Category Archives: painting

Anne Neely at Lohen Giduld Gallery

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Ravels in Motion productions, as I like to call myself when I wield a video camera, had a busy time in Chelsea this weekend. Among the galleries I visited, I wanted to highlight the show at the Lohin Geduld gallery that will be on until April 25 entitled Where There’s Water. These oil paintings by Anne Neely are landscapes that verge on colorful abstraction. I’m thrilled to share painter Anne Neely’s work with you here, especially as the artist was in the gallery and speaks with us some about her work.

Enjoy!

Twomblys: Story of a Family Resemblance

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You might have noticed my affinity for Twombly the Elder here or here. I say Twombly the Elder because Cy Twombly has a son who is also an artist. Like his father, Alessandro Twombly toes the line between abstract and representational forms in his paintings such as the one above. He lives in Tuscany and likes to garden.

How did I find out those last personal tidbits? My mom’s copy of Elle Decor (inspiration comes from unexpected places) that features his home.
The artist is better known for his sculptures, like the one below. This sculpture seems to grow out of it’s narrow base in a clumpy, natural process like tree branches. Behind it you can find more of the artist’s paintings. Look at them carefully.

I love the lush colors and huge size of the naturalistic forms, but something struck me as a little strange about the paintings. They remind me of his father’s last show at Gagosian (a lot!) pictured on the left. The palate is the same, only reversed between the grouping of round blossoms and bright background. Soooo, it’s strikingly odd that father and son have such similar paintings (colors, compositions, size, material).
Does a family resemblance really extend to paintings? What happened here?

Albrecht Durer

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Self-portrait of 1493, artist aged 22

Albrecht Durer (1471 – 1528) doesn’t get the attention those great Renaissance Italians do, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello. Yet Durer did more that just woodcuts; he reinvented what was possible with woodcuts, but was also a remarkable draftsman and painter.

Self-Portrait of 1498, artist aged 26

Although traditional in style, Durer brought a tirelessly innovativion to his work, and is known for merging the Italian style with the German. Born in soon-to-be Protestant Nuremburg, Durer was a humanist in the vein of Martin Luther and was one of it’s first artist-gentleman, so to speak (rather than artist-craftsman).

Self-Portrait of 1500, artist aged 28 (and yes, he knew he looked like Jesus)

Durer’s woodcuts were widely disseminated and successful. He also produced some very modern watercolors (at a time when other artists used crayon and paper). Durer was among the first to sign his sketches rather than consider them so much wastepaper. He also painted portraits, like the ones of himself above, but also of other individuals, large religious scenes, and some singularly beautiful works of pieces of turf and animals. More and more Durer tried to capture the secret of natural beauty. Interestingly, he disliked painting commissions because they paid so little compared to the amount of work involved.

Durer’s paintings were work-intensive. He had a painstaking method of going over the colors again and again so that they have the luminosity of tempura, and the really pure colors he used highlight this. He insisted upon revarnishing the canvases himself when they got dry, because he used a special good wax that didn’t yellow as it aged. He painted for things to last forever. While his painting method changed as he grew more successful and had assistants help him with his larger compositions, it remains exemplary of the enormous amount of attention he devoted to his craft.

Adam and Eve, 1507


Durer’s placement of the couple as nudes facing each other on a dark background become a popular style of depicting Adam and Eve (and the ideal human proportions) was later used by Cranach, among others.