Not to let this post be too long I have chosen just a few of the first paintings I photographed. I took this information from the book Great Modern Masters to explain about the term.
From Cezanne to Matisse to Van Gogh, each of these masters of modern painting has had an immeasurable influence on modern art, through the movements of Impressionism, Cubism and Fauvism as well as through their own individual styles.
The Rounded Flower Bed by Claude Monet 1840 to 1926 A Monet Garden is always pretty. Read about it here.
Woman in an Armchair by Pierre-Auguste Renior 1841-1919 Read about it here.
Study for “La Grande Jatte.” by Georges Seurat 1859 to 1891 In art we studied the finished painting and discussed what all was seen in it. It says Seurat made 78 studies before finishing the final piece. Read about it here.
The Yellow Christ by Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 I loved the more simple lines and colors. Read more here.
Yesterday, August 17, I did the Satak Winery Art Show in Fremont Indiana. It was a great day, not horribly hot, not raining, somewhat humid. I so appreciate all who invest in my art through cards, reproductions and originals. I had so many good conversations with people who stopped in and had a great time.
This is Sara, from Plymouth, IN who became enamored with “Barney” so much that she had to take him home. She said that she will cherish him. I love when my art finds a good home.
Carleen from Angola is a returning customer. She purchased some reproductions for her school room last year. She stopped by again and we discussed “Save Us” and she fell in love with it. She said that she has a colorful home and had plans to hang it in their dining room. After I got it all wrapped up I remembered I needed to take a picture. So thank you all who visit me, I feel the warmth.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, during our Detroit Zoom we visited the Detroit Institute of Arts. I took so many great pictures that I will just do a few each day of the different category’s. The first I will show is the Diego Rivera Hall which is right in the middle of the museum. I was excited to view this because I had only known about it through text books. This is a mural painted by Diego Rivera who actively painted for 50 years (1907 to 1957). Diego’s second wife is the widely popular Frida Khalo.Edsel, Henry Fords son and Eleanor, Edels’s wife were huge patrons of the arts. In 1932 Edsel and the Director of the DIA commissioned Diego Rivera to paint a mural on two of the walls. Diego and Frida came and studied manufacturing at the Rouge River plant and also took in the spirit of Detroit. Rivera then suggested doing more than two murals it was agreed upon and the commission expanded. On a sidenote, you can take a tour of the Rouge River Factory today, a little more updated from the Diego and Frida time. He painted industry, airplanes, assembly workers in all races. Also included were secretary’s, accountants, Henry and Edsel Ford. It is quite a grand area and would take a long time to absorb everything. He also painted in medicine, vaccinations and religion. If you would like to read a little more in depth about the murals click here. I also want to suggest if you go to Detroit touring the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, it is chock full of art and antiques and is on beautiful Lake St. Clair, one of my favorite places.
I call my post this because when my husband and I got away for just three days we covered a lot of territory in a short amount of time. We went to the Zoo, the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA), and two Tigers ball games. We also ate at the Ford’s Garage restaurant in Dearborn which is unique and very enjoyable. In this post I am going to show the rest of my favorite pictures from the Zoo.
The animals in this zoo are not behind bars, they are in areas like their habitats. The Zebras were resting but this one sat up for a picture. The notable item about Zebras (among the obvious) are how round their ears are, unlike horses which are pointed. A very beautiful animal.Giraffes are so interesting. Their markings look like a cobblestone walk, the long neck and little head and a long smooth stride. I am so glad to get a few good images to work from. I loved this Gorilla just chilling out. It was a warm afternoon and it was taking it in stride. When we were walking up it had been scratching the inside of the ear with those long fingers. Aardvarks, so interesting to look at with that narrow snout and fringy tail. Big eaters of ants and termites. This was pretty cute where kids could get into tubes and pop up eye level with the Prairie Dogs. You can see a couple of the animals too. It was a warm day and I was also thinking “I wonder how germy those tubes are with the sneezes and dirty hands”. That’s why we have immunity. What a great picture of a Rhino! I don’t know if it is usual that the front tusk it cut off.Also a good picture of a Rhino butt. It will make it into a painting.This is a tree kangaroo. I had not heard of this species and thought it was pretty cute. The two Camels laying on the ground had the three come and stand between them with their legs all intertwined. The ones on the ground had a very hard time getting up because they are top heavy with the humps and the others so close, it took at least three times to get the job done. The Zoo had beautiful flower beds throughout the zoo. These were just yummy.I was fascinated by this snake. The color, and the way it is wrapped around the stick. It was a surprise because I didn’t expect it to be right in front and the color of the leaves. Otters are so smooth and fast and happy. This guy would swim along the river with nose out of the water. He smoothly went over the rock in his way then dove down into the pool, over and over again.The fountain area was fun and refreshing with the dancing bears.and the seal spitting water. I also liked the Amazonian rock face in the reptiles building. It reminded me of Indiana Jones movies.
I base my paintings on reality that I have seen but then I do loose renditions of them. These animals will be a fun painting to create and I have gotten so much inspiration from them.
This last weekend I had a great time with my friend Theresa. We went to Cincinnati to shop and just drove all over the place! GPS’s are a great invention.
This week I will be preparing for the Satek Winery show. I sold 108 cards and have to replenish my inventory along with prints too. I have also added a one day show to my itinerary. It is Market on 6th in Auburn on August 31st. The time is 11am-5pm and it it has a little bit of everything. Vintage, home decor, jewelry, boutique style fashion, repurposed items, artisan foods. It is during the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Festival. It is on 6th Street in Auburn between Jackson and Main. It can also be found on Facebook under Market on 6th..
I just finished up a good art fair in Chesterton, Indiana this last weekend. It is held in Dogwood Park and that is a dream to set up in. It is flat, there is a lot of room between tents and behind to store extra inventory. We can drive our vehicles up to our spaces. The volunteers take care of the artists, with water and breaks, morning donuts and coffee. The customers were engaging and great to speak with, it was a great experience. On top of that it is always nice to have booth neighbors that are fun too. Beside me was Cara, living around St. Louis now but was originally from Fort Wayne, who also was a painter but with a totally different kind of work. Then beside Cara was James who was a photographer, he drove up from Florida. Cara took this fun selfie of the three of us.This is Cara’s work. I loved her skinny legged horses. She was a rider herself and owned two horses. I suggested that we trade prints and this is the one I chose. Click here for her website. This customer bought two originals which is always thrilling. I happened to snap her picture with her eyes closed but we thought it humorous that the paintings match her clothes. Then while going through the files looking for the above pictures I found a couple more that I wanted to share. This might have been on my birthday but I liked the picture with my oldest son Sam.Then I had painted my friend Theresa’s house and gave it to her maybe 10 years ago. All of their bushes and trees have grown, they were pretty new in the picture. She got it framed recently and I just thought it looked really nice. She has a beautiful home.
Lastly, this weekend while I was gone the babies left and we are now empty nesters. I was sad that I didn’t get to see them go. As you can tell the nest was busting at the seams. Now we will take the nest down carefully and clean up there and put it back for next year. I am positive they will be back.
The Detroit Zoo did not disappoint. All the times that we had visited the city and we had not taken the time to go. It was delightful. We went through the butterfly house first and I just loved it. So many of them just fluttering and landing, high….low almost on you. I was tickled to get pictures of so many different ones to star in my paintings. This little guy was neat because you Could see right through his wings. Double Tiger StripedThe green is the perfect color of the leaves.Perched on a feeder.I loved this floating plant.Lastly I really liked the tiles that they had kids design.
We had a little bit of time to fill before the induction ceremony so we drove around and found Matter Park in Marion. This park is a treasure, so many beautiful plants and fountains and areas to sit. There is a big playground and a place to have birthday parties or a wedding. It would be worth the trip if you live close but have never been there. If the day was not as hot as it was I would have enjoyed just sitting and taking it all in. This is the fountain that greets as you walk into the area. Yes that is a violin playing frog. Loved this big blue butterfly and there are many memorial plaques that people bought to help fund the garden. This area had coneflowers, oriental grasses, milkweed and butterflys all around. We then drove to the Marion National Cemetery and so enjoyed the big old trees. I enjoy cemeterys and there were many interesting headstones to look at. They say what war the soldier had served in, some had a religious emblem, some also had family members on the back of the stone and when they were born and died. This monument is in the middle of the cemetery. A closer look at the sculptures on top, very nice. A nice breeze for the flag to show its glory. A newer area with no trees. We found the more recent burials 2015 and later and many people had been born in the 1920’s. I thought this picture was nice with the blue sky, white clouds and white markers.
So this concludes our three days spent in Marion Indiana. It was full and enjoyable, close enough to drive home each evening. We learned and became inspired. I had a day in between and Tom and I made our way to Detroit for fun for three days. Those will be my next posts, lots of great pictures.
We took a class that gave insight about Mary McElwain an early quilt entreprenuer. There were quilts made from her patterns, but they were not made by her. This daisy quilt is very charming and it represents the quilt that is on the front of her shop flyer. The quilt was in such good condition I believe that it was not this one but it was very neat!What a sweet baby quilt from one of her patterns. She sounded like she had a very good business with 60 employees. She also must have sold Marie Websters patterns, because this is one of my very favorite quilts. I love poppies and this is just stunning. The same poppy pattern but made in pink but as stunning. I really enjoyed looking at these and love hearing about the early quilters who had to do their patterns by hand. They were the pioneers.
Tony Jacobson was teaching the class Let the Fabric do the Work. He is 54 years old now and his grandmother taught him to quilt when he was 10 years old. He takes simple designs and uses different fabrics to make it look like it took more work than it did. Just made with strips of fabric.These next two quilts are the same pattern with different fabrics.I love the softness of these pinwheels.Pinwheels made with stripes. Tony made this quilt with a couple different fabrics also. It was a good talk with lots of good ideas.
One program we signed up for was a luncheon Mary Fons doing a Q and A which was very interesting informal.Another moment we made sure to attend was the walk through with Fons and Porter talking about their quilts and the story behind them. Here Liz is discussing the North Carolina Lily and the Lilys are going in different directions so no one end gets worn out. I was very taken with this feathered start, it is just all around beautiful. I took this close up because of the leaves which were hand drawn from strips that were used in the quilt. I also liked the fussy cut little doll leave. Also from this same quilt I enjoyed the rick rack. They said that if you do a quilt from 30’s reproductions that rick rack was invented then and used often. It looks cute on a quilt. Lastly our picture in front of the QHOF sign under the lovely shade tree. It is a very nice place with ever changing displays of quilts.
