“Sublime Chaos: a journey from realism to abstraction”, featuring 25 amazing paintings by internationally renowned artist Deborah Bigeleisen will be at 501 Fern Street in West Palm Beach.  The public is invited to the Opening Reception on August 24th.  The exhibit runs through August 26, 2017.  A portion of the proceeds from sales will be donated to Soroptimist International of the Palm Beaches.  The Rickie Report shares the details of the exhibit, a behind-the-scenes discussion with the artist, and some sneak peeks.  Fans of Bigeleisen’s works can experience her new style and share her artistic stretch!  Food and wine will be sponsored by Wine Scene.

 

 

“Sublime Chaos:
a journey from realism to abstraction”

Paintings by Deborah Bigeleisen

Opening Reception:

 

Thursday, August 24th

 

5:00 – 10:00 PM

 

 

501 Fern  Street   W. Palm Beach, FL

The exhibition will run until August 26th.

A portion of sales will be donated to Soroptimist International of the Palm Beaches.

 

 

 

 

 

“Energy” by Deborah Bigeleisen

 

 

 

 

Behind-The-Scenes With Artist, Deborah Bigeleisen

 

Deborah tells The Rickie Report, “Throughout my art career, and my life, I have continually looked for new challenges. Artistically, this has resulted in finding new voices within me. After working for more than four years on groups of conceptual paintings in analogous tonalities, tones of grays and beiges, and blacks and whites, I was looking for ‘what’s next’. My discovery of fractals had transformed my vision of a flower by progressively magnifying the subject thousands of times to the point of pure abstraction. Never having considered myself an abstract thinker, I began my exploration into abstract art… a journey I call “Sublime Chaos”, because at the onset, my vision and my studio were in utter chaos”.

 

“Dynamism” by Deborah Bigeleisen

 

She explains, “As an artist who has always used natural forms as my subject and began my career by painting Rembrandt-like portraits of white roses, my interest in Chaos Theory and fascination with one of its components – fractals – has permanently transformed my artistic vision. In the early days of my career, after creating more than 60 variations and compositions of portraits of white roses I felt that I had given the subject everything I could. I had to a find a new perspective. At first, I moved in for more close up views; then I transitioned through various magnifications ultimately evolving to the conceptual work with its foundation in the principles of fractals. Theses abstract realities were the serendipitous outcome of showing my art to a relative, a physician, who mentioned that the macro views reminded him of fractals. Never having heard the term before, I delved into extensive research – wanting to understand what he saw. This was not a concept to be grasped in an hour! The research was fun because it took me way outside my comfort zone. The principles are rooted in mathematics which definitely is not my strong suit. I was surprised by the fact that I was grasping the concepts. And the exciting part was that it gave me a totally new way of looking at my subject – my vision was truly was transformed”.

 

 

To paraphrase William Blake, Deborah “sees the world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower, holds infinity in the palm of her hand, and eternity in an hour.” Her subject is no longer simply a flower. Bigeleisen has discovered an inexhaustible richness of the structure that goes beyond what is recognizable to the naked eye. “By peeling away the layers and magnifying the image to its core, I’ve gained a deeper insight into the universal properties of all natural phenomena because I’ve uncovered a dynamic system whose pattern repeats in other phenomena. This is where my work takes the literal definition of a fractal – the self-similarity of an object of nature that is repeated thousands of times at different magnifications (picture a head of broccoli) – and broadens the scope beyond a single object. It is not my objective to convey every orifice and streak of my subject’s surface, but rather to capture its character and essence with the ultimate objective to immortalize the transitory nature of life.”

 

Untitled No. 26 by Deborah Bigeleisen

 

 

“I’ve had many serendipitous events impact my art career. Stumbling upon the inspiration for the abstracts was just the latest in a long line of such occurrences. At Art Miami in December, 2015, I came across a color- field painting on unprimed canvas by a lesser known artist of the period – Irene Monat Stern. I was immediately awestruck and captivated by everything about the painting. Although the colors were very dull, it did not matter; it was the big bold forms, how she layered her colors, and the texture that excited me. The fact that the painting loosely suggested a flower drew me to the work even more”.

 

“Vortex 2” by Deborah Bigeleisen

 

To achieve these effects, Deborah had to switch to acrylic paint. “After working in oils for 16 years, making that switch was a major commitment! It involved turning my studio and my painting process upside down including learning how to manipulate the paint, using different mediums, different brushes, and working on a flat surface instead of an easel. Was the same time, I was researching the color-field artists, their materials, their painting techniques, and solving some technical issues related to painting on unprimed canvas – which I am really drawn to because of how the paint interacts with the canvas.

 

“Glacier Bay Horizontal” by Deborah Bigeleisen

 

 

“I’ve always loved working with color. I felt this was the time to break away from the subtle transitions of color that I’d worked with for so long and go after something completely new – creating bold multi-color vibrant paintings. Paul Jenkins’ work appeals to my artist senses – his colors, the movement, the spontaneity, and the ‘happy accidents.’ Initially I felt that by replicating some of Jenkins’ work on primed canvas it would give me the creative road map to a destination of abstract work I hadn’t yet defined. By emulating his bold splashes of color, the bleeding water color effects, the drippy paint, and other elements of his work, I thought it would teach me a freedom with the paint that I had never experimented with before”.

 

“Venus” by Deborah Bigeleisen

 

 

“Now I was at the point of how do I bring my own voice into the work? (I had no intentions of channeling Jenkins forever… his work was a learning tool). The more I played with the paint, and became more comfortable with everything, I started ‘letting go,’ and my own voice surfaced. The whole transition ignited an entirely new artistic inventiveness and spontaneity that I never knew I possessed. Yet, the key elements that have defined my work – my brush work, my expertise with layered transparencies, and my innate sense of color are merging into the abstracts, and giving the work a distinctive and unique expression. I’m still captivated with working on unprimed canvas, and intend to continue experimenting. For now though, I feel that I have barely touched the surface with working on primed canvas. It’s a whole new creative paradigm for me and I love the newness, the challenge, the unending discoveries, and the unpredictability of what’s down that creative road”.

 

“Dynamism 5” by Deborah Bigeleisen

 

 

Flowers and nature have been the inspiration for Deborah’s artistic expression since childhood, and are the common thread that weave through both her careers: first as a textile print designer and founder of her own global design company in NYC, and later as a fine artist which she began in 1998 upon moving to West Palm Beach, FL. In the early years of her painting career she was mentored by acclaimed technical master Sam Perry and guided by renowned visionary Gordon Parks. She also completed rigorous training through Master Artist Workshops.

 

“Turning Point 32″by Deborah Bigeleisen

 

 

From early on, Ms. Bigeleisen’s work gained the attention of fine art dealers across the U.S. from San Francisco and Austin to New York City and Southampton. Her paintings are collected worldwide both privately and publicly, enhancing the corporate collections of American Airlines, Beauté Therapies Inc., Hilton International, The Koury Corporation and more. Her paintings have been accepted into numerous museum exhibitions including the Society of the Four Arts, the Boca Raton Museum of Art, and the Williamsburg [Brooklyn, NY] Historical Center; have received awards in international competitions; and have graced the covers and interior pages of publications including Michael K. Corbin’s three part series “A Collector’s Journal,” Florida Design, New Art International, and Art & Antiques. In addition, her conceptual work in fractals has been published in the prestigious journal Science Creative Quarterly.

 

“Point Of View Too” by Deborah Bigeleisen

 

“As my images became more abstracted, there was a major shift in my brushwork because I was dealing with much larger areas with far less information. I had to find a way to make the space more interesting. The outcome was a totally new energy in my brushwork, which had a significant effect not only the more conceptual work but on the realism as well. Consistent throughout all my paintings is the use of richly layered transparencies, often upwards of 20 coats at different viscosities. In the hyper-realism paintings and the work with analogous tonalities, I deliberately play warm hues against cool hues to achieve astonishing richness and depth in the darkest areas and vibrant luminosity in the highlights. I apply the same principles to the colorful abstract work but the contrasts are more striking. Whether creating evocative representational images or bold abstracts, I work with a very limited palette of up to eight colors – a practice started early in my career with the implementation of the techniques of the Dutch master artists”.

 

“Yin and Yang” by Deborah Bigeleisen

 

 

Deborah assures us, “I do not subscribe to rules, although I do adhere to a few classic principles for establishing the forms. Though I have a general vision at the onset of every new painting, I have had so many unexpected occurrences during the process that have taken the finished work somewhere that I never foresaw initially. Just as my senses are challenged, I look to seduce the viewer into the myriad of complexities and stimulate their imagination and emotions. Every painting is a fresh beginning and a new journey; and I cherish the unpredictability. I continue to push my vision to new depths and to create work that feeds my spirit; work that is engaging and provocative with the complexity to withstand the test of time – especially in today’s culture where trends are in and out in a nano-second. In this short attention span, instant gratification, digitally driven culture that we live in I am asking viewers to put their devices down, to take the time to pause and really look at what is in front of them, look at what is around them, and to see and question more than meets the eye”.

 

Deborah Bigeleisen with a collector

 

Deborah Bigeleisen grew up in Los Angeles and attended college at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Whether painting highly representational images, or more abstracted visions, Bigeleisen’s dynamic and evocative paintings of flowers stand alone in the contemporary fine art arena. Deborah’s work is represented by fine art galleries throughout the U.S. and is prominently featured in international Contemporary and Fine Art Fairs.

 

 

“Dynamism 8” by Deborah Bigeleisen

 

Her work has been widely published in journals and books ranging from Science Creative Quarterly, to Michael K. Corbin’s trilogy ‘A Collector’s Journal,’ to New Art International and Studio Visit. Her paintings have graced the covers and interior pages of international publications including Florida Design, Miami Home & Décor, and Art and Antiques. Deborah’s work is collected world-wide both privately and publicly, and enhances the corporate collections of American Airlines, Beauté Therapies Inc., The Koury Corp., Hilton International, and LBC Design & Construction to name just a few. Her paintings have received awards, and have been exhibited in numerous museum shows including the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Platt/Bornstein Galleries at American Jewish University in Los Angeles, and the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center in Brooklyn, NY.

 

 

 

“Serpentine” by Deborah Bigeleisen

 

Ms. Bigeleisen’s paintings have sold at numerous locations including the Architectural Digest Home Design Show, ArtHamptons, the Chicago International Art Show, the LA Art Show, the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art and Antique Show and the Shanghai Art Fair. She is a long standing member of the National Association of Women Artists. She served as chair person for Art and Public Places for the City of West Palm Beach for ten years. She is an active member of Soroptimist International; and is a former member of Executive Women of the Palm Beaches, and former board member of the Palm Beach County Women’s Chamber of Commerce.

 

 

 

 

 

For more information:

Deborah Bigeleisen
Artist
Art Consultant
Visiting Educator

STUDIO: 561.689.7748
mobile: 561.351.8755
deborah@deborahbigeleisen.com
www.deborahbigeleisen.com

 

 

Soroptimist is a global women’s organization whose members volunteer to improve the lives of women and girls through programs leading to social and economic empowerment. Approximately 76,000 Soroptimists in over 120 countries and territories support community–based and global projects benefiting women and girls. The organization is particularly concerned with providing women and girls access to education, as this is the most effective path to self-determination.  The name, Soroptimist, means “best for women,” and that’s what the organization strives to achieve. Soroptimist’s are women at their best, working to help other women to be their best.  For more information please call: (561) 309-8743

 

 

 

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