My Recent Paintings in the Exhibitions at Frederick Weisman Museum of Art and at Hilbert Museum of California Art

 

 My Recent Paintings 

in the Exhibitions at Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art 

and 

at Hilbert Museum of California Art

"SIERRA SUNRISE. CARSON PEAK"  

at the  

California Art Club 

110th Annual Gold Medal Exhibition 

 

  at

Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University 

 

 Located across the street from the Orange Metrolink station at 167 N. Atchison Street, Orange, CA, 92866 in Old Towne Orange
 

Alexey Steele  "Sierra Sunrise. Carson Peak"

36" x 48" oil on linen

  

Come see all the great paintings and sculptures at the exhibition!

Closing Day Celebration and Paint/Sculpt-Out

Saturday, August 14, 2021 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. 

 

join us for a wonderful closing paint/ sculpt-out in celebration of the 110^thAnnual Gold Medal Exhibition. Bring your painting or sculpting supplies and enjoy a joyous day of painting with fellow artists. Models in period attire will pose as a couple departing for a journey by train against the backdrop of the vintage architecture of the historic 1938 Mission Revival Santa Fe train station and Old Town Orange. This will be so much fun!

 

"Gust and Glow. In Memory of a Friend"  

at the  

"On Location in Malibu 2021, Paintings by the California Art Club"

 

Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University
On Location in Malibu 2021 is a triennial exhibition now in its eighth presentation since 1999.  

 

Alexey Steele  "Gust and Glow. In Memory of a Friend"

30" x 40" oil on linen

  

“On Location in Malibu” triennial at Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine is one of my absolute favorite exhibitions. From the very first show in 2002 I had a privilege to be part of it. Ever since this show was special for me. I loved the space, I loved the light, I loved the way Michael Zakian curated it and, above all, I loved Michael's phenomenal eye for art. For every show I would do one, sometimes two or even three new paintings.  I love work on larger sizes and the space shows larger size works very well.  I loved the way my works looked in that space. Twice Michael selected my works for the museum banner, few times on catalog covers and invitations.  Every time I wanted to paint something special for Michael, for his unfailing eye.

 

Michael's passing was a huge loss for the entire representational art world. It was a huge loss for me as an artist. We lost a great expert, a great champion and a great friend. Since his so untimely and unfathomable passing I was thinking about Michael a lot and for this show I decided to paint again for his eye and in his memory.

 

I had an idea of what I wanted to paint and even an old study that was reflecting this idea. I started working on it only to realize that I needed to go to the location and find there what I was looking for.  After few days of scouting the shoreline I found  it when I climbed one of the rocks at Leo Carillo.

 

Here it was, just as I envisioned the glowing late afternoon sun, the rock formations, the boiling foam of the breaking surf and the gusts that were almost ripping me from my perch. My vantage point of looking down, forward and to the right gave an interesting sight pattern that emphasized movement through distance and space.  What I was seeing and feeling was at the same time real, raw and ethereal.

 

I do not know what Michael would have said about my painting, but I painted it for him.

In Art We Trust

Social Action and Art: "My Neighbor Series" in Collaboration with The City of Carson as Part of Community Revitalisation

 Uncle Lincoln. Study for "Ukulele Player" Sepia on Fabriano Paper

It’s a great pleasure and honor to announce that I will be continuing the work on "My Neighbor Series" in collaboration with The City of Carson after receiving their special grant.
 
Centered around the idea "Love My Neighbor", the project is part of the larger effort to turn the city around after all recent screw ups by all sorts of political charlatans and power brokers that failed the beautiful people of this city, the 5th most diverse in the nation. In all this our city is the perfect metaphor for the current state of the US and the World. 

 Anayo. Sepia on Fabriano Paper

Among all today's anger, often well-justified by spectacular establishment failures, in a society plagued by cynicism, nihilism and relativism of the failed ideology of hyper-greed as national cultural identity there are some principles and core values that remain benchmarks of absolute good - the love of our neighbors, the Community and Humanity. This is what worth holding on to when all else fails. This is what will help us make it through anything. 

This is the greatest opportunity to apply all my cherished principles and skills of High Art that came down to me from my father and to create vital, authentic and compelling images of real people you cannot NOT love. This is the place of High Art in the first half of 21st century.
‪‬ I ❤ Carson!

“Moondance” – My New Painting for “The External and The Contemplative” Show at American Legacy Fine Arts

There are special  moments in nature when the light fills the world and everything in it with an etherial sensation. I love witnessing those moments and translating their sense into paint. I love the sensation of a flight that we experience when we encounter birds in their gracious and forceful path. First and foremost, I love the expressive language of the human form as a pinnacle of Nature’s grace and power. I also love the authenticity of a true and extraordinary human character, their manifestations live through time. 

"Moondance” oil on linen 36” x 48” 

at

American Legacy Fine Arts 

I am concentrating on developing these themes in my resent work as they present a perfect subject for the technical qualities of painting I am looking for currently. In my search for authentic and extraordinary characters I love working with artists, musicians, creators. 

In the “Moondance” I was fortunate to enjoy all things that I love. 

It was a rare privilege to work for this piece with one of the foremost Ballet Dancers of our time, a winner of this year’s landmark Bari competition in both, Classical and Contemporary categories and the principle dancer of the Kremlin Ballet in Moscow (being an American), an incomparable Joy Womack. As it turned out we share in common with Joy the belief that ART is an extreme sport. What Joy, as any true Artist, proves is that “impossible” just an excuse for the lack of courage.

What fascinated me always in ballet dancers is precisely what is often missed behind their deceptively “genteel” veneer. At the top professional level ballet is an extreme sport requiring nothing less than a pick performance at a pick form. Joy is at such pick level and the language of her gesture authentically represents the pinnacle of what humans can do. As such it is a force of Nature itself.

As it happened, during the week of our intense live sessions was a rare blue moon, so we loaded my Bronco and departed to the ocean for the night. What I got to witness right in front of me and capture was a perfect unity of all elements I love and that is what created “Moondance”

Head Drawing for Painters Workshop with California Art Club

Had a great time with my three-day drawing workshop for the California Art Club.

The workshop was on the critical importance of drawing for the painters in the Russian Academic Tradition. Having spectacular examples of Dad’s class drawings from the golden slice of Russian Academy revival of the 1950s, examples of him applying this knowledge into his painting as well as showing how my own drawing affects my paintings I described to the class the principles and methods that I use in constructing my works.

I also showed the class the way I use my favorite Fabriano paper and Cretacolor sepia.

DAY 1 

Lecture on the key principles of Russian Academic teaching and of my personal approach

 

Discussion of my materials and demo of the way I prep the paper

Beginning stage of the demo and explanation of my "Inside Out" method and of my principles of construction

                                                                  DAY 2


Students start their work with the model, concentrating on the slow beginning stage and applying principles I described during my demo on the first day while I recapitulate my principles of construction.

                         Good lunch always helps...just don't fall asleep

                                   Always rely on trusted friends

                                   The development stage of my demo

                                                                  DAY 3

                  Organizational stage of the demo and of students work

                                                                "Steve"

30" x 22" Cretacolor Sepia and White Leads on the Fabriano Artistico Soft Press 300lb paper

My new paintings "Forty Day Beard" & "Melting Away" at CAC Anual Gold Medal Show

My new paintings 

at 

California Art Club 

104th Annual 

Gold Medal Juried Exhibition

"Forty Day Beard"  detail 

I haven't done a self-portrait for 30 years. All last years my Dad was asking me to make one. So after 40 days of Russian mourning period I painted this one.
It's called "Forty Day Beard."

It is now exhibited in the California Art Club show along with my new painting "Melting Away" from one of my favorite and tranquil Malibu spots.

March 29-April 19, 2015

USC Fisher Museum of Art
823 West Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles 90089

"Forty Day Beard" oil on linen 24' x 18"

It was pretty hard, meaningful and in this way beautiful couple of months.
Made me feel everything ART is made of and for.  

ART transcends all human experiences.  

ART heals.

in ART we trust.

Alexey

 

"Melting Away" oil on linen 9" x 12"  

  For more information go to  
 CAC website   

My new drawings in "Curiosity" show with great sculptor Bela Bacsi atAmerican Legacy Fine Arts

Thanks everyone, all my brothers-in-ART in particular, for joining us at our show opening yesterday and making it such a great night! 

What made this show so special to me though and all that work worth every bit, was that moment of seeing my finished drawings in their full assembly next to refined and striking forms of Bela's spectacular marbles. 

When I took this shot last night after we all had to leave finally i had a thought: "Contemporary" is not a style, "Contemporary"is a sensibility...

Alexey Steele unveils three major works at two California Universities

All three new works represent an important step in Alexey's career depicting major themes of his figurative work and reflecting his deep beliefs on the role of ART within a contemporary society.

They also amply represent his method and philosophy that he describes in the web magazine www.novorealism.com as part of NOVOREALISM project he founded.

Monday, August 22nd, 2 - 4 p.m.

Alexey unveils his painting  

commissioned by CSU Dominguez Hills  

to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of this statistically one of the most diverse campuses in the nation.

  

The event will take place at the Fall Convocation reception in the Loker Student Union ballroom of CSUDH as part of the official convocation ceremony.  

All three new works represent an important step in Alexey's career depicting major themes of his figurative work and reflecting his deep beliefs on the role of ART within a contemporary society.

 They also amply represent his method and philosophy that he describes in the web magazine www.novorealism.com as part of NOVOREALISM project he founded.

On Monday, August 22nd, Alexey unveils his painting  

commissioned by CSU Dominguez Hills  

to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of this statistically one of the most diverse campuses in the nation.

  

The event will take place at the Fall Convocation reception in the Loker Student Union ballroom of CSUDH as part of the official convocation ceremony.  

 

"Learners of Dominguez: Howard, Jenika, Auburn, Chris, Ronald" features the likenesses of five of the university's students, from its oldest at 80, Howard Christiansen, to its youngest at 17, Auburn Hightower, along with Jenika Miller, Chris Barnette, and Ronald Farol.

Conceived as part of his ongoing "My Neighbor" series, Steele painted his work in a series of intense live sessions with the students whose emotional openness and engagement made them in his words "his co-authors". None of the painting was touched up after the sittings, resulting in what Steele says is a "live painting from first stroke to last". He said that through realism of such collective participation he wanted this 15-inch by 60-inch painting to capture the soul of the students, and as a result, the university, sharing live experience of the community.

  

 

 breaking canvas with Jenika and Auburn

                                   

          with Howard  

                                                                                                   painting Auburn and Chris on the same session
                                   
                                             to accommodate the desired natural day lighting the special set was constructed
                                   
                                                                                                     painting Ron
                                    
                                              posing last, Ron is the first one to see finished work and to capture it on his mac  

  

http://www.csudhnews.com/2011/08/csu-dominguez-hills-president-opens-2011-12-academic-year-with-convocation/

 http://news.wooeb.com/843973/ContactUs.aspx

  

  

  

                                                                                                     ***

Saturday, August 20, 7 p.m.

is an opening reception at

Kwan Fong Gallery of California Lutheran University

for a group exhibition

The New Romantic Figure 

 

The show includes works by:

Michael Lynn Adams, Peter Adams, Jeremy Lipking, Cyn McCurry,
Michael Pearce, Tony Pro, and Mia Tavonatti

As part of this exhibition Alexey presents a painting and a large-scale figurative cartoon drawing.

Both works are portraying real people and function as portraits within meaningful settings where the "realness" of the characters emphasizes the metaphoric context of the works. Alexey calls them "painted songs."

 

"Madonna of The Storm: Unia and Wolf. The Storm is Coming"  80" X 36" oil on canvas - is a commissioned portrait executed on site live for a client in the span of ten days of non-stop live painting sessions. It is painted in San Juan, Puert Rico on an approach of the hurricane Earl of 2010 and is presented to the public for the first time.

  

  

                                            

The living room of client's house, situated just one block from the beach with the help of the staff was transformed into a fully functioning painting studio.

                             
                     this type of live work is wholly dependent on the complete participation and dedication of the models

                   

                                        
                                                     live and life-size multi-figure painting is quite an intense sport

The work was conceived as "Madonna of The Storm" several weeks prior to artists' arrival, yet the appearance of a full-throttle Caribbean hurricane, first in a season, in the middle of executing the work obviously could not have been anticipated.

As the massive storm was gathering over island which was franticly bracing itself for the onslaught of nature, Alexey was happily taking his models to the beach for studies.

 

                                                                                                          ***

"Rising: Jaboy, Christian, Derron, Michael, Luis"   100" X  80" charcoal, pastel pencils, mixed media on paper - is a cartoon, a full scale drawing study for a painting, that Alexey is working on in various stages since 2003.  

 

  

It represents an insuppressible force of the human spirit in the face of the power of a totalitarasing and corrupt society. It centered around live-studying of the authentically diverse  characters of modern day fighters, juxtaposing their personal identities and straggle to the consumerist dictatorship through undue political influence of monopolistic corporate brands and financial conglomerates.

 

each figure was studied in live drawing sessions with central characters of the work 

 

 from the live studies the figures  were developed    

  

  

Each meaningful "load-bearing" element was meticulously researched, fabricated  or staged

 

in the great "battle of brands" ART always wins

IN ART WE TRUST!  

  

  

  

  

  

Artists' reception:         

 Saturday, Sept. 10, 7 p.m.

  We look forward seeing you all!

  

Admission is free. Located in Soiland Humanities Center, the Kwan Fong Gallery is open to the public Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Street parking is by permit only Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Visitor parking is available in the parking lots on Mountclef Boulevard north and south of Olsen Road.

Sponsored By Lois and Allan Friedman Family Foundation and the CLU Art Department

  

  

  

  

http://www.callutheran.edu/news/news_detail.php?story_id=7734

http://blogs.callutheran.edu/kwanfong/2011/07/13/new-romantic-figure-painting/

  

  

  

  

  

We look forward seeing you all!

  

check out alexey steele's blog,  

 visit his website 

and gallery at www.americanlegacy.com