Alleen Blesi Manning
I was fortunate to have parents who fostered and nurtured my creative spirit from the time I was a young child. Every Saturday during the school year I was making art on the floor of one of the gallery spaces at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Sometimes surrounded by paintings, sometimes by ancient artifacts of cultures, I could only imagine. It was heaven.
Later during my years at UC DAAP where I majored in Painting, Art History and Ceramics, I taught those very same classes at CAM on Saturdays and in the summer.
After my graduate studies at UC's Department of Art Education, I was able to realize my dream of bringing art to young children, just as the Art Museum had done for me.
I concentrated on watercolors while I was teaching, but my real joy has been the rediscovery of painting in oils.
I have been so fortunate to travel with my husband Shayne to many continents to explore and experience varied art and architecture. Recently, seeing Frida Kahlo’s home in Mexico City was life changing.
I often visit CAM and always see something new. Taking pictures of brushstrokes and looking at how the artists have used light. INSPIRING!
We reside in Indian Hill surrounded by meadows, a stream and woods with our new cattle dog, Misty. The varied scope of nuance and seasonal color is varied and rich here, so it is often the subject of my work.
I served on the Barn Foundation Board for 8 years and watched it grow into an important cultural center. I am a member of the Cincinnati Art Club, Cincinnati Women’s Art Club, Oil Painters of America, CAM, the CAC, the Taft Museum of Art, and the Mercantile Library.
My paintings are meant to spark memories for the viewer of those fleeting visual moments of light and space created by nature that we all experience. I enjoy compositions that juxtapose diagonals to create movement, tension and drama that lead the eye into the canvas.
I am continually seeking my own path, to always paint with my own vision and voice.
Sunflower. 24"x30". $400
Late Afternoon Fog Over East Bay and Mt.Tam. 16"x20". $700
Safe in Our Nest # 1. 10"x10". $250
Safe in our Nest #2. 10"x10". $250
Safe in our Nest #3. 10"x10". $250
Safe in our Nest #4. 10"x10. $250
By Bita Bay. 9"x9". $300
Garden at the Blue Shed, East Bay. 20"x20". $450
Dad's Favorite. 27"x32". $800
Morning Walk at Green Turtle Cay. 18"x22". $650
Sunflower at the Pink House, Coyoacan. 11"x11". $250
Philosophers Path, Kyoto. 26"x20".
Snow Shadows. 24"x24". $450
Mandarin Party. 30"x24". $500
Snow Beeches at Red Bird. 24"x24". $450
Early Summer Green at Red Bird Stream. 24"x24". $450
Cider Crisp Autumn. 20"x20". $900
Heading Home. 14"x14". $500