Dear Friends,

Once in a “Blue Moon” we create an exhibition that provides a very different glimpse of the art world. When we first came up with the idea for this special theme of "Moonscapes" last summer it was thought that it would provide an opportunity to showcase one of our original gallery artists from 1964, Darrel Austin (1906-94). However; after much querying of our other artists and estates of artists, we discovered that an entire exhibition could be built around this theme. Most of the works were created in previous years but some were challenges we gave to contemporary artists we represent to see what they could do with the subject.

The exhibition is predominately Darrel Austin, since the artist used a moon in about a fourth of his forest scenes, strange beasts, and nymphs in pools of water or marshes. The American master was most popular during the decades of the 1940's and 50's and saw his work acquired by almost all of the existing art museums in America by 1965. His favorite medium was oil by use of palette knife but lesser known works exist in pencil, pastel and conte crayon. "The Great Beast" to the right was illustrated in TIME magazine in 1945 and exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It is one of the largest paintings he ever created.

Other artists included in the exhibition who already had one or more paintings with moons as part of the subject are Will Barnet (1911-2012), Byron Browne (1907-61), Adolf Dehn (1895-1968), Gabriella Gonzales Dellosso (b.1976-), Richard Haas (b.1934-), Bob Kane (1937-2013), Robert Kipniss (b.1930-), Herman Maril (1908-84), Eliot O’Hara (1890-1969), Elliot Orr (1904-1997), and Hunt Slonem (b.1951-). New works created for the show have been done by Ellie Barnet (Will Barnet’s granddaughter), Timothy Clark, David Coolidge, John Falato, Dan Rizzie, and Richard Segalman.

This exhibition will run through May 3.
Our hours are 10 am to 5 pm, Monday through Saturday.

The web exhibition for this show will be available for viewing online soon.

We also are available by appointment for private showings of a wide selection of works by the artists we represent. We provide private art consultation and can bring works to your home or office within Southwest Florida. During the season we show new exhibitions regularly starting in November and running through April.

Warm regards,

J. William Meek III
Owner-Director

January 14, 2014 Inaugural Visionaries of the Visual Arts Award (click for more information)