An Artists Studio

 

On my most recent trip to London, I visited the new V & A Storehouse.  The warehouse that houses most of the Victoria and Albert Museum's items that are not currently on display in the museum.  While there I saw this painting that tickled my curiosity.  It was painted by Irving Lawrence (1897-1988), an artist I did not know.

The painting is called "Alick Johnstone's Scenic Studios and it represents a studio where stage sets are designed and painted.

Lawrence was the grandson of actor Henry Irving and was trained at the Royal Academy. He became an artist and set designer working on both theatre and films.  He would have known Alick Johnstone's studio very well.  

The backdrops pictured in the painting were used for the final scene of Henry VIII which opened in 1925.

Touched by the Southwest

 

I saw this painting on display at the Laguna Beach Art Museum back in 2014 and my first thought was that it was a Georgia O'Keeffe.  I was wrong, the artist is Anna Katherine Skeele (1886-1963).  Skeele was born in Ohio and moved to New York as a young woman to study art.  She spent time in Florence Italy studying art history and finally moved to California and attended art classes at the California School of Fine Arts.  She soon began teaching art at Pomona College.  

She spent time in the southwest and became fascinated by the people and the places there.  This painting is called "Rancho Church" and it depicts the San Francisco de Asis Mission in Taos New Mexico, a subject that was also painted by Georgia O'Keeffe among others and photographed by Ansel Adams.

An Elegant Woman

 

I enjoy looking at art in all of its forms and I also enjoy learning a little bit about artists I've never heard of.  I was impressed by the beauty of this painting but I had never heard of the artist Louis Anquetin (1861-1932).  The name of this painting is "An Elegant Woman at the Elysee Montmartre".  

Anquetin is a French artist who came to Paris to study art. He met artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.  The two artist became friends with other artists one of whom was Vincent Van Gogh.  

Anquetin's work seemed to fall behind as other artists embraced the more modern art movements.  He stayed with the more traditional style of the old masters.  He left behind some beautiful works of art.  You can see some of them on his Wikipedia page.  

This painting is now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

On My Wall

 

I have something a little different this week.  This is an original work of art that is hanging on a wall at my house.  I met this artist in Santa Fe New Mexico the last time I was there and his whimsical paintings and books drew my interest the moment I saw them.  I think it's because they spark the seeds of exploration and wanderlust that bubbles inside of me.  The artists name is Jeffrey Schweitzer and he lives and works in Santa Fe.  He has published several small books (I bought one of those too) along with a collections of illustrations. 

Here is one that was on display in his tiny studio inside the lobby of the Inn at Loretto, the hotel where I was staying.  

That little travel trailer reminded me so much of my many travels with my family when I was growing up.  My family traveled for many years with a travel trailer staying at beautiful and interesting places all over the United States and Canada.

Jeffrey has an Instagram site where you can see more of his wonderful works of art. His books are available on Amazon.com.  

Looking at this little painting always makes me want to hit the road once again. 

Out of This World

Here is a painting I didn't expect to see at the Scottsdale Museum of the West.  This was painted by Robert McCall (1919 - 2010) who worked as an illustrator for Life Magazine back in the1960's.  He created promotional materials for many films including Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey.  Later he worked as an artist for NASA.  

This painting is called "Capriccio".  Capriccio is a term used to describe a piece of music, painting or type of art that is whimsical, fancy or fantastical.  This floating city certainly fits that description.  

 

A Woman Ahead of Her Time

 

In October of 2018, I saw an exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum in New York featuring the work of Hilma af Klint.  I had never heard of her before this exhibit and I found her story very interesting.  

Born in Sweden in 1862, af Klint studied art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.  She Graduated with honors and at the time was mostly painting naturalist paintings.  

The death of a younger sister helped to push af Klint toward a type of spiritualism called Theosophy.  In 1906 at the age of 44 she painted her first series of abstract paintings.  She was painting abstract works long before Kandinsky or Mondrian came on the scene.  In the end she felt that her spiritualist work was so ground breaking that it wasn't ready for the world to see it.  She left instructions for her work not to be displayed for 20 years after her death.  In the end, it would be almost 40 years before her work received the recognition it deserved.  

Light and Transparency

 

I found this exquisite painting at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.  It was painted by Janet Fish, an artist who explores the interactions of light and every day objects.  

Janet Fish was born in 1938 in Boston but she grew up in Bermuda.  She comes from a family of artists.  Her father was a professor of Art History and her mother was a sculptor and potter.  Her artistic connections didn't end there.  Her sister is a photographer and her grandfather was the American Impressionist painter, Clark Voorhees.  Fish knew at a young age that she wanted to be an artist.  She attended Smith College and concentrated on sculpture and print making.  After graduating from Smith, Fish enrolled in Yale University School of Art and Architecture.  It was there that she changed her focus to  painting.  She is certainly a master at light, transparency and reflections.

Safe at the Museum

 

I recently discovered that the Phoenix Art Museum owns a painting by Willem de Kooning, a painter I posted about last year after visiting one of his paintings that was stolen in a rather bold way.

He is not an artist that I'm particularly fond of but I do have to admit that this painting poses more appeal to me than the one that was stolen.  You can read that incredible story here.  

Willem de Kooning was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist born in Rotterdam in 1904.  This painting is called "Woman in the Pool".  I'm not sure I see her unless that is her in the upper right corner.  

If you enjoy a good mystery, check the link above.  The story of that stolen painting is fascinating. 

A Zen-Like Experience

 

Here is an artist I discovered while strolling the gallery streets in Laguna Beach California.  His work spoke to me immediately,  Each painting exuded an air of mystery and quiet peacefulness.  The quote from his website below, says it best.

"Martin BeauPre was born in Quebec Canada in 1961.  Over the years Martin has found his point of balance by associating art with energy. As a full-time painter Martin's paintings are a reflection of his inner world.  Martin takes us on a zen journey which reveals a search for beauty and harmony in muffled tones, with serene, uncluttered compositions inspired by Asian art."

82 Portraits & 1 Still Life

 

In 2018, there was an exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) of works by well known artist David Hockney.  It was a group of portraits that he painted of people who fill his life in Los Angeles.

His subjects are from all walks of life.  He invited family members, fellow artists, art dealers, curators, employees, and close friends to sit for him.  He painted one portrait of each and the one still life painting was because of a last minute cancellation.

The painting to the left is of Barry Humphries, a comedian and actor.

I'm posting more than one photo today to give you an idea of how this exhibit was presented.  The paintings were created between 2013 and 2016 in the artist's Hollywood Hills studio.  Each painting was completed in three days.  

David Hockney is a prolific artist and a key figure in the pop art movement.  One of his paintings sold for 90 million dollars in 2018.  It was an exhibit well worth seeing.