"Light Baggage"

 

 

9 x 12"

oil on panel

sold

Irises are blooming everywhere here in Atlanta, inspiring me to paint Vincent van Gogh's Irises being admired by a visitor in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The Red Piano Art Gallery sold it before I could even add it to my website, so a larger view will follow soon.

~ Happy Friday. Go get your vaccination shots.

Special December Sale!

I'm clearing out 3 paintings that I've held on to - and I'd like to make a charity donation with a portion of the proceeds.  All 3 are framed and ready to hang.

Thank you for considering a purchase.

 

"Sun Protection"

sold

 

"Foot Rest"

6 x 6"

sold

 

"Tuckered Out"

sold

 

"Dream a Dream"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

The most enthusiastic audiences for Edgar Degas' ballerinas are little girls.  Especially popular is the bronze sculpture you'll find in several art museums The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer - it's real to those young girls in a way that one-dimensional paintings are not.  It's one of those moments that art impacts a human being at an early age.

An art historian wrote an interesting article for Vanity Fair and claimed Degas was "a bona fide misogynist".  He apparently took pleasure in watching his dancer/models contort in agony and even referred to them as his "little monkey girls".  Degas never married, known to be anti-Semitic - a result from the Dreyfus Affair when a French military officer, who was Jewish, was wrongfully accused of treason.  He blamed his family's business difficulties on Jewish competitors and grew more and more resentful. His bitter prejudice cost him many friends and certainly the respect of his more-tolerant Parisian artists friends and peers.

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, a little girl is mesmerized while viewing Dega's Dancers Practicing at the Barre, with the sculpture The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer next to her.

"The Parents"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

Took a needed break from show pieces to loosen up a bit.

A view from the second floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, looking down on a couple taking a breather on the bench of the main lobby.  

"Going Dutch"

9 x 12"

oil on panel
sold

So right after I finished the smaller study Go Dutch, I started on a more-realized composition along the same lines - featuring Rembrandt's Self-Portrait, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Go Dutch"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I know I've been quiet on this blog but I've finished two larger paintings during my absence - one for a group show coming up titled Perfectionists - a painting that took me 5 days to complete.  Yikes.  That rarely happens.  The other for a show of mine coming up.

So... I needed to get small.  Loosen up.  And I had just read about the famous Dutch artist, Rembrandt, who's work is on exhibit "like never seen before" and thought of his Self-Portrait at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  Rembrandt did roughly forty self-portraits during his lifetime - this done in 1660 at the age of fifty-four.  This self-portrait admits his age with a furrowed brow, double chin, wrinkles and pouches under his eyes - it's beautiful and honest.

"Repose"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

I spent a WEEK on a painting - yikes - then took a few days off and today I really, really enjoyed painting loose for a change.  I concentrated less on the art and more on the space.  

A woman resting on a bench in the French Impressionists gallery in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

"Woman To Woman"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

Ahhhh.  Nothing quite as exquisite as a Vermeer painting.  The artist Jan Vermeer was born in the Netherlands in 1632, one of the most highly regarded Dutch artists of his time and all time.

There are scant records of Vermeer's start as an artist, but experts draw a straight line of influence to Rembrandt and Caravaggio.  Many of his masterpieces are about domestic scenes, depictions of women doing chores around the house - the notable and famous painting Girl with a Pearl Earring portrayed a young woman who worked in his household.

Jan Vermeer suffered financially in his old age, due to the Dutch economy tanking after being invaded by France in 1672.  He was deeply indebted by the time of his death in 1675, only then becoming more world-renowned and leaving approximately 36 paintings that are hung in prominent museums around the world including the gem you see in my painting titled Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, which hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

"Cypresses"

6 x 9-1/2"

oil on panel
sold

Most of you know bits and pieces of the life of Vincent van Gogh.  I promise you, if you've never seen a painting of his in person, you're really missing out on the splendor of brush strokes, the thick, rich colors swirling around the canvas, the movement, the passion that van Gogh had of the world around him.  

Van Gogh was 36-years-old when he painted 'Cypresses' - during his year-long stay at the asylum in Saint-Remy and a year before his death.  It is a more close-up view of the the tall and massive trees he found 'beautiful as regards lines and proportions, like an Eyptian obelisk'.  

"Zen Time"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

A couple of weeks back, I was refreshing my memory about William Merritt Chase (for this post) and came across 'The Ten' - a revered group of artists that included Chase.  I jotted down several names that I was familiar with and love their work, one of which is John Henry Twachtman.

I always stop in my tracks when I come across Twachtman's paintings, very much like another member of The Ten, Willard Metcalf - they both painted landscapes that are so calming, so still, so very Zen.  I especially love their snow scenes.  They painted loose, painterly, seemingly quick - most likely they were outdoors painting plein-air.

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Twachtman's 'Arques-la-Bataille' hangs in front of a bench for all the right reasons.  The scene is calm, the color palette is soothing and low-key - a good painting to get lost in.

Twachtman was an American artist, from Cincinnati - traveled and studied abroad with fellow artists and discovered like-minded painters who took on the Impressionistic style of the times, which was in the mid-to-end of the 1800's.

It's also my moment of Zen to paint these images - taking rich greens and blues and lavenders and greying them down a notch.  It made for a mellow day of painting.

"Dandy"

5 x 7"

oil on panel
sold

Here's one of my favorite paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City - a large portrait of the artist 'James McNeill Whistler' by the friend and fellow artist William Merritt Chase.  I've read when the two painters met, they became instant friends and both agreed to paint a portrait of each other.  They probably were trying to hone their portrait skills to compete with fellow painter John Singer Sargent who was all the rage at the time.

Chase presented Whistler with this finished painting, even inscribing in the upper left corner the words 'To my friend Whistler, Wm. M. Chase, London 1885'.  Chase painted this portrait honoring Whistler's low-key palette and painterly style - only Whistler was apparently offended, exclaiming it a 'monstrous lampoon' which started a rift between the two men for a long time.  It is believed Whistler destroyed his painting of Chase, never to be seen.

"Sargent"

6 x 8"

oil on panel

sold

I'm not sure there is a more perfect painting other than 'Madame X' by the American artist, John Singer Sargent.  His painting debuted in 1884 in Paris - critics freaked out and deemed it scandalous and immoral - too 'erotic' for their delicate (prudish) eyes it seems.  Even the family of Virginie Gautreau (Madame X) was outraged, particularly because one of the dress straps was originally slipped off her shoulder.  Sargent appeased the family by repainting the strap and kept the painting for 3 years - meanwhile moving to London and becoming one of the most sought-after portrait painters of the times.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City purchase 'Madame X' in 1916.

I am quoting a portion of the Khan Academy's summary about 'Madame X', because I think it's so very well said -  'The painting - which debuted to severe disparagement but is today treasured as a masterpiece beloved in the history of Western art - is but one example of an artwork that gradually evolved from epitomizing the condemned to the celebrated.  Much of a work's initial reception is based upon society's tastes, standards of etiquette, and values of the era, and as these attitudes shift over the decades, the public may begin to look at older paintings with new eyes.'

There isn't a single painting that Sargent created that doesn't bring me to my knees - so it was an easy choice for the letter R in my series ArtistZ.

                         FYI - 

 

"X"

5 x 7"

oil on panel
sold

I have to tell you - figuring out the X in my series  A to Z  was mind-boggling until I started focusing on the X as a pattern rather than a word.   

A glass ceiling projecting patterns and shadows on the floor while a young woman sketches in the Sculpture Gallery of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

"How Bourgeois"

9 x 10"

oil on panel
sold

I painted this new piece during our snowstorm this past week - what a treat it was.  I know some of you are moaning and can't imagine snow being a treat at this point, but it's so rare here in the south.

I love this painting because of my favorite combo of colors - golds, blacks, greys and browns.  And I love the shadows.

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, William Merritt Chase's portrait of the artists 'James Abbott McNeill Whistler' (left) and John Singer Sargent's portrait of the artist 'William M. Chase' (right) are seemingly looking down at the couple before them.

Please click here for a larger view.

"The Little Black Dress"

8 x 10"

oil on panel
sold
 

This new painting will be included in the upcoming Small Works Show at the Anne Irwin Fine Art Gallery in Atlanta - opening November 22nd.  This young woman is connecting with John Singer Sargent's 'Lady with a Rose (Charlotte Louise Burckhardt)' which hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. 

I am very proud to be featured in the full-page ad in the Atlanta magazine Simply Buckhead, promoting the show.  Please come to the opening if you can, there's over 200 pieces showcased. 

Please click here for a larger view.

"Green With Envy"

6 x 10"

oil on panel
sold

Included in my new show 'Met Life' - a woman viewing John White Alexander's 'Study in Black and Green' in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  

detail

Please click here for a larger view.

"Art Lovers"

8 x 8"

oil on panel

sold

The last time I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art I obsessed over the higher-floor view of the lobby, what they call the Great Hall.   Floods of humanity moving in and out as the wooden benches are almost always occupied with tired tourists.   Below is a screen shot of the Great Hall from Google Maps.  By the way, you can tour the entire museum with Street View.  

With this new painting, I zoomed in a bit more on a couple taking a break from touring the museum, I found their interlocking hands so sweet and the main inspiration for this painting.  This piece will be included in my grouping 'Met Life', opening this Friday at the Morris & Whiteside Gallery.

detail

Please click here for a larger view.

"Met Fatigue"

16 x 4"

oil on panel
sold

A special offering from my own collection, visitors resting in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

"Stared Straight"

6 x 6"
oil on masonite
sold

After painting the cool, swirly water around "Minnie", it prompted me to add to my ongoing series ATL to NYC & Back - a woman enchanted with Monet's brush strokes on his "Water Lilies", which hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"Entrenched"

9 x 12"
oil on masonite
sold

This painting will also be included in the upcoming group show, opening this Saturday at the 16 Patton Gallery - it's one of my personal favorites. I just love the form of the woman's trench coat and thin legs, the brown tones with the mustard-golds, and I love the artworks surrounding her -
William Nicholson's 'Mauve Primulas on a Table', with William Orpen's 'Self Portrait' to the right, donning a trench coat himself. Observed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Please click here for a larger view. To view my paintings included in the group show, please click here.