Bruce Holwerda

This artist's work is really out of the ordinary. I saw this oil painter at another Art Festival in Naperville. His work was on the fliers and posters for the show. It was hanging up on all the light posts in downtown Naperville weeks before the show. The image on the poster was very intreguing and eye catching. I would slow down every time I drove past one of the fliers to try and figure out what the figure was doing. I finally got to see the image up close in the Bruce Holwerda's tent. It was of a man riding an orb like object. Yes I agree it was a little wierd. The man was wearing a colorful outfit and had a court jester looking hat on his head. His face was painted with many different shades that looked like deliberate face paint. His expression was very excited and enthusiastic as if in the middle of an act or performance. The loose brush strokes gave the painting a fun and care free feel. The background was plain yet the brush strokes had been pushed in a way to create motion and speed. The orb he was riding looked as if it had exhaust pipes coming out of the back of it turning it into a futuristic vehicle.

As I looked around the tent and saw lots of interesting figures. They all seemed to look like circus performers with painted red noses. Many of them looked like they were silhouettes painted in with wild intense splashes of paint. Almost like Pollack's action painting, but with complete control over every movement. I fell in love with Holwerda's work. His work has a surrealistic quality to it and that automatically caught my eye. Several of his figures wear extravagant head dresses in which you can find a whole new picture. You can't see it at first glance, but if you look closely you can find miniature people dancing around holding indescribable contraptions. Mechanical objects pertrude out around the figures heads. This series of paintings reminded me a lot of Mr. Marcet's style of painting, because he likes to incorporate suddle surrealism in his work as well.
Holwerda work was so much fun to look at and his precise study of the figure incorporated with action painting as sudle surrealistic qualities mad his work one of a kind. I am amazed that I haven't seen any of his work in an art museum yet. I recommend you check out his work. He'll be famous sooner or later! http://www.bruceholwerda.com/

Gary Wick

At the Naperville Fall Art Festival I had the pleasure of admiring thousands of fantastic art works. I picked up a card from Gary Wick's tent which displayed many various pastel drawings. I remembered him very well from the show, because he was very funny and animated. He seemed to really have a lot to say about his work. He was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable when it came to art in general. He is a self taught artist, who has taken a few classes to improve upon his technique. He has had his work shown is quite a few galleries and has received awards in some competitions. He has had dozens of one person exhibits and is very proud of this work.

I was amazed at his precise detail and beautiful blending in his pictures. I have tried using pastels numerous times and I have never been able to get the smoothness and elegance in which Gary's pictures were drawn in. The land and skyscapes blew me away! It was interesting to see the various canvas sizes that Wick used and the way he laid out his plaine air drawings. Long narrow canvases seem to work well with Wick's drawings. Sometimes this lay out has sort of a Japanese print feel to it, which I feel is very ironic since many of his drawings are of the old fashioned American landscape. His skyscapes are extremely dramatic and contain a array of vibrant colors. If I were to blend these colors together I would end up with a muddy mess, but Wick's perfectionistic touch creates a flawless transition throughout all the colors.

I talked to Gary for a while asking him about his technique and how he creates his dramatic shadows, perfect details, blending, depth within the composition... I could go on. He had simple answers for all my questions. For details he just sharpens his pastel, and for blending he uses his finger! I was shocked to hear that they master works were done with such ease. Gary asked me if I would like to draw just like he does. I simply blurted out an obvious, "Umm ya!" He directed me to his website where I could locate the step by step instructions on how to draw almost every one of his pictures. Here is the website if anyone is interested. www. wickartwork.com

I was pretty impressed so make sure you check it out!