Monday, December 29, 2025

Generations of Wisdom

 


I have seen the work of Katherine L Wilson at the Arizona Fine Arts Expo in north Scottsdale.  Katherine does figurative and portrait work along with illustrations for books, magazines and album covers. 

I love the name of this painting; Generations of Wisdom.  Elephants are wise and intelligent animals so the name fits very well.  This painting was sold to a collector but you can see more of Katherine's work on her website.


Monday, December 22, 2025

Patio

 

This work by Zsudaka Nzinga Terrell is called "Patio".  I fell in love with all the colors and patterns used in this image.  Zsudaka is a multidisciplinary artist and educator living in Washington D.C.  She creates works using various hand-dying and printmaking techniques using a range of textiles and multiple types of paper.  You can read more about the complex process she uses here.  

I found this artwork at the Scottsdale Ferrari Art Festival.

Monday, December 15, 2025

Entrance to the Village

 


Howard Schleeter (1903-1976) was the son of a commercial artist who studied at the Albright Art School in Buffalo New York.  He moved to New Mexico in 1929 and like many people, he struggled to make ends meet during the great depression.  However, several WPA projects helped.

He painted mostly in abstraction as this painting shows.  

I saw this painting at the Scottsdale Ferarri Art festival.  

His work can be found in several galleries including the Smithsonian American Art Museum.


Monday, December 8, 2025

Pointillism

 


This painting by Tessa Nicole features a new kind of pointillism using just one palette knife.  There is something about this style that fascinated me.  

I saw this painting at the Scottsdale Ferrari Art festival last year.  Tessa paints some beautiful landscape themes and you can see examples of her work on her website.  Her work is beautiful.  

Monday, December 1, 2025

Big Mountains and Tiny Train

 


Santiago Michalek is an artist who paints images that tend to stir feelings, memories and nostalgia.  Many of his paintings feature vintage automobiles, especially Volkswagens along with trains that have the look of yesteryear.  

This painting makes the rugged mountains the star with the train playing a supporting role.  It stirs a feeling adventure and danger.  

Santiago Michalek lives in Highland Utah and his paintings are featured in several galleries.  I saw this painting at the Celebration of Fine Arts in Scottsdale. 

Monday, November 24, 2025

A Horse of a Different Color

 

I saw this painting three years ago at the Arizona Fine Arts Expo and it immediately grabbed my attention.  I love the abstract nature of the painting and the bright colors all while beautifully depicting a handsome horse.  This painting is the work of Lexi Sundell an artist known for her bright colors and layers of acrylic paint.  Lexi lives in Montana with her husband who also happens to be an artist.  She began her career painting mostly flowers but in 2012, a dream inspired her to make animals the theme of her works. 

You can check her website and see many other wonderful paintings.

Monday, November 17, 2025

The Green Car

 

When I first saw this painting I immediately thought it looked like Palm Springs California but I later found out the artist is living in Tucson Arizona so it could easily be a scene from Tucson.  The painting is called "The Green Car" and it was painted in 2018 by Andy Burgess.

Burgess is a British artist who now lives in Tucson.  He calls his work "Pop Geometry" and is known for his abstract depictions of modernist architecture.  He was born in London England the son of actor John Burgess and his wife Lana.  He studied political science at the University of Leeds and actually interned for a Labour Party member, Jack Straw.  However, he started taking night classes in art and switched his interests to the art studies.

He says he was inspired by artists like Piet Mondrian, David Hockney and Edward Hopper.  I can certainly see a resemblance to the work of all three of those artists.

I found this painting at the Phoenix Art Museum.

Monday, November 10, 2025

Brain Cloud

 


The unusual nature of this piece is what caught my eye.  It's the work of John Baldessari (1931-2020).  

Baldessari was based in the Santa Monica area of California and he became known for art created using found photographs and appropriated images.  

He worked in print making, film, video, sculpture and photography.  "Brain Cloud" to the left, is a photographic print 

This piece was on display at the Laguna Beach Art Museum back in 2019.  

Monday, November 3, 2025

The Symbols

 

Back in 2016 I saw an exhibit of the works of Peter Krasnow a Los Angeles based artist known for his abstract wood sculptures and modernist paintings.  Many of his pieces featured repeating patterns, something I have always found attractive.  

Krasnow was born in Ukraine in 1886 and emigrated to the United States in 1907.  He graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1916.  His paintings and drawings were often based on Hebrew calligraphy and other subjects related to his Jewish heritage.  

The exhibit this painting was included in was at the Laguna Beach Art Museum.    

Monday, October 27, 2025

The Mysterious Artist

 

I did a post on my Phoenix Daily Photo site about this painting last year after I saw it at the University of Arizona Art Museum in Tucson.  I immediately fell in love with the painting.  The artist is Minda Hess who was born in 1906 and that is pretty much all that I've been able to discover about her.  A search found three other paintings attributed to her that appear on auction sites but I can find no biography of the artist herself.  Even her date of death is unknown.  It's like she simply disappeared. 

The painting is called "Le Grande Place" and it was painted in 1958.  The highest recorded price ever paid for one of her paintings was $1,000.  This particular painting was a gift to University Museum.  

I simply love the painting and feel it deserves another appearance.  I just wish I knew more about the artist.