Exhibitions: Art Boats Competition Exhibition Painting Water
by David Jay Spyker
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Cradle Wins 2nd Place at Box Factory for the Arts
The Box Factory for the Arts is an interesting facility housed in (you guessed it) a former box factory in St. Joseph, Michigan. The old brick and heavy timber building houses a number of artist’s studios, features classes, and shows stage events as well as visual art exhibits. The 10th Michiana Annual Artist Competition opened June 15, and David Jay Spyker’s painting in acrylics titled “Cradle” won the second place award. In addition to Cradle, the artist is showing two other pieces – Amputee and Inlet.
Cradle also recently won first place at this year’s annual competition at the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, Michigan.
“Cradle”, 2011, Acrylics on Canvas, 13 x 49 in., by David Jay Spyker
After the close of the exhibit at the Box Factory, Cradle will travel back to the Carnegie Center for the Arts to be included in a two month solo exhibition of David Jay Spyker’s work (opening august 19). Once that show closes, the painting will go to its new home at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts where it has been accepted into their permanent collection as a gift of the artist’s father, David John Spyker, in memory of the artist’s mother, Mary Spyker (1945-2011).
The MAAC closes July 27; if you wish to visit the show, the Box Factory for the Arts is located at 1101 Broad St, St Joseph, MI 49085. http://www.boxfactoryforthearts.org
Falling
In Falling, the seasonal reference is pretty obvious in the title with the leaf falling and the spider dropping down. My wife and I talk about how spiders also really seem to come out in force as autumn sets in, so I painted this as a gift for her.
Falling, 2005, Acrylic on Canvas, 10 x 8 in., by David Jay Spyker
I found a couple of digital images of this piece in progress, so I’ve included them below to give a little insight into the process involved with this particular painting. In the first image you just barely spot a pencil line where the silk thread will be. The leaf is underpainted in yellow ochre and given multiple layers of varying transparency (many of them glazes with acrylic medium) over it to achieve a richer color depth.
In the second image you can see where I am beginning to define the veins, the stem, and the underside areas of the leaf with burnt sienna.
Between the second image and finishing the piece, I painted in some more semi-transparent whites over the violet-toned area at the bottom and left in order to push it back a bit since it was just coming on too strong.
All paints and mediums used were by Golden Artist Colors.
Art Exhibitions: Acrylics Art Boats Competition Exhibition Painting Water
by David Jay Spyker
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“Cradle” Awarded First Place at the Carnegie
At this year’s annual competition at the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, Michigan, the painting “Cradle” was awarded the first place prize. This installation of the exhibition was judged by artists Jim Markle and Dennis O’Mara.
Cradle was executed in 2011 using acrylics on canvas, and is painted with techniques that could be said to lie somewhere between those of oils and tempera with a bit more slant toward the latter.
Images of the opening reception:
Also showing at the annual exhibition are the paintings “Inlet” and “Northbound”.
"Inlet", by David Jay Spyker, 2011, Acrylics on Canvas, 14 x 18 in.
The show is open through February 22nd, 2012 at the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, Michigan.
Art Exhibitions: Acrylics Art Competition Exhibition
by David Jay Spyker
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Carnegie Center for the Arts Competition 2012
Three of my paintings – “Cradle”, “Northbound”, and “Inlet” – have been included in the CCA’s annual competition this year. The show opens with a reception on January 22 from 2-4 pm, and runs through February 22.
You can visit the Carnegie at 107 North Main St. in Three Rivers, MI 49093
Online at www.trcarnegie.com
Art Exhibitions: Competition Exhibition Watercolors
by David Jay Spyker
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“Northbound” at Michigan Artist’s Competition
From June 10-30, the watercolor and drybrush painting, Northbound, will be included in the Michigan Artists Competition at the Art Center of Battle Creek. The competition is open to entries by any artist living in Michigan. This year’s juror is sculptor Kenneth Thompson of Blissfield, Michigan.
Timelessness in Art
You can often overhear interesting things in art museums and galleries. On the last day of “The Wyeths: America’s Artists” at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, a man standing one painting to our left said with a semi-sour look, “The mullet kind of dates it”; he was looking at Jamie Wyeth’s “Portrait of Orca Bates”, and I think he mostly missed the point – but I’ll get to that.
Timelessness is one of those art terms that, if you frequent artsy circles, you will regularly hear thrown around. You will most often hear it used in a context of either praise or derision; it’s one of those art terms. Andrew Wyeth is known to have said that he liked painting nudes because of the timeless quality of the picture; I think maybe depicting a nude in front of some sort of amorphous background is the only way a figurative painting might be considered timeless (in the sense of the art term, at least), and even then, hair styles may be a giveaway to the time period.
Because we only have the personal experience of our own time, I think it is much easier to see images from the past as having a timeless quality. What we’re really seeing is unfamiliarity, out-of-our-own-timeness, not timelessness. Old stuff – frilly clothing, long bygone hair styles, antique personal accouterments, horses, ragged wooden shacks – always has a way of seeming classical, timeless. Maybe in a few generations, a mullet, a gold stud earring, battered work boots, and a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt will be classical too; we just can’t see it right now. Personally, I don’t really care, it’s a beautifully expressive painting.
Maybe the real questions are: Does it matter? Are we getting the point?
I don’t think timelessness really matters.
First, pure timelessness is very rare.
Second, our enjoyment and understanding of a painting shouldn’t be swayed by critical art-world terminology.
Third, art is better understood when taken in the context of the artist’s time period and personality, and the Wyeths are no exception to this. Andrew and Jamie are known for distilling the essence of their experiences, surroundings, and imaginations in their paintings. It is this very observation and recording of their intimate universe coupled with a willingness to externalize their hearts and minds that makes their art so great – so full of meaning and emotion. When we begin to engage with all the possible stories behind their images, when we begin to understand and have a feeling for the artist’s intent, they only become deeper.
Art Exhibitions: Acrylics Competition Exhibition Painting Rain Water
by David Jay Spyker
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“Running” and “Rainstorm Off South Haven” at the Carnegie
Beginning Sunday, January 16, 2011, I will be showing “Running” and “Rain Storm Off South Haven” at the Carnegie Center for the Arts’ annual competition.
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- “Rain Storm Off South Haven”, 2010, Acrylics on Canvas, 5 x 7 in., by David Jay Spyker
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- “Running”, 2010, Acrylics on Canvas, 18 x 24, by David Jay Spyker
There is a reception from 2-4 p.m. with an awards ceremony at 3 o’clock on January 16 at the Carnegie Center for the Arts. The show closes on Saturday, February 19. I took a look at all the entries when I dropped off my pieces, and it should be a quality show; try to make the trip if you can.
The Long, Cold Night
The Long, Cold Night
Earlier, a radiant,
Dancing Maiden;
A coy, toying
Vision behind cloud-veil.
Here and there,
Now and again,
She would reveal Herself
To bathe frozen firmament
In Her familiar, pale glow.
Every exhalation hangs
Long
As it drifts into ether.
Now…
Gone,
Her countenance eclipsed,
She leaves only
A low-strung dome
Of inky deep.
Not a sound,
Neither star,
Nor light
Mark the crisp, cold night.
~ David Jay Spyker
This morning is the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year; the moon also happens to be in full eclipse – it was 1638 when the moon was last in full eclipse on the Solstice. It was cloudy here, and once the Moon was eclipsed the entire sky went dark and inky, something like being deep under water where there is both depth and nothingness.
Tomorrow begins the rebirth of the light.
Art Artistic Motivations Exhibitions: Autumn Drybrush Exhibition Painting Railroad Watercolors
by David Jay Spyker
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Northbound
It was one of those strange coincidences – you know when you’ve been thinking about someone, and the phone rings, and you hear that someone on the other end? – something like that.
Only days before Ron Dumont called to ask if I would be interested in lending a painting to a show he would be curating, I had been eyeballing these areas with tall railroad beds not far from home. I thought from below they were like great walls interrupting the flow of the summer landscape, but then, they followed the terrain, and had long since become part of it too. Maybe there was a painting lurking in there somewhere.
Ron said the show would be railroad-themed. What a mysterious bit of providence. I told him I would think about it, and see if the inspiration was there.
After sketching out some unused ideas, and waiting for Autumn to set in deeply enough to strip the leaves from much of the trees and to color most of the rest, the perfect day happened. The cloud cover and lighting were just right, and when the sun got low enough, I found it – true inspiration.
For the past twenty years, we have always lived within distant earshot of the overnight trains that run between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids; “Northbound”, for me, conjures not only that familiar, comforting sound of the horns at night, but also many walks along the tracks with Trish.
“Northbound”, 2010, Watercolor and Drybrush on Paper, 21 x 28 3/4 in., by David Jay Spyker
You can see “Northbound” along with paintings, photography, and sculpture by nearly thirty artists at “Railroad Days”. The show is on display at the Portage District Library in Portage, Michigan through January 27. Also included are poems inspired by trains, railroad memorabilia, and model trains.
Website Redesign and Update
A long overdue redesign of my art website is now complete. A suite of new navigation options let you customize what you want to see. Some newer artwork has also been added, and more is on the way. Any links you had to the old website (other than the front page) will need to be updated. Please stop by DavidJaySpyker.com to enjoy the art.