Arden Fair, Art Show

Arden, Delaware is a special place to live. Once a year the center of the village is transformed by many volunteers into a Fair grounds for the Arden Fair and Antiques Market held the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend. The Fair features children’s games and rides, handmade crafts by over 100 vendors, an Antiques Market, used books, plants, live music in the Shady Grove, food and drink, an art exhibit, and more. Proceeds from the Fair help maintain the Arden Gild Hall, where the public can enjoy concerts, musicals, plays, dances, suppers, and programs throughout the year.

The role I play is curation of the Art Show in the Backstage Gallery of the Gild Hall. It is always someone who lives in Arden, Adentown or Ardencroft,and often it is one featured artist. This year I sent out a call for entries to all women artists. The gallery which is used as a green room for Shakespeare productions and musical performers throughout the year, needed to be painted, thanks Shari Phalan for helping! Then Barbara Henry and I installed 37 pieces of artwork that coincidentally was the exactly right amount of artwork for the space. The mediums and techniques ran the gamut and included metal piercing, quilting, traditional rug hooking, oil painting, watercolor painting, nuno felting, shibori dying, restoration of leather chaps, pastel drawing, colored pencil drawing and ceramic and metal sculpting. Women Artists of the Ardens are a group of pretty talented individuals. But I have to give one shout out to a man. Alton Dahl does the machine stitching on Bev's beautiful quilts and he installed the ceiling lights Friday morning that made the show the success it was. Without him I don't know how anyone would have seen anything. The feedback was great and many stories were shared in typical Arden fashion. Thanks to everyone that participated. My photos aren't great. Sorry, Rhys I didn't get your work in the pictures and Shari, sorry your's is cropped.

Participating Artists:

Beverley Barnett, quilting,
Naomi Clark, metal piercing,
Hunter Clarke, painting,
Linda Celestian, painting and silk sculpture,
Ellen Dolmetsch, traditional hooked rugs,
Barbara Henry, nuno felted wearables,
Bunni Hurlong, pastel drawing,
Judith Kay, photography,
Rhys McClure, colored pencil,
Eleanore Morrow, oil painting,
Betty O’Regan, hand-made paper and collage,
Jeanne Orr, watercolor,
Erica Orr, pen and watercolor,
Linda Parks, ceramic and metal sculpture,
Shari Phalan, restoration of leather chaps and wreath,
Toby Ridings, cyanotypes,
Marjorie Roberts, oil painting,
Jeanne Stigler, oil painting and appliqued quilt,
Dorothy Verne, oil painting.

FiberPhiladelphia

FiberPhiladelphia 2012 is an international biennial and regional festival that celebrates textile and fiber arts. The opening was on Saturday and I was kicking myself that I didn't bring my camera. The show is outstanding. I was unsuccessful in grabbing photos from the website so you'll have to follow the link and see for yourself Outside/Inside the Box

My husband snapped this picture of my daughter and her friend standing next to my piece.

Sea Foam, silk and dye

If you're local it's worth seeing in person. Pictures can be deceiving some things I thought were large are actually small and others are surprisingly large and commanding. I think there's something for everyone to love in this show. Fiber art is alive and kicking and it's not your Grandma's knitting.


If you go don't miss stopping in on Warren and R.J. at bahdeebahdu a working studio for design and the development of art, sculpture and furnishings at 1522 N. American St. I featured on my blog here. You will find beautiful art, beautiful furnishings, and amazing trash to treasure light fixtures and sculptures. It's only a block away from the Crane Arts Building.

FiberPhiladelphia 2012

My new silk piece titled Sea Foam will be included in Fiber Philadelphia 2012 Juried exhibition.

The show titled Outside/Inside the Box will be at the
Gray Area, in the Crane Arts Building, 1400 N American Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122
March 2 - April 15, 2012 with 2 openings, March and April.


The exhibition showcases innovative fiber/textile art that transcends disciplines and combines historic concepts with contemporary perspectives. This juried exhibition represents 68 artists working in media with fiber/textile reference. 516 artists from 15 countries applied with 1,316 pieces of work. Countries represented are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Sweden,Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States.(excerpted from the website)

I've been checking out the accepted artist's websites and I'm so excited to see their work and hopefully meet some of them.

LGTripp Gallery

I'll be showing 2 paintings in a group show at the LGTripp Gallery in Philadelphia.

July 15 – August 20, 2011

Artists Reception, July 16, 4 – 6:30 pm

First Friday, August 5, 6 – 8:30 pm


The gallery director Luella Tripp, has put a lot of time and effort into the curation of her upcoming show, traveling to each artist's studio and hand picking the pieces to be included.

"The work is diverse (all within the parameters of abstraction) as well as the demographics of this group of artists as it relates to age, race, gender, education and experience. My goal is to make art the unifying factor. Often art by the more experienced artist does reveal a level of maturity and sophistication, and rightly so. However, there are times when the merging of all these factors creates an extraordinary and memorable experience. I believe this will be true of our summer show." Luella Tripp

I'll be attending the Artist's Reception on July 16th. If you are in need of a break from the heat, please stop in, LGTripp Gallery 47 N. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA.

Upcoming Show

I'm busy preparing for my show. Here's a preview of 2 new paintings that will be on display in July at the Delaware Division of the Arts, Mezzanine Gallery, in Wilmington, DE. The opening is July 8th 5-8pm.

Underwater, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches

Deluge, oil on canvas, 48 x 46 inches

I've titled the show Outpouring which means, an exaggerated expression of emotion. I can't think of any better way to describe my work.

My Opening in Arden

Thanks to everyone that made it out to my opening at the Buzz Ware Village Center in Arden this past Friday evening. It was nice to see so many neighbors and friends and meet some new people as well. It was a great turnout and I received really nice comments about the work. Here's how it looked minus one corner I didn't get a picture of.

I know it's not quite the same as seeing it in person.

My next show is in Wilmington at the Carvel State Office Building at 820 N. French Street in the Delaware Division of the Arts, Mezzanine Gallery for the month of July. The opening is July 8th, 5-8 p m. This is the second Friday due to the 4th of July weekend.

Art on the Town Opening

I will be at the Buzz Ware Village Center in Arden, DE for the April 1st, Art on the Town opening. If you're a local friend, you are invited to stop by. I am planning to show a sampling of works in different mediums. Here's what I wrote for the brochure, so now I must deliver.

"Linda Celestian’s work although abstract is unmistakably inspired by nature. She explores many mediums and has chosen to show works in colored inks, oil paint, encaustic and fiber next to each other the way you might find them in her studio. Come out to meet her and learn how working in more than one medium aids in her to ability to express her feelings about the beauty of nature."

The work I posted paired together for the Duets show application inspired the idea for this show. I might even get some of my photos printed to have on hand. The idea is to present some work together that I'll probably never show together in a gallery setting but will highlight how I work. A photograph taken on vacation might inspire a painting which in turn inspires a sculpture, which inspires me to photograph something I find in nature that reminds me of the painting and so on. In the end it's hard to tell what came first and doesn't even matter. It's easy to see that it all came from me or so I think.

Here's a video interview done by my friend David Nordheimer at the installation of my February show, I'm talking about my inspiration and my technique in oil paint. It's preceded by an infomercial about Wilmington's Art on the Town:

Duets Dilemma

I've been trying to choose a duet for my application for the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Annual Members' Juried Exhibition: Duets

The call for entry reads:
Artists are invited to submit paired works of art in order to create duets. The two works by each artist may be in any media. One work may be a video, and the other a painting—or a photo and an etching—or both may be sculptures, or textiles, or drawings, or whatever else is appropriate. The two works may be serial (think Monet’s haystacks) or completely unrelated. Here, the artist acts as a curator of his or her own work. By pairing works in duets, the artist has the opportunity to call greater attention to an aspect of his or her practice, or an element of the work, such as color, scale, subject, medium, and so on. The exhibition that will result from the submissions will be an exhibition of duets. Some works may harmonize, others may offer a radical or unexpected juxtaposition. In all instances, the hope is that the presentation of works in pairs by individual artists will offer the viewer a focused and dynamic engagement with the work. Please do not title the duet. Each work should have its own title and the viewer will make the connection between the two works visually.

I have a lot of options but found out I can only submit one. Here's a few I'm considering.

Duet #1

Bottom of the Ocean, oil on canvas, 48 x 46 inches, and Bubbles, 12 x 12 x 5 inches, silk, dye and nylon thread

Duet #2

Golden, Oil on canvas, 48 x 46 inches, and Sickening, Ink on Paper, 5 x 5 inches

Duet #3

Surf, Encaustic on Board, 9 x 12 inches, and Froth, Silk and dye, 7 x 12 inches

Duet #4

Feeling Blue, Ink on paper, 7 x 11 inches, and Go With the Flow, Silk, dye, wool and nylon thread, 15 x 17 inches

Duet #5.

Ocean View, Silk, wool, dye and nylon thread, 5 x 7 inches and Ocean, Ink on paper, 7 x 11 inches

These are only some of my choices, so you can see my dilemma. How am I suppose to chose just one? Comments welcome.

Waterways Exhibition

This week I'll be installing my solo show Waterways at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington, DE. I'm so excited to see this group of paintings together in the white cube. Here's an excerpt from my press release and one of the pieces included in the show.

Spilling Over, 24 x 24 inches

The title of the show Waterways refers to the intrinsic qualities of water that are the subject matter for Celestian’s oil paintings.

She depicts the movement and energy observed in nature with layered spills, pours and splatters of thinned oil paint. The paint in its liquid form is allowed to run and puddle and form similar patterns to waterways. Linda is interested in portraying the energy and life force of water to elicit an emotional response. She is inspired as much by aerial photography, as by personal observations of the ocean, lakes of her childhood, and the creek in her neighborhood.

There is a correlation between these imaginary waterways and our own circulatory system illustrating the connection between earth and mankind.

If you are in the area stop by the opening on Friday the 4th, from 5:30-9pm. I'm also showing ink paintings on the featured artist wall on the 2nd floor of the studio building and fiber work in process in my studio. I hope to see you there.

New Year, New Work

I have a solo show going up in 3 weeks. So, today I did what any sane, rational person would do, I started a new large painting. My show at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts will be in the Elizabeth Denison Hatch Gallery for the month of February. I'm hoping that crazy winter weather doesn't keep people away for the opening Friday evening February 4th.