As the Hill Country Council for the Arts continues to see its board members' vision expand and grow, we are excited to offer new possibilities to our community audiences.
The Classroom at the AgriCultural Museum and Arts Center offers the opportunity to groups of artists to come together in a space especially designed to accommodate small groups that wish to meet regularly, sharing in the creative process. The Classroom is being/has been equipped with basic equipment and supplies through the continued generosity of the Majestic Ranch Arts Foundation.
Tuesday evening applied arts "taster" classes, named Art AfterHours, now entering its third year, are ongoing. Additionally, Saturday mini workshops are offered by our core resident artists/instructors in Intro to Drawing, Watercolor, Oil and Acrylic and Plein Air. These are full-day immersions in a medium.
Groups of artists gathering to create on a weekly/regular basis is not a phenomenon. It seems the Salmagundi Club has served as a center for fine arts, artists and collectors since 1871 and originally was called the New York Sketch Class and later the New York Sketch Club.
Beginning at the eastern border of Greenwich Village in sculptor Jonathan Scott Hartley's Broadway studio, a group of artists, students and friends met weekly on Saturday evenings. In 1917, the club purchased an Italianate brownstone townhouse to house the organization's collection, activities and gatherings.
For the first hundred years, the Salmagundi Club was a men's-only club, although women's paintings were exhibited and discussed. The sister club for women artists was established in 1894 and called the Pen and Brush Club. Members names we perhaps recognize are William Merritt Chase, George Inness Jr., Howard Pyle, Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth and honorary member Winston Churchill.
The California Art Club was founded in 1909 by a group of pioneering artists who inspired the California Impressionist movement of plein air painters. Originally gathering in 1906, the Painters' Club of Los Angeles disbanded in 1909, members feeling they had outgrown their usefulness, and regrouped to form the California Art Club.
The new organization included both sculptors and women. In 1926, patron member Aline Barnsdall gave her home, Hollyhock House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, to the California Art Club for a 15-year term to use as its headquarters.
The club's luminaries include Edgar Payne, Granville Redmond, Guy Rose, Jack Wilkinson Smith and Marion Wachtel. A major tenet of the California Club is to look to its heritage for inspiration and guidance brought through the knowledge of artistic techniques nearly forgotten.
The Dallas Nine, a group of painters, printmakers and sculptors active in the 1930s and 1940s, looked to the land and people of the Southwest for their artistic inspiration. The Dallas Nine flourished at a time when critics were encouraging American artists to draw inspiration from their surroundings rather than following European trends.
The regionalist aesthetic was promoted in the Southwest Review and the Dallas Morning News. In 1929, the first professional director was hired by the Dallas Art Association, later becoming the Dallas Museum of Art, and exhibitions were presented by early Italian painters, Mexican muralists and contemporary American lithographers, influencing young artists in the region.
Sculptors in the group experimented with direct carving, rejecting technical assistance that distanced artists from their materials. Members of the Dallas Nine continued to influence young artists as they left the organization to pursue careers as teachers and museum administrators.
Artist groups interested in visiting The Classroom to discuss the possibilities may send an inquiry to [email protected]. Like us on Facebook and visit our website often at www.hccarts.org.
HCCArts Calendar
• The Heavens Declare! Celebrating the Glory of the Skies, through July 9, Museum of Western Art, continues to receive rave reviews for the exhibition featuring the works of Phil Bob Borman, G. Russell Case, Laurel Daniel, Linda Glover Gooch, David Griffin, David Grossmann, Michael Magrin, Denise LaRue Mahlke, Tim Newton, Phil Starke and John Taft. MOWA is located at 1550 Bandera Highway in Kerrville. Read more about the exhibition online at www.southwestart.com, or preview collection at www.museumofwesternart.com.
• The Sons of Charlie Russell: Cowboy Artists of America premiers at the Briscoe Western Art Museum through September 5. Featuring the founding fathers of Western Art alongside the Cowboy Artists of America, the exhibition borrowed from 17 lenders, including the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, the Booth Western Art Museum, the Eddie Basha Collection, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, the Sid Richardson Museum and several private collectors. The Briscoe is located at 210 W. Market St. in San Antonio. Call 210-299-4499 for information or email [email protected].
HCCArts Art AfterHours
2022, Series 4
Tuesdays, 7-9 p.m. in the comfort of The Classroom at the AgriCultural Museum and Arts Center, 102 City Park Road in Boerne. Cost is $35 each session. Discount with membership. Class descriptions and limited registration available at www.hccarts.org/workshops.
• Stained Glass Lights, June 7 and 14: A two-part class provides an opportunity to work on a dimensional stained glass piece. We will work on glass cutting, soldering and finishing through traditional stained glass techniques for copper foil. The finished panel lamp will be soldered to a clip and attached to a lamp base for everyone to enjoy.
• Rice Paper Resist, June 21: Dive into Tar Gel Medium as we use this flowing resist to create translucent sheets of rice paper. Explore color and layers on rice paper substrate. Transform the opaque paper to a sheer graphic enhancement with the use of paint, stencils, palette knives, and brushes.
• Indigo Dyeing, June 28.
• Paper Clay Casting, July 5 and 12.
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