Picasso - A Picture A Day

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

Pablo Picasso

Portrait of Jacqueline Roque with Flowers, 1954

Jacqueline Roque (February 24, 1927 – October 15, 1986) was the second wife of Pablo Picasso and his frequent model. Picasso spent the last 20 years of his life with Roque, during which time he created more than 400 portraits of her.

Dennis Hopper by Julian Schnabel - A Picture A Day

Portrait of Dennis Hopper, 1999

 In his second show at the Mary Boone Gallery in New York, Schnabel unveiled what would become his signature 'plate paintings', huge, colorful works painted on broken crockery mounted on wooden frames - an idea that had been inspired by seeing Gaudi's mosaic chairs and sculptures in the Park Guell in Barcelona.  He has said that his first attempt at gluing the plates on kept him up all night, listening to them hit the floor one plate at a time.

Dennis Hopper with his portrait.

Bob Dylan the Painter - A Picture A Day

I didn't even know Bob Dylan painted!

BOB DYLAN Opium, 2010 Acrylic on stretched canvas 42 x 56 inches (106.7 x 142.2 cm)

How cool is this?!  I love the colors.  I wonder where she went earlier in the evening or if she ever even left the house?  What do you think?

Leigh Viner - A Picture A Day

Glam-or-ous!

Before Midnight

Print from an original acrylic painting. Printed on archival Kodak professional ENDURA paper with a limited edition of 250.

I just discovered Leigh Viner's work and blog, Create, this morning.  It is a joy, full of all the things I like-fashion, glamour, travel, vintage photos, thoughtful conversation.  Check it out, I think you will like it!  She's also having a giveaway!  A piece of her original art will go to one lucky winner this Friday!  I hope it's me!

Ruben Ireland - A Picure A Day

Let go by Ruben Ireland

Dark, Mysterious, Glamorous, Fun, Beautiful!

I like.

"Moon Diamond" - A Picture a Day

"Moon Diamond", by Jason Dean

This is a large-format photographic print (24" wide by 24" high), of an image of the moon that was dissected and reassembled to form a diamond

Jason has an online storefront called The Best Part.  He creates limited edition works of art with a modern aesthetic.  I like that his work has a sense of humor and is beautiful at the same time.

Helen Frankenthaler - A Picture a Day

There are many accidents that are nothing but accidents - and forget it. But there are some that were brought about only because you are the person you are... you have the wherewithal, intelligence, and energy to recognize it and do something with it. (Helen Frankenthaler)

 Blue Atmosphere, 1963, 5'10"x9'

Helen Frankenthaler is an American-born painter, printmaker, and sculptor who, along with fellow artists Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis, spearheaded the practice of Color Field painting, a component of Abstract Expressionism. Her innovative technique, along with her use of landscape to inform her abstract work, changed the way artists conceived of and used color in their own work and made her the most prominent female member of the Abstract Expressionist and Color Field Painting movements.After seeing Jackson Pollock work with his canvas on the floor, she adopted the technique herself.

Unlike most artists who cover the canvas beneath their paints, Frankenthaler uses the canvas as a medium. She is known to have 'invented' a style now called color-field art by deliberately using that technique to create huge paintings. Her bright paintings are dramatic and abstract rather than realistic.
The technique of staining canvases with poured paint involves, necessarily, a great amount of risk, as there is no chance for correction. If a painting failed somewhere along the way, she rejected it. But when successful her paintings became harmonious blends of motion and color. 

helen frankenthaler | gulf stream | 1963 | oil and acrylic on canvas | 86x65 inches

Interior Landscape, 1964
Acrylic on canvas
104 ¾ x 92 ¾ inches
266 x 236 cm

Helen Frankenthaler
Nature Abhors a Vacuum, 1973
Acrylic on canvas, 103 x 112 inches

Josef Albers - A Picture A Day

Simple, clean, beautiful colors.

That's how I like my clothes, my interiors and my art.  Most of the time, anyway.  I say that and then I will find something full of detail or highly amusing and change my mind in an instant!

Josef Albers, Homage to the Square: Blue and Green, 1950
Oil on masonite. JAAF: 1976.1.1300. 28 x 28 cm (11 x 11 inches)

 

Josef and Anni Albers were artistic adventurers who were both pioneers of twentieth-century modernism. Josef Albers (1888-1976) was an influential teacher, writer, painter, and color theorist—now best known for the Homages to the Square he painted between 1950 and 1976 and for his innovative 1963 publication The Interaction of Color. Anni Albers (1899-1994) was a textile designer, weaver, writer, and printmaker who inspired a reconsideration of fabrics as an art form, both in their functional roles and as wallhangings.

Anni Albers, Design (Red and White), 1955
Gouache on Photostat. JAAF: 1994.10.9
18.1 x 45.1cm (7.125 x 17.75 inches)

 Don't you think it would be wonderfully fun to be artists living together?  Or would there be too much artistic temperament?  It certainly didn't work for Frida and Diego or Scott and Zelda!  I hope it did for the Albers!

Louise Nevelson - A Picture A Day

Texture, sculpture, large scale; all things I admire! Especially when created by a beautifully independent woman.

Louise Nevelson, Royal Tide I, 1960, painted wood, 86 x 40 x 8 inches

Louise Nevelson (1899–1988) was known for her monumental sculptures and her practice of constructing them from found wood. Her autobiographical works symbolically address issues of marriage, motherhood, death, Jewish culture, memory and (although she resisted the label) feminism.

Her groundbreaking technique involved assembling cast-off wood pieces and transforming them with coats of monochromatic black, white, and (more rarely) gold spray paint. Nevelson’s work started with tabletop scale objects, but quickly grew into human-scale and room-sized works.

Untitled, 1968

While making a reputation for her sculptural bravado, Nevelson also cultivated her extravagant personal style, which included long dresses and mink eyelashes, to dovetail with her desire to express emotion through art.  “Everytime I put on clothes, I’m creating a picture.”

Dawn's Wedding Feast, 1959

Nevelson created this room-size installation in 1959—her first foray into white wood sculpture—for the now legendary exhibition Sixteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art. She originally hoped that a patron would purchase it in its entirety. Finding no single buyer, Nevelson reconfigured the components of the installation into sixteen stand-alone sculptures, and eventually they were sold to private collections and museums.

Close-up of  Dawn, Chapel IV

“Humans really are heir to every possibility within themselves, and it is only up to us to admit it and accept it. You see, you can buy the whole world and you are empty, but when you create the whole world, you are full.”

Faye Toogood - A Picture A Day

Faye Toogood

I like the colors in this image.  It feels very dreamy.  And as shoes and travel are two of my favorite things, it definitely speaks to me.  Formerly the Senior Stylist of the World of Interiors magazine, Faye Toogood now contributes regularly to Wallpaper*, Elle Decoration, the Telegraph and Vogue. From location to the studio, the micro to the macro, an instinctual approach to composition, space, colour and interiors is evident in all of her work.

I like this one too.  The dressing table is glamorous and the oversize glasses make me smile.

Florentiijn Hofman - A Picture A Day

Silly Rabbit,by Florentijn Hofman

What little giant dropped his favorite toy?  Over scale art and objects make me happy.  I like the feeling of shifting my perspective just by expanding the size of a stuffed animal.

Carly Waito - A Picture A Day

Smoky quartz 3 . 11 x 10" . oil on masonite by Carly Waito

Now THIS is glamorous to me!

via Design Milk

These are good, too!
I first spotted these beauties over at The Jealous Curator blog.  I love that blog!  And am equally jealous of much of the same things she it!

A Picture A Day - Amelia Critchlow

Grethel, Mixed media on canvas: oils, acrylics, and collage, size: 40x30 inches, 2011, by Amelia Critchlow

 "The image at the top speaks of a woman at the edge of something. She is more than a fashion model. She is a human with her own experiences, feelings, stories. What are they? Is she looking into the abyss? Into the future? Is she walking away from, or toward the things that move her? What happens when we interrupt the status quo, and decide and shout our own agenda, truth, and wishes for the future? We can decide, and then start writing and telling those stories." Amanda Critchlow

I am taking an experimental art e-course with Amelia Critchlow.  I hope it will help unlock the block on my creativity.  You guys should take it too.

A Picture A Day-Michael Arad

I love New York City. Thank you Michael Arad for such a beautiful memorial.

9/11 Memorial Reflecting Pool, image via Newsday

 As they enter, people might be startled to find themselves in a flat, serene stretch dotted with 400 oak trees that aim to filter city noise, said the memorial's architect, Michael Arad.
"You're walking through the dense urban forest of lower Manhattan into this clearing with trees, through narrow valleys into a big, open plain. It makes this place distinct that you can look up and see the sky," said Arad, 42.
Visitors will then see the spot where the south tower once stood. In its place is a sleek, square abyss. To the west is a sprawling lawn, a place to sit and reflect.
The focal points are the two reflecting pools and massive waterfalls around the deep, dark granite voids created in the footprints of the fallen Twin Towers.

A Picture A Day-Giulio Paolini

Giulio Paolini, The Other Figure (L'altura figura), 1984

 "The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act." Marcel Duchamp
I saw this piece a few years ago at the Dallas Museum of Art.  It makes me smile wondering what these two aren't able to say out loud to each other.