Spring Rising – Exhibition Highlights 2017

Comprised of over 30 works by Morton Kaish, Spring Rising: Landscape Paintings & Prints enjoyed runs at The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio and the National Arts Club in New York City during 2017. A new series by Kaish, “The Butterfly Trilogy” was introduced at the New York installation of the exhibition. 

 

Read a review in Fine Art Connoisseur and see a preview of the exhibition here.

For more information about the exhibition and catalog, please contact Sarah McCollum at sarah@kaishfamilyartproject.com.

 

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January 2017 – Print of the Month

Fire & Ice on the Hudson II

2002

Monotype, oil on rag paper, 8 x 10 inches

Of recent years, the monotype has offered opportunity to make the kind of oil paintings on paper that I’d always wanted to. That is, to work swiftly or slowly, boldly or delicately, densely or thinly–and still to maintain the freshness and directness that comes only with a first vision.

I suppose it is because the “battle” (or dialogue) between artist and subject takes place on the surface of the plate (zinc, copper or plexiglass), running its inevitable course of conflict and change–second, third-and-after-thoughts. Paint it in. Paint it out. Scrape it, punch it. Kick it into that elusive shape/form/color. And then, by the simple, rational process of running it through an etching press (sometimes two, three, four times) take that image to the surface–receptive and responsive–of good rag paper and come away with the entire encounter and image fresh and whole and intact.

February 2017 – Print of the Month

fierce-flower-v

Fierce Flower V

1980

Monotype, oil on rag paper, 6 ½ x 6 ½ inches

In Nature, the swift-sudden quality of a familiar image transformed by an unexpected encounter, in an unlikely moment or context–illuminated by a fleeting sense that winter may be past.

dancing-thistles

December 2016 – Print of the Month

Dancing Thistles IV

1998

Collagraph on rag paper, 11 x 18 ½ inches

It is implicit in the human condition to be aware of the passage of time–the shimmering instant, the sense of loss–of moments which will never return.

And December arrives with its radiant promise, signals the moments which will return.

November 2016, Print of the Month

summers-end

“Summer’s End”

15-1/4 x 14”, Photogravure with aquatint and drypoint

Though the medium is intaglio, the beginnings come from the series of brush and ink ‘dune’ drawings I rejoice in doing each summer on Martha’s Vineyard. One finds there that confluence of sea and shore and sky, wildflowers, the change of tide and season – that speaks to us all of moments lost, though perhaps of better yet to come.
The sketch was photo-transferred to a copper plate providing a basic configuration and arena for several months of work, first with etching followed by aquatint and finally drypoint. The plate was then steel-faced for completion of the edition of 30 with 5 artist’s proofs.

Chilmark

October 2016 Print of the Month

“Seapath, Chilmark II”

7″ x 9″, Monotype on rag paper

There has always been something about that confluence of sea, sky and shore that both lulls and excites.  Though I suppose it may have begun with a long ago Cape Cod honeymoon, it surely emerged again during long, happy summer days with Jackie and Dan Schuman at their summer place in Chilmark on Martha’s Vineyard.  Somehow, that sea, sky, shore combination always seemed more dramatic and compelling there than any others I’ve known.

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