Archive for October, 2012

Artist of the moment…Egon Schiele…

{ October 31, 2012 @ 8:09 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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All works except the last one by Schiele. The last is by Gustav Klimt.

The artist was born in Tulln, Austria. His father was the head train station master. As a youngster Egon Schiele was OBSESSED with trains. Drawing and sketching them at all times to the point where his father started destroying some of his sketchbooks.

 

Growing up Schiele did poorly in school. He was mainly interested in sports and drawing!

 

When Schiele was fifteen years old, his father died from syphilis. His uncle was left to care for him. His uncle, also a railroad man, thought Schiele would like to follow in the family tradition. His uncle paid for a local tutor to work with his nephew.

 

When the artist was sixteen years old he applied to an arts and crafts school in Vienna. After seeing his work within the first year of his studies, the faculty convinced him to move to the better school that was better at promoting and teaching classical art, he enrolled at the Akadamie der Bildenden Kunste in Vienna. His main professor was Christian Griepenkerl, a famous professor known for his strict working methods and for not admitting Adolf Hitler to the Academy. Hitler applied in 1907 and 1908.

A clip showing twenty various works by the artist.

In this clip see some of Schiele’s landscape and urban paintings. No figures here,only landscapes. Some of which you may have seen already. He enjoyed using gold leaf in his works as well.

Schiele was a protege of another famous Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt.

Like many artists he made many self portraits. Unlike many artists, he sometimes posed naked for his work. The self portrait of the male nude in the gallery is one of these nude self portraits.

 

PRICE RANGE INFO:  Schiele worked in many mediums including charcoal, gouache, watercolor, pencil, chalk, drypoint, and crayon. His record for a gouache work is $2.48 million dollars. His record for an oil painting$40.1 million. Schiele also made a fair amount of bronzes that can be found betwen 3 and ten thousand dollars. Etchings and pencil works can easily reach six figures.

 

 

The strict teacher caused the artist to quit school after three years. He had already been taking lessons by Gustav Klimt found a perfect match. Klimt gave much neeeded encouragement, purchased some of the artists works, and on occassion would trade drawings with the artist. Once Schiele was free of the academy approach, he started producing works many considered graphic or explicit.

 

 

In 1911 he feel in love with a young girl named Wally. Wally, was a former model for Klimt. The two moved to a small city in Bohemia, but were driven out by town residents who disapproved of their lifestyle and Schiele’s penchant for using teenage girls as models. The couple moved back to Vienna, not quite in the capital. The deliquents of the town came to enjoy his company, and he was arrested for seducing an underage girl.

 

 

When the police came to arrest him, the  hit art gold! They considered some of his works porn, and confiscated more than 100 works. Schiele was taken to jail. In court one judge even burned a drawing in court. No rape or abduction charges were made, but he was given a short sentence for having erotic drawings in a place accesible to children. He made a few drawings of his life in jail.

 

In 1914 he fell in love with a different woman, the two were married in 1915. Three days later he was due to report to the army for World War I. He started off watching imprisoned russian officers and eventually came to run the food camp. He was still showing works in Germany.

 

1918 brought the artist a great show and acclaim. Unfortunately it also brought the Spanish flu. The flu killed around 20 million people that year. It first claimed his sixth month pregnant wife, then three days later claimed Egon Schiele. He was only twenty eight years old.

 

This artist always impressed me with his line work and plein air looking sketches of people in odd positions. Odd because limbs are foreshortened from difficult angles. He was very prolific. In 1980 a film was made called Egon Schiele Excess & Punishment about the artist’s life.

 

The artist is quite similar in style the his hand chosen mentor. Gustav Klimt. Klimt loved to experiment with new techniques and poses. A great landscape painter as well, here is my favorite landscape of Gustav Klimt, Forest of Birch Trees made in 1902.

D

Artist of the moment….David Datuna

{ October 30, 2012 @ 1:22 am } · { Uncategorized }
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David Datuna was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in the year 1974. He is best known for his series titled “Viewpoints of Millions.” This series is very pop like and includes current culture phenoms such as celebrities, world leaders, and fashion icons. The artist makes these works by first placing the image, then placing a glass lens over the image. So you its a big image, seen through someone’s eyes. Much like the world. A big picture, as seen billions of people.

The artist has done flag images of United States, Russia, and Israel. In this clip see more of his works and some brief comments about his Israeli flag project.

I couldn’t find a consistent price range for the artist but his portrait of Steve Jobs sold for $210,000 at a Miami Art Show. It was made from miniature Amy Rynd images. Rynd was a Russian philosopher screen writer. Datuna also made a portrait of Vladimir Putin made up of miniature Mona Lisa images. The image of Putin sold for $269,000.

Its fascinating how much the artist can weave different ideas into his works. A recently finished work of an Israeli flag brought in three different periods of history of the jewish state. It was a work with three panels. One represented the Holocaust, another represented their War of Independence, and the Six Day War. Another flag was dedicated to modern Israel. The last was a white on white flag, done in various gray and white tones. The idea of the last flag was that Israel could become anything it wanted to do. Its present state is many shades of gray with many unknowns yet to be determined. In these flags many texts were used including exerpts from Anne Frank and Never Again which was written by a famous Rabbi.

The artist also does performance art. Here is a clip from a performance art piece given by the artist.

Datuna currently lives and works out of New York city.

Another famous work was done with the famous fashion model Natalia Vodianova, a model who earned nearly 9 million dollars last year. The artist used Robert Indiana’s famous LOVE and made a picture of Vodianova with them. This work brought in nearly $800,000.

In may he also set up an application with the I-Tunes store that allows users to create art in Datuna’s style, called Viewpoints.

I really enjoy this artist’s way of looking at the world. He makes us aware that everything in the world has many viewpoints. Its also great how the artist is able to incorporate history and text in his works, adding an extra layer of depth and meaning to them. Also impressive that he found a way to incorporate the Itunes store into his art business!

D

Artist of the moment…..Xue Mo

{ October 29, 2012 @ 2:43 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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First of all a happy birthday shout out to Bob Ross who would be seventy years old if he were still alive. Please go to google’s homepage and you can see their tribute to the popular television painting host. Ross built a very solid business that continues to this day. His show is still broadcast on PBS and he also has his own line of painting supplies and certified Bob Ross painters. He inspired many budding artists and despite having a tough battle with cancer still produced his television show until the last year of life. He passed away in 1995. Below is picture of Bob Ross and his famous hairdo!

In the picture gallery all paintings except the last were painted by Xue Mo, the last painting of cloth is by Claudio Bravo.

The artist comes from Mongolia. She was born in Inner China/ Mongolia in the year 1966. Xue Mo is known for her portraits and the artist is also very skilled at painting cloth and fabric. For her artistic education the artist attended Meitan Normal College. After earning her degree she became part of the art faculty and worked at the university for five years.

As you can tell by her western style painting technique, the artist is a big fan of the renaissance era. Some of her favorite painters that he lists are Piero Della Francesca, Paolo Uccello, Hieronymus Bosch, Bruegel the Elder, and Pisanello. She enjoys painting his portraits using her beloved Mongolia for a background. Her style is quite similar to the portraits of the renaissance era, showing people presiding over the land that they owned and presided over.

Her artistic philosophy is the same as Giorgio Morandi. I blogged about Morandi not long ago, a wonderful painter of the still life. He found beauty in everyday items like glasses and cups. Morandi said , ” I believe more in art for art’s sake than I do in religion, social justice, or national glory.”

On line and land based gallery:  Tao Water Galleries located on the east coast just outside of Cape Cod and also in Provincetown, MA.

http://www.taowatergallery.com/artist-xuemo.htm

Diane Farris Gallery located in Vancouver, British Columbia.

http://www.dianefarrisgallery.com/artists/xue-mo/

 

The artist has had shows in Europe, Asia, Australia, United States, and Canada.

Below is a short clip showing Xue Mo and her main subject matter, portraits of women.

Xue Mo reminds me of the master artist from Chile, Claudio Bravo. Both were very skilled at painting cloths and fabrics. Below is a great painting by Claudio Bravo, he was a master at painting cloth as well as glass.

price ranges info: The artist usually works with oils on linen. Price range is $2,500 to $15,000.

Xue Mo moved with her husband from Beijing, China to Canada in 2011.

 

Create a masterpiece today!

D

Artist of the moment…..Sohan Qadri….

{ October 28, 2012 @ 3:32 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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In the gallery the only painting not done by Qadri is the last one which was painted by Richard Mayhew.

The artist came from India and was a great figure in the movement of contemporary art in India. He was best known for painting the metaphysical, the spiritual side of painting on canvas.

A brief clip featuring the artist’s work at a gallery in India. A collector talks about the Indian Art market.

Sohan Qadri was born in Chachoki, India in 1932. His family owned a very large farm and was quite wealthy. From some servants that lived on the farm Qadri learned of meditation and dance when he was around seven years old. Qadri liked to make scupture works out of the mud that was in his village.

As he grew older his mother wanted him to take over the duties of the family farm. Though outside he showed no emotion, inside it tore him up. He couldn’t handle the stress and ran away from home. Not like many of us who ran away for a few hours, he took off and lived in monastaries and with other people that shared his spiritual path and followings.

Eventually he returned and told him mother he would not take over the family farm and instead would start learning about art. He became an apprentice to a local photographer.

He then moved onto Bombay. The artist wanted to become an artist with a modern view, and he needed to leave smaller cities and villages behind in order accomplish his goals and dreams.

For college he attended the Simla College of Art. He received a degree, then went on to study teaching. As fate would have it, a publisher of a regional art magazine saw Qadri’s work and became his first major patron. His patron was similar to Howard Tullman, the Famed Chicago Art Collector, who really are passionate about buying works of art from up and coming artists.

A simple time line about the style of his evolution would be figure work, abstract work, landscape, meditative work…

A few notes about the artist’s process. He saw colors either dark and light, and warm or cool. Dark colors reprsented the earth and were used in the bottom works of the art. Warm or cold colors could be used to denote the energy passing through space. Light colors would be used in the upper third or upper levels of the art.

Qadri made his first break into the art world by having a wonderful sell out show in Africa.

Qadri lived abroad much of his life in places such as London, Paris, and for more than thirty years in Denmark.

The artist’s process includes getting into a meditative state, and then using colors that are familiar to his native country of India,  and letting loose. Many paintings could be reflections of a quiet coastal scene. The viewer is given the structure and framework of a realism work, but with many details left out.

Qadri was very diverse in his mediums working with ink, oils, paper, and acrylics.

Price ranges: Works done with paper, many are collages some are paintings, are available from two twenty five thousand dollars. Ink works can be found from ten thousand to forty seven thousand. Works done in oils can range from two thousand to twenty five thousand. Acrylics can be found around ten thousand dollars.

The artist had quite a few celebrity friends. One was a winner of the Nobel Prize for his writings named Heinrich Boll. Boll enjoyed the meditation that was apparent to him in the artists’ work.
I enjoy this artist for his bold use of color and for his blend of abstraction and realism in his meditation paintings. If I was to compare his work to another artist it would be Richard Mayhew. Mayhew was an African American Indian artist that is still alive today and at his peak would take a landscape or seascape and reduce to brilliant fields of color. Below is an example of a Mayhew landscape. All forms are reduced to flat shapes of color with no concentration on form or structure, all feelings are centered on emotion.

Qadri passed away in 2011.

Artist of the moment….African Artist Mbongeni Buthelezi

{ October 27, 2012 @ 1:59 am } · { Uncategorized }
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A clip of some of the artist’s work.

Here is the link to the artist’s own website:  http://www.plastic-arts.net/

Mbongeni Buthelezi was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in the year 1956. He is best known for painting the face and figure with little pieces of plastic. His work has a real contemporary feel because its made from contemporary materials, PLASTICS!
The artist studied at the African Institute of Art in Johannesburg. He also studied at the University of Witwatersand.

Everyone of his works of art is made up of thousands of very small pieces of plastic that are cut up and then glued to a canvas.  The artist is able to paint faces with plastic by using a heat gun to control the dollups of plastic color he has on his canvas.He always uses “waste” plastics. By using recycled materials he wants the viewer to take notice of how much waste is made everyday in the world.

Buthelezi hopes to communicate hope and meditation thru his artwork. I really enjoy this artist’s positive outlook on life. He hopes to provide inspiration to others. He is convinced that if people hear his story and view his paintings that they too will see anything can happen in South Africa. You just have to be diligent and never give up trying. He loves to tell people his story and how he made a career seemingly out of nothing.

He has worked many years at developing his technique and has eighteen different variation he uses to achieve different textures and ideas.

The artist has shown in New York and Germany.

On line and land based gallery: Seippel Gallery located in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Buthelezi currently lives and works out of Johannesburg.

I couldn’t find any price range information.

I love the recycled materials genre of art. So many possibilities and ideas one can use. For some artists that work with recycled materials try checking out Geoffrey Gorman. One of my favorite sculptors that makes animals from trees and wires. Another artist is Vik Muniz. Sometimes the artist uses chocolate instead of a pencil in his drawing. Below is a picture by Vik Muniz. It is was made using a very large wire.

Create another masterpiece right now!

D

Artist of the moment….Paula Rego….

{ October 26, 2012 @ 12:25 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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In the gallery, only the last picture is not a Rego. It was painted by Jack Vettriano. When I first saw the painting of Rego that showed couples dancing under moonlight, it reminded me of Vettriano’s work.

The artist was born in Portugal in 1935.

A great montage showing the artists works.

Price ranges: Ragu has worked in many disciplines including ceramic dolls which can be found for few hundred dollars. Etchings which go from one to five thousand dollars. She sold a pastel work titled Broken Promises for 1.168  million dollars. Acrylic record is for a work titled Looking back which sold for 1.26 million.

I compare the artist to Jack Vettriano. He is a highly successful commercial illustrator known for painting couples dancing along the beach, sometimes with a manservant holding an umbrella. Both artists get the emotion of romance and sometimes desperation.  Below is classic example of Vettriano’s art.

A short interview featuring the artist and Robert Hughes.

Paula Rego was born in Lisbon, Portugal in the year 1935. Rego’s father was an engineer and took a job abroad. Her parents moved to London and the artist went to stay with grandmother for a few years. Rego was busy listening to stories and fables of magical lands from her grandmother and one of the maids of the house.

Rego was sent to a school that was different from her Catholic background in that they were Anglican. Faith also has an important role in the artist’s work.

The artist was then sent to a finishing school in London that she hated. She quit this and enrolled in the Chelsea School of art. Her guardian didn’t tell her parents. Neither he nor Rego knew how they would react to her hanging about the crazy and wild artistic crowd. Eventually she told her parents and to her suprise they didn’t mind. She then enrolled in the Slade School of Art in London.
She met her husband while at the School, but he was married. After the divorce, the couple was married and given a house by Rego’s father. Rego’s father was the owner of an eletrical company. He died and Rego’s husband took over the company. This was during a revoluntionary time in Portugal. Even though Paula and her husband backed the left wing takeover of government, this ended up destroying their business. The family then moved to London for the rest of Willing’s lifetime.

The artist first’s big show was with the London Group in 1962. A popular group that included such art celebrities as David Hockney. The seventies and eighties brought the artist major exhibitions in New York and Amsterdam.

Rego is in many large museum collections including 46 pieces owned by the Tate Gallery in London. She even has a museum in Cascais, Portugal that is named for the artist and specializes in her works.
Rego has become a naturalized British citizen.

Artist of the moment …….. Georges Rouault

{ October 25, 2012 @ 9:09 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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In the gallery below all works, except the first, are by Georges Rouault. The first one is by his mentor Gustave Moreau.


Price range information:  The artist worked in many mediums. Etchings can be had from $100 to $1000. Oils can get up $578,000. Aquatints can range from $1,000 to $20,000.

The artist was born in Paris, France in the year 1871. His family was rather poor. Rouault was an expressionist painter and produced a large amount of original art as well as prints. He loved the arts as a child and was encouraged by his mom. He became an apprentice to a local glass painter at the age of fourteen.

By working with painting glass, this lead the artist to  his technique of a heavy black ouline in nearly all his shapes. Whilst he was an apprentice Rouault continued to study art taking evening classes. In 1891 he began studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. This is the official art school of France. As a student he became the favorite student of the professor and reknown painter Gustave Moreau. Moreau was a painter of the surreal and painted in a romantic/ mystery genre. Below is an example of Moreau’s singature style. The two had great respect for each other and when Moreau died in 1898, Georges Rouault was made curator of the museum dedicated to Gustave Moreau.

As Rouault became older religous themes made their way into the artists work eventually become his favorite subject matter. The artist made many works of Christ.

Beginning in 1930 the artist had shows worldwide and was reknown internationally.

Like all French artists, this guy was very unique!  Toward the end of his life he burned nearly 300 works of art that he started but never finished. He burned them as he thought he wouldn’t live to finish them.

George Rouault passed away in 1958 at the age of 86.

I also found it interesting that his training in painting glass, was apparent in finding his own unique artistic style. Very similar to Grandma Moses who started out doing embroidery and when her hands became too bad to do needlecraft began painting.

The University of San Diego had a special exhibition of the artist’s Miserere series. Here a curator talks about the show.

As an expressionist painter it is thought that the artist was heavily influenced by Vincent Van Gogh.

From a style standpoint I would compare him to another French artist, Bernard Buffet. Both used great colour and flat shapes. Both also used black lines to outline the shapes used in their works. I wrote about Buffet not long ago, he was very productive and when he could no longer create art due to Parkinsons disease, he put his head in a plastic bag, taped it around his neck, and committed suicide. Both artists had oustanding use of colour and enjoyed flat shapes.

Try an expressionist painting today!

Only two more days until I see Vincent Van Gogh again!

D

Artist of the moment…. Political Satirist Gerald Scarfe….

{ October 25, 2012 @ 1:40 am } · { Uncategorized }
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All of the pictures in the gallery are the work of Gerald Scare, EXCEPT the last picture, which was done by Sebastien Kruger.

The artist hails from the United Kingdom and was born London in June of 1936.

Here are some caricature drawn and painted by Gerald Scarfe in 2008. These were on the walls whilst you waited in line at Wimbledon.

A collaboration with the artist, sometimes referred to as the fifth member of the band, and Pink Floyd.

A great clip featuring Scarfe and the Victoria and Albert Museum and how it inspired him to an artistic career.

Average price ranges:  Working mainly as an illustrator I was able to find his work available in pen and ink, lithographs, and paintings. One work in pen sold at auction for $6,200. Lithographs available from $50 to $2250. Pastel range: $1,000 to $2,000.

He has done editorial cartoonist work for media companies in the United States ,such as the popular magazine the New Yorker and also Time magazine. He also worked across the pond working for The Sunday Times and many other magazines.

Another great caricature artist is Sebastien Kruger of Germany. Kruger is known for his paintings of the Rolling Stones. Some of his Keith Richards paintings are just amazing! Below is an example of a Kruger.

 

The artist is married to movie actress Jane Asher, the two were married in 1981. Asher dated Beatles star Paul McCartney for five years, the two were engaged to be married. After finding Sir Paul in bed with another lady she left him and met Scarfe in 1971. The couple have one daughter and two sons.

 

As a child the artist suffered from severe asthma, causing him to spend much time in bed. This caused him to draw as a means of an outlet both. He became a huge fan of Ronald Searle. For his education Scarfe attended Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design. He also attended the London College of Printing and East Ham Technical College.

 

The artist has also worked with Disney, helping to make the 1997 animated hit Hercules. Scarfe was in charge of character design, and teaching the lower level Disney artists how to portray the emotions he desired.

 

Designed a series of five postage stamps featuring famous British comedians.

 

Scarfe has also worked as theater set designer.

This artist is just great! Who doesn’t enjoy a great caricature, even if they are mean. As a former caricaturist myself, you have find out what features are different than a normal sized face and EXAGGERATE the difference. A big nose, becomes a honker.  Big lips, become even bigger like Angelina Jolie with snake poison in them!  Another artist I learned a great deal from drawing cartoons are Tom Richmond. We worked for the same caricature company, not at the same location however, and he went on to become a great cartoonist working for Mad magazine.

 

Al Hirschfeld is my favorite of all time. He used to draw awesome figures with a simple line. He drew many sketches in pencil on paper. He would then draw over them with ink. A celebrity artist, yet because of his simplistic and elegant style a self portrait by the artist could be had for less than four thousand dollars even at his peak!  Chris Rommel is another great caricature artist to check out. David Levine was another great caricaturist working in a pen and ink style.

 

Scarfe is awesome just to show people how brilliant a life in commercial art can be. One can be sure he has brought smiles to millions of people that look down at politicians with disdain. I went to a show called Hogath vs. Hockney last week.  He is a throwback to a simpler time when the artist’s pen was mightier than a sword or gun. A critic didn’t like a work that Hogarth had etched. Well Hogarth didn’t appreciate his disdain so he reworked the picture of himself with his dog. This time a book was placed below the dog. The dog was urinating on the book!

 

How about drawing a caricature today! Despite your political association, DRAW BOTH PARTY MEMBERS. I would take this a step further and draw any political figure because you can compare them to other artists and see if they exaggerated the same parts of the face that you did!

Create!

D

Artist of the moment…..Jason De Graaf….

{ October 24, 2012 @ 7:04 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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This hyperrealist painter is best known for his paintings of reflections of glass. In this clip you can see my favorite painting of his, the painting with the reflections of pine trees. The actual images start at 44 seconds into the clip. The show took place at Jacana Gallery located in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Jason De Graaf paints with acrylics on canvas.

The painting with the pine trees is my favorite work by the artist and is 24 by 36 inches going for $5,900. Painted in acrylics.

Jason De Graaf was born in Montreal, Canada in the year 1971. He currently lives and works out of Quebec, Canada. The artist works with photos and applies his own color technique. He enjoys painting items that are transparent such as glass, water, and marbles.

For his artistic education De Graaf attended Dawson College located in Montreal, Canada.

Some other photorealists artist would be Don Eddy, Robert Bechtle, Richard MacLean, Hilo Chen, Ralph and Mark Goings. Two galleries that do a great job of showing high quality photorealist works would be the Louis K. Meisel Gallery located in New York, New York. The latter gallery would be the Plus One Gallery located in London, England.  Jason De Graaf is featured at the Plus One Gallery.

Meisel Gallery:  http://www.meiselgallery.com/lkmg/artists/

Plus One Gallery: http://www.plusonegallery.com/Artist.cfm

A link for the artist’s own website:  http://www.jasondegraaf.com/

Lets take a closer look at some paintings. Its very easy for the viewer to find the subject of the painting. Often its the largest object in the work, located in the middle third of the painting, and has the brightest reflection of light.  De Graaf is a master at mixing organic and geometric shapes, such as the cylinder shape of a glass and the fun shapes that evolve when water is forced to leave the glass. Or the abstract patterns that exist on crumpled up aluminum foil.

Another interesting aspect of his method is the use of black. Many painters don’t like to use it, for fear of taking the color out of the picture. My favorite painter of the western theme, Howard Terpning, prefers to mix his own black using burnt sienna and ultramarine blue.

Although working from photographs the artist isn’t bound to them from start to finish. He uses colours by intuition and tries to capture the beauty of everyday things. Be it a drop of water, the reflections that appear on foil, or even the reflections that exist on the surface area of a still glass of wine. Each is brought to life and given a splendor usually reserved for painting living items.

D

Artist of the moment….Hughie Lee Smith…..

{ October 24, 2012 @ 2:18 am } · { Uncategorized }
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The artist was born in Eustis, Florida in 1915.

He was known for being one of few african american artists dealing with surrealism.

A clip from the Detroit Artist’s Market show featuring the artist from 2008. This was done by an art fan and its her trip thru the gallery, pictures start at 1:11 into the clip if you are impatient to wait for the artwork like myself! Also in this clip are some of his lithograph works.

For his art education Smith attended the Cleveland Institute of the Art. He finished his degree at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Smith was elected to the National Academy of Design.

From a design standpoint two other artists come to my mind. The first being Ed Hopper. Hopper was best known for his portrayal of light that took place on the coastal lands of Maine and northeast. When I look at Hoppers paintings I feel the stillness and calmness of the surrounding ocean. I get this same sense of calmness and peace from the works of Hughie Lee- Smith. Hopper’s work also had an intense feeling of isolation. That you were spying on someone as they went about their daily life. Its this same feeling of “I don’t care if you watch me,” that I get from Smith’s artwork.

Another artist that comes to mind would be Robert Vickrey. Vickrey is a master of light and shadow who often paints surreal scenes with some of the same objects as of Hughie Lee Smith such as balloons and circular shapes. Both artists also took pride in depicting brick walls taking advantage of the repeating rectangular shapes and the fun texture. Vickrey painted mainly in egg tempera and passed away in April of 2011.

Here is a great work from the late Robert Vickrey. A great sense of timelessness here, I would venture everyone adult has blown at least one bubble during their lifetime!

For all three artists,  Ed Hopper,  Robert Vickrey, and Hughie Lee Smith, each does a great job at freezing the moment and emotion at the time. Its like with an Andy Warhol, a sense of time stopping allowing the viewer to take it all in!

He went on to teach at Wayne State and also was a dancer.

Hughie Lee- Smith was also a product of the WPA, or Works Progress Administration, this was a government sponsored part of the New Deal. It encouraged and promoted new buildings and for artists opportunities to create public murals or sculptures. Hughie Lee Smith worked in Ohio and in the Navy for the WPA.

1958 the artist moved to New York beginning a teaching position at the Art Students League where he taught classes for fifteen years. Painted the offcial portrait of the New York city Major David Dinkins in 1994.

Low price range: Pencil works from $1400 to $ 8500. Ink works from $400.

High price ranges: Watercolors from $2,500 to $10,000. Original oils from $10,000 to $102,000.

Lived and worked most of his life out of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

He died of cancer in Albuquerque in 1999 at the age of 73 years old.

This artist was great in his subject matter and I highly respect his advances into Surrealism. I enjoy the sense of calmness and timelessness the artist brought to his works!

D

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