Lines and Colors art blog
  • Adoration of the Shepherds, Matthias Stom

    Adoration of the Shepherds, Matthias Stom (Stomer)
    Adoration of the Shepherds (details), Matthias Stom (Stomer)

    The Adoration of the Shepherds, Matthias Stom (also called Stomer); oil on canvas, I don’t have size information; link is to zoomable image on Google Art Project, high-res downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons; original is in the Palazzo Madama, Turin.

    Stom was a 17th century Dutch (or Flemish) painter known for his paintings done in Italy, where he became influenced by the work of Caravaggio and his followers.

    He did at least three different versions of this scene. In all of them, the child is the source of light, throwing the other figures into high relief against the dark background with a dramatic chiaroscuro characteristic of Caravaggio.

    I like this one in particular, with the interesting and strongly rendered faces of the shepherds, and the beautiful modeling of their hands.


    The Adoration of the Shepherds, Google Art Project

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  • Beleaguered Leyendecker Santa

    J.C. Leyendecker Santa Claus Saturday Eevening Post cover
    J.C. Leyendecker Santa Claus Saturday Eevening Post cover

    Another wonderful Saturday Evening Post Santa Claus cover by the brilliant American illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, who I think played a major role in forming our modern image of the Jolly One.

    Here, he is portrayed as not so jolly as he fends off the unwanted attention of the house’s stalwart defender, who apparently doesn’t recognize “Santa” under his costume and strap-on beard as he attempts to put up decorations.

    This illustration from Leyendecker, who worked primarily in the early part of the 20th century was reprinted here on a 1993 issue. I don’t know the date of its original publication.

    The only large copy of this image I could find was on Pinterest. The Pinterest post is here, the image itself is here.



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  • Eye Candy for Today: Asano Takeji woodblock print

    Snow at Ginkakuji Temple, Asano Takeji
    Snow at Ginkakuji Temple, Asano Takeji
    Snow at Ginkakuji Temple, Asano Takeji, woodblock print, sheet size 10 x 14 inches (26 x 36 cm); links is to Ukiyo-e Search, large file here.

    Asano Takeji was a 20th century Japanese printmaker who worked in the manner of both the shin hanga (new prints) and sōsaku hanga (creative prints) schools of woodblock printmaking. The former is a collaborative effort between an artist, a carver, a printmaker and a publisher. In the latter, the artist does the entire process.

    In the case of this beautiful evocation of a temple in the quiet of snow — one of the artist’s earliest prints — he is working in the shin hanga manner.

    Happy Winter Solstice!


    Snow at Ginkakuji Temple, Ukiyo-e Search

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  • Harold Knight

    Harold Knight
    Harold Knight

    Harold Knight was an English painter active in the late 19th end early 20th centuries, and the husband of noted painter Laura Knight (née Laura Johnson), who he met when both were art students.

    Harold Knight was known as a portraitist and genre painter. I find his formal portraits of men to be well executed but somewhat prosaic.

    His genre paintings and portraits of women — usually engaged in some daily activity, like writing, reading, sewing. or playing music — are quite another thing.

    To me they speak of pleasure taken in the little, seemingly insignificant, moments of our lives, moments that can be elevated to special and important if only we would stop and observe.

    Some of his interiors remind me of the American painter Edmund Charles Tarbell, and of the apparent influence of Vermeer on both artists.

    I am especially drawn to Knight’s paintings in which the subject is portrayed in front of a window, which gives an indication of season and time of day, and adds to the feeling of being present in the moment.



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  • Eye Candy for Today: Peder Mønsted’s Sunlit Winter Landscape

    Sunlit Winter Landscape, Peder Mork Monsted
    Sunlit Winter Landscape, Peder Mork Monsted (details)

    Sunlit Winter Landscape, Peder Mørk Mønsted, oil on canvas, 28 x 39 inches (72 x 98 cm); Link is to Bukowski’s auctions, large version can be found here.

    Another beautiful winter scene Danish painter Peder Mørk Mønsted, who I count as one of my favorite landscape painters.

    I love the suggestion of a delicate tracery in the tops of the bare trees Mønsted has created with careful control of color and value and a delicate touch with the brush.



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  • Martina Krupičková

    Martina Krupickova palette knife painting
    Martina Krupickova palette knife painting

    Martina Krupičková is a czech painter who focuses on landscape and cityscape.

    Her website is in both Czech and English, with the English paragraphs right after the Czech ones.

    Krupičková paints with painting knives. By varying her marks, she avoids the uniform sameness I sometimes see in paintings done entirely with a painting knife.

    She adjusts her palettes to her subject, with high value contrasts and high chroma accent colors for sunlit landscapes, and muted grays for rain slicked site streets and overcast days.

    Krupičková has a YouTube channel. Most of the videos are close-up views of individual paintings rather than process. An exception is a time-lapse video of her painting her entry in the British Landscape Artist of the Year competition for 2018.



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