Windy Day - Folk Art - SOLD

Click image to enlarge. Sorry, bidding has ended.
Size: 24" x 24" x 1.5"d.
Medium: Oils on Canvas.



Returning to the topic of Folk Art with this week's painting and Useful Link (scroll down to previous posting). There may be an advantage to selling Folk Art on eBay, which is that the category is fairly small. For example, today a search in the category of Original Abstract Oil Painting returns 6099 results to look through if you are a buyer. But for Folk Art Oil Painting, there were only 422 results. My guess is that this would mean more shoppers will see the paintings in the latter category, which increases the possiblity of selling the art.

Ueful Links - Contemporary Folk Art Paintings

Not only is Folk Art, in the form of paintings, difficult to circumscribe, but it turns out that there are more than a few categories of the genre. And the lines continue to blur between it, Pop Art paintings and Outsider Art. This brings me to this week's Useful Link about Contemporary Folk Art, which includes paintings, and the examples shown at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Click the link above to view these wonderful pieces.

At www.americanfolkart.com the description of Contemporary American folk artists is: They "share with folk artists of earlier centuries a strong narrative impulse, the use of figurative and representational forms that are highly abstract, an intuitive compositional strength, and a tendency toward the decoration and embellishment of a surface that goes well beyond necessity."

Red - SOLD

Click image to enlarge. Sorry, bidding has ended.
Size: 36" x 36" x 1.5"
Medium: Oils on Canvas



Scroll down to the previous post to read about Edvard Munch and see a sample of his painting. Note the difference in the style of the painting in the link as oposed to his famous painting The Scream. His style was more peaceful after his nervous breakdown.

Useful Link-Edvard Munch

It is interesting to follow the evolution of style and focus in artists with a long enough career to do so. Edvard Munch said "If I do not know what to paint, I paint landscape. " (Maybe I should try that) Probably when most of us think of of Edvard Munch, we think of his painting The Scream and similarly styled pieces full of conflict and drama. But he also later painted peaceful and lyrical landscapes, such as the one in this link of Moonlight, painted in 1895, after moving back to Norway following a nervous breakdown. His work shows a marked difference in emotion in these later works. The pieces are still lively, but we no longer see the anguish. Edvard Munch is classified by Artcyclopedia as a Symbolist/Expressionist painter. He was Norwegian and lived from 1863-1944.

Portrait of a Girl

Click title to enlarge, for more information, or to purchase.
Size 25" x 31" x 1.5" framed.
Oils and Paper on Canvas.



Whew! Wasn't sure this post would happen today. So many obstacles today. How should this piece be classified: pop art, folk art, outsider art, abstract, semi-abstract or all of the above? When you list a piece on eBay, it has to be classified and it is hard to know where my art fits in. Scroll down to post #49 to read about pop art.

Useful LInk - Exploring Pop Art

Whether or not you believe that Pop Art is true art or not, it has made its mark. Following is the definition of this movement according to Artcyclopedia: "Pop Art--1950's to 1960's; Pop Art is a style of art which explores the everyday imagery that is so much a part of contemporary consumer culture. Common sources of imagery include advertisements, consumer product packaging, celebrity photographs, and comic strips. Leading Pop artists include Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Roy Lichtenstein."

Webmuseum, Paris says: "It is a moot point as to whether the most extraordinary innovation of 20th-century art was Cubism or Pop Art. Both arose from a rebellion against an accepted style: the Cubists thought Post-Impressionist artists were too tame and limited, while Pop Artists thought the Abstract Expressionists pretentious and over-intense. Pop Art brought art back to the material realities of everyday life, to popular culture (hence ``pop''), in which ordinary people derived most of their visual pleasure from television, magazines, or comics."

Click on the Useful link title to see some examples.

Still Life with Pomegranates

Click Image to enlarge. Sorry, bidding has ended.
5" x 7"
Medium - Digital, Giclee



This picture that I made a while back on the computer was intended to be a sketch for a painting. But I liked it the way it was. And so it became my first piece of digital art, created on the computer with a mouse instead of a paint brush. As you may have guessed, I still have artist's block! But I did sketch a little bit last night. Maybe it's beginning to break.

Scroll down to post #47 to read more about digital art.

Useful Link - Digital Painting

What is Digital Art?

Wikipedia defines as Digital Art as art created on a computer in digital form. Digital art can be purely computer-generated, such as fractals, or taken from another source, such as a scanned photograph, or an image drawn using vector graphics software using a mouse or graphics tablet."

This week's post is a digital piece I drew and painted in Photoshop Elements some time ago,(Scroll up to post #48) which was drawn and painted entirely on the computer. I don't have a drawing tablet so the drawing was done with a mouse. This is a bit clumsy, but sometimes such a hindrance or limitation adds an element of unexpected character. Digital art seems to already have a following. Although many digital artists use photographic images which they manipulate into something new, it is also possible to draw and paint "from scratch" right into the computer.

Useful Link-Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

No paintings this week. Still dealing with creative block and low energy! My solution this week has been to paint something other than a canvas. Therefore, I freshened up the paint on my walls. I experimented with black on some smaller accent walls. That was fun and felt a little daring. Lots more painting to do too.

Some art items that may be of interest to you from ArtDaily.org:

"MEMPHIS, TN.-The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art celebrates Art Today with an exhibition highlighting the founders and some of the important gifts they made to the museum. Art Today, a support group of the Brooks, initiated the acquisition of contemporary art for the museum's collection.

When Art Today was founded in 1953 by Nancy Glazer, Mildred Hudson, Adele Lemm, Marjorie Liebman, and Dorothy Sturm, their goal was to promote "that which is historically significant in our time." These exceptional women were guided by their experiences as accomplished artists, teachers, and arts administrators. They worked towards educating the public about contemporary art, bringing the finest examples to Memphis through exhibitions, and acquiring important works for the museum's collection." Read full article. The photo with the article is an encaustic painting by Nancy Graves. To see a sampling of her art, click Nancy Graves.

Maybe I will have a painting to post next week...

Scroll down one entry to this week's earlier post on differentiating between folk art and outsider art. (art brut)

Useful Links: The Different Forms of Folk Art

Folk art painting is generally described as art with an almost childlike quality by artists with no formal training. It is usually free of ideas of what "should be". Therefore one might find a bird with four legs, a house that is placed or colored in a non-traditional way, much as a child might paint. It also often has a particular spirit of freedom or spontaneity and is not bound by rules of art. Many definitions of Art Brut, also known as Outsider art fit this description. However, this genre seems very often to possess a raw, psychological, chaotic quality too. And some people would say that this is an important element of Outsider art. I have also read, that in its purist form, the outsider artist is not at all concerned about selling the art or about making anything that appeals to others. Here are some links to art typically categorized as Folk Art and Art Brut (Outsider Art). See whether you see differences and similarities.

Ginger Young Gallery
Petullo Art Collection