A Fun Find

I bought this card made from a painting of an Oregon artist - unfortunately I only know her as N. Norman. Her paintings were so colorful and lively. The quote on the bottom reads: "I go about my mindless chores while red galaxies recede into the night."

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.)

Deborah Dewit Marchant

Rest, 2005. Pastel, 18 x 24"

The Evening Paper, 2006. Pastel 16 x 24"

Friday Nights, 2006. Pastel 23 x 27"

A great Portland, OR area artist (I believe she lives in West Linn), Deborah DeWit Marchant works mostly in pastel but also does a lot of oil painting. She is also an accomplished photographer. I discovered her art cards at Annie Bloom's Books in Portland but actually met her in person some years back at the Sausalito Art Festival, it was such a pleasure! About 2 years ago I went to her show at Gallery Fraga in Winslow on Bainbridge Island, WA. It was a lovely show and so nice to finally see her work up close in a well-lit gallery setting.

"Born in 1956, Deborah DeWit Marchant is a 5th generation artist, a descendant of Dutch illustrators and painters. As a child, her father's career in the international grain business took her family to live on 4 continents and in 6 different states, instilling in her curiosity, wanderlust and a zest for knowledge. She started taking photographs at 16 but entered Cornell University as an Agronomy major. After 2 years her interest in photography and art led her astray and she took to the road in search of imagery and experience, traveling extensively in her 20's. Self-taught, she has been making images since that time, beginning with photographs - both black and white and color- and moving later into pastel and oils. Her work resides in private, public and museum collections across the country, and has been used on the covers of books and magazines, in calendars and on cards. She is also the author of Traveling Light: Chasing an Illuminated Life, a photo-illustrated written chronicle of her young years as a photographer and developing artist. Deborah and her husband Robert live with their 3 cats in an old red house in a suburb of Portland, Oregon."

(Taken from the back flap of the book, Deborah DeWit Marchant In the Presence of Books, intro and text by Kim Stafford. William, James & Co., 2007.)

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Paganini, 1819. Pencil drawing, 12 x 8 1/2 in. Louvre, Paris

Princess de Broglie, 1853. Oil on canvas, 47 x 35 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

Ingres: (pronounced 'Ang') 1780-1867. French painter, a student of David and leading exponent of the Neo-Classical style. He studied and worked in Rome about 1807-20, where he began the Odalisque series of sensuous female nudes, then went to Florence, and returned to France 1824. His portraits painted in the 1840's-50's are meticulously detailed and highly polished.

Ingre's style developed in opposition to Romanticism. Early works include portraits of Napoleon. Later he painted huge ceilings for the Louvre and for Autun Cathedral. (Brockhampton)

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)

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.)

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