog banks rolling in off the coast. These are a few of the sketches from the trip.

Windswept, 11″ x 10″, Oil on panel, © Eric Merrell

The Sun’s Mirror (Big Sur from Kirk Creek), 11″ x 10″, Oil on panel, © Eric Merrell

New work at Edenhurst Gallery

Pioneertown Corral, 11″ x 14″, Oil on panel, © Eric Merrell

Some of the paintings from my summer residency in Joshua Tree can be seen at Edenhurst Gallery, 73660 El Paseo, Palm Desert, CA. Edenhurst has a neat collection of historic art, lots of early California paintings, as well as some good contemporary work by Junn Roca and Lynn Gertenbach. If you’re in the area, stop by the gallery, it’s like visiting a museum. Plus, you can always get a date shake at Hadley’s, just down the road in Cabazon.

This corral is near the post office in Pioneertown, not far from Joshua Tree. The sign hanging over the entrance gate actually reads “O.K. Corral.” The town was started initially as a filming set by Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, complete with an “old west” street. If you go, make sure you stop by Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace.

Forbidding Lands, 11″ x 14″, Oil on panel, © Eric Merrell

The Roar of Time, 14″ x 11″, Oil on panel, © Eric Merrell

This was painted the day that Ted Kennedy died. I had heard it mentioned on the radio, and when I drove up to the park later in the morning, the flag was at half-mast. When I found this rock near the Hidden Valley area, it reminded me of the “Lion of the Senate.”

Pasadena Star-News article

California Art Club members, from left, Barbara Chung, Eric Merrell, Monika Ramnath, Lisa Cavelier, Elaine Adams and Peter Adams. The two paintings in the back are by (left) Peter Adams and (right) Elmer Wachtel.

I’m in an article in today’s Pasadena Star-News, October 14, 2009: California Art Club Celebrates 100-year History with new book. Download a PDF here.

Upcoming Workshops and Paint-Outs

The Windows Glow, 18″ x 24″, Oil on panel, © Eric Merrell

On Sunday, October 25, I’ll be painting with the Valley Artists Guild at Topanga Canyon State Park from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. The Valley Artists Guild was founded in 1948 by the sculptor Henry Van Wolf (1898–1982). If you’re in the area please stop by and join us. Check out their October Newsletter.

The new Fall schedule begins soon at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art (LAAFA). If you’ve been wanting to sign up for the landscape class, this is your chance. It runs for 8 consecutive Saturdays beginning this weekend on October 3 from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Visit their website or call 818/708-9232. More class info here.

These classes will show you how to paint what you see, not what you think you see. Learn how to interpret nature in terms of paint, using light and color to create form. Become more proficient at mixing and painting color relationships, design/composition, simplifying, gain from painting on location, as well as creating a painting that has something to say. Make an investment in your art – gain confidence and knowledge that will inspire all areas of your creativity. All levels of experience are welcome.

The Southern Sierras and Yokohl Valley

These pieces, created on location (I paint primarily en plein air, French for “in the open air”, to study the way light reveals our world) during a painting trip to the Visalia area this last March, will be part of a new exhibition: Paintings from the Southern Sierra Foothills – Celebrating 100 Years: Capturing California’s Preserved Lands and Historic Districts (that’s a mouthful) at the Old Mill (El Molino Viejo) in San Marino, CA. The opening reception will be on Thusday, October 1 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Hope you can make it! This paint-out and exhibition, organized by the California Art Club in conjunction with the Sequoia Riverlands Trust, is one of a number of exhibitions and events to celebrate the CAC’s 100th anniversary of its founding in 1909.

Yokohl Valley Sunset, 6″ x 8″, Oil on canvas panel, © Eric Merrell

Battle Mountain Ranch, 12″ x 12″, Oil on panel, © Eric Merrell

Exhibitions at the Old Mill are free year-round and open Tuesday through Sunday, 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. (Closed Mondays)

The Old Mill (El Molino Viejo) [Map]
1120 Old Mill Road
San Marino, CA 91108
626/449-5458
www.oldmill.info

Other artists in the exhibition include John Budicin, Karl Dempwolf, Dave Gallup, Ray Harris, Scott W. Prior, Junn Roca and Jason Situ.

Battle Mountain Ranch (Detail)

A New National Monument in the California Desert

Support a New National Monument in California

Plans for a new National Monument that would connect Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave National Preserve in the California Desert.

Solar Energy Firm Drops Plan for Project in Mojave Desert (Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times, September 18, 2009)

Brightsource Energy Inc. drops plans to build a renewable energy facility in the eastern Mojave Desert wilderness, the area that is being considered for the new National Monument.

(Thanks Kerri for the tips)

“Reflections of the Peninsula” Opens Saturday

Members of the Portuguese Bend Art Colony painting at Abalone Cove.

The Portuguese Bend Art Colony will  present their 10th annual exhibition, Reflections of the Peninsula, in conjunction with the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy at the new Terranea Resort, September 18 – October 3, 2009, and opening to the public this Saturday, September 19 from 1-4 p.m. Jean Stern, Director of the Irvine Museum, will give a lecture at 2:00 p.m. A good portion of the sales from this annual event go to help land preservation in the area.

Formed in 1998, the group includes artists Stephen Mirich, Daniel Pinkham, Vicki Pinkham, Amy Sidrane, Kevin Prince, Thomas Redfield, and Richard Humphrey.

Artist Paul Jean Martel Featured in Upcoming Brussels Exhibition

Important paintings by Post Impressionist Paul Jean Martel (1878-1944) will be featured in a new exhibition on view from October 28, 2009-January 10, 2010 at Musée d’Ixelles in Brussels. Martel worked both in Brussels and in Philadelphia, creating very unique and personal paintings. The exhibition will focus on the artist groups of Tervueren, Rouge-Cloître, Uccle and Linkebeek and include works by Hippolyte Boulenger (1837-1874), Jean Degreef (1852-1894), Rik Wouters (1882-1916), Isidore Verheyden (1880- ), Rodolphe Wytsman (1860-1927) and Juliette Wytsman (1866-1925). Approximately 60 paintings will be exhibited and a bilingual catalogue will be produced. Martel’s paintings “Rouge Cloitre (Blue),” “Self-Portrait” and “Mother and Child in a Garden” (below) will be included in the exhibition. Become a fan of Paul Jean Martel on Facebook.

Paul Jean Martel (1878-1944) "Mother and Child in a Garden," 1922; Oil on canvas, 38" x 28"; Courtesy of the Estate of Paul Jean Martel

“Les Peintres de la Forêt de Soignes. Jardin de Bruxelles: 1850-1950″
[Painters in the Sonian Forest. Garden of Brussels: 1850-1950]
Musée d’Ixelles
71 rue Jean van Volsem
1050 Bruxelles
www.museedixelles.be

Winslow Homer’s Maine

Winslow Homer (1836-1910), "A Summer Night," 1890; Oil on canvas, 30 3/16" x 40 3/16" © Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Interesting article on Winslow Homer’s studio in Prout’s Neck, Maine, recently from the NY Times. Makes me miss Maine. Something to aspire to – surrounded by what you love so you can just work. It looks as though his studio will become a small museum in the near future.

“Nowhere else is there so rich a spectrum of an artist’s chosen subject matter,” said Daniel O’Leary, a former director of the Portland Museum of Art and the studio project. “There is no place like it in America because no where else can you see a great American artist’s inspiration take shape and observe the actual views that he enriches and preserves. At no other single spot can you see 15 or 16 views that inspired great paintings.”

Winslow Homer (1836-1910), "West Point, Prout's Neck, Maine," 1900; Oil on canvas, 30 1/4" x 48 1/4" © Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts