Page 26 - the NOISE September 2013

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26 • september 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
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of hers on display at the High Country Con- ference Center.
10-YeAr CeLeBrAtion
“My daughter, Kim, and her husband, Dave, frequently took us to Brandy’s for breakfast long before I was actively painting,” Catherine Sickafoose tells me when I asked her how she first came to show her paintings at Brandy’s Restaurant. “I loved seeing all the wall art while enjoying our food! It was one more inspiration for me to get busy and paint! After my first solo show in 2003 in the Valley, Kim suggested that I talk to Brandy about a show. I submitted an application and was invited to do a show in the summer of 2004. The rest is history! I am so apprecia- tive of the opportunity Brandy has given me and the relationships that have formed over the years with Brandy and her staff.”
This year is Ms. Sickafoose’s ten-year an- niversary show at Brandy’s. “I’m Celebrating both my 10th anniversary and the Fall Sea- son,” she says. “I’m excited about my new landscape pieces for fall, especially with the timing for September. But I also am enjoy- ing choosing some of the pieces I might still have either as originals or giclées that were special in previous shows. That makes it a little retrospective.”
I visit her home to see some of her new paintings. She tells me about the Lavender pieces that catch my eye.
“I have two more lavender paintings in progress following my demo at the Red Rock Lavender Festival in June. The lavender farm is one of Arizona’s hidden gems and I already have a series of paintings from there. I put those on hold so I could continue my Slice of Arizona pieces for this show, that I am paint- ing both in miniature and larger sizes in a narrow format. I love the freedom of creat- ing this format from my photographs and us- ing a little artistic license along the way with the landscape compositions!”
Ms. Sickafoose tells me about new works. “My newest painting, Scattered Aspen Gold,
came about after a hike starting at the As- pen Corner leading to the Arizona Trail. It was early enough that there was still some dew on the newly fallen leaves and the sun was glinting off the colorful golden shades! I took several photos and pieced together my composition.
Besides working on her own art, Ms. Sicka- foose has also been teaching watercolor classes at the Z House Gallery.
“The classes have been informal with a demo on a specific theme for the week; land- scape, floral, glass and water, even student’s choice and then lots of painting time for the students with one-on-one teaching and sharing of techniques,” Ms. Sickafoose says.
“I love the camaraderie that builds among the students and the freedom to share ideas with each other. And I enjoy taking the fear out of painting with watercolor for the stu- dents!” CatherineSickafoose.com
fACe PAint
I ask Connie Townsend about her upcom- ing show at West of the Moon Gallery, “I wanted to challenge myself to learn some- thing new. The artists who inspire me all do people, and although I paint dog and cat fac- es, people are a whole other animal. It was James Hasapis’ face that first caught my eye on Facebook and made me think, “I want to paint that.”
Ms. Townsend announced publicly that she wanted to paint her friends faces. “I was hoping that would make me stick to my self- imposed challenge: one face per week in 2013. A slew of Facebook friends gave me permission to mess with their face, which so far has produced 26 paintings in about 30 weeks. I’m a little behind right now, but plan on catching up after I finish work for upcom- ing shows at three galleries.”
“I’ve learned so much from each one they are all pretty special,” she tells me. ”Since Mike Frick is one of my favorite portrait art- ists,I’dhavetosaythelittle8x8Ididofhim is a personal favorite.”
Lionhearted by Connie Townsend is part of the series “Face Paint” at West of the Moon this First Friday ArtWalk.