Flaming June

 

In 2016, I visited the home of Sir Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), an English artist known for his Victorian paintings and sculptures.  His work often depicted biblical and classical subject matter.  The painting he is most known for is this one called Flaming June.  It is now owned by the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico.  The photo above was taken by a friend when it was on display at an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  It visited Leighton's home for a short period of time in 2016 but the timing of my trip there was off by a month and I missed seeing it.  I was also unable to go to New York when It was there for a short period of time but luckily my friend saw it and sent me this photo.  I wish I could have seen it at Leighton's home where it was originally painted.

It is a beautiful painting with an interesting history that can be seen here.  It was missing from view for a period of 30 years and was seen in a shop window in 1960.  That was a period of time when Victorian era paintings were not popular.  It sold at auction to the museum in Puerto Rico for $140.00 the equivilent of $1,126.00 in today's money.  If it looks familiar, it's because it is widely reproduced in posters and other media.

Everyday Moments

 

I saw the work of this artist way back in 2019 at an exhibit at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.  Shizu Saldamando was born and raised in the San Francisco Mission District but she now lives and works in Los Angeles.  Her paintings are portraits of peers, friends and loved ones and honors the connections that happen throughout daily life.  Clicking the link above will take you to a site showing more of the beautiful faces she has painted.  

Ms. Saldamando's work can be found in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum, the Smithsonian American Museum of Art and the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture as well as many more museums and private collections.

I was truly impressed by her beautiful portraits. 

Inspired by the Desert Southwest

 Jim Waid is an Arizona artist who was born in 1942 in Elgin Oklahoma but has lived most of his life in Tucson Arizona.  His artistic style is abstract but it's a type of abstract that is clearly influenced by the natural surroundings in the desert southwest.  I found this painting in the Tucson Museum of art and fell in love with the bright colors in the painting.  Jim's works can be found in museums all over the United States including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Denver Art Museum. Locally, he has works in the collections of the Phoenix Art Museum, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and the  Arizona State University Art Museum. He is one of Arizona's most celebrated artists but one many people have not heard of.  

The Dust Bowl

 

I saw this painting at the University of Arizona Art Museum two years ago.  I remember studying it carefully trying to figure out what was going on in the painting.  The painting's title is "Avalanch by Wind" and it was painted by Alexandre Hogue (1898-1994).  

Hogue was born in Missouri but raised from a very young age in Texas.  His mother taught him about "Mother Earth" which became a theme in his artwork.  Today we would call him an environmentalist because of his steadfast dedication to preservation of the land.  This painting was part of a series he painted that was called the Erosion Series.  Those paintings all had to do with the dust bowl era, a period during the Great Depression where the land was laid bare from over use and drought which Hogue believed was driven by human actions.

In this painting you see a storm building up that has caused heavy winds that have forced the dirt and sand over the railroad tracks. In the background we see a train coming and a lone man trying desperately to warn the engineer of trouble ahead.

There is a five minute video discussing this painting here.

The Future & The Past

 

I saw this painting at the Scottsdale Ferrari Art Fair a few weeks ago.  The artist is Dennis Numkena (1941-2010), a Native American architect and artist.  As a child, Numkena attended the Phoenix Indian School and graduated from Scottsdale High School.  After serving in the US Military, he lived for a short period in New York City.  A visit to the Guggenheim Museum inspired him to become an architect.  He graduated from Arizona State University and formed the first Native owned architecture firm.  His artworks can be found in collections all over the world.

This painting caught my eye because to me it looked both futuristic and historic at the same time.  It looks very much like a Hopi pueblo site while also looking like it could be a scene from a Star Wars movie.  

The painting was for sale from Savvy Collectors for $30,000.00

Batman

 

I saw this art piece in the window of a building somewhere near 43rd and 6th Ave, midtown Manhattan.  It aroused my curiosity so I snapped a photo hoping to learn more about it. It took a bit of research but I found the artist is Tomaso Albertini.

Albertini was born in 1984 a native to Milan Italy.  He moved to New York City in 2015 and began working with three-dimensional art assembled with pieces of cardboard creating sculptures on canvas.  

After 8 years in New York, he and his family moved to Naples Florida where he uses art to collaborate and support a variety of non-profit organizations.

You can see more of his work on his Instagram site. 

The Cholmondeley Ladies

 Even though the artist for this painting is unknown, I wanted to research it because it is so unusual.  I saw this painting at the Tate Britain in London and it caught my attention right away. The description explains that the two ladies are sisters who were born on the same day, married on the same day and gave birth on the same day.  In fact, there is a barely visible inscription on the lower left of the painting that reads:  "Two Ladies of the Cholmondeley Family who were born on the same day, married on the same day, and brought to bed on the same day."

Although the two ladies appear identical, there are numerous differences in the details of their clothing and facial characteristics.  In fact, their eyes are different colors indicating that they were not identical twins.  The painting is known as "The Cholmondeley Ladies" and Cholmondeley is pronounced "Chum - lee".  It is believed to have been painted sometime between 1600 and 1610 and it remained in the Cholmondeley family until it was donated anonymously to the Tate in 1955.

Still Life Reviving

 

Today I have another work of art that I saw at the Art Institue of Chicago.  I took a photo of this one because I knew I wanted to research it when I got home.  It's such an unusual image.

This work was created by Remedios Varo, a woman born in Catalonia in 1908.  Her father was an engineer and he taught her to draw.  She attended school in Madrid. 

Varo arrived in Mexico in December of 1941 as an artist seeking refuge from the Spanish Civil War and WWII.

Upon her untimely death in 1963, it was given to her mother in remembrance of her daughter.  

This was the perfect choice of art for mourning Varo because in addition to being the last painting she created, its message is one of regeneration and new life.  

Another artist I would never have known if I hadn't been inspired by her work to learn more.

Red Sleigh House

 

I haven't posted to this blog in over six years.  The blog started out as place to post photos of different art work that I had created.  I changed the name slightly and will use it now as a place to post photos of art that I have admired. I hope to post something weekly. 

I saw the painting above at the Art Institute of Chicago when I visited last September.  There was something about the painting that attracted me.  I loved the way the artist framed the view of the house with tree branches.  The artist is Lawren Stewart Harris and it was painted in 1919.  I had never heard of the artist and I was curious about him.  He's a Canadian artist whose early career focused on landscapes mostly around Toronto.  He gradually moved his creative style to more modern or abstract viewpoints.  He was a founding member of the Group of Seven, a group of Canadian painters who shared the same artistic vision.  His modern paintings are more well known than the landscapes like this one.  

Here is a link to a great YouTube video of the actor and art lover Steve Martin introducing an exhibit of his modern works at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

More Kaleidoscopes

Bottle Brush Tree

Children's Books

Peppers