Poppies on Black

I began this pastel recently during some quiet time when I was tending the Workhouse Building 9 gallery desk. It's from a picture I always have with my pastel equipment. I took it at Green Spring Garden Park and I've painted it several times before. This one is on black Canson paper, so it has a increased vibrancy and shimmer against the black. Thanks to my Liz Haywood-Sullivan workshop experience and working on black, which I hope to do more often.

Poppies on Black
soft pastel on black Canson
8x10

Collector's Showcase at the Workhouse

Watch for more soon on this year's Collector's Showcase 2014 at the Workhouse. The exhibit is on display upstairs in Building W-16 in the McGuire-Woods Gallery from January 11 through the lottery-style auction and fundraiser on March 1.

My donation is "Baltimore Farmer's Market," a metallic ink photograph framed to 16"x20" - look for it to add to your collection.

Arts Club of Washington in February

"Safe Passage" 
Photograph on Canvas 
34"x22"

In her February 2014 "Safe Passage" exhibition at the Arts Club of Washington, Bonnie Ferguson Butler employs metallic ink photographs, photos on canvas, and pastels to explore various means of transportation, transition, and movement in Italy, both the figurative and the literal. Images vary from the tiny boat and mysterious alley in the photo entitled "Safe Passage," to the unseen breeze and religious connotation in the pastel, "Vatican Illuminated."

Some of these images of Northern, Central, and Southern Italy will demonstrate double entrendre like these, but the primary focus relates to an implied sense of movement - windows, doors, water taxis, laundry in the sunny wind, and scooters - which is caught before, during or after the action.  

February 2 - March 2, 2014
Opening February 7, 6-9 PM

Arts Club of Washington
Monroe House
2017 I St NW
Washington, DC 20006

Like each of her previous exhibits, this series demonstrates Butler's love of travel and curiosity about how locations influence art. A Missouri native raised in South Carolina who resides in Northern Virginia, Butler joined the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia, in 2009 and enjoys regular exhibits in Gallery 902. A published biochemist, her art training began as an awakening during a required liberal arts class outside her science majors at Wofford College; her graduate studies were in Humanities and Art History at the University of Richmond. She has pursued many studio classes and workshops since, studying most recently with Liz Haywood-Sullivan, Jack Pardue, and Maggie Price. Butler is founder and president of the Pastel Society of Virginia and a member of Pastel Society of America. Her blog is available at bfbutler.blogspot.com.