Please vote for me to get a grant at the link bellow.

Please vote for me to get a grant..
Aaron Smith - Artists Wanted 2010

David Patel catches me again....

My very talented student has a bad habit of drawing caricatures of his teachers in class. http://davidpatel.blogspot.com/

Here is a link to my feature with The Advocate.

ADVOCATE.com

The double apron look. In the studio...

A bit posey. Taken by my great friend (and studio mate) Beverly on my phone.
The new studio is fantastic: pleasant company, great light, and high ceilings. It really has been a smart move. When outside commitments keep me away from the studio however, I feel crabby.

Some great press....

I am pleased to share that the 2010 Summer Issue of NY Arts Magazine features a spread on my work as well as the dang cover! Here is a link to read the text. http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=575734:victorian-excavation&catid=440:voices

I Got a Virtual Bear Hug!

Finally some love from those kindly, cuddly creatures of the (mostly) gay community. ART BEAR has posted images of a few of my bearded men paintings...

ART BEAR - Paper & Ink & Beards & Kink.

Check it out. Once you're there, click on the blog's title to see the latest hirsute related artwork.

Of course to see much more visit AaronSmithArt.com.

Diane Barcelowsky returns to Sloan Fine Art, NY.

Diane Barcelowsky is an artist that raises my endorphin levels. Running one's eyes over her seriously psychedelic, slightly psychotic paintings produces the best kind of contact high. Brilliant colors, fascinating patterns, and tiny scenes of often hilarious goings-on combine to produce a heady state of blissful overstimulation. Where does she get this stuff? Who cares. Her inventive paintings are visually abundant and narratively slippery.
Sloan Fine Art in New York's lower east side just opened a stunning show of Diane's mixed media paintings. A former student of mine, the talented Edwin Ushiro creates a different kind of lush magic, with his light filled mixed media pieces in the gallery's project room. The show's dates are March 24 to April 17, 2010.
Find Diane's blog and Sloan Fine Art in my link list.

Nolan Hendrickson paints with riotous humor.

There is a giddy irreverence at play in the large canvases of New York artist Nolan Hendrickson. Queer culture seems equally celebrated and lampooned as swishy/butch men pose lasciviously together and alone. Hendrickson's keen color sense and daring graphic approach captivate as he hilariously gooses good taste with raunchiness. While these paintings must inevitably be seen against a background of social and political change, their impish ambivalence keeps them from being either didactic or merely decorative. We are charmed and challenged. This is gutsy stuff.
Nolan Hendrickson's website can be found in my list of links. nolanhendrickson.com

Gag.

Renoir's Late Paintings (As seen at LACMA's "Renoir in the 20th Century")

Part of Speech : Noun

Definition : Paintings made by an aging, arthritic artist who seems to have been a perfectly nice man.

Synonyms : abhorrence, affect, awkwardness, banality, boiler, booby trap, charade, chicanery, cliche', contrivance, corn, crime, crap, disappointment, drollery, dupery, eyesore, fakery, fibbery, fluff, fog, fraud, frippery, gaucherie, gaudiness, gewgaw, hoax, hokum, hodge-podge, howler, jest, lapse, mendacity, mess, mishmash, muddle, nuisance, pretense, ruse, saccharin, sham, shibboleth, subterfuge, stew, syrup, vulgarity.

Antonyms : Late Bonnard, Late Cezanne, Late Degas, Late Monet, Late Picasso.

I've moved into a new studio.

A Memorable Show Opens at Sloan Fine Art, NY.

Aint Art grand? Every so often a show comes along that gives me happy butterflies in my stomach. This is one of those shows.
This week Sloan Fine Art presents a group of deceptively produced foam rubber cuckoo clocks that warm the heart while hinting of menace. Sculptor Nathan Skiles draws one in with nostalgia, then startles with a surprise.... Not unlike the little creature who lies in wait inside each of the real Black Forest contraptions. I love these pieces so much, I'm taking one home with me.
Heather Sherman's paintings in the project room thumb their noses at suburban attitudes. This young woman can paint! The paintings are a perfect compliment to Skiles' work with their fearless mixture of humor and rage.
Good times.
To see the work online, go to sloanfineart.com


Nathan Skiles pieces shown:
"Der Jordan-Sprudle" 2009
"The Vanitas of Vineta B" 2009
-both are corrugated plastic and foam rubber.

Heather Sherman pieces shown:
"Umbrella" 2009
"Suck It, Suburbia" 2009
-Both are oil on paper.

Two new portraits in the works. oil on panel, each 30" x 20"

"Firtler" 2008, oil on panel, 31"x29"

Magnus Enckell (1870-1925)

It feels dangerous sometimes to share a great love. One is always fearful of sounding too sentimental or naive. It is dishonest however, to have a painting career without acknowledging what one has learned from others. Any artist who implies that their creative voice somehow sprang to life without influence is not to be trusted. A painter who has profoundly influenced my work is the great Finnish Symbolist and Post-Impressionist artist Magnus Enckell. His work has a spiritual, almost mystical quality. His Symbolist work's compact design displays a restraint of color and gesture that concentrates the introspective mood. Enckell's identification with the sensitive male adolescent is particularly moving. Sensuality and spirituality are perfectly balanced. These pieces never succumb to the considerable danger of becoming kitsch. Among the Symbolists, there are very few who didn't lose themselves to decorative, sensual, or sentimental excess. Later in life, the mood of Enckell's work lightens. His Post-Impressionist phase becomes more colorful and pastoral. This major change in his approach is very inspiring in it's apparent fearlessness. I am smitten by Magnus Enckell.