This painting by Ryan Singer was on display in a special exhibit at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. Ryan Singer is a Navajo artist who is known for mixing every day Native American scenes with elements of science fiction. He is especially fond of characters from Star Wars. If you look closely at this painting, you will see many Star Wars characters and equipment mixed in with this casual trading post scene.
You can read more about Ryan Singer here.
Last Monday I featured a painting of an Arizona landmark. This week I'm featuring another painting this time of a Phoenix landmark. I discovered this painting in the lobby of a downtown Phoenix office building hanging near the elevator bank. It's called "Tovrea Dreams" and features the well-known Phoenix landmark, Tovrea Castle. Only this depiction has taken on a surrealistic tone with the castle sitting on the back of a giant turtle.
The artist is Rafael Navarro who is originally from Mexico City. He is self-taught and finds his way through painting and sculpting. This painting was part of a show by Modified Arts called "Visions of Phoenix: Reality and Surreality." This painting fits the "surreality" description perfectly.
You can see more of Navarro's work here.
The artist Kirk Randle lives and works in Bountiful Utah but I see him every year at the Celebration of Fine Arts which lasts from mid-January to the end of March. His paintings span a wide range of scenes from landscapes to farm scenes to forests. This recent depiction of the Mission San Xavier Del Bac caught my eye immediately. Somewhere in my archives of photos I have a photograph of this beautiful building with stormy looking clouds hanging overhead. He must have visited the mission on a similar day.
This painting is by the artist Mathieu Bassez. It's Called "Prudence". Mr. Bassez grew up in Ghent Flanders and started painting in his early teens. At University he wrote a thesis about the Japanese artist Utamaro who painted every day scenes of Japanese life. He ended up studying at Tokyo University of Fine Arts. His recent works have revolved around the powerful form of both horses and women. You can read more about him here.
I saw this painting in London at the Halcyon Gallery at Harrods.
The Card Players is one in a series of paintings made be Paul Cezanne in the 1890's. There are a total of five paintings in the series and the one shown above is at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. There is a smaller version of this same painting at the Musee d'Orsey in Paris and yet another in a private collection. There is also another painting depicting three card players at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia has a fifth painting which is another version of the painting with 3 card players. Some experts say that Cezanne became obsessed with getting the perfect picture of his peasant card players.
You can see photos of all five of the paintings on this Wikipedia page.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
