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1^st Thursday Gallery Night at West End galleries
September 3rd 2004

The first in a series of 1^st Thursday Gallery Nights at West End galleries offers an easy and pleasurable way to stop by several of Austin's favorite galleries located within walking distance of each other on West 6th and 5th Streets. Many galleries will be staying open until 8 p.m. and some will be opening new shows. Participating galleries are: Stephen L. Clark Gallery, Wally Workman Gallery, F8 Fine Art Gallery, Lotus Asian Art Gallery, ArtWorks, Austin Galleries, and Art on 5th.

For more information log onto inthegalleriesaustin.com/westend.htm

Spotlight on 3 West End Galleries:
Wally Workman Gallery, F8 Fine Art Gallery and Austin Galleries

On view at Wally Workman is Carol Marine: New Paintings. This solo show highlights the latest oil paintings by Carol Marine. Most of Marine's paintings are impressions of uniquely Austin urban scenes, for example, The Grove Drugstore sign on 6^th Street or a cyclist sitting on a Congress Avenue bench.

Marine works from photos. She photographs mostly in downtown Austin and San Antonio, although there are plans to do some more in other cities. From these photos she creates familiar yet fresh compositions on canvas, celebrating a distinctive sense of place and the people who inhabit it.

Capturing the geometric shapes of streets and buildings, Marine is fascinated by the way downtown architecture is broken up by elements like people, trees, cars, and signs. She enjoys depicting the colors she finds downtown, how they relate to each other, contrast and change. Succinctly she puts it, "I paint things I like. That's it."

Marine, who was raised in the very small town of Harper, Texas, grew up in a dome house designed and built by her parents. Her mother, a weaver and a potter, and her father, a boat builder, were both creative and stressed doing what one loves. The artist credits them with much of her inspiration.

Marine received a BFA in Studio Art at The University of Texas at Austin in 2001 and lives in Austin with her husband David and 2 stepdaughters, Sophie and Maddie. She also runs her own web design business.

f8 Fine Art Gallery will also be hosting a reception Thursday, September 2, 6-8 p.m. in conjunction with West End Gallery Night. Featured gallery artists on view will be photographer M. Delos Reyes, painter Peter Mitchev, and painter Trish Biddle.

M. Delos Reyes creates photos which reflect quiet moments that exude inner strength and peace. Taking advantage of natural light she makes textural and luminous prints. She uses a Hasselblad 500 C/M with an 80mm Zeiss lens and all of her works are on warm either selenium or sepia toned papers.

Born in 1966, Delos Reyes is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, where she resides and works as a registered nurse. She has studied Ansel Adams' Zone system and printmaking at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts over the last 6 years, winning several juried awards. Her works have been at the Alexandria Museum of Art (Louisiana), New Orleans Academy of fine Arts, The Poet's Gallery (New Orleans), Janet Molero (New Orleans), E3 Gallery (New York), Steve Martin Gallery (New Orleans), and La Boulangerie (New Orleans).

Peter Mitchev paints highly detailed oils of embracing lovers, charming musicians, and entwined animals. His lavish ornamentation and vivid colors have been compared to Klimt and Modigliani. The paintings radiate love, warmth, and a quiet understanding of human nature.

Between 1974 and 1990, his artistic career was based mainly in Bulgaria because of the limitations imposed by the Communist administration. After the change of the regime in 1990, his international career grew. Mitchev's work is now in many prestigious collections, including the Vatican Museum, the Museum of Peace in Caen, France and UNESCO in Paris. He also shared an exhibit with Salvador Dali at Gallerie L'angle aigu in Bruxelles, Belgium. In late 2000, the artist and his family relocated to Tampa, Florida.

Drawing inspiration from the beautiful places of the world, Trish Biddle enlivens her canvases with color, style and emotion. Italy, especially Tuscany, is one of her favorite locales due to its rich culture and breathtaking scenery. Biddle's subjects range from landscapes, to still lives to the human figure. She also has an ongoing affection for children's images, which were the primary focus of her textile designs.

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Biddle studied at the Dallas Institute of Art and in New York, primarily in illustration and textile design. Inspired by extensive travels to Europe, Biddle began painting in oils. In addition to her originals being represented by F8 Fine Art Gallery, Canadian Art Prints, Inc. published Biddle's work and it was featured in the CBS miniseries "Reversible Errors."

Austin Galleries will be open until 8 p.m. on Thursday, September 2 as part of 1^st Thursday Gallery Night, featuring new works by April Street. April Street's work combines paint, resins, metals, photography, digital imaging and storytelling to create complex layered paintings and sculptures that distort and recreate current social and political environments. Her work draws a vision of the world from the childlike ability to make up your own rules about adult subjects. In Street's large-scale oil on board diptych titled "Hydrophone," the artist's whimsical, abstract and visionary approach to patterns in nature is effectively communicated.