Monday, July 15, 2013

Rare Van Gogh at the John F. Kennedy Exhibit


Van Gogh, 
Outskirts of Paris
June-July 1887. 
Oil on canvas
48 x 73 cm. 
 Private collection.


You have a rare opportunity to see this particular painting by Vincent Van Gogh at the Dallas Museum of Art until September 2013. It is currently being shown in a special exhibit about President John F. Kennedy's stay in Dallas. This painting was one of the several valuable works placed in the suite of the Texas Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas for the night of November 21, 1963. The last known outside personal phone call President John F. Kennedy ever made was to thank those responsible for arranging for the art to be placed in his suite. I saw the exhibit and it is a notable and moving exhibit worth the trip. All of the pieces that were placed in Kennedy's hotel room are in the exhibit.

The painting is on loan for the exhibition from a private collection. This is one of Van Gogh's pointillism pieces, a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image. Pointillism was developed in 1886 by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac who branched it from Impressionism. Van Gogh adopted pointillism for a short while when he was in Paris, but soon found out the process was not suitable for his temperament and used it and its bright, unmixed colors to find his own style.

Priceless



“See what will happen if you don’t stop biting your fingernails?” — Will Rogers, to his niece on seeing the Venus de Milo

Friday, July 12, 2013

Painted Poetry

Automat (1927) by Edward Hopper

Read it and weep. Pure emotion on a canvas. A lone woman sitting in an Automat at night staring at a cup of coffee. A solitary moment caught in time. One word: Isolation. She could be anyone, nicely dressed, not a vagrant. Its winter. She wears a coat. Its cold. She wears a glove. But she doesn't even bother to take off her left glove much less her coat. She's too tired, or too cold to remove them. Or is she in hurry? I say no, she's there to get warm or for reflection. She's had something to eat too. An empty plate adds to the emptiness. There is no reflection in the window except for the glare of an avenue of lights, not even her own. More isolation, a tunnel-like effect. She is reflecting inward. She is beautiful, eyes downcast, looking inward. Beautiful legs, the brightest spot on the canvas, providing a voyeur effect.  Where has she just been? Or where is she going?  
A beautiful description of what we sometimes feel, alone in a public place.
The painting is today owned by the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa. 


Sir Real


Grant Wood’s American Gothic is a bit ersatz — the artist recruited a Cedar Rapids dentist, B.H. McKeeby, to pose as the farmer, and his sister Nan plays the woman (conceived as the farmer’s spinster daughter, not his wife).
But the setting was inspired by a real cottage in Wood’s native Iowa, and by his admiration for “the kind of people I fancied should live in that house.”
“I tried to characterize them honestly, to make them more like themselves than they are in actual life,” he said. “To me they are basically good and solid people.”

TheArtofVenus.com


Monday, July 8, 2013

Paintings at The Dallas Museum Of Art

I visit the Dallas Museum of Art a few times a year. I go to study the paintings. Every visit is different as I progress as an artist. I study different styles and techniques. This time I took pictures! Here are some of my favorite paintings from my latest visit. They are on the 2nd level of the museum and you have to take the Blue elevators to get to them.




Paul Gauguin’s Under the Pandanus, also known by its Maori title I Raro Te Oviri.

I was particularly interested in seeing this Gauguin after learning more about his troubled life. I knew about his time with Van Gogh and that he had lived in Tahiti for a time when he painted the beautiful paintings of Tahitian women but I did not know about his many other travels and his troubles with illness. I thought perhaps he had a blissful life there but apparently he did not and it makes the paintings all the more meaningful to me knowing how much beauty he brought to the canvas while in life there was disorder. This painting is very peaceful to me. I am drawn to the trees and the colors and I love how his figures are primitively drawn instead of academically which adds to native and tropical mood.


Amedeo Modigliani’s Boy in Short Pants or Boy in Shorts c. 1918
I love Modigliani's paintings and how all the figures have an emotional quality. I see a sadness is many of them which is possibly a reflection of Modigliani's own life. And I'm always struck by how large they are for the style in which they are painted. The painting is grand and beautiful and begs the question of who this boy is, where has he been and where is he going. 
 And this time I was focused on the face and how there was a cubism quality to his construction of it.



Emile Bernard’s Pont à Pont-Aven 1891
I love the soft palette and the husky geometric qualities of this piece.



Mary Cassatt's The Reading Lesson, c. 1901
I am fascinated by Mary Cassatt as one of the female Impressionists and as an American. This particular painting has all the softness and beauty of Degas, Renoir and Monet that you might not distinguish hers from theirs, until you see her signature. 


Rene Magritte's The light of coincidence 1933
Rene Magritte is one of my very favorite artists. His work is so unique and intriguing. 
His use of light and dark on this piece are very powerful.


Rene Magritte's Our Daily Bread (Le Pain Quotidien) 1942
Another powerful painting by Magritte. I'm always struck by the perfection of every spot on the canvas of his paintings. He was so precise. Not to mention the incredible symbolism and narratives in his works. Its the deeply meaningful paintings like this that made me fall in love with art and want to become an artist. I love how it arouses questions. Is this the love of his life? Is this his way of putting her on a pedestal and showing us that's how much she means to him? Is he putting all women on a pedestal as the "daily bread" of life? 
It looks to me like he has tunnel vision for a beautiful woman.
 Such beauty and meaning. I adore this one.


Pablo Picasso's The Guitarist 1965
Pablo Picasso. Such a rascal and a genius. I love his work. And as a painter and guitarist I especially love his guitarists. This is a very large life size painting. Some areas of the canvas are very quickly and seemingly haphazardly painted, almost impressionistic. It does not interfere with the magic and distinction of the painting. When you stand back and look at it, you don't see that at all. It was painted later in life, 1965, when he was already the art star of the century. He can paint it how he wants. He knows how to put what where, and he puts it where it counts. 
I've been to museums with people who dislike Picasso. They don't understand it or see the beauty in it. When I look at his work, I don't see necessarily see the "pieces", or the "cubes". I see the whole. Like a puzzle that has been put together. And in that I see the balance and the beauty. I see what he has done is incredible innovation. Look at it up close, then stand back and look and it becomes something magical.


Claude Monet's The Seine at Lavacourt 1880
Everyone loves Monet. I love Monet. The soft peacefulness in his paintings. Looking at one is like hearing a symphony. From the distance this one is almost photographic. The colors look so real to life. Or are they? That is Monet's magic. The closer I get the harder it is for me to comprehend how exactly he knew where to apply each stroke of paint. It is sometimes difficult to paint up close what must be seen from a distance.
On this one I was particularly interested in the soft shade of green he used on the tree in the foreground. I find this painting so peaceful I almost want to grab a parasol and head out in a rowboat into the water...


 Georges Braque Still Life with Bottles and Glasses 1912
Georges Braque's cubism still life. When I look at his work I think of how his and Picasso's work must have been earth shattering to see in 1912. People were just coming to grips with Impressionism. I imagine that to own a piece like this would be to see something new in it everyday. And that is what makes a great masterpiece.


Berthe Morisot Winter (Woman with a Muff) 1880
Morisot, one of the great female Impressionists. Her life story and participation in the Impressionist movement is touching and so I always look to see her paintings. I found this painting lovely. Although the woman in the painting is unknown, what is so striking and what makes this painting especially powerful is the woman's posture. Like a photograph you might capture of a woman struggling through the snow on the street on a cold winter day, bundling to stay warm.

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Wednesday, July 3, 2013

"Angel Of Mercy" July 2013 Featured Painting


I love painting Surrealism. And this is one of my favorites I've painted. It is an original and is one of a kind. The painting measures 16 x 20 inches. It is Acrylic on canvas and was painted in about a week. The most challenging part of the painting was the background. Transitioning the background from dark to light smoothly is difficult with acrylic because the paint dries so fast. I do not use any other mediums to thin the paint except water. I find many of the chemicals in other mediums too harsh to work with. This is one of the paintings that I sometimes begin and don't know exactly what I'm going to paint or what its about. Sometimes it just comes to me as I'm painting. I knew I wanted to paint a woman who was represented by a tree. The title came to me as I was painting it. It is about how, with God, even when you are stripped of everything, you can still be a proponent of love. This is represented by the heart hanging from the tree. She is an "angel" giving mercy and kindness to others in an often barren world. God is represented by the North Star and is her guiding light to be an example of his love.

This Original Painting Is For Sale
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