The full name of this painting is "The Lonesome Hole, Valley of the Little Colorado". It was painted by Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton (1889-1971) an American artist who wore many hats. She was an artist, author, educator and curator. She was instrumental in the founding of the Museum of Northern Arizona. This painting is part of the Phoenix Art Museum collection.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
