Eye Candy for Today: Joseph Coomans portrait

Portrait of a Young Woman, Pierre Oliver Joseph Coomans (1816-1871), oil on canvas, 19 x 15 in. (48 x 38 cm). The link is to the Wikimedia Commons page from which you can view or download a large image. The image source is a 2017 Bonham’s auction, so I assume the painting is in a private collection.

Beautifully and delicately rendered, this portrait is an exercise in softly turned transitions, soft edges and carefully controlled color and value relationships.

I love the little splashes of light on her hair and costume, and even on the ends of the eyelashes...

Eye Candy for Today: Vernet’s Hunting in the Pontine Marches

Hunting in the Pontine Marches, Horace Vernet, oil on canvas, 40 x 54 in. (100 x 137 cm), in the collection of the National Galleryy of Art, DC. You can zoom or download a high resolution image from their page.

Every once in a while, I come across a landscape that captures my intention, and look up the artist’s work only to find they are not at all landscape painters, and the painting I’m admiring is an exception.

Such is the case with this painting, and it’s companion piece, Departure for the Hunt in the Pontine Marshes, which I...

Maia Ramishvili

Maia Ramishvili is an artist from Tbilisi, Georgia. Her subjects are primarily women in ornate garb, the pattens and textures of which give the paintings a look of collage. Her restraint on using rendering in faces and hands gives the work a graphic feeling. but they are oil paintings on canvas.

She also paints more directly realistic paintings of ordinary scenes.

Ramishvili has enlivened her work with vibrant color relationships, often using muted complements. I see influences from various periods in history, in particular Botticelli and Modigliani, but in service of a contemporary sensibility.

The best selection of her...

Eye Candy for Today: Empress Augusta leaves New York, Carl Saltzmann

Empress Augusta leaves New York (Kaiserin Augusta verlässt Newyork), Carl Saltzmann, chromolithograph. Link is to image page on Wikipedia. The available hi-res image is much larger than my crops.

Carl Saltzmann, who was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was known for his seascapes and landscapes. Here, as the beautiful ship leaves the harbor, the scene is convincingly bathed in the soft illumination of twilight and punctuated by the light of Liberty’s torch.

The images above are not of Saltzmann’s original painting, but of a chromolithograph of that painting.

Chromolithographs were an early form of color...

Matthew Bird

Matthew Bird is a watercolor painter based in the Baltimore area whose primary subjects are still life, portraits and figures.

When I first glanced at the page of still life images on his website, I thought he was painting in a deliberattely high-chroma manner. Once I started to look through, I realized he was actually painting quite true to nature, simply choosing colorful subjects, arranging them against generally dark backgrounds, and lighting them effectively.

Something that’s not mentioned often enough when discussing still life painting is the aspect of the art involving the arrangement of the objects. Yes, this...

Eye Candy: Kamibashi Bridge at Nikko (Sacred Bridge) by Kawase Hasui

Kamibashi Bridge at Nikko (Sacred Bridge) by Kawase Hasui, woodblock print, 15 x 10 (39 x 26 cm). The image of this impression of the print is from the ukyio-e.org site.

A member of the shin-hanga movement in the early 20th century, Kawase Hasui had training in the methods of both traditional Japanese and western art, and combined them in many of his images. Working with a dedicated woodblock carver, he would design the impressions to be a final image that cohered as it were more directly painted.

I love the way the bridge begins to fade into shadow...

Shallow by Alex Andreev

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"Virgo" by Artem Chebokha

OPEN FOR WORK: art.rhads@gmail.com
tutorial about my photoshop technique:
https://artstn.co/m/waxo
Prints:
https://www.artstation.com/rhads/prints

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Dragonwatching 🐉👀 by Daniele Turturici

Toward the end of spring, the ancient dragon Dorain begins his yearly migration to the cooler lands. If you happen to be there at just the right time, you can witness the full spectacle as he crosses the Montyr Mountains. Over the years, dedicated dragonwatchers have mapped out countless viewing spots along the route, always discovering new vantage points to catch a glimpse of this incredible event.

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Dorothea Lange. Tulare County. FSA camp for migrant agricultural...

Dorothea Lange. Tulare County. FSA camp for migrant agricultural workers. Nursery. 1939