DRAWING CHALLENGE XXIII

We would like to congratulate Sally Apfelbaum, Elizabeth Gilfilen, Joan Grubin, Monroe Hodder, Blinn Jacobs, Liz Jaff, Nancy Manter, Esther Podemski, and Andra Samelson for being the featured contestants of our Drawing Challenge XXIV, which was inspired by the following words by Paul Eluard (1895 - 1952) and published in his 1929 collection "L'Amour, La Poésie". Thank you to the artist Karen Abada for submitting these lines.


"The earth is blue like an orange.
(La terre est bleue comme une orange)"

We are pleased to present a larger selection of submissions in the accompanying virtual exhibition
The earth is blue like an orange
November 10 - December 15, 2021

Sam Marroquin, A Location Near You, 2014, Encaustic, oil paint, globe, paper and push pins collage on wood, 24 x 48 inches
www.smarroquin.com

Liz Jaff, Study: Blue Tease, 2021, hand cut paper on board, 18 x 10 x 1 3/8 inches

www.lizjaff.com

Sally Apfelbaum, Odd Flowers, 10 Reds, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 39 x 36 inches

http://sallyapfelbaum.net

Blinn Jacobs, Erebus, Casein, oil pastel, graphite on incised gatorboard, 2017, 32 1/2 x 31 inches

www.blinnjacobs.com

Monroe Hodder, Both Sides Now, 2021, oil over acrylic on canvas, 36 x 34 inches

Joan Grubin, Weather, 2019, acrylic on paper 15 x 23 inches

“This quote causes a kind of Zen snap in the brain, as it conflates color with shape. A more logical statement would be “The earth is round like an orange”, but instead of saying “round” it says “blue” to describe an object whose name is also a color. Art is full of these contradictions and disjunctions, and they can lend energy to an otherwise static or flat statement, whether verbal or visual.

 This work I call “Weather” has this kind of dissonance. To me it gives a feeling of moving air, sky, and clouds, but it’s not expressed in any literal way. I don’t really understand how it came about – I know I wanted to make a pattern with little strips of paper bowing out from the picture plane and casting shadows that become part of the pattern, and then add an element that interrupts that pattern here and there, like a break in the weave. Sometimes good things happen when there’s no purpose in mind, just playing around.”

-Joan Grubin, 2021
http://joangrubin.com/wp/

Andra Samelson, Calling Earth, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

www.andrasamelson.com

Esther Podemski, Draft of a Landscape, oil paint and silkscreen on wood panel, 14 x 19 Inches

“In recent paintings, I have created abstract works from representational images which are themselves abstract. In “Draft of a Landscape” the predominantly blue and green palette evokes a landscape and yet there is a figure in the scene. The reclining  figure and the landscape are inseparable. Is the sleeping figure dreaming, contemplating the state of the iceberg behind her?”

- Esther Podemski, 2021
www.estherpodemski.com