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PERSEPHONE, the queen of the underworld, was kidnapped by Hades, her mother (Demeter) was furious and refused to let the earth fruit until her daughter was returned. Persephone emerges with the spring growth before returning to her husband.
Carl Larsson
Kenton Nelson (American, b.1954, working in Pasadena)
FIVE AGAIN
RED TOP
POOLSIDE #4
TROUBLE
INTERMISSION
SHEARS
OVERNIGHT GUEST - watercolor
TWO SEATS
BLUE DRESS - watercolor
A POSE - watercolor
POOLSIDE #2
EARLY TRANSPORTATION
REPAIRING
SIMPLE NEEDS
At age 40 Nelson picked up a paintbrush and began to revisit his Southern California roots with depictions of beach, backyard poolside views, and close-up views of simple everyday objects. He often uses his wife (“She’s my ideal, so she’s very easy to paint”) as model, he paints very classic beautiful women doing the most ordinary of activities: eating popcorn, sitting at the table, folding linens, climbing out of the pool. These depictions of the mundane convey a voyeuristic sense of the past. Be they objects, structures or people, Nelson’s subjects recall his 1960s youth and, like the advertising of that era, present promise and hope for a better tomorrow. “I couldn’t wait for the future when I was a kid,” said Nelson. “That was such a part of growing up. You don’t hear that now and you don’t appreciate the little things that defined us. There are ideas that simply cannot be improved,” he said. “That’s why I love a hose nozzle. It’s a perfect machine.”
Old family photos are often used as a starting place, and by cropping a picture Nelson found he could better tell the story. “If you cut off someone’s head, if you lose the eyes, it becomes Everyman,” he said. “Someone once asked me for a nude, so I painted a woman’s shoes and stockings at the foot of a bed.”
Cropping the image reveals Nelson’s sense of visual humor, and that humor is carried through in many of his titles.
Kenton Nelson says “I want to be a great artist, but great is a big word. Your best work is always your next work, so I may never retire.”
Below are three ‘process’ shots showing preliminary drawings on the canvas for FIVE AGAIN, DIRECTION, and BACKGROUND paintings.
Canadian painter, A. J. Casson (1898-1992).
Ludivico Einaudi 🎵 Expérience
I’ve recently found myself thinking about the work of Frank Auerbach a good deal. The staunch, reclusive painter whose heavily impasto paintings have captured a select group of friends, sitters and his immediate locale in London for nearly 70 years, demonstrates a focus and concentration that can often seem elusive in the contemporary expanded field of painting. I remember first discovering his work as an undergrad as I poured through volumes of artist monographs, looking for touchpoints, inspiration and other ways of working. His thick, tubed-on, aggressively brushed and carefully considered, minimal compositions, filled with constant revisions, painting and unpainting, resonated with me then as it continues to today. A painters painter.
Check out these interviews and articles recently written about Auerbach:
Eugène Delacroix April 26, 1798 – August 13, 1863
Something else about Delacroix - he had a discussion with a friend about the question of working absolutely from nature, and said on that occasion that one should take one’s studies from nature - but that the “actual painting” had to be made “by heart.” This friend was walking along the boulevard when they had this discussion - which was already fairly heated. When they parted the other man was still not entirely persuaded.
After they parted, Delacroix let him stroll on for a bit - then (making a trumpet of his two hands) bellowed after him in the middle of the street - to the consternation of the worthy passersby:
“By heart! By heart!” (“Par coeur! Par coeur!”)
I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed reading this article and some other things about Delacroix…
Vincent van Gogh, c. 1885.
Happy Birthday J. M. W. Turner
This is a houseplant appreciation post. #PlantsAreTheNewPets
“Cactus,” 1931, by Charles Sheeler. "The Pine Tree is a Pledge of a Thousand Years (Matsu wa senzai no chigiri); Lovers Admiring Plants, Screen with Two Cranes,“ 1768 or 1769, by Suzuki. ”Still Life with Fruit, Potted Plants and Floating Head,“ early to mid-1900s, by Nathaniel Pousette-Dart © The Estate of Nathaniel Pousette-Dart. ”Rubber Plant (Der Gummibaum),“ around 1929, by Heinrich Kühn.
David Bowie in Victor Vasarely’s workshop, Annet-sur-Marne, 1977 (Photographer: Christian Simonpietri)
Victor Vasarely Father of Op-Art
Vasarely is widely regarded as the father of Op-Art. He is a major master of 20th century art. His paintings are in the permanent collections of many important museums around the world. During the 1960’s and 70’s his optical images became part of the popular culture, having a deep impact on architecture, computer science, fashion, and the way we now look at things in general. Even though he achieved great fame he insisted on making his art accessible to everyone. His motto was “Art for all”. The breakthrough brought by his “kinetic” visual experiments transformed the flat surface into a world of unending possibilities, book marking an era in the history of art and foreshadowing a new global reality shaped by programming and the Internet. Rogallery Don’t forget our Facebook !! &&
Purple Mountains Los Angeles-based artist Seth Armstrong creates lovely oil based paintings of the sloping hills of california.
Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) “Larkspur” (1888) “Asters in a Vase” (1875) “Lilacs” (1872) “Dahlias” (1872) “Fairy Roses” (1874) “Geraniums” (1888) “Nasturtiums” “Daises” (1872) “Roses and Lilies” (1888)
Latour was a French artist best known for his flower paintings. In England, his flower still-lifes sold so well that they were “practically unknown in France during his lifetime.”
Gustave Moreau
Jean-Michel Basquiat photographed by Lizzie Himmel for The New York Times Magazine, 1985.
