September 19-21, 2008 — Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino was host to International ArtExpo Las Vegas 2008. This is the second year for ArtExpo in Las Vegas, following the 30 year success of Artexpo New York. This Las Vegas event showcases the artworks of approximately 310 artists working in acrylic painting, animation art, bas relief, art glass, ceramics, collages, drawings, etchings/engravings, jewelry, mixed-media, oil paintings, pastels, photographs, sculptures, serigraphs/silkscreen and watercolors - you name, and it was there. We were there too as we stopped in to catch up with a few artist friends and see what was new and exciting in the art world.

With hundreds of artist showing their wares, there were literally thousand of artworks to take in. our overall take on the show was positive, with most artists expressing that were experiencing success and worthwhile sales. As it should be - most of what we saw was beautiful work - well executed and nicely displayed. We left inspired.

It was catching up with Steve Barton, who is known for his strong brush strokes, rich textures, and vibrant colors… all that and a mean coffee too. Steve brings a sense of joy and peace to each of his paintings featuring tranquil and seductive locales that reflect his engaging personality. His love of his work comes through in each of his creations, from the canvas to his special trademark “Wavy” frames.

All the way from Hawaii, Walfrido displayed his beautiful landscapes and seascapes featuring caves, classic beach scenes, volcanoes, fire and fantasy.

Figurative artist Henry Asencio displayed an impressive collection of beautiful painting featuring bold brush strokes.

Caricature pop artist David O’Keefe made way from Florida to show his fun and entertain statues and paintings. His Bill Murray sculpture in the back corner is hilarious.

Artist Fabian Perez takes a moment to catch up with A.D.

Classically trained California artist Steven M. Quartly was displaying his fabulously colorful oil paintings of landscapes.

Seascapes and bold colorful paintings were very popular at this show.

Visiting from Scottsdale, Arizona, pop artist Chris Palin aka ‘the Urban Edge’ strolled the aisles with A.D.

Where’s Barry? Abstract artist Barry Mack flew down from Portland, Oregon to take in all the art. Chris and I pondered his whereabouts and shots pics.

Celebrating ancient modernism, Marston Smith bronze sculpture evoke epic voices from another time, beyond the boundaries of rational thought. A true Renaissance man, Marston has been sculpting, painting and drawing since his youth, and has also pursued a stellar career as a concert cellist. He has performed in concert all over the world and was performing live for appreciative audiences at his space at ArtExpo. Marston’s music, paintings and sculptures are the embodiment of what he coins Epic Romantic. Visit MythicSculpture.com for more on Marston, his art and music.

ArtExpo has added Miami to their venue making their next upcoming venue International ArtExpo Miami - December 12-14, 2008, 250 NW 22nd St., Miami, FL. Visit ArtExpos.com for more.

Click here for previous AirbrushTour posts on ArtExpos for Las Vegas and New York.

On a note of a different subject…. before hitting ArtExpo, artists Chris Palin and Barry Mack joined A.D. for a visit to see his new forthcoming studio in Las Vegas. Stay tuned to AirbrushTour for more on that. These walls won’t stay white for long.

Cheers.

We recently stopped by the International Art Expo - Las Vegas where we ran into pop artist Kat roaming the isles and sporting some new ink.

Stay tuned as we bring you more from Art Expo in this weekends post.

This past weekend Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas played host to ArtExpo - September 28 through 30. It was a bustling event replete with awesome new art and lots of trade and tourist attendees. We filled our eyes and souls with color and form as we walked from display to display, and got a chance to connect with artists that we haven’t seen since the New York ArtExpo event we attended last March.

Some of the usual suspects and some new ones. Abstract artists Barry Mack, David Lochtie, and A.D. Cook with Chris Palin travel the isles of Art Expo.

Stepping into Steve Barton’s booth at Art Expo is kind of like stepping barefoot onto the sandy beach at the Pacific. His art totally captures the casual, relaxed feeling of the ocean and even his unique wavy frames reflect the essence of beach. You’ve got to check out more of his work at his website BartonStudios.com. Stay tuned, because soon, we’ll be doing a special post on this fun artist - wavy frames and all.

One of the more innovative art forms we discovered was the kinetic furniture and wall art of Dale Mathis.

Scott Jacobs was available for a pic and a chat about the art biz. Scott is one of a very few licensed Harley-Davidson® artists in the world. Visit Scott Jacob Fine Art online.

You may remember that pop artist Kat was our neighbor when A.D. Cook showed his art at New York Artexpo in March, and we found her at this one as well. We did a special post on her and her work after the March show and you can read that here or you can go directly to the source - her web site is KatFineArt.com - The art and soul of Rock n’ Roll.

Local Las Vegas artists Thom Madro aka ‘Thomadro’ and partner in crime Jen Ashton were found displaying their new and unique “MadJenNation” life cast art.

And A.D. finally caught up with the one-and-only Olivia, queen of pin up art.

David Garibaldi - another local Las Vegas artist gave us a show. You see, he performs his art with a unique rhythm as he creates it. Check out how he does it at his website: GaribaldiArts.com

Always fans of beautifully executed fine art figurative works, we found ourselves lingering at Miguel Paredes booth. Treat your eyes to his gorgeous original artworks at paredesstudio.net.

Elegant and hugely imposing, the art of Dale Terbush made us stop in our tracks. Dale is as friendly and approachable as his art is beautiful. Visit his website for more on this amazing artist… MastersLight.com

We’ll be following up with more special posts on many of the artists you see here. So keep your feed fresh.

THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT FINE ART FAIR HEADS WEST
Artexpo, the biggest name in international fine art fairs, is expanding to Las Vegas, and taking with it the 29-year reputation from New York City where it is known as the premier destination for the fine art trade and collectors of fine art for all tastes, styles and budgets.

The world’s largest name in fine and popular art fairs is creating a West Coast show, September 28-30, 2007 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. With the world’s most exciting city as its host, Artexpo Las Vegas will serve the expansive West Coast trade and consumer marketplace, creating an exciting new buying event in a western location. Artexpo Las Vegas offers the growing West Coast art enthusiasts an opportunity to visit their favorite publishers, galleries and artists in an exciting location.

Trade Only VIP Preview
Thursday, September 27; 6pm-9pm Be the first to see the new Artexpo Las Vegas. All members of the trade are invited to shop the show a day early and mix and mingle with exhibitors during the official kick-off to Artexpo Las Vegas 2007!

Charity Evening to Benefit the Sunrise Children’s Foundation
Artexpo is proud to host a charity event to benefit Las Vegas’ Sunrise Children’s Foundation. The silent auction will be held Friday, September 28 from 6:30 p.m. – 9 p.m.and the evening will include drinks, hors d’ oeuvres and the opportunity to purchase featured works, with proceeds benefiting the SCF. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the door.

Gallery Symposium
The Gallery Symposium, a new education program for gallery personnel, will feature 15 seminars,hosted by industry experts, designed to teach best practices in gallery sales, marketing, trends and technology. Courses include Increasing Gallery Sales, Marketing that Works, Making Sculpture Pay Off, Giclée Products, Evaluating the Quality of Artwork, and much more.

Celebrity Art Pavilion
Artexpo Las Vegas is excited to host some of the world’s most famous celebrities in the Celebrity Art Pavilion. See the work and hear the stories of celebrities turned artists, like Tony Curtis, Grace Slick, and many others. Celebrity appearances and lectures are scheduled throughout the weekend.

Click here to visit Artexpo online.

Watch AirbrushTour for follow up posts to this great event! Click here to view AirbrushTour articles from Artexpo 2007 in New York.

We met Ashton Howard at Art Expo in New York in March. His art is the expression of his passion for the ocean. He sometimes even presses shells into the rich texture of his originals to give the art a connection to what inspired it.

Ashton Howard online.

Visit the ArtExpo category to learn about other artists we met there.

Wild and vibrant, expressive and fun. That’s what comes to mind when you get in front of Kat’s work. Inspired by the music of Rock ‘n Roll legends like Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Hendrix, Kat attacks a canvas with the passion of a musician. Her work visually and faithfully captures the feel of the music and you can’t help but feel uplifted and ready to party when you look at it.

Superior art, first-class events and show-exclusive offerings characterize Artexpo New York 2007.

We’re excited to announce that A.D. Cook was just featured in the April 2007 issue of Art Business News for the ArtExpo 2007 Post-Show Report. Below is an excerpt from page 28 (© 2007 Summit Business Media, LLC. Used by permission).

TRENDSETTING …Although some new initiatives received mixed reviews, others came forward as trendsetters for 2007. Metal Art was a recurring theme in several exhibitor’s booths, as many artists experimented with works on new substrates for the show. New exhibiting artist A.D. Cook showcased a wide range of his metal fusion art, which is intricately hand painted, airbrushed and even etched with a razor and other sculpting tools to create visually striking images.

Visit Art Business News online to learn more.

View The Art currently showcases the largest selection of A.D.’s recent work online.

… or maybe a million.

Paul Rousso has a different way of looking at art. Instead of representing a three dimensional object on a two dimensional surface (ie canvas), he felt the need to represent a two dimensional object in a three dimensional way. What makes this more intriguing, is that he uses the object itself in the art.

Confused? Let’s just say one day you got the uncontrollable urge to see the contents of the Yellow Pages all at once. Hey, it could happen! Paul has made this possible by taking every single page of the Yellow Pages and creating a beautiful piece of art on a wood panel starting with page one and progressing all the way to the last page at the bottom of the piece. If you get up and personal with the art, you may just be able to find your own name in there. He’s done this with the 1956 World Almanac, every note the Beatles ever wrote, the Dictionary, The Bible, the Torah, The Sunday Times and many other tomes.

There’s a fine line separating insanity from genius. I’d say Paul Rousso is skating on the genius side. Do yourself a delight and check out his story and his art right here…

We got a chance to visit again with the fine metal artist, Jason Mernic at ArtExpo 2007 in New York. You may remember we first got acquainted with him and his very creative work at the Queen Mary last August.

It was very intriguing to learn more about how Jason produces his art. Instead of using traditional canvas and paints, he uses metal as his canvas and the heat of a torch as his paint brush. The result is a beautiful piece of art which he has cut and burned the image into the metal. He uses primarily four types of metal - copper, stainless, aluminum and brass. “I don’t usually start with a preconceived idea of what the image will be when I begin to work on a piece. I just let it evolve.” Jason explains. And the result is unique and magnificent.

Visit Jason’s website at Jageaux Fine Metal Art

One of the more fascinating methods of art we took in at Art Expo was the beautiful and intricate drizzle art of Andrew Baird from Evergreen, Colorado. These paintings you see behind Andrew and A.D. are done 100% in just drizzled paint. Up close, the texture is uniquely abstract, but stand back and see the true intent of the work - a gorgeously rendered portrait.

It takes Andrew about six weeks to complete one painting. We asked him what inspired him to paint this way and he shared the unique evolution of his technique with us. You see, Andrew was once an art teacher in his home town of Evergreen, CO. One day he decided to challenge his students to draw a portrait using only scribbles. Inspired by the results he got from his students as well as his own experience with the exercise, he decided to try using paint. Then one painting after another followed the experiment and a wonderful art career emerged.

“I continue to build layers of color until I recognize that the painting has that perfect quality I’m seeking. The process is intriguing to me… and the end result surprises and fascinates me. I like it that people find it interesting to study each painting, to think about its creation and to trace the lines of paint.” And we did. Thanks for sharing Andrew and best of everything in your career…

Visit Baird Studios online.