Art Online | February 2001

View The Turquoise House, Chamisal by Douglas Johnson at www.artvillages.com. southwest art.
View The Turquoise House, Chamisal by Douglas Johnson at www.artvillages.com

By James Turrell

It Takes a (Cyber) Village
Think about taking an art adventure in Taos without leaving your favorite distressed-leather chair. Thanks to New Mexico gallery owner Stephen Parks and entrepreneur Bill Swan, you can now take a virtual visit to Taos, and eventually to 200 other art destinations across the country. Parks and Swan launched their Web site, www.artvillages.com, in October. The site features more than 1,000 images, gallery listings, and travel tips about where to stay and dine in case you decide to visit the art destination in person. This month they add Jackson Hole, WY, and Santa Fe, NM, to the site. The company plans to add a new destination every month including Scottsdale and Sedona, AZ; Sun Valley, ID; and Carmel, CA. “Our job is to provide a marketing service that connects galleries and artists in major art centers to collectors across America,” Swan says.


Art for a California Cause
If you’re interested in California landscape painting, visit www.conser vancyartshows.com. The Web site was founded last year by Golden State collectors Wayne and Carla Howard. The exhibits and artists on the site change regularly. Ten percent of the sale price of each painting sold online goes to the California State Parks Foundation.


Just Browsing
When Southern California painter Frank Serrano isn’t creating artworks, he is curating them for his new cyber-gallery. Serrrano has lined up more than a dozen top landscape painters on his Web site, www.pleinairgallery.com. Participating artists include Matt Smith, Ned Mueller, and Kenn Backhaus. A viewer can peruse everything from Arizona desertscapes to California seascapes. The virtual gallery specializes in small paintings under $2,000.

Check out www.waow.org for artworks by members of Women Artists of the West. There are still life, landscapes, and figurative works presented on the Web site as well as sculptures. The site includes paintings by Ellen Sprague, Jane Jones, and Elin Pendleton. Purchases are made via an online agent.

The Chicago Windy City Artists Invitational event and sale is over. But the show featuring works by award-winning artists is now online and open for viewing and buying. Check it out at www.cwcafineart.com.


California Resource
Nancy Moure, known for her landmark books on California art history, is now presenting an equally ambitious Web site, www.californiaart.com. The site offers an array of resources for anyone interested in the development of art in the Golden State. It’s jammed with gallery listings, museum exhibits, news items, obituaries, and doctoral dissertations. A viewer can find dozens of interesting tidbits ranging from the origin of the term “plein air” to recent acquisitions to the West Coast Branch of the Archives of American Art.


New Web Museum For Smithsonian
In October the National Museum of American Art changed its name to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “Almost all Americans know the Smithsonian name and what it stands for. So changing the name of this museum makes a lot of sense,” said Lawrence Small, museum official. The new name came at a time when the museum is circulating eight exhibitions to 70 cities through 2002 in a national tour called Treasures to Go. The exhibitions are focused on different aspects of American art. To highlight the emphasis, the museum also changed its Web address to www.americanart.si.edu and launched a new online museum. The goal is to stay connected to the public while the museum’s main building is closed for renovations.

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Featured in February 2001