Dori DeCamillis

Freud, Lucian  (1922-2011). This German-born British painter was a grandson of Sigmund Freud. He was one of England's pre-eminent contemporary figurative painters. Aside from showing my students one of the best painters ever, I use his work as an example of excellence in treatment of skin tones. His non-apologetic style encourages my students to stretch the boundaries of contrast, use of color, and accuracy of rendering. 

Our humble press release about our upcoming Red Dot exhibit: Five Years in the Making: New Work by DeCamillis and Bennett at Red Dot Gallery Two highly personal visions—one, paintings of Alabama’s rare places, and the other, voluptuous ceramic sculptures inspired by cars—meet in a two-person show at Birmingham’s Red Dot Gallery. For the first time in over five years, owners Dori DeCamillis and Scott Bennett exhibit their recent bodies of work at the gallery, approximately 25 pieces in all, in “Exhibit A” and “Compact Hybrids.” The double show opens with a reception featuring the artists from 6-8 p.m., on Friday, October 14. "Exhibit A," a critically acclaimed series by artist and teacher Dori DeCamillis, comes home to the gallery after a successful summer showing at the Mobile Museum of Art . DeCamillis first moved to Alabama from her native Colorado 17 years ago, and was taken by the physical and cultural beauty of her new home. "The more I learned,...

My daughter, Annabelle DeCamillis, age 16, just sold this painting  for a very grown-up price. It's her first large piece, a self-portrait. She plans on doing a series of  portraits of everyday people in period costumes, doing everyday things in everyday places.  Her work is inspired by her love for costume-making, and for sitting down wherever she is and drawing the scene right in front of her.  Today we are celebrating her first day at a new high school. My hat is off to my strong, brilliant, talented, funny, sassy, and sincere kid. She's made her mom proud, and inspired so many people around her. 

My latest book, My Steamboat, is now available on Kindle! http://www.amazon.com/My-Steamboat-Town-Childhood-ebook/dp/B005I5LJWU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1316558292&sr=8-2

The painting I'm working on includes a few things I was told not to paint in college. Unicorns, rainbows, clowns, baby kitties, and red barns. 

I saw a fabulous show of Tony's work at the Louvre this spring, and my sculptor husband has long admired his work. They are large scale, made from various materials, and always nearly impossible to resist touching. www.tony-cragg.com

Below is an article I wrote a few years ago for the Birmingham Weekly about Michael Lucero's  exhibit at Faye Gold Gallery in Atlanta. These sculptures are still some of my favorite work by Lucero.  Worth the Trip Michael Lucero at Fay Gold in Atlanta The ceramic sculptures of Michael Lucero have been challenging the customs of the medium for almost 30 years. His imagery and forms have been inspired by everything from pre-Columbian and African art to contemporary popular objects, and most of the time he has combined suggestions of many cultures and traditions in the same piece. His work has always been somewhat outrageous. Until May 31 st at Fay Gold Gallery in Atlanta Michael Lucero exhibits a new body of work that demonstrates his predilection for uniting the primitive and the well-executed, the crafty and the modern, the humorous and the frightening. “The Cast”, as the show is named, is a group of cute, cuddly creatures—kitties, puppies...

Farmageddon Movie As a supporter of sustainable farming and a participant in several local organic food co-ops, I am looking forward to the release of this new movie. Movie Description from the Website: Americans’ right to access fresh, healthy foods of their choice is under attack. Farmageddon tells the story of small, family farms that were providing safe, healthy foods to their communities and were forced to stop, sometimes through violent ac-tion, by agents of misguided government bureaucracies, and seeks to figure out why. Filmmaker Kristin Canty’s quest to find healthy food for her four children turned into an educational journey to discover why access to these foods was being threatened. What she found were policies that favor agribusiness and factory farms over small family-operated farms selling fresh foods to their communities. Instead of focusing on the source of food safety problems — most often the industrial food chain — policymakers and regulators implement and ...

I've admired Marion's paintings for years. I first saw her creepy-cute work at Olga Dollar Gallery in San Francisco.  Marion Peck Website 

It's hard not like the work of Will Cotton. There is something for everybody; it's naughty, pretty, well-crafted, dramatic, new and old at the same time. Will Cotton's Website

Dori DeCamillis Labor of Love by Brett Levine  Reprinted from BMetro magazine, September 2011 Creatively, Dori DeCamillis can only be described as multifaceted.  As an author, she has published two books.  The most recent, “My Steamboat”, recounts her childhood in Colorado, while her earlier “The Freeway” is the story of living, creating and working on the road as a painter making and selling works at outdoor art fairs. DeCamillis’ peripatetic past is behind her now.  She has settled in Birmingham, working and teaching at Red Dot Gallery which she owns with her husband Scott Bennett.  “For so many years I had been a slave to my work,” she remarks, “that when I decided I wouldn’t do any more outdoor festivals it gave me the freedom to explore larger projects over longer periods of time.” “I started considering the intersections between painting and ceramics several years ago,” she notes.  “At first I simply wanted to blur the distinctions between the wo...

I love this image of a chariot and horses being excavated in Luoyang City, China. The remains are from the Zhou Dynasty, 770 BC to 221 BC.

My mom, Karen Leslee, is an artist, too, and I photographed some of her new work when I was home last month. She reassembles ripped-up magazine images and dried flowers. Very proud daughter here.