Litchfield Lane murals

Painting is going well on the garage doors on Litchfield Lane in Manchester. This striking lion was painted by artist Christine Keenan.

Two paintings on one door. On the left an homage to Van Gogh by Linda Feinberg and on the right a painting by Ronnie Bourgeois. Title: Freedom.

This is an older painting that was refurbished by Deb Funk, Stephanie Byrd and Anthony Williams.

Our fearless leader, Anthony Williams, walked me further down the lane so I could take a photo of his older mural, "The old man of the mountain". It's still in good condition as is the next one.

This painting was organized by Anthony and many of the neighborhood kids worked on it. They signed their names on the right. It was painted in 2008.

It was sad to see so much graffiti on the garage doors and buildings there, but all the places where there were murals were not tagged and looked great.  Thanks to Eagle Eyes group and Anthony Williams for leading this project.

This is another older mural, painted by Deb Curtin, that is still in great condition.

Thanks to all the artists who participated in this project.  It is still ongoing and a few more murals will be up by the end of the summer.

Summer Projects

The summer painting murals project has begun.  There are several garage doors available for painting on Litchfield Lane. Linda Feinberg, our former treasurer, who is about to leave for Idaho, completed this one, an homage to Van Gogh.  Anthony Williams, our Vice President has other garage doors already primed and waiting for the artists who signed up. Of course, the weather is a factor since we have to paint outdoors.

Anthony Williams completed his eagle for the Veterans Count project. Looks like Sylvester stayed out of the way long enough for Tony to paint.

New work from our members

On a wintry spring day, it was great to receive these photos from Debbie Curtin. I asked our members to send in some new work and she was the first one to respond.  Debbie had prepared these paintings for a class she was going to teach, then her class was canceled due to snow.  I feel sorry for her students. These are great paintings to learn from. Thanks, Debbie for submitting. These paintings are done with exterior house paint on luan plywood sealed with polyacrylic.

Meanwhile, I was tired of painting landscapes and decided to have some fun with abstracts based on Chihuly's glass sculptures.  I had taken photos of his sculptures when they were on exhibit in Boston a few years ago. These are acrylic paintings on stretched canvas, 11" X 14", by Linda H. Feinberg.

If spring ever gets here to NH, we have several mural projects to work on, primarily garage doors on Litchfield Lane.  I am looking forward to that and have submitted a proposal based on another fun painting I did in a Van Gogh style.  There are many free videos online and I followed one to create this image.

I think this would look great on Litchfield Lane.  While I will be moving to Idaho at the end of the summer, this blog will continue.  You can submit your information to me as usual until I move, then to our president, Stephanie Byrd at any time.

Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of Friends of Art Manchester will be held Tuesday, January 17, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. Annual dues will be collected at that time.

For location and directions, please contact Linda Feinberg at lhfeinberg@gmail.com

Agenda for the Meeting:

1.    Roll Call. Collection of $5 annual dues

2.    Reading of the Minutes of the preceding meeting.

3.    Election of officers.

4.    Reports of Officers.

5.    Old and Unfinished Business.

6.    New Business. Spring projects.

7.    Adjournment

We have a number of murals we are planning to do for the spring, so please consider joining us.

Garage Door Murals

Stephanie Byrd painted a garage door interior at EFX Fitness in Manchester.

The image was laid out in PowerPoint, projected onto the pre-painted door, traced, and freehand painted using indoor/outdoor black semi-gloss paint that the customer provided.

There are other walls in the gym that she has painted inspirational quotes on. Some walls are brick and others are textured plaster. The walls had also been pre-painted which made the mural very easy to complete. Working with the client to decide size, placement, and color of the approved artwork is part of the process to be sure of a successful outcome.

This is an example of work that Friends of Art Manchester enjoys doing!

Reminder: Our annual meeting will be held January 17, 2017. Details to follow in next post. Please consider joining us. Our membership fee is only $5 per year and we have some good projects lined up for the spring.

Garage Door Mural

Great mural by new member James Chase. He is an instructor at NH Institute of Art and submitted a proposal for this garage door on Old Granite Street. You can check out more of his work at his website: http://neverfading.com/

Anthony Williams also submitted more of his paintings and photos for this blog.

This is his version of surrealism. The painting is very large, about 4' x 4'.

The project for the city on the utility boxes has been completed. It was sponsored by Brady Sullivan companies and they get to advertise on the box.  Anthony painted Weston Tower on one side of the box at the corner of Amherst and Pine Streets.

These daffodils are on the reverse side of the seagulls painting.

 

Repairs of the mural are finished and look great. The two Debbies were happy to work on it.

Our next meeting is this week, Wed. October 26th. For details or if you would like to join us, contact our treasurer, Linda Feinberg.

Mural Repairs

Repairs have been completed on the garage door murals on Litchfield Lane. Unfortunately the substrate keeps peeling. This is the second time our group has repaired these murals.

Our artists at work, Anthony Williams, Deb Funk and Deb Curtin.

Great job, guys! Now we need to find some indoor murals to do for the winter months. :)

Fall exhibits by our members

Portsmouth Contrasts in Black & White

 

 

Photo artist Thomas A. Wright offers two contrasting series of Portsmouth images as you

have never seen this historic city before. Showing October 5 - October 29. Join us for the

opening reception Friday Oct 7, 2016 5-8pm at the New Hampshire Art Association’s Robert

Lincoln Levy Gallery, 136 State Street, Portsmouth, NH. Visit us at

 

www.digitalvistasimaging.com for more details.

 

 

These paintings are on display through the end of December. The bank is located in the same plaza as the Whole Foods market in Bedford. You can go in and view the paintings any time the bank is open.

 

Joe Smiga will be exhibiting his photographs at various craft shows this fall. Linda Feinberg and Joe Smiga will be sharing a table at the Holiday Market downtown Manchester (1000 Elm Street) on Saturday, December 10th.

 

Artist of the Month award for September by the Manchester Artists Association was given to Linda Feinberg for her mixed media  painting "Follow Me" which is about the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

 

This area memorializes the U.S. Army’s 7^th Cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne in one of the Indian’s last armed efforts to preserve their way of life. Here on June 25 and 26 of 1876, 263 soldiers, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, died fighting several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.

Various tribes banded together to win this battle, but lost the war. The memorial is very spiritual and explains more than can be said in this short writing. 

This mixed media painting is 9” X 12”, matted and framed under glass, 13” X 16”. $125

Next FOA meeting is the last Wednesday of October, Oct 26th, 7:00 p.m. Contact treasurer, Linda Feinberg if you would like more information.  lhfeinberg@gmail.com

 

 



Summer projects

Design awarded to our member and chief muralist Anthony Williams. Anthony will be painting this design on a utility box downtown. Congrats.

As a group we have submitted some proposals for summer murals, but we do not have any news yet. Our treasurer, Linda Feinberg, went to a Southern NH Planning Committee meeting on the millyard and did some networking.  Anthony and Linda will attend a meeting next week of Old Sol and try to get some interest in more public art downtown.

Member Joe Smiga received 30 copies of his new book "Blackest of Fridays".  This is his 8th book and is not available in stores yet. He already sold his first one to his chiropractor. Joe is a good salesman.  The novel is a thriller involving good police work and terrorism.

Please send in your news and summer updates to our blogger, Linda: lhfeinberg@gmail.com
Thank you.

Next meeting and two calls for Art

Next meeting is Tuesday, May 17th at 7:00 p.m. at Deb's house. If you need more information, please feel free to contact me. LHFeinberg@gmail.com. We will discuss possibilities for a summer art project. Please bring your ideas.

Tina gave me some more Calls for Art.

CALL FOR ART!

Wanderlust: A Visual Symphony

Plymouth State University's KDAG Exhibitions Program, with exhibit partner, The New Hampshire Music Festival are seeking artwork, for 

the upcoming Summer 2016 exhibition in Silver Center for the Arts, Wanderlust: A Visual Symphony, which will be on view during the New Hampshire Music Festival.

NHMF's theme of wanderlust, will take audiences on a creative journey through countries and places around the world including Brazil, Germany, New York City, and Russia. The exhibit will celebrate the power of art to move and inspire us, connecting to music and travel themes.

Artists are invited to submit 1-3 images of artworks. Artwork is limited to work that can hang on walls.

Interested artists should go to the link below to submit a jpg of their artwork, accompanied by a brief artist's statement describing how the work relates to music themes, an artist biographical statement, and contact information.

https://www.plymouth.edu/gallery/exhibition-kdag/visual-symphony/

The deadline for submissions is June 10, 2016.

Guest Co-Curator: Bradford Dumont, NH Music Festival Artistic Administrator

Exhibit Dates: July 1- August 15, 2016

Call for Printmakers!   Finding Place on Paper:  Contemporary Poets and Printmakers Explore the White Mountains Co curated by Elizabeth Ahl, Parker Potter, and Cynthia Robinson Plymouth State University's Museum of the White Mountains is seeking a limited number of prints made recently, for the upcoming exhibit, Finding Place on Paper: Contemporary Poets and Printmakers Explore the White Mountains Artists from (or connected to) New Hampshire and the New England region, for whom the White Mountains as a place is featured, played a role, or been an inspiration in their work are invited to submit 1-2 images.  Selected prints may be paired with contemporary poems for visual display and/or included in printed material associated with the show.   Interested artists should go to the link below to submit a jpg of their print, accompanied by a brief artist's statement describing how the work relates to the White Mountains, an artist biographical statement, and contact information. https://www.plymouth.edu/museum-of-the-white-mountains/exhibitions/inspired-by-place/submission-form/ The deadline for submissions is August 15, 2016. Exhibit dates: October 24-December 16, 2016. To learn more about the Museum of the White Mountains, please visit http://www.plymouth.edu/museum-of-the-white-mountains/ Click on the "Call for Artists" tab at the top for more exhibit information.

Summer Project

Just a little preview of some of the proposals for the tunnel on the Piscataquog River trail. Photo above shows sketches for the tunnel by Anthony Williams.  Photos and sketches below are from Stephanie Byrd. The proposals have to be approved by the mayor and alderman before we can proceed with this project.

Photography Exhibit by Joe

Our member, Writer Joe Smiga, has been taking photography classes and currently has an exhibit at the Hooksett Public Library. The exhibit is on the main floor across from the reference desk. There are additional photographs and paintings on exhibit on the lower level as well from other artists and photographers who take classes and workshops there.

This is Joe's first large photo exhibit.The photographs were taken on a trip to the Canadian Rockies in June and show elk, mountain goats, a cute chipmunk, beautiful mountains and lakes.

Several of our artists have submitted work for approval for murals to be painted on the Piscataquog Trail (in conjunction with Riverwalk Beautification Alliance). These proposals are for the spring and summer and we hope that they are approved.

We are still looking for new members. You can pay your $5 annual dues online with Paypal at the top of the page.  We will need additional painters for the summer projects so please consider joining us.

Inside Mural - Finished

With thanks to Shirley Perry for the photos. Our artists finished the mural in the O'Malley headquarters. Left to right: Anthony Williams, Deb Funk, Shirley Perry, Stephanie Byrd.