His later, mod, work
UNDERGROUND MODERNIST: E. MCKNIGHT KAUFFER
At the Cooper Hewitt, saw an exhibit of the graphic designer’s work and wow can I relate. Clear to see how I vibe with the travel poster/fruit labels but also the dip in his creativity as the ad agency system got underway and his design choices were constrained by the usual: money; focus groups; executives.
Here are some goodies:
Fruit Labels, California
Spring green
Apologies to William Morris and his workshop, of course the original wallpaper this image is from was more subtle but out my window, after the spring rain, this glowing green is what is going on in Virginia right about now.
Virginia State Parks
They are excellent and some have historic log cabins. Many happy memories.
New poster, actually five years old
I never settled with this one, yet coming across it now it looks very good - as a small graphic. Have to work on the details before it gets printed full size.
New poster
Reston, VA
Albert Pinkham Ryder
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, completed by 1887
Flying Dutchman. Ryder inherited some kind of psychedelic mind from his fellow New Bedford born Herman Melville? He carried on after Eugene Delacroix died? The glowing ship forever doomed to sail turbulent seas. The dead communicating urgently with the living. The Flying Dutchman theme appears in many art forms, famously in Wagner’s opera of the same name.
Ryder’s paintings are always small, thick and cracking from careless technique and nuts. Gloriously so.
Cooper Hewitt exhibit of a commercial artist omg
Yay for the Cooper Hewitt, which is the Smithsonian’s museum of Design. It is exhibiting the work of Kauffer and I am here for it!
from the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt exhibit; The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the designer, 1939 Thanks for letting me show this, for educational purposes and for admiration purposes I do not intend to monetize it in any way Thank you
E'rybody watch this movie
So joyful and full of life. This is a great way to start the New Year! LOVED it
https://www.biggestlittlefarmmovie.com
Wayne Thiebaud
A painter’s painter. Brilliant colorist, the definition of a California artist. Thank you for your genius.
In his paintings there will often be a fascinating and surprising line of vivid color that I very much thought of when doing some recent landscape-oriented pieces (The Early Mountain vineyard, and the Dyke Marsh) in this perhaps the ultramarine shadows
Photo is from Smithsonian? I was googling around, and this is really a photo of me googling around . . .
An oldie but a goodie
LTBL 2021 animals of Virginia silhouettes
Pastels
Luscious colors, messy dust - did this sketch in the shed. Chilly!
When is an artwork finished? - see updates 12/18/21
It is a question that all artists I know of wrestle with from time to time. This is one that I keep tinkering with. I think it’s where I want it to be - it gives an idea of the diverse, eclectic and small scale feeling of this area that we have gotten to know and become fond of. I deliberately leave out the items that would really make it ‘real’ - people, cars, busses, signs - so it is a bit of a fantasy? Do we often tend to ‘ look through’ those of omnipresent parts of our everyday existence?
This is better for the colors? Part of the point is the diversity, the character, the color both metaphorically and literally
And this has an added layer of - street life!
Detail of the streetlife silhouettes
Rowing a four
New poster
Love love love
Agrarian Trust, puts together farmers with land they can farm without the giant expense of purchasing land. In Roanoke, there’s a young farmer who is working people’s back yards. Brilliant!
New home portrait
Mod home
Someone with a mod home, commission me for a home portrait!
