Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko, Baptismal Scene, 1945. Watercolor on paper, 19 x 14". Whitney Museum, New York.

1903-1970. Russian-born US painter, an Abstract Expressionist and a pioneer towards the ends of his life, of Color Field painting (an abstract style dominated by areas of unmodulated, strong color) . Rothko produced several series of large-scale paintings in the 1950s and 1960s, examples of which are owned by Harvard University, The Tate Gallery, London, and a chapel in Houston, Texas. (Brockhampton)

John LaFarge

Wild Roses and Irises, 1887. Gouache and watercolor on white wove paper, 14.5 x 10". The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

Seascape, 1883. Watercolor on paper, 6 x 4".

Mountain Gorge Near Dambulla, Ceylon. Watercolor on paper, 16 x 13". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

Wild Roses in an Antique Chinese Bowl, 1880. Watercolor on paper 10 x 9" Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

John La Farge (1835-1910). US painter and ecclesiastical designer. He is credited with the revival of stained glass in America and also created woodcuts, watercolors, and murals. Lafarge visited Europe 1856 and Far East in 1886. In the 1870s he turned from landscape painting (inspired by the French painters, Corot) to religious and still-life painting. Decorating the newly built Trinity church in Boston, MA, he worked alongside the sculptor Saint-Gaudens. (Brockhampton).

Richard Diebenkorn Quote

Figure on a Porch, 1959. Oil on canvas, 57 x 62". Oakland Museum of California.

Woman with Hat and Gloves, 1963. Oil on canvas, 34 x 36". Pvt collection.

Girl Smoking, 1963. Oil on canvas, 33 x 25". Collection of Christine and Pierre Lamond.

Sleeping Woman, 1961. Oil on canvas, 70 x 58". Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Michigan.

July, 1957. Oil on canvas, 59 x 54". Pvt collection.

"When I'm half way there with a painting, it can occasionally be thrilling... But it happens very rarely; usually it's agony. I go to great pains to mask the agony. But the struggle is there. It's the invisible enemy." -Richard Diebenkorn.

Maurice Prendergast

Hankerchief Point, 1896. Watercolor, 20 x 13 ". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

Umbrellas in the Rain, Venice, 1899. Watercolor over graphite on paper, 13 x 20". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

(1859-1924). Canadian-born American painter and printmaker. He was a member The Eight, but stood somewhat apart from the rest of the group. Boston was his home for most of his life and he spent much of his career travelling and painting abroad; it was only in 1914 that he moved to New York, the centre of The Eight's activities. The main thing he had in common with other members was a desire to revive American art from academic stagnation, and his work is remarkable for its brilliant decorative color. His paintings were often of people enjoying themselves in innocent pleasures. He was one of the first American artists to be influences by Post-Impressionism, notably in the way in which he emphasized flat pattern. In 1913 he showed 7 works in the Armory Show and at this time he stood out as one of the most stylistically advanced American artists. Most of his paintings were in watercolor, but in his later years he turned increasingly to oils. H also made about 200 monotypes an unusually large oeuvre for this medium. (Ian Chilvers)

Jamie Wyeth

Automaton, 1979

Mischief Night, 1986

Giuliana and the Sunflowers, 1987

Pumpkinhead - Self-Portrait, 1972.

James Wyeth (1946- ) Born in Pennsylvania and is the son of the famous painter, Andrew Wyeth and grandson of another famous painter, N.C. Wyeth. He is known as part of the 'Brandywine Tradition' which is a group of painters who worked in the countryside of Delaware and Pennsylvania. He has been influenced by the methods and styles of his family as well as the Flemish and Dutch masters. He was also influenced by Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins. During the 1970s he did many portraits of famous people including Jimmy Carter, Nureyev and Andy Warhol.

These images were taken from a beautiful book, Wondrous Strange, The Wyeth Tradition, published by Bulfinch.

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Will Barnet

3 Chairs, 1991-92. Oil on canvas, 43 x 53 1/2 in. Private Collection

Vigil, 1974-75. Oil on canvas, 48 x 67 1/2 in. Private collection.

The Blue Robe, 1962. Oil on canvas, 50 x 54 in. Private Collection

The Lesson, 1984. Oil on canvas, 71 x 33 1/2 in.

Will Barnet (American born 1911) has profoundly influenced 20th century art. His works are simple yet elegant, tinged with mood. He explores social realism, abstraction, and modernism, all the while playing to fleeting emotions. His images invite reflection, evoke nostalgia, and recall poignant memories.

Grounded in classical sensibilities, the artist is always searching for clarity and harmony as he offers interpretation of life's events. What could be the mundane become the important moments of both the view and the subject.

Barnet studied at the School of Museum of fine Arts in Boston and the Art Students League in New York. He has taught at the Art Students League, Cooper Union, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Cornell and Yale Universities, and other schools. His paintings and prints, spanning social realism, abstraction, figurative work, and modernism, are in prestigious collections worldwide. (author unknown but published by Pomegranate.)

Friday Quote

Things That Go Bump In The Night. 1990. Oil on canvas, 70 x 42"

Plantains in a Box. 1969. Oil on canvas. 44 x 44"

Skowhegan Water Glasses. 1973. Oil on canvas, 42 x 40".

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Janet Fish is great at finding something sublime in the ordinary. The plantains and water glasses are nice examples. Her object-filled vignettes are also stunning and lead the eye through to page over and over again!

Alex Katz

Ada and Flowers. 1980. Oil on canvas, 96 x 72". G.U.C. Collection, Chicago

The Gray Dress. 1982. Oil on canvas, 6' 1/2" x 15'. Collection Stephen L. Wald, New York.

The content of Katz's paintings is seemingly simple, but actually quite complex; what seems to be suspended judgment by the painter is actually subtly interpretive. Though the images do not launch themselves at us, we may still be as surprised, in the end, as if they did. Given that nothing is easy, Katz is painting as simply and as gracefully as he can, and he is asking us to see where grace - or the lack of it - resides in his subject matter. In the best of the paintings, what begins as mimesis finally radiates as metaphor. (Anne Beattie)

Excerpt from the book Alex Katz by Ann Beattie, 1987, Abrams

Tasha Tudor

October, A Time to Keep, 1977.

Tasha Tudor drawing

Puss, the cat

Valentine. Dr. Cupid Corgi in His Laboratory.

Tasha Tudor was the illustrator, author, or subject of more than 90 books, including The Secret Garden, one of the best-selling children's books of all time. She has left an indelible print of the traditions and celebrations of devoted fans all over the world.

Ms. Tudor has lived her art for 3 quarters of a century, raising her own food, spinning and waving her family's clothes, and leaving the fruits of her hobbies to the world as paramount collections - her gardens are famous, and her collection of 1830's clothing is the world's best. The renowned Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center in Williamsburg honored her in 1996 with a landmark exhibition of her work. ( Harry Davis - taken from the inner flap of the book, The Art of Tasha Tudor, 2000; Little, Brown and Co.)

I'm a fan of Tasha Tudor, she and Beatrix Potter have a very similar style. I enjoy her paintings and children's books/stories but I'm very intrigued by her way of life. Sadly, she died earlier this year at the age of 92.

Andy Warhol

Marilyn. 1967. Screenprint on paper. 36 x 36 in. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.

Andy Warhol: Born Pittsburgh, PA. Died: NYC, 1987. American painter, printmaker, sculptor, draughtsman, film-maker and writer, one of the most famous and controversial artists of the 20th century. During the 1950s he was enormously successful as a commercial artist in NY. In 1960 he began making pictures based on mass-produced images like ads, comics and in 1962 of Campbell's soup cans. They were shown that year with sensational success and he soon became the best known figure in American Pop art. He then embarked on a lengthy series of pictures of Marilyn, Monroe, Elvis Presley, Liz Taylor and other celebrities. There was also a car crash series - whatever the subject matter, he often mode use of rows of repeated images.

The screen printing process that he favored allowed infinite replication and he was opposed to the idea of a work of art as a piece of craftsmanship, handmade and expressing the personality of the artist: 'I want everybody to think alike. I think everybody should be a machine.' In keeping with this outlook he used clippings of 'dehumanized' illustrations from the mass media as his sources, turned out his works like a manufacturer, and called his studio 'The Factory.' In 1965, he began making more films and managed the musical group, the Velvet Underground. In 1968, Warhol was shot by a bit-part player in one of this films - Valerie Solanes - an incident that added to his legendary status. He recovered and began doing portraits for the rich and famous. He died of a routine gall-bladder operation - because of volume overload. His fortune was estimated at $100,000,000, most of which went to create an arts charity, the Andy Warhol Foundation. In 1994 a museum dedicated to his work opened his home town of Pittsburgh. (Ian Chilvers)

Dogs and Cats - Joan Brown

The 1st Car, 1971

The Birthday Party, 1971.

Portrait of a Dog, 1971

Birthday Party detail

Joan Brown did a lot of paintings with her pets as well as many portraits of animals. There are animals featured in many of her paintings... here are just a few and a quote from Joan, herself.

"I strive for that delicate balance between reason and feeling, knowing that sometimes the pictures will lean one way or the other. I'm constantly trying to pull out new information from my intuitive self, which results in the surprises that I discover in my work, and which keeps me ever stimulated." Joan Brown (from the book, The Art of Joan Brown by Tsujimoto and Baas.)

Joan Brown

After the Alcatraz Swim #3, 1976.

The Night Before the Alcatraz Swim, 1975

I love Joan Brown!!! She's such an inspiration

"I strive for that delicate balance between reason and feeling, knowing that sometimes the pictures will lean one way or the other. I'm constantly trying to pull out new information from my intuitive self, which results in the surprises that I discover in my work, and which keeps me ever stimulated." Joan Brown.

Book reference: Karen Tsujimoto and Jacquelynn Baas: The Art of Joan Brown 1998.

I'm going to do another post with her bio and more paintings some time in the coming weeks!

***I was featured on Friday, June 20th at http://www.dif-fraction.blogspot.com/ ... for ways to better your Etsy photography skills! There are a lot of good ideas I will try and lots of compliments too. Thanks, dif-fraction!***

Janet Fish

Olive Oil from Provence, 1973. Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 ".

Janet Fish and Charles Parness, 1999.

Butterfly Collection, 1984. Oil on canvas, 54 x 68".

Butterfly detail

Four Honey Jars, 1970. Oil on canvas, 67 x 54 ".

Oh, how I love Janet Fish. She is known for painting still lives - especially collections of things and vignettes too. She's amazing at painting glass and reflections as well as fruit in packages. The subject seems to take on a life, even a 'personality' of it's own.

"Gloriously ripe oranges strain against their high-gloss grocery wrapping. Grouped tequila bottles create a visual symphony of reflected color and light. An afternoon tag sale, complete with badminton set and Barbie doll, is brought to life through lush brushstrokes and vivid color. Artist Janet Fish is well known for her richly executed oil paintings and watercolors of glass, fruit, and flowers, through which she 'captures the beauty of everyday objects.' Her art is 'beyond realism.'" (Vincent Katz)

Janet Fish was born in Boston, MA in 1938. She grew up in Bermuda, went to Art College in New Haven, CT and the Skowhegan School in Maine. She was big in the New York art world in the 1960's and 1970's.

Images from the fabulous book : Janet Fish Paintings by Vincent Katz - 2002, Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

Elizabeth Peyton

Keith (from Gimme Shelter), 2004

Lady with Ermine, 1489-90 (after Leonardo da Vinci), 2003

Flower Ben, 2002

Sharon (Berlin), 1996

Marc Jacobs, 2004

Liam, 1996

Is it OK to make paintings from mass media photographs? Is it wrong? Illegal? Trashy? Looked down upon as not original? Elizabeth Peyton has made many paintings from Newsweek photos, Rolling Stone, newspapers, and art history books. She is a great figure and portrait artist capturing the essence-or what the public thinks is the essence. These are just a few of her paintings. She's painted several movie stars, rock stars, designers, royalty - not knowing any of them. She also has painted several of her friends.

She was born in 1965 in Danbury CT and now lives in NYC. She earned her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in NYC, 1984-87 and has been steadily exhibiting since 1988.

"Known for her intimate figurative portraits of youthful, romantic individuals, her work is intensely personal. They are stylish in a timeless way and are at moments in their lives when they stand for their own ideals of independence, beauty, and artistry. " (Matthew Higgs)

Mary Frank

Experience Oil and acrylic on panel, 1999. Triptych, closed: 40 x 24 in. , open: 40 x 48 in. Private collection.

Experience triptych (continued)

Presence-Absence Oil, acrylic and collage on board, 1991-92. 48 x 96 in. Collection of Edward G. Shufro

Red Ship, oil and acrylic on board 1995. 24 x 30 in. Linda Lee Alter collection of Art by Women

Mary Frank in her studio, NYC, 1989

Known for her intensity of feeling and eloquence of expression, Mary Frank's work speaks to our deepest and broadest emotions. Having established her reputation in the late 1960s and 70s as a figurative sculptor in clay, the artist has increasingly turned to painting as her primary medium. The large-scale triptychs are reminiscent of the classic Christian altarpiece. For the past 30 years, Frank's work has had many lyrical and mythical figures, manifestations of the natural world and ambiguous spaces. (Linda Nochlin)

Mary Frank was born in London in 1933 - her mother was a painter and father was a musicologist. (Eleanor and Edward Lockspeiser) In 1940, she moved to the US (Brooklyn) with her mother. In the mid- 1940's she studied dance with Martha Graham. She studied drawing with Max Beckmann at the American Art School in NYC. She has been a prolific painter and exhibitor in the US. I joyfully discovered her art on a trip to the San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art several years back.