Lee Mullican

If you like Lee Mullican, go here to see the rest of the 27 paintings by him at the Fenix Gallery.

SUMMER I 1995, COLORED PENCIL ON PAPER, 30" X 25",

JOY OF LIFE, OIL ON CANVAS, 1988 TAOS, 70" X 50",

Diamond Skull

By now you've all heard about Damien Hirst's Diamond Skull, titled "For the love of god" and that it finally sold for $100 million (under dubious circumstances).

Was going through my Favorites, trying to tidy things up a bit and thought I'd post this before deleting the following link.

If you'd like to see pics of how it was made, go here. ( Thanks, Supertouchblog)

The First Time

I saw work by Cy Twombly on the net, I practically fell out of my chair with disbelief. I was hooked and spent the next week or so researching him. Hadn't discovered how to use Goggle Images (and other image searches) yet, so it was a lot of late nights.

It was like a deja vu when i came across this painting by Lois Templeton. Bam !! This kind of work just really appeals to me. The subtle and shifting tones. The enigmatic and unreadable writing. The mystery - and yet it's so inviting; draws you in.

She was " . .born in 1928 and came home from the hospital in a laundry basket during a blizzard. It accounts for a lot.” And her work has even been described as "muscular".

The painting on the right came from on-the-cusp Blog.

With a little searching I came across some great pics of a show she had, "Never A Dull Moment" at the Editions Limited Gallery. What a bright, happy looking gallery. Sure wish we had something like that around here. Here's a painting from that show that just wows me.

You'll enjoy meeting Lois Templeton at her website. Sure would be fun to sit and talk with her for a bit; see how she came about developing her oeuvre

Peter Young

I remember coming across this Peter Young painting a couple years ago at abstract-art.com . At the time, my only choice for research was Google Images and there wasn't much about him (image wise)on the web. But this painting of his - # 15, 1968

96 X 108 inches, Acrylic on Canvas - really caught my eye. Pointillist abstraction. What a concept. There was a feeling of validation in seeing other artists who painted dots because that's what I was doing at the time. Through the years I've come across the work of quite a few artists who either did this as a series or a phase or even made a career of it. Some paint their dots independent of each other; give them room to breathe. Other artists join them and or overlap them for a more traditionally, pointillist approach. But this painting in particular really did catch my eye and sparked a lot of ideas.

Usually I'll start with an abstract background, then cover that with tracing paper with writing. When applying the dots of paint, I mainly try to ignore the background so that the end result will be a surprise, but actually that's not possible and you find yourself interacting with places here and there. In general I've always tried to make it a sort of scientific project. . . .

But I digress - back to Peter Young

So now, it seems that Peter has been rediscovered, with 2 shows in New York City. One at the Mitchell Algus Gallery and the other at PS1. See a video of the Exhibit at PS1(as posted on You Tube) here. There's a very informative review at The BrooklynRail. And you can see the New York Times slide show here. His show is much more than just dots.

Yayoi Kusama

I Chucklewhenever I hear Dale recount how he met me. He happened to stop by a friendly little Thursday "art class" that I had started attending and noticed this guy painting dots (that would be me). And he always seems to enjoy relaying the quizzical feelings about me and that first impression. I will always have the last laugh because of the company I'm in. He doesn't know just how many artists have explored the realm of the dot (or pointillism).

So upon discovering a new Art review site called thehighlights and seeing this painting ( #10, 1967) by Peter Young, a lot of good memories started to come back. By the way, it looks like he used the same process as Yayoi Kusama to come by his "dots". What looks like dots or black marks are actually what's left after painting white in a particular pattern over black. She did it so well with her Infinity Net Series. Am so happy to have found this new painting by her -

Infinity-Nets (OPYSTD), 2007. The current date means she's still "workin' it". And there's always been this thing about her sanity too. (haha, me too) So it's good to know she's still working and always a pleasure to see her works come up at auction. You really should do a little research on her - you'll be quite entertained. Just highlight her name and copy it, then open up one of the Search Tools to the left (Google or Yahoo Image search), paste her name and have fun.

But back to the infinity net process. The painting below, from 2005 that makes it easier to see how it comes about. There's an abstract background and then yellow is applied in crisscrossing curving lines that let the original colors show through. The top image is from Paris-Art. Two bottom paintings are from http://www.leannehull.com/. And as always, the pics are thumbs - so click on the pic for a larger view. And please do check out Yayoi Kusama. This is not completely representative of her complete oeuvre . . . . .

More Dana Frankfort

Was perusing the Re-title web site, checking out the current exhibits in London, Berlin, Chicago and Los Angeles. While looking at the New York Art Galleries I again noticed the exhibit of Dana Frankfort at the Bellwether Gallery and wanted to have another look see. To my delight and surprise there's a whole passel of her paintings here. So if you'd like to get a real feel for what she does, check it out.

And Now

for something completely different !!

Just came across this site today and couldn't resist going thru all the archives. Very enjoyable.

If you'd like to get out of town for a while and see art from the west coast (California)- all from the comfort of your own home, please visit this blog

http://artfever.blogspot.com/

The picture is from the Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Oliver Farley at TART (SF) post

And THAT'S

how writing was created !!

A pic of and from Mark Cameron Boyd's blog http://theorynow.blogspot.com/

lots of very interesting reading. And you can see his work at

http://www.markcameronboyd.com/

Dana Frankfort

is now showing at the Bellwether Gallery 134 10th Ave, NYC.

Really like what she's doing; where she's going with her oeuvre. Looking at her paintings sometimes reminds me of that game where you look at the color red, but the letters say green . . There's some kind of tension where you can/ can't read it.

See samples from the show at http://www.bellwethergallery.com/current_01.cfm?fid=407

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Having Fun

Katharina Grosse is at it again. Her current Exhibit "Katharina Grosse: Picture Park" at the Gallery of Modern Art is her first major solo museum project in Australia, on view thru Oct 28. A first encounter with her work is mostly shocking and usually brings a smile at the freedom and scope and brazenness of her work. It causes one to consider painting and "art" and the rules that house those 2 concepts. I'm not a big installation fan, per sea, but I think it would really be enjoyable drifting thru her work alone and unbothered - just very simply appreciating her color and the obvious tale of her physical actions. Below is a shot of her exhibit at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago "Atoms Inside Balloons" this spring. Another fun and powerful statement and experience. It really does the mind good to encounter these large, freewheeling works, the way it miniaturizes you and gives a feeling of being young. It opens your mind again.

You can visit her homepage listed in the left on my blog page (near the bottom) under Homepages.

And as with any artist, there's the good, the so-so and the inspired. And for all the good feeling that these works inspire, I'm still the kind of person that Really likes his paintings on a carry able size, normal support(canvas, wood, panel . .). So the works that appeal to me most are these, in the room to the right. As for installations, I think Life itself is a rather big and complex, yet intimate one and I like hanging and encountering works of art in that installation. At the end of the day, what I'd rather have is the "captured" version of her work; an easily measurable and hang able and portable trophy.