Franz Bischoff was an American Impressionist painter renown for his landscape paintings of California. Franz Bischoff was born in Steinchönau, Austria in the year 1864. Bischoff emigrated to the United States when he was a teenager.
As a youngster Bishoff learned about design and how to paint with watercolor.
In this clip a great montage of works by the artist:
Bischoff had an excellent sense of design and built a great reputation for porcelain painting. He even taught the technique to other artists.
The artist relocated to Los Angeles, California in 1906. It was in California that he produced the best paintings of his career. He spent much time living in Los Angeles and Pasadena.
Franz Bischoff passed away in 1929.
Price range information: Works range from $20,000 to $850,000. The artist worked mainly in oils and ceramics.
Joaquin Mir Trinxet was a wonderful artist from Spain working with the landscape in a modern style that combined impressionism and abstraction. In his artistic statement Trinxet speaks about wanting to enlighten the heart and fill the soul with light as a goal of his paintings.
Joaquin Mir Trinxet was born in Barcelona, Spain in the year 1873. His family was from the Catalan region. For his art education Mir studied at the Llotja School. An influence on Mir was the artist Luis Graner who painted portraits of people in the landscape very similar to the way John Singer Sargent might portray a figure outside.
At the beginning of his career the artist painted landscapes that were very abstract. He then switched to a slightly more realistic approach that launched his career to the next level. The artist would then return to painting nature in a more abstract manner with an emphasis on color.
His palette was similar to the Impressionists and the artist refused to use the color black.
Joaquin Mir Trinxet passed away in 1940.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
In this clip a great montage of works by Joaquin Mir Trinxet:
What is fascinating to me about this artist is his use of color and emphasizing the abstract areas in his landscape paintings. A rock and its reflection become so abstract without their surroundings the viewer might not know what the subject was. The artist excelled at capturing mood and feeling in his landscapes.
Winston Spencer Churchill, the famous British politician was also a wonderful painter. Winston Churchill considered himself an amateur level painter and enjoyed painting landscapes.
Winston S. Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire in 1874. His family had an aristocratic pedigree and his father served as his country’s Chancellor to the Exchequer. This position is the Secretary of the Treasury in the United States and examples of people in this position would be Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, or Tim Geithner.
On a side note an American writer and painter is also named Winston Churchill.
In this clip we view a brief bio and works by the artist. The paintings begin at 38 seconds in. In the beginning smaller works are shown and larger images can be seen at the one minute mark. Churchill painted many landscapes but was also adept at painting the figure and the still life:
Winston Churchill passed away in 1965. He is the only person ever to be named an honorary citizen of the United States.
Price range information: Churchill worked in graphite, photography, printmaking, and sculptor. Works range from $5,000 to $1.6 million paid for the work below titled,” Chartswell- Sheep and landscape.
What a great artist and he lived a wonderful and exciting life from being born in a palace to leading his country in the fight against the Nazi’s.
Other political figures who I have posted about include George Bush (the second)who paints dogs, Nelson Mandela(who learned to draw in his nearly 3 decades behind bars, and great-nephew to the last emperor of Russia Price Andrew Romanov who works with Shrinky Dink materials.
Manfong Lee was born in Guangzhou, China in the year 1913 . Manfong Lee loved to paint the landscapes and region of Asia and also created fantastic images of island life in small countries such as Bali. Lee also painted portraits, still life works, and many varieties of cats including tigers, and birds.
His wife was a professional pianist.
In the early 1930s he began working as a commercial artist for a Dutch company and relocated to the Netherlands. He would return years later on a scholarship for three years of study.
Lee was granted Indonesian citizenship and died in Jakarta, Indonesia in the year 1985.
Price range information: Works range from $10,000 to $3 million and the artist worked in oils and pastels.
Recently Christie’s Auction House held a viewing showing many works of Manfong Lee. Lee was a master and creating works with many people. Here in this clip we take a much closer look at the painting that appears last in the gallery above:
What a well rounded artist who could paint anything! Lee seems to have mastered all mediums.
Leon Gaspard was born in Vitebsk, Russia Empire in the year 1882. Gaspard was renowned for his paintings of landscapes and small towns of Russia and Asia. Gaspard enjoyed making works with large crowds of people. For his mediums of choice Gaspard worked in oils for the most part but did use watercolor, gouache, and pastels in addition.
Price range information: Works range from $5,000 to $800,000.
His father was a salesman of rugs and furs. His mother loved to play the piano.
For his artistic education Gaspard attended the Academy Julien located in Paris, France. Gaspard also studied with famed figure painter Willaim Adolphe- Bougereau.Whilst in school his parent’s passed away and though he quit studying, he was far enough advanced as artist to find a dealer to represent his work.
Gaspard met and married an American woman who was a professional ballerina. He joined the French Aviation Corps and was injured in the field.
The couple moved back to the United States. The couple lived in New York City before relocating to the Taos, New Mexico area.
Once in Taos, New Mexico the artist flourished and gained much attention and fame for his paintings of his native Russian homeland.
Leon Gaspard passed away in 1964.
What I love about the Russian Impressionist painters is their color palette. The sky is full of amazing blue grey color and clothes are a great compliment to the skies.
Pham Luan is a painter born in Hanoi, Vietnam in the year 1954. The artist was inspired to be an artist by a book and manual by the artist Nguyen Van Ty. The artist was called to military service in 1972, this was the time of the Vietnamese revolution.
Luan did attend the Hanoi Teacher’s College. He graduated despite being called into military service.
In 1990 the artist quit teaching and became a full time painter.
Luan enjoys painting in oils and gouache.
The artist paints much of the local farm landscape and urban areas.
March Avery is the daughter of aforementioned artists Milton Avery and Sally Avery Michel. March Avery was born in 1932. Like her parents she paints in a very colorful style that concentrates on simple shapes in addition to flat fields of color. Mark Rothko was a good friend of her father’s, for me she uses much of the same palette of colors as Rothko. Subject matter are scenes from every day life, flowers, rugweavers, birds loaded with wonderful colours.
The artist enjoys painting in France and also keeps a studio in Manhattan, New York.
For her artistic education March Avery attended Barnard College in New York City.
The medium she uses most is watercolour.
Price range information: Works range from $1,000 to $8,000. The artist is a printmaker in addition to being a painter.
Henri Matisse was born in the year 1869 in Le Cateau-Cambresis, France. The artist was a founding member of the Fauvist movement. Matisse was modernist in this technique and had a masterful sense and use of colour in his art. He originally attended college to become a lawyer. The artist then quit his goal of becoming a lawyer and wanted to become an artist. Matisse attended the Academie Julian and then the Ecole des Beaux Arts.
A key influence on the artist was the “primitive” or “naive” style of artwork that paid more attention to bright and bold colors rather than drawing or painting something in a highly realistic manner.
Henri Matisse was part of the Chicago Armory Show of 1913, already 100 years old.
Spent time in Paris and the southern countryside of France.
His hometown of Le Cateau-Cambresis, France has a museum built in honor of the artist. A link to this website is here:
At auction a work of the artist sold for $25 million dollars.
As you know I enjoy doing paper collage. In this clip we see Henri Matisse working on a paper collage! The quality isn’t the best, but I gathered some inspiration from it:
And in this clip a great selection of paper cut works by Henri Matisse:
In this clip a montage of works by Henri Matisse. I enjoyed the selection of portraits included in this clip:
In this clip we see the artist doing a sketch. He speaks in French, but still great to watch!
Henri Matisse passed away in 1954 at the age of 84 years old.
Part of many prominent museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Birger Sandzen, also known as Sven Birger Sandzen, was a wonderful painter of the American landscape with a colorist palette. Sandzen was born in the year 1871 in Blidsburg, Sweden.Sandzen was a wonderful oil painter and printmaker. I enjoy his paintings of trees the most!
At the age of 10 years old began to take classes from a professional artist.
price range information: Woodcuts and prints can be found for at $1,500 to larger oils costing as much as $200,000.
He studied briefly at the University of Lund. He left college and ended up studying with a more informal group of artists that were learning from the master Anders Zorn. After learning from this great master Zorn recommended Sandzen move to Paris. Whilst in Paris Sandzen learned about the new movements of pointillism and impressionism.
In 1894 the artist relocated to the United States and was a collegiate art professor at Bethany College located in Kansas.
In this clip we view a segment from documentary by Colorado Public Television on Birger Sandzen:
Birger Sandzen passed away in 1954 at the age of 83 years old.
If you enjoy the way this artist paints trees check out other artists Albert Handell, Richard Schmid, Lynn Boggess, and Peter Hoffer. All of these artists have unique and wonderful techniques of painting the tree.
Zao Wou- Ki was born in 1920 in Beijing, China and would go on to become a force in the art world renown for his work done in an abstract style. As a child he studied calligraphy. His first wife was also an artist, a song composer. For his artistic education Wou- Ki attended the Chinese Academy of Fine Art.
Zao Wou- Ki was a member of the Academie des Beaux Arts.
In the mid 1950s he divorced his wife and visited the States in 1957.
Shortly after he found his next wife, Zhu Ying, who was a movie star. Later she became a sculptor receiving critical acclaim. At her peak, she committed suicide.
A main influence on the artist was Paul Klee. Below an example of Klee’s work. Other influences were Picasso, Cezanne, and Matisse.
Price range information. Auction record was set in 2011 at $8,864,000. Already has had five works break the $1 million mark in 2013.
Here we see a brief interview with the artist. He also gives remarks about the use of space in both eastern and western painting.
Montage of works by Zao Wou- Ki.
Zao Wou- Ki passed away in April of 2013 at the age of 93 years old.
I have never seen this artists work in person, but even on a monitor his use of space is a done at a master level. A space that is very small, seems very open and large. Wonderful compositions and use of color! Zao Wou- Ki was a master of abstraction!
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