Ruth Marten's Art (and Me)

" Tableau" Painting by Amy Crehore 1990
Native Girl, ink on old engraving by Ruth Marten 2007

Hair by Ruth Marten 2005 NYTimes article

I have always admired Ruth Marten's art. She's a wonderful painter and illustrator. She has a thing for hair and has made some beautiful and humorous paintings using this theme (above).
Recently, she has been drawing in ink on old prints. "Native Girl" is an example. There are many more on her website:
Ruth Marten
I picked out "Native Girl" from her site because I immediately recognized it as an old engraving that I used in 1990 as reference material for my painting called "Tableau". I have a big, fat book at home that is full of these engravings and it is one of my favorite things. It's called, "The Complete Encyclopedia of Illustration" by J.G. Heck (Park Lane publishers) which contains all of the original illustrations from the 1851 edition of "The Iconographic Encyclopedia of Science, Literature and Art". It is full of birds, beasts, people, landscapes, weather patterns, sea shells, you name it. I can't even describe how amazing this book is.
I think that Ruth Marten and I may have some interests in common.
The Art of Amy Crehore

The Three Graces Interpreted

"The Three Graces" is a theme which appears time and time again throughout art history. Here is a spoof of that theme called "The Three Friends", painted in 1998, by John Currin which takes it's cue from this statue by John-Baptiste Regnault, 1799. Currin's work has a style not unlike Lucas Cranach. I like Currin's work of the late nineties. See more paintings here:

Femme Femme Femme

The Art of Amy Crehore

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Race Record Ads of the 1920's

Here are a couple of Race Record Ads from the

Main Spring Press

website. I have had that nightmare before! Yipes! I love the graphics and hand-lettering of the race record ads from the 1920's.

I am back to blogging again. Today, I finished my painting for the Green Show (opens Nov 17 at Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA). Yippeee.

I am so tired, that I am giddy. I will not have nightmares tonight. I will sleep well from exhaustion. Tomorrow I will have the painting photographed. Then, I can show you. I'm really proud of it. It has all of my characters in it and more. I think I will call it "Deja Vu Waltz".

The Art of Amy Crehore

BibliOdyssey, The Book

Here are two pages from the new book, "BibliOdyssey". It looks great.

" We first met blogger PK and BibliOdyssey, his remarkable blog devoted to visual materia obscura two years ago. BibliOdyssey is the starting point on the net for uncovering eclectic archival imagery and the fascinating wealth of ephemera offered by libraries, universities and other institutions.
Now the blog has become a book, BibliOdyssey: Amazing Archival Images from the Internet, and it’s a perfect companion to the site."

Read more of this post by Johnny at Drawn! , The Illustration and Cartooning Blog.

I might have to get this book. I love this stuff!

The Art of Amy Crehore

Japanese Woodblock Prints

Here's a nice flickr set: Japanese prints (Mando Maniac)

This one is a cover by Uemura Shoen . I love the colors. I am using that green in my new painting. (Thanks, Internet Weekly for the art link)

I have been painting non-stop for days now and have not had time to attend to my blog. It looks like I lost some subscribers and I hope you will all come back.Tomorrow is my final day of work on my new painting for the Green Show. I've been painting a couple of months on this one and I will be glad to be done. Then I can get back to blogging and preparing for my trip to Santa Monica and finishing the "Honeybee" painting.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Where Have I Been?

This is one of the roads where I take my daily hike. Since I have been painting 12 or 13 hour days, I have had to squeeze my little hike in just before dark. Emails are piling up and everything else is a mess. My little "Honeybee" painting is still not finished, so I can't show it to you yet. I had to put it aside to concentrate on a large painting that I am doing for the Green Show in Santa Monica, CA (opening November 17). The theme of the Green Show is nature and it will be very interesting to see the different interpretations. I'm sure it will be a show to remember. That reminds me, I need to reserve my plane tickets.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Vintage Sheet Music Covers, University of Colorado Library

I have a tendency to use blues or rag song titles for the titles of my paintings. Most often I just make them up, but sometimes I am inspired by the real thing. There is a large collection of vintage sheet music covers in the University of Colorado digital library. They are appealing not only for the poetic quality of the song titles, but for the design quality of the artwork and hand-lettering as well. Here, I have shown a selection from 1903-1915.

University of Colorado Sheet Music Collection

The Art of Amy Crehore