Fall Art Social | Call for Submissions

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

We want to feature your artwork!

In the spirit of coming together as we emerge out of the pandemic, we want to share the gallery space with you during our Art Social on October 28th from 5-7PM. In addition, we are announcing that we will be hosting our first online Instagram Art Auction with your postcard-sized artwork to be held from November 6th through November 14th.

We will be donating a portion of this exhibit’s sale proceeds to Artists For Humanity (description below), a charity dedicated to serving underserved youth through paid art opportunities.

Postcard Show Extended for Instagram Art Auction

We are extending the length of the Postcard Gallery show at Jill Krutick Fine Art due to high demand. In addition, we will be hosting an online Instagram Auction of the postcard works, with your help. The key to success for the auction is to have everyone participate and spread the word to family, friends and collectors. 

To participate, your Postcards must be shipped to Jill Krutick Fine Art (425 Mount Pleasant Ave, Mamaroneck, NY 10543). In addition, we will need images and descriptions of your work to post online for the auction. We will also use this info for the description cards that will be on display next to your work for the show opening on Oct 28th. 

Please provide your Postcard information by submitting an Airtable Form (see REQUIRED ARTIST FORM SUBMISSION button above). Please note: this information is required if you want to participate. 

Once we receive your information, the gallery will post your images on Instagram at @jillkrutickfineartgallery (not to be confused with @jillkrutickfineart, personal artist page). This is where the auction will be held, beginning on November 6th (details below).

Bidding is done through the comments section on Instagram. 

Rolling submissions of Postcards (total of 3 per artist) may be sent to the gallery up until the end of the auction.

The benefits of participating in the auction include: 

• Raising the visibility of your work and potentially selling for much higher than the opening bid.

• Supporting other artists that you admire at affordable prices. Supporting each other is also part of this effort.

• Asking folks in your network to place a starting bid… allowing the auction process to happen much more readily.

• Bidding is transparent and in real time, so everyone knows what the current bid is for your work.

• Contributing to Artists for Humanity charity, which serves underserved youth who are interested in art through paid art opportunities.

The folks that come to the opening on Thursday, Oct 28th will be encouraged to participate in the auction when it opens.

---

INSTAGRAM AUCTION DETAILS

AUCTION BEGINS: Noon, Saturday, November 6th 
AUCTION ENDS: Noon, Sunday, November 14th
OPENING BID: $45
INCREMENTS: minimum $10
BIDDING LOCATION: in the comments section for the individual image posted on Instagram

Payments to be handled by Jill Krutick and/or Simone Kurtz from Jill Krutick Fine Art. We handle transactions through Venmo and Paypal. 

Once the deadline for bidding is reached, the gallery will contact the last bidders to confirm their purchase within 24 hours. Otherwise, the next bidder will be contacted to confirm payment. Sales tax will be added to the sale price for all New York state buyers. 

The gallery will handle the shipping of the postcards and will give 80% of the sale price to the artist and 20% to the Artists for Humanity charity. 

Artists may opt to give the full price to charity if they prefer.

---

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION

Create and submit up to three (3) original works of art, to be offered at an Opening Bid of $45 each and to be made on a 4 x 6 inch postcard or any heavy weight paper. 

1. Drawings, photographs, paintings, printmaking, and mixed media are welcome.

2. Please sign and print your name, as well as include your instagram handle, on the back of your artwork. Also, indicate the top with an arrow.

3. Each piece will be mutually selected by both the artist and gallery.

4. Please provide your Postcard information by submitting an Airtable Form (see REQUIRED ARTIST FORM SUBMISSION button above). This submission is for both Art Auction participants, as well as those who do not wish to participate in the Art Auction.

---

Promotion

• Instagram-friendly promotional slides will be provided to all participating artists for use on social media.

• Invite your friends, family and collectors to the site. If every artist brings 5 people, the auction will be a tremendous success.

• The more we advertise this event in our communities the more successful this auction will be for all parties.

• When we post your images we will request that you “collaborate with us.” If you accept, then your image will be posted on your Instagram page too. Any bids that are made on your artwork will then appear on both your Instagram page and the @JillKrutickFineArtGallery Instagram page.

• Please follow us on @jillkrutickfineartgallery and tag us on all of your promotions so that we can amplify your post and message.

This auction is both a fundraising event and an opportunity to leverage our collective presence as artists. We hope you will bring your energy and excitement to the project. 

If you have further questions, please contact Jill or Simone.

Jill Krutick

(914) 522-0420
jsk@jillkrutickfineart.com
@jillkrutickfineartgallery

Simone Kurtz

(914) 471-6223
smkurtz6@gmail.com
@thethirteenthour  

Artists For Humanity's (AFH) mission is to bridge economic, racial and social divisions by providing under-resourced youth with the keys to self-sufficiency through paid employment in art and design. AFH tackles the myriad of problems youth face today with tremendous impact. We celebrate the talents and wonderful energy of young people by giving them hands-on experiences in creativity, business, teamwork, and self-governance. Participants learn the techniques and tools of professional artists and the business world while engaging in education, employment, artistic exploration, and entrepreneurial experience. This produces life-transforming change for youth and for their communities.

SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW: Peter Hopkins, Karen Fitzgerald & Jill Krutick Introduce Critical Watercolor Group

What is the Critical Watercolor Group and who is it run by? 

Critical Watercolor Group is a network of contemporary visual artists who use fluid media. This includes watercolor, alcohol inks, gouache, fluid acrylic paint, ink, etc. The group is part of the Shim Art Network, a collective of artist-facilitated groups who present their work at Artsy.net, as well as in a variety of exhibitions, and circumstances. Co-facilitators of the group are Karen Fitzgerald and Peter Hopkins. Jill Krutick is a crucial supporting member.

Karen, Peter and Jill, please each describe your background and interest in this group?

Karen Fitzgerald: As a young artist, watercolor was the medium in which I learned the deepest things about painting. While the way I work with watercolor changed over the years, the practice of working with fluid media has underscored my work all my life. I created and facilitated the Spliced Connector group at Shim Art Network in 2020 – that experience has reinforced my enthusiasm for networked groups of professional artists working together to promote their work.

Peter Hopkins: As an artist of 40 years I have come to regard the practice of watercolor with increasing respect. It can be a humbling medium. The water “tells us” where the pigment will go as much as the artist directs it themselves. It is not as malleable as paint, nor as dense. It is the very evanescence that appeals to me now. The art world needs more lightness, more air. We need things that can suggest fluidity, and openness; because the world and the art world itself are moving in this way...lighter, faster, more suggestive than insistent. I’m very eager to see the ways that the Critical Watercolor can expand as a node of creative artists from around the world engaging with each other and sharing our own ideas of this medium with each other, and our audience.

Jill Krutick: Watercolor is an exploratory medium which I use to develop my signature style. I am thrilled to join this talented group of artists and raise the visibility of my work through exhibitions and networking opportunities. I look forward to hosting the Critical Watercolor group at my studio/gallery, Jill Krutick Fine Art, this fall of 2021. I have been passionate about painting all my life and have dedicated the past dozen years to it full time.

What sparked the idea to create this group, and what led to its formation?

Many contemporary artists use fluid media. This contemporary work differs from a more traditional approach to watercolor, and is more broadly inclusive. The group spotlights new approaches to media.

Does the group have any specific messages or goals?

Spotlighting fluid media is the main goal. Working together in a network to promote the work, and bring greater visibility to these mediums is the wider goal.

What is “Fluid Media” and what is unique about this medium?

Fluidity is a potent contemporary theme in the way it implies change. As a physical medium, fluid paint can produce some of the most gorgeous effects. Watery tone plumes; it can produce areas with the softest of textures. The edges present in fluid media have an enormous, compelling range. In other words, fluid media produces some painterly vocabulary that cannot be gotten with any other media.

What does it mean for the Critical Watercolor group to be part of the SHIM Art Network? 

SHIM Art Network is contemporary to its core. The range of visual artwork being produced today is astounding. SHIM shines a spotlight on this richness within the industry, and facilitates making the variety of contemporary art production visible to a wider community.

What benefits do artists derive from being part of this network?

Most artists are used to promoting their work by themselves. Artists represented by galleries also promote their work in a singular manner, just as the gallerists do. When artists join a network, the benefits of promoting work and collaborating to produce showcases of work has exponential results. Connection and collaboration are the way of the future in our industry. SHIM Art Network has articulated these dynamics in a brilliant, functional and accessible way. Wider visibility and a stronger presence yield more sales. Having both an online presence through Artsy, a team-oriented approach to Instagram and shows at select studio/galleries will amplify the group’s visibility. Our inaugural show will be at Jill Krutick Fine Art, a studio/gallery in Westchester, NY from September - October 2021.

What is special about the promotion of this group?

Shining a spotlight on this approach to art making is educational. Artists are keen learners when it comes to materials. People who are not practitioners of the visual language may underestimate how powerful the handling of fluidity is. The artwork of this accomplished group of artists presents an opportunity to see inside the dynamic vocabulary of the visual language. Like our verbal language, it's always changing.

What is your hope for this group, and the artists involved, as it becomes more established?

The Critical Watercolor group will bring a wider audience to the artists in the group. We will present the work outside of the tri-state region, with intentions to do exhibitions on a global scale. New buyers, emergent collectors, and increased opportunities for these artists are the end result of our efforts.

The Latest Version Podcast with Betsy Bush: Episode 2.2: Weaving Together Your Professional Experiences and Artistic Pursuits with Acclaimed Painter Jill Krutick

Join Betsy Bush, host of The Latest Version, as she speaks with artist Jill Krutick. They discuss Jill's journey from Wall Street analyst to acclaimed artist and painter, her desire to be financially independent regardless of her career, and why she works to showcase other artists as well.

Yellowstone Art Museum's Auction 53 to feature Jill Krutick's "Brook Trout" painting

This year marks the Yellowstone Art Auction 53, an annual event held by the Yellowstone Art Museum auction committee, which raises support for the exhibitions and educational programs that the Billings, Montana-based museum presents to the community year-round. This year, the auction will be held virtually.

Jill Krutick’s painting, Brook Trout, created in 2019 for her solo Yellowstone Art Museum exhibition Metamorphosis held November 2019 - January 2020, was gifted to the museum late last year and will be featured in the auction. Krutick’s piece has been selected from the record-setting 800 works of art that were submitted by artists nation-wide.

Opening night is slated for January 22, with the online bidding platform going live at 5 p.m. This is the first chance to see the work in person and online, and a first chance to bid on work via the museum’s Buy-It-Now platform. In addition, the museum will be hosting three intimate Quick-Finish Nights that will feature two artists per night. The exhibition and bidding culminate on March 6 at midnight.

Brook Trout, 11 x 14 inches, oil on canvas, 2019

Jill Krutick poses next to her small Trout series. Brook Trout is featured on the far left.

The 53rd annual Yellowstone Art Auction is the largest contemporary art auction in a massive region. This event is the YAM's biggest fundraiser, one that is critical to our mission, and the social event of the year!

Penn Homecoming Presentation and Penn Innovators in Business Chat with Jill Krutick

Jill Krutick supports the University of Pennsylvania alumni community by participating in various networking events. In November she presented for the first virtual Arts at Homecoming by giving a virtual tour of an exhibition and discussing her art practice during the pandemic. In December, she did an interview with the Penn Innovators in Business club to discuss her career journey.

The Pennsylvania Gazette — Portrait of the Artist as a Former Financial Analyst

A New Sunrise, 2020, oil on canvas. By Jill Krutick.

Jill Krutick finds her happy place.

Jill Krutick W’84 was supposed to wrap up this autumn in Brussels. Following a later-in-life foray into the professional art world, she’d been on a roll through 2019 and into early 2020, landing her first solo museum show plus a dozen other exhibition opportunities. Another crop of shows was on the way, including more US museum exhibitions and a November art fair in Brussels. Then the pandemic swept in and cleared her entire calendar.

Instead of packing up her abstract expressionist paintings to introduce in Europe, Krutick has been penned inside her Mamaroneck, New York, studio since March, making new work while trying to figure out how an artist can stay visible when museums and galleries are shut.

That’s where her Wharton days and previous career are proving handy. Harnessing what she learned during 23 years in the business world, Krutick is using all this unplanned downtime to reach art enthusiasts and collectors who, like her, are mostly stuck at home right now.

“I have tried basically every way to engage with people and keep people interested and wanting to view my work, buy my work,” she said during a virtual presentation at Homecoming in November. Since March, that’s included TikTok and Instagram videos of her painting process, a new Etsy shop, a home art curation service, a virtual viewing room, a perpetually updated website, and “storytime” videos about each of her painting series.

In her most-viewed TikTok video, posted in June, Krutick’s gloved hand drags a palette knife across a white canvas, smoothing on white molding paste. It’s like watching a pastry chef frost a very large, very flat cake. A soft cover of Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning” accompanies the clip, along with the caption, “Molding paste is calming,” followed by a series of tags: #satisfyingpainting #foryoupage #processvideo #moldingpaste.

Ice Cube Night, 2013, oil on canvas. By Jill Krutick.

Aside from supplying Zen footage, this process is how Krutick begins many of her paintings. She’ll cover an entire canvas with textured acrylic molding paste, then sculpt in lines, swirls, and abstract shapes. “As I’m creating it, I might see a story coming out,” she says. In a video on her website, Krutick steps back to study a large canvas that she’s already coated and carved. “I see a lot of vegetation,” she says. “I see a lot of fairytale elements. It’s certainly a happy place.”

She layers colorful paint over the textured paste, swiping on ocean blues and soft reds and pale greens in the video. Color is Krutick’s other passion. She “collects” it everywhere she goes, relying on her strong visual memory to capture a stroll under fiery autumn leaves or a boat ride on a foggy day.

In her abstract works, Krutick’s inspiration has swung from Batman to The Giving Tree to trout. (Her son is a fishing captain in Miami and suggested that last one.) “Inspiration comes from a lot of different places,” she says. “Sometimes they’re just fantasy worlds that I dream about,” as in her Shangri la series, which has hints of Monet. “There are so many different ways that I get transported as I’m painting,” she adds, “which is why I call it taking a journey.”

Krutick’s Ice Cube series draws inspiration from Mark Rothko’s color-field paintings, but often incorporates harder edges and brasher contrasts. She explains on her website that “the Ice Cube shape”—two drippy rectangles separated by a thick band and placed inside a square—“has emerged as my artistic fingerprint.”

“It’s a very unique series, which stands apart from all my other series,” she says. She’s made more than a hundred of them at this point, in various sizes and colors.“The actual image, while simple, is actually very complex when you take a closer look—in terms of the textures and the layers and the nuances that are on the canvas,” she says. “You can actually see so much in what appears to be a simple picture.”

Like many artists, Krutick remembers falling in love with her craft as a kid. By her teen years, she was copying famous Monet and Van Gogh works in oil. But in college she studied finance and decision sciences at Wharton, followed by a 17-year career on Wall Street and then six years as a senior vice president at Warner Music Group. When Warner was taken private in 2011, she threw herself back into painting. Soon “all of that energy that I put into finance got directed into building an art practice,” she says.

She spent four years taking classes at the Art Students League of New York, learning from her teachers as well as the other students.

The more she painted, the more she wanted to paint. By 2017, she had her own studio/gallery. In early 2019, at age 56, she landed her first museum show. “That was a milestone event for me,” she says, recalling the 5,000 square feet—six rooms in all—inside the Coral Springs Museum of Art in Florida that were filled with her work.

Another museum show sprang from that one, then another and another, until Krutick had major momentum and a busy travel schedule heading into 2020. You know what happened next.

Crayon Forest, 2020, oil and acrylic on canvas. By Jill Krutick.

But she’s managed to find slivers of light in a dark year. “All I did was try to dream up new ways to reach people,” she says. “That was the silver lining: instead of just pressing ahead with the shows and preparing for those specific events, I took a blank sheet and started from scratch, thinking about how to create a virtual experience and share the art in new and different ways.”

The Etsy store, for one. Launched this past October, it places Krutick’s paintings on yoga pants, duvet covers, note cards, and cloth face masks, in addition to serving as an online shop for her original paintings. “It’s a very tough market overall because people are in a very bad way,” she says. “I believe it’s important to continue to be in front of people and to show that you’re constantly reinventing yourself.”

With the Brussels show rescheduled for February 2021, Krutick is also preparing to mount a solo exhibition at Virginia’s Longwood Center for the Visual Arts and an “Homage to Rothko” solo show at the Alex Galleries in Washington, DC, both postponed from 2020, sometime this coming year.

“The fun of the story is that I didn’t have a specific plan to get to art later in life,” she says. “It’s something that just happened—an unplanned decision.”

“But there were always two parts of me,” she adds, “the artsy part and the business part. I knew that they had to live together. Now in the art world, seeing how important business is as part of this whole equation—how you market yourself and differentiate yourself in the wacky world of art—it’s fascinating to me how it all comes together.”—Molly Petrilla C’06

Cyber Week at JillKrutickFineArt on Etsy begins!

Cyber Week is already here! We are offering a 20% discount on ALL paintings through the JillKrutickFineArt Etsy shop until December 3rd. Free shipping is included.

We are also excited to announce that, through December 1st, all custom-made wearable art and bedding is 10% off using promo code RAC2020 upon checkout! We are giving 10% of the proceeds generated from these sales to the Rye Arts Center to support its outreach activities and after-school programs.

Enjoy exploring our growing store, which now includes dresses, too.

Stay safe and well and wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!

New Bedding Images for Etsy Store

Wow! To see the painting “Ice Cube Montana Sapphires” come to life in a captivating duvet cover and pillow shams is really something. Simone Kurtz has expertly photographed the new arrivals so you can see how special these are. If you have a fisherman in the house or love the outdoors, why not consider a rainbow trout duvet so your adventure dreams can come alive? Check out the JillKrutickFineArt Etsy store to see all the newest shop items.

Ice Cube Montana Sapphires, 2019
60 x 60” oil on canvas

Rainbow Trout, 2019
18 x 24” oil on canvas

Arts at Homecoming at UPenn | Artist Chat

UPENN is bringing Homecoming to you! 

Mark your calendar for November 9-14, 2020 to experience a week of online programming, social media contests, and virtual campus tours. Hear from Penn faculty, alumni, and students on topics ranging from social justice, healthcare, arts and culture, and Penn Athletics.

---

Notable Events:

Artist Chat with Jill Krutick 
Wednesday, November 11th
7 P.M. EST

Neil Blumstein and Jill Krutick are co-chairs of the WhAN (Wharton Arts Network). Neil will describe WhAN and moderate a discussion with artist Jill Krutick. Jill will discuss her transition from finance to the world of art, her art practice and how she has adapted her business in the current environment. Krutick will provide clips of video content interspersed with images of about two dozen works featured in a “virtual exhibition.”

Lynn Marsden-Atlass, University Curator, will give a 15-minute presentation on the Penn Art Collection, followed by a discussion of current projects and recent acquisitions, and Q & A.

Jill Krutick will be moderating this discussion.

Live from the Curator’s Office
Friday, November 13th
12 – 1 P.M. EST

Jill Krutick to be shown in Brussels at Art3f International Contemporary Art Fair

Now Showing in Brussels: Nov. 20 – 22

Jill Krutick is excited to announce that Van Gogh Gallery of Madrid, Spain will be featuring her work at the upcoming Art3f Brussels International Contemporary Art Fair in Belgium this November. She will be exhibiting her Aurora Borealis painting series, Sunshine 1-3 alongside other distinguished abstract artists.

The art fair will be following the safety guidelines mandated for COVID-19. 

Video

art3f | contemporary art fair | Brussels (2017)
Language: French

Viewing Room: Turning Points

So pleased to announce the launch of our first Viewing Room, an online solo exhibition, at Jill Krutick Fine Art called Turning Points.

Turning Points is a diary of the painting series I've created during my lifetime. In an effort to capture the development of my career as an artist from childhood to today, we take you on a visual journey.

A video montage, interview, and process footage are interspersed with images, text, and critical comments to provide a multimedia-rich experience in viewing my portfolio.

Hope you enjoy!

Jill Krutick's Trout Paintings Reimagined in Illustrated Interiors

Fine artist Jill Krutick collaborates with illustrator Simone Kurtz to create theoretical scenes for her abstract paintings. This illustration highlights Krutick’s trout series, in particular the long set, which has been accepted into the permanent collection of the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Montana. Its rustic look inspired the idea of the fishing lodge, using colors from the paintings to influence the palette of the space and furnishings.

Check out the process timelapse below, and stay tuned for more illustrated interiors to come.

Process Timelapse

Painting Storytime: Trout Series

This illustration is featured in our Trout Series episode of Painting Storytime! Check out our other Painting Storytime episodes!

Virtual Talk with Staten Island JCC

Artist Jill Krutick discusses her current work, art practice, journey, and promotional content that was created to increase engagement during this year’s pandemic with the Jewish Community Center of Staten Island. Hosted by the Dr. Esther Grushkin Seminars for Adult Jewish Education.

Come on a video adventure with us!

Hope everyone is safe and well.

I have been channeling my energy into new ways to share my artwork -- through video.  

We launched four major initiatives over the past month with a FIFTH one debuting shortly:

• Painting Storytime -- Short video clips (2-3 minutes) about individual paintings or painting series and the stories behind them. The inspiration, the process, the adventure. We have launched 5 episodes so far with several in the pipeline!

• Virtual Gallery Exhibition -- An augmented reality view of my studio/gallery with a special selection of works and a behind the scenes discussion of the creative process.
   

• Networking Interviews -- Discussions on how to raise visibility as an artist through social media and alumni networking.
   

• Home Art Curation -- A fun promotional reel (40-seconds) shows what a snap it is to "try" artwork remotely in your home, which we can curate for you based on a photo. 
   

• JKFA Viewing Room NEW! -- Plan to launch a viewing room, which will include images and videos curated to highlight a relevant theme (yet to be announced).

Check out the links below for more information. We would love to have you join us!

Thanks so much for all your support and I look forward to seeing you soon!

Launching Home Art Curation -- Easy as 1, 2, 3

Today we are launching a promo reel for our Home Art Curation business. To enter our limited edition print giveaway to promote this event please visit our Instagram page @jillkrutickfineart (valid from May 18 - May 22, 2020).

Tired of looking at the same four walls? Looking to spruce up your home with some color or magic? We would love to help you find the perfect piece(s) that fit YOUR budget.

We have limited edition prints in custom sizes and paintings of all sizes. We do custom work as well. If you have a color palette in mind and particular painting style that you like we can work together to make the project work for you.

Styles include Abstract Landscape, Geometric, Ice Cubes, atmospheric style works (Dreamscape, Shangri La and Aurora Borealis Series) and Swirl Series. For more information about the different styles of work please see our About the Series tab on this website. We also have online brochures available for each of the series on the bottom of the publications page.

The Ice Cube Series lends itself well to doing custom work. These have been done in a variety of colors and sizes for bedrooms, living and dining rooms.

Snap a pic with your dimensions / budget and send the details to jsk@jillkrutickfineart.com

We look forward to working together with you to create the look of your dreams!