Archive for August 5, 2013

Artist of the moment…..Celso Lagar

{ August 5, 2013 @ 8:58 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Celso Lagar was a great painter born in Seville, Spain in the year 1891. In 1907 he began private studies with Miguel Blay in Madrid, Spain. In 1911 he moved to Paris France to study. After World War 1 began he moved away but came back to settle for good in Paris.

His longtime love was named Hortense Begue and she was a sculptor.

One of the artist’s closest friends was the painter Amelio Modigliani, below a portrait of Lagar painted by Modigliani.

modigliani

Lagar flourished in the 1930s. The artist was very up and down as far as his emotional side. After his wife passed away in 1956 he entered a state of depression that would plague him the rest of his life. As he was eventually sent to a mental hospital for his depression estate sales of his paintings took place to cover the costs of his stays.

Included in the collection of the Contemporary Museum of Art located in Madrid, Spain.

Price range information;  Watercolors range $1,000 to $11,000  . Gouache works range $300 to $10,000. Lithographs range $300 to $1,000. Oils range $5,000 to $40,000.

Celso Lagar passed away in 1966.

Artist of the moment…..Jaco Ishulutaq

{ August 5, 2013 @ 10:24 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Jaco Ishulutaq is a contemporary master Inuit sculptor born the Nunavet Territory of Canada in the year 1951. Ishulutaq hails from the city of Panniqtuuq, Nunavet Territory, Canada.  The artist is renown for his detail in his work. Sometimes on his figure work he even includes very small items such as teeth.

In this clip we watch the artist give a brief carving demo on making a whale. The magic happens right before your eyes!

Below a great one on one interview with Jaco Ishulutaq.

Price range information: Works range from $500 to $14,000.

As you can see from the demonstration the artist is starting to flourish as a sculptor. His work shows a great blend of realism and creativity that brings stones to life!

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Artist of the moment…..Beverly “Bev” Doolittle

{ August 5, 2013 @ 3:06 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Bev Doolittle is a magnificent artist that I would call a mix of M.C. Escher and Bob Kuhn. Bev Doolittle was born in California in the year 1947. For her artistic education Doolittle attended the Art Center College of Design located in Los Angeles, California. She and her husband who was also a painter when the couple first started out, would travel the American Southwest both painting landscapes. Doolittle works mainly with watercolour. With the success of her career her husband gave up his quest of painting to concentrate on building his wife’s career. He was an integral part in marketing her talent.

Doolittle helps many charities and organizations through her art by illustrating books.

price range information; A few years ago I saw a piece sell for the high $200,000s. So many prints are available at various price ranges.

Doolittle has had a great successful career as an artist. She started off a wildlife and landscape painter traveling with her husband across the United States. Later she would come to add hidden faces and other images in her work with the traditional western genre painted landscape. Now well into her career and with a highly developed eye for where to hide certain items, some works contain as many as 17 different hidden portraits. If you were at all puzzled by where the hell Waldo was, this artist uses the same idea but in a more adult and very artistic way. I absolutely love her style.

In this clip a montage of works by Bev Doolittle.

A leading printmaker is the Greenwich Workshop. They handle many top artists including Howard Terpning, John Weiss, and of course Bev Doolittle. In this clip the artist breaks down a current print she is working on.

More images set to music:

When you do your next art project, try hiding something in your image in honor of Bev Doolittle!

Artist of the moment…..Liu Baomin

{ August 5, 2013 @ 2:54 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Liu Baomin is a wonderful contemporary artist renown for his work with the figure in a very abstract style. Liu Baomin  was born in Xian, Shaanxi province, China in the year 1968. Baomin’s style gives the viewer plenty of action and movement to keep the eye busy as you focus on a head that appears to be covered with layers of water or perhaps a sheet of plastic. For his artistic education Baomin earned a diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts located in Xian, China.

price range information: Newer works at auction are bringing in nearly $50,000. No prints are available.

The process is very time consuming and the artist produces only 3 to 4 works per year.

Most of these works fall under the Extreme Illusion series. These works, which can take years to finish, have been very successful at auction world wide.

Baomin lives and works out of Beijing, China.

In his artist statement Baomin tells us his works are to evoke the viewer to take a look at themselves as if they were the face they were looking at. Similar to many Eastern artists Baomin is trying to show the disappointment and various emotions people show as they are caught up in attaining materialistic goals and trying to fit into a more Western world.  These artists all seem to have one goal in mind, that people enjoy living in a consumer driven society, but what cost does this society do to the many people caught up in their dreams.

Its a very thought provoking idea to bring consumerism into this picture. Are we interested in people for their thoughts, or for the consumer brands they represent. Are we interested in the person, or the distorted person more?

Wonderful questions to contemplate whilst looking at this fine painter!

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