Remy has always had a keen interest in traditions; while in SC, the idea for a painting series grew as Remy watched people fishing in tidal creeks & working at roadside basket stands. "My model Michael enthralled me with his sparkling personality -- telling me tricks to shrimping, about reading tides & the many ways to shuck oysters. The pride that all of my models had for their traditions had everything to do with the images that formed in my mind & how I would paint.them. Because they respected the years I have studied art- perfecting my craft, a bond grew and for that time we shared being artisans & craftsmen - our traditions all together."
Hailing from Brooklyn, painter Roberta Remy grew up in one of the major centers of the art world. The backdrop of New York inspired her early creativity, but it was the urging of artist Albert Handell that pushed Remy out of New York and toward New Mexico in the early 1990's, where her brand of realist art was flourishing. Many years of study with some of today's most renowned artists including Frank Mason, George Passantino, David Leffel, and Robert Beverly Hale have been a major influence in helping perfect this artist's impressive technique, style, and motivation; all of which have played a part in her success as a painter.
Roberta Remy specializes in Still-Life, Interiors, Figure and Portrait oil paintings. A Life Member of the Arts Students League of New York, her works can be found in numerous corporate and private collections in the United States, Brazil and Europe. Remy considers herself a contemporary painter working in the realist tradition, also deriving inspiration from the old masters and the American Impressionists. Her canvases are prepared in the fashion of the old masters, with rabbitskin glue applied as a primer to her hand-stretched and -sized linen canvases that she then affixes to boards, making her work optimal for preservation.
Though there are subtle differences between the canvases Remy has produced in New York and those produced in New Mexico, her palette -- a range of cadmium yellows, cadmium red, Alizarin crimson, Phthalo blue, ultramarine blue, ivory black,and Cremnitz white -- as well as her visual themes, remain unchanged.
Remy attended Parsons School of Design, School of Visual Arts and the Art Students League of New York. There she studied painting with master painters Frank Mason, George Passantino, David Leffel, and Sherrie McGraw; and drawing and anatomy with Robert Beverly Hale. She has exhibited at the Albuquerque Museum of Fine Arts. Remy has been featured in International Artist's new book, "How Did You Paint That? 100 Ways to Paint Still Life and Florals", published in January, 2004.
Her work has been granted a number of awards, notably the Award of Excellence, Masterworks of New Mexico, for the 2005 Rio Grande Art Association, and the 2005 Oil Painters of America Shirl Smithson Memorial Scholarship Fund. Remy's paintings have also been featured in a number of shows since her early days in New York with the Art Sudents League, the Albuquerque Museum, and the Garrison Art Center in New York.
Previously a New York-based illustrator whose clients included Macmillan Publishing, Playskool, Cabbage Patch Kids, and McDonalds, she now makes Santa Fe, New Mexico her home base, where she's been expanding her teaching activities since 1995.
Contemporary Painting in the Realist Tradition:
Specializing in still life, figurative, portraiture, interiors, and cityscapes. A diversity of subjects is brought to life through a pursuit of the ideals and excellence of the Old Masters, interpreted in a contemporary spirit.
"When I fell in love with painting, it was the Old Masters and the American Impressionists who inspired my artistic search. Their traditions and techniques are the standards that I have set for myself. It's my endless quest to learn how they accomplished their magic. I strive to develop my craft to the highest standard. I feel a great reverence for the basics and for the time and care devoted to the entire process necessary to create a work of art. With each work, I seek to deepen my understanding of the language of drawing…to explore the beautiful, mysterious and magical qualities of light…to paint it, and to capture its endless variations and effects…to bring to my paintings the illusion of sculptural form through the play of light upon the subject…to explore how atmosphere envelops the whole natural beauty of the subject…to give life to the work with a strong painterly quality."
Currently in the process of building her own true North Light studio (to more effectively engage her palette), Remy's aim is always to hold true to her tenants of belief about art. She says, "with each work I seek to deepen my understanding (...) to give life to the work with a strong painterly quality."
Exhibitions
Juried Shows (1988-2006)
Las Vegas Arts Council, 16th Annual National Juried Show, Las Vegas, NM
Art Students League, Works by Members, New York, NY
Oil Painters of America, National Show, Kirkland, WA
Masterworks of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
International Artists Magazine
Oil Painters of America, West and Southwest Regional, Pueblo, CO
American Women Artists, 2nd Annual Competition, Taos, NM (prize winner)
Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, New York, NY
National Arts Club, New York, NY
American Artists Professional League, New York, NY
Salmagundi Club, New York, NY
Invitational Shows (1988-2006)
Albuquerque Museum Show "Miniatures 2005", Albuquerque, NM
Albuquerque Museum Show "Miniatures 2004", Albuqerque, NM
Ponderosa Galleries 21st Annual Fall Classics Show, Hamilton, MT
Germanton Art Gallery Eleventh Annual Show, Germanton, NC
Ponderosa Galleries 20th Annual Fall Classics Show, Hamilton, MT
Albuquerque Museum, "Miniatures 2003", Albuquerque, NM
Albuquerque Museum, "Miniatures 2002", Albuquerque, NM
Albuquerque Museum, "Miniatures 2001", Albuquerque, NM
American Women Artists Members Show and Invitational 2000, NM
Albuquerque Museum, "Miniatures 2000", Albuquerque, NM
Albuquerque Museum, "Miniatures '99", Albuquerque, NM
Gateway Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY
Union League Club, New York, NY
Group Exhibitions (1988-2006)
Rommel Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Christine of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
Gateway Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Vanier and Roberts, Ltd., Scottsdale, AZ
Finley Gallery, Mountainbrook, AL
G.C. Lucas Gallery, Indianapolis, IN
Hammond Galleries, Lancaster, OH
Connoisseur Gallery, Rhinebeck, NY
Two- Person Exhibition
Rommel Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
One- Person Exhibition
St. Tammany Art Association, Covington, LA
Partners in Art Gallery, North Tonawanda, NY
Awards
Award of Excellence, Masterworks of New Mexico, 2005 Rio Grande Art Association, Albuquerque, NM
Recipient of the Oil Painter's of America Shirl Smithson Memorial Award
Third Place, Masterworks of New Mexico 2004 Rio Grande Art Association Annual Exhibition, Albuquerque, NM
Advertising Award, American Women Artists 2nd Annual Competition, Taos, NM
Concourse Awards, Art Students League, New York, NY
Helen O'Brien Merit Scholarship, Art Students League, New York, NY
Articles/Publications
Artist of the Month, Rio Grande Art Association Monthly Newsletter,
"The Palette" October 2005
International Artist's Book, "How Did You Paint That? 100 Ways to Paint Still Life and Florals
Southwest Art, November 1999
Professional Activities
Representational oil paintings of still life, interiors, figurative and portraits in numerous corporate and private collections in the United States, Brazil and Europe.
Member of The Portrait Society of America
Life Member, Art Students League, New York, NY
Member, Oil Painters of America
Member, Rio Grande Art Association, Albuquerque, NM
Instructor
Richeson School of Art, Kimberly, WI
Buck’s County Art Workshops, Perkasie, PA
Andreeva Portrait Academy, Santa Fe, NM
Harwood Institute, Albuquerque, NM
Skylight Farms, Cashiers, NC
St. Tammany Art Association, Covington, LA
North Valley Art League, Redding, CA
Valdes School of Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Partners in Art, Tonawanda, NY
Willow Wisp Farms School, Asheville, NC
Rio Grande Art Association, Albuquerque, NM
Artisans, Santa Fe, NM
Sara Britt Fine Art Workshops, Tuscaloosa, AL
Medford Art Group, Medford, OR
Associated Creative Artists, Dallas TX
Art Alliance Workshops, Boca Grande, FL
Juries: In January of 2005 Remy participated as Judge at the 21st Annual National Juried Art Show of the North Valley Art League in Redding California.
