Nancy Albrecht Studio

A hard head in a hard hat!

2008-12-12T09:36:00.000-08:00

So it seems that I am now an industrial landscape painter! This was taken at Industrial Steel Construction in Gary Indiana where I go and set up my easel and paint in the corners of the buildings while bridges are being built. What a life I have!
And I have a Facebook page - what fun that is. People have told me that Face Book is addictive and I'm beginning to think it is.
Stay warm and be cool --- my motto for the week.

Time Marches On Relentlessly

2008-10-26T19:20:00.000-07:00

Egads! Did you see "fall" go by? With a WHOOSH! Talk about life on fast-forward, I have had to schedule SCHEDULE MIND YOU time to finish a book club book! Can't quite figure out how to paint 5-6 hours a day, shop for food, frame, market, deliver, pick-up, hit the galleries, see a movie, get my nails done, organize an exhibit, spend time with my family, sleep in, get up early, drive a golf cart around an industrial steel plant to take pictures, call a friend, maintain my websites, take a walk, and do it all in 24 hours a day. I'm tryin' here, but it doesn't leave much time to blog. So - here are a couple of paintings I have managed to do "en plein air" in the past weeks.
The Plein Air Painters of Chicago (me included) spent a few weeks in the Edgewater community of Chicago, painting in the streets and alleys. The painting on the left is the alley behind the Gethsemane Garden Center on N. Clark, and on the right is a courtyard on Ashland and Balmoral, across the street from the Edgewater Historical Society where we had an exhibit of these works. I also had a great reunion with Richard Schmid and Nancy Guzik in Lake Forest, where Richard and Nancy donated their time and talents to support The Visiting Artists Group, which sends artists into schools to foster arts education for children. We have been friends for 20 years and it was a pleasure to spend time with them.
And now, I'm helping organize "Four Seasons of Old Town", the result of 12 months of painting in the Old Town Triangle neighborhood of Chicago by the Plein Air Painters of Chicago (PAPC). It opens Sunday Nov. 9 from 2-4 PM at the Old Town Art Center, 1763 N. North Park, Chicago 60614, and will close Sunday Nov. 30 with a reception from 1-3 PM.
And with that, I am off.
Talk to you soon.
P. S. I am in the NEW AMERICAN PAINTINGS book #77 Midwest, with four pages of my paintings and bio. Check it out. Published by Open Studios Press.

Stuff I have learned on my Summer Vacation

2008-07-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

Painting in the mountains of Colorado is a huge challenge for this city artist. I painted en plein air in RMNP in June, before attending the opening of "Far and Near Horizons", a touring exhibit sponsored by International Plein Air Painters (IPAP) and Landscape Artists International (LAI). The Cultural Art Center Gallery of Estes Park Colorado hosted the exhibit and it was fun to meet my fellow artists from all over the US and Canada. The sounds are different (water rushing over rocks vis a vis elevated trains screaming overhead) --- and there are HILLS instead of flats --- and I had a peaceful retreat from this busy city.

Back to Chicago where I finished up this commissioned work: Picasso Under Construction circa 1967. This huge piece of public art was pointed-up (from a maquette by Picasso) at American Bridge in Gary Indiana, and this image of the work-in-progress came from a photo of that operation.

Chicago - home of year-round outdoor painting - eek!

2008-02-16T12:41:00.001-08:00

Winter, spring, summer, fall - young and old - the www.pleinairpaintersofchicago.blogspot.com folks are on the prowl. We did the Lincoln Park Conservatory a couple of weeks ago and all of us except one painter decided to stand in the snow outside and paint, rather than inside where everything was green (and our glasses fogged up when we went inside to thaw.)

We do manage to find places out of the wind - so last week we went inside Union Station (but somehow I ended up on the end of the platform OUTSIDE painting a train as it was coming into the station. Some people never learn!)

Pictures from these two adventures will be posted as soon as I get them onto the computer.

Check out this link: http://www.l-a-i.com/World_Tour

Mark your c alendars for April 4-15 for the PAPC show at the Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, 1012 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago 60610. Email me for particulars: nancy.albrecht@rcn.com

More soon.

Plein Air painting in Chicago in Winter

2008-01-20T21:42:00.000-08:00

If it is over 20 degrees, and the wind is under 20

miles per hour I get out most Saturdays to paint

with the Plein Air Painters of Chicago for 3-4

hours. People stop and ask "are you a class?"

My usual response is "no, we're just crazy!"

I am participating in the following traveling show:

IPAP/LAI World Tour
LAI charter members and IPAP signature members Exhibition Schedule:
This tour offers an exceptional opportunity to view works by artists around the world. The schedule grows weekly so please bookmark and check back frequently to see what cities have been added.
2008 - 2009 Tour
April 21 - May 21, 2008
The Link Gallery
Associated with Peninsula Art School
Fish Creek, Wisconsin (Door County)
Host Artists: Aaron Holland
June 1 - July 6, 2008
The Cultural Arts Council of
Estes Park Art Fine Art Gallery
Estes Park, Colorado
Host Artists: Kathryn McMahon & Doug Martin
July 21 - August 18, 2008
Old School House Art Center
Qualicum Beach, Vancouver
British Columbia, Canada
Artist Host: Dan Gray
Opening September 18, 2008 - January 4, 2009
Terrace Gallery
Orlando, Florida
Host Artists: Brenda Hofreiter & Barbara Perrotti

You might also check out my work at www.fineartamerica.com and www.lottongallery.com

Its been a great year.

Lotton Gallery on Michigan Avenue

2007-07-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

You can see this painting, and several other Chicago images, in person at the Lotton Gallery, 900 N. Michigan 6th Level, Chicago 60611. They are carrying my work. Open 7 days a week.

This Skyline image was painted en plein air between 5:30 and 7 am for two consecutive mornings in July.

I continue to have a wonderful time painting with the www.pleinairpaintersofchicago.blogspot.com folks every Saturday morning. You can find out where we are painting by going to the blogspot every Thursday, where the Saturday location is posted. These talented painters have influenced and informed my work, and I love the critiques we do after 3-4 hours of painting.

There will be a group show and sale of the PAPC painters opening 5-8 PM on Friday July 27 at the Palette & Chisel Gallery, 1012 N. Dearborn, Chicago 60610. The show will be open daily and run for two weeks. Call me at 312-206-5648 if you want to make an appointment to see the show with me.

CHICAGO OBSERVED

2007-01-16T03:21:00.000-08:00

A solo show of my urban landscapes is in the gallery of the University Club of Chicago, 76 E. Monroe, until Feb. 3, 2007. Most of the work can be seen on my website, www.nancyalbrechtstudio.com and click on cityscapes. Chicago writer Robert Kamczura has this to say about the paintings:
"Nancy Albrecht’s recent paintings represent something of the duality of Chicago’s personality. On the one hand the city is earthy, seemingly rough, massive and jumbled, on the other side Albrecht sees the city representing the acting out of the cycle of life, the eternal pattern of birth, death and rebirth.

Her paintings show a Chicago that is made out of tough steel and stone, in neighborhoods which include heavy buildings, El platforms, streets and alleys, with a particular emphasis on things which are being torn down for reconstruction. She takes a certain delight in the bizarre shapes and counterpoints of urban structures. Her Chicago views are all painted in a raw painterly style, done almost exclusively with palette knives, laid on in thick textured layers with small touches of lyrical bright color to enliven the scene.

Beyond this rough but attractive surface Albrecht’s work often carries a strong symbolic theme. This theme is hinted at by one of her most prominent subjects, a large trash recycling building that features in several of her paintings, sitting like a kind of latter day Pantheon temple surrounded by worshipping earth-moving machines. This points towards her view of the city as a living entity that reinvents itself in a cycle of destruction and rebirth, further enforced by the way her half wrecked buildings seem to loom like Roman Ruins, hinting at their power and strength even as they are destroyed. Her use of touches of bright color add a sense of gaity and rough lyricism that suggest the 18th Century Rome of Piranesi as much as contemporary Chicago, further emphasizing the theme of rebirth; the old world reinvented in the new.
Albrecht’s Chicago paintings, with their strong geometry, bold paint surfaces, lyric details, and optimistic strength, seem very much in line with Carl Sandburg’s mythical image of Chicago as “…cunning as a savage, pitted against the wilderness, bareheaded, shoveling, wrecking, planning, building, breaking, rebuilding.”
Robert Kameczura
Arts Writer and Critic
Big Shoulders’ Magazine, Chicago Artists’ News, and etc
January 10, 2007"

2006-11-05T01:03:00.000-08:00

I'm baaaaack! Been too busy hanging out under the el andpainting to blog! The Prairie Cement image is an example of both what I have been doing and how I have been doing it. These lovely birch boards are handmade by Joel Fromer for artists like me to paint on. I love the look of the board so much that I decided to use the "ground" as part of the actual image. Hence you see the shellac-colored ground around the edges and within the painting itself. I work with palette knife almost exclusively on these birch boards, and have a show at the University Club of Chicago opening January 11, 2006 that will have several of these types of paintings in it. I am also present on www.fineartamerica.com and do postings there of the current venues where I am exhibiting. Having lots of fun painting these days. Go to my website at www.nancyalbrechtstudio.com for current and earlier works. email nancy.albrecht at rcn.com

Another Winner

2006-08-13T11:11:00.000-07:00

"The Cloisters, St. Remy" won a Blue Ribbon at the Architecture and History Exhibition sponsored by The Next Picture Show Gallery in Dixon Illinois in June, 2006.
This painting was done from on-site studies at the Sanitarium where Vincent Van Gogh sought refuge from his demons. I have been there twice, and it is a beautiful and serene place. I also painted the olive trees that Van Gogh painted. These two paintings are available. The Cloisters painting is $695 and the olive tree painting is $395.
Please contact me if you are interested.

2006-08-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

Check out new profile.

2006-08-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

The Cedarburg Wisconsin paint-out in June resulted in "Down at Don's Antiques" receiving two awards! The one that means the most to me is the Artist's Choice Award for this 9 x 12 oil on panel. It was purchased by the President of the Cedarburg Art Guild, Charlotte Lee, who was also a gracious host to all of us. This piece also received an honorable mention.

Check out my paintings on the Chicago Artist Coalition website: www.caconline.org , for the newest stuff.

Love this summer weather.

Having a good spring!!

2006-04-30T01:01:00.000-07:00

Painting outside in February and March in Chicago has been very exciting this year. It was pretty cold at Humboldt Park but the sun was out so this 9 x 12 painting was completed en plein air with palette knife.
With three months to paint, and enter shows, I've sold five paintings!
The Dixon "Farms and Barns" show is up until May 15, and the Mayor of Dixon bought my painting of the red barn shown here.
I will have two paintings in The Next Picture Show Gallery on Main St. in Dixon, during the month of June. The show is titled Art and Architecture. This is a beautiful gallery, so check out the show if you are in north central Illinois. It is open all day Tuesday through Saturday, 9-5.

I am changing the way I approach larger pieces, using the on-site paintings as reference for bigger works in the studio. This is how I have done the "Recycle Chicago" paintings. The larger piece on the left is 30 x 40 on maple board, the square piece is 20 x 20 also on maple board. I'm working my way down the Clybourn Industrial Corridor in Chicago, cause I like the "grit."

New Shows

2006-03-31T07:53:00.000-08:00

"Dam At Salt Creek" is one of two paintings juried into the 8th Annual National Small Works Exhibition at the Attleboro Arts Museum in Massachusets from May 7 to May 26, 2006. The other painting is "Chicago El Series #2", which I sold at the Plein Air Painters of Chicago show last week.

In April, three paintings, including "Goin' to Seed", will be shown in Dixon Illinois at The Next Picture Show Gallery "Farms & Barns" Exhibit. The show opens April 7 and runs through May 12, with gallery hours Tuesday through Saturday 9 am to 4 pm.

Please go to my website for paintings and prices. www.nancyalbrechtstudio.com

Plein Air Painters of Chicago Show ON NOW!

2006-03-25T06:20:00.000-08:00

Opening reception of the Plein Air Painters of Chicago on Friday 24 March saw 200+ artists and collectors meet, mingle, ogle, and purchase paintings of Chicago that were done on-site in the past 12 months. The show runs through April 4, with 11 am to 4 pm gallery hours daily except Monday March 27, when the gallery is closed.

I sold the Chicago El painting on opening night, and hope to sell the other two by the end of the show. The Berghoff painting is 7 x 5 ($195) and the Ukranian Village Church is 14 X 11 ($395).

The Gallery of the Palette & Chisel is housed in a restored Italianate double-bay mansion at 1012 N. Dearborn in Chicago. Please call 312.206.5648 if you wish to make an appointment with me to see the show when the gallery is closed. Otherwise, just show up during gallery hours and enjoy the work of 30 talented professional artists of greater Chicago.

Plein Air Painters of Chicago Exhibition

2006-03-17T01:23:00.000-08:00

This painting, of a church in Ukranian Village neighborhood of Chicago, was done on a Saturday morning with the Plein Air Painters of Chicago. It is one of three pieces I will have in the PAPC Exhibit opening with a reception on
Friday March 24, 2006 from 5 to 9 PM at the Palette & Chisel Gallery, 1012 North Dearborn Street in Chicago. The show will run about a week, with afternoon hours. There will be 32 artists in the show, and you will be dazzled by some of the work done on site by these talented artists. The group ranges in age from 12 to 80, and you can check out some of their websites by clicking on the links in this blogsite.

"Ukranian Village Church", 14" x 11", oil on board
$395

To see all my paintings and prices go to www.nancyalbrechtstudio.com

Nancy Albrecht Studio website

2006-02-19T08:59:00.000-08:00

Finally! You can now go to my website at www.nancyalbrechtstudio.com and see all my current work, along with prices and other information. Now it's YOUR TURN! Go buy something!

I also want to send my friends and clients to the Chicago Artists' Coalition website. Go to www.caconline.org and check out all the information there. This is a wonderful resource for artists and patrons of the arts, in its 20th year of operations. There is a gallery of artists that you can clic on and find thumbnails of artwork of hundreds of artists. Clic on a thumbnail and you will get a collection of work for that artist.

There is a lot of creative talent in Chicago - so enjoy!

And last, go to the PAPC link on this website to find out where the Plein Air Painters of Chicago will be painting next Saturday. Come find us.

New Year's Eve Morning with PAPC

2006-02-15T08:21:00.000-08:00

What a fun way to spend New Year's Eve! Wicker Park is one of our favorite painting sites, and it was so great to have Scott back among us. I would have posted this sooner but the image disappeared from my computer (or so I thought) and I just found it.

Don't forget to save March 24 for the PAPC show opening at the Palette & Chisel, 1012 N Dearborn from 5-8 PM.

Einstein ... 1930

2006-02-13T07:30:00.000-08:00

OOPS! In my previous post I said 1931 - should have said 1930, and I said it was on the S.S. California when I should have said the Belgenland. This was in December 1930, on the first leg of my mum's voyage around the world on the S. S. Belgenland. The trip started in New York, and Professor Einstein and his wife were on it for the first leg (New York to California) where he was invited to speak at Stanford University and other locations in California. Here he is in his stateroom. I especially love the little slippers he has on his sock-less feet. So 21st Century! My mum was working in the gift shop of the ship.

Albert Einstein and my mum

2006-02-13T07:17:00.000-08:00

In 1931 my mother, Clarice Melvin, knew Albert Einstein. She was working on the S.S. California on its voyages between the east and west coasts, and the professor was traveling with his wife from New York to Palo Alto California, to conduct seminars at Stanford University. I have four photographs of Einstein autographed to my mum, and would like to know the value of them. One is an unpublished snapshot she took of him in his stateroom. Does anyone have any ideas?

Chicago streets in winter

2006-02-04T10:14:00.000-08:00

Thanks to this wonderful warm spell, I've been able to paint-out with the Plein Air Painters of Chicago about 6 times during the holidays and January. More images will follow soon. We will have a show of PAPC work at the Palette & Chisel, 1012 N. Dearborn opening Friday March 24 from 5-8 PM, with about 20 artists on display. It is great fun to see Chicago through the eyes and the brushes of this great group of painters.

To connect with the group go to http://pleinairpaintersofchicago.blogspot.com

Every Thursday the painting location for the following Saturday is posted. We paint 8:30 to 12:30 and then do a critique. If you are interested in joining us, just dress warm and show up!

View from Hooker Bridge 12 x 24 oil

2005-10-30T10:47:00.000-08:00

Passing Storm - Serengeti 24 x 36 tryptich

2005-10-30T10:46:00.001-08:00

Dover Dam 9 x 12 oil

2005-10-30T10:46:00.000-08:00

Michigan Avenue from Down Under 12.x.16 oil on canvas

2005-10-30T10:43:00.000-08:00

Late Afternoon At the Dairy 14 x 11 oil on canvas

2005-10-30T10:19:00.000-08:00

Why do I go OUT to paint?

2005-10-30T09:49:00.000-08:00

I go out to paint because nature is my studio and my classroom. In motion - in stillness - in sound - in silence. The sound of a leaf falling from a rust-colored tree and landing on a bed of dry leaves. The tustle of a creature in the underbrush. Sunlight illuminating a tree branch or glinting off the warter of a pond for an instant, Distant blue hills silhouetted against a peach sky. Fishing out a bee that got stuck on the red oil paint on my palette and putting it on the grass so it can free its wings and fly away. The smell of rosemary bushes in Tuscany. The sound of the wings of a heron as it flies over my head on its way to the edge of the pond that I am painting, to fish for its supper. Everything fades from my consciousness except the light, and the color, and the brush and palette knife, and the need to ATTEMPT to capture the moment on the canvas.

Some of my newest paintings will be installed at THE TAVERN CLUB, 333 N. MICHIGAN AVENUE, 25TH FLOOR GALLERY from November 11, 2005 (Reception 5:30 to 7:30 PM) and remain on view until January 3, 2006, with other painters of Plein Air Painters of Chicago/Southwest.

2005-09-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

GOING TO SEED, oil on board, 15 x 19

2005-09-17T11:03:00.000-07:00

TANZANIAN SUNSET, oil, 24 x 30 SOLD

2005-09-17T11:02:00.000-07:00

KOI, oil, 12 x 20 SOLD

2005-09-17T11:01:00.001-07:00

MILLIE'S LILIES, oil, 24 x 16

2005-09-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

TULIP MANIA, oil, 24 x 18

2005-09-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

OFF-ROAD IN PROVENCE, en plein air, oil on panel, 9 x 12

2005-09-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

ST. PAUL, S. REMY FR, 24 X 18 oil

2005-09-17T10:42:00.001-07:00

WISCONSIN FIELDS, en plein air, 16 x 16 oil

2005-09-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

PONT DU GARD, en plein air and studio, oil, 14 x 10

2005-09-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

WILD LILIES, 24 x 18, oil, SOLD

2005-09-17T10:39:00.001-07:00

REFLECTIONS, en plein air & studio, 30 x 24, oil

2005-09-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

ALONG THE ARNO, en plein air, oil on paper, 14 x 20

2005-09-17T10:38:00.000-07:00

BLUE POTS, en plein air, oil, 12 x 9

2005-09-17T10:37:00.001-07:00

MONTROSE HARBOR BIRD SANCTUARY, en plein air, 9 x 12 oil

2005-09-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

FATTORIA DU MEDICI, en plein air, oil on paper, 17x22

2005-09-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

SAN JUAN ISLAND, en plein air & studio, 12 x 24 oil

Paintergranny's Blog

2005-09-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

So I enter the world of blogspace.

"Geometrics, Chicago" en plein air, 16 x 12 oil(left).

"Belmont Harbor" en plein air, 8 x 10 oil

It only takes me about 12 hours of wandering about the internet to figure out how to do things. So, now I can share what is happening on my outdoor easel before any editing (or dicking around) with the image when I get back to the studio. Trying hard not to do that, but to paint it and let it be. It is wonderful to be part of the Plein Air Painters of Chicago, and Chicago Southwest, and have the influence of all these wonderful artists. Then of course I have my "littermates!" (my painting/traveling sisters.) You'll have a picture of them soon.
Enjoy this weather. Get out there and PAINT.
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