Bednobs and Broomsticks

 Bednobs and Broomsticks.

Today has been the first day since Christmas day that I’ve felt well enough to get out of bed. I’m still not well but at least I’m managing to stay awake for more than 30 minutes at a time. I thought I would make the effort to get dressed and spend a couple hours in the living room watching TV.
‘Bednobs and Broomsticks’ happened to be on TV.  It’s a while since I’ve since I’ve seen this film, it reminds me of when my kids were young and we used to spend Sunday afternoons watching films. We watched silly films like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mary Poppins and this one and even now my grandchildren still like watching these silly old films.  I couldn’t help thinking it was quite apt, this was the first time I had been out of bed and I found myself watching a film about a bunch of people transported around on an old iron framed bed. And then I thought maybe it was some sort of omen, beds feature in quite a few paintings, and here are a few of them.

No 1 ( above) has to be the very famous VINCENT VAN GOGH: “La chambre de Van Gogh à Arles (Van Gogh's room at Arles)”, Van Gogh first painted his room in Arles in October 1888 (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Van Gogh), and, one year later, he painted two more versions while living in Saint-Rémy, this one is one of the later ones and the most elaborate of the three.
No 2 HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC: “Dans le lit (In bed)", 1893 This is one (and arguably the best) of the several scenes of a couple in bed painted by Toulouse-Lautrec,
No 3 EDOUARD MANET: "Olympia", this was first exhibited in 1865 and the painting was not liked by art critics of the time. However,  it was much admired by Émile Zola.

No 4 Mary Cassatt's painting Breakfast In Bed, one of the loveliest portrayals of mother and child.
No 5 The Nightmare: Henry Fuseli, 1781, this is the one that most resembles my confinement to bed……….the stuff that nightmar4s are made of.
No 6  Master Bedroon by Andrew Wyeth, no one can resist this painting. 
No 7 The Poor Poet by Carl Spitzweg. This is one of my favourites, I love the detail. A poll of Germans listed this painting as their second favorite painting of all time second only to Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. It has often been used in literary works to exemplify the metaphor of the starving artist. Unfortunately, this painting has been stolen on two different occasions. The thieves in 1989 were more successful as the original work remains among the missing

Jane Aukshunas

Jane Aukshunas

http://janeaukshunas.com/

I posted a couple of these prints a few weeks ago when I didn’t have time to do a full Art Sunday post. They were just a taster of her work. I had never seen this womans’ work before and even at first glance it immediately appealed to me. 

Aukshunas revels in the creamy medium of oil pastels and uses a hybrid technique that can be regarded both as drawing and painting. She applies thick layers of richly colored oil pastel to paper or wooden panels and works the medium with her fingers and other tools. Her giclee prints convey the texture and richness of the original work.

Jane Aukshunas holds a Bachelors of Fine Art from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, with additional studies of Japanese art at Harvard University and fashion design at Parsons School of Design in New York City. The artist also studied traditional Balinese painting in Indonesia, and developed her current oil pastel techniques through experimentation in her studio.

She  lives and works  in the Willamette Valley which is rich with diverse terrain supporting what may be the widest variety of crops in the world. Over the years; she has traveled to Italy and Hawaii to draw some of the world’s most beautiful landscapes and has studied traditional Balinese painting in Bali, Indonesia. All of this experience reflects in her rich work of the landscape. 

Training

Jane Aukshunas holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts, with additional studies of Japanese art at Harvard University and fashion design at Parsons School of Design, New York City. Jane has also studied traditional Balinese painting in Indonesia. She has developed her current oil pastel techniques through experimentation in her studio.

Education

• BFA, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA,  1980

Additional studies at:

• Parsons School of Design, New York City, NY
• Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

This is what she says of her own work

“People who love my work say they feel as though they can walk right into my images and take a deep breath, because the space there is so tranquil and inviting. My use of vibrant color and undulating shapes create a sense of calm yet buoyant joy, and the pathways and roads I incorporate invite exploration. The colors and shapes carry awareness on a journey throughout the picture space.

When I was about 10 years old, I discovered oil pastels and have been enamored of them ever since. Oil pastels consist of pigment mixed with a binder of wax and non-drying oil. They are much creamier than chalk pastels, allowing a greater freedom of expression than pencils and more control than paint. I adore them for their textural sensuality and find them delightful to apply to the wood panels and paper on which I work. Over many years of experimentation in my studio, I have developed oil pastel techniques that blend both drawing and painting. To achieve my lush landscape imagery, I utilize thick applications of richly colored oil pastels, working the creamy pigments with my fingers and other tools.
I like to work “en plein air” (on location in the great outdoors), but painting outdoors can sometimes be challenging. At times, while working by the side of busy roads, I have had to hold tightly to my drawing board when trucks roared by. I have had to devise ways to keep my oil pastels from melting on hot summer days, and during the rainy season, I occasionally have to work inside my car, using the windshield wipers to clear my view of the landscape.

Perhaps because my formal art training is rooted in design, I pare down the world around me to the essential elements, shapes and colors that have become the crux of my imagery. Vibrant color and sensuality of line give my work a playful and contemporary feeling, and the images in my art reflect my love of rhythm, music and movement. I have had a lifelong interest in textiles, and consequently, my imagery is influenced by fabric design’’.
Jane Aukshunas

Morag Muir Scottish artist.

Morag Muir is one of the most well known artists from around here. Every time I go to an exhibition or gallery there is at least one of her paintings on view. Her paintings are very different to other contemporary artists, they are instantly recognizable as hers and they are always full of small interesting objects.  

This work is not to every ones taste, despite the fact she is so popular and successful I have heard many people say they don’t like her work, claiming its too ‘fussy’ and even too ‘girly’’ ( what ever that means). The last time I was at the hospital I was drawn to one of the many paintings that hang on the corridor walls, I casually thought, ‘oh that looks very similar to one of Morags paintings’, and once up close I realized it was one of hers. 

When I say her paintings are every where, they really are. It has taken me a while to come around to her work, I used to go more for the figurative work or the Scottish seascapes but now I am really beginning to appreciate them. 

Maybe that’s because I can see how clever they are and how much work goes into each of her paintings. If you check out her web site, be sure to look at the model of the Bengal tiger she painted to raise funds, it’s quite special. .

This is her web site.

http://moragmuir.com/

More Information from here

http://www.cfag.co.uk/biog.php?artist_id=196

MORAG MUIR

Morag Muir was born in Glasgow in 1960. She studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee from 1978-83 under the likes of Alberto Morocco, Peter Collins and Dave McClure, winning the John Milne Purvis Prize and the Major Travelling Scholarship. She has taught at Duncan of Jordanstone, the Seagate Gallery/Printmakers Workshop, Dundee Contemporary Arts and throughout Fife. More recently she has concentrated solely on her own painting career. 

Her new acrylic on board paintings have been painted in her kitchen, which seems entirely appropriate as she takes inspiration from domestic interiors, family memorabilia, photographs, flowers and bric a brac. 

The luxurious veils of colour, flat planes and ambiguous space create something magical from everyday items. She has exhibited at numerous venues thoughout Scotland and the UK and the Castle Gallery is delighted to be able to show her work

More Information from here

http://www.tcweb.co.uk/exhibitions/listings/269.html

Born in Glasgow, Morag was a graduate of Duncan of Jordanstone College, Dundee in 1982. Her still life canvases full of vivid hues echo Eastern iconography & ethnic Bric-a-brac. As much as anything Morag is driven by the sheer joy of painting.

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Maggie Milne, Scottish Artist.

http://www.maggiemilne.co.uk/

Maggie Milne Fine Artist and Portrait Painter

This is what she says of herself;
 

‘’I am an award-winning artist with more than 32 years of professional experience and I specialize in the study of the human figure and portraiture, although I sometimes work within the field of still-life and abstract composition. I live and work in Dundee where I am a part-time lecturer at Dundee College. I graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, University of Dundee in 1979 and since that time I have executed more than 180 commissioned portraits and have exhibited widely in galleries throughout the UK, including the National Portrait Gallery, the Mall galleries, and the County Hall Gallery in London, the Royal Glasgow institute and the Royal Scottish Academy.
My work is held in public and private collections and I have appeared on BBC television in the series ‘Star Portraits’ first shown on BBC1 in 2004.’’

 
This lady  is a painter of portraits and the human figure. In portraiture, she creates a perfect likeness which remains painterly as opposed to photographic. Her paintings are atmospheric and use shape, colour, texture and composition to accentuate the sitters personality and character. 

Her life studies suggest movement and mood by merging anatomical precision with abstract shapes. This is true especially of her more recent life studies which move more toward geometrical abstraction. She was the winner of the television programme “Star Portraits”, hosted by Rolf Harris, with her portrait of Meera Syal, the actress, comedienne and writer.

She is a graduate from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee in and her work is found in galleries and exhibitions all over Scotland. She has had many exhibitions all ove rthe UK and has been commissioned for more than 100 portraits.

Istvan Csok, Hungarian painter.

 István Csók
I spent the entire weekend from Friday through to Sunday helping a friend decorate her living room. I helped her choose the paper months ago and then, just before we were about to start, I had eye surgery and the whole thing was delayed for months. A couple of weeks ago we stripped the walls and half painted the ceiling. 

Since then she has finished all the painting and last weekend, finally, I hung the wallpaper. I was looking for paintings in a blue/ grey tone to get inspiration for a painting for her new walls, and I came across this artist. I didn’t find the inspiration I was looking for but I did find this weeks subject for the art blog

From Wikipedia,
 
István Csók (February 13, 1865, Sáregres – February 1, 1961) was a Hungarian Impressionist painter. Csok lived and exhibited in Paris for a portion of his life. He became most famous in Hungary for his nudes, portraits, and landscapes of the Lake Balaton. Csok exhibited in Rome, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and London. He won the Kossuth Prize twice.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned to my art tutor that I would like to do more still life, he replied that it would suit my style but be careful not to do the ‘usual flowers and fruit stuff’.

I agreed at the time but after seeing these, I think flowers and fruit make good subject. I love the colours and shapes he has here and the fluid way in which he paints them. 

He carried these colours and fluid movements on from his still lifes in to the backgrounds of his portraits.  The subject often sits in a garden or beside a floral arrangement.


 

 

His more formal portraits tend to be bold paintings with bright contrasting colours.
 

He is little known these days but during his life time he was a popular and much respected European painter,. An example of Csók's work can be glimpsed behind the opening credits of the 1971 film Countess Dracula. This is an 1896 painting showing serial murderess Countess Elizabeth Bathory enjoying the torture of some young women: in an inner courtyard of one of her castles, naked girls are being drenched with water and allowed to freeze to death in the snow. The original painting was destroyed in World War II and so far, I’ve been unable to find a picture of it.