• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
MENUMENU
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • FlaglerLive Board of Directors
    • Comment Policy
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Values
  • Live Calendar
  • Submit Obituary
  • Submit an Event
  • Support FlaglerLive
  • Advertise on FlaglerLive (386) 503-3808
  • Search Results

FlaglerLive

No Bull, no Fluff, No Smudges

MENUMENU
  • Flagler
    • Flagler County Commission
    • Beverly Beach
    • Economic Development Council
    • Flagler History
    • Mondex/Daytona North
    • The Hammock
    • Tourist Development Council
  • Palm Coast
    • Palm Coast City Council
    • Palm Coast Crime
  • Bunnell
    • Bunnell City Commission
    • Bunnell Crime
  • Flagler Beach
    • Flagler Beach City Commission
    • Flagler Beach Crime
  • Cops/Courts
    • Circuit & County Court
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • Federal Courts
    • Flagler 911
    • Fire House
    • Flagler County Sheriff
    • Flagler Jail Bookings
    • Traffic Accidents
  • Rights & Liberties
    • Fourth Amendment
    • First Amendment
    • Privacy
    • Second Amendment
    • Seventh Amendment
    • Sixth Amendment
    • Sunshine Law
    • Third Amendment
    • Religion & Beliefs
    • Human Rights
    • Immigration
    • Labor Rights
    • 14th Amendment
    • Civil Rights
  • Schools
    • Adult Education
    • Belle Terre Elementary
    • Buddy Taylor Middle
    • Bunnell Elementary
    • Charter Schools
    • Daytona State College
    • Flagler County School Board
    • Flagler Palm Coast High School
    • Higher Education
    • Imagine School
    • Indian Trails Middle
    • Matanzas High School
    • Old Kings Elementary
    • Rymfire Elementary
    • Stetson University
    • Wadsworth Elementary
    • University of Florida/Florida State
  • Economy
    • Jobs & Unemployment
    • Business & Economy
    • Development & Sprawl
    • Leisure & Tourism
    • Local Business
    • Local Media
    • Real Estate & Development
    • Taxes
  • Commentary
    • The Conversation
    • Pierre Tristam
    • Diane Roberts
    • Guest Columns
    • Byblos
    • Editor's Blog
  • Culture
    • African American Cultural Society
    • Arts in Palm Coast & Flagler
    • Books
    • City Repertory Theatre
    • Flagler Auditorium
    • Flagler Playhouse
    • Flagler Youth Orchestra
    • Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
    • Palm Coast Arts Foundation
    • Special Events
  • Elections 2022
    • Amendments and Referendums
    • Presidential Election
    • Campaign Finance
    • City Elections
    • Congressional
    • Constitutionals
    • Courts
    • Governor
    • Polls
    • Voting Rights
  • Florida
    • Federal Politics
    • Florida History
    • Florida Legislature
    • Florida Legislature
    • Ron DeSantis
  • Health & Society
    • Flagler County Health Department
    • Ask the Doctor Column
    • Health Care
    • Health Care Business
    • Covid-19
    • Children and Families
    • Medicaid and Medicare
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Violence
  • All Else
    • Daily Briefing
    • Americana
    • Obituaries
    • News Briefs
    • Weather and Climate
    • Wildlife

An Odd, Alluring Coupling of Photography And Colored Pencil Gems at the Art League

May 19, 2012 | FlaglerLive | 1 Comment

Detail from Steven Sobel's 'The Dragon's Perch,' a first place winner at the Flagler County Art League's 2012 photography show. Click on the image for larger view. (© Steven Sobel)

The Flagler County Art League’s third annual photography show opened a week ago with a twist: In addition to heightened quality and greater participation by skilled photographers, for the first time, the league shared its gallery with the local chapter of the Colored Pencil Society of America, itself hosting its first-ever gallery opening at same time. The result was a compelling dynamic of skills on display: the snappy, yet delicate art of capturing a crisp moment in real time versus the meticulous rendering and mark-making required of the colored pencil medium.

Click On:


  • Evocations of Dali, Darkness and the Familiar in Art League’s Juried Photography Show
  • Glorious Creatures, With Retired Greyhounds in Attendance, Liven New Art League Show
  • Look Closer: Student Art Upstages Grown-Ups in Pair of Flagler County Art League Shows
  • Stillbirth: FPC Art Student May Show His Class Work at a Gallery, But Not At His Own School
  • Art League’s “Priceless” Fund-Raiser Nets $11,500, Opening New Era–and Possibilities
  • Robert Wittman, FBI’s James Bond of Stolen Art, Brings His Best-Selling Tales to Flagler Auditorium April 7
  • Flagler Commission Signals More Culture Support Ahead as It Approves FBI Art Cop Grant For League
  • Photography Traces an Evolution From Minor to Major Key at Flagler County Art League
  • An Odd, Alluring Coupling of Photography And Colored Pencil Gems at the Art League
  • Saturday Afternoon With The Artists Returns At the Art League, Beckoning Inquisitors
  • Animal Kingdom Moves Into Flagler County Art League’s Gallery for the Month
  • What Is the Flagler County Art League?
  • The Flagler County Art League's Website

Both shows are open until June 6 at the league’s gallery at City Market Place in Palm Coast, behind Walmart.

This year’s judge of the photography show was Eric Breitenbach Sr., a professor at Daytona State College’s Southeast Center for Photographic Studies. He’s been a still photographer for more than 30 years and a filmmaker for more than 15, covering subjects as challenging as the tea party movement, the rural South, armed Haitian militia, India’s cows and school children. His pictures have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Doubletake, Essence and Orlando magazines, among others.

The photographer’s craft may appear as one of the more effortless artistic mediums to master, particularly in an age when snapping a picture is as reflexive as sending a text, and usually as trivial.

But there’s a lot more to photography as expression, emotion or—at its best, art—than photography as mere reproduction. Breitenbach said the league’s exhibit stood above what he calls “point-and-shoot” or “snap-shooting” photography, showcasing instead well thought-out compositions. He was guarded in his judge’s comments, describing the show as a “high level community exhibition” with good techniques and nicely matted and framed work, though the jump from well crafted to artistic work seemed wanting. Breitenbach’s first recommendation: “Take some risks.”

“‘Snap-shooting’ and ‘point-and-shoot photography’ are those photos that most casual photographers and non-camera-buff people take,” says Bob Carlsen, the league’s gallery director and a photographer. “They are not as thought out and they are taken quickly.  They typically have superfluous elements, confusing subjects, poor lighting and less than optimal composition.  Most of these photos do not have a spontaneous quality although the people who take them sometimes believe so.”

There’s Steven Sobel’s 1st Place in Show, “The Dragon’s Perch,” whose subject is a representation of pure nature but one so sharp that it abstracts its buzzing subject—a web-winged dragonfly carrying its wrapped doomed prey forward. It stares the viewer down with a withering, dazzling parti-colored gaze. It even looks to be smiling.

Other interesting award-winning photos in the show include, Dan Borougian’s Best in Show, “Yellow Fire,” a sharp close-up of a flower that resembles a nest belonging to some foreign species hatching out of a sun-like formation. Bill Currul’s outstanding black-and-white of the Palatka train station, with a train coming in, won 1st place in the architecture category.

Dan Bouougian's 'Yellow Fire.' Click on the image for larger view. (© Dan Bouougian)
Carlsen’s own image (“Shuttle Enterprise Over NYC”), a space shuttle soaring above New York City’s Chrysler building through a cerulean sky, is a second-place winner. Two onlookers, their backs turned to us, stand between two reflective monoliths, awe-struck, likely wondering what-the-hell that thing is doing there.  The image is actually a composite of different photos, though the result is so sharp that it belies it composite nature, there’s no way to know it’s a composite (the shuttle did a fly-by over the Hudson River  in late April).

Carlsen is nothing if not an irrepressible fan of his own work, so hear him describe it: “All of this was thought out in advance.  Once I knew I had a good image of the shuttle, I looked for another image of NYC to place it into.  When I saw the NJ 911 Memorial I knew I had the other image I wanted for my final product.”

This year’s show at the league features 20 photographers who entered 45 photographs and photographic art pieces.

Next season the league will hold a juried show, because the number of entries is fast approaching the maximum that can be displayed in the gallery. The last few shows have attracted entrants from St. Augustine, Ormond Beach and Deland.


Many members of the Colored Pencil Society of America also belong to the Art League, and their society has been growing, so it seemed natural for it to Photoshop its way into the league’s show. It wasn’t that long ago that colored pencil didn’t even warrant a category in league shows. It was just thrown in under “miscellaneous,” says Hanneke Jevons, society chapter president. She and Bill Shoemaker, both active league members as well, founded the local chapter in 2005. “When we started we only had eight people and now our membership is up to 34. We’ve arrived,” Jevons says.

One colored pencil rendering worth noting is Dale Whaley’s of Jacksonville. Whaley raises koi fish for a hobby so it makes sense that this passion is mirrored in her art, and she is most widely known for her vibrant depictions of these colorful creatures. The undulating fish and water movements are so tight and painstaking, there’s no reason to think her image wasn’t done in watercolor, let alone a dry media.

Bill Shoemaker, current vice president of the society, is nationally recognized and teaches the laborious craft in Flagler County Art League classes, at least to those with the right temperament and strength of fingers to give it a shot.

“Our art needs great patience, for often each piece takes weeks for completion,” the society warns on its website. The perks of the medium, Jevons says—besides the incredibly tight renderings you can come create with diligence—are simple: “It’s easy to pack up supplies and work anywhere. With all kinds of colored pencils available from wax-based to oil-based, all kind of effects can be created.”

Photography and colored pencil may seem like a Walter Matthau-Jack Lemon sort of marriage in the same gallery, but the coupling works.

Flagler County Art League photography show, May 2012: the winners

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
You and your neighbors collectively read our articles about 25,000 times each day (that's not a typo) with up to 65,000 daily reads during emergencies like hurricanes. Flagler County residents rely on FlaglerLive for essential, bold and analytical journalism that cannot be found anywhere else. But we depend on your support. Please join our December fund drive! If you donate the cost of a scoop of ice cream, you will be helping us continue to provide comprehensive local news and honest, serious journalism for our community. If you can donate more or become a monthly donor, even better. Donations are tax deductible since FlaglerLive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit news organization. Donate by clicking anywhere in this box. Think of it as buying a scoop, in every sense of the term!  
All donors' identities are kept confidential and anonymous.
   

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Steven Sobel says

    May 19, 2012 at 2:04 pm

    Wow! Thanks FlaglerLive, this was a great show with lots of amazing photographs, I’m honored you featured one of mine. Just a note, that dragonfly isn’t carrying anything in the shot, it’s resting on a tiny branch between flights.

    Dragonflies eat their prey immediately after catching it, it’s actually quite a messy process, if you want to see some video and pictures of dragonflies eating I’ve posted them on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevensobel/6999097571/

    If anyone wants to see my other photos, mostly taken in and around Palm Coast, they can visit StevenSobelPhotography.com

    Reply
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents
  • grand living realty

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Advertisers

  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Recent Comments

  • Craig on Crumbl Cookies Opening Soon at Palm Coast’s Island Walk
  • FlaglerLive on Its Streets Degrading, Palm Coast Looks for Electric Vehicles to Pay Their Fair Share of Road Taxes
  • Pierre Tristam on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 3, 2023
  • Pogo on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 3, 2023
  • Deborah Coffey on Debt Deal a Rare Triumph for Political Center
  • Skibum on Drunk Driver Allegedly Goes Nuts on Deputy After Crashing Into Hydrant
  • Joshua Rosenbloom on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 3, 2023
  • Day One. on Flagler Sheriff’s Sgt. Breckwoldt, In Charge of Narcotics Unit, at Center of Abuse of Power Allegation
  • The dude on Drunk Driver Allegedly Goes Nuts on Deputy After Crashing Into Hydrant
  • Jane on Drunk Driver Allegedly Goes Nuts on Deputy After Crashing Into Hydrant
  • Friedrich Gretsch on Palm Coast’s Belk Converted Into One of 16 Outlet Stores as Company Struggles
  • jeffery seib on Drunk Driver Allegedly Goes Nuts on Deputy After Crashing Into Hydrant
  • Jimbo99 on Debt Deal a Rare Triumph for Political Center
  • Lance Carroll on At FPC, Misplaced ‘Man Cave’ Culture and Improprieties Cause Demise of Girls’ Basketball Coach
  • Aves on A Trans Teen No Longer Feels Welcome in Florida. So She Left.
  • TR on Drunk Driver Allegedly Goes Nuts on Deputy After Crashing Into Hydrant

Log in