"Umbrella Stand"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

On the second floor of the American Art Wing in the Art Institute of Chicago, the galleries are surrounded by hallways flooded with natural light and on the walls hangs six brightly-colored, geometric shapes called the Chicago Panels by Ellsworth Kelly.

Ellsworth Kelly's success came in the 1950's.  He could fit into the categories of Minimalism, Color Field and Pop Art with his focus on shapes, forms and colors - intending for viewers to 1 - enjoy public art and 2 - to think of art in terms of the spaces where it occupies.  He took real-life observations and mimicked those subjects in an abstract way.  

As a kid, Kelly was a loner, had a slight stutter, spent most of his time as an avid bird watcher and was heavily influenced by John James Audubon. He wanted to study art, his father wanted him to sway more to technical training - he entered military service in the early 40's and used his G.I. Bill to study at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where his mind opened up to Surrealism and modern art.  There he went to Europe for more studies for six years, returned to New York, stumbled a bit until his concepts found the right time and the right place and took off from there.  In the case of the Chicago Panels, each brightly-colored panel represents a bird - the yellow panel possibly a goldfinch - so you can easily see those years of bird watching kept with Kelly all his long life.  He lived to be 92 and died in 2015.

"Sitting Idly By"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I've shied away from painting artists set up in the museum, painting a chosen work of art.  I don't know why.  This gentleman's choice was a great one, a portrait by John Singer Sargent, Ellen Peabody Endicott (Mrs. William Crowninshield Endicott) - a daunting challenge for any artist studying Sargent's paintings.  

Ellen Peabody was born into a wealthy, Salem, Massachusetts shipping family - grew into a socialite in Boston, married William Crowninshield Endicott who served on the Massachusetts Supreme Court and became President Grover Cleveland's secretary of war.  Although it's not confirmed, at the time of the sitting, Ellen was possibly in mourning after her husband's recent death, explaining her black dress and somber expression. 

Sargent's portrait hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

"Don't Go"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

There's an expected aftermath which happens after I finish a solo show.  Keep in mind I painted every single day for over four months, no lie, to achieve the grouping I first imagined.  Then there's varnishing. Then framing. Then shipping. Then traveling to the opening. Then attending the opening.

So when it's all done, I take a few days off and get back to painting.  Then it fails. Rinse and repeat. Three paintings wiped and tossed aside.

I did paint my neighbor's dog though.  That was fun.

Today felt a little different.  Yay.

From the Sculpture Gallery in the American Art Wing in the Art Institute of Chicago, the marble sculpture The Lost Pleiade by Randolph Rogers seemingly calling back the young woman walking into the shadows.

"His Hunch"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

The Art Institute of Chicago has several paintings by Vincent van Gogh but his Self-Portrait is special.  The size is unusually modest and you'll notice he adopts George Seurat's pointillist technique - one he saw in Seurat's fabulous A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.  Every single stroke is slashed on in little bits, the background is speckled with blues, greens, oranges and reds on top of a teal/blue surface.  The face is intense with multitudes of flesh, teal, oranges, reds, ochers and whites.

It's a small painting but an enormous treat for visitors.

"Hat in Hand"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

It is always a pleasure to loosen up and enjoy a more-painterly approach to a painting.

A gentleman resting on a bench on the second floor in the American Art Galleries in the Art Institute of Chicago.

"That's a Wrap"

3-3/4 x 10"

oil on panel
sold

I had this leftover, odd-size panel and I'm sorta obsessed with saris - I think many are so beautiful - and I snuck in this new painting for an auction.

The large painting in front of the woman is #61 (Rust and Blue) by Mark Rothko.

"Throwing Shade"

7 x 5"

oil on panel

sold

I live vicariously through painting....

"Lady Like"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

I was working on a grouping of "ladies in waiting" so to speak, for my show, and decided not to include this one after all.  Instead, I'm putting it on auction.

A sharply dressed woman waiting on a bench in the lobby of the Modern Wing in the Art Institute of Chicago.

"Painted Ladies"

12 x 12"

oil on panel
sold

Another painting for my upcoming solo show The Ladies - featuring the very famous Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Pablo Picasso.

The painting's original title was Le Bordel d'Avignon or The Brothel of Avignon, depicting five nude prostitutes from a brothel on Avignon Street in Barcelona, Spain, a city where Picasso spent part of his time. The title was changed during an exhibition in 1916, when an art critic referred to its present title in order to hide the shocking subject matter from the public - despite objections from the artist.

Picasso completed the painting ten years prior to the exhibition, inviting fellow artists over to his studio to view it.  There were mixed reactions, notably Matisse hated it, saying it mocked the modern art movement.  Important to mention that a rivalry between Picasso and Matisse had been building for quite some time, so maybe a tinge of jealousy was involved.

Why Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is so significant in 20th Century art is that Picasso painted it on the heels of his African Period and on the cusp of Cubism.  You can see the influence of African masks and abstraction in shapes.  The painting was eventually sold eight years after the exhibition to a private collector who promised Picasso he would donate it to the Louvre when he died - although his will said otherwise.  The Museum of Modern Art in New York City bought the painting in 1937 from the collector's estate for - wait for it - $24,000.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Out in the Open"

5-3/4 x 12"

oil on panel
sold

A long time ago I visited the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, one of my favorite museums, and saw Romaine Brooks' Self-Portrait for the first time.  I instantly fell in love with that painting.  It was monochromatic, moody, intriguing.  It was one of the first prints I ever framed for myself.  Still have it.

Romaine Brooks painted the Self-Portrait in 1923.  She lived most of her life in Paris and at the age of 36 she exhibited her work in a gallery for the first time, quickly establishing herself as an artist.  She was a leading figure in the bohemian, expatriate, counter-culture of Parisian life - sporting her androgynous look and going against all conventional ideas of how a woman should present herself and behave.  

Leading up to her more-independent years,  Brooks had led a young life filled with turmoil - a daughter of wealthy Americans, parents divorced, father abandoned the family, raised by an abusive, alcoholic mother who gave her to a poor family living in a New York City tenement.  That family tracked down her grandfather, who sent Brooks her to boarding school.  Understandably, at the age of 19, she left it all behind her and moved to Paris.  There, she had a child who she placed in a convent for care, fled to Capri, lived in poverty, had a nervous breakdown, returned to New York to care for her dying mother who left her with a large inheritance, making her and her sister independently wealthy.

The unbelievably fascinating life of Romaine continued for her entire life - love affairs with famous women writers, actresses, political activists, aristocrats - maybe sympathetic to Fascism, maybe not.  She was famously non-monogamous, thrived on being with people yet had long bouts of solitude.  She was complicated. Yet, because France had decriminalized homosexuality as early as the late 18th century, she was able to live her life as a lesbian out in the open and on her own terms.  Brooks lived until the age of 96, buried in Nice, France.

My painting will be included in the upcoming show The Ladies, opening August 2nd at Robert Lange Studios in Charleston.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Man and Wife"

9 x 12"

oil on panel
sold

My new painting features the iconic portrait American Gothic by one of my favorite painters, Grant Wood, in the Art Institute of Chicago

The viewer usually assumes the couple in the painting is man and wife although it was meant to depict a farmer and his spinster daughter.  The models were Wood's sister, Nan, and his dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby, both Iowans.

Fun facts about American Gothic ~

~ It was an instant success, entered into the 1930 exhibition at the Art Institute and purchased by the museum.

~ The little, white cottage still stands in Eldon, Iowa.  I've been there.  The second floor window is 'carpenter gothic' style, which Wood found pretentious for such a humble home.

~ The dentist, Byron McKeeby, felt obligated to pose for Wood as he was a worthy patient who enjoyed sugar on most everything.  Even lettuce.

~ Both models and the house were all painted in separate sessions.

~ Iowans weren't thrilled with how they were portrayed to the world, as this wasn't how they saw themselves. One farm wife was so mad, she threatened to bite Wood's ear off.  Wood insisted he was a loyal Iowan and meant no offense, only a homage.

~ The artist's signature is hidden in the farmer's overalls.

The importance of American Gothic is, in Wood's own words, to celebrate the nation's fortitude and spirit during tough times.  It brought rise to Regionalism, or American Scene painting, making fellow artists like Thomas Hart Benton and John Curry and Grant Wood famous.  Personally speaking, all three of these painters are favorites of mine.

Please click here for a larger view.

"The Parents"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

Took a needed break from show pieces to loosen up a bit.

A view from the second floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, looking down on a couple taking a breather on the bench of the main lobby.  

"Birth Day"

8 x 10"

oil on panel
sold 

I completed another for my upcoming show The Ladies - featuring Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, painted in 1485.

The painting depicts Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, arriving on the island of Cyprus - born of the sea spray and blown in by the winds (Zephyr and Aura on the upper left).  She stands on a giant scallop shell, symbolizing purity and perfection like a pearl.  The woman on the right side welcoming Venus is thought to be one of the Graces, the Hora of spring.

Botticelli's painting was most likely commissioned by the Medici family, hung in their Villa of Castello back in the 15th century.  It currently hangs in The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Ancestry"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

The first thing Brett said when he saw this finished painting was "they have the same slumped shoulders".  I didn't even notice that until he said so.  As if the portrait was of a distant relative of the woman viewing her, hence the title.

A little background of the woman in the painting, Madame Moitessier.  Marie-Clotilde-Ines de Foucauld, at the age of 21, married a super-rich banker and lace merchant twice her age.  Life was comfortable for the couple in French high-society and soon Marie began looking for an artist to paint her and her daughter's formal portrait.

Ingres was approached by an artist friend who passed on Madame Moitessier's request for a portrait and he was so smitten with her "terrible and beautiful head", he eagerly accepted the commission.  Portrait of Madame Moitessier was one of two paintings Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres did of the French woman - one seated and this one standing.  Why is Marie's daughter is not in the portrait?  Ingres found her "impossible" and eliminated her from the composition.

The Portrait of Madame Moitessier hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

"Time For Church"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I was lucky to have seen an exhibit last year - at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art - featuring many of Georgia O'Keeffe's works.  Yes, several close-up flowers that are so familiar were there to please the masses but I'm more enamored with her buildings in New Mexico and New York City, including Cebolla Church.

O'Keeffe lived in the same county in New Mexico and often passed through the small village of Cebolla.  Her painting is of the Church of Santo Nino, a stark, simplistic adobe building - but with a pitched roof unlike the typical flat-roofed adobe structures mainly because Cebolla gets more snow in the winter than the lower areas of the state.

"Stand Beside"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I felt it was a must to paint a possible companion to Stand Aside - showing the left half of Henri Matisse's Bathers by a River.

Here is how the two look together...

Matisse's painting hangs in the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago.

"Stand Aside"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I really appreciate taking a break from painting larger pieces for a show, a show taking place four months from now, and painting these smaller ones - working out some ideas rolling around in my head.  It also helps me earn a living while I'm working on paintings no one will see until August.  So thank you for considering a bid or two on these smaller pieces.

You see the right half of a large painting by Henri Matisse, Bathers by a River.  I love this Matisse.  It hangs in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Matisse considered Bathers by a River "one of five most pivotal works of his career."  You may remember my past post regarding Dance and a Russian art collector commissioning Matisse to do three large pieces for his mansion - this was one of three presented to the man and also the one that was rejected.  The collector settled for Dance and Music.

So Matisse held onto this painting for about four years - a time when he was really getting into Cubism.  With renewed ambition, he made changes in composition, the faceless, oval heads of the figures, divided the canvas into four panels of color and loved the results.   He essentially simplified four nude figures besides a river (the blue panel) and positioned in the tall grass (the left half you don't see here) with a snake appearing as a threat - reflecting Matisse's concerns about the climate of war going on around him.

Next, I am going to paint a companion to this one - including the left half of Matisse's wondering painting.

"See and Be Seen"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

There is a dual result in Rene Magritte's The False Mirror.  The viewer looks through the iris of this large eye, passed the black pupil and into a blue sky with floating clouds - and yet, this eye is looking at the viewer.  How totally surreal.

Part of me, as an artist, generally loves surrealism in art for its representation/realistic quality and the other part of me feels like I'm always asked 'the meaning'.  Frankly, that annoys me.  I'm more inclined to relish the vision in front of me that a painter found interesting or particularly beautiful and had to paint it.  Magritte thought the opposite.  Surrealism as an art form was what he most enjoyed.

Rene Magritte was in his 50's before he realized fame and recognition.  Born in Belgium at the end of the 19th century, not a whole lot is known about his youth.  Magritte worked in an advertising agency for a time then involved himself in several exhibitions with like-minded artists such as Salvador Dali, Juan Miro, Picasso - all stunning the art world with Cubism and Surrealism.  When his gallery closed, he returned to advertising for a stable income - the influence is more than evident in his paintings, notably This Is Not a Pipe which could easily have been an ad for a tobacco shop.

The False Mirror hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

"Going Dutch"

9 x 12"

oil on panel
sold

So right after I finished the smaller study Go Dutch, I started on a more-realized composition along the same lines - featuring Rembrandt's Self-Portrait, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Go Dutch"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I know I've been quiet on this blog but I've finished two larger paintings during my absence - one for a group show coming up titled Perfectionists - a painting that took me 5 days to complete.  Yikes.  That rarely happens.  The other for a show of mine coming up.

So... I needed to get small.  Loosen up.  And I had just read about the famous Dutch artist, Rembrandt, who's work is on exhibit "like never seen before" and thought of his Self-Portrait at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  Rembrandt did roughly forty self-portraits during his lifetime - this done in 1660 at the age of fifty-four.  This self-portrait admits his age with a furrowed brow, double chin, wrinkles and pouches under his eyes - it's beautiful and honest.

"Red Neckwear"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I have an affection for this Picasso portrait of Pedro Manach.  I especially love the pose and the black outlines of the figure.  

Picasso was a young 20-year-old on his first visit to Paris in 1900 - one of his paintings was exhibited in the World Fair show of Spanish art.  It is then he met the industrialist and art dealer Pedro Manach and it was then he signed his first contract that gave Manach his paintings for two years in exchange for a monthly income.  Not a bad start for a young artist.

Pedro Manach hangs in the National Gallery of Art in DC.

"Join the Party"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I was enamored with At the Moulin Rouge from the first time I saw it at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was that haunting face on the far right, as if she was looking at me through a window seemingly inviting me in to join the party.  

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painted Paris' nightlife like no other.  Caricatures who he knew well, like Jane Avril in the center with the flaming-red hair or the dancer May Milton who stares at you with her painted face.  The painting is two joined canvases, said to have been severed by Lautrec's dealer after his death - hoping the separate canvases were more saleable.  The entire composition was eventually restored.

"Waiting Room"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

On the third floor, in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, you'll find the Picassos.  And a bench to rest on.  I happened to know where all the benches are.

The Red Armchair depicts one of the many women in Picasso's life - Marie-Therese Walter was 28 and married when she met the artist and he was smitten with her.  Notice her face is both the frontal view and profile in one shape, a new motif of Picasso's, maybe hinting at the double-life the model was leading, carrying on with the man.

Notably, Picasso used an industrial house paint which he had first used 10 or so years earlier.  The colors are brilliant and almost enamel-like, and here he mixed the paints with oils and produced a wide range of surface textures which you can see up close in The Red Armchair.

"Sweet"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

I was in the De Young Museum in San Francisco and a boy shrieked when he saw the painting of Superman by Mel Ramos - hardly able to contain himself.  When I saw, in person, Wayne Thiebaud's painting Dessert Tray in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City,  I didn't shriek but I felt the same excitement.  I l-u-r-v-e this painting.  I love every painting Wayne Thiebaud has done.

And it must be said, it was a total joy doing this new painting.

"The Picasso"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

In 1963, the great Pablo Picasso was commissioned to create a public art sculpture by the architects of the Richard J. Daley Center in the loop in Chicago.  Picasso completed a maquette, or a small-scale version, featured in my new painting.  The cost of the 50-foot sculpture was $351,959 (equivalent to $2.7 million in present day) - paid for thru foundations and gifted from the artist himself to the city of Chicago.  The maquette resides in the Art Institute of Chicago, also gifted by Picasso.

The Chicago Picasso, known as The Picasso, was dedicated in 1967 by the Mayor Richard Daley ...

... and met with mixed reactions.  The famed journalist Mike Royko ripped it to shreds in his newspaper column, saying "The fact is, it has a long stupid face and looks like some giant insect that is about to eat a smaller, weaker insect.  Its eyes are like the eyes of every slum owner who made a buck off the small and weak.  And of every building inspector who took a wad from a slum owner to make it all possible."  Quintessential Mike Royko.

Mayor Daley responded, at the dedication, saying "We dedicate this celebrated work this morning with the belief that what is strange to us today will be familiar tomorrow."

And it is familiar to anyone who lives in Chicago or has visited - or has watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off or The Blues Brothers.  It's a well-known "meet me at the Picasso" spot, enjoyed by the public with a farmer's market surrounding it in the plaza and many seasonal affairs.  So there Mike Royko.