Salon at the Triton 2016

The Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, California, hosts an annual Salon, a statewide competition and exhibition of 2-D work, this year guest juried by Charlotte Eyerman, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Monterey Museum of Art! Out of the 1450 submissions, 124 pieces by 114 artists were selected for the show, my painting Wildflower among them.

The reception for the salon is always packed and is hard to get a good look at all the work while visiting with artists and friends but it always make for a memorable evening! (This is my third year in a row exhibiting – knock on wood).

This year was very special, I was honored to have Aušra, the daughter of Antanas Štarka (the man whose portrait I painted in Wildflower) and partner Ilan attend the reception with Aušra’s niece Laura, straight from her flight from Europe!  Aušra is an amazing photographer whose photograph had inspired the painting. It was Aušra too that had made the wreath of Lithuanian wildflowers that he’s wearing in the painting and I was so touched when she brought me a matching bouquet of flowers! One day soon this painting will travel on to Lithuania!

Sometimes I have fun dressing like my paintings – this time my friend, artist Tom Yacoe, unknowingly did… I understand he is even half Lithuanian!

 

There was just too many people to enjoy talking with to do a comprehensive award report – I’m not even sure who won all the prizes and will have to go back for a quiet, studious look later.   But I’ll share a few photos of artists I was able to catch:

Lauren Herzog Schwartz – Exuberance III – charcoal

                        

Denise Howard – Tenuous – graphite on paper,  Belinda Lima – On the Edge – collage,  Deepali Kapatkar Race Against Time and Juxtaposed – pastel on paper.

Vanessa Callanta – One Breath – charcoal on paper

Peter Carey – Pienza – watercolor on board

Monica Valdez – First Place Painting  –  Phyllotopsis I, Trametes, T. Versicolor – gouache and graphtie over watercolor, acrylic and monotype

Elizabeth Barlow – Pas de Deux – oil on linen

Nabeela Sajaad –  Heavenly Refuge – acrylic on canvas

 

 

Also a special year because I got to meet up with my girlfriends and hit a Thai restaurant after!

If you’d like to see the full list of exhibiting artists, please click here for the link.

Wildflower at the Triton’s Salon

 

I got a chance to take a quick peek at the Salon (between piano and ballet lessons) the work is fabulous as will be the reception for this statewide competition and exhibition at the Triton Museum of Art (guest juried by Charlotte Eyerman, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Monterey Museum of Art)! The exhibition runs April 16 – May 29, 2016. Reception this Friday 6-8 pm.

So delighted to be part of this with Wildflower!
Looking forward to hanging out with peers and friends! Come – you’re all invited!

Wildflower picked for the Triton Salon!

Wildflower - oil on canvas - 48x48 inches - Marie Cameron - 2015

Such good news today, I heard that my painting, Wildflower, was selected for the Salon at the Triton Museum statewide 2-D competition by guest juror, Charlotte Eyerman, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Monterey Museum of Art! The exhibit will run April 16 – May 29, with a fabulous reception on April 22 from 6-8 pm.

I’m so delighted, not only because it’s on honor to be juried into this competitive show, but because I’m particularly proud of this piece and I think the story behind it is incredibly moving.

This painting was inspired by a photograph that a Facebook friend of mine, Aušra Štarka, had taken a few years back. It was of her father, Antanas Štarka, in Lithuania wearing a wreath of wildflowers on his head. I was amazed that all these flowers were ones that I had grown up with in Nova Scotia and the beauty of the image of this handsome man with his prophetic gesture stayed with me.  When Aušra shared his passing, I expressed my condolences and also my wish to paint him one day and she told me the story behind the photo I could paraphrase it but she told it so eloquently,

“I am glad you like the portrait of my father with the wild flower wreath. The story is that I have dreamed of making that wreath of wildflowers from the fields of Lithuania for many years but when I would go back for a visit, I would get busy with other things and that idea would get delayed to the next year.. Year after year.. Or there would be no wildflowers.. So there it went. Until this summer. Because there were many wildflowers this year, on my last day before my flight back, I went near the river and gathered a bunch of wildflowers and created this wild looking wreath. My father was excited to be the first one to pose with it.. And that was the last thing I shared with my father.”

Aušra said that he was singing away, and that’s where his dramatic gesture comes from in the painting. I feel like he’s imparting something important to us, that father and daughter are both letting us know how important it is do what you love in life and to share it with the people you love. Thank you Aušra for so generously sharing all of this with me, with us!

 

Painting Wildflower

Wildflower - WIP day 1 - Marie Cameron 2015

I love starting a new piece first thing on a Monday morning, with whole week stretching out before me for miles and miles and nothing on my schedule but a paintbrush! I feel a fresh sense of ease and possibility!

Wildflower Day 1 - 2  WIP Marie Cameron 2015

I’m so excited to be working on this painting!  It’s a portrait of a singing man, wearing the wreath of wildflowers his daughter had just made.

Wildflower - Day I -3 Marie Cameron 2015

Wildflower WIP Day 2 - Marie Cameron 2015

I’m going to try and portray a sense of this man’s beautiful spirt, his joie de vivre.

I’ll keep adding to this post until the painting is complete.

Wildflower - Day 5 WIP - photo Marie Cameron

Day 5 – trying to bring some richness to the background but concerned about loosing all the spontaneity!

Wildflower - Marie Cameron 2015 oil  48 x 48 in

Day 11? I’ve lost track, but I’m done and I’m so delighted with this piece!

Marie Cameron with completed Wildflower - 2015

Working on a portrait is so challenging but the rewards can be huge! I am so grateful to my subject and his lovely daughter who made this painting possible in every way.