Aubrey Levinthal

Bonnard to Matisse

2012-02-04T07:29:00.000-08:00

A Letter from Bonnard to Matisse from the book Bonnard/Matisse: Letters Between Friends holding many of their correspondences --

....My work is going pretty well, especially in the direction of understanding. During my morning walks I amuse myself by defining different conceptions of landscape -- landscape as space, intimate landscape, decorative landscape, etc. But as for vision, I see things differently every day, the sky, objects, everything changes continually, you can drown in it. But that's what brings life. I hope that as the days grow longer I will soon be able to come to Nice and will be happy to see you....

How true.

Julian Hatton Lecture

2012-01-28T15:11:00.000-08:00

Headdress Blue Leaves, 2011, Monoprint

This past Thursday I went to Julian Hatton's lecture at PAFA during my lunch break. Rarely would I rather listen to someone talk about themselves than gobble down my lunch but this was an exception.

Accompanying Hatton's talk were a ton of visuals of his work and his inspirations in his slideshow.

Spring Melt, 2007-8, Oil on Canvas

He spoke a bit about a little voice in his head. He said he didn't know how to verbally explain what he did with color or composition but a little voice would say 'use yellow', or 'make a big blue shape--that would be funny' or 'try lines'. He said for the longest time because he didn't have an MFA or feel formally trained he didn't feel like an artist and just went with his instincts. He said he always was drawn to landscapes and the challenge of marrying them with his hand and the abstractions that it made.

Places in Between, 2010, Oil on Canvas

These things really resonated with me, even having gone through an MFA program I still many times feel like I improvise to the finish with little comprehension of 'the rules', just a little voice guiding me through.

I am guessing a lot if not all artists feel like this at some points, doing what they can to express that which they are drawn to. I would also guess this is when the best works are made, Hatton as the first example.

Upcoming in 2012

2012-01-22T09:32:00.000-08:00

It is a new year and I think it's going to be a fabulous year for art. There are so many things I plan on seeing and have just seen that are exciting. On the list:

1. Interiors at Andrew Kreps

From the press release: "The show highlights the rich optical and visual layers and patterning consistent in each of the artists’ work, depicting interior spaces full of feeling, psychological depth and a sense of remembrance – a domestic hedonism, or meditations on the nature of time, perception and memory."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

2. The Common Object, Zeuxis at MICA

"The artists showcasing work in the exhibition are: Martha Armstrong, Richard Baker , Rita Baragona, Lucy Barber, William Barnes, Temma Bell, Suzanne Biggins, Rick Brazill, Susan Cohen, Kate Emlen, Bevin Engman, Phyllis Floyd, Stanley Friedman, Elizabeth Geiger, John Goodrich, Christine Hartman, Robert Jessel, Mark Karnes, Catherine Kehoe, Tim Kennedy, Deborah Kirklin, Carmela Kolman, Lynn Kotula, Penny Kronengold, Richard La Presti, Ginger Levant, Ying Li, Sydney Licht, Anthony Martino, Margaret McCann, Ruth Miller, Janice Nowinski, Don Southard, Sandra Stone, Amy Weiskopf, Megan Williamson and Sharon Yates." !!!!

3. Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard at The Phillips Collection

No need to elaborate here--this is a dream come true

4. Working Drawing at Camden Rutgers Center for the Arts

The exhibition features the work of Julian Hatton, Sangram Majumdar, John Newman, Bruce Pollock, Bruce Samuelson, Joan Snyder and Sandy Winters. The exhibition explores the continuing vitality of drawing as a means of expression in itself and as part of a process leading to other bodies of work.

Right across the Ben Franklin Bridge!

I figured instead of giving a summary after I see the show, I would post these before I go because I hate when there is a show I read about in the paper or online and its too late to make it myself! Can't wait for all of these wonderful shows!

Etsy Love

2012-01-16T07:06:00.000-08:00

This gouache painting is titled 'Enjoying a Beer at a Bar on the Beach' which is exactly what I wish I was doing. But having Monday off for MLK day is a good alternative. Enjoy and check out this artist, Katja Stienen, shop name Calle Ocho, on Etsy.

Kyle Staver at PCAD

2012-01-10T18:11:00.000-08:00

Kyle Staver, Dead Dog, 2007

Kyle Staver, Cinnamon Rolls #2, 2007

Kyle Staver, His Turn, 2005

Kyle Staver, Fub and Tippy, 2007

Here are four paintings from the best show I have seen in a VERRRYY long time. Ever since my good friend Lauren in my MFA program found this artist online we have brought up her name to each other. When we are down on our work, we say "remember Kyle Staver!" But we had never seen her work in person and a minuscule part of me was afraid to.

Having built her up in my mind to be so amazing, I was a little worried they wouldn't live up to expectations. This was the worst assumption ever. The current survey of her work at PCAD in Lancaster blew the three of us who trekked up there away. We were ebullient standing in front of them. Formally, the color, compositions, shapes, and mark making were exquisite. They were enormous too. We felt like we could follow her thought process as she searched for and found ways to express these subjects. We realized that every mark seemed to be in touch with the sensation she was trying to show; we could feel the steam of the shower (his turn), dark of night envelope us (dead dog), sadness of morning descend upon us (cinnamon rolls #2). I have never been more invigorated by a 1.5 hour roadtrip! (to lancaster no less :))

Piled Up Perceptions

2012-01-08T13:28:00.000-08:00

This phrase -- piled up perceptions -- has been stuck in my mind. I think I made it up but when it floated into my head recently it felt so important , like the answer to the impossible question : what am I trying to to paint?

I'll try to put it into some words and examples. It has to do with the content. Piled up or accumulated memories -- but not a specific memory of a one time occurrence -- rather the compilation of the same thing happening over again (i.e. sitting at the table in fall with a cup of coffee, walking down my street in the winter) Trying to express the sensations of these rituals in regards to the weather, light, smells, perspective etc.

Second is trying to formally replicate these perceptions. Picturing this swimming image in my mind I use color, composition, etc. to try to express this.

I find myself creating compositions where everything is stacked on top of each other, or floating around the perimeter. I use graphic patterns as a relief from this -- as somewhere to latch onto and rest -- as I see it in my mind. Everything is a bit blurry but the pillowcases' checkered pattern.

This search is why I respond so immediately to these artists and works:

Kyle Staver Before Breakfast 2003

Jonas Wood Gus's Room 2007 (look how space collapses right in the middle of the painitng!)

Pierre Bonnard, Nude in the Bathtub, 1935

Chuta Kimura, The Fountain in the Clos-Saint-Pierre, 1972

Mamma Andersson, Untitled, 2009

David Park, title and date unknown

Elisabeth Cummings, The Shearer's Kitchen, Mt. Murchison, 2011

Chie Fueki, title and date unknown

Happy New Year

2012-01-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! In light of a brand new year and the closing of an old one, I spent a lot of the last week reflecting on a lot of things, including my paintings. I have to say this has been a really great year in terms of my work. I finally started making paintings that are satisfying a year later. Although still lacking. But I have figured out what I am after in them -- which feels pretty exciting. I'll explain in my next post, for now I'm too tired from thinking about a whole year.

Here's a new painting I finished over the break instead:

Black Coat, Walking Away, 2012, 24 x 30

Vuillard's The Reader

2011-12-27T10:18:00.000-08:00

Vuillard, The Reader, 1896

Every year for the holiday my mom gets me a planner with paintings in it. They are from Pomegranate if you want one, which I posted about in the post below.

Anyways, I can never help myself from immediately looking through the whole year of pictures. This 2012 edition had Vuillard's painting in it and I just adore it. The spatial illusions that he has created through pattern here are genius! After a few minutes of looking the whole thing levitates up and off the paper. What I would give to see this 84 x 61 inch beauty in Paris. A masterpiece.

I'm gathering some thoughts on pattern and piling space which are paramount to my recent paintings and I think I'll do a few posts on that coming up.

Season's Greetings

2011-12-20T17:53:00.001-08:00

Happy Holidays!

(Isn't this the funniest card?? I just purchased them in PAFA's gift shop...Edward Gorey Illustrations. They are throwing fruitcakes into a frozen pond which I agree with very much. Purchase them online from Pomegranate)

Collage Perspectives at Swarthmore

2011-12-19T20:04:00.000-08:00

Here is a great gallery talk with Andrea Packard, curator of Swarthmore's List Gallery. She put together such an interesting show and talks about how she selected these artists who all use aspects of representational painting to find a coherence to a medium (collage) which is naturally dissonant and fragmented.

Small Works at Rosenfeld

2011-12-15T16:43:00.000-08:00

Coffee Through a Straw, Oil and Graphite on Panel, 2011

I am in this year's Small Works show at Rosenfeld Gallery. It's chock full of small pieces, primarily paintings but also some sculpture and ceramics. I have three pieces including the one above in the show. It goes until December 31st...stop by!

Eilif Amundsen

2011-12-10T09:35:00.000-08:00

Here I go; giving away my secrets again. I discovered the artist Eilif Amundsen a while back and just love love love everything he does. He is the evidence that supports my feeling that white can be used in abundance and if done right (which is nearly impossible) it can make the most powerful sensation of a painting. They feel like wintry memories (I believe he's from a Scandinavian country) so I thought now was the appropriate time to put them up. I have been looking to them recently too because I am doing a painting in which the season seems to be winter.

Anyway, there is absolutely nothing written about him in English online anywhere except that he was born in 1930 so for now I (and you) will have to just go on these grainy images and hope that the work reappears somewhere soon.

Vindu, 1990

Stilleben Vindu, 2000

Ann Truitt Film

2011-12-01T19:20:00.000-08:00

Recently I visited the Delaware Art Museum, it was a really brief and uneventful trip in general but I stumbled upon one gem. They have a small show of Anne Truitt's work called Luminosities. Just about a dozen pieces, I was quite drawn to a few works on paper but most delighted by the short film titled Ann Truitt: Working by Jem Cohen.

Confession: this may be the first movie I have watched from start to finish in a gallery, its just hard to hold my attention for a long time when I know how many other things of visual interest are around the next corner. But this video was really visually acute and seemed to match the aesthetics of Truitt's interview. It's hard to find online but worth trying to see; here are some excerpts from it on PBS's website and I have put in a few stills here.

Fall Bouquets

2011-11-23T10:34:00.000-08:00

Gouache on Paper

Gouache on Paper, 2009

Gouache on Paper, 2010

I am so delighted by these works on paper by Sarah Armstrong-Jones. They feel so much like dying autumn foliage and the shapes and colors I have been looking at as I walk to work the last few weeks. I would love to see these pieces in person, but for now I'll have to settle for her gallery's online images. Happy Thanksgiving!

Interesting Sunday Find

2011-11-20T17:20:00.000-08:00

I like the website mutualart.com which has a huge database of artists' works that aren't always otherwise available online. I found some nice paintings of Paul Wonner's I had never seen anywhere else. So here I share those with you...

Chelsea, November 2011

2011-11-13T08:53:00.000-08:00

Below is a visual summary of the best of what I saw in Chelsea this weekend. So many good shows linked for me by ambitious nature, attention to fortunate events found in process and satisfying a personal need for altering materials and physically creating artworks.

Matt Blackwell at Edward Thorp, Tour and Trance (fabulous)

Elizabeth O'Reilly at George Billis, Nightfall, Union Street Bridge (closed Saturday but her collages will be on view through mid December at Swarthmore's List Gallery)

Josephine Halvorson at Sikkema Jenkins, Cracked Back, (interesting interview with her in the Brooklyn Rail this month)

Matthew Farina Recent Collages at The Painting Center

Ruth Miller at Lohin Geduld, Enamel Jug Motif (she is a member of Zeuxis, a fabulous still life painters' association)

And the great Joan Mitchell, Last Paintings at Cheim & Read

Updates

2011-11-07T18:12:00.001-08:00

Updated my website with a few new things today...added a few others a few weeks ago. Feel free to check out what I've been up to...more to come, many things to finish in the studio.

PAINT!

2011-11-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

Please come to my opening tomorrow night! It is at the Main Line Art Center in Haverford and is this year's Betsey Meyer Memorial Exhibition. Bill Scott selected 18 young, emerging Philadelphia artists, all painters and printmakers. The reception is from 6-9pm on the 4th (tomorrow) and the show will be up until November 23rd. I am showing two pieces, one is a very large piece for me which I have never put online. I think it's going to be a good time...so come!

Degas at the MFA

2011-11-02T12:41:00.001-07:00

Degas Seated, 1895 (this photo is in the show)

There is a fabulous little show up at the MFA Boston. I got the chance to see it because I am in New England for the week for work and it was quite a bonus. The show is Degas and the Nude and its just a few rooms of primarily works on paper.

It was really great because Degas is one of the larger than life greats for me who was pretty untouchable. In person, I have mainly only seen large paintings of dancers or one drawing here or there, so he was never a personal connection before.

Getting to see so many small works, sketches, and monotypes completely changed that. The works were really stunning, direct and process based. I was really blown away by th

e monotypes; such complex yet simple compositions, black and white and tender but powerful. Took me forever to find even this crappy image online too so try to see the show!

Degas, Woman Drying her Feet (my favorite)

An Artist on the Awkwardness that is F. Porter

2011-10-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

Fairfield Porter, Under the Elms 1971

By this point you are probably aware that I love Porter.

However, I've never had my feelings about him so succinctly expressed as Dan O'Connor did in a recent interview on Painting Perceptions. O'Connor is a recent MFA grad of PAFA and although his work is very impressive to me in ways, I think it is what he aspires to in Porter that unites our thinking as artists.

He says; " I am continually trying to introduce new ideas or ways of seeing into the paintings. A few months ago, I read a little catalog from a Diebenkorn exhibit where he mentions learning about the importance of whimsy from the paintings of Matisse. This has proved to captivate me for a while. I’ve always thought on whimsy as a sort of heavy-handedness or awkwardness that permeates through some paintings, but have started to see it now as something that could potentially relate a real, palpable truth about vision. It seems to present itself in limitless ways; the way you hold your brush, apply paint, stand, look, question. This playful manner of observing, I think, speaks loudly about the painter and the subject, while still providing a satiated, fully resolved, believable painting. Fairfield Porter seemed to have it."

Awesomely put.

Dan O'Connor, Dear God, Thank you For Friends, 2009

Tara Geer

2011-10-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

Tara Geer, Big Frayed Sock

I really love Tara Geer's drawings.

I think maybe more than that I love her refreshing artist statement:

"I think the most important part of drawing is seeing: The more I look around me, the more the world opens up as if under a magnifying lens-- the spoon in the cereal bowl and the floating bits of cereal lose their distinction...My sketches from the world around me are love letters to looking, but wordless ones."

Read the whole thing here on her website.

And see her work in a group drawing show at the Macy Gallery @ Columbia through November 4th. And let me know how it is because I'm not going to make it to NY until the next weekend.

Small World

2011-10-18T16:11:00.000-07:00

I ripped this painting out of an art magazine at least two years ago and hung it on my wall of 'good paintings' that I look to for inspiration. When I saw it today via Perceptual Painters, a facebook group that features a lot of great painters working from life, I first thought; I love that, then I thought; I know that! Turns out this piece I had hanging on my wall is done by Brian Rego another recent graduate of my MFA program. He graduated with a lot of artists I have come to know and really love the work of. It's quite a small world for artists, it really is.

P.S. A fabulous quote from him in an interview on Painting Perceptions: For me, the purpose of painting is to tap into something that is profoundly human, something sensual that lies on the fringe of memory, a reality both strange and familiar.”

Intimations Show

2011-10-15T07:39:00.001-07:00

Alex in front of Night Couch (versions of reality and my painted reality in one picture!)

I am part of a really nice show at Hopkins House Gallery of Contemporary Art. I was so flattered to be invited to this show featuring the work of Michael Bartmann, Roger Chavez, Alex Cohen, David Campbell and two other artists I wasn't familiar with Kyle Stevenson and Jeanine La Claire.

The show was curated by Bruce Garrity who did a really amazing job of putting together artists and works that seem to compliment each other and work from the same perspective but still in very personal ways. The title Intimations seems to say it; work that hints, suggests and implies. Works that come from experience and life and are retold in another reality, a painted reality.

The show is on until October 29th, so please stop through!

Beautiful Bischoff Drawing

2011-10-09T19:06:00.001-07:00

Kimura Reflections

2011-10-09T05:13:00.000-07:00

Chuta Kimura, Country House in Provence, 1984

I just read an article by Arthur Danto on Kimura which is very poignant. I can't put it in his words but here's what I gathered: Kimura paints what is underneath the imagery of landscape. Its as if he paints what swells up from under namable trees, grass and flowers when that ecstatic, nostalgic fall sun hits your back. He captures visually what I experience through all my senses plus memory. Its smell, sound, sight, touch, memory all funneled through and replayed in the visual. So for me the experience of his paintings is completely overwhelming.

Re-reading that I actually don't know if that is quite what the article said but that's where it took me anyway. Probably because when I think about my own work that is also what I work to do, although I could never work from landscape. When I paint Alex and I eating breakfast its about funneling the smell of coffee, sound of the heater, sight of the morning light, touch of the spoon and memory of doing this over 600 times at Rodman street all back through the visual. What a powerful and impossible task.

JSS Student Work

2011-09-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

These days, during the week to get my fix of looking at art, I browse the internet a lot. I stumbled across some really beautiful work at the Jerusalem Studio School this week.

All these pieces are done by anonymous students, posted on JSS' facebook page.

Hopefully someday I'll be able to get back to Israel to see it in person.

Kathy Bradford Lecture

2011-09-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

Yellow Suit Diver, 2010 10 x 8 inches

Working at PAFA this semester happily allows me to take advantage of the many opportunities provided to students and others in this art community. Thank god for that because last Wednesday I heard one of my favorite critics, Kathy Bradford, discuss her work in a lecture at lunch.

Listening to her in this capacity was just as inspiring, intriguing, exciting as working with her for the past two years. If you ever have the chance to see her work in person (she shows at Edward Thorpe) or hear her speak, make sure you do.

Her genuine nature comes through in both and allows others to connect with her in a rare and real way. The best example I can give is she showed the audience of a picture of a handwritten sign which said 'be ordinary'. She said this was a note she left for herself at her studio in Maine so when she came back she would remember this challenge.

For me, as a woman painter, the idea that she is that confident not only in the fact that being ordinary is the best way to make work but that she personally believes in her own ordinary-ness is so thrilling. And she should because she is fabulous.

Man Under Water, 2010, 8 x 6 inches

Bill Scott

2011-09-18T17:53:00.000-07:00

Bill Scott, Coastline, 2011

This is my favorite painting from a show of a lot of fabulous painting. Through October 8th, Bill has a solo show of about 20 paintings at Hollis Taggart in NY. I keep going back to the show's catalog to look at the work but also to read a line in the foreword that just explains exactly what I love about his work and what I want out of mine, "...imbuing each canvas with echoes of remembered experiences, moments and ruminations. Into each he weaves threads of color, compositions and subject matter chosen from his rich repository of artistic inspiration, experiences culled from the earliest moments when art 'found' him and he 'found' art." They're like poems made of paint.

Bananas Collage

2011-09-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous anonymous student collage. I love painted paper collages and this one is top notch.

Drawing Show

2011-09-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

Brushing His Teeth, 2011, Ink on Paper

I just found out two of my drawings were accepted into a drawing show at Delaware County Community College. The juror was Kate Kraczon of the ICA and the premise was a survey of contemporary drawing in the Philadelphia area. The piece above along with another one will be in the show from September 21 through October 28. I did a bunch of drawings over the summer and am glad for this opportunity as I don't think I've ever shown my drawings before but always wanted to. I'm also curious to see the other work she picked. I'll try to take notes as I know DCCC is a bit far from CC Philly so stay tuned...

Alice Mumford

2011-09-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

I love painter Alice Mumford's still lives when they are so quick and casual. Her work always reminds me to only include what is absolutely necessary because that is when she is at her best and when I am at mine. Check out more work at her gallery here...

Smithsonian Online

2011-08-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

Alex and Ada Katz ca. 1969

Fairfield Porter ca. 1970

Paul Wonner ca. 1970

My aunt recently let me on to a great resource. The archives of American Art by the Smithsonian is like picking through my idols' diary. Pictures of so many of my favorite artists, their sketchbooks (david park's is especially great) and letters to friends, family and others. It's so easy to get lost in these as they seem to make the artists shrink from their larger than life status in my head to people I could know and talk about art with, which makes them that much more inspiring.

Good Find

2011-08-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

There is a little gem of a store a few blocks away that I thought I should share. Its called Woven Treasures but I know it as the corner store with a lot of cool old looking stuff in the window. Its at 23rd and South across from the grocery store and I just picked up this beauty there last week. It looks quite fancy but rest assured did not break the bank, and I have a small bank.

In addition to some nice jewelry, they have a ton of imported textiles and housewares including turkish rugs, tiles and ceramic. You must see for yourself or visit their website here but be warned the in-person experience is much more gratifying than the online equivalent.

Ordinary Things I Can't Live Without

2011-08-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

These two grocery store items are so helpful in my prep work. The first is an upgraded toothpaste squeezer that gets so much extra paint out of every nearly finished tube. The second is a shower squeegee which a friend at school told me to use when applying gesso to panel. Works like a charm. They are each like 5-8 dollars too. I keep wondering what other household products out there could be of such use to me...

Very Pinteresting

2011-08-12T17:06:00.000-07:00

Pinterest is a fabulous resource for artists....if you haven't heard of it, its pretty much a virtual corkboard where you can pin any image you see online into a categories simply by clicking a 'pin it' icon installed on your toolbar. Then you can go to your boards and review your pins as well as anyone else you stumble upon.

I am guessing this is the craze others found amazing about facebook, scrolling through each other's pictures, but for me, scrolling through other people's images is where its at! I've also found it so interesting to look at the similarities in color and composition of the things I like. Check out my art pinboard here...

I like my things like I like my art...

2011-08-07T14:02:00.001-07:00

Marimekko Pillow from Crate and Barrel

Original Collage from Harry Stooshinoff on Etsy

Two things I want to own and love to look at.

Miranda July

2011-08-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

still from The Future

I'm so excited that Miranda July's new movie The Future is playing soon

in Philadelphia. I loved her first movie, You, Me and Everyone We Know and have read this one is great too.

Here's a moving quote from an interview with her:

"Life is so ridiculously gorgeous, heartbreaking, horrific, etc, that we are compelled to describe it to ourselves, but we can't! We cannot do it! And so we make art."

Jonas Wood...

2011-07-29T12:09:00.000-07:00

...and I both seem to love to paint patterns, round things like cups and jade plants. Therefore it would seem I love his work and that would be true.

Happy 100 Degrees!

2011-07-24T06:22:00.000-07:00

In honor of this unbearable heat, I will share with you a painting I have hidden in my favorites collection, the collection of a few pieces I hoard all for myself. But this heat wave is so miserable, I figure I have to pull out anything that will make others happier and cooler. I would love to be at the beach in this Mitchell Johnson painting...what a fantastic composition and bridge between his love of color, form and subject.

Drawing Show

2011-07-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

Haverford Backyard II, charcoal on paper, 18 X 24 inches

Nice drawing by Martha Armstrong in group show at Gross McCleaf through July 29th.

New York in July

2011-07-17T03:42:00.000-07:00

If you find yourself in New York, on the weekend, in July, don't expect to go to galleries. Even though their websites, the gallery guide and all other stores would lead you to believe you are not crazy for trying...you are. I found this out with two friends when we tried to hit some shows closing this weekend (which were never open this weekend).

The good news was, we were in New York. So there were still things to look at. Shops and markets and people. Actually, the Wolf Kahn show at Ameringer was open by some freak accident too and it was worth the trip in itself. The other gallery which we found open,

showcasing the Joan Mitchell MFA recipients, was not.

But the best thing I learned about on this trip was Strand Bookstore. At 14th and Broadway with 'over 18 miles of books' I would guess 15 miles were art books. Good art books, including probably the best I have ever seen in terms of good color reproductions; the expanded edition of Diebenkorn by G. Nordland. It wasn't expanded by one page just to sell more copies either, looked like double the original from what I remember of it.

And so through these few things I got what I needed from New York again: don't be trendy, don't be indulgent, make a lot of work, struggle with it, work from a place of that's honest, work from formal picture-making questions, even if you don't know how to say what they are. Thanks NY.

Shark Pig

2011-07-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

Hank & Camilla's Reception from Shark Pig on Vimeo.

I know this blog rarely deviates from art anymore, and really painting at that, but I wanted to share something with you that is not painting but quite delightful.

Since I am entering this whole wedding planning world, I have found a lot of the resources and examples online and in magazines to be quite painfully cliche and even quite boring at times. Even the DIY blogs end up looking lame after a while.

But recently my friend and artist photographer in her own right, Courtney Apple (you must see her work, click the link) showed me the video above. Although probably neither of us will even have a videographer, the spirit of the event and the video itself seem quite artful. Capturing a glimpse but leaving the rest to my imagination and attendees' memory-that's all I can ever hope for-in my wedding or my paintings.

P.S. Check out more of his video work here...

Mary Fedden's Purple Painting

2011-07-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a reader, I looked into the work of Mary Fedden and couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised! This painting is just delicious. I would love to see it in person...of course she's another Royal Academy grad so just another reason I have to get to London! Please continue to send artists my way!

Pretty Can Be Serious

2011-06-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

I just saw the film Hockney at the Tate. It was very good, mostly an interview on how he was thinking about his work during its creation and when looking at it in the show. I pulled two quotes from it into my sketchbook:

I started painting pictures about things I know, not just what I'd seen.

[critics] think that pretty can't be serious and frankly I've never understood that.

Virva Hinnemo

2011-06-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

I just recently found the work of this Finnish artist online. I really enjoy it, seems a bit like Nozkowski's abstractions of specific objects found in his reality. And she comments on this on her blog here. They are just delightfully enjoyable to me.

Happy Friday!

2011-06-17T13:47:00.001-07:00

Christopher Knowles Untitled (Three Kids) 1991

I hope your weekend is wonderful and you find yourself in the middle of a kid sandwich. Minus the gun. Although-they don't look too concerned.

Woodmere Shows

2011-06-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

Still Life, Elizabeth Godshalk Burger 1940

Dancing Waters 2, Jan Baltzell (a great PAFA professor) 1991-92

Mountain, Beach in Maine, Rose Naftulin, date unknown

Still Life, Catherine Mulligan (PAFA graduate), 2008

I went out to the Woodmere Museum a few days ago with a few PAFA people for my second time. This, like my first visit, really exceeded my expectations. There are a bunch of different shows going on until June 26th that flow so nicely through the space and the works themselves. Kudos to the curator for bringing together different time periods and ways of working. It really got me thinking about what things stay the same for all artists.

It was especially enjoyable to see so much good work made by Philadelphia women artists (note all images above). The Woodmere apparently specializes in Philadelphia region artists and so many of the artists I was familiar with but rarely see the work in person or can find online. (note poor image quality above! I had to take photos of the catalog) Check it out in person! Chestnut Hill's main drag is right down the street and so perfect for a summer stroll post-Woodmere.

Kyle Staver

2011-06-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

In the last few months I was introduced to the work of Kyle Staver by a friend at school. I am dying to see her work in person...pattern, line, color all wrapped up in imagery which seems personal and derived from her own life. Check out more on her website...

Capucci at the PMA

2011-06-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

The dress above was in the show, along with some great old footage like this of his work as it initially appeared on the runway and in commercial ads.

I went to the Capucci show yesterday at the Phila Museum of Art. It was a fun thing to see, a little less brain power, a little more uninhibited delight than I usually experience while at the PMA. The show is a great visual thing though: careful, idiosyncratic color relations, outrageous forms and decadent materials, all masquerading as dresses- it was quite amusing.

But in all seriousness, I could relate to Capucci, and really enjoyed seeing his work evolve from wacky experiments that seemed unrelated in his early work, to a sustained body of work that showed his eccentricity in taste but felt tied together by his particular interests. I could see he worked through questions he posed to himself, allowing his instincts and talents to guide his practice. My mom pointed out a quote that we really liked which said something like, Capucci worked from nature through memory and emotion. I think this could be said about all great art probably.

Hello Summer

2011-05-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day from me! (and Nicolas de Stael)

Some more snapshots from the ASE

2011-05-26T13:19:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots I took in the MFA galleries of the student exhibition. There is a ton of other great work though so be sure to stop by if you're in Philly, its up until June 5th.

James Erickson's subtle oil paintings

Printmaker Matt Colaizzo's detailed woodblock prints

Wall-neighbor Sarah Burns' self-portraits

Sarah Weber's labor-intensive pencil drawings

J. Gordon's mixed media and installation(in background) works

Derrick Quevedo's beautiful watercolor book

Dganit Zaubermann's sculpture formed around her body

(my wall in the background)

Jason Maas's drawing (that's me, second from the left!), his painting pictured above

Ted Walsh's wall of ominousness

Lauren Garvey's wonky and wonderful creations

Eric Huckabee's investigations into color, line and all things formal

What an amazing two years it's been getting to work around such a variety of artists and their talents. I have gotten something from each and every one!

My Thesis Show

2011-05-19T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some shots of my work exhibited for my thesis show. The first is a picture of me, as a friend put it, "looking like a wallflower-- just like in [my] paintings" during the defense.

Installation Shots:

Cheerios with White:

Night Party:

Detail:

Breakfast at Rodman:

Some detail shots of Breakfast at Rodman:

My statement required for defense:

On my favorite days, reality mixes freely with a little whimsy; patterns separate themselves from their fabric homes and no one questions the flowers when they levitate off the dinner table. Most times though, when I stay with those thoughts, it becomes unnerving. Things begin to change shape and anxiety pushes reverie to the periphery.

Painting scenes from my life and memory, I slowly uncover forms, shadows and relationships not initially remembered. The unsettling air in the paint begins to contradict the namable world of flowers, bowls and coffee cups. The paintings’ apparent delight quietly unravels into colored aberration, illusions into brushed marks.

To see more visit my artist website: www.aubreylevinthal.com

Great Trash Picks

2011-05-15T07:27:00.001-07:00

I had to take a post just to say thank you to whoever throws out such great things in my neighborhood and also suggest to those looking for great stuff to find out what day Lombard Street has trash day and bring a shopping bag!

In the last two weeks, on separate occasions, I have rescued (below) two outdoor lanterns and a funky little candle holder that now exists in our bedroom. I have seen great chairs, stools, tables etc. which I couldn't use at the time or carry but will be keeping an eye out for as I look to relocate my studio in the fall!

Art Party

2011-05-07T14:17:00.000-07:00

The art party was a great success! Overall, we raised about $1700 for Fresh Artists through tickets and art sales. A lot of people came out and supported the arts!

Here are a few shots from the night, you can see more at Reimagine Philly's Facebook Page.

The show was in a large warehouse space, MBN Studios, in Northern Liberties, with a ton of funky sofas, vintage lamps and brick walls with exposed pipes which set a good vibe for the night.

Some of the art, much of which sold and all of which was admired!

Local musicians generously played a few sets for us!

Founder of Fresh Artists, Barbara Allen talks about her organization

Maybe as a reward for all my hard work or maybe because I'm incredibly lucky (one as a graduation present from Alex's mom, one bought by Alex), I ended up going home with two works by two of my favorite artist/ friends:

This beauty by Amanda Bush

And this awesome thing by Lauren Garvey.

P.S. I can not wait to post some installation shots of our graduate exhibit, there is a lot of incredddible work to come. Stay posted.

ASE Opening Next Friday

2011-05-05T05:59:00.000-07:00

110th Annual Student Exhibition

May 13 - June 5, 2011

Come to our graduate thesis exhibition! The opening is May 13th and after seeing everyone begin installation yesterday, looks like its going to be good!

Sheila Hicks at ICA

2011-05-03T12:44:00.001-07:00

You must see this show at ICA. It is a career retrospective of fiber artist Sheila Hicks and it is stunning.

All images courtesy of the ICA

The large works are jaw dropping and all-consuming but the multitude of small works really provide insight into the artist wrestling with color and pushing herself, they have a power all their own.

Reimagine PHILLY's Art Party!

2011-04-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

Come to this art event! I am responsible for organizing the art show and it will be a lot of great local artists and PAFA graduate students! Full Disclosure: Alex and a few of his friends began the organization but its a really awesome cause, a great time and a good way to support the arts in Philly. Check more details out here....

Harry Stooshinoff

2011-04-19T19:18:00.001-07:00

I love these little works by Harry Stooshinoff, a canadian painter of mainly landscapes. He says on his blog that he goes out and quickly sketches a composition that catches his eye and then comes back to the studio and works primarily from the memory of looking and drawing. I think this is really palpable in the way he reduces the images to major relationships and confident brushstrokes. However, they all seem to have poignant, odd little details that make them so wonderful...I know the exact feeling of remembering these little things when you go to paint from memory. His works are never generalized or repeated, all of them feel like fresh investigations. And one of the best things is they are affordable and for sale on his etsy site! I can't wait until I have a few dollars to purchase a few of these and support the artists whose work I love!

Clover Market in Ardmore

2011-04-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

I was asked if I wanted to participate in this art/craft/vintage market recently called Clover Market. It's right in the town I grew up in, but I have been to a lot of 'craft fairs' which I won't name that seem dated, kitsch and even a bit depressing. So I told them I would check it out as there are three dates: this past Sunday; April 10th, May 1st and June 5th.

I'm guessing you know where I'm going with this...I was pleasantly surprised to find such adorable shops, set ups and local flavor. It seemed like the best of Etsy in the flesh. A ton of vintage ranging from furniture to hairpins, some artists, a band and even some local food vendors.

I bought things, which I shouldn't have looking at my artist budget these days, but I couldn't help myself:

Beaded bag (Nannygoat Antiques) perfect for summer nights when I need a small bag.

Tea towels by recent Pratt MFA grads and their new printmaking business...check it out here...

I don't know that I'll be participating, at least not this year, but it was a great event for people that are interested in objects that are well made, handmade or repurposed and support local artists.

If you want more details...check out Clover Market's blog here and if you want to be a vendor, they have a page for applying for that as well!

The Clay Studio

2011-04-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

Installation Shot of For The Table: Dinnerware

Last weekend I went down to Old City for the First Friday festivities. It was pretty cold and dreary and I have to say the paintings matched that attitude. I was ready to leave uninspired when we popped into the Clay Studio. They have a show up (pictured above) of beautiful and quirky pieces of tableware. Of course, I am obsessed with this stuff anyway but I think anyone would enjoy the show. There was even a siamese(?) cereal bowl, I guess you can share milk with your significant other? So funny. I wanted to own everything, paint everything and eat out of everything. So if you are reading this and want to get me a present....go here.

Gwendolyn Yoppolo, Siamese Cereal Bowl (name assigned by me)

Me, Wayne and Maira

2011-04-06T10:41:00.001-07:00

I couldn't resist title-ing this post this way...it has such a nice ring to it, don't you think? So I wasn't in a real group show with Wayne Thiebaud, Maira Kalman and some other quite talented artists but I was featured in this fishfood blog post about affordable food art for one of my etsy paintings (#3). A great blog, I feel so encouraged being a part of it!

A Glimpse of Spring

2011-04-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

This weekend it finally got a little bit warmer.

I bought hyacinths to spruce up our place a little.

And went to a good friend's wedding shower. Which was springy (note the adorable party favor)

Bertie is the bride's grandmom and I've been wanting this recipe for years. Some kind of white chocolate chex mix. For now I'll just have to eat it, pretend it's healthy and go for a run in the warm weather to make up for it. Happy Spring!

David Hockney's Dog Drawings are...

2011-04-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

The best things ever. Happy Friday.

Collages by Keats and Katz

2011-03-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

Whistle For Willie Illustrations (above and below) by E.J. Keats

The Snowy Day Illustration (Above) by E.J. Keats

Alex Katz Collages (above), of which imagery and the book are nearly impossible to find

I love, love, love these works. The paired-down simplicity, graphic, flat quality to the image and color/pattern contrasts are so fresh.

I forgot all about Keats' work until working with kids this past summer. I thought it was so funny that my aesthetic taste has carried through since I was little, as these were some of my favorite books. I remember completely judging a book by its cover and only being invested in the story if I thought the illustrations were good (which is quite snobby considering I was probably making scribbles).

When I saw Katz's collages which I favor over a lot of his paintings, I thought of this connection. I also thought of some of Horace Pippin's work in relation to these collages. I have begun thinking about all these qualities in relation to my work too. How to incorporate pattern and a more graphic element in contrast to my brushy strokes are fueling a few experiments these days. Not quite ready for the unforgiving eternity of the cyberworld yet though...

David Sedaris on Conceptual Art

2011-03-27T18:31:00.001-07:00

If you haven't read this yet, you should:

Or listen to it. That's what I did while painting recently and when he got to Chapter 4 : 12 Moments in the Life of an Artist, I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. Not only at his jokes about artists and their deadly seriousness but also the irony that I was at that second probably at about Moment 5, in my studio, paintbrush in hand. Which I actually had to put down to jot down some of the things he said to laugh at later. Here they are, not exactly quotes but pretty close:

"I took an apartment near the state university where I discovered two things: methamphetamines and conceptual art, neither one of these things is dangerous but in combination they have potential to destroy entire civilizations.

[Former art friends] were still talking about pen and ink portraits and couldn’t seem to understand my desire to drag a heavy cash register through the forest…I hadn’t actually done it but it sounded like a good idea to me.

His living room contained nothing but a giant nest of hair…Their artworks were known as pieces…Nice piece I’d say. In my eagerness to please I accidentally complimented chipped base boards and sacks of laundry waiting to be taken to the cleaners. Anything could be art if you looked hard enough. The world was our conceptual oyster and we ate it raw."

Smart Art

2011-03-23T16:43:00.001-07:00

I'm not usually a sucker for clever, conceptual work. In fact, I'm not even sure this is a visual work of art but I have to agree with the collaborating artist Christian Bok-- it is some kind of poetry-- and sensitive enough for me to think about after the punchline.

Humphrey Ocean Interview

2011-03-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite contemporary painters, Humphrey Ocean's take on what is essential to his work:

"I paint what I know. I'm not interested in the grand tour. The things that I paint make their mark, make me feel something, and it's that feeling I'm trying to paint. I like to paint where human beings have been,

where they've done something to a place."

Someone can walk past a portrait and recognise that person, but if it's like something about that person, that tiny thing that is absolutely them, whatever it is, then that's a terrific thing.

Each time I paint, I open up and take in all of what I see. I let all the shipping come in and hope the right thing comes into the harbour and parks up, and that's when I know I've got the little thing I want. I can't even try to explain what I'm looking for, but I know when I haven't got it and I know when I have."

And here is a nice little excerpt from Nick Hornby's article on Ocean and what painting is all about:

"When I went to visit Ocean, I had just finished reading The Eclipse of Art, in his conclusion, Spalding promises that when the shadow of conceptualism passes, we will be dazzled by the imaginative light of the artists working in our backyard.

I put this to Ocean, but he is having none of it, of course: he has a nice life, his paintings are sought by collectors, and in any case he finds the current climate much healthier than the Eighties, "when everything was so referential, and everyone was walking around with Gogol sticking out of their pockets. Not that there's anything wrong with Gogol." In any case, Ocean is perfectly content to let history sort it all out. "I mean, people don't look at a Rembrandt and think, 'Well, I don't know what to make of that.' And they're not interested just because he's old, either. You look at a Rembrandt and your knees shake. That's what it's about."

Tracy Miller

2011-03-18T06:52:00.000-07:00

In honor of a sunny Friday, the ebullient paintings of Tracy Miller:

Breakfast, 2009, 20 x 20 inches

Tartelette, 2003-08, 40 x 30 inches

Candy, 2009-10, 30 x 20 inches

photos courtesy of the artist

Good Things

2011-03-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

Do you know the work of Kenzo Okada (1902-1982)? If not, don't feel bad, neither did I until yesterday. But thankfully one of my critics told me I would love him and he was right! So now I have to share with you.

P.S. This is my 100th blog post and right around the year anniversary of this compilation of art thoughts. Since I heard yesterday that 80% of blogs die by 6 months...I'm kind of proud.

Taste of Spain

2011-03-14T18:02:00.001-07:00

Here are some of the wondrous things I saw in the last week in Spain

Mosaic in the Alcazar Palace in Seville

Me in front of a LARGE tree in the Jardins de Murillo

All the streets were inlaid with stones or tiles

Clouds at twilight on the bridge to Triana

Odd vase in the Cathedral's treasury

View of Ronda as the sun broke through rain clouds

Even the pigeons were pretty, the white ones looked so clean

Glazed statue in the Alhambra gardens

Ronda Trees in Silhouette

Starry sky in the day

Roger Chavez at UCAL

2011-03-02T12:19:00.001-08:00

I've been meaning to post this for a while. The wonderful art center I have worked at for the last few years, University City Arts League, has hung a beautiful solo show of Roger Chavez's drawings and paintings.

As you can probably tell, the work has to be seen in person and it is only up until Friday! The pieces are quiet, searching and humble...all things I value and seem increasingly endangered in the art world these days. (Sorry I'm a little bitter from yesterday's '4th wall'...but that's for another post or maybe for another blog or maybe for a journal I then proceed to burn.)

Rebekah Templeton

2011-03-02T12:04:00.000-08:00

Rebekah Templeton Gallery has just begun an online inventory gallery of sorts which is pretty cool. Work that has been exhibited in the space previously or other work by artists which have shown there have work available online. Some of my pieces from the show last spring are listed.

They are also holding an open call for new artists. It's a great space with some of the nicest people in the art community I've met. There is also an interactive performance piece this Saturday which includes an old typewriter and the ability to send personal letters via the artist. Check it all out here...

Adele

2011-02-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

I am loving this video, not to mention song and artist. Such a mix of old and new.

P.S. I finally fixed my comment link to be open to anyone to post and visible when posted! Feel free to send a message.

The Little Apple

2011-02-27T09:08:00.000-08:00

This adorable space in Manayunk has asked me to show some of my Etsy pieces which are birthday and cake related. The Little Apple shows all handmade artworks and original vintage-y goods. Check it out here and be sure to come to the party on Saturday!

Great Photograph

2011-02-25T10:36:00.001-08:00

Amazing photograph my Aunt found of my Popi (grandfather) in his 1960's kitchen with dog Yum-Yum.

Bay Area Love

2011-02-25T10:24:00.000-08:00

This is an amazing book:

With a lot of color illustrations of amazing paintings like this:

Still Life with Butter Dish, 20 x 16.25, Oil on Canvas, 1957

Which reminds me to tell you about this guy:

Mitchell Johnson, a contemporary artist working in Palo Alto, California.

NYC Gallery Shows

2011-02-13T17:17:00.000-08:00

Melancholy Breakfast from Stones, Larry Rivers and Frank O'Hara

This was my favorite piece in the Tibor de Nagy show Painters and Poets. There were quite a few nice drawings and paintings as well.

I also saw the Lois Dodd show at Alexandre Gallery which was great because I have never seen her work in person and she is a visiting artist at PAFA in March!

Blair Pond Frozen, 2010

Oil on Masonite

NYC Conference Summary

2011-02-13T16:21:00.000-08:00

I spent the last three days in New York for the CAA Conference. It was hard to know what to expect so I figured I'd share if you are curious. The one thing I suspected was that it'd be tough to make any progress on the job front, and that was true. There were only a few recruiters and they were all looking simultaneously really busy and really bored.

We went to some lectures and meetings and things ranging from really good to really bad. The really bad involved artists and gallerists explaining how definite failure would be unless we (emerging artists) take charge, create our own scene, make connections in a natural way etc. and at that point I was wondering why I paid to hear how I shouldn't go to established events like this one to learn about things I already know....

But anyways on to the good because that is what I like to dwell on here. The highlight of the conference was a panel of artists including Petah Coyne, Vija Celmins, Philip Taaffe, Robert Gober and Janine Antoni. I felt sort of star struck. The topic was the artist's mind when they are not in the studio or something like that. It seemed like the instructions to the artists on what to talk about were kept really broad which I loved. The stories they told and ways they presented themselves really mimicked their work and personalities.

Vija Celmins spent her 15 minutes talking about her garden in Sag Harbor and Swedish detective novels which was wonderfully intimate and mundane at the same time (so true to her painstaking and beautiful work, pictured below: charcoal on paper)

Philip Taafe spoke more philosophically: he praised idleness and what happens when you know how to look at the world in a slow and deliberate way.

Robert Gober told personal stories of times he was not making art including a very important cross country trip which included visiting Matthew Shepard's fence. He said everything he learned in life he had to figure out for himself (which I liked in light of the conference).

Janine Antoni performed a dance which she said allowed her to feel the spaces between one form (herself) and another (us). She was engaging and self confident like the work she produces.

Finally, Petah Coyne. She spoke first but I saved her for last because she was my favorite. She showed her work and with each piece told the 'wandering memory' it was based on and the book she liked to think of it connecting to. For example she told a story of housing war vets in her home as a child and how they "moved as if in honey jars through the house." Everything she said was poetic and incredibly beautiful. The work too, physically, seemed to conjure up this poetic memory space that I am so interested in.

Finally, something I observed was that all the artist's seemed in awe of one another. A little intimidated of how creative and talented each was but proud to be peers. I was in awe of that fact and am constantly in awe of my artist friends and peers and hope to continue on this way using the panel's advice to always allow life to enter in and use it when I make work.

Good Things

2011-02-09T07:08:00.000-08:00

1. Because I am graduating soon, attending the CAA conference and generally needing to be more professional I have made some updates. New business cards and uploads to my website!

2. Second good thing is the song Long Way by Antje Duvekot. So nice.

Richard Baker Interview

2011-02-06T14:16:00.000-08:00

Here is an excerpt from an interview of Richard Baker (shows at Tibor de Nagy) with John Yau. It was published in the Brooklyn Rail (great publication!) last February. Pretty much sums up my feelings exactly and I'm guessing could mean a lot to other painters right now. See the complete interview here...

Baker: Well, I never set out to be a still-life painter. It’s not something I chose to be. Matter of fact, I found myself early on feeling shocked and nearly embarrassed that, wait a second, I’m a still-life painter—how’d that happen? So if I was going to embrace that genre, which I did, I effectively had to elbow out the edges of it. Take the things that are banished from it and try and have them re-enter the picture.

Yau: And there is the formal element because within your paintings is the constant examination of the relationship of things to the picture plane. You are painting flat things—books, photographs, and reproductions, for example—that are “placed” on a severely tilted plane. The surface of this plane—a table—is tilted in a very precarious way….you feel like the world is slipping away just as you’re trying to grasp it. Seeing is not fixed, but fluid. In your paintings I feel that the world is at once fulsome and material and it’s sliding off the picture plane.

Baker: We are bodies that apprehend these things through our senses, through touch, smell, sight, even through hearing, and as a painter, I mean I could be a photographer, and I’d eliminate that sort of experience. The porcelain—I mean somebody made this thing in the world. And then, as a painter, I apply colored mud and make another representation. I have to be concerned with the sheen of light, the matte surface, the density of the object. I have to try to represent all of it with this oily colored mud and that’s part of being a living, breathing, feeling being.

Yau: So in your painting of broken glasses, you seem to be acknowledging that chaos is always there, that things do fall apart, and that nothing is perfect. And I think that that becomes another element of meaning in the work.

Baker: Are you saying that it’s acknowledging that this too shall pass, that it doesn’t last forever?

Yau: Yeah.

Baker: It’s like a memory.

Yau: Norman Bryson said that one of the things that makes still-life different from all other paintings is that it banished narrative, but what you’re saying is that that’s not true, that a lot of still-life does embody the narrative in that you can connect the dots.

Good Women Painters

2011-02-04T09:39:00.000-08:00

Annabel Gault

Elisabeth Cummings

Idris Murphy

Here are three contemporary women painters whose work I like a lot and see a lot of similarities between. Their interests in gesture, landscape, color and form are all inventive and felt. Gault shows at Red Fern in London and Cummings and Murphy show at King Street in Australia. All info on the paintings can be found at these websites.

PAFA Open Studios

2011-02-01T14:28:00.001-08:00

PAFA is having open studios on Friday February 11th. Come by, I'm studio 813!

Nicholson Tablescapes

2011-01-29T10:47:00.001-08:00

So my critics keep asking me why I paint 'tablescapes' so much. Meaning things on a table, like a dinner table for example. I don't know the answer but I think its an inherent thing and to defend this I have noticed that three artists I like that are related all paint tablescapes! William Nicholson (father) Ben Nicholson (son) and Winifred Nicholson (wife/daughter-in-law). They do paint other nice paintings as well but still a lot of it is objects on a table or flowers or views out the window just like I love.

William Nicholson

Ben Nicholson

Winifred Nicholson

A Little Klimt (landscape)

2011-01-25T18:11:00.000-08:00

Wow I love these so much right now! There's so much art history in them and following them. A visual delight.

Pear Tree, 1903

Beech Grove I, 1902 (hello Peter Doig)

Rose Bushes Under the Trees, 1918

Park 1909-10

Spring Please

2011-01-24T17:19:00.000-08:00

Tonight I'm wishing on my twinkly lights that tomorrow our back patio has flowers blooming and birds chirping. It's too cold! (18 degrees with snow on the way) Wish with me.

Some Favorite Snow Paintings

2011-01-20T16:50:00.000-08:00

Claude Monet, The Magpie, 1868, Oil

Winifred Nicholson, Rooks, Hyacinths and Snow, 1935

Fairfield Porter, View towards the studio, 1967..........................Biala, Le Jardin Hiver, 1978

Lois Dodd, The Bakery in Late Winter Snow, 2005

Alfred Sisley, Snow at Louveciennes, 1878........................Rik Wouters, Late Snow, 1912

Etsy Artist Love

2011-01-19T14:58:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth Mayville, Cactus, 8 x 8

I came across this painting while browsing through Etsy paintings, (more browsing than stopping) but its worth it when you stumble upon something as nice as this. Check out more of her work here...

Gifts I Need To Share

2011-01-16T06:39:00.001-08:00

I had such a wonderful holiday, I think for the past two weeks I was in denial that they have been over. But now that school is officially back in session (for my last semester EVER...eek) I have to come to terms with it. But I have such amazing family and friends whose gifts are going to last for years to come.

Alex surprised me to the point that I pretty much puked....we're going to Spain for my spring break! I really just keeled over with shock. There are no words. We are going to Seville, Granada and Ronda so I will definitely be updating you on that in the future. Needless to say I bought a new sketchbook and am giddy just thinking about what I will see and need to put into it. Good bye drawings of coffee cups and our couch! (at least for 9 fabulous days)

Among the other wonderful things were two beautiful art books. Jane Wilson, Horizons and Maira Kalman, Various Illuminations of a Crazy World (image on right)

The Kalman book was made to go along with her recent show at ICA. I don't know that my aunt and uncle knew how much I loved that show when they gave me the book. The show had her drawings, personal objects and writing on the walls all contributing to a diaristic type feel that was so fresh and enjoyable and mimicked her style of working. The book is just the same with kooky drawings and musings on life and installation shots of the show. It also contains essays by the director Claudia Gould, and senior curator, Ingrid Schaffner who I interned for a few years ago which was fun to read.

The Wilson book is just beautiful and also mimicks the artist's life and style. She was part of the Freilicher, Kahn, Porter crew in New York in the 50s/60s that I am so dazzled by. The book has fabulous black and white photos of them in the Hamptons and great Manhattan apartments and has a ton of color reproductions of her work.

I first heard of her this year (surprisingly) when I was in the PAFA vaults and saw this painting in the flesh (so good):

Some of Willa's Things, 1971, Oil on Canvas 60 x 80

I love her still lifes and feel a real connection to a lot of her work although it changed a lot throughout her career. Here is an early one I really like:

Figure with Still Life, 1955, Oil on canvas, 43 x 50

This one's more mid career and very subtle in color which I admire:

Water Mill Fog, 1966, Oil on Canvas, 60 x 74

Here is an example of her work from the last 15 years of so which is very inspired by the changing weather:

Green Sky in Autumn, 2004, Oil on Canvas, 60 x 60

If you can take a look at these books or the work in person (Wilson shows at DC Moore)...they're wonderful and my pictures are just really inaccurate with color.

I'd Rather Be Painting in England

2011-01-12T10:03:00.000-08:00

While I'm on the topic of English painters (see previous post) I will tell you that I think they have way better contemporary painters than we do here in the US, in general. Okay maybe I am just developing a reason to need to go back to London because I can think of US painters I love and admire but still--check out these works from artists of the New English Art Club for starters: (where all these images came from)

Roy Freer, Oil, Subdued Finding, 27 x 31

Roy Freer, Oil, Shelf Grouping, 24 x 30

Duncan Wood, High Rake I, Oil, 19 x 23

Duncan Wood, Oil, Still Life With Shadow, 22 x 29

Michael Whittlesea, Suffolk in Winter II, Oil, 15 x20

Michael Whittlesea, The Cricket Ground in Winter III, Oil, 17 x 17

Susan Jane Walp and Ffiona Lewis

2011-01-06T07:25:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite things to do is find similarities and influences among artists that weren't pointed out to me before. I guess I like it because it helps me place myself and its just a fun challenge or something. I have liked Susan Jane Walp's work for a while and always thought it had something English about it (thinking Uglow). When I came across Ffiona Lewis's work on a London gallery website I immediately thought of Walp.

Ffiona Lewis, Raspberry Sorbet, 2009, Oil on Board, 8 3/4 x 10 3/4

Ffiona Lewis, Early Spring Window, 2009, Oil on Board, 28 x 33

Ffiona Lewis, City Break Orange, 2009, Oil on Board, 9 x 11

All photos courtesy of Red Fern Gallery

Both artists seem interested in capturing a quiet moment that objects can create when you look at them carefully enough. The sense of dispersed light is similar too, I really enjoy these artists' work!

Susan Jane Walp, Geranium in a Copper Cot with Xerox, 2008, Oil on Paper, 9 3/16 x 8 1/4

Susan Jane Walp, Nuts in White Cup I, 2007 Oil on Paper 7 5/16 x7 7/8

Susan Jane Walp, Late Winter Beet and Spring-Dug Burdock, 2010, Oil on Linen, 8x8

All photos courtesy artist website

Hockney's Ipad Drawings

2011-01-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

I am loving these Ipad drawings by David Hockney. As an artist, I probably shouldn't admit I'm not an apple user. It's always seemed like too big an investment for me but maybe if this is the way art is going I could make one initial investment and be done? Seriously though, this makes me very curious about owning one. It would be so nice to make quick sketchbook drawings without getting out pencils that need sharpened, gouache that dries too quickly in the air, water that spills etc. These drawings really possess his hand and color sense too. I heard he sends a 'fresh bouquet' to about 20 friends each morning. How cool would that be?!

Holiday Cookies

2010-12-26T13:19:00.000-08:00

I made these cookies for our holiday party and they turned out to be delicious. All are in the Pastry Queen Holiday Cookbook. Coconut Snowballs, Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Sandwiches and Chocolate Chewies. Here's the recipe for my favorite:

Coconut Snowballs

1 stick butter

2 egg yolks

2/3 c sugar

1 lb dates

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

2 c rice krispies cereal

1 c chopped pecans

sweetened coconut for coating

In saucepan combine butter, eggs, sugar. Stir over medium low until melted. Add dates and stir for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla, salt, cereal and pecans. Roll into balls and coat with coconut. Enjoy!

Holiday Party Dress

2010-12-26T11:35:00.000-08:00

I was given this dress as a hand-me-down. It's from the 60's and was really big and an awkward length but it was made really beautifully and I love the fabric. I took it to the tailor and now it fits perfectly...I want to wear it for the holidays, maybe New Years if I can find some good nude pumps.

Silhouette Caught in the Studio

2010-12-21T18:01:00.000-08:00

The 'Office'

2010-12-15T17:58:00.000-08:00

I put office in quotations because although we refer to this room as the office we never use it as one. It functions as run-over for everything; Alex's closet, a laundry room, a guest bed and a place for my collections.

A few favorite things from left: student made ceramic, picture of grandmom in snow, pods including chestnut and cotton, bee hive, coral from Jamaica, antique deer figurines

Painting of my great uncle Clyde by my mom

Closet spilling over and desk area including a vintage wall clock and an old travel case from Alex's grandmom which functions as storage.

Our daybed!

My parents built this daybed! I really don't know how they did it...one day Alex said we should get a nice daybed for in here and all the sudden they had made this! It is so sleek and perfect for the space and great for when people visit. I want to get a few more accent type pillows but I think it looks pretty good for now. The only problem is they had to bring it up in pieces because of our windy stairs so when we move we'll have to break it down again...there is no way I'm leaving this behind!

Susan Fenton

2010-12-14T18:13:00.001-08:00

While doing some holiday shopping, I finally stumbled by Schmidt Dean when it was open. I've been trying to see Susan Fenton's new photographs for a while but always seem to be walking by before or after hours on my way from PAFA.

The subtle color photographs were my favorite. They were incredibly formally considered and reminded me of some of my favorite paintings, most notably Morandi. The color relationships were beautiful and intensified the more time I spent with each. Also, the way the forms touched or just missed one another was really wonderful. I could feel the careful delicacy with which she observed and felt each piece. Here are a few of my favorites along with the image above all courtesy of her website:

Lucky Find

2010-12-12T18:47:00.001-08:00

Last week on my walk to school I found this frame with the note above inside, taped to a brick wall with about 5 identical others. Turns out to be a project where participants need to take a photograph of the frame in their home or life and send it to the email provided. I want to just hang the empty frame on my brick wall with my other artwork but I'm not sure this is what they want. I'll try it and see what happens...I'm hoping to get a website where everyone has posted but we'll see...

Holiday Things

2010-12-12T17:54:00.001-08:00

Spray Painted Pine Cones

Potted Winter Plant with Mini Ornaments

Sewn Bird Ornament made by Me

Favorites Near the Top

Here are a few pictures of my decorating efforts over the weekend. The fact that between the two of us we are 1/4 Christian allows for a tree and all the x-mas trimmings. I love the magic of all the sparkles, lights and materials of ornaments and such. Last year I made a bunch of the decorations and am trying to brainstorm on some new things for this year but so far the first year seems much easier...I'll keep you posted...

It's Not Going Above 30 Degrees This Week...

2010-12-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

Katie Pomerantz's Blog

2010-12-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

Beet and Banana Peel, 5 x 3.5 ft, oil on canvas, 2010

Wayne Art Center, Feast the Eyes Exhibition

My friend and classmate from last year, Katie Pomerantz has a relatively new blog. It's called A Lonely Hunter. Good name right? It's also a really nice blog that shows some of her recent work, events and life. The photo at the top is an example of her work. Usually large still lifes of fragile pieces of the natural world -- banana peels, leaves, vines. They are very sensitively rendered and exude a quiet mood, the objects many times looking shy of the spotlight. I always admired her work and we seemed to have similar interests in the feeling portrayed...quiet, felt, almost awkward yet elegant. Needless to say I miss having her around school this year.

She also posted this funny picture of us at the Feast the Eyes show we both participated in. (Our other friend and classmate, Mike Branca, not pictured was also in the show for a nice little yam painting. Check it out on her blog.) I like looking at the photo and remembering how good the feeling is when all the hard work and anxiety amounts to a show and experience to share.