ArtExpertOnLine

   It is a beautiful windy Spring day so I thought this wonderful image would be appropriate for this week.  Is there a period of Art more liked and more famous than Impressionism and its great founder, Claude Monet (1840-1926)?  With such a beautiful image as this, it is difficult to grasp why Monet and fellow painters had such a rough beginning.  But they did.  To Monet the way light fell and reflected color was everything, a revolutionary idea in his day.   He painted outdoors stressing air and the movement of it and our painting this week is a perfect example.    When done in 1875 , Monet was still a struggling artist.  In our scene, it appears he is sitting down from his wife, most likely on a hill, as the son seems to be on the far side of the incline.  The sun is strong casting deep shadows in the tall grass.       So consider this a problem:  if you taught painting and directed students to paint the wind,  how would you guide them?  A study of our painting of the week would be

     Horace Pippin (1888-1946) is a truly American artist who became very successful, all on his own merits. It took all the tough experiences of youth and service in World War I, to push out of him a wide and amazing oeuvre of remarkable images.   He returned from France after the war wounded in his right shoulder so he took up art to help rehabilitate himself.   He received no art training, he was entirely self taught.   But, living in Pennsylvania he was aware of the works of Winslow Homer, who did provide some influence.   On the surface this painting seems pretty tame but most other Pippin works deal with the Black experience or images from his war experience.           The Getaway  is full of drama.  A wild fox has caught a bird and is running away.  Is it morning with the sun just beginning to peak from the horizon?  Half the painting is  the black sky stratified with a multitude of white/grey/yellow clouds while the lower half is white snow crossed with a grey stream.  No light

    This week brings us all the way to New Mexico for a warm and beautiful portrait.  The artist is Joseph Henry Sharp (1859 -1953), an American artist unknown to me until now.      Sharp was born in Ohio and centered his early life in Cincinnati where he taught school and was active in their art club.  He gained his education not only in Ohio, but other areas, including Europe where he studied the old masters.      His life changed in 1893 when he first traveled to Taos, New Mexico.   Here he made his major impact studying and recording the American First People with his drawings and paintings.  In 1912 he permanently moved to Taos where he became the founding member of the Taos Society of Artists, and was called its "Spiritual  Father".   From then on the bulk of the art Sharp created was of the American West as an historian of a changing way of life.    I loved this image when I first saw it, and really, what is not to love!   The light coming from the obvious fire off to

     This painting maybe a bit of a surprise to some of you.  Wanda Gag (1893-1946) is our artist and some of you may remember her from her famous book, Millions of Cats.  It was published in 1928 and is now the oldest children's book still in print.  Not only did she write the book, but she did all the illustrations, and shortly after publishing it won the prestigious Newbury Honor.   I remember reading it as a child, as did many, many children.     Gag was from New Ulm, Minnesota.  She left as a young woman,  traveling to Saint Paul and Minneapolis where she took art classes.  In 1917 she won a scholarship to the Art Student's League in New York City and from here her  many successes began.      It is fitting to feature Gag this week as March 11 is the anniversary of her birth in 1893.      I find Two Old Trees an interesting image.  She did this watercolor in 1940 and in her prime as an artist.   In the very center is what is left of an old tree.  It reminds me of something

    I have been wrestling with myself about if I should use this painting, but it is so different and unusual that I am simply going to ask you my dear readers to look beyond its shortcomings.  When reading about it on Wikipedia I discovered their image is from a reproduction so this picture is not as sharp as desired.   My suggestion is to not look to closely, rather sit back a bit and hopefully all with be clear enough.   I have looked at other Goings paintings, like this the best and know it is up for fair use under copyright laws.      So, this is Photorealism, a movement that began in the 1960s and 1970s.  This particular painting was done during 1981-82.  Ralph Goings (1928-2016) was a highly educated artist, completing his education with an MFA from Sacramento University.   He lived all of his life in California, painting the daily objects we see around us everyday: hamburger stands, pick up trucks, and still lifes of objects often seen on a diner counter.         As I have writ