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Erik Natzke: Flash Paintings

November 3, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

© Erik NatzkeToday’s images are by Adobe Flash artist Erik Natzke. Natzke is an interactive designer who is constantly trying to blur the lines between design and technology. With a keen awareness for how and where to push the limits of the medium without isolating the audience, Erik is a consistent risk-taker. Imagination, adventure, and a desire to amaze as much as entertain are all part of the driving forces behind his work. Named one of the Top 10 Young Designers by HOW magazine, Natzke’s commercial, as well as personal, works have received numerous awards within the fields of both design and advertising. (From Function 13 Gallery)

Natzke is exhibiting at Function 13 Gallery in Toronto, Canada until November 15, 2009. To see more of his work, visit ErikNatzke.com or his photostream on Flickr. For  a great interview  visit Shift Magazine.



Filed Under: ART, Design, Digital, Painting

5 Women Artists You Should Know: Vol. 3

September 10, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Artemisia Gentileschi - Danae1.  Artemisia Gentileschi – July 8, 1593–ca. 1656: Born in Rome, Italy, and influenced by Caravaggio, Gentileschi is considered to be one of the most accomplished painters of the early Baroque period.  She was trained by her father and well known artist Orazio Gentileschi as well as artist Agostino Tassi.  Tassi raped the 18 year old Artemisia and promised to marry her but was eventually arrested. Tassi’s trial received a great deal of attention, and negatively affected her reputation, prompting her to move to Florence where she had a successful career.

As a result of her experiences, the heroines in Gentileschi’s paintings,  depict powerful women enacting revenge on malicious males. Her style was influenced by dramatic realism and strong contrast of light and dark.

At a time of a male dominated art world, Gentileschi was the first female painter to be accepted as a member of the Acadamia di Arte del Disengo in Florence, Italy. She was also one of the first female artists to paint historical and religious themes, a skill thought to be beyond the intellectual abilities of women.

The Dinner Party - Judy Chicago2.  Judy Chicago – July 20, 1939: Born Judy Cohen, Judy Chicago is an American artist (sculpture, drawings, paintings), author, feminist, and educator, whose work and life are “models for an enlarged definition of art, an expanded role for the artist, and a woman’s right to freedom of expression”.

Between 1974 and 1979, with the participation of hundreds of volunteers, Chicago created her most well-known work, “The Dinner Party“. The  multimedia project, a symbolic history of women in Western Civilization, has been seen by more than one million viewers during its 16 exhibitions held at venues in six countries.

Chicago has a Bachelor and Masters of Art from the University of California Los Angeles.  She has received numerous awards, and has honorary doctorates from Duke University, Lehigh University, Smith College, and Russell Sage College.  Chicago’s work is housed in the collections of major museums including: The British Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Getty Trust, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,  National Museum of Women in the Arts,  and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

I wait - Julia Margaret Cameron3.  Julia Margaret Cameron – June 11 1815 –  January 26, 1879: Born in Calcutta, India to a British official of the East India Company and the daughter of French aristocrats, Cameron was educated in France but returned to India in 1838 and married jurist Charles Hay Cameron. The couple moved to London in 1848 where they were aligned with the elite circles of Victorian society.

Cameron did not take up photography until the age of 48, when her daughter gave her a camera as a gift. She enlisted friends and family for her photographs and used an artistic approach that differed from the commercial studios of the time – an approach for which she was often criticized.

Known for her closely framed portraits and illustrative allegories based on religious and literary works, some of Cameron’s subjects include Charles Darwin, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, and others.

Cameron’s photographs, particularly her closely cropped portraits, had a significant impact on the evolution of modern photography. As well, her portraits of major historical figures, are often the only remaining photographs and record of the time. She was meticulous in registering her photographs with the copyright office and kept detailed records which is why many of her works survive today.

Elizabeth Catlett - Sharecropper4.  Elizabeth Catlett Mora – April 15, 1915 -April 2, 2012: Born in Washington, D.C., Catlett graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C.in 1935, where she studied design, printmaking and drawing. In 1940, she studied under painter Grant Wood and sculptor Henry Stinson and became the first student to receive an M.F.A. in sculpture from the State University of Iowa .

In 1947, Catlett married Mexican artist Francisco Mora, and made Mexico her permanent home.  In 1958, she became the first female professor of sculpture and head of the sculpture department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, School of Fine Arts, San Carlos, in Mexico City where she continued to teach until her retirement in 1975.

Catlett is best known for her abstract wood and stone sculptures of archetypal African American women. She is also an accomplished printmaker and has produced lithographs and linocuts that celebrate the heroic lives of African American women.

Catlett’s work reflects a social and political concern that she shares with the Mexican muralists. Using her art to bring awareness to causes including the African-American experience and the plight of the lower classes, many of her works illustrate the diverse roles of women as mothers, workers, and activists.

Catlett received many awards including the Women’s Caucus For Art and has an honorary Doctorate from Pace University, in New York.  She is represented in numerous collections throughout the world including the Institute of Fine Arts, Mexico, the Museum of Modern Art, NY, Museum of Modern Art, Mexico, National Museum of Prague, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum, NY.

Catlett remained an active artist until her death on April 2, 2012 at the age of 96.

Berthe Morisot - Le Berceau (The Cradle) 18725. Berthe Morisot – January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895: Born to a prosperous family in Bourges, Cher, France, Berthe Morisot was encouraged at an early age to become an artist and studied with neoclassical painter Geoffroy-Alphonse Chocarne.

Characteristic of Impressionist art, Morisot painted her daily experiences and reflected 19th century cultural expectations of her gender and class. Her works include landscapes, family and domestic life, portraits, garden settings and boating scenes.

Morisot worked with pastels and watercolors and oil, and experimented with lithography and drypoint etching in her later years. She first exhibited at the Salon de Paris in 1864 at the age of 23 and continued to show there regularly until 1873, just prior the first Impressionist exhibition.

Morisot grew to be a key member of the group of Impressionists. Her home was a meeting place for painters and writers including Renoir, Degas, Mary Cassatt, and Stéphane Mallarmé. She participated in the Drouot sale of 1875, where the artists were greatly criticized. Her paintings, however, were purchased at slightly higher prices than those of Renoir, Monet, and Sisley.

Undervalued for over a century, she is now considered among the finest of the Impressionist painters.

Sources:Artemisia Gentileschi.com, Met Museum, Wikipedia, Judy Chicago.com, Met Museum, MoMA, Wikipedia, Cleveland Museum of Art, Wikipedia

Read more 5 Women Artist You Should Know posts.

Filed Under: 5 Women Artists Series, ART, Art History, Installation, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Women in Visual Arts Tagged With: Artemisia Gentileschi, Berthe Morisot, Elizabeth Catlett Mora, Judy Chicago, Julia Margaret Cameron

Beautifully Disturbing: Mark Ryden

May 20, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Born January 20, 1963 in Medford, Oregon, Mark Ryden grew up in southern California.  Ryden studied illustration at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He is considered to be one of a few artists who helped to lead a return to traditional painting techniques and a key figure in the movement called Lowbrow Art.

Early influences for Ryden include Dali, Magritte, Bosch, Rosenquist and pop artists.  Later on, he developed a passion for more classic art including David, Ingres, Carpaccio, Balthus, and Bougerau.

Some parallel Ryden’s work to the art in vintage children’s books mixed with the whimsy of Lewis Carroll.  Ryden himself says that he often finds archetypes in old books which later end up in his work, and that he is “attracted to things that evoke memories from childhood.”

One need only look at a Ryden painting to see that his technically astounding and disturbing  images are many things at once – everyday objects and people, placed in unusual and surreal circumstances. Children, blood, raw meat, crosses, cuddly animals, toys, and other cultural symbols all come together to form a world where his characters “speak from a place of childlike honesty about the state of mankind and our relationships with ourselves, each other and our past.”

Ryden has designed album covers for the likes of Michael Jackson (Dangerous), and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (One Hot Minute), to name a few.  He has also published numerous books as well as having his art featured in video games and feature films.

Ryden’s work has been exhibited worldwide and his paintings are in public and private collections.  He currently lives and works in Los Angeles with his partner, artist Marion Peck. To see more of Mark Ryden’s beautifully disturbing work, visit his website at MarkRyden.com.

Little Boy Blue © Mark Ryden
A Dog Named Jesus © Mark Ryden
Jessica’s Hope © Mark Ryden

Sources: Mark Ryden.com, Wikipedia, Beinart, My Artspace

Filed Under: ART, Painting Tagged With: Mark Ryden, Pop Surrealism

Jean Hélion, 1904 – 1987

April 21, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Born in Normandy, France on April 21, 1904, Jean Hélion is recognized as one of the leading abstract painters in Europe during the 1930’s. Hélion moved to Paris in 1921 where he worked as an architectural apprentice until deciding to become a painter in 1925. He became a member of the Groupe Art Concret in 1929 and co-founded Abstraction Creation in 1931 – an international association of artists who advocated pure abstration.

Hélion moved to the United States (New York, and Virginia) in 1936 and continued his abstract work until 1939 when (much to his admirer’s disappointment) he began to paint in a figurative style.

Hélion returned to Paris in 1940 to serve with the Armed Forces.  During this time, he was taken prisoner and help captive until 1942 when he managed to escape.  He published a book on his WWII experiences called “They Shall Not Have Me” in 1943.

Hélion returned to America for a short period but then went back to Paris in 1946 where he continued his work painting scenes of everyday life.  When asked by a journalist about his abandonment of abstract art, he said the war was an influence on his return to figurative painting. And that “A man who has been locked up for a few years knows the value of reality”. ⑴

Jean Hélion made Paris his home until his death on October 27, 1987.  Today, his works can be seen at the MOMA and other galleries in the US, as well as the Tate Gallery in London and many Museums in France.

Sources: Wikipedia, New York Times 1981, 1989, Centre Pompidou

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Painting Tagged With: abstract-art, Abstraction Creation, French Painters, Groupe ARt Concret, Jean Helion

Happy Birthday Da Vinci!

April 15, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

One of the most famous artists of all time, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, was born on April 15, 1452 at Vinci in the region of Florence.  While he is perhaps most famous as a painter, Da Vinci was known to have an unyielding curiosity that persisted up until the end of his life in 1519.  Da Vinci was a polymath and  besides his career as an artist, he was also an inventor, mathematician, architect, musician,  engineer, botanist, writer, and an anatomist.(1)

At the age of 14, Da Vinci was apprenticed to successful artist Andrea di Cione (aka Verrocchio) where he learned a large variety of skills as well as drawing, painting, sculpting, and modeling. During his professional life, Da Vinci worked in Florence, Milan, Rome, and in 1516 – 1519 in France under the service of Francis I.  Leonardo Da Vinci died on May 2, 1519 at Clos Lucé in France.(1)

The Mona Lisa (La Gioconda , La Jaconde, 1503-1506) is a small painting (2’6” x 1’8”) that continues to be a source of fascination and debate.  The dark and wild landscape brought together with the serene beauty, smile and liveliness of the sitter creates a sense of mystery and an improbable merging of two opposing worlds.(2)

The Mona Lisa is on display at the Louvre and around 6 million people view the painting ever year. I saw her last summer while in Paris and have to admit my disappointment.  The huge crowd of visitors meant that one could only stop briefly to examine it, through a bullet-proof glass enclosure, from a distance as we were herded quickly through the line.  Next time, I’ll go in winter.

To view more paintings by Da Vinci check out the Web Gallery of Art.  The Notebooks of Leonardo Davinci can be downloaded free from Project Gutenberg.

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Painting Tagged With: Italian Artists, Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa

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