5,000 Mile Studio Space in the Forest
New Hampshire is no “Plain Jane”,
when it comes to views. That is why painting inside the 5,000 miles of forests, starting from New Hampshire including Canada, makes this area a phenomenal studio space. Yes, an outside studio space that replaces the comforts of the traditional white walls as a place to paint is at times impractical due to the weather. But, lady inspiration is not always convenient. The photographer is Joe Klementovich, my brother who has known me my whole life, and can connect to the vastness of this state and understands modern work. He has worked with some of the most extinct parts of nature in the area. We both want to show what this state can elevate to in the name of art.
7 Degrees and Blizzard Conditions
On February 11th in Jackson, NH, two abstract painters displayed their work along the 56 wooded trails at the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation. Rebecca Klementovich of Bartlett and Kristen Pobatschnig of Conway call themselves the “Femme Fatales of the North” and are working to bring more attention to female painters in northern New Hampshire.
The day of the show it was 7 degrees with blizzard conditions. The snow was falling down hard. The women had to pull their large canvases on sleds across the trails at the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation. It was estimated that 3,000 people would be at the foundation that day, a similar number of viewers as the MOMA. All of the paintings were hung creatively on trees. The paintings are highly colorful. The thick layers of varnish kept the canvases safe from the heavy amounts of snow.
Galleries that Carry My Work
Permanent Gallery
Canterbury Hill Studio, Rockport, MA
Carver Gallery Rockland, Maine
Soho Picture framing, 568 Broadway, NYC
Jackson Art Studio and Gallery, NH
Wren, Bethlehem, NH
Harvest Gold, Lovell, Maine
Photographers for the Femme Fatales of the North
Femme Fatales would not be who they are without the enormous talent of the photographers.
Their main photographer who has been photographing the femmes since 2014 is the talented, Orion Kugel.”
Orion Kugel’s work has a beautiful softness and dreamy quality, whenever he photographs us,” Klementovich said. Orion is an artist in his own right. He writes poetry and constructs modern collage pieces.
“When the three of us get together to do a photoshoot there is a great connection, there is a creative flow that is rare,” Rebecca adds.
Orion has this organic way of photographing us. We have this creative spirit that takes over, which you can see in his photographs,” Pobatschnig said about Orion.” He is also our CEO, creative manager, and my boyfriend”, Kristen continued.
Orion has shown at Wren and also at the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts, NH.
Joe Klementovich is a New York Times photographer, who lives in North Conway. He is the brother of Rebecca. Joe’s style of work is story like and influenced by National Geographic. The richness he brings to the Fatales is the ability to show expansiveness of the landscapes of New Hampshire. This expansiveness is fast becoming a signature for Joe.
One of his most successful photographs of the Fatales was when he put them right in the middle of a mile of Beach trees by the Saco river, as they painted. “His photographs in that series really show how hard it is to find the right spot to paint, in a place where everything is a great spot,” Rebecca said. “I have known my brother my whole life, he was one of the few people who captured, what it is like to be a female painter in a male dominated field.”
Violet Webster is sixteen, and is the daughter of Rebecca. She took the first pictures of the fatales on one of her school vacations. By the age of nine, Violet had seen the Picasso exhibition twice, she tried to steps on the platform of a Giacometti sculpture at the age of two, and almosttouched a painted tie on a Rauschenberg painting.
So it was no surprise when Violet captured an Andy Warhol style by setting up the fatales in a static, graphic poses. These first pics were much like Warhol’s compositions of his screen printing work.
Her work was shown in the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in 2016.
Anna Demarco is an LA photographer, but is from North Conway. She went to high school with Kristen. Anna did a fantastic job photographing the fatales painting in a canoe. It was hard to maneuver a camera, canoe, and finding the right shot. Orion was paddling the canoe as Anna was able to photograph. It was crazy fun. The concept of the shot was to show another unusual place for the women to paint, a venue that still was a New Hampshire past time. Canoeing while painting was perfect.
Mohair Bikini and the Making of Icons
The joys and mystery of developing a unique presence is all about the photo shoot.
A big influence on our style was in part from the fashion industry. Rebecca worked on the Joan Vass fashion line in 2005-2009, in New York City, which gave her the background on how to run a fashion photoshoot. ” I would help style the photo shoots. My office mate was the designer, Michael Cunningham. We would discuss some of the direction and which outfit the company would use for a photo session,” Klementovich said.
“What I loved about Joan Vass was her original way of thinking,” Klementovich explains. “Vass designed a Mohair bikini, that type of designing stands alone for originality,” Rebecca said. In the New York Times article about Vass “She broke every rule of the business.”
The big lesson while working on the Joan Vass line was how to visually make an icon. The icon is where the direction of the presence begins. Fashion uses icons to direct who wears their clothes, and who is buying the product.Besides the image of the Icon, Rebecca saw the importance of the “front color” meaning the outfits were in the front of the photo, and how they worked with the “back color” the background. “For example when Kristen and I do a photoshoot, we think of the what are the colors of where we are going to photograph. If it is bright green summer forest, we will wear pinks and oranges which are the contrast colors.Using the opposite colors pushes the intensity of the photo. We also bring a trunk load of clothes because you never know when just a hint of a certain color in a dress, scarf, or accessory will move the photo to the next level,” Rebecca said.
This photo really proves this point. Here the foggy background softens the backdrop, so we use the red and peach colors of the shirt and scarf to push us to the front. The black shapes of our hair and shirts add to the rhythm of movement in the photo. The drinking of tea in the forest while painting adds to the silliness of the shoot
. PHOTO by Orion Kugel. Orion has a wonderful awareness of subtly in capturing color and design.
Two years as a Curator at the Rochester Fine Arts Museum,in NH
I just received this email
-Our August meeting is our first meeting of your second year in your current term, by Esther Turner, at the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts!
I am so honored to be a part of this grass roots museum that is taking off in the best way.
ART FOR EVERYONE is the Museum's main goal. And what a goal it is.
http://www.rochestermfa.org/committee.html
Argentine Tango and how dance affects Brush Strokes
A few years back, in midtown Manhattan, I was taking tango lessons from Musa. What I learned from dancing was- it is a lot like painting. When you push the floor with your feet, it is the same movement of the pushing of the brush against the canvas. They both use friction to make the movement.
Kline was painter. He understood movement. You can see by the energy in his work, he took huge chances with his brush strokes. His massive strokes of paint must have been done with a forty five dollar large brush that would later take an hour to clean.
Here in this tango video, Musa and I must have danced a good 400 hours to get to the quality of these dance steps. The small circles of movement by the toes, the tango wraps, the kicks and the WALK are all brush strokes in my world. Pushing, sweeping, gliding, and listening are the elements for not a good brush stroke but a fantastic brush stroke. The same for the dance step, you can take a halfhearted step or you can take a large, broad step. It is in the detail of quality of the movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb945h6JfSs
To watch Tango as spoken in the blub find it from the above link.
Motherwell, Klementovich, Pobatschnig
Motherwell, Klementovich, Pobatschnig
When you enter Jeannie Motherwell’s studio, the large expansive abstract paintings
really grab your attention. She grew up in a home of abstract painting with the influences of her father, Robert Motherwell and step mom Helen Frankenthaler. Yet her own work is strong and bold with rich dark colors and a splash of cadmium brights.
Her own artist’s statement says this, “I am amazed by the images and mysteries of creation — like the oceans and skies in changing weather, Hubble-type images of the universe, and my own physicality during the painting process.” When you see her work, it feels oceanic. It is true, Kristen and I can contest the ocean feel of her work.
Our visit to Motherwell’s studio was inspiring as you can see her raw talent and perseverance. Jeannie, told us that Helen Frankenthaler never put being a women as an obstacle she just painted, and kept at it.
We send a special thanks to Jeannie Motherwell for being an abstract artist and showing the way.
