Swirls of Paint

 

I'm featuring an artwork today that seemed to grab me and sweep me into its torrent of paint.  This is a recent purchase by the Phoenix Art Museum. It's by the artist Marina Perez Simao.  I don't know much about Ms. Simao except that she is Brazilian and was born in 1980.  A search of her name found many links to galleries who have represented her or featured a show of her paintings but I could find very little about her life or education.  All I know is that the brilliant swirls of paint in her paintings create dreamscapes that one can float right into.  Here is a link to an ArtNet article about her work.

Ophelia!

 

Ophelia is a painting by John Everett Millais (1829-1896).  It is meant to be Ophelia from Shakespeare's play "Hamlet".  Millais was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.  He went to great lengths to get every detail right in all of his paintings.  For this painting he spent days painting by the side of a stream to capture every detail of the growth around the water.  Then he spent hours painting his model who was submerged in the tub of water in order for him to get every detail of her floating image.  She was in the cold water so long that she became very ill from the cold.  Her story is just as interesting as the painter himself.  She was an artist in her own right but because of era, never received the recognition due to her.  There is a wonderful video, 6-minute video produced by the Tate Britain that tells the story of this painting and gives honor to his model Elizabeth Sidel.  It is a fascinating story. You can see it here.  

My Favorite Lion

 

I found this painting hanging in one of the hallways at the Fine Arts Building in Chicago.  I have always loved those fabulous lions who stand guard in front of the Art Institute of Chicago so I was drawn to this wonderful painting.  The artist is Don Yang and it turns out that he teaches art from his studio in the Fine Arts Building.  

Yang was born in Seoul Korea but came to the United States in his teens.  After 7 years in the U.S. Army, he pursued his dream of becoming a full time artist.  

He has many wonderful paintings on his website.  

The Rock

 

We are stepping to the world of surrealism with this painting called "The Rock" by Peter Blume (1906-1992).  Blume was born in Smorgon, Russian Empire, now Belarus.  He emigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1912.  He studied art in New York City.  This painting is a difficult one to interpret but it is thought to point to the devastation and reconstruction after WWII.  The painting was commissioned by Edgar Kaufman for Fallingwater, the Frank Lloyd Wright designed home in Pennsylvania.  It took several years to complete and in the end was too large for the home so it never hung there.

It's an interesting painting to look at with all that destruction going on.  Or, is some rebuilding happening too?

The Crowd

 

This week's featured artist is Edward Middleditch (1923-1987).  This painting is called "Crowd, Earls Court" and it is part of the collection at the Tate Britain  in London.  

Middleditch was born in Chelmsford, Essex and after serving in the army during WWII, he attended classes at the Royal College of Art.  His early works tended to use a lot of water and reflective scenes but later in is career, his work took on a more abstract nature with repeating patterns present.  

This painting caught my eye because it seemed to mimic rush hour traffic at many tube stations in London.  

The Rebel

 

This painting is called The Rebel (Elizabeth Ruskin) and was painted by Lew Davis (1910-1979).  

Davis was born in Jerome Arizona but left Arizona when he was 17 to study art in New York City.  He became adept at painting human figures and often depicted women laboring in oppressive conditions.  

The Phoenix Art Museum describes the painting this way:

"This painting features one of his fellow students, Elizabeth Ruskin.  Although she stares directly at the viewer with an unsettling intensity, we know very little about her story except that she was a student in one of his classes.  That  she was attractied to Davis is suggested by the two apples on the plate on the floor that allude to Adam's temptation of Eve."

I love seeing this painting whenever it is on display at the museum.  

Painting Nature

 

This week's featured artist is someone local.  Frank Gonzales was born in Mesa Arizona and raised in Tempe Arizona and his interest in art began early in life.  He was encouraged to apply for a scholarship which he received.  He graduated from the Laguna College of Art & Design.  

His stay in California turned into 6 years and then in New York for another 6 years before returning to his roots in Arizona. 

His signature "raindrops of color" is something I recognize right away.  This painting was featured in an exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden but I've seen his work in other locations as well.  I did a post about that exhibit at the garden on my Phoenix Daily Photo blog.

New Light, Reclaimed by Silence

 

I discovered this paining a little closer to home.  It was on display at the Heard Museum here in Phoenix.  The artist is Shonto Begay an indigenous, Navajo artist.   He grew up on the reservation in northern Arizona herding sheep and watching his mother weave rugs. His father was a medicine man.  His art captures the striking beauty of Navajo land along with the realities of modern reservation life.

This painting is called "New Light, Reclaimed by Silence". I think what drew me to this particular painting was that little, decaying trailer.  It gave me a feeling of nostalgia for my childhood when I would travel all over the United State with my parents and sisters always camping in a either a trailer or camper.  I have many fond memories of those family trips.  The little disintegrating trailer made me wonder what ever happened to our old trailer.  That was so long ago, I bet it might look something like this depiction if it exists at all.

You can see more of Shonto Begay's magical works at this link.

Bronze Ballet

 

This is a painting that fascinated me when I visited the Tate Britain Museum in London.  It has such an abstract surrealistic look to it.  Naturally, I took a photo so I could investigate it and learn more.  The artist is Edward Wadsworth (1889-1949) and the painting is called "Bronze Ballet".  Wadsworth was part of a modernist art movement called "Vorticism" which had been formed in 1914 by Wyndham Lewis.  

Wadsworth's mother died of sepsis nine days after he was born.  His father was devastated and had a hard time relating to his son.  He had an aunt who cared for him and left him with a yearly income allowing hime to pursue a career in art.  Wadsworth's most famous painting is called "Dazzle Ships in Drydock at Liverpool." It can be found in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.  

While researching this artist, I found another of his paintings called "Triangles" painted in 1948.  I love this painting.  I wish I knew where I could see it in person.   It might be in a private collection because I wasn't able to find a museum location in my searches. 

On The Road....

 

I was recently drawn to this painting in an exhibit of Asian art at the Phoenix Art Museum.  This painting is called "On The Road To Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib" and it was painted by artist Saira Wasim.  The painting depicts a group of people joyfully heading to the temple or Gurdwara.  For many years the temple at Kartarpur was not accessible to Sikhs in India since the partition of 1947.  In 2019 that changed with the opening of the Kartarpu Corridor a pilgrimage route that allows Sikhs to cross about 3 miles into Pakistani territory to visit the site.  The artist is celebrating the opening with this painting.  

Saira Wasim was born in Lahore Pakistan but now resides in the Chicago area.  She is a contemporary artist who uses a miniature style of painting making primarily political and cultural art.  You can see more of her art on her instagram site.  Her works all pop with color and vividness.