Detailed Pop Art by Domenico Gnoli

These are cool. Trendland has a selection of works by Domenico Gnoli, an Italian painter and illustrator who died at age 36 at the peak of his career. Shown above: close-up of a bra painted by the artist. These acrylic (and sand) paintings are large (about 50") and they consist of detailed close-ups of hair, pockets, collars, textured fabric on pants, dresses, blouses, etc. The first exhibit in the U.S. since Domenico’s death in 1970 can currently be seen in New York’s Luxembourg & Dayan Gallery until June 30, 2012.
LINK to more photos.

The Art of Amy Crehore

A Look Inside the New Barnes Museum

Vogue has an exclusive look inside the new Barnes Foundation Museum (a couple of views  shown above, photo credit :Tom Crane). Here's the LINK

It looks like they recreated the rooms exactly as they were at the old Barnes Foundation. The collection was housed in Merion, PA for years. The new museum will open in Philadelphia on Saturday, May 19, 2012 (2025 Benjamin Frankin Parkway). That's exciting for Philadelphia because Mr. Albert C. Barnes' collection consists of 69 Cezannes, 59 Matisses, plus many Picassos (46), Modiglianis, Van Goghs (7), Seurats, Renoirs (181 of them), etc. It's one of the most fantastic collections that I have ever seen. I'll never forget the first time I saw these works on a field trip in college (by appointment only). Now many more people will have a chance to view these paintings.

Barnes Foundation
P.S.Update: For even more photos with wow factor check out this NYT link.

Eurospy

David J. Deal has a nice gallery of "Eurospy" posters: LINK (Eurospy).

(Thanks, Josh Gosfield)

The Art of Amy Crehore

Ata Kando's Dream Photos 1955

How beautiful and inspiring. This photo is from a series called "Dream in the Forest" - copyright by photographer Ata Kando 1955.

Read the story of this fascinating photographer, Ata Kando, and see more images in this series on her new website: atakando.com.

(Thanks, Suzanne Gerber)

The Art of Amy Crehore

Do animals have pets?

Koko and Tonda with their pet cats. LINK  (Primatology)

The World Underground 1741

See a fascinating Flickr Set of Illustrations to Ludvig Holberg's The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground (first published in Latin in 1741, this is a later version, I believe). Read an article about this" satirical science fiction/fantasy novel" here: Public Domain Review . This book inspired Mary Shelly and Edgar Allen Poe. Ludvig Holberg lived from 1684 to 1754 and is referred to as the father of Danish and Norwegian literature. LINK
I'm sort of wondering who came up with the illustrations?

The Art of Amy Crehore

One man on an island with tortoises

86 year old Brendan Grimshaw bought an island in the Indian Ocean
in the early 60s and made it more than livable for himself.
It became the world's smallest national park.
Just watch. Thanks, Mark at boingboing for this inspiring, true story.

Natural Fashion, Natural Art

I've been looking at the photos that Hans Silvester took of the people of the Omo Valley (Surma and Mursi Tribes) in east Africa. These people decorate each other in the most creative ways. On this link you will find some fascinating photos from his book, Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa, such as the one shown here.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Time Lapse - Clouds

timerPan2 a video by steve_lodefink on Flickr.

This is beautiful. Steve Lodefink shot this little film of clouds. He tells you how he does it on his blog, Finkbuilt, where you will see a few more time lapse films of Seattle.
http://www.finkbuilt.com/blog/downtown-seattle-time-lapse/

Via Flickr:
another kitchen timer time lapse pan.
Rainbow ending.

Sheet Music Designs of Magritte

Hyperallergic has some examples of sheet music that Rene Magritte, the surrealist painter, designed in the 1920s. Follow the link below to see a couple more examples. Apparently he designed and illustrated about 40 in all. These designs reflect the art deco period. Just about every representational painter in art history did some sort of commercial work. Magritte was a well-rounded artist with a knack for composition and design as well as a talent for creating mysterious paintings.

Sheet Music Rene Magritte

The Art of Amy Crehore

1949 Bigsby Solid Body Electric

This guitar just sold at the Vintage Guitars and Musical Instrument Signature Auction in Dallas for a whopping $266,500. LINK If you want to find out more about the maker of this instrument, Paul Bigsby, there is a new blog called The Bigsby Files. Deke Dickerson is the author of the new blog.

Thanks, Fretboard Journal

Saber's Pick #4 (Amy Crehore)

This is so cool! Wonderful artist Saber held a contest on twitter to pick an artist to be featured in Juxtapoz print magazine and I came in at number 4. I am really honored. This is what he wrote about my art: "(Amy Crehore) Is a savage painter. She sneaks by you casting a line and hook that then reels you into her innocent sexual playfulness all the while leaving you stranded as a tickled voyeur creeping in on this dreamlike island utopia where anything goes…I wouldn’t mine being stranded for a bit. Great detailed technical paintings."

 Made my day.

Go to: Saber's Blog

where you can see the winner and list of finalists.

Check out Saber's Art and follow him on twitter.

You can follow me on twitter as well.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Punch Digs Bathing Caps (1950)

Paul Gravett interviews R. Crumb

There's a great new interview with R. Crumb by Paul Gravett. Here's the LINK

Crumb will be the focus of an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, France opening April 13, 2012.

Sketchbooks of Degas

You can view many of the sketchbooks of Degas on this link (National Library of France): Gallica bnf.

Pretty Baa-Lambs

"Pretty Baa-Lambs" by Ford Maddox Brown 1851-1859

Sometimes it pays to re-visit websites that I blogged about earlier (Oct 2009) because they are endlessly fascinating and educational.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Pre-Raphalite Collection

The Art of Amy Crehore

Details of Progress (Amy Crehore)

I took these quick detail shots of the new painting with my ipod.

I'm having fun brushing it in very freely at first.

I will have to set this aside for a few days, but I'll get back to it after I finish my taxes.

The Art of Amy Crehore

ArtofAmyCrehore
See my previous posts about this painting: HERE , HERE , HERE

Process of Painting (Amy Crehore)

Yesterday, I quickly brushed in some color and blocked in some forms on the new painting. I am thinking how cool it looks right now with the large figure not even filled in yet. I'm being careful to leave some of the reddish undercoat showing through my layers of brushwork. The contrast of different colors is exciting. The process of painting itself reveals what direction to take, as if I am being guided along by an invisible force. No real decisions are made ahead of time, except in the preliminary sketch where I worked out a composition. Even that may change as I go along, but at least I have a starting place, a skeleton. My pencil sketch evolved out of the process of erasing and re-drawing and feeling it out.

I use "memories of what life feels like" when I do my art. That is one of my main tools. I take a walk and look at the sky. I feel the sun and smell the flowers. I gaze at the trees.

It feels the same as it did when I was a kid.

I get to exist right in the moment when I paint or draw. Everything else falls away. It is such a joy to escape into art, to focus on the process. Painting itself can be quite a struggle and it's outcome unknown.

It is about continual change, sort of like life itself or the weather. Gotta have faith and confidence that it'll all work out in the end, no matter how long it takes. 

I just do my thing and work it out.

Here are links to my earlier posts about this painting: LINK  & LINK

The Art of Amy Crehore

ArtofAmyCrehore

Progress in Painting (Amy Crehore)

Here's what I did yesterday on the new painting.

See my previous post for pencil sketch. 

The Art of Amy Crehore

ArtofAmyCrehore

amy@amycrehore.com

What am I up to?

Finished a preliminary drawing for a new painting.
(copyright Amy Crehore 2012)

Let's hope I can figure this one out. Here's the beginning.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Art of Amy Crehore

Woodblock Prints of the Sino-Japanese War 1894-95

These are amazing! Japanese Meiji woodblock prints were churned out by the dozens during the Sino-Japanese War 1894-1895. They were mostly imaginative images based on news reports (done by many different artists). One artist, who produced more than 70 prints, was Kobayashi Kiyochika (a few examples of his excellent work are shown above- from the Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts Boston). There are more images and story to be found on this beautiful site:

 LINK

(Throwing Off Asia II by John W. Dower, MIT edu)

Oregon Coast Tour 1940

Bathers at Cannon Beach in 1940

LINK for the coast tour, photos taken in 1940 (Oregon State Archives).

Not all that much has changed! You can see why I love Oregon.

Os Gemeos Left Their Mark on L.A.

I'm a little late blogging this one. The Prism Gallery in L.A. had this amazing show and installation by Os Gemeos (twin brothers from Brazil), but it closed a week ago. I wish I could have seen this. I saw a huge show of theirs at Deitch Projects in NYC a few years ago that blew me away. I'll never forget it. Fecal Face blog has a ton of photos of the opening here. It looks like they created another magical environment. They spent six weeks on the installation alone. Los Angeles was lucky to have them.
George Condo is next at the Prism.

Van Gogh's Birthday

This is a little thumbnail from Van Gogh's illustrated letters to Emile Bernard. He has written notes on the sketch: "blue", "orange". Dig the checkerboard dress on the woman with the fan. Happy Birthday, Van Gogh! More letters here: Morgan Library

Art Dress for Spring

Click to enlarge

I like this dress design...down to the shoes. It is by Hermes.

For more examples of "abstract art" dresses 2012 go here.

The Art of Amy Crehore

ArtofAmyCrehore

Marjorie Miller Illustrations 1924-35

Click images to enlarge

Here are three illustrations by an artist named Marjorie Miller. I can't find out much about her, but I really like them. They have a Japanese flair. Here's a link to a couple more . Apparently she only illustrated from 1924 to 1935. That doesn't surprise me, but she was good!

The Art of Amy Crehore

15th Century Italian Book Box

So fascinating! For carrying books (made between 1465 and 1485).

It is hard to stop looking through the Morgan Library's collection:

Morgan Library and Museum

The Barraud Brothers

One of my favorite painters is a Swiss painter named Francois-Emile Barraud. Follow this red link for more examples of his fine work (shown above is a painting of a young girl). I blogged about him before.

He died at age 34 in 1934 of tuberculosis. If only he had lived longer. He had a couple of brothers who were also excellent painters (of similar style).

Their names were Aurele and Aime.

Painting by Aurele Barraud

Painting by Aime Barraud
Video about them (showing yet another brother- Charles):

The Art of Amy Crehore

Van Gogh Again

I just received this book in the mail: Van Gogh's Letters edited by H.Anna Suh. It is thick and fully illustrated with 250 paintings and sketches (320 pages). I had already read his letters to Theo many times over the years, but this book is a true art book. It only costs  about $13.50 on amazon. What a bargain!
(Contains 150 of his letters.)

By the way, did you see this? A painting called "Still Life with Meadow Flowers and Roses" has now been x-rayed and said to be a true Van Gogh work because there is an underpainting of wrestlers.
The flowers look odd and the wrestlers look odder still. (Or not odd enough.) But, what do I know?
READ Article or HERE

Timeline of Women's Suffrage

Photo of the day: Suffrage Parade 1912 NYC

LINK to Timeline of Women's Suffrage

Very interesting!

The Haunted House 1908

Directed by Segundo de Chomon
You can find a bunch of other films made by this guy on youtube.
(thanks, Kim Deitch)

New book: The Art of Daniel Clowes

I just ordered this new book on amazon .

Here is a sneak peek.

There are some sketchbook drawings on boingboing, too,

and a contest to win an autographed copy of the book.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Los Caprichos by Goya

Goya's 80 aquatint prints from 1797-98 LINK

The Art of Amy Crehore

Art of Amy Crehore

Cats with Thumbs

Thanks, Ruth Farrall for sending this to me. It made my day.

My Drawings for "Rose Quarry" and "Basker's Cove"

 7 1/2" x 10" pencil sketch for "Basker's Cove"(on 8 1/2" x 11" paper) by Amy Crehore

 Finished oil painting on linen of "Basker's Cove" 18" x 24" by Amy Crehore 2012

You can see how this painting started as a very, very rough sketch. It evolved as I painted it. There were many changes underneath and it took a lot of paint and months of work to reach this final effect. (Click images to enlarge)

 10" x 11 3/4" pencil drawing for "Rose Quarry" (on 11" x 14" paper) by Amy Crehore

Finished oil painting on linen of "Rose Quarry" oil on linen 12" x 14" by Amy Crehore 2012.

The "Rose Quarry" painting turned out pretty close to my original drawing. My preliminary rendering of the figures was more fully realized than "Basker's Cove", so this  painting seemed to progress more easily. I painted an undercoat of red and that seemed to help it along as well. And, it's a much smaller painting.

Click on images to enlarge

(see also here)

See more of my artwork here:

The Art of Amy Crehore

(contact: amy@amycrehore.com for information about my original art)