Our Live Feed is BACK!!!

We are LIVE!! Come check out our revived Live Feed Tab and see what happening in real time!

Introduction to Cityscape →

Within the context of art, a cityscape is a work that showcases aspects of cities. It is often known as the urban equivalent of a landscape. Cityscapes are reflected by such mediums as paintings, etchings, drawings, or even photographs. Cityscapes are differentiated by town or village scenes that are less urban in nature. Cityscapes reflect various aspects of cities including (but not limited to) buildings, urban parks, city skylines, and city streets. 

The city in art has a long history. Some early works date to ancient Rome, for example.  The Baths of Trajan, for instance, depict a bird's-eye view of the city. Cityscapes were also created during the Middle Ages; however, these works often served as backgrounds for views of portraits. By the seventeenth century, cityscapes became a celebrated genre of art, particularly in the Netherlands. A famed work from this era is the View of Delft painted by Johannes Vermeer between 1660 and 1661. Dutch cities like Amsterdam and Haarlem were also featured during this period. 

During the eighteenth century, cityscapes became popular in many other European nations, especially in the Italian city of Venice. Some of the most celebrated cityscapes date to eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, groups like the Impressionists experimented with new techniques to showcase views of the city. The common thread between the various artistic genres in cityscape works is the representation of the city's physical aspects. 

The cityscape as a popular genre declined considerably during the nineteenth century as more abstract and works of modernity took center stage. Even so, some modern artists continued to reflect the city in their works. A few celebrated painters like Edward Hopper continued to incorporate cityscape elements into their works. Some contemporary artists focus on the city as the subject matter of their art today. For instance, Stephen Wiltshire is known for his panoramic city views. The artist Yvonne Jacquette is celebrated for her aerial cityscapes. 

The cityscape genre has been favored by many historic painters during their era such as Alfred Sisley, James McNeill Whistler, Childe Hassam, Giovanni Canaletto, and John Atkinson Grimshaw. While there is a plethora of world-renowned cityscape works collected by museums today, some particularly celebrated works include City by the Sea (c.1335 A.D.) by Ambrogio Lorenzetti; Paris Street, Rainy Day (1877) by Gustave Caillbotte; and Moscow (1911) by Mikhail Belyaevsky. Although cityscape paintings have declined in popularity during the past century, photographic cityscapes have become a popular genre of the art form.

Bronze: The History and Development of a Medium →

Rosetta "The Lion" Bronze 7" x 11.5" x 5.5" Edition of 100

Tin-based bronze came into existence late in the third millennium B.C. Bronze is a metal alloy that consists mainly of copper though other elements such as tin are added along with aluminium, phosphorus, and manganese. It is characterized by its hardness, but was known to be brittle. Its use became so widespread that the period of antiquity known as the Bronze Age was named for this metal alloy, a period of time particularly known for its skilled metalwork. Before bronze copper was the metal of choice, but the addition of tin gave way to the much stronger new metal. 

Bronze was used to make weapons, tools, and armor, but it was also used extensively in the creation of art; and indeed, even functional bronze items were often treated to artistically rendered decoration. The earliest tin-bronzes (an earlier bronze was composed with arsenic) originated in Susa and other nearby cities of Mesopotamia. Trade helped nurture the production of bronze since copper and tin ores were seldom found in the same areas.  

As an artistic medium, bronze was extensively used by artists and artisans. Bronze was famously employed in sculpture. An early example of bronze statuary comes from India’s Chola Empire in Tamil Nadu. Africa’s Kingdom of Benin famously produced bronze heads. The Greeks, Egyptians, and Chinese of antiquity are also revered for their sculptures as well as other bronze art works. The use of bronze became widespread and the Bronze Age chiefly lasted until 1200 B.C. Many cultures influenced bronze casting with advancements during this period which also increased bronze usage for artistic purposes. 

Ancient bronze art is known for its great beauty. Many bronze artifacts were once used ceremonially especially in places like China. One early example of a Chinese bronze is a vessel that may have been created as early as 722 B.C. and depicts a pattern of interconnecting dragons. Other beautiful and intricately carved bronze vessels are some of antiquity’s best known works of art. As a medium, bronze allowed for great detail and sophisticated artistry. 

Although iron eventually supplanted bronze in many industries, bronze remained an important art medium. In fact, some of the most famous bronze art works date to the artist Rodin who lived from 1840 to 1917. While the ancients knew of a wax process used to mold bronze, it has been lost to time, but the production of bronze art works has continued into the present making the most of new technologies. Contemporary artists continue to produce bronze objects of art in all manner of artistic styles. 
 

Man Who Punched $10 Million Monet Painting Convicted →

Claude Monet's Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat (1874), after Shannon punched it
Photo: SWNS via Metro

Andrew Shannon, the man who punched a hole through a Claude Monet painting worth $10 million in June 2012, has been sentenced to five years in prison, Metro reports.

The attack took place at the National Gallery of Ireland, in Dublin, where Shannon attacked a Monet painting, entitled Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat (1874), and then shouted at the group of shocked gallery visitors who had witnessed the scene. The security guard who restrained Shannon shortly after found a can of paint stripper on the vandal.

In an attempt to diminish his responsibility, Shannon claimed at the Dublin Crown Court that he “felt faint" and fell into the painting. Yet, evidence suggests otherwise. The incident was recorded on the museum's CCTV cameras, which show Shannon deliberately punching the artwork. After seeing the footage, the jury needed only 90 minutes of deliberation before finding him guilty.

Moreover, according to the Express, when police raided Shannon's house in Dublin last April, they found 48 stolen items worth more than €100,000, including valuable artworks, books, and antiques. They were identified as having been stolen from Dublin, Belfast, and Yorkshire, some of them back in the 1980s and 1990s.

“Shannon was a big threat to society," a source at the Dublin Crown Court told the Irish Mirror. “He has a corrupt perversion of the mind, [he is] a complete sociopath."

The convicted criminal will not be allowed in any gallery for 15 months after his release.

Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat is now back on display in the Dublin institution, after having been restored.

The CCTV cameras at the Dublin museum recorded the attack
Photo: National Gallery of Ireland via Metro

Join us Dec. 6th

You're Invited!

Dec. 6th 5PM-8PM
Davis & Company Fine Art Gallery
200 Main Street  Spring, TX 77373

Join us for an evening of art and wine in  
celebrating the work of Laurie Pace.

Laurie is a co-founder of four working groups of artists, Contemporary Fine Art International, Artists of Texas, Daily Painters of Texas and The 5 Graces.  She is Executive Editor and CEO of Visual Language Magazine and is an associate member of WAOW and the Oil Painters of America, The American Watercolor Society, Daily Painters, International Equine Artists and Professional Published Fine Artists. She is a listed artist on askart.com and artprice.com. She has exhibited and showed through out the world. Private collectors, senators, ambassadors and large corporations select her work to decorate their homes and offices.

Acrylic Paint: The History and Development of a Medium →

Developed in the late 1940s, acrylic paint has only a brief history compared to other visual arts media, such as watercolor and oil. Polymer-based acrylic entered the market as house paint, but its many benefits brought it to the attention of painters. By the 1950s, artists began using quick-drying acrylic to avoid oil paint’s considerable drying time. These artists found that the synthetic paint was very versatile and possessed much potential. As time passed, manufacturers improved methods by formulating artistic acrylic paints with richer pigments. Although it has proven versatile in artistic endeavors, acrylic as a medium is still in its infancy.  

For many contemporary artists, acrylic became the perfect vehicle to drive their crafts. Offering a range of possibilities, acrylic can produce both the soft effects of watercolor paint and sharp effects of layered oil paint. In addition, acrylic can also be used in mixed media works, such as collage, and its versatility lends itself to experimentation and innovation. Acrylic does have some limitations. Its quick-drying plasticity discourages blending and wet-on-wet techniques, therefore creating boundaries for artists. Still, those who embraced acrylic in their work created fresh, new approaches reflecting all that this medium can offer. 

Pop artist Andy Warhol explored acrylic’s range of effects. His famous “Campbell Soup Can” demonstrates the sharp, bold clarity possible with acrylic, while the stark and eerie “Little Electric Chair (Orange)” shows the grim subject in a faded and almost gentle light. Other artists’ works also demonstrate the possibilities of acrylic. In David Hockney’s “Three Chairs with a Section of a Picasso Mural,” acrylics provide the softness of watercolor, while in “Rocky Mountains and Tired Indians,” they create a sharpness similar to oil paints. This is not to imply that acrylic works should be viewed only in terms of other media. Acrylic is its own medium with its own possibilities. 

Robert Motherwell used acrylic with pencil and charcoal to achieve striking effects, and contemporary Op artist Bridget Riley also took advantage of its ability to set easily on support mediums, such as wood, canvas, paper and linen. Mark Rothko’s series of untitled acrylics, on both canvas and paper, demonstrate its ability to enhance formal elements, such as tone, depth, color and scale. His colorfield paintings allowed audiences to approach the medium on its own terms. Acrylic’s future as a medium continues to unfold with each new work by the skilled hands of artists. Perhaps its full potential and possibilities have not yet been developed. However, it is clear that acrylic is an important medium, demonstrating the continual power and evolution of visual art.

Miami Artist Asif Farooq Kicks Heroin Habit, Makes Cardboard Weapons →

Asif Farooq stooped over a metal sink in a Jackson, Mississippi Huddle House restaurant. Feverishly scrubbing away at the mountain of pots and dishes in front of him, he tried to wash away his doubts about whether he'd finally found a way to kill his 20-year heroin addiction.

"I constantly fell asleep, and threw up on a girl in my math class."

It was 2010, and Farooq was in the final stages of a seven-month stint at the nearby Caduceus Out-Patient Addiction Center (or COPAC), a rural 23-acre facility for hard-core addicts. Farooq had been in similar spots before, and every time, his addiction had returned. But this time, the thought of a relapse made him angry.

"The patients at COPAC all believed I was the first one who was going to start using. It angered me. I thought the most rebellious thing I could do was not get high," the 34 year-old artist says today.

The Kendall native found one way to make that rehab stint different. To cope with the tedium of group therapy sessions, the stifling hours alone, and the homesickness, he'd begun making eerily realistic revolvers and pistols out of cardboard. He had to fight the center's bosses to get the materials he needed.

"Like any good junkie, I had a list of demands that included being allowed to use razor blades or the X-Acto knives and glue I use to make my guns," he says. "Luckily, they accepted and allowed me to work on my art in my free time."

He gave the guns as gifts to fellow patients, but when he returned to Miami in December 2011, the pieces opened new doors for him in the fine art world. Miami's Primary Projects caught onto the AK-47s and AR-style assault rifles carefully sculpted from used Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal boxes and other trash and gave him a breakout show during Art Basel 2012.

Now, as 2014 begins, Farooq is one of Miami's most inspiring art tales — a talent with a unique vision that promises to make bigger waves this year with everything from a full-scale fighter jet made from cardboard to plans to transform Primary's full space into a twisted turn-of-the-century hunting milieu.

"People have no idea how talented Asif is," says Primary Projects' cofounder and artist Typoe, who, along with his partner BooksIIII Bischof, is planning exhibits with Farooq. "He is unlike any other artist I have ever known. His mastery of his craft — everything from glass blowing to welding and engineering — obsession with precision, and enthusiasm for his work are mind-blowing."

Farooq was born at Baptist Hospital and grew up in a quiet Kendall suburb in a middle-class home with his mother and father, who migrated here from Pakistan and Afghanistan. His father, Dr. Humayoun Farooq, was a civil engineer who worked for Miami-Dade County before starting his own business in the late '70s. Farzana, his mother, was a homemaker who later took over the family engineering firm when Farooq's father died of cancer five years ago.

Farooq says his parents placed a high value on education. "My father used to sit with me after school for several hours working on math and science problems after I finished my regular homework."

Farooq's siblings all went on to become professionals, but the insatiably curious Asif always felt like an outsider. "I was that skinny brown kid with the bifocals that teachers lumped with the three Korean girls," he says.

In fourth grade at South Dade's Gateway Baptist Elementary, Farooq found the artistic streak that would become his calling. "Instead of doing my assignment, I was drawing a picture of a Lamborghini Countach when the girls next to me and even some boys who never paid me attention started huddling to see my picture."

Not long after that transformative moment, the drug problems that would torment Farooq throughout his artistic career surfaced. He was kicked out of Glades Middle School for alleged drug abuse. Farooq denies he was using then but says he soon began taking drugs to spite the authorities who'd expelled him. By the time he was a freshman at South Miami Senior High, drugs were a regular part of his life.

"I constantly fell asleep, and threw up on a girl in my math class," he recalls. "Once I got into the powders — cocaine and heroin — that's when I dropped out of school and things became different."

Even as his school life was falling apart, Farooq's talent was still evident. At 15, he showed up at the Metal Man Scrap Yard near the Miami River to try his hand at sculpture. "It was run by a former Army staff sergeant... who encouraged me to weld bits of metal together as long as I took it all apart when I finished," Farooq recalls.

Farooq, who'd earned a GED after leaving high school, enrolled at Miami Dade College and later attended the Art Institute of Chicago. But he was booted from the school for forging an ID. "I never asked why it happened, and they never told me, and that was that," Farooq says. "I was into a lot of bad shit back then."

Back home in Miami in his early 20s, unemployed and with few prospects, Farooq spent close to a decade struggling with addiction, bouncing in and out of jail and rehab programs and building and repairing synthesizer keyboards for local musicians.

In the spring of 2009, he found himself at South Miami Hospital with a heart infection caused by a dirty needle. Laid up with a potentially fatal condition, Farooq began keeping a diary in which he scribbled plans for building an airplane. After he was released from the hospital, he moved to Mississippi to enroll in the rehab program and soon began making the cardboard weapons that would become his trademark.

When he returned from Mississippi, he contacted Miami artist Typoe, one of the founders of Primary Projects, who was bowled over by Farooq's sculptures and got him into a group show called "Champion." At the exhibit, Farooq displayed a full-scale hand-crafted cardboard rendition of a 1930s DShK Soviet heavy machine gun. Farooq titled the imposing work Countach to honor what he recalls his genesis moment.

"It's a Piedmontese Italian slang expression that roughly translates to 'oh shit,'" the artist says. "As the story goes, workers at the Milan auto show uttered this expression upon first seeing the Lamborghini that would eventually go by that name. It's the same car I drew up in... class that day, and it's what I named the DShK sculpture all those years later because everyone would say 'oh shit' when they saw it."

The show landed Farooq a spot during Art Basel 2012 with Primary Projects, where his exhibit "Asif's Guns" was a pop-up store in Wynwood featuring 300 firearms, ranging from revolvers to rifles, crafted with uncanny precision. The display took 7,000 hours of labor, with Farooq's friends and family chipping in while he toiled away in his mother's garage. His fake guns flew off the shelves, with revolvers commanding $300 and rifles $2,000, each priced the same as the real McCoy, as 40,000 visitors elbowed through the doors.

Today, Farooq is working on several large-scale projects for Primary, including "War Room." Due to be finished this summer, the exhibit will turn the gallery into a Napoleonic-era country gentleman's estate, replete with musket rifles, dueling pistols, and other weapons of the age.

In his modest Kendall studio, Farooq is pursuing his biggest dream. He's quietly building a full-scale Polish MiG-21 fighter jet employing 200,000 parts, including a cockpit that spectators can climb into and retractable landing gear. He expects his supersonic opus to debut in early 2015.

"Anything worth having is worth working hard for," Farooq says. "One thing I learned at COPAC and in the years after is restraint. [In 2013] I could have made more money with my art than I have ever earned, but I'm glad my gallery directors are intelligent enough to allow me to develop and have been so supportive of the work."

Farooq has been inundated with invitations to show his work outside Miami and was asked to lecture on art at the University of Arkansas next spring. All it takes are the memories of Mississippi to remind him that his biggest goal is one that begins every morning, though.

"Right now my main focus is building my airplane," the artist says. "But you can say my real dream is to die clean."

Quote of the Week: Henri Matisse

“Creativity takes courage. ”

— Henri Matisse

Studio Visit: Deborah Hill

Laughing Crow Interior

August at studio and boxer adoption

Molly and Moose at the studio 

The artist is from the Appalachian foothills of Alabama, she has been in Texas since 1992 and currently maintains a studio in Cypress, Texas. 

To see more of her work visit the gallery or check her website here

Public Art Installation at NorthPark Brought To You By San Francisco Artist Jim Campbell →

Jim Campbell's “Scattered Light" installation, originally commissioned for Madison Square Park in NYC in 2010, is coming to the outdoor garden at NorthPark Center in Dallas.

NorthPark's manicured CenterPark Garden will play host, starting November 25, to this very popular outdoor installation, which most recently appeared in Hong Kong. It's made up of 1,500 suspended LED lights that look like old-school incandescent bulbs, which are staggered and programmed to blink in such a way as to animate a moving image of human shadows walking across and through the light field. Here's a link to a short video to better illustrate what I mean. It's pretty cool.

By photos posted online of its previous installations, it looks as though viewers are also invited to walk and sit among the lights.

The installation will go up in time for the holiday season but stay at NorthPark through the spring. NorthPark, known for its architecture and art displayed throughout, was built by the Nasher family and showcases work from the Nasher collection (and visiting public work) with a program independent of the Nasher Sculpture Center.

This post originally appeared on Glasstire, on Thursday, November 13, 2014.

How to Choose the Right Brush for your Art →

A carpenter must understand how to use his or her own tools in order to build a house, so must an artist know how to use his or her tools to paint a successful painting.

At first, knowing how to choose the right art paintbrush is a daunting task.

The material that the paint brush hairs are made of, how they are bunched together, their length and shape all affect the characteristics of the brush.

Here is a list of the duties of some of the most popular brush shapes:

Square: A squared-off brush.

Flat:

• Brush length twice as long as width
• Use for backgrounds and details.
• Use for covering large areas
• blending

Bright:

• Width equal to length Allow for the most control
• Great for coverage
• Blending

Filbert: This brush is similar to a flat but has has a round outer edge.

• The Filbert’s shape can vary from a flatter brush with a rounded outer edge to an oval shape.
• The Cat’s Tongue shape comes to point for more control.
• A multi tasking painting brush.
• This brush can take the place of a round or flat depending on the way the artist holds the brush.

Round Brushes: Primarily used for detail and working in small spaces.

Standard Round:

• Use for shaping, details, and outlining.

Pointed round:

• Use for retouching, finishing touches and details.
• Pointed tip for coloring.
• With a high reserve, this brush is widely used for watercolours
• Worn rounded:
  • Avoids “rounding”.

Script, Liner & Detail: All three brushes are similar and used for painting fine lines. They can all be used for lettering, animal whiskers, branches, and artists’ signatures.

• Script:
  • The longest hair tufts.
  • Holds the most paint.
• Liner:
  • The mid length hair tufts.
  • Compromises between fine detail and longer flowing strokes.
• Detail:
  • The shortest hair tufts
  • Offers the most control

Fan: Fan brushes used for shading, blurring and glazing.

• The Fan paintbrush is a thin layer of bristles spread out
  in the shape of a fan.
• Fan brushes are generally used for blending and feathering colors.
• Fan brushes can be used for painting trees, branches, grasses and detail.
• It is popular for painting hair with its ability to paint multiple flowing strands in a single stroke.

Mop: Like the name says, these brushes allow you to ‘mop’ up a lot of paint.

• Usually larger brushes favored by watercolorists, but also used with oils and acrylics.
• Used for making large washes.
• Used for blending and shading with oils.

What is Scratchboard? →

The term scratchboard refers to the surface. A scratchboard (aka scraperboard or scratchpaper) is a surface which has been coated with a layer of white clay. This backing can be a hard board (masonite) or a thin paper. I use a scratchboard made by Ampersand — it is prepared on a masonite board, so it does not bend or crack and the layer of clay is thicker than on paper. Scratchboard can be purchased with just the smooth white clay surface or prepared with a layer of black ink.

The basic materials I use are black waterproof ink, a paintbrush, pigment pens, and a fine craft knife with a #11 blade. The above image shows a piece that was started on black scratchboard. These are the quickest as you can start scratching immediately.

Working a white clay surface requires a bit more patience as you have to wait for the ink to completely dry. This is the basic process when starting on a white clay surface.

1. Paint ink onto the surface in the outline of subject

2. Use a fine blade to scratch away the ink.

3. Continue scratching away details with the blade. 
You can add other details with a fine black pen or brush.

Last year I wrote a demonstration article for Artist’s Palette Magazine about how I create a illustration on white clayboard. You can view a PDF of the article here.

Dislike Abstract Art? Try it again with a Less-Cluttered Mind →

(Photo: Denis Kuvaev/Shutterstock)

The last time you visited an art museum, did you find the abstract paintings sort of … annoying? Were you drawn to the landscapes and portraits, but turned off by the squiggles and dots?

New research suggests this preference may reflect your personality. But it also may be a sign that you’ve simply got too much on your mind, or that the physical environment—the gallery itself—leaves something to be desired.

An Italian research team led by psychologist Antonio Chirumboloreports people with a strong need for cognitive closure—that is, to have quick, definitive answers to vexing questions—are less likely to appreciate abstract art.

While that’s not surprising, the researchers note that while this desire for certainty is a constant for some people, it can be induced in others. If environmental cues are unwittingly prompting this mindset, they are effectively making people less open to abstract art.

“Curators of exhibitions of modern and abstract art should take into account environmental factors which may induce greater need for closure in visitors, and thus negatively affect viewers’ implicit evaluation of the artworks.”

In the online journal PLoS One,Chirumbolo and his colleagues describe two experiments. The first featured 60 women between the ages of 19 and 30, none of whom had any training in art or architecture.

After filling out a questionnaire designed to measure their dispositional need for closure, they completed an Implicit Association Task in which a series of images (abstract and figurative) and words (positive and negative) flashed onto a computer screen. Researchers noted how quickly and accurately they categorized each word and image.

Overall, “participants tended to exhibit an implicit preference for figurative art over abstract art,” the researchers report. But this tendency was exaggerated for those with a high need for cognitive closure.

The second experiment featured 54 women between the ages of 19 and 28, again with no art training. After their baseline need for closure was established, they were randomly assigned to a “high cognitive load condition” in which they were instructed to memorize nine numbers, or a “low cognitive load condition” in which they told to memorize one number. They then completed the same categorization task.

Again, those who were inherently inclined to seek closure showed an implicit dislike for abstract art. But so did those who were distracted by the need to memorize nine numbers. Indeed, the effect of the cognitive overload was distinct from, and stronger than, the participants’ baseline need for closure.

Chirumbolo and his colleagues explain that in situations where “information processing is more costly and effortful, the desire for unambiguous and stable knowledge predominates, and anything which runs counter to this is perceived as unpleasant and displeasing.”

In other words, if distractions are soaking up too much of your brain power, you have little tolerance for ambiguity. You want to get a strong sense of what you’re looking at and move on.

With this in mind, “Curators of exhibitions of modern and abstract art should take into account environmental factors which may induce greater need for closure in visitors, and thus negatively affect viewers’ implicit evaluation of the artworks,” the researchers write. Anything that reduces viewers’ cognitive load, from simple-to-navigate galleries to clear, understandable explanatory labels accompanying the works, will help.

“Beauty is not an intrinsic characteristic,” Chirumbolo and his colleagues conclude. “Judgments about beauty are individual and subjective, and depend on psychological factors.”

So if you hated that Jackson Pollock exhibit, think back to your state of mind on the day you visited the gallery. If your mental to-do list was long and distracting, you may want to go back in a more relaxed state. You may find the experience much more enjoyable.

Studio Visit: Corey West Watson

Corey's passion lies with painting "layers of texture" through mixed media abstract paintings. "My work is about pattern, layering, texture and the details within the bigger image. My work is approachable and meant to be touched, which makes it unique". Her work is created using layer upon layer of acrylic, ink, soft pastel and papers. Found objects or fabric can also be found hidden within the layers. 

Corey in her studio in California. Working on a few pieces images captured by her husband 

check out her site here