Eye Candy for Today: Bernardo Bellotto pen and wash drawing

Imaginary View of Padua, Bernardo Bellotto, pen, black ink and gray wash drawing
Imaginary View of Padua, Bernardo Bellotto, pen, black ink and gray wash drawing

Imaginary View of Padua, Bernardo Bellotto; pen, black ink and gray wash drawing; roughly 13 x 17 inches (32 x 43 cm). Original is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

18th century Italian artist Bernardo Bellotto had a very effective pen and wash technique for rendering architectural subjects that is similar to the wonderful drawings of his uncle and mentor, Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto.

Imaginary View of Padua, Met Museum

 
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Vladimir Orlovsky (revisited)

Vladimir Orlovsky, Ukrainian landscape painter
Vladimir Orlovsky, Ukrainian landscape painter

Vladimir Orlovsky (alternately: Vladimir Orlovskii or Volodymyr Orlovsky) was a Ukrainian landscape painter, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who I first profiled in 2014.

Like most of his Ukrainian contemporaries, who lived and worked at a time when Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire, he is often listed as a Russian painter.

Many of his paintings are relatively large in size and scope, so I’ve provided detail crops for all but one of the paintings I’ve featured above.

 
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Eye Candy for Today: Dean Cornwell untitled illustration

Dean Cornwell untitled illustration
Dean Cornwell untitled illustration (details)

This painting by the fantastic American Illustrator Dean Cornwell is in the collection of the South Dakota Art Museum. The museum doesn’t have a title or source reference for where the painting was used as an illustration (if it was published), but the painting is wonderful nonetheless.

I haven’t see the original, but I’ve taken the liberty here of brightening the image slightly, just on intuition.

I love the visual drama Cornwell has achieved with such a limited and low chroma palette. The painting is full of interesting textures and muted contrasts.

Look at the depth he has created in the successive planes of the foreground figures, the muted color and texture of he stone wall, and the even lower contrast but brighter background of the picket fence and gate.

Notice also, the strength with which the hands of all three people have been drawn and rendered.

Cornwell was a student of Harvey Dunn, who was in turn a student of the great American painter and illustrator Howard Pyle.

 
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Dimitri Danish (update)

Dimitri Danish
Dimitri Danish

Dimitri Danish is a Ukrainian artist I first wrote about in 2013.

His compositions often feature large areas of relatively low chroma and/or low value punctuated with areas of bright, intense color. Most of his subjects are cityscapes, in particular many views of Venice, in addition to locations in Ukraine and other European countries as well as scenes of Florida in the US.

He still does not have a dedicated web presence that I can find, but his work is represented on the websites of several galleries, as well as art image sites like Tutt’ Art.

For more, see my previous post on Dimitri Danish

 
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Eye Candy for Today: Winslow Homer watercolor & gouache

Fresh Eggs, watercolor and gouache painting by Winslow Homer
Fresh Eggs, watercolor and gouache painting by Winslow Homer

Fresh Eggs, Winslow Homer; watercolor and gouache on paper; roughly 9 x 8 inches (24 x 19 cm). Original is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, DC, which has both zoomable and downloadable images on their site.

In this simple, unassuming study of a commonplace chore, Homer shows us the ability of art to elevate the ordinary into the extraordinary, as well as demonstrating his apparently effortless command of watercolor and gouache.

The NGA provides a nicely high-resolution image (higher than in my detail crops) in which you can see his individual brush marks and the way he has mixed opaque and transparent passages with economy and flair.

 
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The Artist’s Magazine – Imaginative Realism

The Artists magazine March-April 2022- Imaginativ Realism
The Artists magazine March-April 2022- Imaginativ Realism

The March/April issue of The Artists Magazine is devoted to imaginative painting and magical realism. The cover and lead article feature the beautiful painting by James Gurney shown in the images above, and a step-through of his process in creating it.

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this particular painting in person, and it’s a strikingly beautiful example of Gurney at his best in combining the styles of the Victorian painters with modern fantasy subjects. (Imagine if you will, Lawrence Alma-Tadema painting dinosaurs!)

This is a very good issue of a good magazine. Unfortunately, the Artists Network website, for reasons that elude me, is not very effective in promoting the physical magazine. (They don’t clearly associate the cover with a list of contents and excerpts specific to that issue, and from there link to the ordering page.)

If you’re fortunate enough to have a bookstore in your area that carries a relatively wide array of magazines, you may still be able to find a copy.

You can order a physical copy here, and a digital copy here.

You can also access Gurney’s article, complete with images, online if you’re willing to give them your email address. You can link to the article from this page, and once on this page, enter your email address and you’ll have immediate access to the article.

The entire issue (and the magazine in general), are worthwhile.

James Gurney was a particularly appropriate artist to tap for this issue, given that he’s the author of an excellent book devoted to the subject: Imaginative Realism: How to Paint what Doesn’t Exist (Lines and Colors review here).

 
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