Marilyn Fenn - Newsletter

Austin Visual Arts Association 30th Anniversary Show - Closes in One Week

• AVAA's 30th Anniversary Exhibit closes next Monday, July 30th, at the Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Road. Gallery hours: Mon-Thurs, 9am - 9:30pm, Friday 9am - 5:30pm, Sat 10am - 2pm, closed Sun. I have two lovely little paintings in this show.

• There are some very nice comments from the jurors about this show in the most recent newsletter on AVAA's website: http://www.avaaonline.org/newsletter8-07.html

• If you can't make it to the show or would like a preview of the work there, there's a nice slideshow on AVAA's website: http://www.avaaonline.org/Images%20AVAA/destination/

• For more information about the show, see my website at: http://www.marilynfenn.com/ or the Austin Visual Arts Association website: http://www.avaaonline.org/.

More New Artwork

Since the opening of the AVAA show at the Dougherty, I have completed five more new tornado paintings, a painting of Hurricane Katrina seen from space, a new abstract landscape, and a kind-of goofy reworking of a previous encaustic painting...and the first four paintings in what I hope will become a very successful direction for me!

Tornadoes and Hurricanes

I find it very exciting to paint tornadoes and hurricanes. I have always been fascinated by the beauty of cloud-forms, and tornadoes and hurricanes represent two of the most powerful natural cloud-forms on earth. In using the medium of encaustic in a small format to paint these, I am realizing my long-term goal of straddling the space between abstraction and representation. For me, these paintings are paint first, and images second. By focusing on the beauty of these powerful, yet scary images, I am creating a tension for the viewer. I'm hoping people can look at these paintings of potentially frightening natural phenomena to see the beauty of their forms, and even more, the beauty of the paint as little shapes of color.

New Abstract Work!

Last week I began another new series which I am very excited about. These are the kind of abstract paintings I have long been attracted to, yet have somehow eluded my grasp. I took a great class at AMOA Art School with painter Andrew Long earlier this year -- it was very unconventional, as we never once put brush to canvas, but through a series of exercises over the three-night course, he helped us open our minds to 'find our own uniqueness.' I believe this great experience is finally finding its way into my work.

You can see all my new work (and some of the old) on my website: http://www.marilynfenn.com/art.html

The Hurricane Katrina painting is presently only available to view on my blog: http://www.marilynfenn.com/ArtBlog/ArtBlog.html

ArtBlog

I started an ArtBlog some time ago, but since I'd rather paint than talk, I didn't end up doing much with it. Until a few weeks ago, that is, when I decided to start posting my new work there first -- sometimes on the same day as I create it. Should you be interested in checking it out, here's the URL: http://www.marilynfenn.com/ArtBlog/ArtBlog.html

Cheers,

Marilyn