Farm at Waltendlath

 

"Farm at Waltendlath" is a painting by a little known English artist named Dora Carrington (1893-1932). Carrington learned art from an early age and was encouraged by both her parents and her teachers.  It wasn't until the 1970's that her work started to be appreciated.  In 1978, the then director of the Tate Museum said Carrignton was "the most neglected serious painter of her time".  

Reading about her, I feel like she was one of those people who should have been born in another time.  If you are interested, you can read more about her here.

The painting above shows a farm in Keswick in the Lake District of England.  Carrington spent a summer holiday near there.  I found the painting at the Tate Britain in an exhibit featuring little known English artists.  The serenity of the scene appealed to me.

From New Zealand to England

 

This portrait of a young Maori dancer was painted by New Zealand artist Gottfried Lindauer.  Lindauer was born in what is now the Czech Republic but he moved to New Zealand in 1874.  Once there, he made a business of painting portraits of Maori people detailing their facial tattoos.  A series of these paintings featuring chiefs and warriors was shown at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition by Sir Walter Butler.  The Prince of Wales saw this painting of the young girl and was drawn to it so much so that Butler gave the painting to the Prince.  

That explains how it ended up in an exhibition at the Kings Gallery at Buckingham Palace and where I saw it and admired it too.  You can feel a certain warmth and confidence in her attractive face.

Painting the Horses

 

I saw this painting at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford England and the scene intrigued me.  The painting is called "Showing at Tattersalls" and it was painted by Robert Bevan.  He was born into a family of six and his father was Richard Bevan a banker with a firm that is now known as Barclays. He studied art at the Westminster School of Art and in 1889 studied at the Academy Julian in Paris.  Bevan spent a lot of time in what were called the cab yards where horses were housed and traded.  He painted several paintings  around the theme of horses kept in cab yards and mews.  This one was painted in 1919.

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.  

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. 

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.