Thursday, November 08, 2007

"Deja Vu Waltz": New Painting by Amy Crehore Unveiled Bit by Bit

Detail from "Deja Vu Waltz" by Amy Crehore 2007
Okay, I am going to show you pieces of my new painting, "Deja Vu Waltz". This painting is for the GREEN SHOW (opening November 17th in Santa Monica, CA). Here is the first detail. This painting has everything. All of my characters. Here you can see my little pierrot.
Stay tuned as I unveil the rest bit by bit.
This is a large oil painting on linen, 24"x 24".

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Freaky Nude with Perfect Boobs

Got this wicked creature from an image search of
John Brownlee must have it stashed under his pillow for cold, rainy nights.

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

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

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:
P.S. If you like this blog, click on "Vote for me". Thanks!

Monday, November 05, 2007

Race Record Ads of the 1920's


Here are a couple of Race Record Ads from the
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".

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!

Sunday, November 04, 2007

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.