I have nothing against Thomas Lawrence, indeed, I like his work, but—good grief!—he could make some annoying paintings. The Cleveland Museum of Art has two of the offending paintings hanging side-by-side. Lawrence (died 1830) had well-earned success throughout his life. A prodigy, he found success early and later became President of the Royal Academy. He…
Category: Uncategorized
Art Museums, Artists, Cleveland, Paintings, Thumbs-Up-Down, Uncategorized
Thumbs-up: Neel, Thumbs-up (also): Pearlstein
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By happenstance or cunning plan, The Cleveland Museum of Art has two large paintings hanging next to each other by artists of whom I am fond– Alice Neel and Philip Pearlstein. Juxtaposed this way, the relative merits of each can be studied. Except for a long detour in the Picasso Amusement Park, a straight line…
Shop Talk, Tips and Studies, Uncategorized
Transferring Designs to Canvas
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I routinely transfer designs as I rework subjects in various mediums. There are several standard methods for transferring designs to a target surface. One long-used method was to prepare a cartoon to the exact dimensions of the target wall or canvas. Once the design was fixed, it would be transferred by one of the following methods: Covering…
Cleveland, Paintings, Studio Corner, Uncategorized, Vermilion, OH
In the Studio 2/17/2013
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A productive day with a lot of good sunlight. I finished two self-portraits this morning (a gouache and another pastel-gouache), almost finished the drawing for a new still life (oil), then worked on the oils in the accompanying photo this afternoon. Why so many self-portraits lately? It’s not because I’ve developed a new found self-fascination–hell…
Art Museums, Artists, Cleveland, Paintings, Uncategorized
Gaertner at the Cleveland Museum of Art
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I’m an idiot, but you already knew that. After writing about discovering Frederick Gaertner in this post, I belatedly realized I had seen–on numerous occasions, no less–one of his paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art. For some reason, I never connected that Gaertner with my Gaertner discovered at the Bonfoey Gallery. The Museum’s “The Furnace”…
Paintings, Studio Corner, Uncategorized, Vermilion, OH
On the Easel Feb. 10, 2013
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Picasso said he became an artist because he wanted to have his own collection of paintings. That sounds apocryphal but if he didn’t say it, he should have. I’ve been working on these pieces these two days. Working on a painting about being on The Betty Jane and fishing is especially apt on a cold…
Artists, Cleveland, Galleries, Reviews, Uncategorized
Julie Friedman at Busta Gallery
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In her show, Perennial Shift, at the William Busta Gallery, Julie Friedman exhibits a print maker’s love of process. Initially, the pieces (a useful generic term) reminded me of the silhouettes you can have made at Coney Island or Cedar Point. Like those silhouettes, these are cut-outs; most are black on white. On closer inspection, they are the product of a labor-intensive, and…
anecdotes, Artists, Bio, Books, Uncategorized, Vermilion, OH
Book Thief
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In the summer before third grade, we moved to a small town far from Dayton. The ramshackle house we rented was across the street from the public library. With its pink-marble columns, the library seemed to exist in another world. I began spending all of my free time there. My frequent visits to the library…