" Connoisseur"

6 x 8"

oil on panel

sold

I had started a smaller study for Penguin Zen and decided to finish it because you have to find joy wherever you can.  Painting an animal does it for me.

Someone let me know the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri also invited some penguins as guests to browse their galleries during their shutdown, like the Art Institute of Chicago had.  The most charming result is these penguins stopped and seemingly took in many of the works of art, much like this little guy.  Claude Monet's Water Lilies spoke to him.  Or her.

"Face the Music"

 

 

6 x 8"

oil on panel

sold

 

 

Personally, I have a love/hate for Picasso's art.  I favor most of his Cubist style, top of the list being Guernica and the featured painting Three Musicians.  They are jigsaw-puzzle-like, flat planes of solid colors, overlapping like cutout paper making sense in the end.  

Three Musicians is a complicated composition, so much so, this study may have convinced me to not tackle a larger painting.  Don't know yet.  I find Picasso's painting just plain fun.  You see a recurring figures, a Harlequin and a masked Pierrot - both familiar characters in the old Italian theater stories. You see sheet music on a stand, a clarinet and guitar and even a dog's paws stretched out on the bottom left corner.  

When I paint these reproductions of artworks, there's always a deeper understanding of each piece - a valuable lesson every time.  

From the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

~ Stay healthy, stay safe and wear your mask.

"Freeze"

6 x 8"

oil on panel

sold

I've written about Andy Warhol, the famous Pop artist, and his fascination with idols like Marilyn Monroe, Jackie O, Mao Zedong and yes, Elvis Presley.  With movie stars, he was enamored with the oversize posters promoting the films, selling these celebrities like Campbell Soup labels sold soup. Warhol produced multiple silkscreens of Elvis, in many different ways - this one being two color silkscreens next to two grey-scale screens titled Elvis I & II.

Speaking of the King of Rock n' Roll, the image Warhol used was from the western Flaming Star that came out in December 1960.  His first "serious actor" role was void of any musical numbers.  A month, a month before, G.I. Blues came out and diehard Elvis fans LOVED it.  Plenty of music in that film satisfied audiences but the comparison was inevitable when Flaming Star premiered - proving his fans didn't share his dream of becoming a serious actor.  Another western was in the works, but the Colonel made sure he wouldn't attempt that again.