Magazine Posts

Jumped the Lamb
the gambol great,
was it the drink
or something nice,
not made of grain
but fermented rice.

Pierre Bonnard (1867 – 1947) French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. He painted landscapes, urban scenes, portraits and intimate domestic scenes, where the backgrounds, colors and painting style usually took precedence over the subject. His early work was strongly influenced by the work of Paul Gauguin, as well as the prints of Hokusai and other Japanese artists.  Bonnard was a leading figure in the transition from Impressionism to Modernism. Read more

Camille Pissarro (1830 - 1903) Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. He "acted as a father figure not only to the Impressionists" but to all four of the major Post-Impressionists, Cézanne, Seurat, Gauguin, and van Gogh. Read more
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.

"....So here we still are, in the spring of 2022, perhaps a bit less alone. But now, as the pandemic begins to recede in at least parts of the world, something equally alarming has taken its place..."

“Putin makes Covid look good,” said a friend – a sentiment no doubt shared by many.....Read more

#Ukraine

Janet Sobel (1893 – 1968) Born as Jennie Olechovskyat was a Ukrainian-American Abstract Expressionist painter whose career started mid-life  age forty-five in 1938. Sobel was the first artist to use the drip painting technique that directly influenced Jackson Pollock. She was credited as exhibiting the first instance of all-over painting seen by Clement Greenberg, a notable art critic. Read more.. There is also an interesting BBC article about her "The woman written out of history" By Kelly Grovier

This image is marked as Public Domain Mark 1.0 by CC

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (1884 – 1920)  Italian painter and sculptor known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and figures that were not received well during his lifetime, but later became much sought-after. Modigliani spent his youth in Italy, and moved to Paris in 1906, where he came into contact with such artists as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuși. Read more
Image: Public Domain CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

Hugo Simberg (1873 – 1917) was a Finnish symbolist painter and graphic artist. The Wounded Angel is one of the most recognizable of Simberg's works, and was voted Finland's "national painting" in 2006  Read more
Image: Public domain

"In 1634, Rembrandt painted his wife, Saskia, as Flora — the Roman goddess of flowers and spring. One large bloom droops over her left ear from the wreath crowning her head, dwarfing the other blossoms in scale and splendor — a single tulip, its silken petals aflame with stripes of red and white.These tulips no longer exist Today, their closest kin are known as Rembrandts". Read more

Aquatint, an etching technique, was invented in Amsterdam around 1650 by the printmaker Jan van de Velde IV. The technique  was all but forgotten until the eighteen century when recipes for its used were published and its techniques were improved by a number of artists. An exhibition at the National Gallery of Art will trace the technique’s development through Europe, starting in the late 1700s. Read more
Image: Stoke Hall , Derbyshire, England by Cartwright, Thomas - Public Domain

Wash the paper,
sketch the subject,
faint the line.
Select your brush,
mix paint on the pallet,
keep paper flat
to avoid paint run
of watercolor.
Paint the picture,
wet or dry.
Work your art.
Nice first try.