Island Dream 5, encautic and beads, 6"x6"
Island Dream 6, encaustic and beads, 6"x6"
I do love those blues and greens. They are my natural palette. Of course black is my biggest love...but then there's orange and don't forget red, etc., etc.
Reading Matter
I've always been a dedicated reader, first fascinated by fiction, then developing an attraction to history and biography as I've grown older. Artists' bios particularly fascinate me because I love to find out how they manage all the components in their lives and how they continue to create and develop over the years.
Now I'm reading a biography of Mark Rothko written by James Breslin (not Jimmy Breslin). His early life reminds me of Philip Guston's - Russian Jewish immigrant parents, raised on the West Coast but came East to make art, no real art education, Americanized name, etc. Rothko, however, was born in Russia (Guston born in Canada) and emigrated to America as a boy, going straight to Portland, Oregon where the family had relatives.
What actually put me on to reading about Rothko was finding out for a post that one of the Merkins was supposed to be the largest private collector of Rothko's work. J. Daniel Merkin, dethroned financial wizard, has in his collection two 9x15-foot studies for the Four Seasons murals that Rothko never sold to the Four Seasons. The real murals are owned by the National Gallery. What was the story about these huge paintings that weren't sold to the Four Seasons, I wondered. So when I came across this book on Amazon, I bought it used for half price. The only problem is that it's a big, heavy hardbound book. I read it in bed and one of these mornings I'm going to wake up with a black eye from the book hitting me in the face when I doze off. (That's one big advantage to Kindle - it can't crush you when you hit yourself in the face with it.)
So, I'll post more about Rothko when I finish the book - if ever.
Meanwhile, I haven't been reading my usual magazines so I have no exposes or cause celebres or gossip. Boring, but that's the way it goes sometimes.
3 comments:
Nancy, I just love it when you post about an artist you have read about. I read every word. So I hope the book doesn't give you a black eye and I will stay tuned for the eventual posted book report. Thank you in advance!
I love the colour combinations in this work. They are decidedly tropical and in this below 0 world I'm existing in now they allow me some feeling of heat. The inclusion of beads adds an interesting texture that plays well against the landscape, water. Ordered excitement is hard to achieve but you've done it.
I enjoyed hearing about your latest read. I'm interested in digging into the minds of artists. I love to know the what and how of an individual's art practice.Rothko is of particular interest to me now because last year I got to see a Rothko retrospective in Rome. I didn't know it would be there; what excitement to walk down the street and see the banner for it. I went early morning on a Saturday and there were few people around. It was one of the best viewing opportunities I have ever experienced. The monumental size of some of the works awed me. Who would think there was so much to look at and feel in work that appears to contain nothing recognizable.My travelling friends didn't come with me because there was nothing to look at in his art! Their loss, my gain.
Leslie, thanks so much for the words of encouragement. Now I'll have to plug on with that heavy tome.
Margaret, that's so interesting that you were able to see the retrospective in Rome - and without a crowd. I've never seen a Rothko in person but I'll have to seek one (or more) out now that I'm reading about him.
And thanks for your nice comment about my work.
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