A Uke is all I Want

Uke gal

This cool vintage photo came from from Wikipedia (it's a Ziegfeld Follies Girl) via Steve of Finkbuilt Blog . Steve thought that it might spruce up my blog, which it does. Thanks, Steve! Finkbuilt Blog has a review of Mark Frauenfelder's great new book (which I am reading right now) called "Rule the Web" . There is also a section on ukes at Finkbuilt that you might find intriguing. I am finishing up my paint job on a hand-built uke right now. It should be ready for viewing by next week.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Henri Rousseau 1844-1910

The Sleeping Gypsy 1897
The Dream 1910
The Snake Charmer 1907

One can't underestimate the power of Rousseau. It is easy to take him for granted. The large tropical masterworks that he dreamed up in his studio were like no one else's art at the time. Truly modern, yet traditional. Naive and wise all at the same time. A singular style. Surreal. Funny. Dreamlike. Unforgettable. "The Sleeping Gypsy" is my fav.

Henri Rousseau

The Art of Amy Crehore

Harlequins in Art

Antonio Donghi
Antonio Donghi
Andre Derain
Paul Cezanne
Pablo Picasso
Picasso did it countless times. Antonio Donghi did it more than once. Derain did it and even Cezanne did it. What did they all do? They all painted the Harlequin.
Picasso painted numerous circus families and harlequins in his early periods (those are my favorite) before he became a self-confessed "charlatan".
Here is a quote from Picasso about what happened to him after Cubism:
"From the moment that art ceases to be food that feeds the best minds, the artist can use his talents to perform all the tricks of the intellectual charlatan. Most people can today no longer expect to receive consolation and exaltation from art. The 'refined,' the rich, the professional 'do-nothings', the distillers of quintessence desire only the peculiar, the sensational, the eccentric, the scandalous in today's art. I myself, since the advent of Cubism, have fed these fellows what they wanted and satisfied these critics with all the ridiculous ideas that have passed through my mind. The less they understood them, the more they admired me. Through amusing myself with all these absurd farces, I became celebrated, and very rapidly. For a painter, celebrity means sales and consequent affluence. Today, as you know, I am celebrated, I am rich. But when I am alone, I do not have the effrontery to consider myself an artist at all, not in the grand old meaning of the word: Giotto, Titian, Rembrandt, Goya were great painters. I am only a public clown - a mountebank. I have understood my time and have exploited the imbecility, the vanity, the greed of my contemporaries. It is a bitter confession." - Pablo Picasso, Space and Motion

The Art of Amy Crehore

The Art of the Print

Harlequin, 1870, Lithograph, A. Hoen & Company, Richmond, Virginia
Nellie's Dream, Harper's Weekly 1881, Wood Engraving
This website has some really beautiful original prints on it that you can buy (or look at) from all over the world. Here are two vintage images that I like.
The Art of the Print
The Art of Amy Crehore

Yuri Klapoukh's Magic Paintings

"Sheperdess", painting by Yuri Klapoukh

"Rain Through Sunshine", painting by Yuri Klapoukh

I got an email invitation to look at a Russian Painting website. And there I found a remarkable painter named Yuri Klapoukh. Here are two of his paintings that I like. They are very different from anything that I have seen before. Go here to see more of his work as well as the work of other contemporary Russian painters:

Russian Paintings

The Art of Amy Crehore

Leonetto Cappiello 1875-1942

I love this guy's posters. The designs are so charming and animated. Leonetto Cappiello was an Italian designer who lived in Paris. He is now called the "father of modern advertising". Read here:

Leonetto Cappiello

The Art of Amy Crehore

Old Engravings from Paintings

These are some very nice prints from

Intaglio Fine Art

The Art of Amy Crehore