Saturday Salon: Wonderful Watercolors

Contemporary painter Gabby Malpas - source

Contemporary Polish painter Grgegorz Wrobel - source

Contemporary Russian painter Galina Vasilyeva - source

Alfred Renaudin (1866 - 1944) Nasturtiums - source

Swedish painter Carl Larsson (1853 - 1919) - source

Scottish painter Sir William Russell Flint  (1880 - 1969) - source

Contemporary painter Bella Foster - source

Giacinto Gigante with additions by a Bornone pupil - The House of Castor and Pollux, Pompeii - source

Contemporary painter Danielle O'Brien - source

Russian painter Catherine Klein (1861 - 1929) - source

Contemporary painter Dana Brown - source

Contemporary American painter Susan Abbott - source

Watercolor is extremely difficult to master as anyone who's tried knows all too well. Oh anyone can splash colors about, yes, but to splash in a disciplined manner, well that's rather a different kettle of fish. Especially since water has a mind of its own.

Sunday Salon: Felix Vallotton

'The White Beach' 1913- source

'View of Cagnes from Horseback' 1921 - source

'The Family of Trees' 1922 - source

'Femme Couchee, Dormant' 1899 - source

'The Gorse in Bloom' 1923 - source

'Box Seats at the Theater, the Gentleman and the Lady' 1909 - source

'The Visit' 1899 - source

'Chateau Gaillard at Andelys' 1924 - source

'Verdun' 1917 - source

'Self-Portrait with the Dressing Gown' 1914 - source - And one of my all time favorite paintings.

'The Violin' Woodblock - source

'Le Bon Marche' 1899 - source

'Henrik Ibsen' Woodcut 1894 - source

'Portrait of Composer Hector Berlioz' 1902 - source

'Passersby' also known as 'Street Scene' 1897 - source

Felix Vallotton (1865 - 1925) was a prolific Swiss painter, woodblock artist and print maker. He was born in Lausanne but in 1900 he married and became a French citizen. His work metamorphosed into various styles over his lifetime as you can see from my selections on today's salon and he was an important influence on the graphic styles of artists like Aubrey Beardsley and Edvard Munch. During the 1890's, Vallotton, Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, among others, were closely affiliated with Les Nabis (Nabi means Prophet in Hebrew and Arabic), a group of post-impressionist painters and avant-garde artists.

I am especially fond of his landscapes as well as his portraiture and starkly appealing woodcuts.

To learn more about Felix Vallotton and his work, please use the links provided.

Saturday Salon: The Rendition of Goldfish

English genre, social realist and portrait painter,Thomas Benjamin Kennington (1856 - 1916)

Australian digital artist, designer and art director, Ken Wong

Australian modernist painter and printmaker, Margaret Preston (1875 - 1963)

Contemporary American realist painter, Janet Fish

R. Humphrey (unable to find further info) But it's such a lyrical painting, I had to include it.

French modernist painter Henri Matisse (1869 - 1954)

German Impressionist/Expressionist painter and printmaker, Lovis Corinth

American Impressionist painter Charles Courtney Curran (1861 - 1942)

Dutch painter Maria Vos (1824 - 1906)

American painter Ben Frank Moss (Born 1936 - )

French painter and photographer, Jacques Henri Lartique (1894 - 1986)

American Contemporary painter, Barbara Smith Ott

English genre painter, author and illustrator, George Dunlop Leslie 'The Goldfish Seller' (1835 - 1921)

Henri Matisse

British Academic Classical painter William Stephen Coleman, (1829 - 1904)

Scottish painter and printmaker, Elizabeth Blackadder (Born 1931 - )

British painter Charles Hodge Mackie (1862 - 1920)

American genre, portrait and landscape painter, Elizabeth Nourse (1859 - 1938)

American illustrator, Jessie Wilcox Smith (1863 - 1935)

American painter, Gertrude Fiske (1878 - 1961)

While perambulating across the Internet, I noticed that goldfish appear to be a popular subject for painters working in just about every style. These attractive little Technicolor fish show up at least once in a variety of artist portfolios. Common enough subjects can make for uncommon works of art as we all know. I love viewing the same subject through the eyes of different artists.

Sunday Salon: The Art of Michael Sowa

I've posted this one once before, but what the heck, it's so wonderful, it's worth another good look.

This is seriously creepy and yet, I had to laugh.

Michael Sowa is a German illustrator (born in 1945) whose work I first came to love when I spotted it in the French film, AMELIE. Since then I've thought of him as 'the Amelie artist', though obviously he is much, much more.

The world of Michael Sowa's creation is strange, satirical, sinister, macabre and cheery - often all at the same time. The paintings really need to be inspected at close-up range for more than just a few minutes. Sometimes things seen make sense and sometimes I can't figure out what exactly is going on - but always I am fascinated, always I am bemused. Occasionally I am uneasy.

All I say definitively about Michael's work is that once seen, never forgotten.

To view more of Michael Sowa's paintings, please use this link. 

To learn more (Wikipedia's page is not exactly overflowing with information, but it's the best I could find) about Michael Sowa, please see this link.

Esterhazy The Rabbit Prince 

Link to Michael Sowa's children's books.