Category Archives: News and Events

NOW ON VIEW: Works from the GRAND RIVER project @ GERALD PETERS GALLERY. Santa Fe.

Backstory

In 2019, I traveled along the Rio Grande from Creede, Colorado to Bernalillo, New Mexico, keeping a journal and producing images of various sites along the river. In the spirit of 19th-century artist-explorers such as the Kern brothers, Seth Eastman, Albert Bierstadt, Tomas Moran and William Henry Jackson, my focus was painting in sketchbooks, making photographs, and producing written narratives. While all three of these activities have traditionally been regarded as note-taking, research, or rehearsals for “major works”, I regard them instead as elements, within a single practice, in which the art abides. I was also mindful of the cultural diversity of the parched region through which this waterway flows, and how using a codex as the substrate for painting puts my work in dialogue with major non-Western book-arts traditions; from the Islamic world and the Himalayas to East Asia and Mesoamerica. Synthetic outcomes from this project include monoprints produced with Michael Costello @ Hand Graphics in Santa Fe; Grand River Sketchbook; a fine-press limited edition (25) suite of ten (10) archival pigment prints, printed by Orion Studios in Santa Fe, in a find handmade binding by Peter Geraty of Praxis Bindery in Easthampton, Mass. Also on view are hand-embellished color intaglio copperplate etchings, with digital chine-colle produced by Philadelphia master printer Cindi Royce Ettinger, and original watercolors. Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769. A number of these works have been installed at Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, where they will remain on view through the summer.

Grand River Sketchbook (unique original painting journal). Watercolor sketchbook 3.5 x 10.5 inches (open) in a fine handmade Solander box by Mita Saldana, Against the Grain Book Binding, Albuquerque NM. Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

A closer look: The page spread seen here in the original Grand River Sketchbook is a view of of White Rock Canyon, dated March 2, 2019.

 

OTHER WORKS ON VIEW

Fort Union. Watercolor. 4 x 10 inches. 2019
Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

 

Moonrise, White Rock Canyon. Image size: 14.5 x 19 inches. Monoprint on paper. Sheet size 22 x 30 inches. Printed by Hand Graphics, Santa Fe, NM. 2019
Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

 

Confluence: Rio Grande & Rio Pueblo de Taos. Image size: 14.5 x 19 inches. Monoprint on paper. Sheet size 22 x 30 inches. printed by Hand Graphics, Santa Fe, NM. 2019
Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

 

Moonrise, Confluence. Image size: 14.5 x 19 inches. Monoprint on paper. Sheet size 22 x 30 inches. printed by Hand Graphics, Santa Fe, NM. 2019. Contact Maria Hajic at:
mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

 

Tunyo, or The Black Mesa. (#3) Hand-embellished color intaglio copperplate etching with digital Chine-colle, printed by Philadelphia Master Printer Cindi Royce Ettinger. 2020. Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

 

Tunyo, or The Black Mesa (#4) Hand-embellished color intaglio copperplate etching with digital Chine-colle, printed by Philadelphia Master Printer Cindi Royce Ettinger 2020. Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

 

Limited edition of 25: Grand River Sketchbook. 2020. A suite of 10 archival pigment prints. Printed by Orion Studios, Santa Fe; Binding by Peter Geraty, Praxis Bindery, Easthampton Mass. View the edition HERE. Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769    

COMING SOON:


Sketchbook Traveler. Southwest was due to be released in May, but due to supply chain issues related to the Covid pandemic, the first edition (which has been printed overseas) is due to arrive in late summer. Following up on the success of Sketchbook Traveler: Hudson Valley, volume 2 in this trilogy explores  the American Southwest from New Mexico to the Mojave Desert in journal-paintings and field notes by the author. Conceived as a backpacker’s field-guide and coffee-table art book, this compact volume includes lessons in print; a “why-to” guide to augmenting ubiquitous photographic devices.  Blank pages scattered with inspirational quotes are provided for keeping one’s own traveler’s sketchbook. Pre-order here: LINK

Also:


Order your copy of the book here: LINK

 

For information about Needlewatcher Editions, write to

ed******@ne***********.com












Needlewatcher Editions. PO Box 233. Essex, New York. 12936-0233. (347) 266-5652

NOW ON VIEW AT GERALD PETERS GALLERY, SANTA FE

Installation view: The Western Gallery, Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, NM.
Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

Backstory

In 2018, I traveled along the Rio Grande from Creede, Colorado to Bernalillo, New Mexico, keeping a journal and producing images of various sites along the river. In the  spirit of 19th-century artist-explorers such as the Kern brothers, Seth Eastman, Albert Bierstadt, Tomas Moran and William Henry Jackson, my focus was painting in sketchbooks, making photographs, and producing written narratives. While all three of these activities have traditionally been regarded as note-taking, research, or rehearsals for “major works”, I regard them instead as elements, within a single practice, in which the art abides.  I was also mindful of the cultural diversity of the parched region through which this waterway flows, and how using a codex as the substrate for painting puts my work in dialogue with major non-Western book-arts traditions; from the Islamic world and the Himalayas to East Asia and Mesoamerica. Synthetic outcomes from this project include monoprints produced with Michael Costello @ Hand Graphics in Santa Fe; Grand River Sketchbook; a fine-press limited edition (25) suite of ten (10) archival pigment prints, printed by Orion Studios in Santa Fe, in a find handmade binding by Peter Geraty of Praxis Bindery in Easthampton, Mass. Also on view are hand-embellished color intaglio copperplate etchings, with digital chine-colle produced by Philadelphia master printer Cindi Royce Ettinger, and original watercolors. Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769. A number of these works have been installed at Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, where they will remain on view through the summer.

Grand River Sketchbook (unique original painting journal). Watercolor sketchbook 3.5 x 10.5 inches (open) in a fine handmade Solander box by Mita Saldana, Against the Grain Book Binding, Albuquerque NM. Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

 

Fort Union. Watercolor. 4 x 10 inches. 2019
Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

 

Moonrise, White Rock Canyon. Image size: 14.5 x 19 inches. Monoprint on paper. Sheet size 22 x 30 inches. Printed by Hand Graphics, Santa Fe, NM. 2019
Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

 

Confluence: Rio Grande & Rio Pueblo de Taos. Image size: 14.5 x 19 inches. Monoprint on paper. Sheet size 22 x 30 inches. printed by Hand Graphics, Santa Fe, NM. 2019
Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

 

Moonrise, Confluence. Image size: 14.5 x 19 inches. Monoprint on paper. Sheet size 22 x 30 inches. printed by Hand Graphics, Santa Fe, NM. 2019. Contact Maria Hajic at:
mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

 

Tunyo, or The Black Mesa. (#3) Hand-embellished color intaglio copperplate etching with digital Chine-colle, printed by Philadelphia Master Printer Cindi Royce Ettinger. 2020. Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

 

Tunyo, or The Black Mesa (#4) Hand-embellished color intaglio copperplate etching with digital Chine-colle, printed by Philadelphia Master Printer Cindi Royce Ettinger 2020. Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

 

Limited edition of 25: Grand River Sketchbook. 2020. A suite of 10 archival pigment prints. Printed by Orion Studios, Santa Fe; Binding by Peter Geraty, Praxis Bindery, Easthampton Mass. View the edition HERE. Contact Maria Hajic at: mhajic@gpgallery.com, or call (505) 954-5769

1005 Paseo de Peralta
Sante Fe, New Mexico 87501

For information about Needlewatcher Editions, write to editions@needlewatcher.com
Needlewatcher Editions. PO Box 233. Essex, New York. 12936-0233. (347) 266-5652

FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS: (NEW) SKETCHBOOK TRAVELER BLOG

AN ONGOING JOURNEY

Thinking about art can be the same as making art. At some point I came to the realization that a work of art is not just the object, but the practice that leads to its creation.  Marketable products represent but a minuscule aspect of that process. Trying to give shape to what abides beneath the surface if what first led me to writing. As it gave me another way to organize my thoughts, journal-keeping nurtured a deeper appreciate of language, which led me to write articles, essays, and books. Migrated from the easel into sketchbooks, my visual art began to dovetail with my literary efforts in ways that became a pas-de-deux between words and images. Blending lifelong interests in history, art, and the environment with a passion for travel and learning has cleared a path toward  deeper engagements with nature through drawing, painting and writing, in ways that promote environmental awareness, historic preservation and ecological civics.

Next year (2022) two more volumes of Sketchbook Traveler will be released, devoted to the Southwest, and New England. I have also just signed a contract to produce in three volumes, a 21st-century  homage to Benson J. Lossing’s 1851 Pictorial Field-Book of the American Revolution. Based on research and mindful travel through drawing and writing, these books will explore historic landscapes to unearth hidden narratives of ethnic diversity, environmental impact, and collective memory, shaped by military conflict and the process of nation-building. The first volume is scheduled for release in 2025, which will commence observances of the 250th anniversary of the American War of Independence.

Regular blog posts and updates will be published, downloadable in PDF format. Subscribers will be notified by email of these updates, as well as lectures, workshops and other events related  to these and other projects. Become a part of the journey.

WOMEN IN THE DARK. Now available to read as an e-book

 

Katherine Manthorne:  Women in the Dark. Female Photographers 1850-1900. Schiffer Publishing, 2020.

Recover the stories of long-overlooked American women who, at a time when women rarely worked outside the home, became commercial photographers and shaped the new, challenging medium. Covering two generations of photographers ranging from New York City to California’s mining districts, this study goes beyond a broad survey and explores individual careers through primary sources and new materials. Profiles of the photographers animate their careers by exploring how they began, the details of running their own studios, and their visual output. The photos featured vary in form–daguerreotype, tintype, carte de visite, and more–and subject, including civil war portraits, postmortem photography, and landscape photography. This welcome resource fills in gaps in photographic, American, and women’s history, and convincingly lays out the parallels between the growth of photography as an available medium and the late 19th-century Women’s Movement.

Size: 9″ x 10 1/2″ x 5/8″ | 72 color and b/w images | 144 pp
ISBN13: 9780764360169

 READ IT NOW

2021 SPRING SCHEDULE: WORKSHOPS AND CLASSES.

Updated Schedule of Workshops and Classes for spring, 2021. Venues include Albany Institute of History and Art, Greenwich Art Society, and Hudson River Museum.

Schedule: PDF: SCHEDULE Workshop Schedule Spring 2021

Poster: PDF: POSTER_WORKSHOPS AND CLASSES_S2021_FEB14_21

For all other enquiries, or to be placed on a list to be notified of futute workshops, classes and events, please send an email to:

wo*******@ne***********.com











Tandem Talk: Kathie Manthorne & James McElhinney. Tuesday February 23, 2021 @ 7pm.

FREE. Online.
How the Adirodnacks Changed Landspace Painting.
The talk is free and open to all. Donations are encouraged
Register HERE

 

BOOKS BY KATHERINE MANTHORNE

BOOKS BY JAMES LANCEL McELHINNEY

Some titles by Manthorne & McElhinney are also available locally, on ther Adirondack Coast of Lake Champlain at Kit & Syl Studio. 1598 Route 22. Whallonsburg. Essex, New York. 12936. (518)412-4026.

he***@ki*************.com











. Facebook.

DOWNLOAD PDF:

Download (PDF, 583KB)

Just arrived: Advance copy of SKETCHBOOK TRAVELER: HUDSON VALLEY

An advance copy of Sketchbook Traveler: Hudson Valley has just arrived! The brilliant crew at the Schiffer book farm in Atglen, PA have outdone themselves.
The impetus for this project was to create a hybrid that would be part art-book, part field-guide and journal, unpacking the mindful art of traveling light. We envisioned a book that would be equally at home in a backpack, or on a shelf in one’s library  I couldn’t be more pleased to find a volume that feels both like a journal one might carry in a backpack, or an attractive addition to ones library.


At Newcomb, New York. The head of navigation of the Hudson River. lake Tear of the Clouds on the slopes of Mount Marcy is the source of Feldspar Brook, which due to its elevation at 4,293 feet is accepted as the literal source of the Hudson. This can be a bit misleading if one ignores the fact that in its descent to the confluence of waters at Newcomb, the Hudson is assembled from Calamity Brook, Indian Pass Brook, Fishing Brook, Opalescent River, Newcomb Lake and others. It was here that famed Abenaki guide Mitchell Sabbattis met traveler-artists like Benson Lossing and Winslow Homer. The photo gives readers an idea of the size pf the book–large enough to festoon a coffee-table, yet small enough to carry in a knapsack.the book includes a section of work-pages with inspirational quotes.

The official publication date is late October, but the book is available now for advance purchase.

ORDER: SKETCHBOOK TRAVELER by James L. McElhinney (c) 2020. Schiffer Publishing).

Front cover (above). Back cover (below)  The spine is bound in red cloth. The book is provided with a black elastic strap, like a field-journal

Works on Paper in a new Online Exhibition.

Drawings make visible the mind of the artist. In collecting oral histories for the Archives of American Art I had the privilege of spending considerable amounts of time with prominent art-dealers and collectors. The late Eugene V. Thaw had a passion for drawing, as did the late Richard Gray. Both seemed to regard the connoisseurship of drawing as a mark of the most advanced collectors.


James Lancel McElhinney. Ballyheerin, Knockalla and Mulroy Bay from Leatbeg. Dry media on paper. 17.5 x 25 inches. Framed

I am grateful to Tony Carretta for curating several of my works in the online exhibition Drawing Today 2020.
Tony’s enterprising spirit has rallied an admirable roster of wonderful artists, many of whom have been dear friends over many years.
The exhibiton is a reminder that while life is short, art endures. Hope abides in the age of COVID.

Drawing from observation remains the best way to transform visual experience into knowledge and ideas. Drawing from memory allows one to shape knowledge into new visual experiences. Each of these practices informs the other. Fieldwork is generally regarded as preparations for the studio production of finished works. My approach is slightly different. The practice is the art, to which research, travel, sketchbook and studio activities are integral, reciprocal processes. After seeing a collection of penschildern by Van de Velde at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, I was encouraged to revisit the idea of graphic painting. In the late nineties I had produced a series of large palimpsests, combining maps, pictures and texts celebrating historic sites. As with my journal-paintings today, these works scorn the notion that drawing was mere lab-work, somehow inferior to paintings on canvas.

A selection of works available:


James Lancel McElhinney. Tara From Skreen. 17.5 x 24 inches. Framed


James Lancel McElhinney. Hudson Highlands from Storm King 17.5 x 24 inches. Framed


James Lancel McElhinney. Fort Washington on ther Potomac. 17.5 x 24 inches. Framed


James Lancel McElhinney. In the Margin of the Rockies. 17.5 x 24 inches. Framed


James Lancel McElhinney. Fort Lee aka Fort Constitution. 17.5 x 24 inches. Framed


James Lancel McElhinney. Bastion Belvedere: Constitution Marsh and West Point from Boscobel. 17.5 x 24 inches. Framed


James Lancel McElhinney. Canyon de Los Frijoles. Bandelier National Monument. 17.5 x 24 inches. Framed


James Lancel McElhinney. Fort Macon. North Carolina. 17.5 x 24 inches. Framed

Drawing Today 2020. Curated by Tony Carretta. New Arts Projects, Litchfield Connecticut.
PDF:

Download (PDF, 266KB)


All works in the exhibition are available for purchase.

Follow James Lancel McElhinney and The Sketchbook Traveler on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

Peruse previous posts here. Dispatches #1-70. April 1-June 8, 2020.

Coming Soon: Hardcover. $24.95. From Schiffer Publishing. Release date: September 2020.

Proofs for the new limited edition Grand River Sketchbook have arrived.

NOTICE: Needlewatcher Editions will publish my new suite of archival pigment prints, Grand River Sketchbook

Based on journal-paintings produced during my 2018 exploration of the Rio Grande between John Dunn Bridge and Kuaua Pueblo, a suite of ten signed, dated and numbered images printed by Orion Studios in Santa Fe, in a custom binding produced by master bookbinder Mita Saldana of Against the Grain Bookbinding in Albuquerque.

To be notified when this will be available for subscription, please write to

ed******@ne***********.com











, subject-line Grand River

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 2 @ HUDSON RIVER MUSEUM

Join us tomorrow @ Hudson River Museum. 2pm.
Based on RSVPs, the program is drawing a great crowd and promises to be a fun & informative afternoon.
#HRM100, #DiscovertheHudsonAnew, #JamesMcElhinney, #HudsonRiver, #Estuary
https://www.hrm.org/…/nexus-hudson-river-panel-discussion-…/