Watercolor Artists/Teachers

...We Three Meet Again... (2003), Birdsall

I am inspired by the artwork around me, especially when I encounter multiple works by the same artist all in one place. At Fred Hutch's South Lake Union House, where we've been staying while my wife recovers from a stem cell transplant, I saw two watercolor works by Byron Birdsall.

The first of two paintings is of three birds in a snowy scene (probably Alaska). It's my favorite.

Giorno di Shopping in 
Monterosso, Birdsall

The second is a scene in a popular market on the Italian Riviera, and it looks like a photograph, until you get up close to it. 

Both were painted by Alaskan Watercolorist, Byron Birdsall (1937-2016). In a career that spanned 50 years, Birdsall painted thousands of watercolors/oils, including Alaskan scenes, panoramic landscapes, and even some portraits. I keep discovering more sprinkled around the apartment building.

Born in Buckeye, Arizona, he taught history for 6 years in California, then moved to Alaska to work in advertising, eventually taking up painting part time. Many professional artists, like Norman Rockwell, whose paintings were published in the Saturday Evening Post, worked in advertising.

Other artists who were also teachers:

White Bird of Paradise (1939)
O'Keeffe

American modernist painter, Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), a student of Arthur Wesley Dow, also earned money for her own education working as a commercial illustrator and teacher.

She taught and continued her studies at the Teachers College, Columbia University. BTW, my mother grew up in NYC and lived in an apartment near the university. And my grandfather owned and operated a flower shop nearby.

O'Keeffe decided to become an artist at age 10, and received art instruction from local watercolorist Sara Mann.

O'Keeffe also taught and headed the art department at West Texas State Normal College.

Dead Rabbit with Copper Pot (1908)
O'Keeffe

This early O'Keeffe painting is reminiscent of Andrew Wyeth's Road Kill (squirrel). Both chose somewhat disturbing or unusual subjects. I apologize for the 'dark' image. I much prefer her modern colorful takes on closeups of flowers.

I and the Village (1911)
Chagall

Russian/French Artist, Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was also an early Modernist like O'Keeffe, although he is more commonly associated with movements: Surrealism, Cubism, Expressionism, Fauvism. Over 75 years, he produced more than 10,000 works. Probably his most famous painting is I and the Village (1911). In 2011, my family and I visited the Chagall Museum in Nice, France. His large artworks literally filled the walls!

He studied painting under realist, Jehuda Pen, and then in 1907 he went to St. Petersburg, Russia and studied art for three years with stage designer Léon Bakst.

Following WWI, at a war shelter in Malakhovka, Russia, Chagall taught art to Jewish boys. The school was once an orphanage for refugees.

The Blue Bird (1968),
Chagall

Chagall often included birds such as chickens and roosters in his dreamlike, symbolic, religious-themed surrealistic works.

Le Havre, The Port (1884). Boudin

I'm super thankful for Eugène Boudin, who taught Claude Monet and encouraged him to switch from drawing to painting outdoors. Check out Beach Scenes & Women with Parasols/Umbrellas, a post from June of last year, including some of my favorite Monet paintings.

Fishing Boats at Étretat (1885). Monet

I also appreciated the opportunity to visit Seattle Art Museum's Monet at Étretat exhibit in 2021. See my SAM Visit - Monet at Étretat post from August 2021 for more of Monet's beach paintings. Going to a museum is a great way to see multiple works by the same artist, especially at an exhibit in their honor.

My next tour will be the Alexander Calder exhibit at SAM next Thursday. I know, like me, he studied mechanical engineering but I'm unable to find evidence that he ever taught art. I'll continue researching for my next blog post.

Artists With July Birthdays

Still Life with Parrot and Fruit (1951), Kahlo

Many of my favorite visual artists were born in July. In fact, all of them have been featured in this blog. Most were born under the sign of Cancer (or the Crab). They are typically emotional, hypersensitive, competitive, and often isolated people. 

Frida Kahlo (1907-54), born  July 6th, is famous for her unusual and often creepy self-portraits. I much prefer her still life paintings. Do parrots like watermelon?

The Wolffish (2004), Jamie Wyeth

Jamie Wyeth (1946-), son of Andrew Wyeth and grandson of N.C. Wyeth, was also born on July 6th. I chose this painting of a fierce wolffish preying on seagulls because it's unusual. Wyeth crowded the birds on the left side of the painting perhaps to balance the dark fish emerging from the right. His sense of humor reminds me of his father's Roadkill painting of a dead squirrel on a road alongside of a plantation house.

The Bridal Pair with The Eiffel Tower
(1939), Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall (1887-1985), born July 7th, is famous for his very large Surrealistic paintings. We visited his museum in Nice, France in May of 2011. Weddings are a popular theme for Chagall's works. As well as oversized farm animals! His dreamlike paintings are more like collages.

Still Life with a Coffeepot (1900), Pissarro

French Neo-Impressionist, Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), born July 10th, is most famous for his pastoral landscapes and harbor scenes. I had to include this still life, which happens to have bird wallpaper. The copper coffeepot and green ceramic mug are the stars of this painting, while the china teacup, bowl, and lemon are secondary in his composition.

Soaring (c. 1950), Andrew Wyeth

I seem to be including birds in my selections, so here is a magnificent scene of ravens soaring high above a small white farmhouse below. Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), born July 12th, and his son, Jamie used ravens as their subjects in several paintings. Andrew spent long hours, weeks, even months alone in a barn painting, and wouldn't show anyone his work until it was done.

Head of a Woman (1918),
Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), also born July 12th, painted portraits of women with elongated faces and necks. His subjects appear stretched in subtle 'S' shapes much like those of Marc Chagall.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), also born July 12th, is most famous for his painting of his mother. His portraits, including his own self-portrait, have the subject facing in a left profile view. I feel like he was a one-hit wonder.

The Man With the Golden Helmet
(c. 1650-55), Rembrandt

Rembrandt (1606-69), famous for painting ~75 self-portraits in his lifetime, was born July 15th. In every museum I've visited, I've challenged myself to find at least one Rembrandt. My favorite is The Man With the Golden Helmet (1650). It has been attributed to Rembrandt, but may actually have been painted by a student of someone in his circle or artists. It has resided in Berlin's Kaiser Friedrich Museum, which we didn't get to visit during our Baltic cruise in June 2019.

Lady Caroline Howard (1778),
Reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92), born July 16th, was Principal Painter in Ordinary to the King from 1767–1784. Thomas Gainsborough, painter of Blue Boy (1770), was his rival for the position, never attaining the prominent title. Thomas Lawrence, who painted Pinky (1794), did eventually receive the coveted title.

In Front of the Mirror (1889), Degas

Edgar Degas (1834-1917), born July 19th, remained a bachelor all his life. He presented himself as a loner and his demeanor drove people away, something he desired as an artist. He was known to be a misogynist and was also anti-Semitic. No wonder nobody wanted to marry him (or vice versa)!

Like Modigliani, Degas signed this painting at the top righthand corner. Unusual! Especially since Modigliani was born a Sephardic Jew!!

Nighthawks (1942), Hopper

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), born July 22, is most famous for his melancholy painting, Nighthawks, of a sad group of people hanging out in a diner, very late at night or perhaps in the wee hours of the morning.

Nude Descending a Staircase,
No. 2 (1912), Duchamp

Our last artist was born under the sign of Leo (the Lion). Leos are ambitious and creative. Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), born July 28, is most famous for his Cubist painting of a Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2. In the 1970s, my own brother was inspired to paint a futuristic version of the Frazier-Ali fight on a large canvas.

As I was researching and writing this post. I realized that most of my selections have either birds or hats in them. I guess this last painting doesn't fit the bill (Ha!)!

More Artist Jeopardy

Back in February of 2020, I posted Artist Jeopardy. As a follow-on challenge for both Jeopardy fans and art enthusiasts, here are four more categories to test your knowledge of famous artists. I'll start with my own Jeopardy bio-story.

I’ve been watching Jeopardy since Art Fleming hosted it prior to my high school graduation in 1975. I’ve written several of my own Jeopardy answers over the years. My first game was in 1992 in honor of my parents' 40th wedding anniversary; the answers were all about their married life and Mom won. Fun fact: Mom was a 3-day winner on Concentration (with Host Hugh Downs) when I was in the first grade.

My next game was in the late 1990s with several Art categories that I presented on behalf of the Interurban Center for the Arts in my version of their Projects, Projects class taught to prospective elementary school parent volunteer art docents. Then, in 2005 during my City University Master’s Program, I played Jeopardy Host, Alex Trebek in a version of the game devoted to the subject of Project Management. So, I’ve been part of the game for over 50 years! Maybe I should become a writer for Jeopardy!! Do they even have guest writers?

And the categories are...

WOMEN OF ABSTRACT
EXPRESSIONISM

THE ART OF BASEBALL

For the Video Daily Double

ARTIST'S MUSEUMS

(Name the City)

FATHERS OF ART

MOVEMENTS

My Art Bucket List

In the 2007 movie, The Bucket List, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman portray unlikely buddies who both prepare lists of things they want to do before they 'kick the bucket'. (The origin of the phrase has a much darker side which I won't go into here.) Suffice it to say that many people write down their life goals, career aspirations, milestones they wish to reach (e.g. financial stability, retirement), resolutions (e.g. spending more quality time with family), travel destinations, and even daring activities (e.g. skydiving, bungee jumping). Maybe we shouldn't wait until retirement to begin crossing them off!

Hammering Man (1991-2), Johnathan Borofsky

Well before my own retirement, I began to volunteer, acting for the most part as an art docent who taught art in elementary schools. I also devoted my time and energies to assorted charitable efforts, mostly associated with fundraising. I then joined the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), hosting gallery events, serving on their executive committee, and applying to become a museum docent. I didn't make the cut. This iconic in-motion sculpture almost didn't make it to SAM when a crane dropped him in 1991, sending him back to the foundry for repair for another year.

Urns ('buckets') inside The Hermitage Museum

As a family, we also began to do more serious travel abroad roughly ~5 years before our retirement. This is how I was afforded the opportunity to visit famous art museums around the world. It turns out that I've visited the top 4 museums -- The Louvre Museum in Paris, France (2011), The Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY (growing up), The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia (2019 Baltic cruise), and Tate Modern in London (2017). I've also been to The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MOMA) in NYC (growing up), The Musee d'Orsay in Paris (2011), The National Gallery of London (2017), and also the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy (2011). That crosses off 8 of the top 14 museums.

Apollo (1963), Henri Matisse

Although the Louvre and Hermitage are certainly impressive to visit, you'd probably need a few days each to do them justice. Maybe some day I'll return (another bucket list item?)! Probably my favorite museums that I've visited are the Matisse and Chagall museums in Nice, France in May 2011 and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden in June 2019. It's exciting to finally see the impressive size of works of art that you've only seen in books, online, or in thumbnails.

A trip to Madrid, Spain would cross off 2 more museums -- The Prado and Reina Sofia, with maybe a side trip to see Salvador Dali's museum in Figueres. A trip to visit my brother in Florida may require a side trip to St. Petersburg to see the other stateside Dali museum. I have no intention to visit Towada, Japan or The Hague in the Netherlands. That just leaves our own National Gallery in Washington D.C. and the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois.

Smokey Joe Williams (1985), Mackie

I'd love to return to New York City and revisit the museums of my childhood. Although the Baseball HOF wasn't on my bucket list, I did travel to Cooperstown, NY with my brothers in July, 2019 for the induction of Seattle Mariner, Edgar Martinez. The Art of Baseball museum was amazing! Love this painting of Smokey Joe Williams by Deryl Daniel Mackie.

Tough Call (1948), Norman Rockwell

And of course the iconic Tough Call by Norman Rockwell.

Seeing the works of HOF artist, Justin Farano was definitely a highlight, and I snagged prints of the Class of 2019 and Ken Griffey Jr.

Sculpted Gate inside the Park, Oslo

Turning to sculpture, I was lucky enough to finally visit one of the top 16 sculpture parks -- the Vigeland Installation within Frogner Park -- on my third trip to Oslo, Norway. I missed it on my first two business trips. The only other venue (from the list) that I've visited is Olympic Sculpture Park in my native Seattle. There are 5 that I could visit here in the USA and 7 more that don't seem as likely. I'd have to return to another part of Italy or venture to the Netherlands to catch sight of the final two parks.

When you go to almost any art museum, expect to be surprised. When you travel to almost any city, expect to witness visual art around you and explore the local art museums. You'll discover things that weren't necessarily on somebody's bucket list but still create wonderful memories to last a lifetime!

Making Connections with Artists & Animals

The Old Guitarist (1903-4), Picasso

Many of my posts connect art elements and principles to the artists and movements that were inspired by them. Two websites that I recently visited argue that an artist's fame comes from the connections they made with other artists rather than from their own creativity:

Study Finds Artists Become Famous through Their Friends, Not the Originality of Their Work and

Artists Can Become Famous Through Connections and Not Their Creativity

I like to look for famous artwork in movies and on TV. Picasso's The Old Guitarist frequently appears in episodes of Bewitched, which I watch repeatedly in reruns. It was hung rotated 90 degrees to the right to fit over the Stephens' fireplace. The Cleavers' front door on Leave it to Beaver is flanked by Sir Thomas Lawrence's Pinkie (1794) and Thomas Gainsborough's The Blue Boy (1770). Officers Row on Fort Worden in Port Townsend, WA even displayed this pair (in needlepoint) in the dining room of one of the houses we rented there. I hadn't connected the two Thomas's.

Here are three Picasso-style animal portraits. The Lab on the left may actually resemble Cubist artwork by Georges Braque.

          

One of my posts identifies the Fathers of Art Movements and further mentions the social network of member artists who shared similar visions that inspired their own unique styles and interpretations. Picasso developed his style by admiring African sculpture, particularly traditional African masks and ancient Egyptian art, as well as Iberian sculpture. He was influenced by the art of Paul Klee, as well as French painters Paul Cézanne and Eugène Delacroix.

Las Meninas (1957), Picasso

In 10 Quotes from Famous Artists - My Own Interpretation, Picasso is quoted as saying, "Good artists copy, great artists steal." In 1957, Picasso rescued a dachshund named Lump who had been diagnosed with a spinal condition. He lived 10 years longer than expected and died 10 days before his master. Picasso featured Lump as the dog in his recreation of Diego Velázquez' Las Meninas (1656).

Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889), Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Degas, and Gustav Klimt were all influenced by Japanese art. Van Gogh's interpretations can be seen hanging on the walls of his bedroom in his own paintings. His "The Angelus (After Millet)" is almost a direct copy of Jean-François Millet's painting but with his own color scheme.

Head of a Dog (1882), Monet

Claude Monet's garden is famous for its Japanese footbridge, which is prominent in his Waterlilies series. We visited his garden in Giverny, France in May 2011 on our trip to France and Italy. Monet was influenced by Manet, Boudin, Hokusai and Jongkind. Monet also painted animals, such as the domesticated turkeys I mentioned in my recent Thanksgiving Artwork post. He even painted a dog's head.

Doge Andrea Gritti (c1545), Titian

Continuing with Japanese connections, there is an Internet meme called doge which first appeared in 2013 and is based on a Japanese Shiba Inu dog named Kabosu. The word doge actually refers to an Italian magistrate from Venice or Genoa, dating back to the 16th century. It is also a word that is popular in the game of Scrabble. My daughter recently returned from a visit to Italy that included Venice. Her Korean village dog is a rescue that she originally thought was a Shiba Inu. 

One of my colleagues at Paws with Cause creates whimsical portraits of shelter animals dressed in regal attire. I love this portrait of Pepe the Dog. Pepe would qualify as the Doge of his animal shelter. While my friend and fellow resident artist is not famous, she is certainly creative!

Lady with an Ermine (c1490), da Vinci

The next artist on the mindshare index of famous artists is Leonardo da Vinci. He was influenced by Lorenzo de Medici, John Argyropoulos and Andrea del Verrocchio. I like how his Mona Lisa (1503) has been called a counterpart to Vermeer's The Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665) -- a.k.a. "the Mona Lisa of the North." I like his unusual Lady with an Ermine (c1490). The ermine (similar to a ferret) is a member of the family Mustelidae. The Washington Ferret Rescue and Shelter in Kirkland, WA  has ~150 ferrets looking to be adopted as fur-ever pets. While they aren't currently supported by Paws with Cause, they certainly seem worthy of support. I wish I had a ferret portrait to show you!

Le Civilisateur (1946), Magritte

The next artist on the list is Surrealist Salvador Dali, who was influenced by Pablo Picasso, René Magritte and Joan Miró. Dali often included animals in his dreamlike paintings and has been photographed walking his anteater and petting his ocelot (See Surrealists and Their Pets.). Magritte's portrait of his pet Pomeranian-Spitz, fetched €489,000 in March 2018. Just think of the shelter pets we could support with that kind of Euro!

Kachina, le Chien de Peggy Guggenheim (1946), Ernst

Max Ernst's portrait of his Pekingese, Kachina looks more like a lioness of grand scale in this Hopi landscape. Apparently, he had lived with American art collector Peggy Guggenheim (her dog?) before marrying American artist Dorothea Tanning.

Valse bleue (1954), Tanning

Tanning also painted an oversized Kachina in her Blue Waltz later in 1954. The painting is certainly surreal and the color scheme reminds me of paintings of couples by Marc Chagall. Some websites defined Kachina as a Lhasa Apso Terrier, rather than a Pekingese, which suits the lion reference better.

Le chat aux poissons rouges
(1914), Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was influenced by Asian and African art, Post-Impressionists Gauguin, Cézanne, and Van Gogh, and his Mentor, Camille Pissarro. He was also a lover of animals, mainly cats, dogs, and doves. See The Friday Art Cat for Matisse's Interior with Goldfish (1914) and a second Etsy version by Deborah Julian where she adds Matisse's two cats -- Minouche and Coussi, or a black cat named la Puce (the flea). Here is his The Cat with Red Fish. I love these happy paintings. This one is reminiscent of others painted in the same room with the red printed wallpaper and window to the outside.

In keeping with the theme, here is an animal portrait that was painted in an event I organized on behalf of PawsWithCause for the shelter, South County Cats. I'm likening it to paintings by Fauvist Henri Matisse for its straight-out-of-the-tube colors.

"The Sower" (1888), Van Gogh

The striped backside of the cat makes me think of the background of Van Gogh's painting, "The Sower".

You may also like to read about The Most Famous Arty Pet Lovers And Their Furry Friends. For example, Georgia O'Keeffe's first dog was a poodle named Pancho, and she also had a total of six Chows as pets over her lifetime. Like Picasso, Andy Warhol favored dachshunds and kept two as pets.