My Puzzler Painting

Another detail of "Snake Tamer's Ditty" copyright 2007 Amy Crehore

Please click on image to enlarge!

"Yas, yas, yas"...as they say in Hokumland. Here's the number 3 puzzle piece.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Go see the other works that lead up to this on my website: my "Little Pierrot", "Monkey Love" and "Blues Gals" series. 3 years in the making. They are the visual equivalent of Hokum music. It helps to put a hokum record on!

Another Piece of the Puzzle

Detail from "Snake Tamer's Ditty" copyright 2007 Amy Crehore (click to enlarge)

Here, I am showing you another piece of my newest Monkey Love painting, "Snake Tamer's Ditty". There is a lot going on, so I will show you some close-ups first and then I will show you the entire painting. Check out my website for all of the other Monkey Love works that lead up to this one, which in some ways is the culmination of the series.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Detail of New Painting

Detail of painting,"Snake Tamer's Ditty", copyright 2007 Amy Crehore (click to enlarge)

Okay, I scanned some parts of the new painting. I need to scan a slide before I can show you the entire thing, but you can get an idea here. It's a horizontal painting like the "Banana Eater". I will show you the rest very soon.
The Art of Amy Crehore

More Italian Nudes

P. Conti, Nudo di giovinetta, 1933
Francesco Trombadori, Fanciulla nuda , 1933
Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538
I love all of these Italian nudes in art history. The top two are new to me. I found them while surfing the internet. These two painters were around during Antonio Donghi's time. Conti has painted a wonderful study of red hair. Check out the position of the hands and arms on all of these paintings. All are interesting compositions.
In fact, I used this Titian image in one of my works from the early '90's that I exhibited at the Portland Art Museum. link: The Art of Amy Crehore

Nostalgia

The Three Graces by Raphael 1504
I always loved this picture of my mom (in the middle) and her sisters.
It's a classic sort of image like "The Three Graces”.
The Art of Amy Crehore

Favorite Artist of the Hollywood Stars

Tamara de Lempicka was a figure painter of massive volumes who also had art deco-cubist tendencies. She was a very skilled painter who invented an unforgettable style. During her day, she was very popular and at one point during the 1930's, she became the favorite painter of the Hollywood stars. She lived in Paris, Beverly Hills and NYC and finally Mexico. "She painted them all, the rich, the successful, the renowned -- the best. And with many she also slept." - this is a quote from her daughter Kizette's book about her, Passion by Design.

In other words, she was a whore. Both with women and with men. I don't know how she found time to be one because she was quite a prolific painter. Her work is a little bit too stylized for my taste, but some of it is pure painting and a new book called, Lempicka by Patrick Bade shows many wonderful works that I have never seen before. She did lots of nudes and nude bathers and groups of figures in complex compositions. She also liked to paint people playing stringed instruments. They are rendered almost like sculptures. Read more about Lempicka, a fascinating woman artist who had a huge influence on graphic arts and interior design: Tricky Micky Art Page

The Art of Amy Crehore

Study for "The Bathers"

"The Bathers" by Renoir 1887 Philadelphia Art Museum
Study for the Bathers 1884-85 Chicago Art Institute

I found this beautiful study for Pierre-Auguste Renoir's magnificent painting, "The Bathers". This is my favorite Renoir painting. I especially love the character of this girl with the braid down her back. She's rendered so lovingly. This painting has it all. Movement, charm, sex appeal, complexity of composition, rhythm, soul, classicism. And his style is not as brushy in this picture as in his other works.

The Art of Amy Crehore