Upcoming Art Museum Exhibits: Spring and Summer 2016

There are always an interesting variety of national and international art museum exhibits I want to see, some I will be fortunate enough to visit.  Here is a partial list of upcoming shows from across the United States and Europe as well. 

Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia
Feb 6- May15
Legion of Honor, San Francisco

Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia is the first major international presentation of Pierre Bonnard’s work to be mounted on the West Coast in half a century. The exhibition will feature more than 70 works that span the artist’s complete career, from his early Nabi masterpieces, through his experimental photography, to the late interior scenes for which he is best known.
The exhibition celebrates Bonnard (French, 1867–1947) as one of the defining figures of modernism in the transitional period between Impressionism and abstraction. Several themes from Bonnard’s career will emerge, including the artist’s great decorative commissions where the natural world merges with the bright colors and light of the South of France, where windows link interior and exterior spaces, and where intimate scenes disclose unexpected phantasmagorical effects.
Among the many significant paintings on view will be Man and Woman (1900, Musée d’Orsay), in which the artist has depicted his lifelong companion and one of his constant subjects, Marthe de Méligny. Also featured will be such masterpieces as The Boxer (Self-Portrait) (1931, Musée d’Orsay) and The Work Table (1926–1937, National Gallery of Art); and decorative panels and screens, including View from Le Cannet (1927, Musée Bonnard) and Pleasure (1906–1910, Musée d’Orsay).




Woman in Checkered Dress, Bonnard, 1890-91, Musee D'Orsay

Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture
The Frick Collection, New York
March 2, 2016 to June 5, 2016

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), one of the most celebrated and influential portraitists of all time, enjoyed an international career that took him from his native Flanders to Italy, France, and, ultimately, the court of Charles I in London. Van Dyck’s supremely elegant manner and convincing evocation of a sitter’s inner life — whether real or imagined — made him the favorite portraitist of many of the most powerful and interesting figures of the seventeenth century. –




Mary, Lady Van Dyck, Van Dyck, 1640, Prado

Anthony van Dyck, Mary, Lady van Dyck, née Ruthven, ca. 1640. Oil on canvas. Museo Nacional del Prado - See more at: http://www.frick.org/exhibitions/van_dyck#sthash.ZVe5olJn.dpuf

Here is an exhibit that will be traveling around the country and then ending in Seattle in 2017 where I will be able to see it myself-

Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection

The Water Lily Pond, Claude Monet, 1916, Allen Collection

Portland Art Museum: October 10, 2015 – January 10, 2016

The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.: February 6–May 8, 2016

Minneapolis Institute of Art: July 10–September 18, 2016

New Orleans Museum of Art: October 14, 2016–January 15, 2017

Seattle Art Museum: February 16- May 21, 2017
The exhibition begins with Jan Brueghel the Younger’s allegorical series of the five senses. These exquisite, highly detailed paintings provide a platform for visitors to explore the exhibition by considering their own experience with the world through sight, touch, smell, sound and taste. The next section of the exhibition demonstrates the power of landscape to locate the viewer in time and place—to record, explore, and understand the natural and man-made world. Artists began to interpret the specifics of a picturesque city, a parcel of land, or dramatic natural phenomena. This collection features a stunning group of evocative Venetian scenes by Canaletto, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, and J.M.W. Turner, among others. The exhibition also features a rare landscape masterpiece by the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, Birch Forest of 1903.

International Pop

Philadelphia Museum of Art
February 24, 2016 - May 15, 2016

This exhibition chronicles Pop art’s emergence as a global movement, migrating from the United Kingdom and the United States to western and eastern Europe, Latin America, and Japan. Although Pop arose in distinct forms within each region, artists expressed a shared interest in mass media, consumerism, and figuration. International Pop navigates a fast-paced world packed with bold and thought-provoking imagery, revealing a vibrant cultural period shaped by widespread social and political revolution.

Imaginary View of the Grand Gallery of the Louvre in Ruins, Hubert Robert, 1796

Hubert Robert, 1733–1808

Musée du Louvre, Paris, March 9–May 30, 2016

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.- June 26 – October 2, 2016

Known fondly as "Robert des ruines" because of his penchant for painting ancient ruins, Hubert Robert was regarded during his lifetime as one of France's most successful and prominent artists. In the first monographic exhibition showcasing Robert's full achievement as a draftsman and painter, some 50 paintings and 50 drawings will chart his development in Rome and subsequent high level of accomplishment after his return to Paris. The exhibition will also focus on Robert's lasting contribution to French visual culture and the fundamental role he played in promoting the architectural capriccio (caprice or fantasy), an art form in which famous monuments of antiquity and modernity were imaginatively combined to create striking and novel city scenes and landscapes.

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Musée du Louvre, Paris.

 

Lion Hunt (detail), Delacroix, 1861, Art Institute of Chicago

 

Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art

National Gallery in London, some of you may have already seen this when it was at the Minneapolis Institute of Art last fall.

17 February – 22 May 2016

“We all paint in Delacroix’s language,” observed Cézanne

From the bold colours and abstract shapes of Matisse and Kandinsky, to the expressiveness of Van Gogh and Gauguin, to the vibrant complementary colours of the Impressionists. All can be traced back to Eugène Delacroix – the last painter of the Grand Style but equally one of the first modern masters, who transformed French painting in the 19th century.
‘Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art’ is a long-overdue homage to France’s leading exponent of Romanticism – a true original who, at the time of his death in 1863, was the most revered artist among the avant-garde in Paris.
Drawing inspiration from British art and literature, his real and imagined travels to North Africa, and biblical scenes; every chord of human passion can be found in Delacroix’s paintings – stories of love, murder, violence, and war. “The first merit of a painting is to be a feast for the eye,” he emphasised towards the end of his life.
Placing Delacroix alongside contemporaries such as Courbet and Chassériau, this exhibition traces 50 years of Delacroix’s legacy, exploring the profound impact he had on generations of artists to come.

This exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Minneapolis Institute of Art.




From Kandinsky to Pollock. The Art of the Guggenheim Collections
Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy 
March 19- July 24, 2016

This exhibit has over one hundred masterpieces of European and American art from the 1920s to the 1960s, in a narrative that reconstructs the relationship and the ties between the two sides of the Atlantic through the lives of two leading American collectors, Peggy and Solomon Guggenheim.
Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, the exhibition – the result of a cooperative venture involving the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York – will be offering visitors a unique opportunity to compare and contrast the crucial work of European masters of modern art such as Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Man Ray and Pablo Picasso and European masters of so-called Art Informel, or “Unformed Art,” such as Alberto Burri, Emilio Vedova, Jean Dubuffet, Lucio Fontana, with large paintings and sculptures by some of the most important personalities on the American art scene in the 1950s and 1960s such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein and Cy Twombly.
Devoting an exhibition to the Guggenheim collections means telling the fast-paced story of the birth of the Neo-Avant-Garde movements after World War II in a tight and uninterrupted interplay between European and American artists. But producing such an exceptional exhibition in Florence also means celebrating a very special tie that goes back a long way, because it was precisely in the Palazzo Strozzi’s Strozzina undercroft that Peggy Guggenheim, who had only recently arrived in Europe, decided in February 1949 to show the collection that was later to find a permanent home in Venice (discover the exhibition opening photos taken in 1949).

The large paintings, sculptures, engravings and photographs on display at Palazzo Strozzi on loan from the Guggenheim collections in New York and Venice and from other leading international museums, paint a vast fresco of the extraordinarily heady season of 20^th century art in which Peggy and Solomon Guggenheim played such a key role.




Chronicles of Solitude: Masterworks by Vilhelm Hammershøi from the National Gallery of Denmark  
Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada
April 16-July 3
Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA 
July 16–September 25, 2016

This exhibit was recently exhibited at Scandinavia House in New York, and here is what they wrote on their website about the work-

The National Gallery of Denmark presents a wide selection of masterpieces by celebrated Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916). Drawn from the extensive collection of SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, the exhibition features a selection of paintings from across Hammershøi’s body of work, including several of the quiet home interiors for which he earned the title “de stillestuers maler” (the painter of tranquil rooms). Hammershøi’s exquisite artworks have long captivated scholars and critics and his international popularity has grown rapidly in recent years. Curated by Kasper Monrad, the exhibit features paintings representative of Hammershøi’s four main genres—reduced landscapes, unpopulated urban cityscapes, portraits, and spare, sunlight-infused interiors—offering an intimate look into his life and enigmatic artwork.

A Room in the Artist's Home in Strandgade, Copenhagen, with the Artist's Wife, Hammershoi, 1901

Internet Marketing and Businesses Online

The marketing and selling of goods and services using internet as a medium for sales and distribution is called Internet marketing. Internet has converted the world into a small village and people from any part of the world can buy or sell products or services.

Internet marketing allows people above certain age limit who have internet connection to a computer can start a business with negligible or no initial costs. This business is done two different ways. One involves selling your products and services as a merchant or work as middle men known as affiliates. These affiliates earn commission by providing a link of the merchants in their website and earn money as and when a customer clicks those links and goes to the website of the merchant. It is important for this website to bring prospects. This is done in three ways:

* Advertising: This is done on third party websites.

* Word of mouth referrals: This is done if someone directly tells you about a website or if someone writes about a website in their own website.

* Passing Traffic: This is nothing but search engine marketing.

Internet marketing has become so popular and the reasons for that are summarized below:

- Internet marketing involves very less risk as you can try and then buy and most of the internet marketers started during their spare time and if successful took it as the main stream.

- It takes lots of investment to start a normal business venture but in the case of Internet marketing the investment is very low or nil. All you need is a well-designed website.

- In normal business you are confined to your area but it is not the case with internet marketing. Anyone from any part of the world can be your customer.

- You can track any advertising efforts made through internet marketing and can discard if it doesn't work.

- This business runs round the clock without any involvement of humans. You can use this free time for developing yet another website which can generate good income.

Affiliate Marketing

This is not direct marketing of a product but getting commission by promoting another business. You need to provide a link of another business in your website for which you will be paid and for every click of the customer who goes into that business site you will be paid.

Benefits of Affiliate marketing:

- The market that they reach has become wider.

- This involves very less cost.

- The affiliate is paid only for the results.

- Cost of failed advertising is no more.

- Can start earning even by not having a product of your own.

- There are a number of merchants and products and hence an affiliate marketer will never face a situation of not having promotional links.

- It is a hands free process once a website is set up.

- A number of products can be promoted without increasing your work stress.

- It involves less risk as you can change a non-paying product anytime.

Marketing and Business Success Require Taking Risks - Lots of Them

Just think how great it would be to feel secure in your marketing and and law practice success. Not to have to worry about taking risks. Having a map of your business, a plan you can rigidly adhere to and count on no matter what. Being able to predict what will happen, like having an iron-clad insurance policy.

But what would that really mean for you if such a thing existed? Not taking risks would mean doing the same things the same old ways, over and over again. It would mean knowing all the time what is going to happen. On the one hand that sounds comforting. But on the other it would create a large problem for you. There would be no surprises, good or bad. No excitement, no challenges, no growth. How long would you find that acceptable, interesting, or stimulating?

But even if you desired this no-surprises security insurance with its drawbacks, the world outside you and your practice simply is not going to conform to your wishes for it. The fact is that while you may have considerable control over how you deal with your marketing, practice, and life, you have very little control over how life outside you deals with them. For example,

- You cannot always predict and control the behavior of others.

- You cannot ensure that the local economy will be in your favor.

- You cannot be certain of the consequences of any given action.

- You cannot guarantee that your marketing and practice will thrive and be satisfying.

Despite what some believe about your being able to attract whatever you want by simply concentrating on it, believing that you can make the world conform to your desires and expectations results in frustration, anger, futility, and depression. It takes focus, planning, and lots of action to get what you want. And even then, you still cannot guarantee you will receive it.

External security is wishful thinking. The only real security is what you generate internally. What you think and act on. This is what you control. Specifically, it is you

- Having confidence that you can do whatever is necessary to get what you want.

- Realizing and accepting that you have to choose and control what you do... or be tossed around at everyone's whim like a ragdoll in a tornado.

- Determining how you will respond to the environment and events as they occur.

- Deciding to act to make things happen the way you want.

Risk-taking is essential. In the words of Helen Keller, "Security does not exist in nature.... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."

Ask yourself what would you do if the Men in Black swooped in, snatched you, and dropped you in your birthday suit on a plain in the Sudan. Could you survive not knowing the culture, language, or climate? Could you make friends, get food, and find shelter? If you depend upon external security, you would likely perish. But if you depend upon your internal security, you would likely survive. The same is true of your marketing and practice.

Marketing and Business Tips

If we were to look at how marketing has shifted from the days of the "yellow pages", wouldn't we all wonder in awe and amazement at exactly what has happened?

Newspapers, Posters, Calling Cards, all seem to be slowly but surely disappearing and we are being totally taken over by the exciting and sometimes scary world of the internet.

In today's world of fast moving money and start-up businesses, anyone who has a true eagerness to achieve his or her goals as a business, will or should definitely realise that without marketing online, you are missing or should I say leaving out a huge and vast income potential.

It doesn't really help your business to spend vast sums of money on paper adverts, as most people don't even bother getting as far as the advertising sections in a newspaper anymore.

And what with newspapers going out of existence within the next 5-10 years, you are probably just wasting all your time and effort, or should I say "flogging a dead horse".

We only have to look at the statistics - 95% of people globally, use the internet, whether it is for local, national, or international searches.

And it doesn't stop there - as most people will search online for everything, from plumbers and electricians, to cars or holidays.

Online marketing has truly exploded over the past 4 years and include areas such as, social media, mobile, video, and even article writing.

But does marketing actually help?

Well let's look at the various phases of online marketing, and maybe you can answer this question for yourself?

Having a business online, without getting customers to it, is a pretty useless achievement.

You need traffic, and lots of it.

And online marketing, when used correctly, achieves just that.

By placing videos online for example, and well-presented videos, you can achieve a ton of traffic to your website. Videos only have to be watched and clicked on by interested parties, for them to go viral, and within the short space of 24 hours.

Writing interesting and well-constructed articles, is yet another form of online marketing, and again will achieve a high volume of traffic to your website.

Another important part of marketing a business online is to connect via social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. With the correct tools in place and well-presented business pages, you would be quite amazed at how much traffic these huge social media engines, pull to your site.

The other aspect to marketing online is SEO, or as it is called search engine optimisation.

A website, without well-constructed keywords and metatags, in place, will struggle to achieve a good online presence, no matter what or how much other marketing techniques, you may have in place.

Keyword research is an art in itself and getting it right, shows huge results.

I would like to think that after reading this article, you have come to your own conclusions, about marketing online, and that very little persuasion is needed.

Rosa Bonheur

French painter Rosa Bonheur (1822-99) was "the most internationally renowned woman painter of the mid-nineteenth century."1

Bonheur was one of the most talented and successful painters in the 19th century, she began showing her work in the Paris Salon in 1841 and quickly made a name for herself as a painter of animals with a focus on the domesticated animals of France.  In the 19th century a greater number of women were pursuing art as a career and studying in the École des Beaux-Arts.  Yet it wasn't usually possible for women to draw and paint from the nude model where students would learn anatomy as it was considered morally corrupt. Due to this, female painters of the time often turned to subjects other than figurative history paintings. Mary Cassatt famously painted mothers and children, Cecilia Beaux painted portraits, Berthe Morisot painted scenes of modern Parisian life and Rosa Bonheur focused on painting animals.

While the move away from history painting put limitations on paintings and commissions for women artists, Rosa Bonheur was so skilled at painting animals that she attracted attention at an early age.  By age 26 she received an important commission from the French government to paint her work Plowing in the Nivernais.  Bonheur traveled to the Nivernais region so that she could paint the landscape and oxen accurately.  

Ploughing in Nivernais, Rosa Bonheur, 1849, Musee D'Orsay

The work shows a typical French rural farming theme of the fields being tilled in the autumn.  While her work is part of the Realist movement of Millet, Breton and Courbet, in a sense this rural scene is rather romanticized.  There is a nobility given to both the animals and cowherds.  When she was painting this the influences of the industrial revolution were spreading throughout France and Europe, and this scene pays homage to traditional methods of labor.  

Rosa Bonheur "based the work on a description of oxen in George Sand's celebrated pastoral novel of 1846, La Mare au Diable (The Devil's Pod), on her long study of animals in nature, and on the paintings of Paulus Potter, a Dutch seventeenth-century painter of cows whose work she admired."2  Below is an example of Potter's work; The Bull, Paulus Potter, 1647, The Hague.

Bonheur's painting was widely acclaimed and after it was shown in the 1849 Salon she received numerous other commissions.  She went on to have many well known and influential patrons such as Britain's Queen Victoria and the American millionaire and philanthropist Cornelius Vanderbilt.

The Horse Fair, Rosa Bonheur, 1852-55, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bonheur's most well known work may be her later painting, The Horse Fair, painted from 1852-55.  The painting is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the museum website says of the painting The Horse Fair, "The artist drew inspiration from George Stubbs, Théodore Gericault, Eugène Delacroix, and ancient Greek sculpture: she referred to The Horse Fair as her own "Parthenon frieze."3

More than one version of The Horse Fair exists, after it was exhibited Bonheur painted another version and prior to the finished work she painted several smaller studies.  After exhibiting the work she traveled to England for a while where she enjoyed further success.  She was represented by gallery owner Ernest Gambart who had many of her popular paintings turned into lithographs and published.
 

Bonheur did much of her drawing and painting outdoors (rather than solely in her art studio) and preferred wearing pants to the elaborate dresses that were popular in the mid-19th century, at that time it was necessary to obtain a permit in order for a woman to wear pants in public.  Rosa Bonheur obtained one and was able to move about with ease painting her subjects in their natural setting while wearing pants to do so.  She was considered "radical in her personal life, but artistically and politically conservative, a confirmed monarchist and a realist."4

Rosa Bonheur, André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, 1861-64, Getty Museum

Rosa Bonheur enjoyed a successful lifelong career, and lived to be 77.  Her work was popular among all classes in society and during her career she became the first woman officer in the Legion of Honor.  It would be no exaggeration to say that most artists painting animals in the 20th century would have been influenced by Bonheur's work.



1 Rosenblum, Robert and H.W. Janson. 19th Century Art. NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1984. p. 223.
2 Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. NY: Thames and Hudson Inc. 1990. p. 180.
3 Metropolitan Museum of Art website- http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/435702
4 Chadwick. p. 180.


 

2015-16 Art History Lecture series at Gage

Beginning in Fall, 2015, Gage Academy of Art is proud to present a new series of lectures on art history.  Featuring Gage teaching artists as well as art historians from the Seattle art community, these lectures feature an intimate look inside the artists and movements that helped shape art from the Renaissance through the 20th Century. 

The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1511-12

I am giving the first lecture on one of my favorite subjects the Sistine Chapel Frescos.  This will include both Michelangelo's ceiling frescos as well as the earlier wall frescos painted by Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Signarelli. 

The Last Supper, Tintoretto, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, 1592-94

I plan to attend all of the others as I scheduled this new series and am very excited about it.  The artists and art historians who will be speaking are all very knowledgeable and engaging.  I have included links to their websites for many of the presenters.

Here is the schedule, if you live in the Seattle area maybe I will see you there!


Fall 2015
RENAISSANCE & BAROQUE ART
Wednesday
7:00pm-8:00pm

 Oct 21 - CAROL HENDRICKS: The Sistine Chapel Frescos
I will be talking on all three of the fresco cycles, the older wall frescos from the 1480's by painters such as Botticelli, Perugino and Ghirlandaio as well as Michelangelo's famous ceiling frescos and his later Last Judgment on the wall behind the altar.

 Oct 28 - HAMID ZAVAREEI: Venetian High Renaissance Painting: Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto & Veronese
Hamid has taught painting for years at Gage and he has been researching various historic pigments and techniques of the of the Renaissance.

 Nov 4 - GARY FAIGIN: Caravaggio & His Influence
Gage Artistic Director and Co-Founder Gary Faigin is an extremely knowledgeable art historian.  The Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio is one of his favorite topics.



 Nov 18 - REBECCA ALBIANI: Rembrandt: Portrait & Self-Portrait
Rebecca has been lecturing at the Frye Art Museum for years in a very popular sold out lecture series. She was a Graduate Lecturing Fellow at Washington’s National Gallery and a Fulbright Scholar in Venice. She received an MA from Stanford University and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley.

The Conversion of St. Paul, Caravaggio, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 1601

Winter 2015
19th TO EARLY 20TH CENTURY ART
Wednesday
7:00pm-8:00pm

 Feb 24 - MIKE MAGRATH: The Sculpture of Lorenzo Bartolini; the Rediscovery of Nature
Mike teaches a variety of sculpting classes at Gage, including the Sculpting Atelier.  He has an MFA from the University of WA and has been creating his own figurative sculptures for years.  I was unfamiliar with the artist Bartolini and after looking into his art I am very excited to personally attend this lecture.



 Mar 2 - RICHARD WEST: Fitz Hugh Lane & the Case for Luminism
Richard West is an expert on 19th Century American painting, he was a long time Gage Trustee and was the Director of the Frye Art Museum from 1994-2003.  Before that West was a scholar and former director of Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Maine; the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; the Newport Art Museum, Rhode Island; and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

 Mar 16 - CHARLES EMERSON: Bonnard & Vuillard
Charles studied with Josef Albers and has been a popular painting instructor at Gage for years.  His lectures are not to be missed!

 Mar 23 - KIMBERLY TROWBRIDGE: Matisse
Kimberly earned her MFA in painting from the University of WA and launched her own Atelier at Gage this fall.  She is one of the most engaging and dynamic speakers.  She says of teaching-
“It is through my desire to communicate with others that I have developed a meaningful lexicon as an artist; recognizing the relationship between my creative and teaching practices has been profound for me in uncovering the role and importance of my audience.”
-Kimberly Trowbridge

Misia at the Piano. Oil on cardboard, Edouard Vuillard, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, 1895

Spring 2015
20TH CENTURY ART
Wednesday
7:00pm-8:00pm 

 April 13 - OLIVIA BEAUFAIT: Paul Klee
Olivia is a painter, instructor and arts administrator.  She received her MFA in painting from the University of WA and has shown her work in local art galleries.  She is very interested in modern, contemporary and abstract art and considers Paul Klee to be one of her favorite modern painters.

 April 20 - MICHAEL OTTERSEN: Apollo & Dionysus in the Abstract; comparison of two Dutch artists: Piet Mondrian & Willem de Kooning
Ottersen teaches Abstraction in both drawing and painting at Gage and he has taught at a variety of other schools.  In this talk he will compare and contrast two icons of modern art, both were Dutch but their styles were vastly different.

 April 27 - JULIA RICKETTS: Abstract Expressionism: Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner & Joan Mitchell 
Gage teaching artist Julia Ricketts both works in abstract and teaches classes in abstraction. She studied at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and has been in numerous exhibits.  This lecture is a departure from most on the Abstract Expressionist movement in that it focuses on the talented female artists of that group.

 May 4 - KATHLEEN MOORE: Georgia O’Keefe
Kathleen is a painter and educator who loves landscape painting.  Originally from Texas, Moore has lived in the Seattle area since 1990. She received her BA in art from West Texas A&M University, worked as an art conservation technician while in college and later studied painting atBruchion School in Los Angeles, CA and Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, WA. Georgia O'Keefe is a big influence on her work. 

Fish Magic. Oil and watercolor varnished. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1924

Register online for a single lecture, a quarterly series or the entire 2015-16 program, and delve into the techniques, ideologies and personalities that define art in our world!

Pianos in the Parks 2015

Pianos in the Parks 2015 is here!


Pianos in the Parks is a collaborative project in Seattle and King County parks, it uses the power of art and music to get people out to discover parks, connect with people and have fun.  This is a community effort combining the talents of 22 artists and the vision and efforts of 16 different partner organizations.  This is the 2nd year for Pianos in the Parks and we hope that it will be able to continue.  Last year hundreds of people were inspired to sit in the parks and play the piano, the launching event for this was today and by tomorrow the pianos will all be placed in their temporary new homes in the park. 

The artists from Gage Academy of Art worked in a variety of creative ways to create beautiful and unique pianos.  It took each artist about two weeks to paint and decorate their pianos. I don't have room for photos of all 22 pianos, here are some examples, make sure to look at the rest- in person at each park if possible!

Marina Park Piano by Kate Rose Johnson
and Samuel Johnson

Bellevue Downtown Park
Eye-guy from Outer Space by Vikram Madan



Green Lake Piano
by Brittany Carchano

Monster Piano by Queenie Sunshine
at Luther Burbank Park



Riffing Music Pink & Blue- Homage to O'Keefe
by Kathleen Moor at the Sea-Tac International Airport

Sketchbook by George Jennings in Ballard Commons Park

My piano 'Starry, Starry Notes' located at Seacrest Park

I am happy to be a participating artist this year with my painted piano which is influenced by Van Gogh's painting The Starry Night.

My piano is in West Seattle at Seacrest park which is where the Elliot Bay Water Taxi stops.


I have always loved The Starry Night, and was excited to use that as my inspiration for this.  I wrote about Starry Night in an earlier blog post from August 2012, here is an excerpt-

"In the blue depths the stars were sparkling, greenish, yellow, white, pink, more brilliant, more sparklingly gemlike than at home - even in Paris."1

So wrote Vincent Van Gogh while he was in Saint-Rémy during the time when he painted his famous painting, The Starry Night.  Van Gogh created this, one of his most famous works of art and a favorite of mine, in June of 1889 about a month after he moved to the mental asylum in the small town of Saint-Rémy outside of Arles where he had been living.  While Van Gogh was there he painted constantly, taking his inspiration from the views out of his window and the countryside around him. 

The Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889, 29 x 36 1/4" (73.7 x 92.1 cm)

Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York

Art Historian Robert Rosenblum wrote of Van Gogh:

"Of the many marvels that make up Van Gogh's genius, one is his uncanny capacity to project his total visual and emotional attention into anything he painted, animate or inanimate, so that a shoe, a sunflower, a chair, a book could carry as much weight as the image of a human being."2

This statement is also true of his landscapes.  Van Gogh's night sky does seem to vibrate and swirl with its own personality and the vivid hues of the stars, sky, moon and cypresses have a near anthropomorphic quality lacking in the landscapes of the French Impressionists whose work influenced his style.

In the town (which is imagined) the only building to rise above everything is the church with its steeple touching the sky.  That same form is echoed in the foreground with the shape of the cypress trees also touching the heavens. Van Gogh trained as a preacher and spent time working as a minister in Belgium before his artistic career. 

 The Starry Night, pen and ink drawing, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889, 18.5 x 24.5"

Museum of Architecture, Moscow

Van Gogh loved to draw also and frequently sketched out drawings first of works he would later paint in oils.  The pen and ink drawing Van Gogh did of this painting is strikingly similar, however he did make a few alterations in his final painted work. 

Yet he managed to create the same feeling of vibrant swirling movement in his drawing and creates a work of art which is far from the quiet and serene landscape one would imagine when picturing a starry night in a small rural town.

While Van Gogh's The Starry Night is a unique style of landscape painting, he included the night sky in a few of his other works.  Vincent Van Gogh was known to have painted outside with candles placed in his hat so that he could see to work at night.  In a letter to his sister during the same month that he painted this view of the Rhône at night, Vincent wrote:


"Often it seems to me night is even more richly coloured than day."3


Never does this statement seems to be more true then when viewing Van Gogh's nighttime landscape paintings. 

1 Feaver, William. Van Gogh, The Masterworks. New York: Portland House. (1990) p. 41. 
2 Rosenblum, Robert and H.W. Janson. 19th-Century Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (1984) p. 414.
3 Musée d'Orsay website, La nuit étoilée.