Charles Courtney Curran at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

Milking Time

The Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee is one of my favorite small museums to visit.  I swung by over Labor Day weekend to see the Curran exhibit "Seeking the Ideal".  The exhibit runs through October 5, 2014.

I wasn't sure who Charles Courtney Curran was but I liked the cover painting- The Golden Profile

The Golden Profile

Curran is known for his portraits and paintings of women and children.  The women are dressed in flowing white or pastel dresses against gardens or seascapes.

Curran was born in Hartford, Kentucky in 1861 and spent his growing up years in Sandusky Ohio.  He studied at the Fine Arts Academy of Cincinnati, the National Academy of Design, and Art Students League before moving to Paris for 2 1/2 years. He was a contemporary of the American Impressionists Mary Cassatt, and Frank Benson.

The exhibit had Curran's 1920 palette- artists' palettes are fascinating- at least to this artist.

Peonies

He had a summerhome in Cragmoor, NY, in the Hudson Valley,  which was a growing art Center.    Located about 100 miles northwest of New York City. He painted and taught there.

Paris la nuit (1889)
Paris at Night

While not a typical painting in the exhibit, Paris at Night, is my favorite painting in the exhibit.   The lights and reflections are really interesting.


It is estimated he painted 1500 paintings during his career including both watercolors and oils as well illustrations for magazines.   He died in 1942 in New York.


While you are visiting check-out the "Connecting the World- the Panama Canal at 100" exhibit.  I enjoyed Alson Skinner Clark's work.

Marisol Exhibit at the Brooks Museum of Art

Last time I was in Memphis I swung by Brooks Museum of Art.  I had gone to see "The Eclectic Sixties" exhibit.

David Parrish, "The Eagle Has Landed", 1969 oil on canvas

David Parrish is from Birmingham.  He first gained recognition for photorealist oil paintings of motorcycles.  Keeping with the photorealism, he has kept with the bright colors but moved on to the broader subject of Americana.


There was another exhibit at the same time that I found more interesting- "Marisol: Sculptures and Works on Paper"  (through September 7).   This is a major retrospective of her work. Maria Sol Esobar, known as Marisol, was born in 1930 and is still alive.


Although most of us haven't heard of her, she was close friends and as well known as Andy Warhol at the time. She was known for her chic Audrey Heburn-like style.  Her early life was very troubling which is reflected in her art (particularly her pieces relating to the family)

 She is best known for her large figural sculptures frequently made of wood, terra cotta, found items or some combination thereof.

One piece in particular caught my attention, "The Funeral"

I don't remember the President's funeral but I associate it with the pictures of his son saluting the procession.    I don't know if this is a universal truth for my generation and the generations after my time.

This link goes to her sculpture of Andy Warhol.

Al Hirschfeld: A Celebration of Hollywood and Broadway

"Al Hirschfeld:  A Celebration of Hollywood and Broadway" is on exhibit at the Huntsville Museum of Art through Sept 14, 2014.




Who was Al Hirschfeld?  David Leopold, archivist for the Al Hirschfeld Foundation said "Hirschfeld was the court artist for all the performing arts but he drew more of Broadway and Hollywood than anything else or anyone else..."

The exhibit includes 45 drawings and prints covering 71 years of actors, actresses, and other figures.

"Tallulah!"

The exhibit even includes a game for the younger visitors- who may not recognize  some of the actors.    Hidden in most of Hirschfeld's paintings is the name of his daughter, "Nina".  The number of Ninas hidden in a painting is shown by the Arabic numeral to the right of his signature.  If there is no number than there is only one Nina or it was done before her birth.

"Happy Birthday, Mr. President!"

He was  awarded the National Metal for the Arts in 2002.  Hirschfeld died in  January 2003 at the age of 99.  His desk, lamp, and chair were donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and are on display in the lobby.

"Anne Hall"

I throughly enjoyed this exhibit- it was fun to guess the actors, films, or shows and yes I did a little Nina hunting myself!

Lisa Roger's blog has more information about Al Hirschfeld

Exhibit to see- Janet Fish Master of Light & Shadow

Watercolor paintings by Janet Fish

When I think of watercolor paintings I think of Janet Fish's watercolors.  Wonderful paintings full of translucent light and color.  I think of them as happy paintings.

I was very pleased to see that the Huntsville Museum of Art was organizing an exhibit of her work-  Janet Fish- Master of Light & Shadow.  The exhibit runs through July 27, 2014.

The exhibit is not of her watercolors but instead it is her oil paintings.  There are 43 paintings from 1969-2008 in the exhibit.  The paintings are large.

Anderson’s Fairy Tales, 1999 oil on canvas, Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York

The same love of light and color is apparent in her oil paintings.  Janet Fish attributes her fascination with color and light to early years growing up in Bermuda.

Her paintings are filled with common subjects- still lifes with bottles, glasses, flowers; picnic tables with people playing in the background.  In general the people in her paintings are not the focal point but provide layers, context, and action.  

She has the ability to take ordinary household objects- like salad dressing in bottles or apples wrapped in cellophane and create an unique interesting painting of light and color.

I would be hard pressed to pick out a favorite painting in the show- however, the use of  color and light to represent the delicate etching or pressed-design in Ivan's Glasses; her rendering of the cellophane, ribbon, and glass plates, in Ice Cream Sundae; and juxtaposition of punch, cake, ballons, and children in Ballons, would make those paintings my three favorites in the exhibit.

She comes from an artist family with a art history professor for a father and a mother who was a sculptor and potter.   Her grandfather was American Impressionist painter Clark Voorhees- one of the founders of the Old Lyme Art Colony.

Clark Greenwood Voorhees (1871-1993) Arrive at Sunny Ridge

More of Voorhees' art

One of my favorite books on her work

However it is out-of-print and very expensive.

For more information on Janet Fish- Master of Light & Shadow and to purchase a catalog

Behind door number 2?

"A Delicate Balance" 

by Scott Powers 

Copyright 2013 Scott Powers

While I was in Idaho last month at Scott Christensen's Workshop, as we came back from painting cottonwood trees, we stopped in this little tiny town to visit another artist's studio.  As we approached the door of this old worn building, Scott said something about "Scotty's Studio".  The  old wooden and stone weathered building was taller in front and sloped down to one story.  There was only small narrow horizontal windows in the front at street level- just the kind you expected to see lots of cobwebs in.  It would be perfect as a building that no one had lived in for a very long time.

The door was opened by "Scotty" and once I saw the art work I knew I was meeting another Rock Star of the art work- Scott Powers.  As 17 of us descended on his studio he was very welcoming.   He was working on "A Delicate Balance" while we were there.  He told us that he had recently decided to rework it.  After some cajoling he showed an iphone picture of it before he started to rework it.  With the exception of Scott Christensen probably, I think every other artist in the room would  have been jumping up and down with joy if they had painted something like that.  However when we looked at it versus the reworked version, you could see just how much better the reworked version was.  Part of being a rock star is not settling for good or wonderful but realizing there is a great and working toward it. 

Coming from Scott Christensen's very neat, spare and well lit studio to Scott Power's cluttered with interesting things everywhere and dark studio with just the painting area well lit was a contrast in the different environments artists' chose to work in.  I'm always fascinated to see pictures of famous artists' studios and palettes.  They both had full bookshelves or piles of books on the floor.  I could have spend days (weeks) just looking through them.

View of Scott's palette.  

We asked him about the big piles of old paint on his palettee- he said they were memories.  He could look at the pile and remember that color on that part of a particular painting.  Just how cool is that!

This is the link to Scott's website.  Hopefully it will inspire you to stretch even further to great!
Scott Power's website

And to all the artists who open their studios and let other people ask questions- Thanks for sharing a little of your art, process, and space!

How Artists are like Golfers... or Golfers are like Artists

Quiet Winter Night 

by Scott Christensen

copyright Scott Christensen

 There are a lot of amateur golfers who play every weekend and who golf plays an important role in their lives.  About the time they are ready to throw in the "club", they will hit a great shot.  That great shot keeps them going for quite awhile.

According to one site there is 61.1 million golfers in the world (and that was of 2003!)  Number of golfers in the world

There are a great many professional golfers that you and I never hear about it.  300,000 Professional Golfers

Then there are the handful of professional golfers who we all know their names- Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Nancy Lopez, ...   So how many of them are there?  less than 25, less than 10?

The degree of excellence in the game increases with each classification.  Their compensation and mystic increases from the amateur, to  professional, to the top of the game.

Artists in the world

Artists are in a similar situation.  There are 4.4 Million artists in the world.  Those artists can struggle and just when they are ready to turn in their paint brushes, they will paint a beautiful passage or a painting will come together almost effortlessly.

There are 600,000 professional artist in the world.  If you are someone who is interested in today's artists you would know some of their names.  But if art is not one of your main interests you probably do not know their names.

There is a much smaller group of artists that are household names.  And if you only consider live  2-D artists the group will be very, very small.)  The mystic of that much smaller group is similar between the golf and art communities.

At the being of June I took a class from of one of the "Tiger Woods" of landscaping painting- Scott Christensen.  It was incredibly intimating to even think about taking a class from someone with his expertise.  The class consisted of a broad range of experience from some who had never painted to people who were mature in their art careers.  Scott was very approachable- willing to answer any questions we had, talk philosophy, talk technique, do demonstration paintings, and critique our work.  Painting outside for 7 days in a row was something I had never done before and would love to figure out how to do on a regular basis.  The last day of the workshop Scott told each of us in the class what he thought we, individually, needed to work on to take our art to the next level.    It was a wonderful experience.

So if you have a chance to play with the "Tiger Woods" in your field - go for it.  It could be an opportunity like no other.

If you want to learn more about Scott Christensen, Brian Nehr did a great article on Scoot, his background, and techniques.

Brian Neher's blog post on Scott Christensen

HIgh Key, Low Key, Soprano, Bass

There are many similarities between various art forms.  Music and painting/drawing have similarities in a couple of ways.

Each singer has a vocal range that is the lowest note the singer can sing to the highest note.  In a choir singers are divided up based mainly on this range.  So for women the categories are soprano, and alto  with soprano being higher range and alto being lower.  For male voices the categories are tenor and bass with tenor being a higher range than bass.  In opera or professional choirs the female and male voices may be divided into more categories.

Anyone who has every played in a band also knows about ranges - soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones

I am a lousy singer which is why I was in the band in junior high and high school- and yes I played sax.  So I'm on dangerous ground talking about voice ranges.

Understanding Vocal Range  has lots of great information on voice ranges and classifications if you are interested in learning more.

So let's make the connection with painting and drawing- we are going to go back to values.

Painter's sometimes refer to a painting based in higher values as high key and one's based in lower values as low key.  So just as voices or instruments have ranges with associated names, so do paintings or drawings- both of which are based being predominately higher or lower.

"Dancer" by Edgar Degas
Pastel on paper

This painting by Degas is an example of a high key painting.  There are no really dark darks.

This painting by Edward Gorey  is an example of a low key painting.  Although there are a few  highlights that are light, the painting is predominately in the darker values.

"Mile Becat at the Cafe des Ambassadeurs, Paris" by  Edgar Degas

However if we go to this painting, again by Degas, you can see that it covers the range of values of lights to darks  with fairly similar amounts of darks and lights.  This painting wouldn't be described as either a high key or low key.

There are other similarities between music and painting that I'll cover in the future.

In the meantime look at the paintings in your house or your favorite paintings - do you gravitate to high key or low key paintings?  Post an example of one of them.