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)

Goya Glows in "Lights and Darks" Exhibit

Here are some examples (click to enlarge) from the new Francisco Goya (b.1746-d.1828) exhibit lent by the Prado to CaixaForum Barcelona . Read more: Art Daily . The Prado has a nice album of the show on facebook. These were painted in the late 1700s. Goya is simply amazing!


The Art of Amy Crehore
Art of Amy Crehore

Greyhounds!

Jared Joslin's Circus Self Portrait featuring a greyhound.

The top illustrations are from a medieval book called "The Book of the Hunt" (15th century). One painting even shows veterinarians tending to dogs. I'm fascinated by greyhounds at the moment. I saw someone walking a miniature Italian greyhound not long ago in an argyle sweater (yes, the dog was wearing it). I hear they can move very fast, but they also have fragile bones. Greyhounds were popular in the 1920s (shown: Margaret Gorman and Dog 1925). LINK and LINK 

Here's an antique bronze sculpture and a vintage crate label for Greyhound Brand lemons. And last, but not least, is Jared Joslin's amazing Circus Self Portrait from 2007. Here is the link to his website.
They all inspire me and I'm a cat person!

UPDATE: The first "Book of the Hunt" was actually written in 1387 by Gaston Phebus.
The Art of Amy Crehore (website)

Art of Amy Crehore (blog featuring my new work)

Demonio!

Strikingly beautiful "Demonio" image from the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, Dutch Illuminated manuscript (1435-1460)

LINK (The Morgan Library)

The Art of Amy Crehore

People that live underground

Click on image to enlarge

There is something about children who live underground and play with big ants and other bugs that appeals to me. Illustrations by Sibylle Von Olfers for this 1906 book can be found on 50 Watts. Read the Story of the Root Children at the Digital Children's Library.