Fresh from the Studio

Thu Apr 27, 2023

12pm

Fresh from the Studio invites W&TW artist members to share what they are working on now with you! In this virtual format, artists will share work in progress, newly finished artworks, and recent or upcoming projects. Each presentation will be about 10 minutes with time for your questions and comments afterwards. Fresh from the Studio is your chance to see what is new and hear from contemporary artists. This program is free and open to the public.

This segment of Fresh from The Studio will feature artists like Rebecca Bennett, Annie Arnold, and Samantha Melvin.

About the Artists

Using the sensual qualities of oil, Rebecca Bennett creates layered abstractions which explore the dynamics of color, line, and texture. The viewer is encouraged by their abstraction to interpret their experience of the work rather than the work itself. Her work plays with the abstracted modern landscape. She uses light and dark, space and scale, encouraging the viewer to step into the work to react and reflect. Her process is one in which the artist and paint are partners negotiating the surface of the canvas as if the paint had animated qualities. Bennett’s work can be seen in corporate, hotel, residential, and hospitality settings across the US and Europe.

Annie Arnold is a visual artist bemused by the social and cultural phenomena of narcissism. Favoring iterative craft techniques, such as needlepoint and crochet, she makes art both as a distraction from and a reference to social media. Her work explores our attempts to offset the shame of being ordinary and highlights the staggering amounts of time we dedicate to thinking and talking about ourselves. Arnold has participated in exhibitions at The Contemporary Austin, Austin; New American Paintings, exhibition-in-print; grayDUCK Gallery, Austin; the Visual Arts Center, Austin; and the Salina Arts Center, Salina, KS; among others. She has been curated into group shows by curators: Jennie Goldstein, Whitney Museum of American Art; Andrea Karnes, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Suzanne Weaver, San Antonio Museum of Art; Christina Rees, former Editor-in-Chief of Glasstire.com; and most recently, Tyler Blackwell, the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston. She earned her BA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin, and her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of North Texas,Denton, TX. Arnold currently lives and works in Austin, TX.

Samantha Melvin is a Texas-based artist, art educator and advocate. Her research-based artistic practice includes drawing, painting, and printmaking through which she investigates order and chaos in the spaces we inhabit. She exhibits her work regularly in Texas. Her work has been included in invitational group exhibitions in California, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas, juried shows in New York, Virginia and online. She has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan, and a Master of Arts in Art Education from the University of Florida. Melvin is a community press member and instructor at Flatbed Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Austin. She is a candidate for a Master of Fine Arts in Painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design in the spring of 2023.

Interested in participating in Fresh from the Studio? Click here to learn more about artist membership benefits and opportunities!