Living in multiple countries across Asia, studying traditional Chinese brush painting, and later attending the National Academy School of Fine Arts in New York, Kinuko Hoffman blends tradition and abstraction developed across her extensive training and experiences as an artist. She uses a range of mixed media in her work, such as pumice, paper, wood, string, and cloth to achieve an understated complexity.  Describing her artistic process and purpose, Kinuko states, “I combine materials with explorations of color and composition to create a harmony that transports the viewer into a meditative state where balance, drama, and clarity unite.”

Name: Kinuko Imai Hoffman

Hometown: Kyoto, Japan

Currently Living: New York City

Read on to learn more about this artist! (more…)

Anne Neilson Fine Art is excited to present their newest artist to join the gallery, Jane Schmidt! Living in the beautiful mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, Jane is inspired by the vivid colors of her surrounding environment. Her abstract landscapes use color and texture to express more what is felt rather than what is seen by direct observation. Her paintings evoke a strong connection to nature and portray a variety of colors, which balance the landscape between realism and abstraction. Keep reading to learn more about Jane and her artwork.

Name: Jane Schmidt

Hometown: Birmingham, Michigan

Currently Living: Asheville, NC

Read on to get to know Jane Schmidt, her art + her life! (more…)

Name: Judith Vivell

Currently Living: New York, NY

When did you start your career in art? How long have you known you wanted to be an artist? (more…)

Anne Neilson Fine Art is excited to exhibit Jim Keffer’s exquisite pottery for sale as part of our holiday gifting pop-up party and Small Works Exhibition! Jim is widely known around the Charlotte area for his car dealerships but many are less aware of his hidden talent as a potter, which he has been practicing and refining for over 30 years! Keep reading to learn more about Jim and how he got started creating these unique and stunning vases.

“Keffer’s introduction to the world of pottery began accidentally with an elective class as a freshman at Appalachian State in the eighties. Unbeknownst to him, he had a natural talent and a love for throwing pottery. His talent flourished, especially under one fabulous professor and with many hours spent in the studio, throwing pottery and throwing away even more pottery. Soon after graduation, he got involved in the family car business and with raising a family he had to slowly put to rest his pot throwing skills.  Now that his children have flown the coop his passion has been reignited. He truly has the ability to create beautiful and intricate pieces of artwork that he hopes to share with everyone.

Read on to learn more about Jim Keffer’s pottery, life + path to his art! (more…)

Anne Neilson Fine Art is elated to report the newest addition to our gallery roster: Ken Tate. A Mississippi native, Tate is known for his unconventional painting methods that herald back to the deliberately chaotic style of Abstract Expressionism and Beats writers such as John Kerouac. His recent work superimposes vibrant and raw layers of acrylic paint unto photographs of high-fashion advertisements and celebrity icons. In the Spring of 2017, Ken notably collaborated with Bloomingdale’s Department Store for their merchandising campaign, where his work was introduced to a broader audience (photo featured above). To learn more about this highly-motivated and acclaimed artist, read our exclusive interview below! (more…)

Joe Vinson is a truly talented artist who rotates painting between two broadly contrasting styles, abstract and figurative. This contrast is partly reflective of his lifestyle, rotating between New York City in the winter and Italy in the summers. In Italy, he enjoys painting the captivating landscapes en plein air, working from direct observation of his beautiful surroundings. In New York, Joe has a large studio in Brooklyn where he prefers painting abstract and more experimental paintings. His ability to rotate between the two dynamic styles speaks to his expertise and continued experience with the paint brush. Read the interview with Joe below to learn more about his unique lifestyle and artistic process!

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Along with incredible works by Julio Larraz, ANFA is extremely honored to exhibit Ron Hall’s private collection of paintings by his late friend, Denver Moore!

Denver was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on January 30, 1937. He was raised on a cotton plantain in Red River Parish. In the mid-to-late 1950s, he left Louisiana for the first time and lived briefly in Fort Worth, Texas, before moving to Los Angeles. He left LA in the mid 1960s, riding the rails before returning to Texas then Louisiana. He was living in Dallas at the time of his passing.

Though his lips were always flapping’ like the Bible pages, he would say he never claimed to be a preacher, just a sinner saved by grace with a message of hope for those that didn’t have any. (more…)

ANFA is thrilled to show works by the esteemed Cuban artist, Julio Larraz in honor of the upcoming major motion picture, “Same Kind of Different As Me” opening in theaters October 20^th. Featuring renowned actors, Greg Kinnear, Djimon Hounsou, and Renee Zellweger, the story follows an international art dealer, Ron Hall, who befriends a homeless man, Denver Moore, who changes his life for the better. Julio, portrayed in the movie, is part of their remarkable journey and his original artwork is highlighted in the film. (more…)

In the last blog post we learned about different fine art mediums. Today we want to take a closer look at texture and explore the different ways artists use texture to emphasize aspects of their work. As we learned last week, medium is not texture. Unlike medium, texture is the perceived surface quality of a work of art. It refers to the tactile qualities of a work and has elements of two-dimensional or three-dimensional designs. Texture is distinguished by its perceived visual and physical properties.  Therefore, medium can contribute to the texture of an artwork but texture does not influence the medium of the artwork.

Physical vs. Visual Texture

            Physical texture differs from visual texture by having a physical quality that can be felt by touching the surface of the artwork. Visual texture is the illusion of having physical texture. Some materials are perceived as smoother or rougher than others and can influence the outcome of the artwork. Artists take into consideration both physical and visual texture in order to give a sense of personality or character to their design. Repetition of shape and line and elements of the surface (canvas, metal, glass, wood grain, etc) all effect the perceived rhythm, contrast, or tactile quality of the work of art – also known as texture. Lets look at a few examples from some of ANFA’s artists.

Vesela Baker

Acrylic and watercolor are Vesela Baker’s, a full time artist based in Chatanooga, TN, art medium’s of choice. On many of her acrylic and watercolor paintings, Vesela applies a thick coat of resin over her different landscape paintings. The end result creates a texture that appears glossy, thick, shiny, and clear as seen in her works below.

Mossy Creek, 36×48

Summer’s End, 60×48

Troy Dugas

Troy Dugas, an artist based in Louisiana, creates collages made from shredded, vintage product labels. He cuts and arranges the labels onto flat surfaces, usually paper, canvas, or wood, to create texture that appears woven. Repetition, pattern, precision, and scale all influence the perceived texture and distract the eye from seeing the original product label.

Purple, 30×30

Still Life, 48×36

David Burdeny

David Burdeny, an award winning photographer based in Canada, translates his appreciation for travel, structure, and space into photographic observations of the sublime. His sparse landscapes are characterized by an aerial perspective that renders pattern and repetition within his captured details. He uses an aluminum composite panel and lustre laminate when printing his photographs to emphasize the smooth and sleek texture of the landscape that is perceived to continue off the surface of the work.

Tulips 02, 32×23

Saltern Study 06, 32×32

Kinuko Hoffman

Kinuko Hoffman has lived in countries across Asia while studying traditional Chinese brush painting before she moved to New York City to study at the National Academy School of Fine Arts and explore painting in oil. Her training has led her to create mixed media assemblages full of texture, depth, and contrast. She experiments with different materials such as pumice, paper, wood, string, and cloth, adding and taking away elements from the canvas until her finished work emerges. The assemblage of raw materials and limited color palette of bold tones creates varied texture within each abstract painting.

Distinct Path, 50×40

Origin, 48×48

As with all things, the computer screen can distort images especially when it comes to color and texture. Stop by Anne Neilson Fine Art to check out different textures for yourself!

With close to 50 artists represented at Anne Neilson Fine Art, we see a wide variety of art mediums. An artwork’s medium refers to the different materials or supplies that an artist utilizes in order to create a work of art. In painting, medium can refer to both the type of paint used (oil, acrylic, watercolor, etc) and the base or ground to which the paint is applied (canvas, wood, paper, etc). Knowing the paint medium when you look at a work of art is key because it greatly affects the way one can perceive the color, texture, and overall appearance of an artwork.
At the gallery, our artists utilize a variety of media. This permits differences between artworks where the style and subject matter cannot compete. Below we’ve highlighted a few examples to show you why medium matters and how it contributes to the diversification of our fine art collection.

Painting: Oil vs. Acrylic vs. Watercolor

Oil on Canvas: Sandy Ostrau, Joe Vinson

Oil is a type of slow drying paint. It consists of particular pigments suspended in a drying oil. This kind of medium does not dry quickly. It blends into the surroundings and allows the blending of color. It produces vivid colors with a natural sheen and distinct context. It provides a surface translucency similar to human skin making it an ideal for portrait painting. Oil paint eventually became the principal medium used for creating artworks as its advantages became widely known. The transition began with Early Netherlandish painting in northern Europe, and by the height of the Renaissance oil painting techniques had almost completely replaced tempera paints in the majority of Europe.

Sandy Ostrau, Outdoor Seating, 18×12

Art Critic, John Seed describes Sandy Ostrau and her work, “An intuitive artist who loves paint as a substance — and who has a tendency to obliterate her imagery with painterly gestures — Ostrau doesn’t go all the way to abstraction. To do so would remove the emotional connection she wants viewers to have with her source material. “I’m not a fully abstract painter,” she explains: “I want people to feel the landscape.”

Joe Vinson, Tangerine, 24×24

Joe Vinson explains his love for oil painting, “I love painting, especially oil painting.  There is something wonderful and unique about the immediacy and totality of this art form.  I love its long history and the many forms that it has taken.”

Acrylic: Stuart Coleman Budd, Adele Yonchak

Acrylic is a fast drying paint allowing far less time than oil to blend colors and apply minute details unto the painting. It contains pigments suspended in polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints are usually diluted with waters, but become water resistant when dry. Using acrylic, the artist must work far more quickly than if they were using oil.

Stuart Coleman Budd, Folly, 44×72

Adele Yonchak, Viaduct View, 30×30

Watercolor: Ellen Levine Dodd

Watercolor is a painting method in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle. The traditional and most common support for watercolor paintings is paper; other supports include papyrus, bark papers, plastics, vellum or leather, fabric, wood and canvas. The art of water color began with the cave paintings of Paleolithic Europe, used in the manuscript illumination by the Egyptians, and continued to flourish during the European Renaissance. Water color paint consist of four principal ingredients; colorant (commonly pigment), binder, the substance that holds the pigment in suspension and fixes the pigment to the painting surface, additives, substance that alter the viscosity, hiding, durability or color of the pigment and vehicle mixture, lastly, the solvent, the substance use to thin or dilute the paint for application and that evaporates when the paint hardens or dry.

Ellen Dodd, Saguaro Sunset, 11×15

Ellen Dodd, Sea Bluff, 4×3

Mixed Media: Ken Tate, Kinuko Hoffman or Kim Fonder 

Wait…. What does “Mixed Media” mean? Mixed media indicates that an artist used a variety (two or more) of mediums to produce a single artwork. 

Ken Tate, Burberry, 31×25

Kim Fonder, Cieli Grigi E Blu Delle Nuvole, 60×72

Kinuko Hoffman, Bliss II, 50×40

CAUTION: Medium is not Texture!

Sometimes the best of us confuse medium with texture. Although medium contributes to the texture of a painting, the two terms are completely different. Texture refers to the tactile qualities of a work. Does it look smooth and glossy? Or rough, like sandpaper? Is the painting built up in drips/globs? The texture will differ depending on the medium that the artist chooses. We will discuss more of texture in a later post, so check in soon!