Progress - Painting Tickler Uke #3 (Crehore)

Painting a custom ukulele is a delicate process- especially a uke that I designed and that took more than a few years to realize. I am slowly working my way down from the headstock to the body.

See the tiny green bow tie that Lou carved? It will be mounted under the cat's chin. It is only one of the sculptural details on this very special concert uke. P.S. This cat is far from finished, this is just a progress photo taken with my ipad.

The Art of Amy Crehore

 



New Painting: "A Gymnast's Memory of Fall" (Amy Crehore)

 

Here's my second painting in my new series. It is called "A Gymnast's Memory of Fall".

Oil on linen, 12" x 14" ©Amy Crehore 2013 (Update: this painting has been sold)

I want to thank Boing Boing for blogging this- here's their LINK

 You can also view this painting larger here. 

Both paintings are now on the homepage of my website-

The Art of Amy Crehore
First painting in the series is called "A Bellhop's Memory of Spring".

Nudes in Nature

Painting by Emile Chambon

 Painting by Henri Rousseau

 

A couple of paintings I recently discovered - one by Emile Chambon of two nude women in the woods. One girl is standing up and displaying a just little bit of herself. The other girl is revealing absolutely nothing of herself with a cloth draped perfectly over her private parts, but she is looking intently at the other one. This painting has a wonderful sense of humor as does some of the other work by this artist. Chambon seems to rely heavily on compositional elements taken directly from Balthus in many of his paintings, but this is a nice example of his unique work.

The other painting is by Henri Rousseau. It is a charming scene of a big black dog getting it on with a lovely nude who happens to have a mirror in her hand.

(Just noticed the mirror!) This is a painting that I had never seen before.

Henri, you are a bad boy!

This is yet another example of humor in art history.

The great masters of art knew how to have fun.

Thank god for these artists. They keep me on track.

Now, back to painting....

I am finishing up my two new ones. Stay tuned!

 

The Art of Amy Crehore

 

(Thanks, Ralph Paine for sharing Henri Rousseau image) 



New Works in Progress by Amy Crehore

I'm working away to try and finish two new canvases on my easel.

Here are some glimpses of my progress.

 

The Art of Amy Crehore

 



A Blue Ball for Today

"Blue Orb" by Amy Crehore 2005, oil on paper, image size 6 3/4"

 

Since artist Jeff Koons has a new show in NYC of blue balls (must be "in"), I am posting a painting that I did exactly 8 years (May 10, 2005) ago called "Blue Orb". It is part of my "Little Pierrot" series. Most of these paintings can be viewed HERE.

 

The Art of Amy Crehore

 

Back to Work- (Amy Crehore Studio)

Back to work. Two at once.

Amy Crehore Studio April 18, 2013

 

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artofamycrehore.blogspot.com

 

 

Durer's self-portrait and my painting "The Bribe"

 Albrecht Durer, Self-portrait at 13, 1484

"The Bribe" by Amy Crehore, oil on linen, 18" x 24", 2003

 

This is a painting called "The Bribe" that I completed in 2003. It is based on Albrecht Durer's earliest known work, his self-portrait at age 13. I was always intrigued by this drawing (done in 1484) by Durer. I think I was also looking at Martin Johnson Heade's landscapes at the time. Some of my earlier works have references to images in art history.

Here's the actual painting hanging on my wall above my computer. It has never been shown anywhere (although it did win a chosen award in a national AI competition).
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artofamycrehore.blogspot.com

 

David Zwirner

Standing next to a gorgeous Neo Rauch (from what I can see of that trademark green) is dealer David Zwirner. I love so many of the artists that his gallery represents: Neo Rauch, Marcel Dzama, Yayoi Kusama, R. Crumb, Alice Neel, Michael Borremans, Lisa Yuskavage, to name a few. There is a new article about him in the New York Times Style Magazine:

LINK

 

 

The Art of Amy Crehore

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"The Tutu" painting by Amy Crehore

Here's an earlier painting of mine that is hanging on one of my walls. Oil on linen, 20" x 24". The girl was inspired by Matisse. This painting features a vintage Regal tenor guitar (one that I own) and a yawning cat. 

The Art of Amy Crehore

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Walt Kuhn and Guy Pene du Bois

The painter Walt Kuhn (above) was actually one of the organizers of the 1913 Armory show in NYC as a member of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors. Here's a link to Kuhn's records.

This is Walt Kuhn's gorgeous "American Beauty" painting, 1934. It is in the collection of the Chrysler Museum (Norfolk, VA). LINK

It is one of the many portraits of performers that Walt Kuhn painted. More images here.

 

An artist named Guy Pene du Bois was included in the 1913 Armory show along with 299 others.

Below are some of his works (not necessarily in the Armory show, just works that I like). Mysterious and deceptively simple compositions.

Read about Guy Pene du Bois 

More images here.

 

The Art of Amy Crehore

!00th Anniversary of Groundbreaking Armory Show 1913

It is the 1913 Armory Show's 100th anniversary. You can find the list of artists here .

And, oh, what a list it is! 300 artists introduced NYC to "modern art".

Read about the history of this show here.
See a cool map of layout of building and links explaining the art of 1913 Armory show.

 

The Art of Amy Crehore

Latest Courbet News: The Head Was Cut Off

I guess the big art news today is that someone found a painted head in an antique shop that was cut off of the "The Origin of the World" painting by Gustave Courbet, 1866. Of course, the fellow only paid about 1,200 pounds for this head and it is supposedly worth 35 million pounds.

(LINK photo Philippe Petit)

Read full story in the Telegraph.

See the NSFW masterpiece that most people are familiar with (without the head)
HERE: wikipedia 

Cropping made it so dynamic.

Here's the original sketch by Courbet (link):

 

My Painting for Garrison Keillor's article

Nostagia Man painting by Amy Crehore 1996 9 1/2" x 10 1/2"

Over the course of my career, I painted many illustrations for top American magazines. My illustration for Garrison Keillor's 1996 article for the New York Times Magazine called "The Future of Nostalgia" now accompanies a brand new article published today by Matt Novak on Smithsonian Magazine's blog PALEOFUTURE. 

Read the article here: Garrison Keillor's 1996 Predictions for the Future of Media.

Shown above, the surreal oil painting I did in 1996 for the original article in the New York Times Magazine. It certainly was fun illustrating something that Garrison Keillor wrote.

I'm calling it "Nostalgia Man".

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P.S. The many magazine (and book) illustrations that I did over the years are not currently on my website. I am still organizing them and I hope to add them in a special section sometime in the future. You will, however, find many other paintings on my site, such as the fine art works in my previous blog post. (Follow link above)

2012 Paintings by Amy Crehore

 Blue Mirror, oil on linen, 16" x 16" by Amy Crehore © 2012

 Rose Quarry, oil on linen, 12" x 14" by Amy Crehore © 2012

 Basker's Cove, oil on linen, 18" x 24" by Amy Crehore © 2012

Girl With A Fig Leaf Parasol, 16" x 20", oil on linen by Amy Crehore © 2012

The Art of Amy Crehore

What Am I Reading?

I received these two books in the mail from Amazon yesterday.

GOYA by Robert Hughes and Los Caprichos, Goya's etchings (a Dover book). 

The actual Robert Hughes book was cheaper than the kindle version. 

A beautiful book it is, with illustrations throughout.

 This will be a good excuse to shut off the television and the computer at night. 

I miss Robert Hughes and I know these two books about Goya will inspire me. 

The Art of Amy Crehore

P.S. As you can see, Little Hokum Rag looks totally different now! My list of blog links disappeared and I will try and get them back. I also lost my feedburner counter which showed that I had almost 13,000 readers. I do think that you will find this blog easier to read and to navigate. The archives are still intact, so all is well....I hope you will continue to follow my future posts and read the old ones as well. Thanks! Amy

Original Paintings and Prints by Amy Crehore

My art has been shown in many galleries over the years: Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego, Palm Springs, New York City, Brooklyn, Washington, D.C., Richmond, Art Basel Miami and more. The Portland Art Museum (OR), the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the American Museum of Illustration (NYC) have all exhibited my paintings. Visit my website for available work and a selection of signed prints.
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"Blue Whale Cove", New Crehore Art for Sea No Evil Art Show 2011

"Blue Whale Cove" by Amy Crehore 2011, oil on wood, 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" SOLD

Here is my "Blue Whale Cove" framed, 12" x 13"

I created this small piece especially for the Sea No Evil Art Show 2011 - an "Art Benefit to Preserve and Protect the Oceans of the World" to be held on June 25, 2011 6pm at Riverside Municipal Auditorium in Riverside, CA. Captain Paul Watson will be speaking. For more details (tickets):

Sea Shepherd Art Show

Artists include: Amy Crehore, Ana Bagayan, Camille Rose Garcia, Cathie Bleck, Chris Anthony, Clayton Brothers, Eric White, Friends With You, Gretchen Ryan, Jeff Soto, Korin Faught, Nate Frizzell, Shepard Fairey, Tara McPherson and LOTS more (over 100).

For complete artist list click here .

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Girl on a Miniature Horse and a Clown-child (Crehore)

Background detail of "The Angel at Gossamer Creek"painting by Amy Crehore 2010 (direct scan)

Background detail of "The Waiting Pool" painting by Amy Crehore 2010 (direct scan)

Here's just a glimpse of my two new paintings. They have lots of layers of paint. I am waiting for the weather to clear before I can take slides of the completed paintings. Then I will scan the slides for you. "The Waiting Pool" has 10 figures in it. I allowed myself to work on them for as long as I wanted to and they took me... a long time! I scanned these small details directly from the paintings.

The Art of Amy Crehore

My Green Duco Vintage Ukulele

Nip-Cat Design for headstock of vintage green duco ukulele 1920's, copyright Amy Crehore

Back of my green duco-finish uke from the late 1920s. Click to enlarge.
There's a beautiful green duco-finish vintage ukulele in my collection that I am getting ready to enhance. I won't touch the back and sides, but I have something in mind for the headstock and part of the front. Here's my pencil sketch for the headstock design. I call it my "Nip-Cat" uke. I scanned the back of the actual uke on my scanner bed. You can see the gray and green crystallized finish. This baby was found in it's original Montgomery Ward mail order box and had never been played.
More of my hand-painted fine art ukes can be found here , here and here. Some are vintage and some are built from scratch. My Dreamgirl's gallery show in L.A. last year featured 13 of them including another duco (a black one) called The Demon.

The Art of Amy Crehore

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What am I up to?

In progress -painting detail- by Amy Crehore

I have been working like a dog on secret projects. There are shows coming up in Miami and L.A. and all of my efforts are going into painting. I can barely keep up with emails or my blog, but I am doing my best. Here's a partial peek at painting I am working on. It is only half finished. I am working on a zillion things all at once, so this hardly shows what I am really up to. However, I do not want to ruin any surprises, so I am keeping a lot of it to myself for now. I will reveal more later. I just wanted to give you something to look at and look forward to. The Art of Amy Crehore