Musicians
"Modern Orpheus"
By Catherine Creaney (oil on canvas, c. 27.5” x 35.5”, 2014)
"Burgundy Blue"
Eric Bowman (oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches)
Irish artist Catherine Creaney is a self-taught painter who depicts beautifully realistic, introspective figures in oil, pencil, and pastel. Her compositions are influenced by past masters such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt.
Creaney’s art has won numerous awards, including the Smallwood Architects Prize for Contextual Portraiture at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition (2022) and the Portrait Prize at the 21st National Open Art Competition (London, 2017). Her works have been exhibited widely and are included in prestigious collections, such as the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, MEAM in Barcelona, Spain, and the Royal Dublin Society in Ireland. She is represented by The Doorway Gallery in Dublin, Ireland.
The featured painting refers to the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus, son of King Oeagrus of Thrace and Calliope, the muse of epic poetry and song. Orpheus’ talent for singing and playing musical instruments impressed the Greek god Apollo, who gave Orpheus a lute, which Apollo taught him to play. Apollo’s daughter Eurydice, a nymph, upon hearing Orpheus play fell in love with him, and the couple married.
When Eurydice died from a snake bite, Orpheus’ songs of lament caused the gods and nymphs to mourn. They advised him to journey to the Underworld for his wife. Hades, god of the Underworld, agreed to release Eurydice on the promise the Orpheus would not look back for her until exiting the Underworld. However, he glanced back at the last minute, and Eurydice returned forever to the Underworld.
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Eric Bowman paints figures and landscapes, with special attention to scenes of the American West and Mexico. A native of California, he is mainly a self-taught artist who worked as a freelance illustrator before turning his attention to fine art painting. His work has been featured in several art publications and won many awards, such as Best of Show in the June 2017 Bold Brush Painting Competition and the Great American Cowboy Award at the Prix de West, National Cowboy Museum, in June 2021.
Bowman has a private and corporate client base across the globe, and his art has been shown in numerous galleries and museums, including the Academy Art Museum, Easton, Maryland; the Autry Museum, Los Angeles; the Kaiping Art Museum, Kaiping, China; the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City; the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles; and the Salmagundi Club, New York City.
Bowman is represented by Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles.
"Mariana"
William Harrison (carbon pencil on paper, 29.5 x 41.5 inches)
After studying art at the University of Illinois, William Harrison launched a successful 20-year career as a commercial artist before focusing on fine art. His chosen tool is the carbon pencil, drawing with meticulous detail individuals in “snapshot” moments. He brings the same careful attention and craft to his animals “portraits.” He has a funny, tongue-in-cheek biography on his website.
Harrison is represented by the Jean Albano Gallery in Chicago and Cavalier Galleries in Greenwich, Connecticut.
The Duet
by Alexandra Tyng (oil on linen, 30” x 24”, 2007)
Mainly a self-taught artist, Alexandra Tyng has created over the years an impressive oeuvre of paintings—portraits, figures, and landscapes. For her December 2021 show at Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia, she ventured successfully into depicting classical myths in contemporary settings.
Eschewing formal poses in non-commissioned work, Tyng places “people in the process of living and interacting in their own environments” and her landscapes range from intimate scenes to large panoramic views. In 2014, she discussed her approach to painting with the host of the “Painting Perceptions” website.
Tyng’s art has won awards from the Allied Artists of America, American Artist magazine, The Artist’s Magazine, the Portrait Society of America, and the Woodmere Art Museum. Her work is found in numerous private, public, and corporate collections. She also teaches portraiture and founded an organization to raise funds for the arts in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.
In the featured painting, Tyng portrays two young people practicing a violin and harp duet at home. She notes that it was “my first figurative work ever to be accepted into a juried show.” It was shown at the Allied Artists of America’s 94th Annual Exhibition in New York City.
Playing at Temple (or Willie’s First Notes)
by E. B. Lewis (watercolor, 9” x 7”, 2006)
E. B. Lewis is a fine artist and illustrator of more than seventy books for children for which he has won numerous awards, including Best Illustrated Book in 2016 from The New York Times, Kirkus, and the Golden Kite Honor Award for Preaching to the Chickens by Jabari Asim. Lewis was the 2004 Caldecott Honor Award Winner for Coming on Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson and has been selected five times for the Coretta Scott King Award, along with numerous other awards.
Lewis realized his love for watercolor while studying at the Temple University Tyler School of Art. Following graduation, he taught art for twelve years in public schools and currently teaches at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He is a member of the Salmagundi Art Club and The Society of Illustrators, both in New York City. His art is widely collected and has been shown in museums and various galleries in the U.S. and abroad. Original watercolors from Lewis’s first fifty books were purchased by the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota in 2003.
The featured painting is a watercolor illustration for Richard Michelson’s Across the Alley (2006). The story is about two boys, Willie and Abe, who secretly become friends at night through their open bedroom windows across an alley from each other. Willie’s dad plays in the Negro Leagues before baseball’s racial integration and Abe’s Jewish grandfather had been a violinist forced to flee the Nazis. Willie teaches Abe how to throw a slider and Abe loans Willie his violin.
"A Jazz Moment"
by Michael Carson (oil on panel, 24' x 18')
A graduate of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Michael Carson uses a muted palette and shallow spaces in his figurative work. This painting shows the intense concentration on the face of a jazz musician during a performance.