Tuesday, February 28, 2023

45th Annual Blue Springs Fine Art Show, March 11-12

Coming up soon!

The 45th Annual Blue Springs Fine Art Show will be happening on March 11th and 12th in Blue Springs, Missouri.  The show will once again be held at Vesper Hall.  

If you are in the Kansas City area, I hope you will make it to the show!  All who attend will have the opportunity to cast votes for People's Choice.  I will have two pieces showing, which will also be available for purchase, including my latest oil on linen A Great And Glorious Light:


45th Annual Blue Springs Fine Art Show

March 11-12, 2023

Vesper Hall

400 NW Vesper St., Blue Springs, Missouri

Saturday March 11th, 10:00am - 5:00pm

Sunday March 12th, 11:00am - 4:00pm

Free admission.




Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Small Works Exhibition and New Painting! 2/14/23

Hello!

Just a quick update to share my current group show happening now at The Rice Gallery of Fine Art in Overland Park, Kansas.  The show is called Little Gems, and it is a national juried small works exhibition that is now open, and continues through March 10th.  The show features 95 small paintings out of over 700 entries from across the U.S.  And one of those paintings is my own Spirit of Autumn no.4, available through the gallery and its online store below:


Little Gems

A National Juried Small Works Exhibition

The Rice Gallery of Fine Art

February 10 - March 10, 2023

4829 W. 119th Street, Overland Park, Kansas

https://www.thericegallery.com/small-works


Secondly, I want to share my most recently finished piece, available directly from me.  Please message me at ryandelgadoart@gmail.com if you are interested!

A Great And Glorious Light
oil on linen, 12x24"
$1800


For more updates, please visit my website:  https://www.ryandelgadoart.com

Find me on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/ryandelgadoart

Find me on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ryandelgadoart



Tuesday, January 24, 2023

The Rice Gallery of Fine Art Small Works Exhibition, February 10 - March 10, 2023

Hello!

If you are reading this, you are cordially invited to The Rice Gallery of Fine Art's annual national juried exhibition, featuring small paintings from around the U.S.  

The details for the show are as follows:

National Juried Small Works Exhibition
The Rice Gallery of Fine Art

February 10 - March 10, 2023

4829 W 119th Street
Overland Park, Kansas
913-685-8889

As of yet, I am not aware of an opening reception being held for the show.  But the show will be open to the public during the gallery's regular hours starting February 10th.  My recent fall color-inspired painting Spirit of Autumn no.4 will be showing and available for purchase from the gallery during the show.


For any questions or additional information, please contact me at ryandelgadoart@gmail.com or The Rice Gallery of Fine Art at 913-685-8889.


Thursday, December 15, 2022

Art Gripes #4: AI-Generated Garbage

Maybe it's because I am an actual artist, and I know what it's like to actually create something with my own two hands.  But I really don't get this disturbing new fad of AI-generated "art" that I'm seeing.

The fact that it's a thing is already bad enough, but it seems that most people are using this technology to have images of themselves generated.  As if we needed even more narcissism in the world.

And others are seeing it and actually praising it?!  I even saw this comment under one such social media post of someone who sadly fell under the spell of this disturbing new trend:

"This Ai generated art work is so much better than the human modern artists that throw paint on canvas, or leave it blank, or duct tape a banana to the wall, or all the other such lazy poppycock nonsense they dub art and their work that I fully support going artificial intelligence in this way...for now."

On the one hand, yes, it is a fair indictment of the state of contemporary fine art. Because such worthless (literal) garbage is still being produced and given worth by the establishment art world.

On the other hand, AI is neither art nor is it work. And this commenter sadly believes that bananas taped to the wall, and "lazy poppycock nonsense" is all that contemporary fine artists have to offer today. And that AI-generated images are the answer to it.

But what about the AI images themselves? What appeal do they have? Why would anyone think they are interesting or cool? They're not. The images are as lifeless and artificial as the process it took to generate them.

Perhaps some of you out there remember an old movie from the 80s or early 90s called The Lawnmower Man. In it, a young developmentally disabled man named Jobe was offered the opportunity to play a few computer brain games that were developed by a computer scientist named Dr. Angelo. The games started out as a way to improve and increase Jobe's intelligence, but it ultimately went way too far, and not only turned Jobe into a super genius, but gave him telepathic abilities and the ability to get into people's minds, and he ultimately used these powers to get revenge on those that bullied and tormented him. In the end, Jobe was literally, physically consumed by this virtual reality world, and the only thing left of his existence was a computer-generated version of himself.

And that is exactly what these AI-generated images look like, and what they immediately reminded me of when I first started seeing them pop up.

If the avant-garde is the anti-establishment, and "pushes the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or status quo", then traditional representational fine art is the avant-garde of the 21st century. What could be more anti-status quo than an uprising of fine artists bringing the greatness of the time-tested techniques of realism and impressionism back out of the dark and suppressive shadows of the modern art movement of the 20th century that should have died out decades ago? Thing is, we have the artists, but what we don't have is enough influence. Otherwise, we wouldn't have the ignorance of those who think that contemporary art is nothing more than bananas duct taped to the wall. Furthermore, there wouldn't be any thought that photography is the highest standard of realism that can be produced in a 2-dimensional image.

And most certainly NO ONE would dare think that an artificially manufactured image could ever possibly pass as a legitimate form of art, let alone as the answer to the drivel of establishment modern art. By definition, if the human being with his hand, heart, and brain have been removed from the equation, it is not art.






Tuesday, September 27, 2022

MVIS Closing Reception: September 30th

The 2022 Missouri Valley Impressionist Society Juried Exhibition will be having its closing reception this Friday, September 30th.

This year's MVIS Exhibition was hosted by the Cathy Kline Fine Art Gallery in Parkville, MO, and opened August 2nd.  

Details for the closing reception:

Friday, September 30th, 5:00 - 7:00pm

Cathy Kline Fine Art Gallery

8701 NW River Park Drive, Parkville, Missouri

For those of you in the greater Kansas City area, I hope you will have this final chance to see the show!  My two paintings (pictured below) are still available for purchase through the gallery, and will be available directly from me if they do not sell at the show.  Please contact me at ryandelgadoart@gmail.com to inquire!

Water And Spirit
oil on linen, 16x20", $2850

Arise, My Soul, Arise
oil on linen, 11x14", $1000




Thursday, July 14, 2022

11th Annual MVIS National Juried Exhibition: August 2 - September 30, 2022

The Missouri Valley Impressionist Society's 11th Annual Juried Exhibition will be held August 2nd through September 30th at the Cathy Kline Fine Art Gallery in Parkville, Missouri.

And yours truly will have two paintings showing and available for purchase!  I was so happy that I finally joined the MVIS back in October 2021.  I was just in time with my new membership to enter the 10th Annual show, which took place at the beautiful Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, Missouri.  I am really excited for this next show to happen, and I hope you will check it out!

11th Annual MVIS Juried Exhibition

August 2nd - September 30th, 2022

Opening Reception: Saturday, August 6th, 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Cathy Kline Fine Art Gallery

8701 NW River Park Dr.

Parkville, Missouri

Water And Spirit
oil on linen, 16x20"
Available at Cathy Kline Fine Art Gallery, August 2 - September 30, 2022


Arise, My Soul, Arise
oil on linen, 11x14"
Available at Cathy Kline Fine Art Gallery, August 2 - September 30, 2022




Saturday, July 9, 2022

"Elements of Landscape Painting: Trees" Now Available on Gumroad

My latest instructional video Elements of Landscape Painting: Trees is now available for purchase and download from Gumroad!  Check out the preview below, and please visit my Gumroad link to get the full length video:  https://ryandelgado.gumroad.com/l/trees



Elements of Landscape Painting: Trees

Without question, one of the most common elements to a landscape painting is a tree. They're everywhere! Whether they are distant groups of trees or individual ones in the foreground of our composition, chances are if we're painting a landscape, there's going to be a tree somewhere.

In this video, artist Ryan Delgado demonstrates his approach to painting an individual tree in the foreground starting with the initial toning of the canvas, followed by the block-in stage, and the build up of alla prima applications of color. But he's not stopping there! In addition to the tree itself, Ryan addresses other surrounding elements of the landscape that give the tree context and allow for a more convincing representation of nature, including a second tree in the middle background, the distant trees in the far background, the sky peeking through the leaves and branches, and the lay of the land. Painting trees is all about identifying shapes and the skill of careful observation of color and value, and those are the two most valueable lessons of this demonstration.