THOUGHT PATTERNS

View of the fields from the air

I'm not really a quilt person, but these, these amazing quilts by Ian Hundley Studio that look like fields when viewed from the air are out-of-this-world, so unique and completely irresistible...

Bierbergen Oedelum Black, 2006

cotton, wool, silk & linen, 80 x 80 inches

 

Bray Lake, 2001-06

cotton, 90 x 90 inches

 

South River

 

Oberg White, 2006

cotton, wool, silk & linen, 70 x 70 inches

 

Oberg White, 2006

cotton, wool, silk & linen, 70 x 70 inches

 

Oberg Green, 2000

cotton, wool, silk & linen, 70 x 70 inches

It's hard to pick a favorite, but I think it has to be the top black-tone one. Simply gorgeous.

xoxoxo

{quilts by Ian Hundley Studio found via tiny happy}

A visual treat

Folly is a new installation of 3D porcelain "wallpaper" by artist Beth Katleman. The work is inspired by and resembling 18th century wall coverings and each figure tells a story.

{click to enlarge}

Folly, (detail), 2010
Porcelain, wire, steel rods and heat-shrink tubing
69 x 96 x 11 inches

Three-dimensional porcelain "wallpaper" hovers just off the turquoise wall, as part of a site specific installation at the Jane Hartsook Gallery. The overall installation is 192 x 108 x 11 inches.

Here are some of the pieces in detail...

Folly, (detail, flower girl on rock), 2010
Porcelain, wire, heat-shrink tubing
17 x 11 x 7 inches

Folly, (detail, Eiffel Tower), 2010
Porcelain, wire, heat-shrink tubing
19 x 16 x 11 inches

Folly, (detail, bikini girl on branch), 2010
Porcelain, wire, heat-shrink tubing
19 x 16 x 11 inches

See more on Beth Katleman's website.

xoxoxo

Eye candy

I know I've said this before, but I get so excited and giddy when I discover an artist new to me. Especially if their style of art is something I've been into at the moment. Like portraiture for example. I've been daydreaming lately of a wall in our apartment completely covered in portraits. Portraits of unknown men and women that I would discover in thrift shops and flea markets. I've also been into everything circus, as I've also mentioned previously. So, when my eyes saw this piece...

... it was a pure visual delight. Eye candy of the best possible kind.

The artist is Walt Kuhn.

He was an American painter, best known for his role in planning the Armory Show (International Exhibition of Modern Art) of 1913. He was a skilled cartoonist, draughtsman, printmaker, sculptor and painter. Although he destroyed many of his early paintings, his works that remain today are powerful.

   His portraits of circus and vaudeville entertainers are some of the most memorable works of early American Modernism. The portraits are reminiscent of commedia dell'arte actor portraits done by the French masters centuries earlier. Nevertheless, Kuhn's works are entirely his own. His intimate portraits and expressionistic still-lifes can be found in many top museums and universities across the United States. {info from here}

 

He was also handsome and troubled...

There is something very appealing (to one romantic but quirky female soul) in a troubled, handsome, talented artist who attends night after night the Ringling Brothers Circus and likes to paint circus and vaudeville performers. Agree?

And, take a look at this portrait and think who the woman reminds you of...

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Doesn't she look like Kate Winslet? 

Or is it just me who sees it? I often see similarities between people. While watching a move I will probably spot 10 people that look exactly like someone from our local cafe or my elementary school. Maybe it's the artist in me, that keeps looking at the bone structure, comparing the curve of the nose, the hairline. Anyway, I think her eyebrows and eyes are Kate's. Or perhaps Kate's grandmother? Who, one never knows, may have been Kuhn's muse? Well, why not?

Hope you liked my new art discovery. I'm off to feast my eyes on some more of Will Kuhn's haunted performers.

Have a good night.

xoxoxo

{images 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

In black and white

I've long admired this Aubrey Beardsley drawing...

~ The Peacock Skirt, 1894 ~

I love his style of drawings, done in black ink (they were influenced by Japanese woodcuts) and always somewhat grotesque and decadent.

Beardsley was an Art Nouveau illustrator, most famous for his drawings for Oscar Wilde's play, "Salome" (I believe the The Peacock Skirt is one of them).

I've just researched a bit more about his work and found some truly wonderful drawings that fully speak to me. He was only 25 when he died of tuberculosis.

{click on the images to expand and see the detail}

~ The Lady at the Dressing Table ~

I love the way he uses black and white. The black is so potent.

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~ The Wagnerites ~

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~ A Nocturne of Chopin ~

So many wonderful shades of gray.

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~ A Repetition of Tristan and Isolde ~

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~ Miss  Winifred Emery ~

The efect achieved by the contrast of the strong lines of her face and gentle lines of her lacy cotton dress is amazing.

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~ Lady Gold's Escort ~

The faces of his characters are really wonderful. They all have such unique expressions.

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~ La Dame Aux Camelias ~

Her coat seems real, doesn't it?

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~ The Abbe Fanfreluche ~

The detail here is so amazing. The character seems like such a proud peacock charmer and his legs are terribly funny.

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~ The Fat Woman, 1894 ~

This drawing is simply fantastic. I love the look on her face. I'm not sure how I would describe it, though. Is she on a lookout for a potential date or is she just thrilled to be out and about and is simply enjoying her own company. And observing.

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~ Edgar Alan Poe's The Black Cat, 1901 ~

Light and dark. This one is my absolute favorite.

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Have a lovely weekend!

xoxoxo

{via & via} 

She wore flowers...

..in her hair...

 

Can you guess?

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Lovely Frieda Kahlo. Every time I see a color photograph of her I get so pleasantly overwhelmed by her appearance.

And that's also how I felt a couple of years ago seeing her paintings at SFMOMA. It's always somehow so surreal to me when I see these famous paintings in person. Paintings I'm so used to seeing in art books. Surreal and wonderful.

There are two exhibits in San Francisco this year which I am so eager to see, and hopefully will see. They are at the de young museum. The first one is "Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay" (featuring works by Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir...) and immediately after it "Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay." I'm very excited about it.

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What are you doing this weekend? I always make great plans, like, repot all the plants, decoupage the refrigerator (see note on the bottom of this post), do a big cleaning, work a lot, read a book, tidy my closet, visit the antique mall and have a brunch at Amber India (great Indian restaurant).

Unfortunately, or luckily, most of the time I end up having long leisurely coffee at a cafe, and maybe I work a little. 

This weekend I'm determined to at least repot a couple of plants and at least decoupage the front of the refrigerator. And I'm looking forward to it plenty.

Hope your weekend will be a pleasant one.

xoxoxo

{I was going to decoupage the refrigerator with my lovely paper last weekend (as announced in this post), but realized that I was not going to have enough paper for the whole fridge. And the art-store had none left! And it's such a nice paper. So, I'm going to have to improvise and use maybe a solid purple and green paper for the sides. I hope it looks good!}

The Solitary Portraits

Our walls our covered in paintings, papercuts, drawings, photographs... Partly because we like it, partly because it's a necessity as I have a lot of my artwork that needs to be displayed rather than just leaned against the wall or stored in the basement.

It feels warm and comforting to enter our home and be greeted by the familiarity of the paintings. Whenever I have an exhibit and have to take all of my artwork off the walls to take to the gallery, the empty walls seem very cold and unhappy.

Saying all that, I find that I'm growing to like more and more the kind of minimal, but still warm and appealing displays like the ones below (I call them The Solitary Portraits)...

There is something very appealing in the whiteness of the walls and the furniture in juxtaposition with a dark solitary portrait.

And even though I'm quite fond of old style ornate frames, I quite like these portraits being left unframed.

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I'm very much into old style portraits lately. Portraits like the ones done by JOhn Singer Sargent...

Lady Agnew of Lochnaw by John Singer Sargent, 1892-93

Robert Henri...

Isolina Maldonado, Spanish Dancer by Robert Henri, 1921

And, the portraits done by Amadeo Modigliani...

Young Redhead in the Evening Dress by Amadeo Modigliani, 1918

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Here are some more Solitary Portraits...

 

Love the oval frame.

Trunks and the portrait tying the room nicely together. Great effect and trunks are such great storage solution.

Love everything about this photo, the parquet floors, the oversized chair in the next room, the family photos on the console chest, the yellow room, the striped chair, the brick fireplace. And, yes, the solitary portrait.

xoxoxo

{room photos via, paintings, in order from top, via here, here and here}

Naughty postcards

I'm so thrilled to have discovered these naughty postcards done by artist Leo Fontan...

 

Naughty and sexy, but at the same time very romantic.

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Shy? I don't think so. Even the run in the stocking seems seductive.

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Cheeky,  with her petticoats showing.

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I think this lady has been rolling in some hay (look at the state of her stockings.)

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 Coquettish, revealing, but also elegant.

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Pretty and sensual.

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The women look so decadently disheveled and unkempt, lifting their skirts to show off their stockinged legs. Very Jazz Age scandalous and oh, so charmingly Parisian.

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I couldn't find much biographical info on the artist, just this...

"Born in Touraine, France in 1883, Leo Fontan grew up with an interest in art. He went to the University of Art in Tours and upon graduation moved to Paris. He worked in Paris for many years producing work for publications like Parisian Life, the Smile, and Fantasio. He also created posters and postcards. By World War II he worked as portraitist apparently specializing in portraits of people killed during the war. He was also doing landscapes. He died on board a train June 26, 1965. A quick search on-line reveals that he's most famous for painting and illustrations of scantily clad flappers as evidenced above."

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These postcards would look fantastic displayed together...

    

   

There are a couple available on Ebay at the moment. Shall we go bid? :)

xoxoxo

{bio via here and images via here}

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

 

 

Of Rainbow Worms, Space Gardens and Dream Machines

I love these limited edition Giclee prints by APAK:

~ Rainbow Worms ~

If there's life on other planets and in different galaxies, I sure wouldn't mind if the aliens looked exactly like this.

 

~ Space Garden ~

If they were traveling through space in their little boats and grew magnificent gardens.

 

~ Dream Machine ~

The feeling created in these pieces is so lovely, serene and calming.

xoxoxo

{These are prints of the original paintings that were done in gouache on paper. Artwork is by APAK - APAK is Aaron and Ayumi Kajikawa Piland. They make art together in Portland Oregon USA. Found via photo found via where the lovely things are}

Book Sculptures

I'm absolutely loving these book paintings/sculptures by Mike Stilkey...

 
  
They are so unique and amazing...

 

I love his style of painting, but the way he paints on the books and creates sculptures really takes it to another level.

The artist at work...

The finished sculptures...

 

I would love to have one of these sculptures in our home.

Sweet, sad and whimsical... 

I think my favorite must be the couple below, two people, blending into one...

   

 

See more on Mike Stilkey's website {here}.   

xoxoxo