Charles Cushing, Painting Buenos Aires, Kickstarter Art Show
Charles Cushing, Painting Buenos Aires, Spring, Buenos Aires, oil on canvas, 24 x 26″
You probably know who Charles Cushing is or are familiar with his artwork, even if just peripherally. His Philadelphia landscape paintings and collectible prints have defined his reputation as one of the city’s premier architectural painters and image makers. Using the elements of the cityscape, Cushing creates atmospheric paintings, sometimes with a floating point of view like you’re riding in a hot air balloon, or straight on plain air landscape in considered layers of oil paint. Even though the paintings are technical landscapes there is always an element of magic realism, romance or outright surrealism mashing visual styles into his own symbolic language.
Charles Cushing was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1959, but has lived and worked in center city Philadelphia for over 20 years. He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, graduating in 1988. While at the academy, he studied under celebrated painters such as Arthur DeCosta, Seymour Remenick, and Sidney Goodman, among others. After graduating, his focus turned to landscape and cityscape paintings, and he has become well-known locally for his large Philadelphia scenes. Over 400 of his original oil paintings are in public and private collections, mostly in the Philadelphia area. – Artist’s website.
Charles Cushing, Painting Buenos Aires, Tero Birds, El Campo Near Buenos Aires, oil on canvas, 20 x 21″
Last Summer, Charles Cushing had the idea to launch a Kickstarter crowd-funding project called Painting Buenos Aires. In the video he promised to paint and interpret the landscape of the South American city to fulfill his funder obligations. Prepared with a really clear concept and achievable goals, Charles Cushing raised the funds to fulfill his dream and travel to the city known for Tango dancing, Charles’ other passion. Charles Cushing has become a wonderful Tango dancer, attending weekly Milonga Tango dance house parties for years, his ambition was to absorb and capture some of the movement and style of Buenos Aires in his art.
Charles Cushing, Painting Buenos Aires
In recent years, Cushing has taken several trips to Nova Scotia, Martha’s Vineyard, and Newfoundland to paint . The basis of his work is “plein-air” painting directly from the motif; often these paintings are the basis for more ambitious canvases that are produced in the studio. He also occasionally paint portraits, still-lifes and nudes, as well as imaginary “capriccios” and historic views based on period photographs. – Charles Cushing
Charles Cushing, Painting Buenos Aires
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Charles Cushing was prepared with a good idea and collaborated with DoNBrewerMultimedia to produce the required video last Summer, which was a wonderful experience. Charles has a clear idea and plan which made it easy to pre-sell future artwork. The art show at Buttonwood Argentine Tango Dance Studio, 1315 Buttonwood Street, Philadelphia, PA., is the fulfillment of his obligation to his backers and the event was almost as adventurous as traveling to another country. The dance studio is filled with light and mirrors, the huge kitchen floor is a fabulous dance floor. The night before the opening the Milonga lasted until 2:00 AM. At 4:00PM the non-tango dancers were encouraged to either dance or go, as the enthusiastic dancers put on their shoes for another night of Argentinian food and dance. Even Charles, who had worked so hard on the paintings, drawings and prints wanted to dance the night away.
Charles Cushing, Painting Buenos Aires, El Teatro Colón, oil on canvas
“El Teatro Colón de la ciudad de Buenos Aires es considerado uno de los mejores teatros del mundo. Reconocido por su acústica y por el valor artístico de su construcción, cumplió 100 años en 2008.
El actual edificio está emplazado entre Cerrito, Viamonte, Tucumán y Libertad, en pleno centro de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, y fue inaugurado el 25 de mayo de 1908 con la ópera Aida de Giuseppe Verdi. Este edificio reemplaza al antiguo Teatro Colón, erigido en la manzana que ocupa hoy el Banco Nación, frente a la plaza de Mayo, y que funcionó entre 1857 y 1888._ – El Teatro Colón website.
Charles Cushing, Painting Buenos Aires, prints are for sale as well as funder commitment fulfillment. These prints are by friend of Charles, Leslie Mitchell.
Charles Cushing, Painting Buenos Aires
Charles Cushing, Painting Buenos Aires. This is a very large painting depicting an above ground cemetry enhabited by cats. The large angel sculpture is falling to pieces, it’s metal rebar superstructure revealed in poignant detail.
La Recoleta Cemetery (Spanish: Cementerio de la Recoleta) is a cemetery located in the Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, presidents of Argentina, Nobel Prize winners, the founder of the Argentine Navy and a granddaughter of Napoleon. – Wikipedia
Charles Cushing, Painting Buenos Aires, large oil painting work in progress. As part of the promise the artist made to his funders he pledged to create a large painting based on his experiences in Buenos Aires. The artist says this painting is about 20% complete, he intends to highlight tango dancers on the right having a Milongo on the rooftop. The building signage is extremely important to Charles Cushing, text and sign imagery has long been a hallmark of his landscape paintings and Buenos Aires is famous for their larger than life bill boards.
Charles Cushing had such a good time working, dancing and living in Buenos Aires that he wants to go back. And like many Kickstarters he’s already planning his next campaign.
See the original Painting Buenos Aires Kickstarter movie here.
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Written and photographed by DoN Brewer.
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