California Art Club Mentor Membership

    The California Art Club, established in 1909, is a group promoting traditional fine arts in the fields of painting, drawing and sculpture.  It is a prestigious club, widely known for it's yearly Gold Medal Exhibition, concidered to be one of the countries premier exhibitions of contemporary-traditional fine art.
    I have been a juried Mentor Member of the California Art Club since 2006, however at that time I only applied to be juried for painting.  A Mentor Membership is the membership status given to artists under the age of 30 whose work is judged to be of a high caliber and worthy of the California Art Club.  It always weighed on me that I did not submit sculpture to the club for jurying, and so at last, I applied for sculpture membership in late 2009.   I received notifications this past week that my portfolio of sculptural work has been viewed by the jury and that I am now an accepted Mentor Member in sculpture as well. 
  The reason why this membership is important to me at this time is that I desire the opportunity to show my sculptures in the yearly Gold Medal Exhibitions along with my paintings.  I have not shown sculpture in a long time and do not want to continue neglecting that part of my artistic self.  Last year I showed an oil painting titled "Cardoons" in the 98th Gold Medal Exhibition, and found the event to be a desirable venue for my work.   This year I have submitted both paintings and sculptures to the 99th Gold Medal Exhibition (June 13th - July 4th 2010) and I await word as to the results of the jury.
I will of course keep you informed as to those results when I receive them.

Oil Painters of America Membership

As of January 2010, I have been accepted as a member of the Oil Painters of America.  I feel that through this membership I may have the opportunity to show in new venues and reach a new audience.  To learn about Oil Painters of America, read their mission statement below or click on the title of this blog post to go directly to their website.

Oil Painters of America Mission Statement:


Dedicated to preserving and promoting excellence in representational art, Oil Painters of America’s primary mission is to advance the cause of traditional, representational fine art by drawing attention to the lasting value of fine drawing, color, composition and the appreciation of light.
Through our national and regional shows, educational programs, scholarships and marketing efforts, OPA has become a leader in the art community and a driving force in the new Renaissance.

Sculpture Completed and Mold Finished

I am very excited about the portrait bust I just completed in clay. Though it is tempting to show you the finished piece, I will hold off till it is cast in bronze or plaster, so you will see it in the state it is meant to be shown. For now, I will share only a little technical information.

I sculpt in water based clay on a wooden armature stand. The first day of work on a new sculpture is to build the wooden armature that will hold up the weight of the clay as I apply it. The first day with my model, much of the day is spent choosing the exact pose I would like to sculpt. Once the pose is right, I add clay to the armature at a fierce pace - massing out the head and locating the major features. Each day I must take care to keep the clay moisture at the right level, if the clay gets too wet it could slide off the armature, too dry and it becomes hard and cracks apart. The days go by, and with my model in front of me, I measure and add and refine. The further along the sculpture is, the slower my pace. Much time is spent looking at my model. I try to know the truth of her face so well that I can immediately tell if my sculpture is not quite right.

When I am finished working on the clay sculpt, I must mold the clay in order to reproduce the sculpture. This process will destroy the original clay sculpture, but the mold that is made will make it possible to reproduce the sculpture dozens of times in a variety of materials from plaster to bronze. It is very important to make a sound mold for any mistakes could mean that the sculpture is destroyed with with no way to reproduce it.

The first step in making my mold is to mix up a batch of liquid rubber and gently apply it to my sculpture, taking care that it finds its way into all the deep cuts and crevasses of the clay without forming air bubbles. This is the most important layer of rubber, as it captures the texture and detail of the surface and seals it safely from the effects of moisture loss. (See the photograph below)

After this layer dries, as second coat of rubber is applied, reinforcing the first. This second layer is photographed below:

After the second layer dries thoroughly, I mix a thickening agent into my liquid rubber and apply a third and a fourth layer to the piece, concentrating on creating an even thickness of about half an inch. I then apply a fifth layer of rubber to create a thick line around the sculpture where I will later cut the rubber mold apart. (See the photograph below)

The next layer is to thicken the rubber shell even more, especially at the cut line and deep recesses. This is mainly to ensure that when I put the hard shell over this, that it will not lock onto the sculpture due to too many undercuts - thereby making it impossible to make any reproductions of the sculpture. (See the photograph below)

Now the rubber application is finished and I must build a hard shell to encase the pliable rubber. This is done so that the rubber does not warp into a different position. I used a plastic paste for the shell on this sculpture because it would dry hard and yet be lightweight. I chose to create the hard shell in three parts, one large piece in the front and two in the back. In order to ensure that the hard shell would be easily removable and yet will lock together with ease, I created a wall of clay around the sculpture with an indentation in it that will help with registration. (See the photographs below)

Once the clay wall is complete, I brush a release agent over the entire surface and begin to mix the plastic paste. The plastic paste has a very short working life, so it is important that I apply it quickly or it will dry in the mixing container. (See the plastic shell photographed below)

This process is repeated with the two sections in the back, and it is allowed to cure for 48 hours. I then carefully remove the plastic shell and cut through the rubber along the thickened lines. I peel the rubber off of the clay and at last, it is done. (See the inside of the rubber mold sitting in it's plastic shell in the photograph below)

Now I can put the sections back together, tie it securely, and pour a plaster into the cavity to create a perfect reproduction of the original!

"Dementia" Wins 1st Place at Fairhaven Mausoleum Art Exhibition

At the recent show "Fairhaven Mausoleum Art Exhibition 2009" (November 12-15) in Santa Ana, CA - my oil painting "Dementia" won 1st Place. Though I could not attend the show, I was very honored by this award and completely surprised! This show has grown considerably over the past three years, the work was very strong, and the jurors were incredible. The show was juried by three art connoisseurs:

Elaine Adams, Director of the California Art Club and Owner of Legacy Fine Arts

Chip Tom, Museum and Gallery Curator

Henry Lien, Owner/Director of the Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery

There were so many beautiful works in the show, I invite you to see them yourself by following the link at the bottom of this post, or click on the title above.

To read more about the exhibition and to see works that were juried into the show, please visit:

http://www.lagunacollege.edu/fairhaven/

21 Artists Under 31

I am pleased to announce that I have been chosen as one of the 21 Artist Under 31 featured in the current September issue of Southwest Art Magazine. Their annual emerging artist issue features the article "21 Artist Under 31 - Young Artists to Collect Now." It is an honor to be chosen for this list and you can find my artist profile and an image of my work on page 87 of the magazine.

21 Under 31

Bonnie Gangelhoff

"This year marks the tenth anniversary of our popular annual spotlight on emerging artists. In celebration, we conducted our biggest search for talent to date, inviting all artists under 31 across the country to enter the contest. The entries we received were truly impressive, and our editors spent many days narrowing them down to just 21 winners—first, second, and third places, and 18 honorable mentions. Some of the artists you’ll meet on the following pages have already won awards and have gallery representation; others are just starting out. All of them are talented artists who, we believe, are on track for promising careers in the art world."

Hope you enjoy the article! Check it out online here: http://www.southwestart.com/article/1713

Fresh Paint

(oil on masonite, 5.25" x 7.25")

I have been working long hours on a series of large paintings for several weeks in a row. When I work on larger works in secession like this, there builds inside me a tension, an anxiety that must be dissolved. I akin working on these involved paintings to walking a long tightrope, a constant balancing act between perceived success and perceived failure, pure joy and utter despair, sometimes within hours of each other. If this feeling becomes too strong, overwhelming my senses, I will create something smaller and less involved. This is a recent example of such a piece.

-Candice

"Black Satin Pearls" To Be Auctioned on Live TV

Candice Bohannon has donated her recent painting "Black Satin Pearls" to be auctioned on live television on August 30th at 10:30 pm to benefit KVIE Public Television. The preview party will be held on August 24th 5:30pm-8:30pm at KVIE Studios 2030 W. El Camino Avenue Sacramento, CA 95833. Please visit the KVIE Public Broadcasting website for more info.
www.kvie.org/artauction

Paintings and Sculptures in Progress

Studio Update

I am currently working on a new portrait bust from life in water based clay. Below is a photograph of the piece about 3 weeks ago, but it is much farther along now. There are also 6 paintings in process in my studio, all in various stages of completion.

-Candice

Candice Bohannon - Editors' choice for up-and-coming talent

Southwest Art Magazine has featured Candice Bohannon in the August 2009 issue as the editors' choice for up-and-coming talent. Along with color reproductions of "Cardoons" and "Marie Masson" the magazine has published a particularly astute article about Bohannon and her work. Look for the article in Southwest Art Magazine, available in bookstores everywhere!

The article is posted below:

Candice Bohannon drove past a patch of wildflowers called cardoons for years before she decided to paint them. At first, she recalls, she was content to merely grab the prickly plants from the side of the road and bring them home. “I came back home with a lot of wounds because they are very thorny,” Bohannan says with a laugh. Not long ago, however, the cardoons seemed particularly stunning. And she knew the area was soon to be cleared for a new roadway. It would be their last season. It was time to capture them on canvas. “I love how weeds can sometimes be very beautiful. Cardoons grow wild everywhere in Southern California with very little water and nurturing,” she says. “They are so forceful and willful.” Bohannon not only talks about the wildflowers as if they have human characteristics, she paints them that way, too. Anyone who saw her painting in the California Art Club’s Gold Medal Show recently might have observed that the spiny weeds did, in fact, convey a human-like energy, almost as if they could walk off the canvas and onto the floor of the museum. At 27, Bohannon was one of the youngest artists featured in the juried show. Already an award-winning painter, she most recently was named a semi-finalist in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Her painting captured an elderly woman afflicted with dementia. Unlike some artists, Bohannon relishes working in many genres—still life, landscape, figurative. “I paint things that interest me,” she says. What doesn’t interest this Northern California-based painter and sculptor though, is art that comes from a cynical point of view, mocking and tearing apart things she holds dear. For Bohannon, art heals and awakens emotions as well as brings substance to light. She explains with this analogy: “Great artworks can be related to a feast, the meal laid out for you: beauty, thought, emotion, and kinship. It can leave you feeling full or perhaps serve to awaken the appetite further. But it will never leave you empty.” Universal themes are what interest her most, and she looks to many of art history’s great painters, such as Rembrandt and Michelangelo, for inspiration. “I’m not going to paint the inside of my car or my daily sandwich,” she says. “Those things don’t register an emotional blip on my radar screen.” Growing up in Applegate, a small mountain town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, Bohannon says she was a quiet and shy girl. By the time she started thinking about what she wanted to become, she realized that she loved and was good at only two things: writing and visual art. Thus, after high school graduation, she headed for the Laguna College of Art and Design in Laguna Beach, CA, which seemed like the big city at the time. Since graduating from there, she has returned once again to Applegate, where she shares her life and art with her husband, Julio Reyes, also a talented emerging artist. Bohannon’s studio is in her home, and it’s not unusual for her to spend more than 100 hours there working on a single piece. But her method is strictly spontaneous and embraces variety. For example, when she met an intriguing woman at a wedding in Baltimore last year, she asked her to sit for her. When she saw a horse at an equestrian center, she watched it for hours and then painted the white equine as a symbol of innocence. Although it’s early in her career, Bohannon is self-assured about her career choice. As she writes, “I create because I must create, it is what I was born to do. There’s no other life for me.”

See more of her work at www.candicebohannon.com.

Notifications for Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition

    I have received notification that "Dementia" will not be included in the final Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Exhibition.   I can not help but be sad that "Dementia" is not in the show, I thought it would be a wonderful venue for it.   Nonetheless, it was great to be a part of it, I am happy for the artists who are in it, and I am going to have plenty of new works to enter into the next competition, year 2012. 

- Candice Bohannon

   

Bohannon a Semi-Finalist in the Smithsonian Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition

"Dementia" oil on panel, 38" x 48" 2008

"Dementia" has been selected for the semifinalist round of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009. The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery has chosen "Dementia" as one of the top 100 paintings out of more than 3,300 entries nationwide. They have shipped "Dementia" to Washington D.C. at their own expense for final judging, and will be selecting the final exhibition and winners on May 28, 2009.

All works that are selected on May 28th will be included in the exhibition, which will open at the National Portrait Gallery on October 23, 2009 and remain on view until August 22, 2010.

Crop of "Dementia"

California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition

A recent work, "Cardoons" (oil on canvas) was accepted and shown in the California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition.

Location: The Pasadena Museum of California Art
Dates: April 26th - May 17th



Photo: "Cardoons" and the artist, Candice Bohannon



Photo: The artist Candice Bohannon speaking with the retired curator of the Asian Art Museum, San Fransisco.




Photo: Candice Bohannon standing with husband/exhibiting artist Julio Reyes and a recent acquaintance.

New Work

I just finished a new graphite drawing in the Edith series.

To view this piece, go to:

www.CandiceBohannon.com

Hello everyone,

Please be patient, due to an overwhelming amount of requests from loyal fans, I am putting together this site to keep updates flowing consistently.   I thank you all for your interest!  In the near future you can look here for photos of what is on the easel, thoughts, upcoming shows, press, and more.    

-Candice