must skip this week

 Dear Viewers, due to a death in my family, I will not be able to post this week, as I am out of town.

I will be back next Monday, so please return.  I will try and find something exciting and wonderful to show you.

Pat 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paul Klee, The Red Balloon

Image
  This week we look at an artist who has always been a mystery to me, I think mainly because he didn't fit nicely into any of the interesting art movements of the early 20th century.   Paul Klee (1879-1940) experimented with all of them until eventually developing a unique and very expressive symbolism which often bordered on the whimsical.     The Red Balloon was painted in 1922 when Klee taught at the Bauhaus, the famous Germany design school.  The beautiful structure illustrates the Bauhaus influence. Right down the middle, the thin line cements the balloon and divides the entire format.  On the left the large green shape reminds the viewer of ground, while stacked geometric shapes indicate human structures, buildings.  Notice how the sky varies in color and value, probably indicating sunshine, daylight. From here it is up to us to take from this painting what we desire.  If we look into Klee's history we discover a very complex man....
Read more

Harmony in Pink and Grey, James McNeil Whistler

Image
 On the surface this beautiful oil painting seems pretty straight forward.   It's full title is: Harmony in Pink and Grey, Portrait of Lady Meux, by James McNeil Whistler ((1834-1903).  It is part of the permanent collection of the Frick Collection, a fabulous museum in New York City.  It was painted between 1881-82 and measures, unframed, 76" x 37" so is very large.    Whistler was an interesting artist.  He was an American ex-patriot who divided his time between Paris and London, eventually settling permanently in London.  He is considered a tonalist, which is a vague artistic term referring to Whistler's emphasis on studying gradations of color.   Many of his major paintings and etchings are called harmonies because he laborously worked to blend and harmonize the lights and darks of the colors, often called values.   His models had to pose for hours at a time, while he molded and sculpted their image in paint.  ...
Read more

Childe Hassam, "Celia Thaxter's Garden"

Image
    With the last days of summer almost upon us, and after a few weeks of challenging Art, I thought it was time we relaxed with a beautiful landscape.   So, here we have Childe Hassam's (1859 - 1935) oil painting: Celia Thaxter's Garden.       Hassam was one of the best of the American Impressionist painters.  He traveled to Europe early in his career to study art and see the developing trends coming out of France. He never met the French Impressionists, but did see their work and was attracted to it.     Returning to the United States, Hassam developed his unique style creating beautiful images of  the Eastern coast.  Our painting this week, is taken from the garden of Celia Thaxter (1835 - 1894).She was a poet and writer of short fiction, and his friend.  She lived on the Isle of Shoals, off the coast of New Hampshire, in Maine.  And, obviously, she had a beautiful garden for Hassam created several painti...
Read more