"The Last Ride" looked pretty incredible at the LA's landmark Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

photography by Scott Stulberg

Receiving an Award from Fine Arts Connoisseur Magazine and more news

It sure is a pretty hot summer here:

• Award at the CAC Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition
• New works at the show in American Legacy Fine Arts Gallery
  
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  Alexey Steele receives an Award from prestigious
  Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine
  at California Art Club
  99th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition
  now on view at Pasadena Museum of California Art
  
  " for outstanding painting Shoeshiner. Jay of San Miguel "
  
  
  

surprise!


Kathleen Lawrence-Davis announced the award


this year winners
Sergio Sanchez, John Asaro, David Gallup, Charles Muench, Ramon Velazco, Julio Reyes, Taylor Montague


Kathleen Lawrence-Davis, Olga Vlasova, Michael Zakian, Tony Pro


more great artists:
Joseph Todorovich, David Kassan, Tony Pro


Peter Adams, David Gallup


making Jay proud

Thursday, July 1

6 - 8 p.m.

Membership Open House and Closing Tour

of the 99th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition

Pasadena Museum of California Art

490 E. Union St.

Pasadena, CA 91101

Free for CAC or PMCA members and up to two friends,

or with Museum admission

General Museum Admission: $7

Students and Seniors: $5

A wonderful opportunity to view the spectacular 99th Annual Gold Medal Juried

Exhibition before it closes on July 3, and to learn more about the California Art

Club. Gold Medal artists will be on hand to share personal insights about their

work, and refreshments will be served.

***

six new paintings by Alexey Steele are currently available at
American Legacy Fine Arts

"Preserving Southern California's Coastline"
the exhibition continues through
July 24, 2010


artists and friends of ALFA after opening

Elaine Adams of ALFA with "Wind & Sand" by Alexey Steele

Gallery Hours:

Saturday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Tuesday through Friday by appointment by calling 626.577.7733

My workshop is featured in-depth in American Artist Workshop Magazine Summer 2010

***

My painting and teaching methods
as well as views on what it takes to create strong Art
are featured in-depth in the 14-page article of
American Artist Workshop Magazine, Summer 2010


"Alexey Steele: Pursuing Passion and Personal Vision"
by Michael Zakian
director of Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art
Pepperdine University

Quotes from the article:

"A hallmark of Steele's life and art is passion - a passion for painting and for promoting the highest ideals of great culture and fine art."

"For Steele, painting is a deeply humanistic endeavor and is essential to maintaining the vitality and health of our culture."

"Steele painted in an assertive, determined stance, projecting his body's physical energy into his canvas. He believes that artists must instill this vitality into their image if they want their paintings to be alive."

"As an instructor, Steele has a remarkable and rare capacity to focus on improving each student's own vision and style, rather than imposing his own method."

"Steele represents a continuation and a revival of the European academic tradition."

"Steele is able to maintain pictorial freshness by always keeping his vision and image

full of life."

"For Steele, art is a passionate battle."

"The artist is in a position of ultimate power. Soldiers use lethal force to kill. Painters use vital force to recreate life itself, and that is art. Focus on the positive qualities of life and you will grow as an artist." Alexey Steele







for the full article, please click here

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May 16:"The Last Ride" by Alexey Steele exhibiting at landmark LA Cathedral

***

Please join me to view my recent work

"The Last Ride"

celebrating THE RING CYCLE exhibit
at the landmark
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

"The Last Ride" by Alexey Steele 48"x80" oil on canvas

Reception with the Artists
organized by California Art Club
May 16, Sunday
5 to 7 p.m.
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

555 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
http://www.olacathedral.org/
parking is $5
RSVP 626-583-9009

"The Last Ride" detail

The painting is based on the theme and symbolism of a Valkyrie Ride, and raising a question of the human cost of the political decisions.

Undertaking a thematic multi-figure composition is a complex process involving multiple stages of working with live models and settings in order to achieve the desired level of realism.

Below are some photos taken during the process.

Special thanks to Esther de Jong, Tom Bunning, Sheri Hastings, Stephen Mirich and Daniel Pinkham.

working on the study with magnificent Esther, who was braving wind and cold

anybody who knows horses can tell how difficult to pull that one off is on a hot thoroughbred - second body flipped backwards across the front of a rider, thanks to brave Sheri, adventurous Tom for making it improbably work

since my color range was set for dusk we had enormously short window before complete darkness would fell

after having on-site color studies, we moved to the studio where I had to shift the entire color range to those studies

i bought in a local surplus store same uniform used currently and "put it through war"

before starting with Tom, we spent probably three hours making him up,
as I've never done make up before, this was like completing half of the painting
without ever touching it yet

then as everything is well prepped and the model is right in front of you - its "just go"

multi-figure work is always a team effort and with models like Esther and Tom you can do anything

The California Art Club is pleased to present this unprecedented display of artwork inspired by Richard Wagner's epic operas Der Ring des Nibelungen. The featured works in this juried exhibition were specifically created to provide a visual arts component for Ring Festival LA, the 11-week countrywide cultural festival that coincides with the LA Opera's first-ever presentation of the four-opera drama.

"SHOESHINER. Jay of San Miguel"

"Shoeshiner. Jay of San Miguel" 65" X 26" oil on canvas

It was my first painting trip to Mexico. I went with an extraordinary group of a remarkable artist-friends at the urging of a great artist and friend Jeremy Lipking and it turned out to be a celebration in the spirit of camaraderie among some of today’s most dedicated realist artists in our joint cultural insurgency in name of true Art.

It was an extraordinary trip. It was absolutely enormous experience...it shook me to the ground depths... I suspected something of that nature after my first brief encounter with Mexico in Ensenada...but nothing of this magnitude... What true to the core, solid and grounded characters...still somehow untouched by the all-avergizing militant consumerism of empty can worshipers…

I saw enormous in their raw, authentic strength and unpolished beauty themes and images…and than I met Jay, a shoeshiner with a life story worthy of a great All-American novel.

I spotted him within my first 15 minutes in town as my friend “Ignatik”, a great artist Ignat Ignatov, was showing me around.

There was something about his presence that immediately struck me. He suddenly represented for me everything that literally overwhelmed me in the people of Mexico.

He was laser-sharp and aware with excellent English. He was a shoeshiner, a line of work not existing much our days and that was always regarded as below-the-feet-low on a society’s totem poll. Yet I saw that he was enormously and humanely proud of what he does and of who he is. He turned shoeshinig into a noble act of serving his people. Tourists don’t shine their Nikes much.

He had a demeanor of a rider and the soul of an artist; I saw a kindred spirit – he was proud of his own design shoeshining rig, that he built with his own hands, the best in San Miguel, just as much as I was proud of my special painting rig that I built just for that trip.

As I got to know him, I got a sense of his remarkable “hemispheric” story. He took up shoeshining after his father and worked on the same spot as his Dad did since age ten. He spent ten years in Texas working hard in the mines. He has 5 kids there. He is Texan. His heart is there. He had some run-in with the law, did some time I guess and was kicked out by the feds. He returned to his old spot. I accidentally noticed some loose papers around him and he demuringly and reluctantly showed me what they were – they were drawings. Symbolic statements of escape and freedom, the long road and the lone star…oh yes, that was my kindred spirit. That was what I came to Mexico for.

I asked him to pose for me. As a friend, not a model for hire. He graciously agreed in the afternoons as it gets slow for him. And there he stood on his square by the steps of glorious La Salite Cathedral in his dripped with paints overalls that he himself designed and tailored after Texan chaps - humble without subservience, proud without arrogance, a man of his people standing tall on his own land.

Everything that ART as TRUTH is all about was right there in front of me in a Shoeshiner Jay. I painted him full length on the spot, a Noble Man of our day.

Mexico... what a mythic land of so real people and so true characters... how much we've lost in a name of a "consumer."

photos taken by Olga

You can see a great report on our pretty epic trip with our joint photo and the links to our whole gang here on the site of a great artist and friend Scott Burdick. My heart-felt thanks to a wonderful artist Frank Gardner for putting this trip together and for his and his beautiful families' enormous hospitality.

Feedback on workshop "Poetry of Figure"

Please convey to the CAC staff that the Alexey Steele Workshop, held this past week, was a smashing success. Everyone knows what a powerful artistic force Alexey already is, but few, until this time, could have realized what a sensational and dynamic art instructor he makes as well. He is driven by a strong belief in the classical methods of producing traditional realism in art. With classic music booming from the rafters of his cavernous studio, Alexey exhorts us to paint with the beat, to integrate the rhythmic and tonal values of the music into our painting. He is particularly adept at engaging each participating artist at their current level of skills, and encouraging them to surpass themselves by pushing beyond their respective conform zones.  Our collective experience, I beleive, exceeded anything we could have anticipated.

The event was extensively recorded in digital still and video images. I hope you will consider posting some of the images on the Club website. And by all means, ENCOURAGE Alexey to conduct more workshops in the future.

Speaking for myself, the 800 or so Associate Art Members of the Club that didn't attend the workshop missed out on a rare and unique artistic experience and as Alexey says "a nutty good time."

George Malone
Associate Artist Member
Coordinator, Malibu Chapter Monthly Paint-outs

PSOA Panel Discussion Part 1 - Realist Revolution

Panel discussion featuring James Panero, Jacob Collins, Vern Swanson and Alexey Steele. Moderated by artist Jeremy Lipking. Held on April 23rd at the Portrait Society of America's annual competition in Reston, Virginia.

Realist Revolution

Contemporary Art:

REALIST REVOLUTION
and
CRITICAL RELEVANCE

Is Main Stream Media Missing an Important Cultural Trend?
PSOA Panel Discussion

Moderated by Jeremy Lipking
Friday April 23rd 2010 4:00pm
Hyatt Regency Reston, VA

Premises:

There is an actually existing, wide-spread, multi-faceted Realist movement in the Art world today. It is functioning as a set of specific tools, philosophy and practice. As any major art movement in history - it is a common visual language based on a common world view.

• This movement is current, relevant and forward - looking
• This movement is part of presently existing contemporary Art
• This movement is a reflection of an important aspect of our modern world - democratization of cultural plane.

The event is part of the PSOA Art of the Portrait conference and will be free of charge and open to the public. (reservations required) contact Christine Egnoski at info@portraitsociety.org or call 877-772-4321

Panel Members:

Jacob Collins:

Artist & Founder of Grand Central Academy

Alexey Steele:

Artist & Recipient of the 2009 Gusi Peace Prize

James Panero:

Writer & Managing Editor of The New Criterion

Vern Swanson:

Author, Expert on Academic and Realist Art & Director of the Springville Museum



Moderator:

Jeremy Lipking:

Artist, Represented by Arcadia Fine Arts and American Legacy Fine Arts

Los Angeles Artist Alexey Steele receives the Peace Prize in Asia for his work on turning art into a tool of International Conflict Resolution

Alexey Steele presenting President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with the image of his work "Fire of Peace" for which he received a prestigious Presidential Gusi Peace Prize of the Philippines for 2009.

The Gusi Peace Prize, sometimes called the Nobel Peace Prize of Asia, is given by the President of Republic of the Philippines every year in Manila to an international group of leaders in various fields who distinguished themselves through advancing humanitarian causes that contribute to World Peace. The group of 19 laureates for 2009 included Representative Bob Filner (D, CA); Hon. Massimo Romagnoli, Minister and a Member if Italian Parliament; HRH Princess Fuziah Raja Uda of Malaysia; Charalambos Lambrou, Secretary-General of Pancyprian Social Welfare Council of Cyprus and Ali Nasuh Mahruki, first Muslim to climb Mount Everest, head of internationally operating search and rescue teams, from Turkey.

Alexey Steele (1967) is a noted Los Angeles painter known as much for his unusual large-scale figure compositions as for his out-of-the-box ideas about art within a modern society. It seems that his ideas reverberate recently across artistic disciplines and continents. His “Classical Underground” model of alternative presentation of classical music jointly with visual arts received a substantial note from such high-brow international voice as “Gramophone” Magazine; he was subject of an in-depth profile by the Los Angeles Times, received a prestigious Artemis Award in Athens for his representation of feminine power on a heroic scale and started a group “Artist for Marbles” to support international campaign on bringing Elgin Marbles to Acropolis.

Now another project of his gains note. His "Fire of Peace" composition in the work since 2001 is developed to serve as modern day icon for new inter-cultural paradigm of unity and mutual acceptance among vital to World Peace Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities. The beautiful and inspired vision of commonly shared ideas and principles on which there is no disagreement among followers of all three faiths is contrasted by a heart – wrenching image representing devastation, rubble and decay of destruction. It is serving as a frame to the composition and in a symbolic way compelling the viewer to change his or hers own “frame” of perceiving their core beliefs.

It conveys the message that the old way of seeing ones own cultural identity and heritage to the exclusion of others will lead to inevitable self-destruction in the modern world. In artists words it is “reflecting broader pluralistic culture while remaining viable to traditional communities thus encouraging a seismic shift in their fundamental perception of each other”. This shift in Alexey Steele’s view is vital to reaching any lasting peaceful solution to an ever-painful list of mutual grievances that are political in nature.

This task of deeply affecting core perceptions is also according to an artist an important and often overlooked function of art and the source of its power within a society. “It is the effective and honest engagement of this power on a very fundamental, subterranean to any political interests level that while clearly separating it from any form of “propaganda,” turns ART into a viable tool of international conflict resolution” - says Alexey Steele. (Steele is insisting to always capitalize “art” in his quotes reflecting his deep belief in its vital importance to the life of society).


Alexey speaks at 5:31 in this video

Master Artist Workshop with Alexey Steele, Thursday-Saturday, March 4-6

Organized by California Art Club

ALEXEY STEELE MASTER ARTIST WORKSHOP:
POETRY OF FIGURE

March 4-6 (Thursday-Saturday)
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Join Alexey Steele, an internationally acclaimed award-winning artist and a Signature Member of California Art Club, as he will share his approach on working with figure based on his legacy of the Russian Academic Tradition.

Artists and Art students are invited; limited to 16 participants. Please register early to reserve your spot.

The workshop is held at Alexey's Grand Atelier Studio in Carson, CA.

COST: $450 CAC Members/ $475 Non-members
Non-refundable 50% deposit required upon registration.
To register please go here.

Fine Art Connoisseur features Alexey Steele in Today's Masters

For immediate release:

Alexey Steele is featured by FineArtConnoisseur January / February 2010 issue

in the section "Today's Masters."

Three To Watch: Artists Making Their Mark

"There is a lot of superb art being made these days; this column shines light on a trio of gifted individuals."

http://www.alexeysteele.com/Articles/FAC.pdf

Alexey Steele "Last Man Standing" 40" x 30" oil on canvas

Some quotes from the article:

"Alexey Steele is truly a citizen of the world."

"...His "Russian maximalism"... blends the draftsmanship, ambitious compositions, and symbols of the classical tradition with a cool palette and palpable naturalism derived from the Moscow school... "

"...Steele - whom the Los Angeles Times has described as "intense" - believes that, "in this commercial world of ours, art is the ultimate act of defiance." His desire to see art displace greed and conspicuous consumption, and to reclaim its rightful place speaking truth to pwer, is explored on his unique website, and also through his artworks... "

To read the full article follow this link http://www.alexeysteele.com/Articles/FAC.pdf

To subscribe to FineArtConnoisseur go here.