Agent and Publisher for Pettegrew, Caleb and the Artists of Cuba Oriente

The Winter Park PaintOut, which was based at on the grounds of the beautiful and historic Albin Polasek Museum in Winter Park was a big success for everyone involved. Being the first annual event, it was easily determined by the founders of the paintout that it was the beginning of a new springtime tradition. Every participating artist - over twenty five in all - sold works at the event which help raise much needed funds for the museum. The idea for the paintout was hatched by Hal Stringer and Gary Hollingsworth both of which are heavily involved in the local art community in the Orlando area. This knowledge gave them a large group of gifted painters on which to call upon for the event. “The talent at this event was unparalleled” says Peter Pettegrew who sold three of the four works he created during the event. “Everywhere you looked there were incredible paintings in the works by the best painters of the area.” Several workshops were held during the event to help educate collectors on the different approaches on Plein Air Painting each artist employs, including area great Tom Sadler who gave an interesting demonstration on old masters techniques which drew both collectors and artists alike. The final night of the event was a beautiful evening. Inside the museum, all of the works were on display among a crowd of admirers. Outside among the sculpture gardens, delicious catering, being prepared (and donated) by some of the areas best restaurants was available for collectors to relax and decide which paintings might go home with them that night. Red dots (sold stickers) lined the walls beneath the paintings and everyone involved felt a sense of hope and accomplishment for the event and the support of those who still need art to bring beauty and joy into their lives.

Peter Pettegrew at The Polesak Paintout

Penultimate Picture of Peter Pettegrew at The Polesak Paintout

“THE ART OF GIVING”

Saturday, May 23rd
6:00 - 9:00 pm

After a full month of painting on locations throughout St. Petersburg, local artist
will exhibit their “Plein Air” paintings of the scenes of St. Petersburg
that we all have grown to know and love!

These paintings will be available for purchase, with 50% of the proceeds to benefit:

Please join us as we celebrate ART and GIVING!!!

The show will run thru June 20th

Sunshine Artist Magazine The 13th annual edition for best poster from all the festivals in North America. (If you are not familiar with Sunshine Artist, it is devoted to art shows and the artists who attend them, and is celebrating its 38th year of continuous publication this year). Judges from around the country evaluated
The best art for a poster for 2008 in 8 categories, and the judges were a distinguished lot:

JOYCE SHELTON, our lone returning judge from last
year, is an award-winning illustrator and designer who has enjoyed
a diverse career in art. Her talent is expressed in many disciplines,
including fine art painting in a variety of mediums, as well as graphic
design and illustration.
She currently designs products for the gift and home-decor
industries, in addition to fabrics, stationery and paper products that
are licensed and sold worldwide. Shelton’s previous judging credits
include the Winter Park Autumn Art Festival in Winter Park, Florida,
and the Cape Coral Festival of the Arts in Cape Coral, Florida.
Shelton shares her studio space in Altamonte Springs, Florida,
with her husband, Eddie Metz Jr., a world-class jazz musician.

JAMES LUSSIER is a supporter of visual and performing arts in
the Central Florida community and has co-produced the Orlando
Living and Art Expo in downtown Orlando, Florida. Lussier was the
last president of the Orlando Visual Artists’ League (OVAL), a non-
profit, volunteer-based organization committed to fostering social,
charitable and economic growth in the community. (OVAL operated
the OVAL on Orange Gallery in downtown Orlando for five years,
offering affordable artist studio space and monthly gallery openings
for hundreds of local artists.) He was also a board member of
Orlando’s Downtown Arts District (DAD) for six years, serving as president
in 2004. DAD supports theatres, galleries and artists’ studios in downtown
Orlando, and operates CityArts Factory.
Lussier is a partner in the Orlando law firm of Mateer Harbert, P.A.,
and concentrates his practice in the areas of eminent domain, inverse
condemnation, intellectual property, media law and general civil litigation.
He graduated in 1974 from the University of Notre Dame and in 1982 from
the University of Florida College of Law. He served as a helicopter pilot in the
United States Navy from 1974 to 1983.

DONNE BITNER (middle) is a senior faculty member in the Painting
and Drawing Department at Crealde School of Art in Winter Park, Florida,
and maintains a studio at McRae Art Studio, also in Winter Park. Her
work has appeared in a variety of publications, including American Artist
Watercolor, International Artist and Watercolor Magic.
She has conducted numerous art workshops at institutions such as the
Vero Beach Museum of Art in Vero Beach, Florida; the Arrowmont School
of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee; and Rollins College in Winter
Park, Florida. In addition, her work can be seen in the collections of the
Huntsville Museum of Art in Hunstville, Alabama, and the Daytona Beach
Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida, among many
others.
A signature member of the National Watercolor Society, the Watercolor
USA Honor Society, and the Florida and Southern Watercolor Societies,
Bitner received a Florida Individual Artist’s Fellowship in 2002 and a State of
Florida Individual Artist Enhancement Grant in 2006.

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The famous and venerable Sunshine Artist Magazine reported on the Winter Park Art Festival thusly:

WINTER PARK AUTUMN ART FESTIVAL
Winter Park, Florida
JUDGES’ COMMENTS:
With so many posters this year featuring great artwork, particularly
great painting, Winter Park Autumn Art Festival’s victory is especially
noteworthy. Although the judges said there was nothing out of the
ordinary about the subject matter (a typical Florida landscape), they
were impressed with the simple poetry of its creation.
“[We] kept coming back to it,” Lussier said, “and all
comments were positive.”

The Winning Poster

One of the benefits of having a panel of judges is that
one judge can recuse herself if there is a conflict of interest,
so although Shelton didn’t have a hand in the creation of this
poster, she did let the other two judges make the call because of
her involvement with the Winter Park Autumn Art Festival.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
“Whether I’m painting in the Everglades or in the marshes
of South Carolina,” said Peter Pettegrew, “these Southern
wetlands have a feel and presence like nowhere else I’ve been.
This land is where the spirit within lies very close to the surface.
Its beauty abounds, and one does not have to struggle to locate
its magnificent side,”
Pettegrew has been capturing the outdoors, as he does
with Ostello View, since he was a child. His aunt, also a painter,
insisted that the 4-year-old be given no coloring books but only
blank paper after seeing his sketches. As a teen, Pettegrew was
accepted into the prestigious Harbor Senior High in Santa
Cruz, California, afterwards continuing his formal education at
the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Acclaimed for his gallery exhibitions, the Orlando, Florida,
artist has attracted collectors such as Dan Quayle, John Travolta
and John Rigsby, but the artist is most thankful for his ability to
protect nature as he shares it with others.
The poster was designed by C&S Press Inc.

Excerpt from Sunshine Artist Magazine

Text and art Courtesy of Sunshine Artist Magazine

The Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens will
be hosting the first annual Winter Park Paintoutt in the last week of April of 2009. The artists of this invitational show were all challenged to compete in designing the image to be used in the poster and subsequent advertising for the event. When all of the entries were in and the judging complete, it was a sweeping view ofthe museum facade from the front of the grounds by Peter Pettegrew that caught their attention. Peter’s painting will now be part of the permenant collection of the museum located in historic Winter Park. Peter, along with most all of the prominent landscape painters of the
area, will be participating in the event including nationally recognized and award winning Larry Moore and Florida landscape specialist and long time Winter Park artist Tom Sadler, both of which Peter has had the privilege of working along side of in the field on several different occasions and an other paintouts in the area including the Wekiva Paintout > which is sponsored this year by the Wekiva Island Marinaand which will be hosting many fine events for the participating artists.

Image via Wikipedia

An interesting take on the current state of the Cuban art market outside of Cuba from Daily Campello Art News:

“The collectors are taking advantage of a little-known exception to the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba: It is legal for Americans to buy Cuban art.” –Wall Street Journal

This suggestion and idea is simple, and has been proven recently by the super hot rise of Chinese artists: when a closed society is opened up a little, its top artists see a substantial rise in exposure and thus in demand, and of course, in prices!

And it makes sense (if you buy art as an investment strategy rather than love of art).

Generally speaking, when an artist is in certain major collections around the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Tate in London, and other such giants of the museum world, it attracts a certain level of collector interest, and it is almost always associated with a certain price range.

And there are many contemporary Cuban artists whose work has been in those and many other important museums around the world for a very long time, and whose work continues to attract curatorial, critical and savvy collector interest, but because of their lack of exposure to the American market in general (often created by their closed societies), their price range is not in par with their colleagues from other nations in the same level.

Read the whole blog entry, Aqui Estamos.

Here are three new oils-on-canvas painted on the recent Caribbean splash-about. These are small canvases, 8″ x 10″ all.

Peter Pettegrew-ppoc1685-sunrise-in-keys-8x10

Peter Pettegrew-ppoc1687-evening-mooring-8x10

Peter Pettegrew-ppoc1686-sunset-colors-keys-8x10

Afro-Cuban artist Wifredo Lam’s art is on exhibit at the Salvador Dali Museum in St Petersburg, Florida through January 11, 2009. The show displays Lam’s groundbreaking work with pieces from 1927 through 1972.
Lam, a contemporary of Dali’s, allowed his work to be influenced by his Chinese, African, and Spanish heritage, as well as by 20th century European painting. The second half of his career was heavily influenced by African forms and religion. His work gained international acclaim by the 1940’s, and its fusion of African, Caribbean and European themes remains influential to this day.
Salvador Dali Museum of Art, 1000 Third St. S, St. Petersburg; ongoing thru Jan. 11. Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, extended hours on Thursday to 8 p.m. and Friday to 6:30 p.m.; noon to 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission: adults $15, seniors $13.50, students 10 and older $10, and children 5 to 9. $4. (727) 823-3767.

Florida landscape impressionist painter Peter Pettegrew’s painting “Ostello View” has been selected as the art for the 2008 Winter Park Autumn Art Festival Poster.

Peter Pettegrew

Over the summer, Peter was contacted by Baxter of Florida Frame House to submit a painting for the poster celebrating the Winter Park Autumn Art Festival. On September 17th they had a big unveiling and signing event at Florida Frame House with all of the board members of the show and the Mayor of Winter Park, David Strong, in attendance. Everyone agreed that it was a fun evening of good food and cheer in the beautiful gallery setting, and all are looking forward to the show, which will be held the weekend of October 11th and 12th along Park Avenue in Winter Park. Peter will be in attendance, signing posters and meeting art collectors from around the area.

Peter, Baxter and Mayor David Strong

Peter with collector Kimberly Roberts