Young Voices Exhibit and Fundraiser Opens Saturday, March 13. We are delighted to invite you to our 5th annual art student exhibit, Young Voices 2021 with over 180 artworks by 16 students ranging in age from 7 to 16. Each student presented an artist talk which was videotaped, and are available to watch here (click to read more)
Thank you to every one who came Friday night — in spite of the snow — to celebrate the opening of Jan Novy’s art exhibition. We were truly blown away by the number of Helena folks who showed up. And what a fun party it was! Check out some of the pics from the reception (keep scrolling).
Was it gathering with so many friends? Seeing Jan’s artwork? The Swedish Sunrise cocktail? The noise (we certainly couldn’t hear the music, heh)? How about the appetizers? The 100s of smiles and all that laughter? Or just that 1+1=1 was open for an evening event again (after all these months)?
1+1=1 was truly so packed with bodies Friday night, we know there wasn’t much room to see Jan’s delicate paintings and drawings. We hope you come back to look more closely before the show comes down. We’re open Tuesday through Friday 11 to 5 and Saturdays 11 to 4. Call Maureen if you’d like to visit the show at a different time. We are happy to make special arrangements.
We’d love to see you back on a quieter day, looking at her exquisite miniatures, and perhaps buying a piece or two. Even if you’re not in a position to take home one of these lovely little paintings, stop by to marvel at Novy’s sense of scale, detail, order and color. It’s a lovely exhibition!
Shop the Exhibit Online
Jerry Cooper brought me this cool photograph he’d taken back in 2000 — of Jan and Paul having breakfast at the No Sweat Cafe´ — I love it and think you will too.
Last October 2022, we hosted an exhibit to sell a dear friend’s art collection — the Gloria Hermanson Art Collection (read more about her collection and the exhibit here) We found homes for many of the pieces yet there are still some remaining. Gloria’s family would love to sell everything — and so would we!
From March 1 – 31, we will make all remaining artworks from the Hermanson Collection available at a 40% discount. Now is your chance to own a piece of art at an incredible price.
After March 31st, 2023, we will send everything that’s left of Gloria’s glorious collection home to her family. In the meantime, we would like to find forever homes for as many artworks as possible.
Throughout her career as a graphic designer and visual artist, the late Jan Novy didn’t like to toot her own horn. She was a prolific watercolorist, a meticulous yet playful colorist and a gifted draftsman. Because she was reluctant to show her work, she left behind a little studio in her back garden which was filled with folders, drawers, and boxes of drawings and small paintings along with many annotated color experiments and a big pile of sketchbooks. A mutual friend of Jan’s and mine — Robin Leenhouts — brought me along on a mission to see the swatch pages, scraps and watercolors she had left behind. Jan’s husband, Paul Cartwright was delighted when we suggested hosting a posthumous exhibition of Jan’s drawings and paintings, specifically to highlight her meticulous process and exploration of ideas and colors.
LOOK CLOSELY, a Jan Novy Retrospective is curated in thematic groupings: Neighborhood, Shelters, Windows, Cultivation, Small Patches and Process/Swatch pieces. Titles came from her sketchbooks, annotations and notes. Some pieces are signed and dated, others are tiny corners of larger pages we chose to frame without her signature.
Novy was the kind of artist who carried an idea beyond what most artists would. She would explore an idea like roofs in different mediums, making dozens, even hundreds, of drawings – abstracting the essence of “roof”. In thumbing through her sketchbooks, I was impressed by how deeply she studied writing systems, maps, seeds, grids and patterns. I wouldn’t have that kind of patience.
Nor would I have the patience to draw with the super fine point 0.05mm pen and miniscule three-hair paint brushes she used. I can’t even see some of her lines clearly without a magnifying glass!
Jan had a broad range of interests. She was curious about patterns and fascinated by writing systems. In her sketchbooks she made hundreds of studies of indigenous shelters, gardens, fences, windows, landforms, rocks, walls, riverbeds and rooflines. One large folder holds stunning pencil sketches of hundreds of birds (which we hope to show in our Feathers and Flora exhibit later this summer.)
Paul Cartwright and DD Dowden contributed the matting and framing. Maureen Shaughnessy curated the exhibit. The pieces in this exhibit include framed paintings and drawings as well as unframed (buyers can choose their own preferred framing style) Everything is incredibly affordable and we hope that everyone who knew Jan, or is new to her work, finds something to take home and treasure. Her pieces are not only a window into the artist’s mind and heart — they will inspire us all to look closer at the many tiny beautiful details of everyday life.
~ Maureen Shaughnessy
It’s a thing. It’s just a fun dip & bread dish that’s less expensive to put together than a charcuterie board. It’s a butter way to fancy up your bread and butter for a party. Butter boards are all the rage right now – google butter boards, or just search for #butterboard on Instagram or Pinterest. As far as I can tell, a butter board was made popular in 2017 by Chef Joshua McFadden in his cookbook, Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables.
Soften a couple sticks of butter (depending on the size of your board) to room temperature, spread it out on the board making ripples and waves in the surface. Drizzle some honey or other fruity, thickened syrup (like blackberry, yumm!) Grate some lemon or orange zest. Scatter edible flower petals, fresh herbs, chili flakes, chunky sea salt, maybe fresh ground pepper. Add pieces of dried or fresh fruit, or crunchy veggies like radish. Anything to disguise the butter, lol. Then, serve with bread. Yummmm!
I feel like I need to make a butter board now. Not just so I can put a gorgeous photo of a decadent food item on this post, but also so I can see what all the fuss is about. We do have a bunch of Tim Carney’s handmade (and truly beautiful) butter boards available during our 9th Annual Holiday Show at 1+1=1. Check them out in our online catalog when it goes live on November 19th. They’re easy to ship and make perfect gifts for the cooks, foodies, party-hosts and chefs in your life.
I’m gonna make one for our Thursday night reception this week – stop by 1+1=1 gallery Thursday evening 5 to 7pm for a closing reception of the Gloria Hermanson Art Collection Exhibit – and taste/see what I come up with. I’ll post photos this weekend. See you!
It’s a 4-Studio-Sesh After School Kids Art Camp and if you’re a kid who loves art-making, you’re probably having as much fun as camping. Once a week for four weeks is just enough to have a fun taste of some new art mediums and methods. We’ll have a Winter 4-Studio-Sesh After School Kids Art Camp sometime in January and February. Subscribe to the 1+1=1 Classroom email updates to be first to know about the classes when we set the schedule and make live registration links. Subscribe here.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for the first two weeks, we explored a new — and almost addictive — printmaking method, then used our prints to make collages. Next we’re making layered paintings using multiple sheets of plexiglass. We’re learning about foreground, background, translucence and transparency, composition and color. We’ll mount the plexi sheets on wood stands so the layers can be viewed through each other. Hard to explain. I’ll post photos as soon as we have those ready to show off! In the meantime, please enjoy some of the prints and collages made by our art students. Ages range from 7 to 12.
In the small street-facing gallery window this month is a two-person show by Caroline Davis and Sandi Bransford, both from the Puget Sound in Washington state. Davis brings considerable skill and creativity to her metalsmithing, creating elegant yet affordable and unique jewelry. Bransford uses ceramic, natural objects, paints and patinas to achieve her organic textural figures. Read more about these two artists and see their new work. See something you like while you're strolling by at 11pm or before downtown wakes up? Just scan the QR code in the window and grab it before it's gone!
This Saturday, September 3rd, we kick off a series of artist demos at the gallery, giving visitors the chance to observe an artist at work and learn more about their practice. Brad DeFrees, Carol Montgomery and Maureen Shaughnessy are currently exhibiting work as part of the gallery’s group show, “Paperwork,” which features paper-based art from nine artists working in Helena and the Pacific Northwest. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., and our demonstrating artists will be working at the gallery in the afternoons. Read on for dates, times and details.
What's in this show? Our group exhibition, PAPERWORK, features nine artists represented by 1+1=1 Gallery. The exhibit includes contemporary artworks in many mediums. All on paper. You will find a variety of materials and creative methods these artists use to express their imagination, humor, social issues, connection to nature, and unique point of view. The resulting collection of unusual pieces is fascinating, compelling and engaging. We hope you find something to make you smile, laugh, open your heart, think again or maybe bring tears to your eyes.
Stop by 1+1=1 Gallery or check out the exhibit in our online catalog, to see watercolors, oil paintings, painterly monoprints, mixed media collages and paper sculptures, hand-bound books, drypoint etchings, shellac plate prints and constructed photographs.
Here’s a great opportunity to learn the centuries-old craft of bookbinding. Make two books you can use to write thoughts, collect quotes, poems or lists. The unlined paper inside can be used for sketching, collage or whatever makes your heart sing. Make one for yourself, and gift the other to someone special. Once you are shown the method, you’ll have no trouble at all setting up your own book-binding space at home.
Over the course of the two day session, you will learn the creative process behind two traditional bookbinding styles and leave the class with two handmade books that you bound yourself. You will also have the opportunity to learn about a number of different bookbinding techniques, with samples available to browse.
Amanda Determan will lead Saturday’s coptic bookbinding lesson, and Robin Leenhouts will lead Sunday’s session on hardcover bookbinding. Both days will begin at 9 a.m. and end at 4 p.m., with a lunch break. We’ll supply beverages throughout the day but participants should plan on bringing a lunch or ordering take-out from a downtown cafe.
All supplies needed to complete the books will be provided! Once registered, you will receive a list of items you may wish to bring to add some extra personalization to your handmade books.
Robin specializes in case bound books: the final product is a traditional hardcover book. The pages are prepared in signatures (typically 4-8 pieces of paper folded in half, depending on the thickness of paper and desired final thickness of the book) that are stitched together using a “long stitch” technique. The covers are made of bookboard, a special kind of dense cardboard that is less prone to warping. Bookbinders wrap case bound books in decorative paper (or sometimes a thin fabric) – Robin often uses prints that Maureen has shared with her from her printmaking studio practice. Finally, a special bookbinding cloth (typically cotton, linen, or buckram) is used to cover the spine and add extra durability.
Robin’s books are heirloom pieces that deserve their place on the coffee table. These books would make beautiful journals, photo albums, sketchbooks – the opportunities are endless.
Amanda will introduce participants to coptic bookbinding, which is one of the oldest forms of bookbinding: it was used as early as the second century in Egypt. Coptic binding begins with signatures, similar to the case bound technique, but features an open spine. In coptic bookbinding, the covers are also stitched directly to the pages, eliminating the need for glue. Coptic-bound books can be opened 360 degrees and will lay completely flat at every spread. Because they have no spine, they are inherently more fragile than traditional hardcover books, but many bookbinders love the coptic form for the decorative opportunities it presents. With this form, many book elements that are otherwise hidden can be dressed up: the thread that binds it all together can be ornamented with beads or ornate stitching patterns, and the spines of the individual signatures can also be decorated.
