artsy forager

Category: Miscellaneously Artsy

Miscellaneous posts on Artsy Forager

  • Masterworks Monday: Edward Hopper

    Masterworks Monday: Edward Hopper

    Happy Monday, Artsies!  Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend.  This week’s Masterworks Monday artist is one of my all-time faves, American Realist painter Edward Hopper.   A feeling of melancholy tends to pervade most of Hopper’s work, but maybe that is why they appeal to me.  His scenes seem so very real, not just in their sense of time and of place, but in the capturing of a moment.  Early mornings in small towns DO feel desolate, being an attendant at a gas station on a far off country road WOULD be lonely.

    Early Sunday Morning by Edward Hopper

    Image via Whitney Museum of American Art

    Gas by Edward Hopper

    Image via Museum of Modern Art

    Don’t you want to know what’s going on with this young blonde movie usher?  Is she sad?  Is she contemplating making a change in her life?

    New York Movie by Edward Hopper

    Image via Museum of Modern Art

    Despite the lone figures or desolate landscapes, Hopper’s images are filled with light and in that, create a sense of hope within the isolation.  Early morning means it is a new day.. light coming in a window means that there is an escape from the darkness.  Whether this is what Hopper intended or not, it is what I personally take from his work.

     Morning Sun by Edward Hopper

    Image via The New York Times

    How about you?  What do you see in Hopper’s work?  How does it make you feel?

  • A Girl and Her Chickens: Yvonne Lozano

    A Girl and Her Chickens: Yvonne Lozano

    A little girl with brown pigtails makes a trip with her family to Colombia and there, befriends two chickens.  And so begins the story of “What Happened to the Chickens?”, the latest exhibition of Yvonne Lozano’s work at The Art Center in Jacksonville.

    Yvonne Lozano’s work is autobiographical, each painting telling the story of a particular childhood memory or even just the memory of the feeling of being a kid.  Upon first glance at her style, you may think “A child could have done that”, which is exactly the point!  Her simple, faceless figures look initially like a child’s creation, but look a little more closely and you will see a layering of glazes and accomplished drawing skills.

    Yvonne has created a storyboard format for these works, some finished paintings, some watercolor sketches, so that it seems that you are “reading” a book in progress.  The small sketches reiterate the childlike quality to the work and the “story” itself reads like a wonderful children’s book!  ( I personally think it is only a matter of time until we see Yvonne as a children’s literature author & illustrator! ).

    “What Happened to the Chickens?” is a story after all, so I don’t want to give too much away.  If you’re in Jacksonville, please make some time to visit The Art Center gallery downtown to see & “read” this charmingly familiar childhood story.

    The Art Center Cooperative gallery space is located at 31 W. Adams Street in downtown Jacksonville, FL.  Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11am-3pm.

    To see more of Yvonne’s work, visit her website, YCLArt and be sure to “fan” her Facebook page!

  • DoGooders: Helping Kids with Cancer Through Art

    Hospitals can be scary places.  Especially if you’re a small child being poked and prodded and put into scary looking machines when all you want to do is play.

    Art proves a great distraction to kids at Shands Jacksonville | jacksonville.com.

  • Masterworks Monday: Georgia On My Mind

    Masterworks Monday: Georgia On My Mind

    OK, I know it’s something of a cliche to be a woman who loves the work of Georgia O’Keeffe.   But I don’t care.  I have unabashedly loved her work for what seems like forever.  And I’m proud to say that my ten year-old niece, Samantha is a fan, as well and with no initial prodding from her aunt. ( Though I do admit to unabashedly encouraging her whenever I can! )

    I was drawn to her work on first sight, but it wasn’t until I began taking studio courses in drawing and painting that my love truly blossomed.  Maybe it was that her palette seemed to be similar to the colors I was repeating in my own work.

    Or maybe it was how shocking some of her abstract work, thought to recall certain parts of a woman’s body, were in her day.  Perhaps that sense of rebellion against the “boys club” appealed to the feminist in me.

    It could have been how she was celebrating quiet and peace of the natural world, while technology was being ushered in at a rapid pace.

    Maybe it is the softness of her brushwork– seriously, can you even see any brushstrokes?   Or how delicate her lines were drawn.

    Perhaps it is a combination of all these things.  Whatever it is, I find her work magical.

    All images via the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum online.

  • Should Artists Donate Their Art?

    When I worked for a gallery we were constantly being asked to donate a piece of artwork for this charity and that.  Artists are no different, but donating artwork affects them in many ways that charitable organizations may not consider or that the artists themselves may not think about.   Here is a well written article by artist Helen Klebesadel, outlining some of the pros & cons of donating for an artist and suggestions for how to donate smarter.

    Thanks to Yvonne Lozano for sharing!

    The Double Edged Sword: Should Artists Donate Their Art?.

  • HERB & DOROTHY

    What an amazing story!  If you love something, you will find a way to do it and the Vogels found a way to become art collectors on a very modest income.   I can’t wait to see this.

    HERB & DOROTHY | The Vogel Art Collection | Independent Lens | PBS.

    Who knows, maybe one day they will make a film about Lesley & George:  The Frenz Art Collection.   One can dare to dream.

  • 15 Things an Artist Should Never Say

    Good morning, artsies!  A little wisdom for all you artists out there and things we art supporters need to remember, as well.

    15 Things an Artist Should Never Say – ArtBistro.com.

    Most artists I know aren’t guilty of these transgressions, but I’ve seen some who are.  Artists, what’s the been hardest one for you to overcome?

  • Masterworks Monday: Hedda Sterne, The Last Abstract Expressionist Dies at 100

    I have a weakness for Abstract Expressionism.  I’m not sure what it is about the paintings of that time and the artists who created them, but there is just something about these works that move me.  Maybe it is the experimentation, or the emotionality behind them or the rebellion against a post-WWII saccharine society.

    The last of the original group of the Abstract Expressionists, Hedda Sterne has passed on.  Perhaps a lesser known member, her work was still widely collected and is held in the collections of several prominent museums.

    Read more about Hedda and her work here:

    Hedda Sterne The Last Abstract Expressionist Dies at 100 – ArtLyst.

    And here:

    http://www.brooklynrail.org/2007/03/artseen/waltema-march-07

  • WHIDBEY ISLAND FAS

    Great little demo of a painting progressing from blocking in to highlighting, from the Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio.

    WHIDBEY ISLAND FAS.

  • The Thingness of Color at DODGE gallery

    OK, so color is the theme of the day!
    The Thingness of Color at DODGE gallery.