Portrait Artists of Arizona's Fifth Annual Juried Exhibition and Sale, March 28 - April 24

On Saturday night, the Scottsdale Artists' School hosted the opening reception for the PAOA's Fifth Annual Juried Exhibition. Together, more than thirty artists were represented, showing over 50 original portraits, all of which will hang through April 23, 2015.

With thanks to Judge Nancy Chaboun, the Scottsdale Artists' School and the Portrait Artists of Arizona, I was completely thrilled to be awarded Best of Show for my portrait, "William Whitaker: American Artist".

The exhibit is free and open to the public during the Scottsdale Artists' School's regular hours Monday through Saturday.

Here are just a few pics from the show:

Above: Portrait artist Chris Saper with two her entries, a self portrait and "William Whitaker: American Artist", which took the Best of Show award

Above: Jim Garrison with his portrait of  a firefighter

Above: artist Rosalie Vaccaro with her triptych 

Above: Jean Hildebrant's portrait

Above: my portrait of NY artist Oscar Peterson

Above: Patti Georgas being hospitable!

 Above: Legacy Gallery's Scott Jones and thinking about thinking about our upcoming presentation. We will need to think about that some more.

  A gorgeous Phoenix evening for outdoor Awards Ceremony.

I don't have much more in the way of pics but the PAOA website link at the top of this blog, and also on the links at the right will take you to more photos.

"Our Great Hope", Contemporary Children’s Portraits April 9 - May 23, 2015 Portraits Inc, NYC Gallery - Opening Reception Thursday, April 9th 6 - 8 pm

The newly opened Portraits Inc Gallery on Manhattan's Upper East Side is hosting an exhibit showcasing a number of its portrait artists, featuring children's portraits. Curator Michael Gormley continues to dazzle NYC patrons with his selections, hosting events that are both elegant and cozy in the gorgeous new digs at 6 E 92nd St.

I am really thrilled that he selected four of my portraits for the exhibit, shown below.

Above: "Mary in Blue", oil, 12 x 12

Above, "Max", oil 20 x 16

                                                           Above, "Grace" oil, 12 x 9

Above, "Sam", oil, 20 x 16

The portraits are on exhibit through May 23rd, and I hope you'll stop in if you are in the area!

Jaren, Freedom 58 Project, Oil, 16 x 20

Some months ago I was contacted by Bob Swenson, director of the Freedom 58 Project , which is working to raise awareness of the fact that there are some 30 million slaves in the world today, and 2 million children annually trafficked in the sex trade, a $32 Billion criminal enterprise that is rapidly growing and threatens to become worse each year. Women and children, some of whom are as young as 6 years old, constitute the majority of victims.

Freedom 58 has invited a number of portrait artists to paint images of those who have been rescued from sex-trafficking to create traveling exhibits. The art exhibits are dedicated to raising awareness about modern day slavery and other forms of violent oppression, and they are a component of the Justice Movement strategy to mobilize university students, faculty and communities in this endeavor. The exhibits are designed to be displayed at various venues such as schools, libraries, museums, churches and numerous events.  

Artists of various disciplines donate a portrait (or their interpretation) of people who were formerly enslaved and/or oppressed from actual case stories supplied by participating organizations. The secondary purpose of the exhibits are to drive people to the web site Freedom58project.com for more information, resources and opportunities for action.

My subject, Jaren, is a young woman who was rescued from slavery in the far east. 

If you would like more information or, as an artist, would like to volunteer to paint for the Project, please follow the contact information on the website or reach out to Bob Swenson at fsland@gmail.com.