In the course of a career that bridged the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Scottish painter Samuel John Peploe moved his style from more straightforward realism into a painterly Manet-like approach — particularly to still life — that was marked by a striking economy and brushy, calligraphic paint marks; then to a flattened, boldly geometric manner, more like that of Cezanne; finally distilling his subjects down to a rarified, Fauve-like colorist style, in the course of which he eventually loses my attention.

On the cusp of his late style, however, his textural paint surface and strong geometry are wonderful, much more interesting to my eye than a number of other, more well known painters working in that vein.

But it’s Peploe’s earlier, painterly realism, with its darker palette and subdued compositions, that I find extraordinary. Every mark, every stroke, every dab of color adds to the whole; nothing is wasted or inessential.

Simply. Beautiful.

Fishing under Chinese Sweet Gums, Qui Ying

On Google Art Project; high-resolution downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons, original is in the Hunan Provincial Museum (“Painting of Fishing by the Brook”).

Régis Pettinari is a French painter whose work I have admired for years, but am just now writing about — perhaps because every time I visit his blog, I find myself spending way too much time looking back through his extensive archive of work instead of writing my post.

Pettinari is a painter of Paris, in the eyes of many (your humble writer included), the most beautiful of cities. Like a number of artists who have found Paris an irresistible subject, Pettinari has a special fascination with the Seine, the beautiful river on which the city was founded, and around which much of the activity at the heart of Paris still revolves.

In the Seine, its varied quays, boats and barges, beautiful bridges and surrounding architecture, Pettinari finds endless inspiration. His compositions explore the area’s range of moods — in sun, overcast, rain, snow, and all manner of light and shadow.

Pettinari’s work is more painterly than it might appear in small reproductions. In recent posts, he has been working smaller and looser, with a more painterly surface. He has also recently been posting his paintings on the blog with larger reproductions than in past years, much to my delight.

Though Pettinari’s paintings can feel casual and relaxed, they are founded on strongly geometric compositions, a solid grasp of linear perspective, sensitive value relationships and a subtle handling of color.

In addition to his website, you can find his work on the site of Galerie DDG.

If you go back far enough through his blog, you’ll find older posts in which he has both French and English comments. He has since settled on more simple listings in French, but Pettinari’s paintings, like the beauty of Paris itself, need no translation.