Femme Fatales Made the list in the New Hampshire Magazine, April Issue
Youtube vid of the Chronicle Interview March 2017 of the Femme Fatales
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7pVtOYMP1Y&t=126s
Illegal Visit to Hans Hofmann's Drawing School at the Cape
Hans Hofmann is considered by many critics to have been the greatest and most influential teacher of art in America in this century. Hans taught his Push and Pull theory in Providence, Mass at the Hawthorne school. Hofmann’s influence as an abstract teacher touched all artist who were part of the New York Expressionism movement.
In 1979 the barn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is on Miller Hill Road, has an impressive view of town.The location of this relic you didn’t hear from me, but is worth the visit. The property is now privately owned.
In Recognition to Hunter S Thompson
Many women are in love with Brad Pitt, Chris Hemsworth, or Christian Bale. But myself, I’m infatuated with Hunter S. Thompson and his nonfiction book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Hunter S. had his own brand of Gonzo journalism, wherein reporters become the main character of the stories they’re reporting–and often travel to what Hunter called The Edge. “There is no honest way to explain The Edge,” he once wrote, “because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”
In recognition of Hunter S Thompson’s imaginative genius, I dedicate this photo (yes, that’s me shooting an abstract painting) to those still waiting to go over The Edge. Come join us. You have nothing to lose but your remote control channel flickers.
White Walls Turn to Walls of Snow
5,000 Mile Studio Space in the Forest
New Hampshire is no “Plain Jane”,
when it comes to views. That is why painting inside the 5,000 miles of forests, starting from New Hampshire including Canada, makes this area a phenomenal studio space. Yes, an outside studio space that replaces the comforts of the traditional white walls as a place to paint is at times impractical due to the weather. But, lady inspiration is not always convenient. The photographer is Joe Klementovich, my brother who has known me my whole life, and can connect to the vastness of this state and understands modern work. He has worked with some of the most extinct parts of nature in the area. We both want to show what this state can elevate to in the name of art.
7 Degrees and Blizzard Conditions
On February 11th in Jackson, NH, two abstract painters displayed their work along the 56 wooded trails at the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation. Rebecca Klementovich of Bartlett and Kristen Pobatschnig of Conway call themselves the “Femme Fatales of the North” and are working to bring more attention to female painters in northern New Hampshire.
The day of the show it was 7 degrees with blizzard conditions. The snow was falling down hard. The women had to pull their large canvases on sleds across the trails at the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation. It was estimated that 3,000 people would be at the foundation that day, a similar number of viewers as the MOMA. All of the paintings were hung creatively on trees. The paintings are highly colorful. The thick layers of varnish kept the canvases safe from the heavy amounts of snow.
Galleries that Carry My Work
Permanent Gallery
Canterbury Hill Studio, Rockport, MA
Carver Gallery Rockland, Maine
Soho Picture framing, 568 Broadway, NYC
Jackson Art Studio and Gallery, NH
Wren, Bethlehem, NH
Harvest Gold, Lovell, Maine
Photographers for the Femme Fatales of the North
Femme Fatales would not be who they are without the enormous talent of the photographers.
Their main photographer who has been photographing the femmes since 2014 is the talented, Orion Kugel.”
Orion Kugel’s work has a beautiful softness and dreamy quality, whenever he photographs us,” Klementovich said. Orion is an artist in his own right. He writes poetry and constructs modern collage pieces.
“When the three of us get together to do a photoshoot there is a great connection, there is a creative flow that is rare,” Rebecca adds.
Orion has this organic way of photographing us. We have this creative spirit that takes over, which you can see in his photographs,” Pobatschnig said about Orion.” He is also our CEO, creative manager, and my boyfriend”, Kristen continued.
Orion has shown at Wren and also at the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts, NH.
Joe Klementovich is a New York Times photographer, who lives in North Conway. He is the brother of Rebecca. Joe’s style of work is story like and influenced by National Geographic. The richness he brings to the Fatales is the ability to show expansiveness of the landscapes of New Hampshire. This expansiveness is fast becoming a signature for Joe.
One of his most successful photographs of the Fatales was when he put them right in the middle of a mile of Beach trees by the Saco river, as they painted. “His photographs in that series really show how hard it is to find the right spot to paint, in a place where everything is a great spot,” Rebecca said. “I have known my brother my whole life, he was one of the few people who captured, what it is like to be a female painter in a male dominated field.”
Violet Webster is sixteen, and is the daughter of Rebecca. She took the first pictures of the fatales on one of her school vacations. By the age of nine, Violet had seen the Picasso exhibition twice, she tried to steps on the platform of a Giacometti sculpture at the age of two, and almosttouched a painted tie on a Rauschenberg painting.
So it was no surprise when Violet captured an Andy Warhol style by setting up the fatales in a static, graphic poses. These first pics were much like Warhol’s compositions of his screen printing work.
Her work was shown in the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in 2016.
Anna Demarco is an LA photographer, but is from North Conway. She went to high school with Kristen. Anna did a fantastic job photographing the fatales painting in a canoe. It was hard to maneuver a camera, canoe, and finding the right shot. Orion was paddling the canoe as Anna was able to photograph. It was crazy fun. The concept of the shot was to show another unusual place for the women to paint, a venue that still was a New Hampshire past time. Canoeing while painting was perfect.
Mohair Bikini and the Making of Icons
The joys and mystery of developing a unique presence is all about the photo shoot.
A big influence on our style was in part from the fashion industry. Rebecca worked on the Joan Vass fashion line in 2005-2009, in New York City, which gave her the background on how to run a fashion photoshoot. ” I would help style the photo shoots. My office mate was the designer, Michael Cunningham. We would discuss some of the direction and which outfit the company would use for a photo session,” Klementovich said.
“What I loved about Joan Vass was her original way of thinking,” Klementovich explains. “Vass designed a Mohair bikini, that type of designing stands alone for originality,” Rebecca said. In the New York Times article about Vass “She broke every rule of the business.”
The big lesson while working on the Joan Vass line was how to visually make an icon. The icon is where the direction of the presence begins. Fashion uses icons to direct who wears their clothes, and who is buying the product.Besides the image of the Icon, Rebecca saw the importance of the “front color” meaning the outfits were in the front of the photo, and how they worked with the “back color” the background. “For example when Kristen and I do a photoshoot, we think of the what are the colors of where we are going to photograph. If it is bright green summer forest, we will wear pinks and oranges which are the contrast colors.Using the opposite colors pushes the intensity of the photo. We also bring a trunk load of clothes because you never know when just a hint of a certain color in a dress, scarf, or accessory will move the photo to the next level,” Rebecca said.
This photo really proves this point. Here the foggy background softens the backdrop, so we use the red and peach colors of the shirt and scarf to push us to the front. The black shapes of our hair and shirts add to the rhythm of movement in the photo. The drinking of tea in the forest while painting adds to the silliness of the shoot
. PHOTO by Orion Kugel. Orion has a wonderful awareness of subtly in capturing color and design.
