NATURALLY SPEAKING

By CORNELIA SECKEL

ART TIMES December 2006

At the Salmagundi Club at 47 Fifth Avenue, I was taken with the fine work on view from the American Artists Professional League's 78th Grand National Exhibition (which came right after Audubon Artists 64th Annual Exhibition — also an excellent show). Work came from 32 states as well as from Canada, France, and Russia. The top winners were Salomon Kadoch and Timothy John-Luke Smith. The purpose of the AAPL is to advance the cause of fine arts in America by promoting the high standards of beauty, integrity, and craftsmanship in painting, sculpture and the graphic arts.• The Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club's 110th Annual Open Exhibition, held at the National Arts Club, NYC, (hung just after the Pastel Society of America's outstanding show) in October, consistently has fine work and, as one of the judges for Sculpture, I must say that the decisions were very difficult. (Not as difficult, though, as jurying and judging a show as Raymond and I did for the Woodstock Artists Association Museum's "Small Works Exhibit" last month. Jurying—deciding who will be in a show — and judging—deciding on prizes — are two very different jobs and ought to be done by separate committees). The winner of the ART TIMES Award at the CLWAC exhibit went to Kathy Anderson for her oil “Waiting for Spring”. This organization has been supporting women artists since Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (the only woman among the founding members of The Metropolitan Museum of Art) willed money to Grace Church in NYC to be used for some form of “women's” work.