Provencal Quilt (Whoops!!! This post is supposed to be in the Musings by Artslice)

Crimson quilt from Quilts of Provence *

A stuffed white wedding quilt from - Quilts of Provence *

Lovely blue quilt from Quilts of Provence *

My Provencal quilt

Detail. (I added the sunflowers as an afterthought... the black squares were like 'black holes', I like the results!)

Here is a quilt I made while living in Portland, OR. going to art school. I needed an outlet to relieve stress (constant critiques -many a bit cruel- can kill a person!!!). Hand sewing and cutting fabric was the answer. Plus, there is always a pleasure in doing something you 'shouldn't be doing' because you have so many other things you have to do. While in art school, I made 4 queen size quilts without a sewing machine or rotary cutter. Good therapy but for the cost of fabric!

This quilt was inspired by a trip to Provence, when we returned these French patterns were wildly popular. I got most of it from a wonderful shop in Lake Oswego, OR - The Pine Needle and some from the Mill End store.

Last summer, my Mom and I made several quilts together and she helped me find a local machine quilter to quilt my unfinished 'art school quilts'. It was so emotional getting those quilts back, seeing them completed.... kind of like a 'full circle moment'. Mushy, huh? :)

**From the book, Quilts of Provence, the Art and Craft of French Quiltmaking by Kathryn Berenson. (1996, Henry Holt)

E.J. Krisor

Detail from Blind, 2001. Oil on Linen, 72 x 72 in.

Philosophy, 1999. Oil on linen, 50 x 53 in.

Detail from Butterfly, 2001. Oil on linen, 78 x 114 in.

Prodigal Father, 1999. Oil on Linn, 72 x 72 in.

Krisor was raised in Denver. He earned a BA from Santa Clara University and moved to Rome in order to reevaluate the direction of his art. After 6 mo. in Italy, he discovered how shockingly new were the paintings by the Old Masters, but also how the significance of their work had been missing from his art education. He returned to the US and studied paintings at the New York Academy of Art, where he studied with Eric Fischl who became a major influence with his narrative use of psychological drama within a painting. Krisor earned his MFA and remained in Manhattan to paint and exhibit. However, once again Krisor felt his art was suffering. In order to hind his own voice he cut all ties with the art world and moved to Ellensburg, WA. to rediscover the methods of the High Baroque period. The results of that concentrated effort are evident in the paintings here. In 2002, E.J. Krisor moved to LA, where he exhibits at the Koplin Gallery. (Paul Brekke, Assistant Curator, Jundt Art Museum, Gonzaga University, Spokane WA.)

The Book Binder

Marie Danforth Page, The Book Binder, 1906. Oil on canvas, 25 x 16 in.

Ms. Page was born in Boston, MA in 1869 - 1940. She primarily painted portraits, children, figures and genre scenes. She attended the Boston Museum School and painted in the 'classical style' working in oil and watercolor. She was quite popular and successful in her time. She painted many portraits of Harvard professors which still reside at the university. Unfortunately, there is not much more information available on Marie Danforth Page, but, I thought the subject matter of this painting very interesting. I'm curious to know more about the machine or device the bookmaker is using in this scene!

Childe Hassam

The Garden in Its Glory, from An Island Garden by Celia Thaxter, Illustrated by Childe Hassam, (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1894), Chromolithograph, private collection.

Title Page, An Island Garden

Front Piece of An Island Garden

The White Kimono, 1915 etching, 7 x 11 in. The Hunington Library, San Marino, California.

An American Impressionist painter, Childe Hassam was born in Boston in 1859. He never graduated high school, instead apprenticed with an engraver. He took drawing classes at MIT and became an illustrator and water colorist. In the summer of 1883 Hassam took a 'painting trip' to Europe to study the masters and do some en plein air painting. In 1886, he went to Paris to study more art, in particular: painting and figure drawing. He eventually settled in New York City in 1889 and painted city life and mostly the upper class. Hassam is most famous for his numerous flag paintings most of them done in the heart of NYC near his gallery. In 1919 he moved to East Hampton and died there in 1935 at the age of 75.

Note: These images appeared in the December 2007 issue of American Art Review Magazine.

Fernand Khnopff

I lock my door upon myself, 1891. Oil on canvas, Bavarian National Art Collections, Neue Pinakothek, Munich.

This painting is based on a line from a poem called, "Who shall deliver me?" by Christina Rossetti. Khnopff's sister was the model for this and most of his paintings. Her name was Marguerite, 'In whom he depicted himself as androgynous.' Look at those eyes, quite haunting!

Here's a small bio:

Fernand Khnopff: 1858-1912. Belgian painter and graphic artist. Having completed his law studies, in 1878, he began a painting course at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and later became a pupil of Jules Lefebvre in Paris. Khnopff was the principal Belgian representative of Belgian Symbolism. Influenced by the English Pre-Raphaelites and Gustave Moreau, he painted pictures with mystic and allegorical subject matter. His oeuvre includes landscapes, etchings, and book illustrations. (Gabriele Fahr-Becker)

Edgar's Quote

Edgar Degas, The Stock Exchange. 1878-79. Oil on canvas, 39 x 32 in. Musee D'Orsay, Paris.

"Painting is easy when you don't know how, difficult when you do." - Edgar Degas

Pendentive

Interior of the Pazzi Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence. 1433-1461 by Filippo Brunelleschi.

In a domed structure, the four curved triangular segments that provide a transition from the four supporting piers to the drum or to the circular base of the dome. (Hart)

Dorothea Lange

Maynard and son, 1920s

Woman of the High Plains, Texas Panhandle, 1938 (from An American Exodus book)

Field Worker's Home by a Frozen Pea Field, California, 1937

One Nation Indivisible, San Francisco, 1942

The Kitchen Sink Corner, Summer, 1957.

Dorothea Lange 1895-1965. US photographer who was hired in 1935 by the federal Farm Security Administration to document the westward migration of farm families from the Dust Bowl of the southern central USA. Her photographs, characterized by a gritty realism, were widely exhibited and sebsequentially published as An American Exodus: A Record of Human Erosion, 1939. (Brockhampton)

Ode to Thiebaud Landscapes

Hill Street (Day City) 1981. Oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in. Collection of Robert Lehrman, Washington D.C.

Green River Lands, 1998. Oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in. Private collection

Channel Farms, 1996. Oil on wood, 10 x 14 in. Collection of Linda and Jon Gruber.

Window Views 1993. Oil on canvas, 72 x 64 in. Private collection.

Ripley Ridge, 1977. Oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in. Collection of Paul LeBaron Thiebaud.

Farm Channel 1996. Oil on canvas, 10 x 14 in, private collection.

Here is an ode to Wayne Thiebaud's colorful and somewhat abstracted landscapes. The city scapes are captivating the way the hills look so steep and distorted. They are all California scenes. The rivers and farms remind me of a fleeting visual memory: flying over Amsterdam's outskirts, looking down to see tulip fields and waterways.

Balthus' Studio

Balthus painting in his studio.

A painting in progress in Balthus' studio.

Count Balthazar Klossowksi di Rola ... born 1908 -2001 . Polish- born French painter, famed for his enigmatic paintings of interiors featuring languid, prepubescent girls, both clothed and nude. The studied realism with which his self-absorbed figures are depicted lends his pictures a dreamlike quality. (Brockhampton)

Balthus came from a very educated and accomplished aristocratic family, he grew up in Paris. He was friends with the poet, Rilke as well as Bonnard and Giacometti. He loved Piero della Francesca and drew inspiration from oriental painting. He died Feb. 18, 2001. This is just a tiny slice of Balthus' life there are many great books on him if you want to know more! Click here to see paintings by Balthus: www.tendreams.org/balthus.htm . After looking at those paintings... it made me think of Remedios Varo, another Surrealist painter incidentally born the same year as Balthus. Here's a link... she's fabulous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remedios_Varo

Sfumato

Jupiter and Io, 1532 by Correggio. Oil on canvas, 64 x 29 in. Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna.

A smoke like haziness that subtly softens outlines in painting; particularly applied to the painting of Leonardo and Correggio. (Gardner) Note the sfumato particularly above her nose and mouth, a man's face appears as well as under her arm.

Kinetic Art

Alexander Calder, Hanging Spider, 19.40. Painted sheet metal and wire. Private collection

A kind of moving art. Closely related to Op Art in its concern with the perception of motion by visual stimulus, it was a logical step to present objects that actually moved. Characteristic of the work of Alexander Calder and the Constructivists. (Gardner)

Maurice Denis

The Muse, 1893. Oil on canvas. 67 x 56 in. Musee de Orsay, Paris.

"All that is necessary to paint well is to be sincere." - Maurice Denis

Applique on wool by Armas Eliel Lindgren

Liturgical vestment (detail), 1904. 185 x 189 cm. Taideteollisuumuseo, Helsinki.

This Art Nouveau piece has such interesting subject matter. Used in a religious setting, this cloth has what looks like a heart or root of some kind at the top, encased in lines of thorns with a set of 'bulbs' or circles off to the side and blooming flowers at the bottom followed by drops of blood. Very symbolic of Christ's crown of thorns and blood of his body, etc. It is beautifully translated into a visual metaphor.

Armas Lindgren born 1874- 1929, Finnish architect. A famed architect with the firm Gesellius, Lindgren & Saarinen, known as GLS. The international fame of the 3 architects was based on the Finnish Pavilion which they designed for the Paris World Expo of 1900. In 1905 Lindgren left the firm to work with Wivi Lonn, one of Finland's first woman architects. GLS was dissolved in 1907. Lindgren chiefly built private houses and churches. The works which he designed in collaboration with Gesellius and Saarinen include the Villa Suur-Merijoki in Viipuri (1903) and the "fortified" Hvittorp House in Kirkkonummi (1901-04). (Gabriele Fahr-Becker)

Antonio Frasconi

Argentine-born American printmaker. Born to Italian parents in 1919. He apprenticed with a printer when he was 12 years old, already a lover of art making. He experimented with woodblock printmaking in the 1940s. In 1945, Antonio moved to the USA to study with the art student's league and social research in NYC. By the 1950s he had gained recognition for his printmaking and had become prominent and successful. He has been a teacher in many universities and has done a lot of art work for advertising, Christmas cards and even a postage stamp. He lives and works in Connecticut.

(Images from the book, At Christmas Time 1992, poetry by Valerie Worth and art by Antonio Frasconi. Harper Collins.)

Les Nabis

The Stitch, 1893, Edouard Vuillard. Oil on canvas. Yale University Art Gallery.

Sunlit Interior: Madame Vuillard's Room at La Closerie Des Genets, 1912-1922, Edouard Vuillard. Distemper on paper mounted on canvas. Tate Gallery.

The Vision after the Sermon or Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, 1888 by Paul Gauguin. Oil on canvas. National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.

(Hebrew 'prophets') group of French artists, active in the 1890s in Paris, united in their admiration of Paul Gauguin - the mystic content of his work, the surface pattern, and intense color. In practice their work was decorative and influenced Art Nouveau. Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard and Paul Serusier (1864-1927) were leading members. (Brockhampton)

The Bath

The Bath, (detail) Marilyn A. Burkhardt. Etching approx 11 x 11 in.

I love this image, a nice bath in an old claw foot tub with a big dog at her side just as relaxed as the bather. It has hung in my bathroom for many moons. Marilyn Burkhardt has a little website here: http://www.marilynburkhardt.com/ . There are not any etchings that I could find, but sculptures, a charming book, paintings and classes to take if you are near the Oregon coast! Enjoy.

Diaper Pattern

From the French diapre' (diversified with flourished or sundry figures.) Geometric device repeated to form an all-over pattern, used primarily in illumination as a background. (Rose Folsum).

Clausura

G. & G. Solari, Certosa, Pavia Italy. (Began 1396 - completed 1492). View from the Cloister.

Clausura: Latin word for closure, used to signify the restriction of certain orders of monks and nuns to sections of their convents and to their prohibition against speaking to lay persons. (Hart)