Karen Vance was born into a family of professional artists. Her upbringing and education, included art studies from an early age.  At 15 years old she was apprenticing at her Father’s art and graphic design studio.  Studies at the Chicago Art Institute, Village Art School in Skokie, Illinois, Northern Illinois University, Art Students League of Denver, Loveland Art Academy of Colorado brought her further into her 45-year art career.

Awards include: 

Buffalo Bill Art Show – William E. Weiss Purchase Award, Best Painting Award, People’s Choice Award and Honorable Mention;
C.M. Russell Art Show – People’s Choice Award, The Arlene Hooker Fay Memorial Award;
Women Artists of the West – Award of Excellence;
Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters National – Best of Show, People’s Choice Award and Plein Air Magazine’s Editors’ Choice Award;
Nomades Del Arte- Best of Show;
Colorado Governor’s Invitational – Best of Show.

Museum and Public Exhibitions include:
Plein Air Painters of America – Catalina Island, CA;
The National Arts Club, New York;
The University of Tulsa, and Gilcrease Museum, OK;
The Brinton Museum, Big Horn WY; T
The Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, MN;
Hockaday Museum, Kalispell, MT;
Rockwell Museum in Corning, NY;

Over 40 Gallery invitational shows and 14 solo shows since 1995.

Public and Private Collections:

Her paintings have received numerous awards and have been acquired by many prominent collections including:

The Whitney Museum of American Western Art;
The Colorado Governor’s Art Collection;
The Nagel Collection at the University of Denver;
The Wells Fargo Corporation;
First Interstate Bank Corporation;
The Bob and Suzanne Fanch Collection at Devil’s Thumb Ranch Resort;
Solaris Resort, in Vail, Colorado;
The Estate of Lord and Lady Waterford, Curraghmore Castle, Ireland; and
The Austrian Consulate in Chicago, Illinois.

Associations:
Karen is a Master Signature Member of American Women Artists, Emeritus Signature Member of Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters, and Master Signature Member of Plein Air Artists of Colorado.

Publications:
She and her landscape paintings have been featured in the following books:

“Enchanted Isle: The History of Plein Air Painting on Catalina Island” by Jean Stern and Kathy Kipp;
Cover of “Landscapes of Colorado – Mountains and Plains” by Curator Ann Daley and Michael Paglia;
“Art Journey America – Landscapes” by Maureen Bloomfield.

Articles about Vance and her paintings have been published in the following magazines: Southwest Art Magazine, Art of the West, Artist’s, Plein Air, Wildlife Art, InForm Art, and Western Art Collector.

www.karenvanceart.com

Huihan Liu, b. 1952, Guangzhou, China

Huihan Liu, who trained in China from 1972 to 1975 at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, also graduated with a Bachelor’s degree and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Art College of San Francisco in 1989.  According to him, his strongest influences during his studies in China were the 19th-century Western painters.  He says Russian painter Ilya Repin’s paintings of peasants were representative of this influence by the group of artists known as the “Wanderers”.

Liu, who also has done paintings of Tibetan people and their lifestyles, says he fell in love with the buildings, colors, and landscapes of New Mexico after moving to America.  He has been to the state three times, and it was there he went to an American Indian pow-wow with his wife that, in his words, “touched my heart.” “I loved the costumes and the kids,” Huihan said. “I got my ideas (for my paintings) there.  “Some of the same patterns he found in Tibetan life also drew him to paint American Indian scenes, he says.

Education
• Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, Guangzhou, China
• BFA, MFA, Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA, 1989
• Academy of Art

Selected Exhibitions
• California Art Club 103rd Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition, Autry National Center in Los Angeles, CA, 2014
• Olympic Fine Arts 2012, Exhibition 30th Olympic Games, London, 2012
• Guangzhou Museum of Fine Art, China 2009
• California Art Club, Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009
• Western Rendezvous of Art Exhibition, Helena, MT, 2003-2009
• Oil Painters of America, National Juried Exhibition, 1995-2009
• Bowers Museum of Cultural, Plein Air Art Exhibition, Santa Ana, CA, 2003
• Oil Painters of America, East/Southeast Regional Exhibition, 2002
• Bennington Center for the Arts, Artist For The New Century Invitational Exhibition, Bennington, VT, 2002

Top 200 Arts for the Parks Competition, The National Academy of the Arts, Jackson, WY, 2001
• Guangdong Contemporary Oil Paintings, Guangzhou, China, 2001

Selected Press
• American Art Collector, “Weizhen Liang & Huihan Liu Couple Show”, April 2013
• Southwest Art Magazine, “Building Bridges”, by Norman Kolpas, September 2011
• Art of the West, ” I Have a Fever”, by Barbara Coyner, July/ August 2010
• Southwest Art Magazine , “American Dream, Todd Wilkinson, , October, 2003
• Art of the West, “Art is Life, Not a Living,” by Barbara Coyner, September/October 2003
• Art-Talk, “Artist Worth Watching : Huihan Liu,” January 2001
• Art of the West, Barbara Coyner, “A Joyful Feeling” , September / October 1998
• The Artist’s Magazine, Huihan Liu, “Capturing Character – Special Section: Portraits,” April 1998
• Southwest Art Magazine, May 1997
• Art of the West, Shirl Smithson, “The Chinese Connection, ” January/February 1997

Affiliations
• Oil Painters of America, Master Signature Member, Crystal Lake, IL
• Master Member of American Impressionist Society, Master Member
• California Art Club, Signature Member
• Art School of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, Instructor Drawing and Painting, Guangzhou, China, 1979-1985
• School of Academy of Art College, Instructor, Painting, San Francisco, CA, 1993
• Fechin Art Workshops, Informative Instructor – Painting, San Cristobal, NM, 2000

Public Collections
• Bowers Museum Contemporary, Permanent Collection, Santa Ana, CA, 2003
• Wilmington Trust, 2003
• National Museum, “Spring of Miao Village”, China, 2012

Awards
• California Art Club, Members Choice, Gold Medal for Best Painting, 2010
• California Art Club, Gold Medal, 2002 and Oil Painters of America Regional, Best of Show, 1996
• Western Rendezvous of Art Exhibition, Award of Merit, Helena, Montana, 2012
• International Artist Award – Finalist for a work entitled “Making Wishes,” Issue 7C, December 2009
• Oil Painters of America Western Regional Show, Gold Medal for the Master Signature Division , 2009
• Pasadena Museum of California Art,  California Art Club Annual Gold Medal Exhibition, South West Art Award of Excellence,2009
• Western Rendezvous Art Exhibition ,  Ben Stahl Artist’s Choice, Helena, MT 2005, 2006
• Western Rendezvous Art Exhibition, Award of Excellence, Helena, MT, 2003, 2004
• Bowers Museum of Culture Art, Plein Air Art Exhibition, Santa Ana, CA, 2004
• Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, Plein Air Art Exhibition, First Place Painting, Santa Ana, CA, 2003
• Western Rendezvous of Art, Best of Show in Painting – John Scott People’s Choice Award, Helena, MT, August 2003
• The California Art Club, “First Place Winner,”  San Juan, CA,  August 2003
• Bennington Center For The Arts, Artist for the New Century Invitational Exhibition, Art of the West Publisher’s Choice Award, ,  Bennington, VT 2002
• Pasadena Historical Museum, California Art Club’s Annual Juried Exhibition, Gold Medal, Pasadena, CA, 2002
• Oil Painters of America National Juried Exhibition, Master Signature Member’s Award of Excellence, Chicago, IL 2002
• Oil Painters of America, The East / Southeast Regional Exhibition, Master Signature Member’s Award of Excellence, Richmond, VA, 2002
• Oil Painters of America National Juried Exhibition, Master Signature Member’s Award of Excellence, Palm Springs, CA, 2001
• Oil Painters of America Pacific Coast Regional Juried Exhibition,  Best of Show Award,  Fremont, CA, 1996 

Biography

Typified by arresting powers of visual imagery and spatial sophistication, Michael Gadlin’s artistry is rimmed in spontaneity, his 20-year repertoire expresses a singular uninterrupted brush stroke of Mediterranean, European and Western influences. Pushing the boundaries of contemporary art form, Michael’s work epitomizes avant-garde. Those who experience Michael’s work often discover an ethereal essence captured that defies explanation. From his early years of surrealistic impressionism until now, Michael’s work reflects an improvisational inventiveness that has garnered a loyal following among the art elite. His artistic conviction that “Direct expressionism is the most meaningful reflection of life” has prompted the evolution of an extremely cogent and intriguing portfolio of 21st century art.

Born in Denver, Colorado, Michael Gadlin has been exhibiting work throughout the United States and Europe. As a young artist, Michael studied drawing and painting at New York’s prestigious Pratt Institute. In 1999 Michael was the youngest artist ever to win “Best Of Show” at Denver’s nationally renowned Cherry Creek Arts Festival. The Vance Kirkland Museum acquired a work of his as part of their permanent collection. Michael’s well-received public art installation and government commission completed in 2004 hangs permanently in Denver’s District 2 Police Station. The Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art selected Michael to be included in the museum’s “Rocky Mountain Biennial”. Michael has received numerous awards and residencies where his art has taken him around the world. For more information on Michael’s work, visit michaelgadlin.com

About the work…

Techniques used in my work primarily include very loose and gestural washes with often charcoal drawing as an under layer to establish interesting design elements. I will then paint layers of texture, color, and glazes over the shapes and lines I create. This becomes the visual context of the work that gives it a unique depth and style. I often incorporate collage pieces from various sources to give my surface dimension and variety, which for me is an integral part of the relationship between the abstractions and representational imagery that is carried through my work. The work is often intermixed with latex polymer house paints, found surfaces, recycled pieces, wood, and very thin layers of glazes, stains, and dry-brush coats over one another to achieve depth, vibrancy, and luminosity in my choices of palettes. Often, as a finishing layer, a technique called “scumbling” or “dry brush” is used to establish areas of subtle textures that add textured areas to my work. The many techniques uses to create my unique interpretations are not limited to the mix of paper and wood surfaces torn and cut into complex shapes collaged together for stability. I find more recycled options to make use in my work. I simply love very much the process of discovering and “pealing layers” that from expression to ultimately find that I’ve learned something new and useful.