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Judith Braun: Delicate symetry
This week Roberta Smith reviews Judith Braun's stunning drawings on view at Joe Sheftel:
It makes sense that Judith Braun, a veteran artist in her 60s, once made paintings of angels; this is because it is hard to believe that the exquisite drawings in her current exhibition were made by human hands. Show More Summary
New American Paintings Spotlight Archive: William Cordova
As we continue working on a new and vastly improved NewAmericanPaintings.com, there has been a lot of time spent looking into our past. It’s been a good excuse to peruse older issues and all of the great work within. Also, in doing so, we recalled some great Spotlights that were in print and we think [...]
geos & photos
Today was back to painting, and was I ever happy to be in front of the easel with a brush in my hand. Roughed in the magazines, tabletop and part of the crystal ball, plus another round on the dominoes. I’ll be beefing up the third domino from the right. It’s a tricky foreshortened perspective, [...]
In Memoriam: Maggie Price (1947-2013)
Maggie Price (1947-2013) The world of pastel today lost one of its most enthusiastic advocates. Maggie Price passed away after a short battle with cancer. She was a member of the Master's Circle of IAPS (International Association ofShow More Summary
Juggling a creative life
In addition to many other projects, artist Sharon Louden spent the last two years editing Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Essays by 40 Working Artists, published (and peer reviewed) by Intellect Books and distributed by the University...Show More Summary
Alejandro Cartagena’s “Car Poolers”
To start, I am a big fan of Alejandro Cartagena’s photographs. In his recent series Car Poolers, he documents and captures construction workers carpooling to and from work. Compositionally, they are compelling and even painterly. Often displayed in a grid at the Kopeikin Gallery, each photograph feels just as powerful when together as when they [...]
Packing Up, and Upcoming Spring and Summer 2014 Plein Air Painting Workshops
Packing up the Oil Gear Well, the time is nearly here. We are cleaning up the house and studio and preparing to hit the road for the distant east coast. When all is said and done, we'll have clocked over 3,000 miles between Arizona and Campobello Island, New Brunswick. Show More Summary
Henry Taylor at Blum & Poe
Henry Taylor’s second solo show at Blum & Poe mixed historical commentary with a raw style, witty edge, and large-scale abstraction. Henry Taylor, Installation view, 2013. Courtesy of Blum & Poe. Although the show featured three large galleries of work, for me, the central heart of the show laid in the first gallery amidst the tilled [...]
Showtime! This Friday, April 5th
Please join me at 7pm, Friday, April 5th, for the opening of the spring show at Mason Murer Fine Art. Mason Murer Fine Art 199 Armour Dr NE, Atlanta, GA (404) 879-1500 7:30am, 30×36?, oil on canvas My new works celebrate the natural world; the pellucid glory of morning light, and autumn leaves reflected in [...]
My Books Now Available at Amazon
I'm proud to announce that all of my books are now available at Amazon! You can visit my Amazon author site here to buy the books: www.amazon.com/author/johnson.The books are: Backpacker Painting: Outdoors with Oil & Pastel ($45) Through...Show More Summary
NAP MFA Annual (#105) Sneak Peek
The New American Paintings, 2013 MFA Annual, Issue #105, is expected to hit newsstands across the US sometime in mid-April. The juror for the MFA Annual was Dominic Molon, Chief Curator, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Missouri. The MFA Annual is one of our most highly anticipated issues. It contains artists that have recently completed their Masters [...]
Helen Frankenthaler: More profound than lyric
After seeing the exhibition at Gagosian, I've become a huge Helen Frankenthaler fan.
Curated by John Elderfield, Chief Curator Emeritus of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, the Frankenthaler exhibition (pictured above) features about thirty dazzling paintings Frankenthaler made in her E. Show More Summary
Novel Graphics: Richard Forster and Ewan Gibbs at Lora Reynolds Gallery
Take two fortyish male English artists sporting intricate, process-driven drawing prowess: one a bespectacled, intellectual northerner (Richard Forster), the other a bearded, loquacious southerner (Ewan Gibbs). Put them in a room together. Wait two years. What do you get? An intense discourse on drawing and its ability to convey emotion as acutely as a photograph. [...]
How to Use Your Umbrella for Plein Air Painting
Sometimes, beginning plein air painting students will wonder why my umbrella isn't set up to protect me from the sun. I suppose I must look a little foolish standing in the intense Arizona sun when I have a perfectly good umbrella at hand! But that's not what the umbrella is used for. Show More Summary
Black and white and red/read all over
New composition in the Metamorphosis series is coming along. I found all the props I wanted except one. Still chasing down calla lilies, which tend to be offered in mega wedding/funeral amounts. Fortunately good friends with florist wholesale access are going to give me a hand. Like most of my ideas, it started off vague, [...]
Thomas Germano: A response to Roberta Smith's review of "Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design"
My former colleague, painter and art historian Thomas Germano sent an interesting rebuttal to Roberta Smith's dismissive review of the Pre-Raphaelite show at the National Gallery, and has agreed to let me post it:
Without mentioningShow More Summary
A death exagerated
In the April 8 issue of New York Magazine: Jerry Saltz argues that gallery shows may no longer be relevant: Artists and dealers are as passionate as ever about creating good shows, but fewer and fewer people are actually seeing them....Show More Summary
Repost: How to Prepare for a Plein Air Workshop
I posted the below, I think, about three years ago. I think it is worth reposting every year at the beginning of the plein air season. (I believe, however, that the plein air season is year-round!) I've been teaching outdoor painting workshops now for nearly ten years, and I've taught hundreds of students, from beginners to professionals. Show More Summary
Art History lesson: The Pre-Raphaelites, courtesy of Roberta Smith
"Pre-Raphaelite art is a volatile, highly complicated mixture of questionable intentions, literary erudition, ironclad nostalgia, meticulous realism, lavish costumes and a prescient technicolor palette. The brotherhood was formed inShow More Summary
Portfolio: Becky Yazdan
I first encountered Becky Yazdan's paintings at the 2011 NurtureArt benefit a few years ago, and this month she has a two-person show with Christopher Joy at Giampietro Gallery in New Haven. A graduate of the New York Studio School, Yazdan works at an intimate scale, mining daily incident and objects for content and meaning. Show More Summary
