"Mother and Child Reunion"

8 x 10"

oil on panel
sold

Well, after painting my smaller study you see on the post below, I jumped right into a larger, more-realized piece.  The Mary Cassatt painting is larger, the details are more crisp and that gives me so much more insight to her colors and edges.

Cassatt, like other artists in her time, were influenced by other cultures and their artwork.  Picasso found African masks his springboard to more geometric paintings which lead to Cubism.  Cassatt and Matisse were inspired by Japanese design and printmaking which lead to figures that appeared almost 2-dimensional or cut-outs.  They incorporated fabric patterns in backgrounds and clothing on figures, which was fairly uncommon in painting up until then.  That's why I say The Child's Bath is so quintessential Mary Cassatt.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Mother and Child Reunion" (study)

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

The whole time I was painting this, Paul Simon's song was going through my head.  A mother and daughter viewing Mary Cassatt's The Child's Bath.  Quintessential Cassatt - observing the intimate relationship between mother and child, with an influence of Japanese block print and patterns on patterns.

From the Art Institute of Chicago.

~ a thank you to Stephania for the partial use of her photo.

"The Light of Day"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

If you venture out much of what you'll see resembles an Edward Hopper painting.  Isolated streets, quiet neighborhood scenes.  No artist has portrayed isolation like Hopper.  Keep in mind, he lived in New York City.

Hopper once said about his paintings "What I wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a house." and spent his lifetime pursuing light in his resonant paintings.  Morning Sun captures that beam of sunlight coming through the window, onto the woman on the bed - his wife, Jo, was often his model for his work.

What Morning Sun means to me, especially now in the midst of this pandemic, is even in isolation and darkness, look for the light.

Hopper's painting resides in the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio and at one time traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago for a Hopper exhibition, which is where I had the pleasure of seeing it in person.

"Mother Figure"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

Pablo Picasso's Mother and Child in the Art Institute of Chicago does seem to affect many visitors.  It moves them.  It's majestic. It's relatable.  It's a mother holding her child, surrounded by a serene background of sand, water and sky.  It's sweet.

Picasso painted this in 1921, the year his son Paolo was born.  In the following two years, he painted over a dozen works on the subject of mothers and children.  He had painted this theme during his Blue Period, depicting figures that were frail and in despair but this mother and child are noticeably more solid and happy - showing Picasso's general feelings of stability and sentimentality with the birth of his own child.

~ On a personal note, please take good care of yourself during these scary days.  Look out for your friends and family.  Be kind to strangers.  We'll get through this.

"Ponytails" (study)

12 x 3-3/8"

oil on panel
sold

The tall, thin, vertical format lends itself to certain compositions but the wide, thin, horizontal format is perfect for moments like this one.

Three young women viewing two of Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings - on the left, Cow's Skull with Calico Roses, center is one of my personal favorites, Black Cross, New Mexico and on the right, Arthur Dove's Silver Sun, 1929.  From the Art Institute of Chicago.

A little closer detail....

"Back to Nature" (study)

4 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

Another study with a taller, slimmer format - which I really like, to center on the figure with a backdrop of color.  

The painting featured is Irises by Claude Monet, a nearly 7 x 7' treasure acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1956.

"Soft Approach" (study)

4 x 10"

oil on panel
sold

I've been working on elongated compositions that are either vertical or horizontal and this was intended to be a much looser study for a larger panel - but I got carried away with details.  

Who can blame me, the featured painting is the fabulous Paris Street, Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte.  The painting is the star of the Art Institute of Chicago.  It measures nearly 10' wide by 7' tall and that doesn't even include the frame.  Caillebotte's masterpiece dominated the widely popular Impressionist exhibition of 1877 in Paris, largely organized by the artist himself.

"Late Night"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

Feels good to accomplish something again.  What a week.

From the Art Institute of Chicago, a woman taking a long look at Edward Hopper's iconic painting Nighthawks.

"Seeing Red"

5 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I thought this different view of a different one of Ellsworth Kelly's Chicago Panels made a potentially good companion piece to Umbrella Stand you see on the post before this one.

I love the subtle colorful reflections on the marble floor in both scenes.  And note what I mentioned in the post below, that Kelly's inspiration for the six Chicago Panels was observations of various birds, this red panel presumably from a cardinal.

From the second floor in the American Art Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.

"Umbrella Stand"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

On the second floor of the American Art Wing in the Art Institute of Chicago, the galleries are surrounded by hallways flooded with natural light and on the walls hangs six brightly-colored, geometric shapes called the Chicago Panels by Ellsworth Kelly.

Ellsworth Kelly's success came in the 1950's.  He could fit into the categories of Minimalism, Color Field and Pop Art with his focus on shapes, forms and colors - intending for viewers to 1 - enjoy public art and 2 - to think of art in terms of the spaces where it occupies.  He took real-life observations and mimicked those subjects in an abstract way.  

As a kid, Kelly was a loner, had a slight stutter, spent most of his time as an avid bird watcher and was heavily influenced by John James Audubon. He wanted to study art, his father wanted him to sway more to technical training - he entered military service in the early 40's and used his G.I. Bill to study at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where his mind opened up to Surrealism and modern art.  There he went to Europe for more studies for six years, returned to New York, stumbled a bit until his concepts found the right time and the right place and took off from there.  In the case of the Chicago Panels, each brightly-colored panel represents a bird - the yellow panel possibly a goldfinch - so you can easily see those years of bird watching kept with Kelly all his long life.  He lived to be 92 and died in 2015.

"Don't Go"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

There's an expected aftermath which happens after I finish a solo show.  Keep in mind I painted every single day for over four months, no lie, to achieve the grouping I first imagined.  Then there's varnishing. Then framing. Then shipping. Then traveling to the opening. Then attending the opening.

So when it's all done, I take a few days off and get back to painting.  Then it fails. Rinse and repeat. Three paintings wiped and tossed aside.

I did paint my neighbor's dog though.  That was fun.

Today felt a little different.  Yay.

From the Sculpture Gallery in the American Art Wing in the Art Institute of Chicago, the marble sculpture The Lost Pleiade by Randolph Rogers seemingly calling back the young woman walking into the shadows.

"His Hunch"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

The Art Institute of Chicago has several paintings by Vincent van Gogh but his Self-Portrait is special.  The size is unusually modest and you'll notice he adopts George Seurat's pointillist technique - one he saw in Seurat's fabulous A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.  Every single stroke is slashed on in little bits, the background is speckled with blues, greens, oranges and reds on top of a teal/blue surface.  The face is intense with multitudes of flesh, teal, oranges, reds, ochers and whites.

It's a small painting but an enormous treat for visitors.

"Hat in Hand"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

It is always a pleasure to loosen up and enjoy a more-painterly approach to a painting.

A gentleman resting on a bench on the second floor in the American Art Galleries in the Art Institute of Chicago.

"Lady Like"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

I was working on a grouping of "ladies in waiting" so to speak, for my show, and decided not to include this one after all.  Instead, I'm putting it on auction.

A sharply dressed woman waiting on a bench in the lobby of the Modern Wing in the Art Institute of Chicago.

"Man and Wife"

9 x 12"

oil on panel
sold

My new painting features the iconic portrait American Gothic by one of my favorite painters, Grant Wood, in the Art Institute of Chicago

The viewer usually assumes the couple in the painting is man and wife although it was meant to depict a farmer and his spinster daughter.  The models were Wood's sister, Nan, and his dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby, both Iowans.

Fun facts about American Gothic ~

~ It was an instant success, entered into the 1930 exhibition at the Art Institute and purchased by the museum.

~ The little, white cottage still stands in Eldon, Iowa.  I've been there.  The second floor window is 'carpenter gothic' style, which Wood found pretentious for such a humble home.

~ The dentist, Byron McKeeby, felt obligated to pose for Wood as he was a worthy patient who enjoyed sugar on most everything.  Even lettuce.

~ Both models and the house were all painted in separate sessions.

~ Iowans weren't thrilled with how they were portrayed to the world, as this wasn't how they saw themselves. One farm wife was so mad, she threatened to bite Wood's ear off.  Wood insisted he was a loyal Iowan and meant no offense, only a homage.

~ The artist's signature is hidden in the farmer's overalls.

The importance of American Gothic is, in Wood's own words, to celebrate the nation's fortitude and spirit during tough times.  It brought rise to Regionalism, or American Scene painting, making fellow artists like Thomas Hart Benton and John Curry and Grant Wood famous.  Personally speaking, all three of these painters are favorites of mine.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Stand Beside"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I felt it was a must to paint a possible companion to Stand Aside - showing the left half of Henri Matisse's Bathers by a River.

Here is how the two look together...

Matisse's painting hangs in the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago.

"Stand Aside"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I really appreciate taking a break from painting larger pieces for a show, a show taking place four months from now, and painting these smaller ones - working out some ideas rolling around in my head.  It also helps me earn a living while I'm working on paintings no one will see until August.  So thank you for considering a bid or two on these smaller pieces.

You see the right half of a large painting by Henri Matisse, Bathers by a River.  I love this Matisse.  It hangs in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Matisse considered Bathers by a River "one of five most pivotal works of his career."  You may remember my past post regarding Dance and a Russian art collector commissioning Matisse to do three large pieces for his mansion - this was one of three presented to the man and also the one that was rejected.  The collector settled for Dance and Music.

So Matisse held onto this painting for about four years - a time when he was really getting into Cubism.  With renewed ambition, he made changes in composition, the faceless, oval heads of the figures, divided the canvas into four panels of color and loved the results.   He essentially simplified four nude figures besides a river (the blue panel) and positioned in the tall grass (the left half you don't see here) with a snake appearing as a threat - reflecting Matisse's concerns about the climate of war going on around him.

Next, I am going to paint a companion to this one - including the left half of Matisse's wondering painting.

"Join the Party"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I was enamored with At the Moulin Rouge from the first time I saw it at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was that haunting face on the far right, as if she was looking at me through a window seemingly inviting me in to join the party.  

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painted Paris' nightlife like no other.  Caricatures who he knew well, like Jane Avril in the center with the flaming-red hair or the dancer May Milton who stares at you with her painted face.  The painting is two joined canvases, said to have been severed by Lautrec's dealer after his death - hoping the separate canvases were more saleable.  The entire composition was eventually restored.

"Waiting Room"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

On the third floor, in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, you'll find the Picassos.  And a bench to rest on.  I happened to know where all the benches are.

The Red Armchair depicts one of the many women in Picasso's life - Marie-Therese Walter was 28 and married when she met the artist and he was smitten with her.  Notice her face is both the frontal view and profile in one shape, a new motif of Picasso's, maybe hinting at the double-life the model was leading, carrying on with the man.

Notably, Picasso used an industrial house paint which he had first used 10 or so years earlier.  The colors are brilliant and almost enamel-like, and here he mixed the paints with oils and produced a wide range of surface textures which you can see up close in The Red Armchair.

"The Picasso"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

In 1963, the great Pablo Picasso was commissioned to create a public art sculpture by the architects of the Richard J. Daley Center in the loop in Chicago.  Picasso completed a maquette, or a small-scale version, featured in my new painting.  The cost of the 50-foot sculpture was $351,959 (equivalent to $2.7 million in present day) - paid for thru foundations and gifted from the artist himself to the city of Chicago.  The maquette resides in the Art Institute of Chicago, also gifted by Picasso.

The Chicago Picasso, known as The Picasso, was dedicated in 1967 by the Mayor Richard Daley ...

... and met with mixed reactions.  The famed journalist Mike Royko ripped it to shreds in his newspaper column, saying "The fact is, it has a long stupid face and looks like some giant insect that is about to eat a smaller, weaker insect.  Its eyes are like the eyes of every slum owner who made a buck off the small and weak.  And of every building inspector who took a wad from a slum owner to make it all possible."  Quintessential Mike Royko.

Mayor Daley responded, at the dedication, saying "We dedicate this celebrated work this morning with the belief that what is strange to us today will be familiar tomorrow."

And it is familiar to anyone who lives in Chicago or has visited - or has watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off or The Blues Brothers.  It's a well-known "meet me at the Picasso" spot, enjoyed by the public with a farmer's market surrounding it in the plaza and many seasonal affairs.  So there Mike Royko.