Leslie Garland Bolling's Nudes (1898-1955)

The Library of Virginia recently held an unusual exhibition of masterful wood carving: figurative sculpture by an obscure artist named Leslie Garland Bolling. He was an African-American self-taught artist who lived in Richmond and made more than 80 carvings of working people and nudes from the period of 1926-1943. His nudes are particularly wonderful in their stylization of women's curves. A lot of feeling went into these pieces.

In this series of photos, you can see him working on one of these pieces in his home studio.(Credit: Bolling Carving "Queen of Dreams", Harmon Foundation).

Read more about him and view more works on the Library of Virgina website here:

Leslie Garland Bolling

Pagebull.com Launched

A unique new search engine was just launched on November 28, 2006. It shows a layout of 12 different screen shots per page with highlighted search words. Here's what a search of my name looks like on Pagebull:

Pagebull.com

(Thanks to Marshall Sponder at webmetricsguru for the link)

Published!

Cover by Jonathan Rosen

I finally got my copies of the new "Blab! 17" in the mail this week.

It was a long wait for me - a couple of years almost since I first started doing sketches for "The Banana Eater". The drawing took me months to work out. I decided that Devil's Island would be my backdrop and I had to do some research on plants, animals and people. I also had to make it really entertaining.

The painting was finished in June or July 2005, it was shown in the first Blab! Art Exhibit of Sept. 2005, and has just now been published in Nov. 2006.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Magritte at LACMA

The Rene Magritte exhibit opens November 19, 2006 at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
There will be 68 works by Magritte. The exhibit was designed by John Baldessari and it looks super cool. Hope to make it down there before it closes.

Read about it here and see more images:

LACMA

Thomas Woodruff is Back!

Root Hare Painting copyright 2006 Thomas Woodruff from Freak Parade

There was a gorgeously painted fashion spread in "Swindle" magazine a couple of months ago and now this: an art show at Illinois State University Galleries.
Thomas Woodruff

is back in full force with a new large-format book out

called "Freak Parade" available through Last Gasp.

These are the paintings that he was working on over the last five years.

His work glows with animated, super-magical otherworldliness.

He paints a fanciful universe of weird beauty with an incredibly unique touch, using richly layered paint and subdued colors.
Lucky were the people who got to see this show Sept.25-Nov. 5, 2006. I already know what I want for Christmas this year! I saw some of his series paintings in person at the art museum in Eugene, OR and I will never forget those baby heads and sacred scrolls.

Check out the paintings here:

Freak Parade by Thomas Woodruff

and buy the book!

L.A. Art Shows

Painting by Michael Hussar 2006
Painting by Camille Rose Garcia 2006

Looks like it was an interesting Saturday night for art show openings in Los Angeles. Supertouch blog has photos of Camille Rose Garcia's new show at Merry Karnowsky and Michael Hussar's as well (at Mendenhall-Sobieski). Both are masterful painters with unique styles. I like Camille's new vibrant color palette and what Hussar can do in a minimal way with just red and white. Read about it on:

Supertouch

Antonio Lopez Garcia's Apparitions

Atocha 1963
Woman on the Beach 1959 Pencil Drawing
Antonio Lopez Garcia (born 1936)Standing Girl

Antonio Lopez Garcia.

He paints and draws surreal apparitions...with so much love.

I like his soulful sculptures as well.

More images: pintura.aut.org