Thursday, February 29, 2024

Naples Art Show - III

And, here is one last set of images from the Naples National Art show, a big juried show in Naples' Cambier Park, which concluded on Sunday.


 Nicholas Barnes is a second generation artist from the Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia.  He collects local wood, creates a vase, bowl, urn or other form on a lathe, then decorates the form with thin layers, often wood wrapped in metal.  The big colorful form behind him looks like it was influenced by Gustav Klimt.  The decoration is from thin layers of colored pencils.

Dennis Goodman, a Naples wildlife photographer, exhibits at many of the good juried art shows.

Marisa S White does amazing work.  She begins by making very good photographic images, then modifies them in imaginative ways through complex editing.  For example, in this creation an insect is placed on the subject's hand and lily pads cover her body.

Mark Brown, from Pennsylvania, showed bird, alligator and other wildlife images that have a Southwest Florida connection. 

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Naples National Art Show - II

 Some artists I speak with.  Others I just photograph in passing.  Today . . . the latter.




It is probably obvious that what caught my eye here were the black clothes, to match the framing, and the gold hair, to match some of the jewelry.


Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Naples National Art Show - I


 There was a BIG art show this past weekend in Naples' Cambier Park.  The show benefits Naples Art, a local museum currently hosting the excellent photography exhibition I showed a week ago.


Shah Hadjebi works on Sanibel Island.  He paints birds with water colors.  I bought a framed giclee print of a great blue heron for friends whose condo on Sanibel was destroyed 18 months ago by Hurricane Ian but will be habitable again sometime this summer.


I didn't go inside this tent, but I did admire the bright colors.


Timm Chapman is a photographer from Phoenix.  He specializes in images from nature, often with decay or fires.  Some images of volcanoes are on the right.  The church photograph on the left is near his Arizona home, which barely escaped a fierce fire.


This photographer had interesting black and white images, some of which had surprise color, like the single sunflower and the owl eyes.

Monday, February 26, 2024

"Mi Pueblo Bonito"

 A mural ("My Beautiful Town") stretches on the wall between Benson's Grocery and El Gran Taco Loco.


The artist is Alejandro Nunez.  Linked to Monday Mural.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Ikebana

 

Naples Botanical Garden is having an ikebana show this weekend.  I peeked in yesterday but didn't have the time to look at it carefully.  I just stopped at the Garden to get a gift.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Craft Show

 Green Door Nursery and A. Jaron Fine Jewelry cooperated to host a small craft show.

She creates jewelry that many women would like.  I picked up her business card but when I got home I discovered the print is so small I can't read it and I don't have a magnifying glass.

Monica was thrilled to be photographed. 

She makes mostly blue bowls and vases.  A customer came along, so I didn't have time to get her name.

Tracy Lauchaire does pen and ink drawings of houses and other architectural structures.

Josey Prior paints in bright, lush colors.  She wore a "Birthday Girl" sash but confessed she had miscalculated and it wasn't her birthday until the following day.




I had never been in the small garden center before.  It was cute, with lots of plants I might have wanted, except my yard is already planted.

Friday, February 23, 2024

Photography Exhibition

Naples Art has a stunning exhibition of photographs collected by Peter Fetterman.  Originally a filmmaker, Fetterman now runs one of the leading fine art photography galleries in the world.


 On the first panel seen by exhibition visitors, the image on the left is Neil Leifer's famous 1965 photograph of Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston.  The image on the right is Steve McCurry's famous 1984 photograph of an Afghan girl with piercing blue eyes.


Behind that first panel, a visitor spots some well known images and others, perhaps less well known, but still remarkable.  Yousuf Karsh's 1941 portrait of Winston Churchill is the big, dark photo near the center.


What do you do when you photograph a photography exhibition?  I either show the room or part of it (not focusing on the specific photographs, as in the second photo above) or I crop the image in a way that the whole image is not shown (like Churchill, above).  It is not a copyright issue for me.  Just a feeling that one photographer (me) should not appropriate another photographer's work.


Bob Dylan (by Lisa Law) and Frank Lloyd Wright (by Bernice Abbott) are cleverly paired.


William Clift's portrait of Georgia O'Keeffe exudes cold intelligence.



Thursday, February 22, 2024

India Fest

There was a celebration of Indian heritage last weekend.


A good-sized crowd watched the performances on the stage.


A young man with great poise introduced the performers.


A young flutist performed.



A mother and daughter.




Quite a few women wore Indian clothes, but very few men did.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Lexi


 I sometimes go to a coffee shop that is very dog friendly.  Four year old Lexi is often there.  
She is an Australian shepherd.

Lexi is a herder.  Her owner tells me that she herds cattle, not sheep.  She is very well-behaved.


Apparently Australian shepherds are bred with several different color patterns.  Lexi is a blue merle.