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Connie Connally: Press

 
Tangled Up In Blue II
“Familial Faces: Veronica”
Atkinson Gallery, Santa Barbara
October 4-November 1, 2013

Scene Magazine-October 25, 2013
Santa Barbara News Press
By Josef Woodard

“A more traditional painting approach, but made intriguing by the tight cropping and “small images”-suitable scale, are Connie Connally’s “Familial Faces” series of in-their-face portraits, cleverly hung so that “Veronica” gazes across the gallery at “Gary.”
   
Tangled Up In Blue II “Six Rising Stars”
LewAllen Galleries, Scottsdale
May 30-July 7, 2013


LewAllen Galleries Scottsdale presents Six Rising Stars, a selectively curated exhibition of recent paintings by six of its represented artists whose work the gallery believes is of significant merit. Included in this show are pieces by Jesse Blanchard, Connie Connally, Tracy Rocca, Margaret Fitzgerald, Keith Johnston, and Timothy Schmitz. Exhibiting both remarkable creative energy and particular mastery of materials and technique, these younger members of the LewAllen Galleries roster have demonstrated outstanding talent the gallery believes will become increasingly recognized in the art world…

Using a palette of color and brushstroke inspired by the natural coastlines and verdure of the California coast and Santa Barbara Mountains, abstract expressionist Connie Connally often works outside, sketching and creating her plein air work before refining the elegant paintings in her studio. Multi-layered surfaces of color morph, coalesce and juxtapose in poetic rhythms that evoke the sense of being in a place of nature’s beauty.
   

Scene Magazine Article - 2012

“Facing Sixty-Shelley” wins Juror’s Award
Exhibited in “Small Images” exhibition at Atkinson Gallery, SBCC
Juror: Sarah Cunningham, Atkinson Gallery Director

Scene Magazine-October 12, 2012
Santa Barbara News Press
By Josef Woodard

“Connie Connally shows a pair of small, dim-lit portraits, “Facing 60-Mike,” and “Facing 60-Shelley,” a subtle tip of the art-making process toward the theme of graceful aging.

 

   
   
Installation Full Moon Winter Tide - Sullivan Goss

elemental: WATER
Installation view of “Full Moon Winter Tide”
elemental: WATER
Sullivan Goss-An American Gallery
Essay by Jeremy Tessmer


My painting is included in this exhibition along side mid-twentieth century American legends Lockwood de Forest, Leon Dabo, Betty Lane, Ben Messick, Dan Lutz and Anya Fisher.  Living California legends include Hank Pitcher, Nicole Strasburg and John Nava.
   
   
Scene Magazine article on Lift at Westmont Museum “Zach at 22” wins Art Council Award
The pastel drawing exhibited in “Lift” at Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art
Juror: Howard Fox, curator emeritus LACMA


Scene Magazine-June 1-7, 2012
Santa Barbara News Press
By Josef Woodard

"But it’s the hands-on touch that counts with Connie Connally’s pastel “Zach at 22,” a wonderful, ruggedly realized portrait, expressive artistically and in terms of a strong sense of the subject’s personality-whether true or not, we’re inclined to believe."

   
  Connie has been included in the new publication:
International Survey, by Crussell Fine Arts
Curated by Pamela Grau, curator, writer and artist.
   
Connie Connally and Nancy Cohen Israel

Interview with Nancy Cohen Israel January 2009
Connie Connally: New Home, New Directions
By Nancy Cohen Israel
   
CASA Magazine January 2010 CASA Magazine January 29, 2010
Sullivan Goss-An American Gallery
Life Like Water
By Kerry Methner

"Connally does explorative work with an explosive use of color and dynamic brushwork. She communicates the mood of her experiences and layers it with flashes of life."

Santa Barbara News Press January 1, 2010
"100 Grand, An Art Spree for You and Me"
By Josef Woodard

My work was mentioned in the group show write-up as:
"Connie Connally's lively and nuanced abstract paintings."

   
Lemmon Lorraine

Lemon Lorraine 2007 Finalist for the 2008 Hunting Art Prize
Gallery Guide West January 2008
SPOTLIGHT: MMGalleries presents: Connie Connally "Liquid Line"

"Connally has...fearlessly turned landscapes into wonderful abstractions. Her fluid and self-confident stroke, her color palette and expressive gesture make the paintings come alive with movement and energy."

Connie Connally: Finalist for the 2008 Hunting
Art Prize

   

Dallas Modern Luxury, January 2006
Journey Into Abstraction: The artistic evolution of Connie Connally has taken her from figurative to abstract...and the adventure's not over yet
By Steve Carter
   
Thistles and Fire 2002

Thistles and Fire 2002 included in “Finding Your Visual Voice”
by Dakota Mitchell and Lee Haroun
Finding Your Visual Voice: A Painter’s Guide to Developing an Artistic Style
By Dakota Mitchell and Lee Haroun
From Visual to Pure Expression

Connie Connally began this painting as she sat by a pond and studied the reflection of a barn. Near the water's edge was a stand of dead thistles which she saw as "thistle bones." When a wind gusted, the pink reflection of the barn on the surface of the pond was stirred into a swirling dance. That transformation inspired Connally, and her painting took on a life of its own. In her words, it "caught fire," and the resulting whirling image is a unique, personal expression of the scene. (Connally had 6 paintings included and described in the book)

Austin American-Statesman, September 23, 2000
By Michael Barnes
Newer galleries making their mark on Austin Art Scene

...I lingered over Connie Connally's thickly slathered, densely hued oils of sleeping nudes...

   
  Dallas Observer, Volume 23 Issue 39, 2003
Best Of Dallas
Connie Connally named best portrait artist.

"Dallas boasts one of the most innovative, creative and most recognized portrait artist in the Southwest. Known for her expressive nature and wide-open personality, Connie Connally paints unique and personal portraits that reveal little nuances and details about her subjects that surprise and delight the people...

   
New Times Art Review

People I Know 2000 exhibited in NYC, San Diego, Dallas, Ft. Worth and Midland, TX and Wichita, KS
THE NEW YORK TIMES, June 4 , 2000
Art Reviews/Helen A. Harrison

Explorations of the Face, Both Realistic and Fanciful

"Face to Face 2"...In contrast to a general approach, Connie Connally examines herself, family members and friends in "People I Know," a group portrait consisting of 12 individual studies in the spirit of Lucien Freud. (Photo of the painting included)

Dallas Observer, February 8-14, 2001
Face Time
After 25 years of making art for other people, Connie Connally has finally done something for herself
By Annabelle Massey Helber

   
  The Wichita Eagle, Friday, December 7, 2001
By Bud Norman

Connally’s large-scale series was a crowd favorite at the opening reception, winning praise from young and old alike.

Charles Steiner, juror for the Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University where Ms. Connally is an alum said his family's favorite painting was "People I Know" His daughter said why it was her favorite, "it is obvious, that it makes us realize we all need each other." He thought that was a nice philosophical reading for the painting.

   
  Connie Connally has also been reviewed in these publications:

The Guide April 7, 2006
The Guide April 2-8, 2004
Review by David Newman: "Portraying Identity," 2002
The Dallas Morning News Guide, May 18-24, 2001
Where Dallas, March 2001
Scene, January 2001
Inside WSU, November 2001
WSU Fine Arts, Winter 2002
The Met, June 2000
The Shocker Magazine, Summer 2000
The Duncan Banner, April 18, 1999
Art Talk, June 1999
TWA Ambassador Magazine, May 1996
Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles, March/April 1993

Featured on TV:

WFAA-TV Noon Day News, July 14, 1997
WFAA-TV Good Morning Texas, June 29, 1995
WFAA-TV Spirit of Texas Evening News, June 25, 1994
WAGA-TV Good Day Atlanta, October 25, 1993