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Windows to the Divine

ART & SPIRITUALITY

Jill Tascher Basham

Jill Basham’s work is typically quiet, often with muted colors and purposefully simple design. She is dedicated to conveying the light, atmosphere, and “feeling” of the landscapes she paints, whether natural or manmade, and hopes to evoke an emotional reaction. Basham paints in her Maryland studio near the Chesapeake Bay, as well as outdoors, in locations both far and near. She is comfortable allowing each painting and its subject to lead her on an exploratory, experimental journey, as this approach often yields the most unexpected and visually exciting results.

Having earned numerous awards and honors over the years, Basham’s recent accomplishments include “Best of Show” in the most recent Plein Air Easton; “Best of Show” for her work at the Door County Plein Air Invitational by C.W. Mundy, master artist; and the “Judges Award” at Olmsted Plein Air for two different works by both Peter Trippi, Editor-in-Chief of Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine; and Kelly Kane, Editor-in-Chief of Plein Air Magazine.

Jill Basham has had her work featured many publications including Fine Art Connoisseur, Plein Air Magazine, Southwest Magazine and American Art Collector.

Basham’s work is in corporate, private and museum collections, and has hung in the US Embassy, Sri Lanka through the US Department of State. She is a member of the American Impressionist Society (AIS), the Oil Painters of America (OPA), as well as an artist-member of the historic art institutions; The Salmagundi Club in New York City and The Washington Society of Landscape Painters in Washington, D.C.

A talented artist playing at the top of her game” ~Peter Trippi, Editor-in-Chief, Fine Art Connoisseur (reference: “From Above Exhibition” Principle Gallery, Catalog Introduction 2020)

“Jill Basham’s sense of color, composition and ability to minimize, hone in on what is essential, really sets her apart. Great eye, great execution. Love all that she does. Jill is an incredible visionary.” ~Dan Volenec, cover artist of Fine Art Connoisseur, May 2016, “Three to Watch”

www.jillbasham.com

[email protected]

410-200-3597

Gallery Representation:

Principle Gallery, Alexandria VA

Reinert Fine Art, Charleston SC

Handwright Gallery, New Canaan CT

Trippe Gallery, Easton MD

Crown Gallery, Blowing Rock NC

Weizhen Liang

Weizhen Liang was born in January 1, 1955. She is a master member of American Impressionist Society and an artist member of the California Art Club. She earned a BA in the major of Chinese Literature from Ji Nan university of Guang Zhou in China, and work as a playwright in Guang Dong TV station before she move to the United States. She showed early interest in art and was influenced by her aunt, Zhong An-Zhi, a famous painter and professor in the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. In 1998, Weizhen began studying painting seriously and finished advanced program in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China in 2009. They have lived over decades in the East Bay of San Francisco.

EDUCATION

  • Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China, (2008-2009)
  • Ji Nan University, China, BA (1980-1984)

EXHIBITION

  • Oil Painters of America 25th National Juried Exhibition, 2016
  • Greenwich Workshop exhibition (2010, 2007)
  • Salon International at Greenhouse Gallery (2010, 2007, 2005)
  • The Northwest Rendezvous, Montana (2004, 2003)
  • National Oil Painters of America (national, regional), (2003, 2002, 2001)

SHOW

  • “Two Person Show – HuiHan Liu and WeiZhen Liang”, Total Arts Gallery, Taos, NM 2018
  • “Two Person Show – Huihan Liu and Weizhen Liang”, The Sylvan Gallery, Charleston, SC. 2013
  • “Two Person Show – Huihan Liu and Weizhen Liang”, Total Arts Gallery, Taos, NM. 2011
  • “Two Person Show” Antioch Lynn House Gallery, California, 2008
  • “Four Person Show” Antioch Lynn House Gallery, California, 2006
  • “Tow Person Show”, The Sylvan Gallery, Charleston, SC. 2007
  • “Four Person Show”, The Sylvan Gallery, Charleston, BC. 2006

AWARD

  • “Still Life Award of Excellence”, Oil Painters of America National Jured Exhibition, 2016
  • “Top 40” Award, Greenwich Workshop, 2007
  • ”Top 50” Award, Greenhouse Gallery, 2005

WORKSHOP

  • Civic Art Center, Walnut Creek, CA. (2011, 2010)

GALLERY

  • The Sylvan Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina
  • Mountain Song Galleries, Carmel by The Sea, California
  • Germanton Gallery, Germanton, North Carolina
  • Total Arts Gallery, Taos , New Mexico

EDITORIAL

  • “Liu & Liang” – Total Arts Gallery, Southwest Art Magazine, August, 2018
  • “Weizhen Liang & Huihan Liu Couple Show”, American Art Collector, April, 2013

Catholic Windows to the Divine: Sacred & Spiritual Art Thru the Ages (Parts I and II)

Fra Angelico, Virgin of Humility
(c. 1433-1435) (Tempera on panel)

Welcome to Windows to the Divine. We are a nonprofit that sponsors educational art exhibitions, symposia, and salons in which we encourage everyone to affirm the special vocation of the artist and to recognize God in the beauty that surrounds us. With the funds we raise through our art events, we support artists, interfaith dialogue, patronage, and philanthropy.

As art patrons and people of faith, we should be aware of the patronage of the Catholic Church and its significant contributions to the history of Western Christian art. In these short videos, you will learn about the important role of the Church in perpetuating the faith through art. You will also learn about the religious, political, and cultural forces from early Christianity to modern times that influenced the evolution of art from sacred to spiritual to secular. Video 1 covers Early Catholic Art to the Protestant Reformation. Video 2 covers the Catholic Counter-Reformation to today. Above all, you will come to appreciate the Catholic vision which contends that the pursuit of beauty is fundamentally the pursuit of God who is the source of all beauty.

If you have any questions or would like to get involved, please email Shannon Robinson at [email protected].

Multifaceted and Diverse Art of New Zealand

Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, New Zealand
Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, New Zealand
Auckland Art Gallery
Auckland Art Gallery

One of the great pleasures of international travel is to visit and view the national collections of art museums around the world.  In a recent visit to New Zealand which is justifiably heralded as a land of spectacular natural beauty that attracts outdoor enthusiasts from around the globe, I was delighted to experience the diversity of art works exhibited at the Auckland Art Gallery which is not a private gallery, but rather, the country’s largest art institution.

Opened in 1888, the original main gallery building housed not only the art museum, but also the public library and the City Council offices which were later moved.

Frank Bramley, <em>For of Such is the Kingdom of Heaven</em>, 1891, Auckland Art Gallery (Mackelvie Trust, 1913)
Frank Bramley, For of Such is the Kingdom of Heaven, 1891, Auckland Art Gallery (Mackelvie Trust, 1913)

The Auckland Gallery initially focused on European and British art, with major donations by Sir George Grey (former colonial governor of New Zealand) of over 12,000 items (manuscripts, rare books and paintings) and James Tannock Mackelvie (decorative arts, furniture, ceramics and paintings).  The Mackelvie Trust continued to acquire works for the Gallery such as the striking social realist painting shown above by British artist, Frank Bramley, which underscored the grief associated with child mortality regardless of class (contrasting the white dresses and expensive flowers of the girls and women in the funeral procession with the local fishing class).

Edmund Blair Leighton, <em>In Time of Peril</em>, 1897, Auckland Art Gallery
Edmund Blair Leighton, In Time of Peril, 1897, Auckland Art Gallery

Indeed, for the first half of the 19th century, the collection continued to be dominated by European old masters such as this popular work by Edmund Blair Leighton who specialized in historical genre paintings that were praised in the European academic system (this work was exhibited at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1897), but later disparaged by modern art curators.

Gottfried Lindauer, <em>Tāwhiao Matutaera Pōtatau Te Wherowhero,</em> 1882, Auckland Art Gallery
Gottfried Lindauer, Tāwhiao Matutaera Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, 1882, Auckland Art Gallery

In contrast, in 1915, Auckland businessman, Henry Partridge donated his collection of paintings by Gottfried Lindauer, a Bohemian artist who immigrated to New Zealand in 1874 and became famous for his paintings of the Māori people, including many portraits of Māori chiefs such as this painting of a chief of the Tainui tribes.  As explained by the Gallery, this collection remains an important record of the respected ancestors of the Māori.

Jasmine Togo-Brisby, <em>Closed Canoe Cargo, Post-Plantation, Bot Blo Stil</em>, Auckland Art Gallery
Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Closed Canoe Cargo, Post-Plantation, Bot Blo Stil, Auckland Art Gallery

Fast forwarding to the present, the current exhibitions on display entitled Chapters of Change in New Zealand Art, contain a fascinating pictorial history of this country and its art such as the Post-Plantation series by contemporary Australian South Sea Islander artist, Jasmine Togo-Brisby.  The series contains three portraits of three generations of women (mother, daughter and granddaughter) whose heads are shown balancing miniature colonial sailing ships as references to the slave diaspora and the practice of kidnapping and transporting Pacific Islanders to Australian plantations.

<em>Chapters of Change, Radical Beginnings</em> Gallery, Auckland Art Gallery
Chapters of Change, Radical Beginnings Gallery, Auckland Art Gallery

In the chapter, entitled Radical Beginnings, the gallery is dedicated to the elegant and simplified works of the early contemporary Māori fine artists in the 1950’s who broke away from the traditional carvings and paintings that preceded them to embrace the influences of modernist styles and practices of artists like Brancusi, Barbara Hepworth, and Henry Moore while still invoking narratives based on Maori heritage.

Arnold Manaaki Wilson, <em>Tāne Whakapiripiri</em>, 1978, Auckland Art Gallery (private collection loan)
Arnold Manaaki Wilson, Tāne Whakapiripiri, 1978, Auckland Art Gallery (private collection loan)

For example, in this sculpture by Arnold Manaaki Wilson, created in 1978, the carving from kauri wood in a simple ‘H’ form depicts Tāne, the great son of Ranginui (Sky Father) and Papatūānuku (Earth Mother).

Colin McCahon, <em>'The Wake': A Poem in the Forest</em>, 1958, Auckland Art Gallery
Colin McCahon, 'The Wake': A Poem in the Forest, 1958, Auckland Art Gallery

As for the museum’s many exhibition spaces containing contemporary art, one of note is the exhibition entitled “The Wake: A Poem in the Forest,” where the viewer is confronted with an immense painting consisting of sixteen panels painted by the artist, Colin McCahon in the attic of the Auckland City Art Gallery in 1958. Intended at that time as a new kind of visual experience combining painting with poetry, the unframed panels now fill a circular gallery and contain the poem by John Caselberg (a lament for the loss of his Great Dane, Thor) scrawled across a painted environment depicting a New Zealand forest with its distinctive kauri trees that symbolically represent the stages of grief.

In short, if you have the opportunity to visit this magical country, be sure to visit its many cultural treasures such as the Auckland Gallery.

Shannon Robinson is the curator and chairperson of the biannual exhibition Windows to the Divine and the annual Collectors for Connoisseurship Arts Weekends (Nov 5-7, 2020 Denver).

More about Shannon…

Adrienne Stein June Dryad
2023 Online Art Catalogue
Windows to the Devine
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