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Randy Richmond's photo montage - "Protected #1"
Charlene's Magical Mystery Tour
Gallery Ten launches 2005 Season with representational artists,
Shari Matusiak & Randy Richmond exhibiting through June 10
May 4, 2005
by Steve Kastner
GILLS ROCK, WI - Charlene's
Gallery Ten opens the 2005 exhibition season with the works of two outstanding artists who span the category of
representational art from traditional to surreal.
Shari Hohl Matusiak
is a full time working artist with a lifelong career in graphic arts, illustration and painting. She began her
professional art career immediately upon graduation from high school in southern Indiana, creating pen and ink
drawings, and wash illustrations of products for a home furnishings company. Matusiak continued working as an illustrator,
a sign lettering artist and a fine arts painter through college and went on to freelance with a publishing house
in Baltimore - illustrating many children's books for Hanna Barbera, including work on the Flintstones, Scooby
Doo and Scrappy Doo.
Now she works for herself in a private studio adjacent to her home in Geneva, Illinois as a dedicated representational
artist.
"My pen and ink drawings of homes, businesses and vacation retreats
are of a variety of structures and architecture," says Matusiak. "I recently added a calendar to my portfolio,
illustrated for a bank in Southern Illinois highlighting twelve different historic buildings from that area."
Her paintings are executed in both pastels and oils and display a passion for gardens and nature scenes as well
as scenes along the Fox River near her home.
Shari Matusiak's pastel - "Lilacs and the Old Outhouse"
"As a pleine air painter I find that pastels have become my medium
of choice. It takes very little time to set up outdoors and I need fewer supplies than with oils or acrylics and
best of all, there is no drying time," Shari explains. "As an impressionist painter I find pastels lend
themselves very well to quick sketches and vivid color studies."
Many of these blazing pastels will accompany a collection of Matusiak's oil paintings and drawings on display at
Charlene's Gallery Ten in Gills Rock through June 10. Limited edition archival photographic montages by digital
artist, Randy Richmond
will share the spotlight in this exclusive season openner.
"I strive to make digital art more natural and organic by using actual objects that are scanned and then separated
from their backgrounds," says Richmond. "These objects are sometimes combined with photographic images
that I have created during my 20 years as a photographer."
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Richmond feels that he has been working on a distinctive and unique form
of expression that's often been called "magical realism," for the past 20 years. |
"The first 20 have just been note taking and sketching," he chides. "Little did I know that I was
merely waiting for the proper tools."
Once those tools - the computers, software, scanners and cameras now employed by the digital artist - were invented,
his imagination seems to have slipped its bonds.
"Sometimes I feel like a psychic who works in reverse. An object
triggers a memory and then transforms itself into something visual while drawing on emotions and experiences from
my past," says Richmond.
Randy Richmond's photo montage - "After Tea"
The results are bold and surreal, blending nature imagery
and landscape in a spectacular fashion.
Charlene Berg invites art lovers to the meet the artists in person on
Saturday, May 7 from 5-7 PM
at a wine and cheese exhibit opening with their work on display for the next 5 weeks through June 10.
In addition to the two featured guest artist solo shows,
Charlene's Gallery Ten
represents the work of over 100 artists, a gallery collection that is contemporary, original and eclectic. GT Coffee,
complements the gallery, serving espresso drinks and Door County cherry pie by-the-slice daily from 8 AM to 5 PM.
The gallery is open daily from 10 AM to 5 PM at 12625 Hwy. 42 in Gills Rock, Wisconsin. Telephone 920.854.9907
for further information of visit on-line at www.GalleryTen.com.
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