Ballroom Basix Gala, October 27, 2019, Edison Ballroom, New York, NY;
 Perhaps next year? 
photo Richard Cabral.
In this issue:
Pandemic Portfolio: Herd Community
Upcoming Exhibitions
Going to New Homes
Studio
Gift Certificate
Archives - Newsletters
Feedback

PANDEMIC PORTFOLIO: HERD COMMUNITY
 
During the COVID 19 pandemic, as people continue to debate the concept of herd immunity, and some berate mask-wearing humans as docile sheep, I've been thinking about how real herds behave, and that I've long been attracted to watching animals in groups. That would include, of course, humans. Deprived of the opportunity to observe other people in my favorite venue, social gatherings for Argentine tango, I've reverted to thinking about quadrupeds. 
 
I find myself remembering early encounters with cattle. As a small child, I delighted in accompanying my mother down to the far end of East College Street in Oberlin to watch cows in stanchions at milking time. These would likely have been Jerseys belonging to Parsons Jersey Dairy, in an era when milk bottles of non-homogenized milk appeared on our back doorstep regularly. In later years, we used to tease my father, the tweed-clad professor of English literature, who had been brought up only a generation removed from farming relatives, and could always pick out the winning heifer at the Lorain County fair. 
 
Much later, when I found myself at the state fair in Jackson, Mississippi, with time on my hands, I saw Brahman stock for the first time, and, after long scrutiny of a strange looking, loose-fleshed grey bunch of animals well adapted to the hot southern climate, picked out what turned out to be the winner of the Junior Bull Calf class. Heredity or art history training? I'll never know..
 
For as many cattle as I'd seen by that point in my life, it was also the first time I'd encountered the ragged burns of fresh branding. Though I am an omnivore, I have been mindful ever since when I see cattle that they are not pets, but are being reared to be exploited, whether for dairy products, meat, bull-riding, or leather. 
 
That said, I still like watching herds. As not many hooves are to be seen on the Belgian block streets of Noho, I've been taking full advantage of armchair travel for a second phase of my Pandemic Portfolio. Friends and relatives have been sending images from elsewhere, and I've begun actively soliciting pasture pictures from my circle, as well as combing through my own photo archive. 
 
In the process, I have yet again discovered why the seeming randomness of some of the compositions of Degas appeal to me so much. It's a bit like photographing architecture: you can neither move nor light the subject but must take it as you find it. Though an artist ultimately creates a composition to suit her- or himself, there's a certain challenge that animals present when left to themselves in the out-of-doors. The angles and spaces of their placement relative to one another, the land on which we see them, climate and weather all contribute to what might catch the eye and inspire a drawing or painting. 
 These are some of my most recent paintings
Rumination, oil on canvas, 6” x 12,” 2020

Luncheon on the Grass: Bavaria, oil on panel, 12” x 16,” 2020
The Choice is Mine, oil on canvas, 12” x 24,” 2020
From other years, these are Holsteins and Herefords in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, and Angus and Herefords in Montana.
 
Peaceful Coexistence, Four Holsteins, monotype, 2/2, 8” x 8,” 2018
April in Montana: Angus and Herefords, oil on canvas, 18” x 36,” 2018
Berkshire Holsteins, oil on canvas, 18” x 24,” 2018
Berkshire Cows and Calves, oil, 6” x 12,’” 2017
As well as I think I am familiar with the anatomy of horses, I am continually astonished at how cattle are put together, and sometimes have to approach their shapes as though a mysterious abstraction. Not all the same as horses, and yet so similar in what they need and do.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
Annual Auctions to Benefit Salmagundi Club
21 Sept - 16 Oct
Earth Mother's Birthday Portrait ½, monotype, 6” x 8,” 2019
Auction Link, Lot #0132
Peonies and Statice in Southworth Vase, pastel on gessoed paper, 14 ,” x 13 7/8,” 2019
 Auction Link, Lot #0062

Tue.-Fri. 1-6PM and
Sat. & Sun. 1-5PM.
The gallery will be closed on Sunday, October 11
Sylvia Maria Glesmann Floral Exhibition at Salmagundi club
19 Oct – 20 Nov
Lilacs in Brown and Tan Earthenware Pitcher, watercolor and gouache, 10 3/4” x 10 3/4,” 2020

Hydrangeas, Statice, Verbena, watercolor and WC crayon, 14 7/8” x 11,” 2020

Available for viewing online at artsy.net
GOING TO NEW HOMES
 Partners on Many Levels 2/3, monotype, 5 3/4” x 7 3/4” 2019
Conversation (Two Abyssinians), oil, 10” x 20,” 2011
ANNIE'S CLASS SCHEDULE

STUDIO
My teaching studio is, in fact, open for business, with social distancing observed, lots of good ventilation, and, for now, no solvents in use.
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30-5:30; please feel free to get in touch
if interested. 212-464-7519 or [email protected].

Current schedule:
Monday 2:30pm – 5:30 pm
Wednesday 2:30pm – 5:30 pm
A typical studio workstation
WATCH FOR

Playing cards coming to the online shop soon…
Bye, Bye, Blues
Yellow on Yellow on Yellow
GIFT CERTIFICATE

Please go to Annie's store to purchase Gift Certificates. click here for Annie's Store.
Gift Certificate 
for classes with Annie
at the Bond Street Studio


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One 3-hour Group Lesson with 
Annie Shaver-Crandell at the 39 Bond Street Studio 
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Eight Fillies in Masks
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