"In the Buff"

 

 

6 x 8"

oil on panel

 

 

I broke from my larger painting marathon and loosened up with one of my mom's favorite Picasso pieces - Two Nudes, in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Like my mom, Picasso had a fascination with African sculpture and modeled women's figures similar to the thick bodies and chiseled features found in those sculptures.  Two Nudes hangs next to Picasso's famous Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and noticably the figures on the left of both paintings closely resemble each other.

You may think it never happens, but in 2014, a visitor in MOMA bumped up against the Picasso painting, leaving it unhinged.  No damage done.

 

Please click here to the auction page.  This link will engage at 9 pm ET this evening.

"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.

"Facing the Music"

 

 

9 x 12"

oil on panel

sold

When I reproduce masters' works of art, I learn more about color, mixing paints, edging, brush strokes and composition than any class or book could possibly teach me.  My mom swore by it, which is why I spent a large chunk of my early years in museums.

Picasso's work is a whole other thing.  Three Musicians is defined as a Synthetic Cubist style - meaning the compositions are made up of jigsaw-puzzle-like shapes, flat planes and solid colors.  You don't look at it and think 'look at those brush strokes'.  But I look at every shape and try to figure out where it fits, which I probably shouldn't obsess about but that's the jigsaw-puzzle solver in me.

The recurring characters - the masked Pierrot playing the clarinet, the Harlequin strumming a guitar and the singing monk holding sheet music represents the then-popular Italian comic theater that Picasso and his friends were involved in.  

From the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Please click here for a larger view.

"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.

"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.

"Painted Ladies"

12 x 12"

oil on panel
sold

Another painting for my upcoming solo show The Ladies - featuring the very famous Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Pablo Picasso.

The painting's original title was Le Bordel d'Avignon or The Brothel of Avignon, depicting five nude prostitutes from a brothel on Avignon Street in Barcelona, Spain, a city where Picasso spent part of his time. The title was changed during an exhibition in 1916, when an art critic referred to its present title in order to hide the shocking subject matter from the public - despite objections from the artist.

Picasso completed the painting ten years prior to the exhibition, inviting fellow artists over to his studio to view it.  There were mixed reactions, notably Matisse hated it, saying it mocked the modern art movement.  Important to mention that a rivalry between Picasso and Matisse had been building for quite some time, so maybe a tinge of jealousy was involved.

Why Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is so significant in 20th Century art is that Picasso painted it on the heels of his African Period and on the cusp of Cubism.  You can see the influence of African masks and abstraction in shapes.  The painting was eventually sold eight years after the exhibition to a private collector who promised Picasso he would donate it to the Louvre when he died - although his will said otherwise.  The Museum of Modern Art in New York City bought the painting in 1937 from the collector's estate for - wait for it - $24,000.

Please click here for a larger view.

"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.

"Sweet"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

I was in the De Young Museum in San Francisco and a boy shrieked when he saw the painting of Superman by Mel Ramos - hardly able to contain himself.  When I saw, in person, Wayne Thiebaud's painting Dessert Tray in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City,  I didn't shriek but I felt the same excitement.  I l-u-r-v-e this painting.  I love every painting Wayne Thiebaud has done.

And it must be said, it was a total joy doing this new painting.

"Girl Talk"

5 x 7"

oil on panel
sold

I'm planning out an upcoming solo show that will feature the ladies of the art world.  Not so much the artists but the portrayals of women through the ages.  One that first came to mind on my now-long list of possibilities was Edward Hopper's Chop Suey - which, by the way, just broke a record in a Christie's art auction.  Painted in 1929, Chop Suey became the most expensive work of pre-war American art, selling for nearly $92 million.

Chop Suey is quintessential Hopper for a couple of reasons.  Hopper loved the spaces of restaurants, not so much the food - hence, the empty table except for the teapot.  Hopper was famously uninterested in food and known to eat his meals right out of a can.  Chop Suey restaurants were the rage in the 1920's, mostly frequented by young, working-class women dining together.  Another usual subject matter of Hopper's.  He and his wife went to this particular restaurant often, The Far East Tea Garden, once located in the Upper West side of Manhattan, no longer there.  Hopper's wife posed for all three of the women figures in the painting, also a usual habit.

Fun fact - Chop Suey means 'odds and ends' in Cantonese.

"Christina"

8 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

Today I just chose to feature one of my personal favorite paintings, by Andrew Wyeth, Christina's World.  It is moving. It represents human dignity.  In a word, it is perfect.

"Forty-Eight"

8 x 10"

oil on panel
sold

Jasper Johns was one of the most influential American painters of the 20th century who produced over 40 versions of the American flag.  Johns created the first, Flag, in 1954 at the age of 24, two years after he was discharged from the Army.  

To give you some context, the US flag was often the news headline in 1954 - then President Dwight Eisenhower signed an amendment to the pledge of allegiance on Flag Day to add the words 'under God',  the McCarthy hearings took place three days after Flag Day, the year was the 175th anniversary of the birthday of Francis Scott Key,  who composed The Star Spangled Banner.  The Iowa Jima Marine Memorial was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery.  Johns and his father were both named after Sgt. William Jasper who saved the fallen flag of the Americans in the Revolutionary War.  And in 1954, our country had 48 states - the 49th and 50th, Alaska and Hawaii, would join the United States of America in 1959.

To appreciate Johns' Flag, you must get close up.  It is made using oil paints, encaustic (wax mixed with pigment) and newsprint, which is visible under the red and white stripes.  There is no hidden meaning in the texts of the newsprint, purposely Johns selected non-political or national news.  Jasper Johns aimed to paint 'things the mind already knows', relieving him of creating new design and focusing on the execution instead. 

The painting was exhibited in Johns' first solo show in 1958 where the director of the Museum of Modern Art, Alfred Barr, wanted to buy it but was worried how it may look so he persuaded a friend to buy it instead, and he donated it to the museum in honor of Barr when he retired.

Please click here for a larger view.

"It's That Way"

8 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

The woman here is seemingly taking a cue from Pointing Man by Alberto Giacometti in the Museum of Modern Art.  My mom, who was a painter, printmaker and occasional sculptor,  L-O-V-E-D Giacometti.  I was introduced to this artist at a very young age, by my mom, who taped up dozens of his works on the wall of her studio.

Giacometti was born in Switzerland in 1901, took on formal training in the arts during the era of Cubism and the craze of tribal art - much like Pablo Picasso.  He dabbled in Surrealism for a while, broke off from that to the emergence of Existentialism.  He created small, thin figurative sculptures which took off because of the overall dismal, suffering atmosphere from World War II, and he became quite the popular artist of that time.

His works evolved all through the 50's and 60's, during which time he painted numerous portraits, which my mom was crazy over.  I am too.

"Color My World"

8 x 10"

oil on panel
sold

We are the fortunate ones here in the United States.  We can see Vincent van Gogh's iconic The Starry Night in person in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.  We're lucky that way.

In 1888, Vincent van Gogh was hospitalized at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, an asylum for the mentally ill, after a breakdown. During his stay, he was encouraged to paint - and although he rarely ventured far from the building, he painted landscapes from his view through a window in his private room.  The Starry Night was an amalgamation of church spires and cypress trees and small villages and night sky constellations he drew from his memory of paintings done in the past.

His brother Theo thought the painting to be too stylized, too exaggerated but it has become one of the most recognized van Gogh masterpieces for decades.  Seeing a van Gogh in person is special - the colors are vivid and saturated, the thickness of the paint, the swirls and movement of pigments all give it motion and life.  There's nothing like it.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Hip To"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

A woman stands in front of Mark Rothko's No. 3/No. 13 in the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

"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.

"The Light Of Day"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

And a happy summer to you.

I've been busy going places but now I'm home and back to painting.  Yay.

Back in my frame shop days, I made it a point to have a framed Georgia O'Keeffe print on the wall - especially her New York skyscrapers.  I had a guy come in one day, swore I was mistaken that the painting you see above, The Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y. was NOT an O'Keeffe.  He insisted she only painted flowers and desert scenes.  Yep, that's what he said.

O'Keeffe created a series of New York skyscrapers between 1925 and 1929 after she and Alfred Stieglitz moved into the Shelton Hotel, on the 30th floor where she had a perfect view of the northern, eastern and southern cityscapes.  Her painting above depicts an optical illusion where there appeared to be "a bite out of one side of the tower made by the sun, with sunspots against the building and against the sky".

After 1929, O'Keeffe was unhappy with city life and marriage and moved to New Mexico, where she found new inspiration in the southwest landscapes, never to revisit the subject of skyscrapers again.

From the Art Institute of Chicago, a woman stands next to Georgia O'Keeffe's The Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y.

"Love Is In The Air"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

The artist Marc Chagall called 'love' the primary color of his paintings.  They are rich with Russian culture.  You hear the music.  You feel the love.

Chagall's Birthday depicts the artist floating and swooping over his wife, Bella, to kiss her on her birthday.  Or his birthday - different accounts claim one or the other.  The couple met in their hometown of Vitebsk, Belarus in 1909 - he was twenty-two and she was fourteen.  Chagall was the son of a working-class Hasidic Jewish family - Bella was born to one of the town's richest Jewish families.  Despite her family's misgivings about the union, Marc and Bella married in 1915, had a daughter, moved to rural France, fled from the Nazi regime to Lisbon and then to the United States and remained happily married until Bella's death in 1944.

In her memoirs, Bella recounts how she worked at finding Marc's birth date and visited him on that day, carrying flowers as he began the paint.  "Spurts of red, white, black.  Suddenly you tear me from the earth, you yourself take off from one foot.  You rise, you stretch your limbs, you float up to the ceiling.  Your head turns about and you make mine turn.  You brush my ear and murmur."

How sweet is that?

From the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, a woman leans in to admire Chagall's Birthday.

"Flower Girls"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

I've imposed some much-needed, happy, cheerful acts on myself lately.  Baking cookies, Crock-Pot stew, the Muppets Christmas Carol and painting this colorful, soul-enriching piece featuring Diego Rivera's Flower Festival: Feast of Santa Anita. 

A couple of things I need to mention here - you don't see much progress on my blog because I'm working on paintings for a solo show held in early March.  It kills me not to reveal them as I go.

And... for those who've asked?  I have a calendar not quite ready, I know it's late in the year, but it's coming and I'll shout from the mountain top when it is.

Now for the artist Diego Rivera.  Born in 1886 in Guanajuato, Mexico - a large, colorful, overbearing, talented painter best known for his depictions of the working class and native Mexicans.  At the age of 35, through a government program, he painted a series of murals in public buildings about the country's people and its history, some controversial and all very powerful.

Rivera was a lady's man, married twice before marrying the artist Frida Kahlo who was 20 years younger - both known for their interest in radical politics and Marxism.  They fought often and divorced and remarried in 1940 - Kahlo died in 1954 and Rivera married again, to his art dealer.  He died several years later from cancer and heart failure in 1957.

Rivera's Flower Festival was painted in 1931 depicting a flower festival held on Good Friday in Santa Anita, included in a solo exhibition at MoMA the same year.  

"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.