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.

Anne-Francoise Couloumy

Le Cafe New Yorkais

Couloumy was born in Paris in 1961 and was educated at the Ecole National Superieure des Arts Decoratifs. She's enjoyed much success and has sold out shows in Paris, London and New York. She really reminds me of Vermeer and Hammershoi for her interior subject matter, the light and shadow and intricate details. There is a stillness and quiet and even a sense of loneliness that seems to be present in all of the paintings I've seen... which really reminds me of Hopper. Visit her website here.

Notes to Myself... Richard Diebenkorn

Self-portrait - no date. Sketchbook sheet, private collection.

Urbana No. 6, 1953. Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX

Cityscape I, 1963. MOMA - San Francisco.

Girl with Flowered Background, 1962

Urban No. 4, 1953.

Coat I, III, IV, V, 1990. Etchings, private collection.

Notes to myself on beginning a painting...

1. Attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion.

2. The pretty, initial position which falls short of completeness is not to b valued - except as a stimulus for further moves.

3. Do search. But in order to find other than what is searched for.

4. Use and respond to the initial fresh qualities but consider them absolutely expendable.

5. Don't 'discover' a subject - of any kind.

6. Somehow don't be bored - but if you must, use it in action. Use its destructive potential.

7. Mistakes can't be erased but they move you from your present position.

8. Keep thinking about Polyanna.

9. Tolerate chaos.

10. Be careful only in a perverse way.

From the Art of Richard Diebenkorn by Jane Livingston. Published by Whitney Museum of American Art, NY.

Miro Quote

Miro

In his studio

Joan Miro outside his studio

"The spectacle of the sky overwhelms me. I'm overwhelmed when I see, in an immense sky, the crescent of the moon, or the sun." - Joan Miro

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.

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.)