Painting Show in Walkers Point
11 painters from the Wisconsin Plein Air Painters Association are having an exhibition of Plein Air paintings from November thru December at Comb Art Gallery in Walkers Point. The show will be available on Fridays from 5-9pm and Saturdays from 12-5pm or by appointment.
What a busy couple of months. In addition to wrapping up a portrait commission, landing two new website projects, revamping my website, working on a new batch of stock photos, and my paintings in the Miniatures Show at the Art Bar, I also have 5 paintings in a show at Comb Art Gallery (a new space) at 832 S 5th St, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53204, in Walkers Point. The space is directly across the street from the Walkers Point Art Center on 5th Street.
This exhibition showcases the work of some of the more talented Plein Air painters in Wisconsin, including Jenny Anderson, Thomas Buchs, Christine Contardi, Barbara Hayden, Carolyn Larkin, Michael Pintar, Jason Prigge, Lynn Rix, Paul Schultz, Wendie Thompson, and myself. Each of these award winning artists has between 3-5 paintings on display. For those of you unfamiliar with these names, these are my peers and friends in the plein air community, and are die-hard painters.
The show opened to the public this evening, and I sat the space with Wendie Thompson, who was instrumental in finding the space, hanging and lighting the show. We had a last minute scramble to get the labels up and rearrange the work in the window, and set up the sandwich board sign that I loaned to the event. It was a relatively quiet evening, participating artists Tom Buchs and Jenny Anderson stopped by, as did Mike Neilson, the building owner, and a few curious passers-by.
After a long conversation with the buildings owner, it became quite apparent just how much work went into restoring this building and the yard behind it. Quite an interesting history, actually. The owner is a sculptor with her own interesting history, and due to her contributions, the building was renovated from a vacant building on the verge of being demolished to make room for a parking lot, to a building now listed on the historic registry of architecturally significant buildings in Milwaukee. The back lot was transformed from a chain link fenced-in yard that let water into the basement, to a stylish garden with a custom wood slot and wrought-iron 
fence, custom railings, some amazing trees, creative retaining walls and lawn sculptures.
Across the street from this space is the historic Walkers Point Art Center, something I was a member of back when I was in college. I had a couple of paintings in a show there once, but have since moved on. I am hoping that we will get some of those artists and their crowd to stop in to see the work. Just North of the space on 5th Street is La Perla, one of Milwaukee’s better Mexican restaurants. We’ll see what sort of traffic that brings.
The artist reception for this event will be held on Friday, December 6th, 2013, from 5-9pm. If you have the time, stop by and meet some of the artists. It will be a great time.
I will also have an event going on at MIAD that day, specifically the 2013 Student/Alumni Sale, in which I should have 30 paintings (including about 20 new works not previously exhibitited). Stay tuned for more information.
Sage Arts Studio