THOUGHT PATTERNS

Beautifully Silent

I love it when I make an art discovery. When my thirst for visual inspiration gets quenched. Today it was wonderful paintings by Jeremy Lipking...

This is such an amazing painting, I can almost feel the presence of the model. She feels so real. Lipking is a contemporary realist artist with a penchant for past times, romance and mystery...

  

From his biography:

"In a remarkably short period of time, Jeremy Lipking has emerged as one of the country's premier realist artists. His talent, which rivals that of the late nineteenth century painterly realists such as John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla and Anders Zorn, is outstanding for a painter of any age. It is all the more remarkable since he is only thirty years old. Like these great painters of the past, Lipking is a virtuoso artist. His canvases convey the magical aura of convincing imagery emerging out of a field of paint."

Wouldn't you agree with me that his paintings are just extraordinary? 

 

Wouldn't you want to be painted by Lipking?

 

I love the way he paints these women without showing their faces, it creates such an enigma about them. It makes you want to know who they are and what their story is.  

 

So sensual, so beautiful.

 

So intimate, peaceful and silent.

It's strange to call a painting silent, but that's the word that comes to me while looking at his paitings. Beautifully silent.

Such gorgeous use of colors, the objects and figures just jump out of the canvas.

See more of Jeremy Lipking's work on his website

The Art Of Jeremy Lipking.

xoxoxo

 

 

Picasso, Sylvette and Bardot

Picasso first asked the model, Sylvette David, to pose for him in 1954. 

  

Within a month, he had created a series of 40 paintings and drawings with her as the subject. 

  

(love the ponytail)

When word got out about Picasso's new “muse“, popular magazine Paris Match published an article with photographs of Sylvette David, which was read by French film director Roger Vadim and his first wife Brigitte Bardot. 

Picasso refused to paint Bardot, but Vadim was so impressed with Sylvette David's look that he had Bardot dye her brunette hair blonde and wear it in a high ponytail with espadrilles and matador pants, sparking the birth of a new fashion throughout Europe and the US. 

Brigitte Bardot watches Pablo Picasso at work in his studio in Vallauris during the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.

 

I wonder why he refused to paint her.

          

If only I could know what was on his mind. Did Brigitte not inspire him? Was she too two-dimensional for him? She managed to inspire the rest of the world! What did he see in Sylvette that made him create a series of 40 paintings based on her? What makes a muse? So many questions. 

The mind of an artist. Most intriguing. :)

xoxoxo

{photos and info via the west, life, a man out of time, have some tea, paris match, podol}

Color Extraordinaire

I love Hunt Slonem's paintings, especially his Pink Butterflies...

 

oil/canvas, 93x133"

... and Play of Consiousness...

 

 

 

oil/canvas, 68x96"

 

And I am so completely charmed and amused with his 89 (!) room studio, which is overflowing with glorious color and completely filled with his paintings. Beware, what you are about to see is a lot of very striking, technicolor (think Wizard of Oz) photos (I couldn't decide which ones to post so I posted many!), you might end up color shocked!

 

Here we go...

 

 

 

  

 

 

Asked if all this color is to banish sadness, Slonem responded: "It helps, yeah. And these colors were used in the 18th century, they were used in the 19th century. We grew up in the 50s and everything was white or pale blue. I was so thrilled when I went to Bermuda and saw purple houses."

 

 

 

 

 

Slonem paints in the company of his many (around 70) parrots and parakeets, all housed within the room where he works - the only white room in the place. He's almost a slave to his birds - he spends first two hours of the day caring for them, the rest of the day painting them.

 

 

 

 

Wonderful color galore...

 

But I think the plant room with the striped chair is where I would hang around the most!

 

xoxoxo

 

{photos via Hunt Slonem, New York Social Diary}

Different Realities

I love Mark Tansey's monochrome palette and interesting ways of making everyday occurrences seem utterly odd and mysterious. His work has always been characterized by a "dissonance born of the contrast between his paintings' dry illustrative style and their abstract and often abstruse subjects." Even though his paintings seem very real, he doesn't consider himself a realist painter. His Picasso and Braque painting must be my all time favorite piece...

Picasso and Braque - re imagined as Orville and Wilbur Wright struggling to get their newfangled Cubism to fly (apparently, the artists actually addressed each other as Orville Picasso and Wilbur Braque)

In Tansey's own words:

"I am not a realist painter. In the nineteenth century, photography co-opted the traditional function of realist painters, which was to make faithful renditions of "reality." Then the realist project was taken over by Modernist abstraction, as later evidenced in the title of Hans Hofmann's book Search for the real. Minimalism tried to eliminate the gap between the artwork and the real. After that, the project itself dematerialized. But the problem for representation is to find the other functions beside capturing the real."

The Key (I love this piece, it's so Sunset Boulevard)

"In my work, I'm searching for pictorial functions that are based on the idea that the painted picture knows itself to be metaphorical, rhetorical, transformational, fictional. I'm not doing pictures of things that actually exist in the world. The narratives never actually occurred. In contrast to the assertion of one reality, my work investigates how different realities interact and abrade. And the understanding is that the abrasions start within the medium itself."

The Bricoleur's Daughter (an absolutely amazing painting, wouldn't you say?)

Have a creative and productive day, everybody!

xoxoxo

{Tansey text via Artchive, photos via Articles and Texticles, Westplains, Uncommon-Sense}

A Toledo Crush

I have such a huge crush on Isabel and Ruben Toledo. Isabel is a great fashion designer (she designed Michelle Obama's lemongrass yellow inauguration dress and coat) and Ruben is a fantastic artist who, amongst other things, painted those magnificent murals taht worked as a backdrop for the models in Nordstrom ads.

They are so unique and quirky, bohemian and chic, I just love them, but also because...

"... theirs is a remarkable love affair, they have been together for over two decades (both are now 45) and their creative collaboration spans fashion design, painting, illustration, and even mannequin making... they are mutual muses..."

 

"...their apartment is a creator's paradise, where the smallest bit of inspiration (a bicycle wheel, a sketch, a portrait of Isabel) is hoisted up into Calderesque mobiles, while walls double as canvases..."

"... Isabel, with her high forehead, classic face, and cinched waist, looks as if she just stepped out of an Ingres portrait and Ruben, channels a matinee screen idol with his pencil-thin mustache, manicured hair waves, and flood-length pants..."

"... Isabel's preferred form of exercise is the untrendy hula hoop... describes her aesthetic as "Victorian in a weird way, very proper and very covered up," Ruben’s wardrobe consists of suits that are custom-made by his wife and his beloved carpenter pants that are purchased at the local hardware store..."

"... she uses her husband's discarded sketches as her personal stationery... says "We experience art. We're makers."

"... Ruben first made his übersleek mannequins for Barneys in 1989 and used his wife's slim body as the cast model."

 

"...They see no distinction between their work and their life. "We're not trying to finish something to start something we love. We love it the whole time."

Aren't they just wonderful?!

Here are some of the Nordstrom ads, with Ruben's murals...

 

And first family in Isabel Toledo...

 

xoxoxo

{most of the descriptive text snatched from the article in Harper's Bazaar, photos via Harper's Bazaar, Verbosecoma, Fashion Lawyer, The Preppy Princess, The Fashion Informer, Papermag, Tammy Manet, Rose Apodaca, LA Times}

More on murals...

Thank you all for the mural love and your wonderful comments. It is much appreciated!

 

 

 

I still don't know the details about the size of the mural I'll be painting or what the theme will be. I'm supposed to first take a short trip to New Orleans (for a couple of days only and without the husband, which is going to be the hardest thing ever, as we have not been separated for more than five minutes since we got married!) to see the place and discuss with the owners all the details and their desires. Then come back and work on some ideas, make sketches... etc. After that is done, and the house is ready to receive me I'll be off again to New Orleans, to paint the mural. And this time husband will come with! I will be taking photos of my progress and hopefully be able to post them on the blog, as well as the final result. I look forward to it!

 

In the meantime I am going to check out some murals in San Francisco. There are some fantastic ones in Coit Tower, just a couple of blocks from our house. I've already seen them a couple of years ago, but am absolutely planing to revisit. The Coit Tower murals were carried out under the auspices of the The Public Works of Art Project - a program to employ artists, as part of the New Deal, during the Great Depression.

 

 

These murals - some controversial - were created by 25 of California's leading artists of the 1930s and reflect scenes of the Great Depression, landscapes, farm workers, industries, a stylish soiree, and vibrant city life.  

 

  

 

They're great, aren't they?

 

 

Check out the guy that's being robbed and Mae West on the cover of Screenplay (in the lower right corner)

 

And, as a little treat here is also a wonderful night photo of Coit Tower...

 

 

 

Our apartment is somewhere around there - I have no sense of direction!

 

Hope you all have a great evening and I will be back tomorrow!

 

xoxoxo

 

{photos via Conde Nast (old Vogue cover from 1929), BereniceUK, B.B. Zakheim, Pbase, Frisco Vista}

Devoted to Art

I've been reading and rereading "The Art Spirit", a book that compiles essential beliefs and theories of a great teacher and American artist, Robert Henri. It's so inspirational. I love all of his stunning work, but am particularly taken by the painting below - La Reina Mora. The woman in the painting seems so alive, doesn't she? I love how vibrant she is, and how real. One can almost feel the wonderful fabric of the dress and shawl she is wearing, and almost remember her bright smile and her voice.

 

 

La Reina Mora, 1906 - Robert Henri

 

Here are some of Henri's words of wisdom:

 

"It is harder to see than it is to express. The whole value of art rests in the artist's ability to see well into what is before him. The model is wonderful in as many ways as there are pairs of eyes to see her. Each view of her is an original view and there is a response in her awaiting each view."

 

"A worker or painter should enjoy his work, else the observer will not enjoy it. It is not good to wear lace that was a drudgery to someone to make. The lace, as well as the picture, should be made in joy. His works are full of the beauty of his enthusiastic interest in life. All real works of art look as though they were done in joy."

 

"The only sensible way to regard the art life is that it is a privilege you are willing to pay for."

 

What a wonderful influence he is on our minds and our souls.

 

Here is more of Henri's work:

 

   

Edna, 1915

 

 

Marjorie in a Yellow Shawl, 1909

 

Lovely!

 

xoxoxo