Join the Conversation with Phillips' Mill ArtTalk

There’s no escaping the online submission process for artists. The Phillips’ Mill Art Show is one of the last in the country to jury in person and even we had to go online during the pandemic. We’re continuing with online jurying this year while the future spread of covid remains uncertain. In any case we’ll continue the online show beyond the pandemic and for that we need photographs – good ones! We want to help you take the best possible photos of your artwork for our show and for your archives. So we’ve invited artist Jane Ramsey and photographer Donna Lovely to give us all some tips on how to make your artwork look its best to jurors and collectors online.

Click here to view the slides from the presentation.

Csilla Sadloch, known for her large-scale graphite drawings of plant matter, shares her meticulous and extraordinarily realistic artworks. The subject matter is inspired by her walks in woods, where the details of nature capture her sharply-focused gaze. She calls it “hyper examination.” The result is a realism taken to such an extreme that it becomes an abstraction.

Whether it’s people in a Queens, New York, food line during the pandemic or landscapes of the Appalachian Trail, Artist Francisco Silva paints the scenes he finds around him. Silva was born in Lima, Peru, and raised in the Peruvian community of Kearney, New Jersey. Now living in Frenchtown, Silva won the Phillips’ Mill Signature Image competition, painting the 18th-century National Historic Landmark with the warm colors of his Peruvian roots and the calming spirit that he’s experienced in nature.

Silva joins ArtTalk to discuss how his work reflects current events expressed through scenes of the daily struggles of ordinary people.  He’ll also tell us how he uses his palette of colors to express and evoke emotion.

How do you write dialog? How do you lure the elusive muse? How hard is it to give your words over to actors or a director who may have a different interpretation? Theatre maven and raconteur John Augustine served as a juror for Phillips’ Mill’s Third Annual Emerging Playwright Competition. He shares insights from his career with host Laura Womack. Three of the winning playwrights join them -- Adam Richter, Jim Moss and Jeff Stolzer. Tune in to hear their techniques, frustrations and more of the inner world of playwriting from these award winning writers. They’re a lively group!

If you happened to wander into Phillips’ Mill in the spring of 1929 you would have witnessed the first organized exhibit of member artists. You would have seen works by William L. Lathrop, Daniel Garber, John Folinsbee, George W. Sotter – just to name a few. The Phillips’ Mill was the heart of the artistic community in New Hope and these artists started the arts community on the Delaware river. The works of these talented artists reside in museums and private collections across the country. The artists became the renowned New Hope School of American Impressionists.

Join us as Laura Turner Igoe takes us back to the beginning of the Phillips’ Mill Community Association as we explore works in the collection of the Michener Art Museum.

Art is a form of non-verbal communication and yet we rarely talk about the relationships that are forged through art. The ideas and emotions that are conveyed can lead to long-lasting real life relationships. We’ll talk about those meaningful relationships that are built on the foundation of art. Phillips’ Mill was founded officially 92 years ago by the artist friends who became the renowned New Hope School of Impressionist painters.

Tom Chesar, a mainstay of the local arts community, met one of his best friends, Richard Lennox, at Phillips’ Mill. Tom says, “Phillips’ Mill is like a community. We have met some of our closest friends through the Mill and those friendships have lasted a lifetime.”

Come and meet Tom and Richard. These esteemed painters share their long fascination with painting Bucks County and the Delaware Valley. Both artists have a long history of winning awards in the Phillips’ Mill Art Exhibition.

Photography has come a long way in just 200 years. The camera developed from a plain box that took blurry photos to the high-tech mini computers found in today's smartphones. With the ability to take a picture literally at our fingertips, what makes an image fine art, rather than just Instagram worthy? 

Watch as host Laura Womack spoke with Spencer Saunders, founder of Phillips’ Mill Photo, and Donna Lovely, a member of the 2021 Phillips’ Mill Photography Committee. They shared the works from the 2021 Phillips’ Mill Photo Exhibit, as well as their perspective of photography as an art form.

Kathy Schroeher, Andrew Wilderson and Schuyler Cauley, who organized the 2021 Phillips’ Mill Youth Art Show, discussed why youth art is so important, and what it meant to keep the show going during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Joining them was an artist who started in the youth show and was later selected to be in the prestigious Juried Art Show this past year. 

Host Laura Womack, a former journalist in public radio and current chair of the Phillips’ Mill Art Show, led the discussion.

In abstract art, the artist is freed from faithful representations of the material world. But then what are the signposts for the artist — and the viewer — in how to experience the work? Pat Martin's journey in art began when she was a child in California, where she attended art school, and has flourished in the five decades she's lived in the New Hope/Lambertville area. During this discussion, Pat shared the insights she's gained in her long career.

John Schmidtberger has described his work as "poetic realism." He paints from direct observation without the use of photographs and with little or no retouching. 

John first entered the Mill Show in 1988, when he took home an honorable mention. His work has been included many times since, winning the prestigious Patrons’ Award for Painting in both 2019 and 2020.

During this show, John discussed his paintings, inspirations and involvement with Phillips' Mill and explored the artist/gallerist intersection.

Through the years Phillips’ Mill has been a popular subject for local painters.  It has been represented at different angles, seasons and mediums. Artists submit their image of the Mill to be selected as the promotional image for the annual Juried Art Exhibition. This image represents the show for that year and can really help an artist get their name out.  

Steve Zazenski’s work “Winter Sun, Phillips’ Mill” was selected as the promotional image for the 2015 show.  Steve has been a longtime participant in the show, and his submissions have won several awards. Why does an artist decide to submit a work for the Promotional Image? Has being selected made an impact on his career? Join us while we discuss these questions with Steve. 

Also joining the discussion will be JoAnn Goodwin and Mary Flamer, members of the Phillips’ Mill Art Committee. They will explain a bit about the selection process. 

The discussion will be led by Laura Womack, a former journalist in public radio who currently chairs the Phillips’ Mill Art Show.

We think of painting as a solitary undertaking. The artist needs to concentrate and draw on her inner self. So what is collaborative art? How do you make one piece of art with several people? Fine artist Kelly Sullivan believes that the experience of artmaking should be shared. And she’s busy with all sorts of projects to make sure that happens. She will discuss her large-scale FingerSmears® projects,  an online community painting project, as well as her plans to redevelop the Strand Theatre in Lambertville into an art space.

Kelly Sullivan is a fine artist who has been accepted and won awards at the Phillips’ Mill Art Show for years.  She is also a pioneer in the field of collaborative art for more than 25 years. She loves that her efforts have sparked artistic expression and creative fuel in hundreds of thousands of lives.

Two of the winners from the 3rd Annual Emerging Playwright Competition, Nick DeSimone and Kimberly Kalaja, joined us for a lively discussion on their work and inspirations.

Nick DeSimone is an award-winning writer, actor and filmmaker who made his debut at an international theatre festival in South Korea performing his play, "I Love You." Nick is a member of The Actors Studio/PDW and Urban Artists Collective.

Kimberly Bohman-Kalaja is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, author and Fulbright scholar. Her short film, The Lesson, was awarded "Best Screenplay" at the Top Shorts Film Festival in September 2020. She has served on the faculty of leading universities, including Princeton University, NYU, and California State University.

Teachers are important members of the community but in the age of COVID their jobs have become even more essential and more difficult. On the next ArtTalk we will introduce you to two local art teachers, John Rodgers and Amanda Penecale. John is a long time contributor to the Phillips’ Mill Juried Art Exhibition while Amanda submitted her work for the first time this year. We will discuss their background, how they decided to go into teaching and how they pursue their art career outside the classroom.

Robert Beck is known for painting in “visual essays,” in which he addresses a subject through multiple images. His subjects vary, but the common thread in all of his images is viewpoint: the depiction of his encounter. Through Beck’s deft observation and description, the viewer discovers what it is like to be there. Concentrating on occupations and environments, Robert Beck’s paintings are an important chronicle of our time.