Pikes Peak Watercolor Society November 2024 Members Show

Every painting is an original work by an artist using water-based media, including watercolor, gouache and acrylic.  No prints, digital or computer generated (AI) arts are included. Some paintings will be for sale at the discretion of the artist.

Commonwheel Artists Co-op is excited to announce that our annual Holiday Market opens in the Creekside Gallery on First Friday November 1st.

Shoppers will find an amazing array of artisan handmade gifts including ornaments, cards, soaps, candles, original artwork, jewelry, photography, functional pottery, scarves, knitted hats, and so much more!

Alhamdu | Muslim Futurism is an evolving multidisciplinary exhibition and archive created by MIPSTERZ featuring a variety of work from paintings, photography, illustrations and sculptures to installations, digital media, soundscapes, film, virtual reality, and interactive experiences. ALHAMDU—an exhibition three years in the making at the Fine Arts Center—explores Muslim Futurism, a cultural and artistic approach that learns from Afrofuturism, a movement visualizing alternate and liberating futures of Black bodies. Muslim Futurism also incorporates ideas drawn from global resistance and liberation movements (e.g., Palestinian, Sudanese, Rohingya, Uyghur—to name a few), as well as Islamic understandings of love and justice to imagine a flourishing Muslim future for all. This immersive art exhibition and associated programs explore five themes: imagination, identity, community, resistance, and liberation. Each theme is explored from an artistic, community, and academic lens considering what “Muslim Futurism” means, draws from, and works toward.

About MIPSTERZ
MIPSTERZ is a non-traditional arts and culture collective for emerging Muslim, Muslim-adjacent, and allied creatives. We enable and amplify creative voices by presenting and producing cultural alternatives. MIPSTERZ helps marginalized creators build, collaborate, or experiment with diverse folks who share a common connection to a larger tradition. The collective has featured work in popular media and academia to museums and art spaces—bringing multi-dimensional third-culture-inspired voices and stories to the forefront. Learn more about MIPSTERZ

Support for this exhibition is provided by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art’s Building Bridges Program. The mission of the Building Bridges Program is to support national efforts, working with U.S. Muslims, to increase mutual understanding and well-being among diverse populations for the benefit of building stronger, inclusive communities. Support for ALHAMDU | MUSLIM FUTURISM at the Fine Arts Center is provided by the Catharine and Bart Holaday Endowment for Interactive Art.

Cottonwood Center for the Arts is pleased to present People, Places, Things- a solo exhibition for the month of November featuring works by Max Settlage.

Max Settlage was born in a small village in north central Vietnam and grew up in the mountains outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. As a young boy, he spent countless hours drawing and creating fictional characters. In addition to the natural beauty of the San Francisco peaks, and landscape adjacent to his childhood home, Max was also influenced by the culture and art of the Native peoples of Northern Arizona.

After retiring from a career as a professional figure skater, he has worked over the past years to develop his painting style, learning techniques with acrylic, oil, and other media. Working in a style that can be described as illustrative storytelling, Max blends whimsical elements with traditional fine art tropes, adding a bit of the unreal and unexpected to familiar situations and settings.

We have a wonderful collection of artwork that we own and some that are part of an estate, and we are hoping to find each piece a wonderful home this holiday season. And as usual, we also have a wonderful collection of local artists work on consignment and on display.

This holiday season, find a beautiful piece of artwork to decorate your home or to gift to a friend or family!

Cottonwood Center for the Arts is pleased to present Ofrendas - a solo exhibition for the month of November featuring works by Juan D. Morales.

Juan de Dios Morales was born and raised in the South Valley of Albuquerque, NM. His journey as an artist is as vibrant and dynamic as the landscapes that surround his hometown. A self- taught artist and painter, Juan’s foundation is built on graffiti and an extensive background in automotive prep and paint. His unique experiences have shaped a distinctive artistic style, one that infuses bold colors, intricate details, and a touch of urban flair.

Photo credit: Juan D. Morales - Hasta La Muerte

Senga Nengudi: Warp Trance

For more than five decades, Senga Nengudi has been making art about movement, ritual, and collectivity. A leading figure of the avant-garde, she has created work from diverse materials, from water to sand to pantyhose, constantly bridging sculpture and performance. Her work has been featured in major solo exhibitions, most recently at the Lenbachhaus, Munich; the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP); the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Dia Beacon, New York.

At the Fine Arts Center, Nengudi presents her multichannel video and audio installation Warp Trance (2007), which she developed during a residency at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. Footage she recorded of mechanical jacquard looms is projected onto hundreds of laced-together perforated punch cards of the kind used in the weaving process—often cited as precursors to computer programming. This, combined with the mesmerizing sound of the looms in action, offers an immersive interplay of color, texture, and rhythm. A deconstruction of the textile-making process, Warp Trance brings Nengudi’s abiding interest in movement and ritual into conversation with historical industrial machinery and histories of labor.

The artist invites the public to walk or dance around the installation.

Top image: Installation view of Warp Trance (detail). Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers.

In this month's program, we'll work on the Colorado Early Learning & Development Guidelines of engaging in and maintaining positive interactions with adults and other children.

Spots first come, first serve.

Autumn brings harsh whites and bitter chocolates that wrap around the bare tree trunks as they settle themselves in the underbrush before the snows. Her November show captures dreams of bold colors, clumped by nature in russet and ancient gold tones in Colorado’s back country, all the subtle hues forgotten in the chill.

“Dreaming in Color” is Laura’s new work celebrating the brilliance of her favorite season.

Tapestries and Looking Sideways by Carol Dickerson

“Maybe the desire to make something beautiful Is the piece of God that is inside each of us.” —from Mary Oliver’s poem “Franz Marc’s Blue Horses” Tapestries — Experimenting in Paint My paintings are all experiments. What if? What if I just staple this big piece of raw canvas to my studio wall? What if I mix charcoal lines into acrylic paint? What if I just make everything wet and let it drip? What if I combine these unusual colors? What a mess!!! Then the process of covering and uncovering, addition and subtraction, over and over again as I seek a resolution of the problems I have created. I am never sure where I will end up but at some point it begins to please me, some combination of color, shapes, texture, and line that I am drawn to. Looking Sideways — Collage Collage is very different from painting. There is the ongoing collection of fabric scraps, papers, string and other interesting junk. I enjoy the playful process of selecting and laying out pieces and moving them around to create a compelling design. Even with a plan there is always an element of surprise in the process once I begin gluing pieces in place: some materials become translucent, revealing unexpected ghost images. Overlays create new textures. Several years ago someone recommended “The Art of Looking Sideways”, a book by the British graphic designer Alan Fletcher (1931-2006). When it arrived I was confounded by it. An enormous compendium of Fletcher’s observations on design and visual learning, company logos, and graphics, it cannot be “read” in any conventional way, and it was so heavily saturated with ink that it smelled bad. I put it aside for several years and when I picked it up again, I discovered a rich source of graphics and quirky humor. I started cutting it up. Some of the bits and pieces ended up in this collection of collages. I have since learned that it took Fletcher eighteen years to assemble the book. I don’t think he would mind this “sampling”, as his book is a sampling of his own and others graphic work and musings. ( I bought another copy of the book which I now enjoy. )

Carol Mordecai Myers – Dropping In

This latest body of work comes from two conflated ideas. One from my my recent introduction and love of scuba diving and the other of the feeling that happens when one drops into a project or task and is completely present.

When you drop in under the surface of the water an entire new world of colors and textures appears. Scuba diving requires and allows you to be completely present listening to your breath and focusing on the world around you.  The same happens when I drop into my art practice letting the world melt away and focusing on what is before me.

I work on several pieces at a time in different mediums and usually over a long period. Over years I have developed a process of building layers and then disrupting the resulting surfaces--through scraping, sanding and washing--to reveal underlying layers. This active “erosion” of the work introduces elements of time and of revealing what has been hidden beneath. In dialogue with the work, I then decide to keep the new found passages and micro-landscapes or cover them up and let something else emerge/re-emerge.

Carol Mordecai Myers’s abstract paintings are grounded in the idea of mindfulness and embodied presence (“being here now”).  As her work has evolved, it has dissolved the idea of literal landscapes both in space and in time, with the result that her paintings have become small worlds of their own.

Using multiple mediums, Myers produces paintings made up of complex layers that are alternately built and scraped, creating surprises throughout her process that she then decides to keep or cover up. Built upon or scraped back, the “dissolved” landscape continuously forms and recedes. The result is a surface that can be read over time, revealing the physical act of painting and the artist’s presence in the final result.

Originally from New England, she received her BA from Colby College and her MFA from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. Myers has taught at Pikes Peak Community College and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and has participated widely in juried, invitational and collaborative shows.

The Spontaneous Gesture by Patricia Coughlin

This collection speaks to the ways in which curiosity, and a continual process of discovery, inform my work. I am an abstract painter, inspired by both the inner and outer landscape. I begin with a spontaneous gesture and let intuition take the lead, only becoming intentionl later in the process. For me, painting is visual poetry and reflects the mystery and joy of being alive.

Freud said, “We feel in the contrast, not the state of things”. The contrast and intersection between light and dark, transparent and opaque, bold and subtle, bright colors against neutrals and, most importantly, the conscious and unconscious mind provides fuel and fodder for my paintings. There are layer and layers of paint, marks, papers. What is revealed and what is concealed? What appears on the surface and what is laying beneath? I hope these paintings engage you in a process of discovery and wonder.

Jung said art reveals “the inner images the soul needs to see itself”.

As a child, I loved making art and went on to study painting at Ohio University. However, life called me elsewhere. I became a Clinical Psychologist, published author, mother and grandmother.  Now, my art reflects the depth of all my experiences, embracing contrast, spontaneity, and the beauty of life’s unpredictability. I hope these works awaken your curiosity and wonder."

Patricia resumed painting in earnest about 10 years ago, studying with Louise Fletcher, Nicholas Wilton and Fran Skiles. She is represented by the Auric Gallery and the Lucky Pig Gallery and has received the Denis Diderat Grant to attend an artist residency in France this coming spring.

Julie Kirkland – Hidden Strength

Life is full of unexpected twists and turns—surprise challenges we don’t anticipate. It’s common to feel fragile and unprepared, doubting ourselves and our ability to handle the trials that come our way. But often, when faced with these tough situations, we discover a surprising inner strength that we didn’t know we possessed. In the solitude of our hearts and minds, there can be a quiet reservoir of resilience and fortitude that surfaces when we need it most. From facing external challenges to tackling the inner work required for personal growth, this hidden strength sustains us when we least feel able to cope.

Ashley Andersen

Ashley Andersen received her BA in Visual and Performing Arts with honors from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. She has been awarded several fellowships and awards, including being named one of the top 100 Contemporary Artists in 2021 by Aesthetica Magazine. Recent and upcoming exhibitions that she is showing in are at Auric Gallery, SURFACE, WIRWIR in Berlin, CICA Contemporary Art Museum in Korea, York Gallery in the UK, East Window and Redline Contemporary in Denver, Gallery of Contemporary Art in Colorado Springs, and The
Museum of Art in Fort Collins. She has also been a part of several publications which include the Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology, Studio Image Project, and Shame Radiant with East Window. Residencies that she has been a part of include Picture Berlin, Ox-Bo, New York City Crit Club, and NAIR. Currently, she is based in Colorado.

Deborah Schoen

Deborah Schoen received degrees in Visual & Performing Arts and Art History from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. The span of her work has involved solo and group exhibitions across the country and overseas, permanent public art installations in California and Colorado, and a three-year traveling interactive installation titled The Deborahs Project. She has been awarded the Linda Holmgren Jensen Endowed Scholarship for the Arts; a co-curatorial internship with the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia; the LAS Faculty & Student
Creative Works Grant with the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs; and the University Village Center Large-Scale Public Sculpture Grant. Her residencies include the Artist in Residency in Motherhood (ARiM) and The Residency Project with the School of Visual Arts, New York City, NY. Her work has been published in the Chrysler Museum of Art Magazine; Southside Daily and Virginia Pilot news in Virginia; The Gazette and The Tribune news in Colorado Springs; Voyage Denver; and the online publication Design Within Reach.

About the Exhibit:

"As I stand in front of the work in the studio, I watch as liquid hues run in gleaming rivulets down the surface before me. I add layer upon layer of paint, cognizant that most of it will never be seen, buried somewhere below the final, fixed, visible surface. It makes me ponder relevance. If no one can see the buried layers, are they superfluous?

Or is it possible that each layer can convey intention? Can the work become ensouled; endowed with something arousing emotion or sentiment, perhaps even a spiritual or moral force? Can a work of art, so saturated, so “magnetized”, likewise transmit that ensoulment to the viewer?

Can the work, over time, renew a person like the rain does when it saturates the parched ground?" -Andrew Ramiro Tirado

About the Artist:

Born in Washington D.C., Andrew grew up in and currently lives in Colorado. From 1989 until 1991, he was a studio assistant for the painter Chuck Close in New York, helping the artist to transition back into the studio after a major medical event. Moving back to Colorado, he spent many years doing a variety of work from building wood strip canoes, fabricating custom props, displays, sets, and signage, to building custom cabinetry.For over twenty years, he worked as Seminar Faculty for the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation’s Summer Seminar Program. He has taught at the Bemis School of Art, the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and, for ten years, taught woodworking and supervised the 3D Arts Facility at the Colorado College.

Since transitioning to art in 2012, he has exhibited in a number of group and solo shows, including a solo exhibit, Open, at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, in 2014. That same year, his sculptural piece, Lacuna, received both the Jurors’ Choice award and the Peoples’ Choice award for the 16th annual Art on the Streets Exhibit in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 2016, Andrew established a full-time artistic practice. That year, besides focusing on sculptural work, he traveled to Italy to volunteer his assistance on an exhibit for the Venice Biennale of Architecture exhibition.In 2020, Andrew’s 1000 sf. art studio, in downtown Colorado Springs, was completed, and in 2021, so was his largest project to date; a public art project for the Cox Business Convention Center and the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In 2022, Andrew was Artist-In-Residence for ARTworks 2022 at the Holland Hall School in Tulsa, and had a solo exhibit, [hands]full, at the school’s Holliman Gallery. Andrew continues to work on commissioned and non-commissioned 2D and 3D work and to exhibit his work, with a solo exhibit scheduled for November, 2024, at the Surface Gallery in Colorado Springs.

The Manitou Springs Heritage Center and Museum announces its featured exhibits,  “Van Briggle: What Is the Manitou Connection?” and "The Garden of the Gods Pottery".

See one of the largest exhibits of Van Briggle pottery in the Pikes Peak region. Learn more about Artus and Anne Van Briggle’s creation of this iconic and award-winning pottery works and its connection to historic Manitou Springs. See dozens of beautifully designed pottery creations crafted by America’s longest-running pottery works, Van Briggle Pottery.

Eric Hellman was hired by Nemadji Pottery and Tile to create and design its first line of  Nemadji Pottery. Hellman designed pieces "glazed" by floating oil-base colors on water and dipping his pots into this concoction. At his pottery works known as The Garden of the Gods Pottery, he was one of the early craftsmen in the Colorado Springs area.

Visit our free museum. For more information, call (719) 685-1454, email: ManitouHeritage@gmail.com, or visit www.manitouspringsheritagecenter.org

Teachers, alumni and visitors come see why Manitou Springs is much more than a tourist attraction.

The exhibit features Manitou Springs High School stories which focus on “Then and Now” themes and community building. Stories include “100 Years Ago (1924 – 2024)”, a school building history timeline, then and now prom dress fashions, cheerleading and technology. Also included are a Manitou family spotlight for the Zellhoefers, a tribute to Professor Richardson and class photo slideshows. This exhibit ties the past to the present for kids, parents and grandparents while promoting our city’s unique sense of community.

Love in Danger by Michelle McMahan

"Will love hold fast our tenuous security?"-Michelle McMahan

About the artist:

Michelle McMahan grew up in two cultures: Brazil and the United States. The mixture of the two creates in her a third culture. This cross-cultural vision and sensitivity generate unique and universally appealing artistic expressions.

Michelle’s interest in art emerged early in life. Her parents filled their homes with abstract paintings and sculptures. The pervasive soundscape comprised Bossa Nova, Samba, and Jazz.

After studying dentistry in Brazil, Michelle began a career as a dentist. She has treated impoverished Brazilians, army soldiers in Maryland, and (currently) hundreds of male prisoners in Colorado. Through all this, she has forged a way to convey her love for beauty and art. Her work’s meticulous style reflects a curiosity for the miniscule elements of the natural world. Most people overlook these details, but Michelle brings them to life.

Her work with reclaimed wood and metals developed first in Brazil. There she found amazing beauty in the abandoned wood that in the 1930s had been used to build homes for rugged coffee growers in northern Paraná, a state in southern Brazil. Restoring beauty and design to wood once left to rot is an expression of her ability to see beauty and value in every person.

Michelle’s work was first displayed in 2010 in the gallery of the Architecture and Engineering Club of Londrina, Paraná, where she lived for a decade. Now residing in Colorado Springs, she continues her work with reclaimed, exotic, and domestic hardwoods, creating abstract assemblage pieces. In 2014, Cottonwood Center for the Arts gave her piece titled “Paradox” the Best of Show award. Her solo shows have occurred at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center Deco Lounge and several times at G44 Gallery. She has also displayed her work in group shows at Kreuser Gallery, Auric Gallery and Cottonwood Center for the Arts. Beyond the galleries, her work is displayed in numerous homes around the US, Europe and Brazil.

The exhibit explains the role railroads have played in the development of our town’s history through our presentation of images, artifacts and video.

Learn about the five railroads that served our town including Manitou’s Lost Railroad and the railroads that helped build the West. The Denver & Rio Grande Railway with its Manitou Spur and the Colorado Midland Railway brought tourists from all over the country to visit Manitou Springs. Tour Manitou and the Pikes Peak region while experiencing video rides on the Manitou Incline, the Red Mountain Incline Railway and the Pikes Peak Cog Railway.

“The Photography of E.S. Curtis and Roland Reed-Historic and Contemporary First Nation Images” 

The Manitou Springs Heritage Center and Museum proudly announces its exhibit, “The Photography of E.S. Curtis and Roland Reed-Historic and Contemporary First Nation Images”.

Celebrate our town’s diversity and Indigenous communities during Indigenous People’s Weekend in Manitou Springs with this community-building exhibit that contrasts and compares historic and contemporary First Nation photography.

Experience the iconic photogravures of Curtis and Reed and contemporary images as seen through the camera lens of indigenous photographers, Amanda Jones, Manny Hawkwing Pulido, Kenny Frost and world-famous filmmaker, photographer and lecturer Larry Cesspooch.

Mr. Cesspooch will be leading the Opening Ceremony. These First Nation Images are representative of the photographers’ tribes, families, friends and the landscapes and depict their way of life and communities.  See our collections of kachinas, fetishes, pottery and artwork of indigenous peoples living throughout the West.

"Moments"  a 7-week exhibition, featuring original oil paintings by Chuck Mardosz and Richard Dahlquist.
These gorgeous paintings will capture your imagination and inspire you to recall old and make new memorable moments in your life. At Anita Maie Fine Art, we focus on bringing exceptional beauty and insight to the canvas to create art that you want to see every single day. We like to say buying our art is like an "adoption" and you know you will love this painting for many, many years to come.

We have many small and unframed paintings, on offer, that make a perfect wedding or graduation gift to start a collection to last a lifetime!

Gallery is closed for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

He was nominated "Best Guitarist of the Year" by the prestigious Los Angeles Music Awards for his work on his first solo CD.

Michael's second major music endeavor was produced by Santana drummer Michael Shrieve.

Michael also played guitar in The Tommy Bolin Tribute band (that included members of Tommy's band, "Energy") at several annual Bolin Festivals.

If you enjoy guitar playing at it's best do not miss the opportunity to see Michael Reese live!

Happy hour specials and food available.

June 13 Katie Hale & P47s
June 20 Ricky Sweum sax trio
June 27 Wayne Wilkinson guitar trio

July 4 Sara Groh trio
July 11 Jonathan Powell trumpet trio
July 18 New Vintage Jazz
July 24 Matt Brooker trio

August 1 Maxwell Miller
August 8 Wayne Wilkinson trio
August 15 Ricky Sweum
August 22 Adam Gang trio
August 29 Julian Genova piano

Whether you are a true artist at heart or just love to doodle, come try your skills at our Therapeutic Thursdays Adult Coloring Night!

Every week we will have new (NSFC) coloring pages available - there are some kid-safe coloring sheets as well.