Rachel Steely : Indianapolis Fine Art Artist : Art Class Instructor for Painting, Photography » paintings

Sunshine and Movement

Rachel — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:14:38 +0000

Golden Quiver, 12" by 9", 2011

Butterflies are highly affected by the sun. On a cloudy day, they will sit in their cage with their wings closed and practically hibernate. When the sun comes out, they fly around. The warmth and light invigorate them. View more butterflies in my gallery.

Patterns in Flight: Artist Talk

Rachel — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:55:19 +0000

This Friday I will give a presentation about my Patterns in Flight series that is currently on display at Asbury University. Along with me, artist, Joel Klepac, will be talking about his work which is also on display. Current faculty will also talk about their work in the Faculty Exhibit.

Asbury University Artist Talk 2011
Friday, March 4, 5:30pm
McCreless Fine Arts Building, Rm 203
RSVP by March 2 to fmontgomery@asbury.edu

Dinner will be catered and door prizes will be given away. Donations will be accepted from non-students.

For more information about the current show visit the Patterns in Flight at Asbury announcement on my blog or the Patterns in Flight press release on the Asbury University web site.

Send me an email if you are in the area and plan to attend, so I can look out for you.

Patterns in Flight show at Asbury University

admin — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:19:24 +0000

My alma mater, Asbury University (formerly Asbury College) has asked me to show my butterfly series, Patterns in Flight. The show will be on view from January 15 until March 25. The twelve-piece series is located in the Kenyon Room of the Morrison-Kenyon Student Center.

The hours of the center are:
Mon-Thu. 7:30 a.m. – 12:30 a.m.
Fri. 7:30 a.m. – 1 a.m.
Sat. 10 a.m. – 1 a.m.
Sun. 1:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.

I have also been asked to give a presentation about my series to faculty, students and the public on Friday, March 4. The location has yet to be announced. Please contact me for the specific location and time.

Patterns in Flight
January 15 – March 25, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011 – Series presentation and discussion
Morrison-Kenyon Student Center
Asbury University
1 Macklem Dr.
Wilmore, Kentucky 40390

Patterns in Flight is a twelve-piece oil painting series that provokes thoughts on time, refined beauty, and overcoming struggles. It contains a variety of butterfly species: painted ladies, a blue morpho, malachites, a citris swallowtail, postmans, a variable cracker and a zebra longwing.

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Rachel Steely (James) has always been drawn to natural, organic objects and chooses to portray them with oil on textured surfaces. Often, she presents her subject in “dynamic still life” with a shift of time through movement or growth-decay. Steely is originally from the rust-belt city of Rockford, Illinois. She left the manufacturing town to study fine art at Asbury College and find inspiration among the rolling hills and forests of rural Kentucky. Although consistently representational, she strives to create subtlety layered visual and philosophical metaphors. In 2005, Steely returned to the country’s heartland where she is active in the local art community of Indianapolis, Indiana. Next to oil painting, her greatest passion is helping others appreciate art by teaching private classes. She leads and inspires students of all ages from her studio.

Patterns in Flight encore reception

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:49:55 +0000

If you were unable to make it in August, you have another chance to view the Patterns in Flight butterfly paintings art show. This Friday the butterfly series, Patterns in Flight, will be on display at Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage. The series opening will be September 3, 2010 at 6pm-10pm during the IDADA’s August First Friday and the series will show through September 25. Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage is located at 1125 Brookside Ave #C7 Indianapolis, Indiana.

If you cannot make it to the opening, Wug’s gallery hours are 12-4pm Friday and Saturday or by appointment. To make an appointment, call Wug Laku at 317-270-8258.

From the gallery owner:

This exhibit is a spectacular display of freedom in motion. Spend enough time in the room with these paintings and you’ll feel the air begin to vibrate and move about you. Although the nominal subject is butterflies, the real subject of these paintings is how powerfully color, line and composition can combine into patterns to create a vibrant, dynamic, even explosive viewing experience, thereby introducing us to a new experience of our everyday world.

The painting series is about journeys: the journey of each butterfly, but also my journey. Patterns in Flight provokes thoughts on time, refined beauty, and overcoming struggles. It contains a variety of butterfly species: painted ladies, a blue morpho, malachites, a citris swallowtail, postmans, a variable cracker and a zebra longwing.

RVSP today at the Facebook event: Patterns in Flight at Wug Laku’s

Butterfly paintings to be public art at Indianapolis Arts Council new offices

Rachel — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:21:16 +0000

This May, the Arts Council of Indianapolis is moving offices from the Guaranty Building at 20 N. Meridian Street to 924 N. Pennsylvania St. Their new location, called the Metzger Building, is an art deco building covered in white tile and built in 1928. It once housed a roller skating rink.

As a part of the Art Council of Indianapolis’ Picture Windows Program, a Public Art Indianapolis project, the Arts Council requested from local artists images of current work to display on a large 36′ by 10′ banner. The above collage of three pieces from my latest dynamic still-life series, Patterns in Flight, was selected. This, Patterns in Flight triptych, will be a vinyl banner on the exterior of the building. The Patterns in Flight triptych is scheduled to be installed Tuesday, May 25, 2010 and will remain installed for one year.

The entire butterfly series, Patterns in Flight, will be on display at Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage. The series opening will be August 6, 2010 during the August First Friday and the series will show through August 28. Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage is located at 1125 Brookside Ave #C7 Indianapolis, Indiana.

Preview: Approaches to Abstraction

Rachel — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:00:40 +0000

The title of the show, Approaches to Abstraction, describes the variety of the pieces in Dave Voelpel’s show. The media of the pieces range from acrylics, oil, watercolor, collage, and mixed media. These seemingly diverse pieces are tied together through layers and the theme of landscapes. In the piece to the left (Voelpel has not titled any of the pieces in this show), there are at least three abstract landscapes combined into one painting. The horizontal layers contain the possibility of multiple landscapes stacked vertically within the picture plane. There are also translucent layers that add depth to the images. These physical, tactile, textural layers are complemented by layers that are constructed for composition or to provoke thought.

Most of Voepel’s paintings are spontaneous and en plein air (painted outdoors). Instead of carefully composing before he paints, he chooses items for his collages out of a bag. “Every piece is new, fresh, and original,” says Voelpel, when discussing his process. When he is working on an acrylic abstract painting, he uses both, additive and subtractive approaches. He treats the paint in a variety of ways with the result that it emulates watercolor, glaze, and sometimes encaustic. Voelpel does not include titles with his pieces so that viewers can interact with the image without being influenced by a title.

The opening for the exhibit is April 2, 2010 from 6:00 – 10:00. The show will be in place April 3rd through April 24th by appointment only. To make an appointment, call Dave Voelpel at 317-345-3426.

Five Seasons Studio Gallery
1125 Brookside Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46202
April 2, 6pm

Detail of a piece that has a Newspaper comic page as a base with collaged faces and translucent layers of acrylic paint.

This small piece has an encaustic appearance with depth created by subtle use of white. The layers of white give an atmospheric appearance.

1125 Brookside Avenue

Indianapolis, IN 46202

Works at Oranje: Contemporary art & music event

admin — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:45:00 +0000

My three latest butterfly works, After Thistles, Fluttering Cosmopolitan, and Cynthesis will be on display this Saturday, October 19th from 8pm to 2am at Oranje, a contemporary art & music event. Wug Laku of Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage is representing my work at booth 17.

Wug will be displaying his drawings, digital art prints, light boxes, and furniture along with the jewelry of Nancy Lee (I’m sure she’ll be there, too!) and the mixed media of Cagney King –among others. They will be recreating the feel of his gallery in their 22′ x 24′ mega-booth for an intimate discussion with the artists. This past weekend, they were practically living there getting the space ready.

Tickets to the event are $20 and is only open to 21 and older.

Oranje
Wug Laku / Booth 17
2323 North Illinois
Indianapolis, IN 46208

May shows: Eye Music, Spring, and Yarn Burners

Rachel — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:39:02 +0000

First Friday for May is quickly approaching and there are several places around town that my art work can be found. I have one piece each in three group shows.

Wug Laku is hosting his retrospective show Eye Music in his gallery, Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage. This show will include artists that have been featured in the gallery during the last two years. You can see one of my first butterfly paintings in my upcoming series at this show. I have included Wug’s poster promoting the event.

The official hours for this event are 6 – 9 p.m. on May 1 during the IDADA First Friday Gallery Tour. The following artists’ works will be on display: Bernadette Ostrozovich – Patrick Flaherty – Eric Jones – Rachel Steely -Mark Pack – Jim Gerard – Pam Fraizer – Nancy Lee – William Ray Denton – James Ratliff – Wug Laku. This gallery is located just above Massachusetts Avenue at 1125 Brookside Avenue C7.

Also, I will be showing one of my studies of Asian Lilie’s, Three Stages, in the Athenaeum ArtSpace’s “Spring” exhibit. The Athenaeum ArtSpace is located in downtown Indianapolis on 401 East Michigan St, 2nd floor.

The Yarn Burners are “bombing” the Harrison Center for the Arts with knit graffiti on May 1,2009. I look at my piece as a type of art instillation that I made out of yarn for one of the stairwell railings.

Authenticity or Accuracy

Rachel — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:18:37 +0000

There is a thread of thought that scoffs images, stories, and other communications which tell a story in a historically inaccurate way. Those who follow this thought pattern would tear apart Pieter Brueghel II’s Census at Bethlehem completed in 1605. I spent some time studying this painting last fall while in the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, The Netherlands. This painting is referring to the Biblical and historical account where Caesar Augustus called for a census to be taken of the people in the Roman Empire. People had to return to where their family originated. In the Biblical account this is why Mary and Joseph, who lived in Nazereth, were in Bethlehem when Jesus was born. Bethlehem is a Jewish city from the time of the Roman Empire right? Well not in Brueghal’s image. His Bethlehem is complete with medieval Belgian city, a Northern European castle, snow on the ground with a snow ball fight, a Christian church (before Christ was born?), and a wild boar (definitely not Kosher) being slaughtered. Not quite the accurate picture of Bethlehem as we imagine it, however, consider the original audience of the image. Consider that the audience could relate to the setting, and that most who viewed the picture had probably never traveled very far from their home city in their life. Without pictures of what far away places look like, one tends to consider everywhere the same as where one is. Also, the story takes upon itself the life of the common man. The story becomes integrated into the the 17th century Dutch life and not a pious thing above their reach. Is the story more authentic* when it is historically accurate but unrelated to the culture in which it is told, or is it more authentic* when it is told within a culture taking on meaning that those viewing the image can understand?

*I am using the word authentic and not the word accurate.

Variations on a Theme Part 2

Rachel — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:00:54 +0000

While walking through the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, the painting, Jerusalem (Golgatha, Consummatum Est, Crucifixion) by Jean-Léon Gérôme caught my eye. It did not catch my eye because of the style, but due to the treatment of the subject. This is an interesting painting because it is the classical crucifixion theme redone in a way that I have not seen before. The cross itself is not visible. Instead one views the shadows of the three laden cross as they fall across the rocky ground. Christ is not in the picture, but does that weaken the story? There are symbols of the darkness that clothed the day for three hours according to the account of the event in Mark 15:33. Jerusalem is lit up in the background and darkness like a curtain is falling (or lifting) from the right upper corner. The darkness blocked the light and there is a shadow that divides the city of Jerusalem from the place of the skull. One sees a distant caravan of people walking in the background. They are passing by the scene, rather than crowding around the crosses as is pictured in other versions of the story. The shadows of the crosses stretch lonely across the foreground.

While in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany another more contemporary crucifixion and rather graphic image by Lovis Corinth, captured my attention. His work is entitled The Red Christ and was completed in 1922. This Christ has depleted outstretched limbs complimented with thick red blood. The support is covered with swirling areas of color and large areas of paint. Out of this mess is an experience of the horrific moment that Christ was stuck with a spear. A crowd is depicted around the cross, with all but one or two figures indistinguishable. Out of the works in this post, this piece, best depicts the horrific nature of the death on the cross.

These are four different scenes of the same story. The paintings were done in four different centuries over five hundred years. Style changed. The message had different emphasis, but the story is the same.