Artists Talk with LVA: March 21. 2024

Valtcho Tonov is a mostly self-taught artist who was born in Bulgaria. He became seriously interested in art at the age of sixteen when his family relocated to Plovdiv.

After moving to the United States in 2001, he soon settled in Louisville, Kentucky. Valtcho has continued his studies under the tutelage of renowned artists such as John Michael Carter, Phil Starke and others. He is part of an ongoing uninstructed figurative drawing/painting workshop at Mellwood Art Center in Louisville.

A passionate Plein Air painter, he can be seen painting around Kentucky, Indiana, Florida, and Bulgaria. He is a member of the Plein Air Painters of KY. As a full time painter his repertoire includes landscapes, still life, abstract ,sporting and  figurative. He draws inspiration from The Russian School - Repin, Serov, Fechin, etc. , and the American realist painters Sargent, Schmid, Hassam, and many others.  

Artists Talk with LVA: October 5, 2023

LVA will be featuring Tomisha Lovely-Allen in our booth at St.James Art Show and she is also our guest this week. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Tomisha Lovely-Allen is a self-taught artist from Louisville, KY.  She has been a passionate creator for as long as she can remember. She earned a full scholarship at Northern Kentucky University and graduated with a Bachelor's in Accounting and Associate in Business Administration in 1998 and earned a Certified Public Accountant license in 2002.  

She was chosen to illustrate a historic Kentuckian woman in the “Bluegrass Bold” children’s book project along with 35 other female artists, exhibit at the Arts Center of the Bluegrass Show “The Art of Being Black: Conversations and Experience,” and be grant recipient to the Fund for the Arts '“Black Artist Grant”. 

Vignette: Macel Hamilton

Macel Hamilton, “Love”, oil, 11in x 14in, 2021, NFS

By profession, Macel Hamilton has been a Registered Nurse for 34  years, but seven years ago she started teaching herself to draw, and within a year she was painting. A native of Beaver, located in the hills of Eastern Kentucky, her simple portrait work captures a rural sensibility. Whether through technique - Hamilton favors natural lighting and has a knack for capturing it - or subject - each portrait is of a family member or close friend - the artist expresses the prosaic existence of the Appalachian region.

“My main goal with my art is to improve and learn. I really enjoy my art when I feel like I am learning and improving.”

Macel Hamilton, “Uncle”, oil, 11in x 14in, 2021, NFS

Not that the inspiration is the cliche of rural unsophistication. In “Husband”, Hamilton paints a spouse who was a professional studio musician for over 50 years with Capitol Records, working with many famous musicians in the 1960s, and an “Uncle” who was an Old Regular Baptist preacher in Eastern Kentucky. The focused energy present just before he begins a sermon is palpable.

Hamilton’s gift for rendering people with such unsparing realism doesn’t prevent her from capturing their humanity, it elevates it. There is empathy in the exploration of every hair and wrinkle in the flesh, and great warmth injected into the details. With “Love’, the deep connection between a middle-aged man and his aging father acknowledges the complicated emotions in familial relationships while hinting at the pain of witnessing the passing of generations. In 2021 “Love” was exhibited for six months in the Kentucky Capitol as a part of the Team Kentucky Gallery.  

SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE IMAGES

Macel Hamilton, “Husband”, oil, 16in x 20in, 2020, NFS

Macel Hamilton, “Old Rusted Lock”, watercolor on paper, 16in x 20in, NFS

Macel Hamilton, “Uncle”, oil, 11in x 14in, 2021, NFS

Macel Hamilton, “Life Is Good”, acrylic, 16in x 20in, 2019, NFS

Written by Keith Waits

Entire contents are copyright © 2022 by Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.