A craftsman in another medium

  One which I enjoy but have never attempted!

E.J. Taylor, master American doll artist!

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Today's quote:

"I learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." 

-Henry David Thoreau 

Monet (update)

    Happy birth anniversary to...

"...the artist who said, “I would like to paint the way a bird sings” - Claude Monet, born in Paris in 1840. His father ran a grocery store and had hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps. The boy had other ideas and vowed to become an artist, much to his father’s dismay. Monet began his studies at the age of 10 in Le Havre, working first in charcoal. He drew caricatures, which he would sell to the locals for 10 or 20 francs apiece. About five years later, he befriended artist Eugène Boudin, who became his mentor and taught him oil painting. Boudin also encouraged him to paint en plein air [in the open air], or outside. “One day, Boudin said to me, ‘Learn to draw well and appreciate the sea, the light, the blue sky,’” Monet later said. “I took his advice.”

In 1861, he joined the cavalry in Algeria, intending to serve for seven years. Two years later, he contracted typhoid, and his aunt arranged for him to be discharged; he returned to France to study art, rejecting the traditional École des Beaux-Arts in favor of the private Académie Suisse. It was there that Monet met Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille; the four young artists became disillusioned with the meticulous detail that was fashionable in academic circles, and they began experimenting with a new style of landscape painting, producing rapid “sketches” using short, broken brushstrokes and trying to capture, above all, the fleeting quality of the light. Monet produced many paintings in the late 1860s, and although he hadn’t fully adopted the technique that he became known for, he did break from tradition by painting scenes from everyday, middle-class life. He received positive notice for his painting The Woman in the Green Dress in 1866; his model, Camille Doncieux, became his lover and, later, his wife.

His painting Impression, Sunrise, which he painted in 1872, was exhibited for the first time at an independent art show in 1874, and it was his first public showing of the sketch-like style he had been trying out. “I had sent a thing done in Le Havre, from my window, sun in the mist and a few masts of boats sticking up in the foreground,” he later wrote. “They asked me for a title for the catalog, it couldn’t really be taken for a view of Le Havre, and I said: ‘Put Impression.’” The painting and the show were poorly received by the critics, including Louis Leroy, who dubbed the style “Impressionism.” Leroy was being derogatory, and wrote, “Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape,” but Monet and his contemporaries adopted the name anyway. For his part, Monet felt he had finally come home. “I didn’t become an impressionist. As long as I can remember I have always been one.”

Camille died of tuberculosis in 1879, shortly after the birth of their second son. Monet painted a portrait of her on her deathbed, as a last tribute. He told his friend Georges Clemenceau: “Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment. To such an extent indeed that one day, finding myself at the deathbed of a woman who had been and still was very dear to me, I caught myself in the act of focusing on her temples and automatically analyzing the succession of appropriately graded colors which death was imposing on her motionless face.” He grieved her loss deeply, for several months, but felt a renewed passion for his art, and moved with his children to the home of his patron, Ernest Hoshedé. The patronage fell apart when Hoshedé ran into financial difficulties, but Hoshedé’s wife Alice provided patronage of a different sort; they began an affair, she paid Monet’s debts with her dowry, and eventually moved with him to Giverny, where the artist bought a small farmhouse surrounded by an orchard. They eventually married after the death of her husband in 1892; the following year, Monet bought a strip of marshland across the road from his house, and found great pleasure in designing a water-garden. “I am only good at two things, and those are: gardening and painting,” he wrote. He spent nearly 30 years in his gardens, planting and painting irises and tulips, wisteria and bamboo.

Later in his career, he became interested in painting the same subject at different times of day, and produced several series: water lilies, haystacks, poplars, the cathedral in Rouen, and the Houses of Parliament in London. As he grew older, he developed cataracts, which left him nearly blind and had a profound effect on his perception of colors. His tones became muddy and muted, and his paintings had a reddish or yellowish cast. He had to rely on the labels of his paint tubes to tell him what color they contained, but he was determined to carry on. In 1921, he told a journalist, “I will paint almost blind, as Beethoven composed completely deaf.” In a letter to a friend in 1922, he complained: “To think I was getting on so well, more absorbed than I’ve ever been and expecting to achieve something, but I was forced to change my tune and give up a lot of promising beginnings and abandon the rest; and on top of that, my poor eyesight makes me see everything in a complete fog. It’s very beautiful all the same and it’s this which I’d love to have been able to convey. All in all, I am very unhappy.” He finally agreed to have surgery performed on his right eye in 1923, but he was disappointed with the results and refused to have the procedure repeated on his left eye. He was never again able to use both eyes together effectively, and was only able to read and

write with the aid of special glasses. He died of lung cancer in 1926; his home and gardens in Giverny are now the property of the French Academy of Fine Arts, and host visitors from all over the world.

Writer's Almanac 2017

He said, "I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."

 

Art Gallery with animals and more

   Yes, art is still flowing through my veins, as I appreciated the creations of other artists recently.

The Black Mountain Center for the Arts had it's 25th anniversary recently.

My friend Helen saw the exhibit in the gallery and urged me to see it, so we dropped by the week that the show was to close.

I immediately recognized this Libba Tracey ceramic sculpture. Her style of birds and putting them on wheels!

A nice photograph from Scotland by Susie Sweet, who's a friend from the BMCA ceramic studio where I used to make my pottery. I still don't know the story of the Kelpies.

This was the largest painting in the room, and it offered a multitude of details upon which to ponder.

Those Skeletonized Flax Leaves curving all over caught my attention in this sculpture

If I were to take one piece home (as Helen asked for my choice) this mixed media sculpture doll would be my choice. Her head and hands at least are ceramic. I couldn't check legs or feet, nor the arms which are slightly visible inside her sleeves.

Cheryl Keefer is also active in the Red House Studio, which has a gallery on Cherry St. in Black Mountain.

Helen and the swan. We saw all the writing on the feathers, but weren't quite sure if there were many words. I think if Helen were to take any of the art home with her it would be the painting of the barn to the left in the background.

I say goodbye from the swan and hello to Saturday's Critters with Eileen.

Jim Henson

  Born Sept. 24, 1936. died May 16, 1990

"When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope still is to leave the world a little bit better for my having been here."

Jim Henson created the original Kermit the Frog out of his mother's old coat and a ping-pong ball. In the beginning Kermit was not a frog, but a lizard-like character. He gradually evolved, and first appeared as Kermit The Frog in "Hey Cinderella!" (1969) and has remained so ever since.

One of the main reasons why Henson preferred to use Kermit for his signature character was that he was the lightest in weight of the regular puppets and therefore one of the most comfortable for use for extended periods of time.

In an interview, Juliana Donald (who played Jenny in 1984's "The Muppets Take Manhattan') recalled how filming of the jogging scene in the park was temporarily delayed by a camera problem. In wide eyed amazement, a little boy passing by approached and started talking to Kermit, oblivious to Jim Henson operating him. Despite the surrounding commotion of technicians trying to fix the camera issue, Jim started interacting with the boy. Moments later, Jim found himself doing an impromptu performance with Kermit for an entire group of children who had gathered around to watch. Juliana said, "It was so memorable to me because time just stopped. It was a wonderfully magical moment where you experience someone's true joy with their work."

Henson's alma mater, University of Maryland, commissioned a life-size statue of Henson and Kermit the Frog, which was dedicated on September 24, 2003.

"Some people claim Kermit is my alter-ego. I'm not sure I know what that means. I like to work Kermit because there's a lot of leeway for ad-libbing, which I don't have with most other characters, but I'm not sure that I'm not Kermit."

From Gainesville FL...actually from all over!

 

David Parry New Work David Parry inspires with a new collection of his arresting white stoneware pottery, decorated in colors influenced by his Pacific Northwest home. Stately forms catch the eye as much as captivate the hands. Colorful dots play on surfaces that take advantage of the flowing qualities and variable translucency or opacity of glaze. Lovely ripples in the clay surfaces of his vessels speak of the artist's hands at work and the currents of nature. His forms are beautifully made and soothing to touch and use. These are pots you'll find yourself frequently choosing from the cupboard or keeping at the table to be enjoyed with each meal. Originally from Stoke-on-Trent, England (commonly known as The Potteries), David earned a BA with Honors in Ceramics at the University of West England in Bristol, UK. Since 2009 David has made Oregon his home, where he established his studio, Whistle Post Pottery, and shows up and down the west coast. Artist Statement and Bio Living in the foothills of the Oregon Coast mountain range I can’t help but be influenced by the evergreen woods that surround me. On daily dog walks I venture into these wild places and take in the conifers, the mosses, the lichens and creeks. I feel blissfully isolated and there’s no sign of civilization for miles. Then I’m hit with a flash of color, a yellow gate closing off a logging track, a bright red 4x4 truck distant on the horizon. Or even the unnatural patchwork of forestry clear-cuts scarred across a valley. I recognize these color and pattern juxtapositions as major themes in my work. Shop David Parry's pottery here. Charlie Cummings Gallery | Website

Christina Cordova

 

Ms. Cordova has taught sculpture at Penland and has been featured in various clay magazines. She's even had a few things at local pottery shows. I LOVE her work.

This piece was displayed in a corner at the Asheville Art Museum when we visited last month (or maybe the month before.)

Here's an article from the Asheville Laurel.

I've been very fortunate to visit several galleries featuring her work.

Signing of the US Constitution

 On July 27, 1939 Congress awarded artist Howard Chandler Christy a contract to create a large painting in commemoration of the signing of the United States Constitution. The painting was first proposed in 1937, during the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the signing, but Congress had refused to appropriate the $35,000 necessary to commission it, as many members felt that such an expense was inappropriate during an economic depression. The proposal failed again the following year, but was finally approved in 1939, with a reduced price of $30,000.

It took Christy over five years to complete the 18 x 26-foot painting, with much of that time spent doing research. He wanted to depict the signers accurately, so he searched out and studied the best existing portraits of them (no known portraits existed of two of the 39 signers—for those two he intentionally obscured their faces). The clothing, flags, and furniture depicted in the painting were also the products of careful and diligent research.

Even though not all of the delegates were present on signing day, Christy portrayed them all. He depicts George Washington as if he is gazing out into the future, while Benjamin Franklin stares out directly at the viewer. All of the subjects are identified in a key sketched by Christy.

The finished painting was dedicated in May 1940. After hanging in the Capitol Rotunda for 16 months, it was moved to east grand stairway of the House of Representatives, where it has been ever since.

Signing of the US Constitution, September 17, 1787, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia by 39 delegates from 12 states.