Friday Fave

A few days late (with the title)...but this painting is too perfect to wait till next October!

Happy weekend!

Childe Hassam (American 1859-1935)
The Ledges, October in Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1907
Oil on canvas

{image via Florence Griswold Museum}

Friday Fave

Happy Friday! Enjoy this beautiful oil on canvas, titled "Autumn," by American Impressionist Fern Isabel Kuns Coppedge (1883-1951), via the James A. Michener Art Museum.

Friday Fave

The leaves have finally started turning and it's beginning to feel (and smell) like fall!  This painting by local artist, Mary Page Evans, radiates autumn in Virginia.  It is named Shenandoah Jazz after all....

If you love Evans as much as I do, be sure to check out the retrospective of her work at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington.  The exhibit,  Painted Poetry: The Art of Mary Page Evans, opens March 31st and runs through May 27th, 2012.

Mary Page Evans, Shenandoah Jazz III, 2002
oil on linen, 48-1/2 x 59 inches

Have a great weekend!

{image via Mary Page Evans}

Friday Fave

Autumn is here!  Happy Friday!

Hans Hofmann (German, 1880-1966), Autumn Gold, oil on canvas, 1957
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

{image via National Gallery of Art}

Friday Fave

I hope your weekend is as beautiful as this painting!

Theodore Robinson (American 1852-1896), Low Tide, Riverside Yacht Club
1894, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in (45.7 x 61 cm)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Happy Friday!

{image via National Gallery of Art}

Friday Fave

Better late than never...

My husband and I went up the New York a few weeks ago and naturally I dragged him to The Met.  I forgot how truly massive The Met really is. I think we made it through one-fourth of the collection before we were kicked out because they were closing!

One of the highlights of my visit was this majestic painting by Claude Monet (French 1840-1926).  In the busy gallery with tourists and families, it was a little slice of serenity.

Claude Monet  Morning on the Seine near Giverny, 1897oil on canvas, 32-1/8 x 36-5/8 inThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Happy Weekend!

{image via The Met}

Friday Fave

I'm currently on my way to New York City to visit with my best high school girlfriends.  We have a fun-filled weekend planned, but I think I'm most excited about my date with the Frick Collection tomorrow morning.

One of the current exhibits is In a New Light: Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert, which I'm elated to see.  I remember sitting in my Venetian art class in Rome and falling in love with Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert. I was shocked to discover that I wouldn't be able to visit the painting during my time abroad...because it was all the way back in New York! Naturally between college, graduation and moving straight to DC, I never did make it to the Frick to see the masterpiece.  So I'm thrilled to see the painting, especially with the new discoveries made during a thorough technical examination of the painting last year. 

Giovanni Bellini (Italian c. 1430/1435–1516), St. Francis in the Desert c. 1475-78, oil on poplar panel, 49 x 55 7⁄8 inches
The Frick  Collection, New York

The exhibit, In a New Light: Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert, runs through August 28th-check it out!

Have a great weekend!

{image via The Frick Collection}

Friday Fave

When I got home from today, the temperature was 101°, with a heat index of 116°!  After  my sweltering metro ride -because I never seem to get onto a car that truly has fully functioning air conditioning- I was ready to dive into a pool.  The only problem...we do not have a pool.  If only this painting -by one my favorite artists Childe Hassam...if you couldn't tell- was my backyard, I'd be in heaven!

Childe Hassam (Am. 1859-1935), Rockweed Pool, oil on canvas

Fortunately my in-laws live 10 minutes away and have a wonderful pool...which I might live in till Monday...

Happy weekend!

{image via Frederick Childe Hassam: The Complete Works}

Friday Fave

Between the Gulf Shores vacation and my mom visiting last weekend, I'm still trying to adjust to my everyday schedule...which is much harder said than done!

I thought what better way to get back into the groove then sharing an old favorite by renowned French Impressionist artist Claude Monet.  I was first introduced to Monet-and to this painting-through Cristina Bjork's books Linnea's Almanac - she also wrote Linnea in Monet's Garden.  Not only did it inspire my green thumb, but it also heavily influenced my passion for art.  As a child and now as an adult, I still adore Monet's works.  Each brushstrokes is exquisite and the colors are vivid.  His paintings are alive and breathtaking...even as an image!

Claude Monet (French 1840-1926), The Water Lily Pond, 1899, oil on canvas

Have a wonderful weekend!

{image via Claude Monet: Life and Paintings}

Friday Fave

Henry Ward Ranger (American 1858-1916), Sunset, Summer
Auctioned at Weschler's, Washington, DC on April 16, 2005
price realized: $2000 (hammer price)

I hope your weekend is as dreamy as this oil on canvas by

Old Lyme artist Henry Ward Ranger!


{image via Weschler's}

Friday Fave

Will Henry Stevens (American 1881-1949), Biloxi Lighthouse, 1921, oil on board
Ogden Museum of Art, New Orleans

Happy weekend!




{image via Ogden Museum}

Friday Fave

Wouldn't you love to be lounging next to a lazy river this weekend? I adore this soft and  enchanting oil painting by New Hope School artist, Rae Sloan Bredin.  

Rae Sloan Bredin (American 1881-1933), A Day on the Delaware, oil on canvas
Auctioned at Freeman's, Philadelphia on December 5th, 2004
price realized: $113,750 (including buyer's premium)

What are your weekend plans?

{image via AskArt}

Friday Fave

The Corcoran Gallery of Art has an upcoming exhibit Washington Color and Light featuring the works of the Washington Color School.  The exhibit, opening June 25th, will highlight the  local D.C. artists' passion for color and urge for exploration.  Gene Davis, Kenneth Noland, Howard Mehring, Paul Reed, Thomas Downing and Morris Louis-who never thought of themselves a group-first showed together in the exhibition, Washington Color Painters, in 1965.  While their individual styles varied, their experimentation with acrylic paint and optical color patterns are the common thread among the artists.

Below is a delightful acrylic by Gene Davis.  Davis is best known for his brilliant stripe paintings.  When I first came to D.C. I couldn't understand what was so impressive about his works--seeing them in a book or on a computer screen is simply not the same as standing in front of one of his massive paintings.  While he did do smaller works,  most of his paintings are LARGE! 48 x 48 in, 57 x 57 in, 60 x 70 in, 95 x 115 in...Nothing can compare to seeing a canvas with teeny, thin vivid stripes that's larger than you!

Gene Davis (American 1920-1985), Red Chatterbox, acrylic on canvas
Auctioned by Sotheby's Arcade, New York on June 22, 2005
price realized: $10,800 (including buyer's premium)

I'm enchanted by the playful, bright colors and summery nature of this work!

Have a wonderful weekend!

{image via AskArt}

Friday Fave

When I woke up this morning, there was a early morning haze-probably the heat that awaits outside- but it was oddly comforting and serene.  I knew immediately the artist who could capture this exact moment: Claude Monet.  This painting is one of Monet's early morning paintings of the Seine-one of his many paintings of the river.  

Claude Monet (French 1840-1926), The Seine at Giverny, 1897
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Have a wonderful weekend!

{image via NGA}

Friday Fave

Here is a breathtaking oil on canvas by Old Lyme Colony artist and renowned American Impressionist, Childe Hassam.  Hassam painted this work in 1905, shortly after arriving in Old Lyme, Connecticut.  Hassam's use of the vibrant colors of the setting sun and the quick brush strokes of the light reflecting off the water epitomize the roots of the Impressionist movement- the ability to capture fleeting moments, to embrace vivid colors, the spontaneity of the brush, the introduction of abstraction onto the canvas and to create a world as it is seen, not as it should be seen.

Childe Hassam (American 1859-1935), Sunset at Sea, oil on canvas
Auctioned by Christie's, New York on November 29, 2007
price realized: $3,737,000 (including buyer's premium)

{image via Christie's}

Friday Fave

We're currently in route to Connecticut to spend the long weekend with my parents.  Memorial Day is one of my absolute favorite holdiays.  Growing up it was always marked with our local pool opening, a town-wide parade, an amazing party thrown by my parent's close friend and artist Cindi Mullins and of course my mom's famous deviled eggs.  (I'm still trying to redeem myself from the year that I dropped the deviled egg plate walking into the party...ruining not only the eggs but the plate as well!)

While Memorial Day has evolved from my childhood, I still love holiday- the patriotism, the unity and of course the unofficial beginning of summer!

Jasper Johns (American b. 1930), Two Flags, mixed media on canvas
Auctioned by Sotheby's in New York on November 8, 1989
price realized: $12,100,000 (including buyer's premium)

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

{image via AskArt}

Friday Fave

The crawfish are swimming up here from Louisiana as I write!

Well maybe flying, but they arrive tomorrow morning and I couldn't be more excited! The lights are strung, the table is set, the pot is ready - all I need to get are the fixings!

In honor of our Cajun-filled weekend, I thought a work by the renowned New Orleans artist Alexander John Drysdale (American 1870-1934) couldn't be more fitting. Drysdale, originally from Georgia, made a name for himself in the Crescent City as landscape artist.  His hazy, dreamy works of the bayou and mossy trees are the epitome of southern tranquility.  He developed a unique method of diluting oil paint to create oil wash - which without, I think his paintings wouldn't be nearly as moving.

Alexander John Drysdale (American 1870-1934), Lovers, Suicide and Dueling Oak
Oil wash on academy board, 1922
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA

Happy Weekend!

{image via The Ogden Museum of Southern Art}

Friday Fave

I adore the cool soothing colors and calming nature of this oil on canvas by Washington Color School artist, Alma Woodsey Thomas.

Alma Woodsey Thomas (Am. 1891-1978), Untitled (Abstraction in Blue)
Auctioned by Swann Galleries in New York on February 17, 2011
price realized: $36,000 (including buyer's premium)

Happy weekend!

{image via AskART}

Friday Fave

I can't wait for the whimsical days of summer!  This painting reminds me of the Potomac on those dreamy, hazy days when the air is thick and sweet.  Ask me in a few weeks and I'll probably be eating my words -- but for now, give me those marvelous summer days.

Charles Rosen (American 1878-1950), Opalescent Morning, ca. 1909, oil on canvas
James A. Michener Art Museum

1. {image via James A. Michener Art Museum}

Friday Fave

Rae Sloan Bredin (American 1881-1933), After the Rain, 1913, oil on canvas
James A. Michener Art Museum

Happy weekend!

{image via James A. Michener Art Museum}