Black Friday At Luschek Studios

The scene is a mad house as shoppers wait outside my studio to get great deals on paintings. I did a screen grab from the local news reporting at the scene. I swear, this is totally real.

Unfortunately the studio is not open today, so all those full blooded American shoppers will have to wait to buy their Luschek originals until next week. I do have a few local places offering my work at very reasonable prices. Of course anything on my site is available for sale.

Rottinghaus Gallery & Custom Framing has some of my smaller paintings for sale for the Christmas holidays. Including the small little diptych below of a nut and bolt separated by a wrench. It is a study in male/female relationships in case you were confused.
They are framed in two cute antique frames.

A Wrench in the Relationship, diptych, each 2.5"x3.5", oil on linen, © copyright Richard Luschek 2014

I do still have some work hanging at the Greenacres Art Center. While the show is closed, you always can call to make an appointment. 

The other big event is The Panorama of Cincinnati Art XXIX

Opens 5-8 p.m., Friday December 05 | $100.

 The Cincinnati Art Galleries hosts the opening reception of Panorama of Cincinnati Art. The exhibition features paintings by artists of Cincinnati's Golden Age and some of Cincinnati's top contemporary painters. Reservations are required for the opening night at $100 per person. Reservations can be made by phone. The exhibition is a benefit for the Taft Museum of Art. A portion of reservation and painting sales will go towards supporting the museum. Exhibition is free and open to the public after Dec. 5. Through Dec. 31. Gallery hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday- Friday; 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. 

Cincinnati Art Galleries
513-381-2128
225 E. Sixth St.

My Bengals painting will be in the show and illustrated in the fancy catalog. The Bengals are doing pretty well this year, so you really owe it to yourself to own this piece of history.  

Freezer Bowl, 16 x 20, oil on linen, ©Richard Luschek 2014

The Last Big Secret

Tomorrow is the last Secret Artworks event.
While I can't show you the card I did this year, it being a Secret and all, this is the card I did last year of a creepy Mr. Clean Doll with a light bulb hanging over his head.

Clean Thoughts, 7x5, oil, © copyright Richard Luschek 2014

TheSecret ArtWorks is a fund raising event featuring the exhibition and sale of 5” x 7” works of art from local, national and international artists. All works of art sell for $75 each. The ‘secret’ behind each piece is the identity of the artist – which is revealed after the work is purchased.

Admission: $125 (single), $150 (couple).

Includes one Secret Work of Art, appetizers, beer and wine, and entrance to the event.  All Art Vouchers will be held at Check-In on the night of the event.  Art Vouchers for additional Secret Works of Art available at $75 each.

Click here to buy!

Secrets are out! You can view the Secret Works of Art here.  Click here.

Friday, November 21, 2014, 5-9pm
The Center in the Mercantile Building
115 East Fifth Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202
5-6pm: Cocktails & VIP Art Sneak Peek
6pm: Doors Open to Secret Works of Art
Valet parking available on Walnut Street between 4th & 5th Streets.
Handicap access on 5th Street.

Fall Signature Show at the CAC

For those of you who are already confused, this is not a show featuring artist's signatures- though that may be interesting. The work will be signed, but I feel it is more about the visual image on the canvas than the awkward identification often found in the corner. So, what is Signature about this show?
A Signature member of the Cincinnati Art Club is a artist of such great character and fortitude that they have to pay a higher rate in club dues. You also have to go through a rigorous application process, judged by a group of robed elites in a dark room (Actually I made that last part up, I am not sure about the specifics of the judging- just know, if I am ever asked to judge future Signature Members, I will be wearing a heavy, dark maroon robe with the hood up.)

Off To The Races, 12x9,oil on linen, ©Richard Luschek 2012

Did I mention that Signature Members have to pay more?
Anyway, I'm in a Signature Show at the Art Club, opening this Friday, October 10 (6:00 - 8:00 pm)
Open Gallery hours: October 11, 12, 18 & 19 (1:00 - 4:00 pm)

Cincinnati Art Club
1021 Parkside Place, Cincinnati, OH 45202
 
Stop by on Friday and have a look at the work while enjoying red wine in a plastic cup and sampling some cheese cubes. 
I have written a few posts about this very painting if you are interested.
A bit about the process of painting this work.
 
I had some repair work to do.

Compositional ramblings.

Luschek Art Opening-palooza

Today dropped off my final of 3 paintings which will appear in 3 different Art Openings in Cincinnati this weekend- one on Friday and two on Saturday.

The first opening on Friday is with the OPA, a national collection of painters promoting excellence in representational art. This is the first time I have enters an OPA show, it being local was what got me to finally give it a shot. At least 5 other Cincinnati painters were also honored by being accepted into this show.

The Late Night, 13"x9", oil on linen, 2011, ©Richard Luschek

2014 Oil Painters of America (OPA) Eastern RegionalJuried Exhibition -

Eisele Gallery of Fine Art 
5729 Dragon Way, Cincinnati, Ohio 45227 
Phone: (513) 791-7717

Exhibition Opening Reception - Friday September 12, 2014 6-9PM

Show continues thru October 9, 2014

_______________________________________________________

Saturday the first of my two openings is a themed show at the Lloyd Library and Museum called "If Wine is Sublime...". While I have painted a few pictures showcasing wine, I only had one such painting available, painted 10 years ago while I was still a student.

Fallen Angel Bacchanal(26x15) oil on linen, ©copyright Richard Luschek 2004

Lloyd Library and Museum 

917 Plum Street, Cincinnati OH 45202
Phone: (513) 721-3707
Opening Reception and Wine Tasting on Saturday, September 13, 4-7 p.m.  

Show continues- September 15 - December 12, 2014 

"If Wine is Sublime..." showcases rare books, maps, and artworks all about grapes, vineyards, and wine. The books date from the late 17th century to the present day and cover all aspects of grape growing, wine making, and medicinal usage of both the fruit and the fermented beverage. The gallery exhibition of art comes to the Lloyd from artists across the country and internationally and in a variety of media.
There is a wine tasting opening night, you have to call to register.
If you miss the opening, I suggest you stop by, the library is a hidden gem of books on science and botanical .

The Second show Saturday night I will have a painting in Cincinnati Art Club's big annual national juried art competition- Viewpoint. This show is getting better every year. The Art Club has been getting some very good judges. This year the judge is Cincinnati artist-illustrator, C. F. Payne.

Freezer Bowl 2, 16 x 20, oil on linen, ©copyright Richard Luschek2014

Viewpoint 46.

The Show will be on view at a hip gallery located in a building off 3rd street near the Taft Museum:

Art Design Consultants
310 Culvert St, Cincinnati, OH 45202

Phone: 513-723-1222

Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony Saturday, September 13, 5-8 p.m. 
Show continues thru September 25, 2014  Mon-Fri, 9-5 p.m.
Parking is free and convenient.

Hope to see you at the openings.

Art Show in the Hoosier State

Starting this Saturday I will have two paintings hanging in a region art exhibit of the Southeastern Indiana Art Guild in Aurora Indiana.
There will be an Open reception and awards ceremony on Saturday August 9th. The show was judged by painter Christopher Leeper.
Appetizers and drinks will be provided for the reception beginning at 6; award presentations at 7 and wrapping up the evening at 8pm. I will have a Cincinnati City view plein air painting and the still life shown below. I wrote about this painting before if you are interested. Click Here.

Off To The Races, 12"X 9", oil on linen, ©copyright Richard Luschek 2012

The Gallery is located at Main & Second St, Aurora, Indiana, 47001 
The Gallery will be open for public viewing that evening until 8pm 
The show will remain open the following week of the 10th through the 16th.
Hours will be as follows:
Sunday 2pm - 6 pm
Monday -Thursday 3pm-8pm
Friday noon til 8pm
Saturday 1pm-5pm


Stop and see the show. I will be there opening night. I can usually be found near the appetizers and drinks. 
On a side note, I got interested in the word Hoosier. Why are folks from Indiana called Hoosiers? Well, I Googled it and have the very vague and unsatisfying answer for you here:

How did Indiana get its nickname as “The Hoosier State”?
(Copied from the Indiana Historical Society.)
And how did people from Indiana come to be called “Hoosiers”? There are many different theories about how the word Hoosier came to be and how it came to have such a connection with the state of Indiana.
One of the earliest known uses of the term is found in an 1827 letter that states, “There is a yankee trick for you – done up by a Hoosier.” Other early uses provide some clues about the meaning of the word. In 1831, Gen. John Tipton received a proposal from a businessman offering to name his boat the “Indiana Hoosier” if Tipton would give him business in the area. Sarah Harvey, a Quaker from Richmond, explained in an 1835 letter to her relatives, “old settlers in Indiana are called ‘Hooshers’ and the cabins they first live in ‘Hoosher nests’ . . .”
The word “Hoosier” was widely used by the 1830s. Around this time, John Finley of Richmond wrote a poem called The Hoosier’s Nest, which was widely read. He wrote the word as “hoosher” and did not explain its meaning, which leads historians to believe that Finley felt his readers would already know and understand the word. Finley wrote, “With men of every hue and fashion, Flock to this rising ‘Hoosher’ nation.”
So, what does the word mean? In 1848, Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms defined “Hoosier” as “A nickname given at the west, to natives of Indiana.” In John Finley’s poem, the word “Hoosher” seems to refer less to the pioneers of Indiana and more to the qualities he thought they possessed, like self-reliance and bravery.
No one seems to know how the word “Hoosier” came to be. Some people think it was meant to mock Indiana as a rough, backwoods and backwards place. Others think that early settlers used the term with pride to describe themselves as a hearty, courageous group. One historian, Jacob Piatt Dunn, even suggested that the word “Hoosier” originally referred to boatmen who lived on the Indiana shore. We may never know for sure, but research and debate are likely to continue about this mysterious word.

The following theories and stories about the origin of the word “Hoosier” are known to be false:

• It comes from the word Hoosa, which means American Indian maize or corn.
• Hoosier’s Men was a term used for Indiana employees of a canal contractor named Hoosier.
• “Who’s ear?” – Writer James Whitcomb Riley joked that this question, supposedly posed by early Indiana settlers following tavern fights which had resulted in someone’s ear being cut off and left on the floor, eventually became the word “Hoosier."
• “Who’s yer/here?” – This was supposedly the way early Indiana settlers would respond to a knock on their cabin doors. The story goes that it was eventually shortened to “Hoosier?”
• “Who’s your [relative]?” – Again, legend has it that this question was eventually shortened to “Hoosier?”

A Banging Show

I will have a painting in an art show that opens tonight in the Bang & Olufsen store downtown. It is funny, people have always told me my work would really look good displayed with high end audio / visual equipment. Finally that has become a reality. 
The show will feature work from members of the Cincinnati Art Club.

Above the Washing Machine, 20 x 16, oil on linen, ©Richard Luschek 2014

The opening is tonight, Friday AUGUST 1, 2014, from 7- 10 pm. The exhibit will stay for three months.

Stop by the Bang & Olufsen-Fountain Square Gallery
6 West Fourth Street
Cincinnati OH 45202

T: +1 (513) 808-4808 | F: +1 (513) 808-4804
E: info@beocincinnati.com
1100-700 Mon-Fri
1200-600 Sat

Signature Show- Cincinnati Art Club

I will have a painting hanging in the Signature Member show at the Cincinnati Art Club tonight. I turned my painting in very late, pretty sure I was the last one to drop mine off, so I got to see all the work stacked against the wall. It looked like a very solid collection of work.
Stop by tonight for art and snacks.

The opening reception will be Friday, May 9th, 6-8 p.m.. The exhibition will be open Sat. and Sun., May 10 & 11 and May 17 & 18, from 1-4 p.m.
The Cincinnati Art Club is located at the foot of Mt. Adams at the corner
of Parkside Place and Martin Drive.
Use www.Mapquest.com for directions from your home
to 1021 Parkside Place, Cincinnati, Oh 45202

My Landscape Class and Museums

If you take my class I promise you that your work will not get into the MOBA (Museum of Bad Art) like the work below by an unknown artist.

Imagine Going From This:

Unknown
22" x 28", Acrylic on canvas
Acquired from trash

To This!
In just 8 weeks!

Frank Benson
Great White Herons, 1933
29" x 24", Oil
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

Individual results may vary.


So, the above transformation may not happen at first, but I will keep your work out of the Museum of Bad Art. Probably doubtful you'll hang in any museum really- unless you keep taking the class over and over.
If you have never painted before but have always wanted to, this is a great introductory class that will take the fear out of oil painting.  This class is for both hobbyists and professionals. It is also a good class for teens trying to build a portfolio for college. Students that have taken the class multiple times see continued improvement. I try to introduce the techniques in a simple, easy to understand manner, not mention it is loads of fun.
Here is the information, and a link to the University site where you sign up.
Sat., 10 am-1 pm; April 12-May 31; 8 wks; $199 (no discounts), supplies are the student’s responsibility. A list will be sent with your enrollment confirmation or see www.uc.edu/ce/documents/comm/PAINTING.pdf.. 
Location: First class meets at my studio in Eden Park; then at various parks thereafter.
Click here to register.

A Study in Orange

If you asked me to pick my least favorite color, of the primary-secondary groups, I would probably chose orange. Well, the idea started with an old Cincinnati Bengals hat I found in a box of stuff I got from my parents house. I used to wear this hat when I was in grade school. So as this developed the orange spread. I did like that there was a system of various oranges working throughout the setup. I spent a lot of time designing the placement of the Doritos. More than a few got removed and eaten.

Since I have done more than a few Cincinnati Reds paintings, I thought a still life with themes of some fans enjoying a winter game would be a fun change. While neither I nor my family were huge sports fans, I do have some good memories of the family sitting around in the house during a wicked winter watching the Freezer Bowl, the 1981 AFC Championship Game between the San Diego Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals. One of the last really exciting seasons the Bengals have played in. I will probably call this painting The Freezer Bowl.

I wanted it to have a retro feel, so I collected items that pretty much fit that theme. Not sure how accurate all of the items are, but close enough for this painting. I thought a blue table cloth would be a good compliment to the all the oranges. The orange crush was found unopened in an antique store. The liquid had turned brown with floaters so I had to dump that out and add some new orange drink.

Set up with blank canvas.

My first day lay-in went pretty well.

Freezer Bowl, Day one lay-in.

After painting on this for a few days I decided that the background was a bit boring, so I added a screen next to the set up to cast a shadow. This helped in a few ways, but mainly it took emphasis off the football thus strengthening the center.

Freezer Bowl- about Day 4.

As I pushed towards the finish I realized the black of the hat was too strong so I forced it a bit lighter than it was in nature. It ended up making the hat look fuzzier. I softened a lot of the sharp edges and made sure the "visual punch" was in the center of the piece. I had hoped to finish the painting before the remaining Doritos got stale, but turns out that happens pretty quickly.

Freezer Bowl, 16 x 20, oil on linen, ©Richard Luschek 2014

Paul Ingbretson and The Guild of Boston Artists

As you may know I studied in New Hampshire with Paul Ingbretson. He was the best teacher I have had for any subject- and after 7 years of college and two degrees, I have had a lot of "teachers". He has been producing some videos, with the help of his son Whittaker and George Lambert, gearing up for the 100th anniversary of the Boston Guild. I wanted to post a few because I think they show very well what I believe are some of the major strengths of his teaching and how it is demonstrated in his work.
It is all about the start! As is often the case, painters are taught to concentrate on the drawing first. Then color comes in. The work becoming almost like a complicated 'paint-by-numbers' exercise. We were taught to ignore drawing and focus on the color first. Of course the idea is to get the right value, the right color in the right place. One could argue that placing a red smug in the upper third of the canvas is an early start to the drawing idea, but basically it is about getting a likeness in color without drawing. Drawing is very important- so save it for last. The painting slowly comes into focus, all the while the painter is "learning" the subject from careful observation.
This video gives some indication of how good start should look. There is a bit at the end of Paul discussing his views on art.

This second video shows the painting further along in the process.

At Least My Painting is Warm

I was honored to have one of my paintings selected for a show in Florida. I would have loved to travel down with the paining to get out of this miserable winter we are having, but alas I could not.

The show it the 9th Biennial National Art Exhibition and is one of the nation's most prestigious juried exhibits of traditional 2-dimensional media. Juror Carl Samson, nationally-acclaimed portrait painter, selected 130 pieces out of over 450 entries from 27 states for the "9th Biennial National Art Exhibition" at the Visual Art Center in Punta Gorda, FL. The exhibition opens this Saturday, February 1 and closes March 9th.

The Late Night, 13"x9", oil on linen, 2011, ©Richard Luschek

I also found out my piece was honored with an award as well, which is pretty exciting. If you need a vacation- drive on down and see the show and buy a prize winning painting.
Visual Art Center
210 Maud Street
Punta Gorda, FL 33950

Here is a blog post about the painting of this piece.