Phoenix Artist Guild Meetings

Casey Cheuvront is the demonstrator for our January meeting, and she will be painting clouds and skyscapes using oils. 

Casey’s says that her favorite shoes are hiking boots, and since her early years, she has explored the wildernesses of the Southwest, hiking, backpacking, hang gliding and mountain biking, which has all profoundly influenced her art work. She studied drawing, painting, and ceramics at CSUF California, and today she devotes herself exclusively to creating, teaching, and studying the arts.

Casey believes that “we are incomplete without a connection to, and appreciation of, the natural world.” She shares that spiritual relationship through her work in order to motivate a deeper respect for our vanishing wild places, and the creatures that call them home. Her art pieces now reflect an ongoing fascination with the ever-changing Western and Southwestern wildernesses she has traversed for so many years, whether reflected in a patch of park near town or a remote lake only reachable by a long backpack hike. Her enthusiasm is translated into a vibrant, modern palette and energetic dynamic brushwork. You can look for her works showcasing the Yosemite highlands, Sonoran Desert, and the red rocks of Sedona. 

When you visit Casey’s Web site https://cheuvrontart.com, you will enjoy looking at her art work and will find a listing of organizations to which she is a member under ABOUT THE ARTIST. As a juried member, Casey is hosting an OPA (Oil Painters of America) Paint Out on November 16th in partnership with the Sedona Arts Center. All painters are welcome, it is free, and they have a number of prizes (cash, gift cards and art supplies) that Casey will be giving away at the judging and informal reception. There is also information about it on the OPA Web site. If you go to her Facebook page, she will give you an invitation to use at the event. Casey also is a Guest Instructor at Arizona Art Supply, so you may also watch for her classes there. Please visit Casey’s Web site to learn more about her before her demonstration at the January meeting. 

MARLESS FELLOWS DEMONSTRATED HER TECHNIQUE FOR PLOTTING HER VALUES AND COLOR STUDY THEN DEMONSTRATED PROCEDURE AND SHARED HER COLOR PALETTE.

 Contemporary Impressionist

Whether you’re viewing Bruce Marion’s compelling abstracted landscapes, cityscapes, figurative or contemporary wildlife, it’s likely his rich colorations and dramatic use of light first catch your eye. His works have a distinctive, glowing quality, as if they’re illuminated from within. He achieves this effect by applying multiple layers of paint, using palette knives, brushes, and some unconventional tools (think drywall scrapers and squirt bottles), creating complex surfaces with tremendous depth.

His goal is an expression of feelings and sensations that the viewer can readily share. As Marion explains:

“Artwork touches us on a personal, primitive level- this is why people are so passionate about art. When a piece resonates with you, you feel it in your soul, and it changes you with every viewing. Many people think of art as something to look at, but it’s so much more than that. It’s really a very interactive, and experiential, medium.”

With his wildlife series, the experience goes even deeper:

“Yes, their playful surfaces evoke a very modern feel, but I also try to capture that sense of history with each animal; these are magnificent beasts, with a strength and presence, with a lineage, that is stretches so far beyond us - it’s both admirable and humbling.”

Classically trained, Marion received his BFA in 1978 from the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where he studied with world-renowned artist Pat Nagel, and Lorser Feitelson, the father of Post-Surrealism. He taught at the Otis Parsons Institute of Art in Los Angeles, before moving to Arizona in 2000. His passion to keep art alive in the next generation has led to several grants to implement month-long art programs for Arizona elementary schools. He teaches his two-day workshops, “Breakthrough!” and “Quantum Leap,” to aspiring artists across the United States, and has recently taken his teachings overseas. In 2015, he and his wife Lee led a two week art workshop tour of Greece, followed by another workshop tour of Italy in 2016. He was awarded a major public commission for Sam Houston State University; the ten large works now reside in the new Social Sciences and Humanities building at the Texas college. His streaming weekly online painting lessons are available through his Bruce On Art program at www.BruceOnArt.com.