How about photographs? Fine artists bring the world to you through insightful images they catch like wild things all over the world and bring home to share with us. I invite you to spend some time looking at the beautiful images from Peter Tan’s travels. Spend a few moments enjoying the beauty of a world not really so far from where you are. You can e-mail the artist at PTan@msmc.la.edu and share your thoughts about his work. I am inspired to stop right here to write a Haiku:  Contemplating Buddha now/such serenity/ I forget I am crying…

Maybe you are a writer too, or a teacher of writing and love to read. How about the classics. I like to hang a photograph of a favorite author over my desk for inspiration. Now, having memorized these images, I offer them to you for a modest price in the handing over. The whole point of my gallery is to transfer my art to people who will love it as I have loved it. Here is just a sample of my favorite writers who have given me many beautiful hours.

The beauty of noble souls who share themselves so completely with us.Christina Rossetti from a book in this gallery.Her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti…How about reading some Raymond Carver right now? His short stories are beautiful in that they touch the heart and psyche at once without filter. His very first published book of poetry is here, signed twice to someone who was lucky enough to know him.I am glad that after a turbulent, hard-scrabble life, Ray got to enjoy “gravy” for the last ten years. He lives forever in his deeply honest stories. Now here is a beauty in every sense of the word.  This very famous portrait of Virginia Woolf, who once said the whenever Leonard, her husband, came into the room, she never knew what he was going to say. Isn’t that a recipe for respect? I love this particular large picture I bought at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Time for me to pass it on to someone who feels the same way about this brilliant creature who, like Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton afterwards, lived like a moth in a world of flames.

And speaking of noble souls, how can we think of beauty without music? I have this rare little hand-made portrait of  J.S.Bach. Signed by the artist in Berlin. What is your favorite creation? Just how much music did this one man produce? He was prolific in every area of his life, wouldn’t you agree?  Also, My Old Dutch Master original etching is ready to escape my grasp….You can read about it in these pages and decide whether or not you would like to keep it for some time yourself.  I am reminded of a sign near Culloden battlefield in Scotland where some of my ancestors lost their lives that says –everything I own will one day belong to someone else. No one person can own anything forever. Everything on these pages is being released into someone else’s hands. Maybe yours.

So, what about prayer? Contemplation of the Holy? This little gem is also in the gallery for you to own. It is a good idea to research the Magdalen and the truth about her occupation. Much propaganda would make us believe she was a woman of ill repute when in truth she was a wealthy, educated patron of the apostles, and in fact, believed by many to have been “the first apostle.” Look into this and think for yourself. 

So beauty is the theme of this page. Seek it for its healing powers. The beautiful young John Keats who lived so briefly, said “Beauty is truth…that is all you need to know.” Pilate asked Jesus, “What is the truth?” WE know what even the Roman presence in Jerusalem failed to understand. “Truth is beauty.” Ah, my heart is aching here in the brutal unreality of an ugly city fast falling into ruin for lack of civic funding and inattention as we keep our eyes gazing into our many-sized screens. At least here, I hope you get to see some images that, in fact, are very real if you want to own one or two…if you want to have the real thing to gaze at.  Now, I think I will find some time today to go down to the Los Angeles Museum of Art and enjoy the collections, a concentration of beauty in the middle of a cluttered chaotic and cacophonous city. Without hope of ever hearing a nightingale in the city I call home, or sitting under a fruit tree in someone else’s garden without getting arrested for trespassing, I persevere!

Have a good day!

joan

 These orignal pages are from the hand of the artist himself and very rarely does one come up for sale. If you would like to own an original Daumier, make me an offer in an inquiry to Joanjohnson4@msn.com

I love Daumier and would collect a wall- full of his work if I had an office in government or university or law. Nobody yet measures up to his happy ridicule of the bourgeoisie, the government, politics and pseudo-classicism, and, strangely, it is still very inexpensive to collect. Unfortunately, it is time for me to part with two of my treasures:

“The Fall of Icarus”  and “The Minister of Surveillance under Surveillance.”

Below are two fabulous examples of Daumier’s work for sale. Don’t let the photographer’s blue lens throw you–both pieces are newsprint color and both are in excellent condition, exactly as I bought them in a little print shop in London in 1979 just after Norton Simon himself had gleaned every Daumier a day earlier. But he missed these two, and one could be for you! I am selling them for $400 USD. Each. (Shipping is an extra 7 dollars for the packaging.)

“Fall of Icarus” from La Charivari / “Histoire Ancienne. “ (La Chute D’Icare) Slightly worn, crease down middle of newsprint on verso . 10×14 page

10×14 page from Actualities D#2908 “Surveilling the Commissioner of Surveillance” Newsprint with pencil “w/ix 51/2908 /(Newsprint on the verso) worn condition but perfect print of a timeless subject. Non?

You can read much about this artist on the Internet, so look around for the excellent websites dedicated to Daumier. I will say only that after mastering lithography in his early teens and a lifetime of making innumerable works for newspapers and magazines, galleries and friends, this printer, painter and sculptor went blind and died in a little cottage in the countryside lent him by his friend and fellow artist, Corot. Daumier was known in his lifetime as the “Michelangelo of caricature” and once spent six months in jail for his print of the king as Gargantua. Ah the French! For all their love of art and artists, they can be highly outraged. Even Flaubert went on trial for Madame Bovary.

“One of the most important men, I will not say only of caricature, but also of modern art.”-Baudelaire.

"Aspiration" Oil on canvas/1.5 " gallery wrapped 48"W x 36"L, painted sides. The tattoo is the Japanese kanji for "aspiration."

"Summer Attraction" Oil on canvas, framed dimensions: approx. 24"W x 30"L, available.

"Flash" Oil on canvas, framed dimensions: approx. 21"W x 27"L, available.

"Sea Sides" Oil on canvas, framed dimensions: approx, 19.5"W x 23.5"L, available.

"Nicholas" Oil on canvas, private collection.

"Feel the Heat" Oil on canvas, private collection.

"Breaking Obsession" Oil on canvas, 27"W x 33"L, available.

"Against the Sand" Oil on canvas, private collection.

I know Thanksgiving is past, but the spirit lingers and I, like you, am grateful for those who add to the beauty in life, ALL who believe that beauty inspires us, heals us, ameliorates anger, comforts the ailing, and reflects the creative energy of the universe. “God bless us, Everyone!” 

My simple gift: (A Breton Fisherman’s Prayer)

  “Oh God, Thy sea is so great and my boat is so small.”

Marine paintings and more from my favorite artists, in a salute to America’s Home Town: Plymouth, Massachusetts.  Please enjoy this work by David Monteiro and then go to the John Crutchfield special exhibit on the top in the headings  (There’s a preview here)…..take your time and enjoy your visit to my little gallery.  Of course, nothing is as exciting as an original work of art when given or received as a gift everyone can enjoy in your house- in the library, over the mantle, above a guest’s bed, or while you are dining. And you don’t have to click, touch or text it ever. “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” – Keats, of course.

"The Start - J Class Regatta" 18x30 oil on stretched linen canvas

First:   A selection from the studio of  David Monteiro.  These are all oil paintings on stretched linen. Visit his gallery pages at  “info@davidmonteiro.com“

"Summer Breeze" 20x36 Oil on stretched linen canvas

"Sailing Along the Coast"

"Lighthouse Beach, MV" Oil on stretched linen canvas

"Quiet Haven" 20x30 Oil on stretched linen canvas

"Rounding West Cove" 15x24 Oil on stretched linen canvas

"Running Free" (NFS)

Transcend  (30×24) SOLD

Siamese Garden (10×8)

Bare (30×48)

Garden of the Lost and Found (30×24) SOLD

Abutilon (12×9)

Mourning (12×9)

“It’s a beautiful spring day and I notice the heliotrope has the tiniest of leaves sprouting on its near dead looking stems. I’m thrilled.  It has survived the transplant and the cold nights. Then I see the strangest looking bug. It looks like a toad the size of an apple seed.  I get my camera. It’s gone; but perhaps I’ll paint tiny toads in a painting to record that moment of wonderment. Unusual birds pass through the garden in the spring and their songs stop me. I follow the sounds. There in the upper branches is a bird I’ve never seen, a red-whiskered bulbul. I will paint it to really see it. I will walk my brush over and get lost in the miniature world of every feather.  My paintings are combinations of what I perceive as real and underlying unseen elements of nature.  My perceptions of nature are often defined by its patterns, delicacy and astonishingly exquisite details.  I record the process of contemplative observation in the garden where there are microcosms of interconnected systems, aligning and flowing in and out of each other. It is a continual work in progress. The gardens I paint are reflections of the works in progress we call “our lives”.  Traditionally egg tempera is used to create very precise imagery, and I utilize that quality for my subjects.  The subjects of my paintings are specific and the backgrounds are expansive – which I liken to the throwing of coins in the I Ching, to isolate the present moment. When different pigments are layered, pooled, rinsed, or sanded they combine and react to each other, and all the variables and possibilities collide to create one outcome.”

Susan McDonnell’s paintings have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in galleries throughout the United States, including the HAUS Gallery/Brewery Project, the Jose Drudis-Bada Gallery, and Random Gallery in Los Angeles;  Klaudia Marr gallery in Santa Fe; and Artbanque Gallery in Minneapolis.  She received a BA and MFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. She lives in Pasadena.

“Untitled” by Otis Bardwell (American b.1955)

When we received our first “stimulus package” from our government a few years back, I thought I would stimulate the economy by purchasing some art. What better than a trip to the studio of Otis Bardwell, the young sculptor, where I was able to purchase this print numbered and signed by the artist in pencil.  For years this  intriguing creature of the artist’s imagination, hung above my media center where he listened attentively to my films, CDs and audiobooks.  He is none the worse for wear. He is most certainly a curious listener! Now I am releasing him to the next afficianado of  this fine artist’s work;  Bardwell was born and raised in Africa, and now lives in Pasadena with his wife and children. You may visit  his website for more information about him and his work, but only I have this rare and wonderful piece and I will part with it for  $8OO. Taxes and shipping included. Please note, this is a very large picture (measurements to come) matted in white archival papers and framed in black wood by Gray Goose In Los Feliz (LA).

“DAVID AND GOLIATH“   An original British steel engraving by  John Boydell in 1766 after the original painting  by Salvator Rosa  in the collection of His Highness, The Duke of Devonshire.  This is a rare image of  the giant in a suit of Royal armor. Hmmmm. Just who was the mighty opponent that this small island nation had in mind here? At any rate despite the hundreds of artistic renderings of this subject, you won’t find one like this anywhere else, I wager.  I have had it framed professionally by only the best framer in Beverly Hills with archival papers and a surprisingly lightweight tortoiseshell frame.  This is an almost 250 year old piece made by the engraver who created the major “Illustrated Shakespeare” and who became The Lord Mayor of London in 1790, 24 years after making this engraving. 

For a magnificent portrait of the artist, go to “Literary pages” and scroll down to the link.

I am asking only $600.00 for this ready to hang work of the finest engraver’s art.  I say only because it was Boydell who brought the high prices and fame to British engravings, and in his day set the average price of a print like this at one hundred pounds. That is 18th Century pounds!  Taxes and shipping included for a perceptive collector of English engravings.  (measurements on request)

Read more about the engraver John Boydell on the literary pages.

“The Wandering Artist”  $850.

Give this to some hopeless romantic.  Steel engraving of Lord Byron. Wow! $35. postage paid.

Find this on the Artists in the Sun page for a larger look. An original acrylic painting on paper “TALK“  by  R. Davey of Carmel. $850.00 unframed. postage and taxes included.

Two great British novelists. An original signed woodcut by famed New York artist Henry Wolf  (1852-1916) of Robert L. Stevenson (1850-1894) and the classic photograph by George Charles Beresford in 1902 of Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). Both portraits exquisitely framed in black with museum barrier acid-free paper and mattes to last for a hundred years without foxing.  Find them elsewhere on these pages and —-consider a priceless gift for your favorite English major’s next birthday.  Although one is small and the other quite large, they are priced the same, $350. each plus shipping cost.

OKAY.  Given to me by Raymond Carver at the book launching private party with two signatures, one personalized.  I once had a TV show and Ray was my very FIRST guest. I told him a story afterwards about me and my parents and darn if it is not the story he then wrote called “Popular Mechanics!”  (It is dangerous to tell writers anything.)  You can have the book of poetry, Winter Insomnia (1970), autographed twice  once for  anybody lucky enough to buy it, and once just for me, the “baby” in one of his most famous stories!$8,000 FIRM. Insured. Taxes and postage paid.

Today is Bloomsday;  therefore, in honor of James Joyce, I am dedicating the current exhibit to some of the finest art of the 20th Century with a very special , extremely rare, beautiful SUITE of 12 lithographs by John Hunter drawn and published in 1981….. Are you ready for this?  Add to your collection now, or begin your own fine art collection.  This is original, complete and, of course, an exclusive bargain for only one buyer.  Think about it. John Hunter is represented in the National Gallery, Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art in NYC and Who’s Who in American Art and World Art.  His paintings were used in the cult movie, “Seconds” as the work of Rock Hudson who plays a painter. (This is one of my favorite films. Way ahead of its time.) This fine Suite from one of the best of the California School of Art is complete, in excellent condition and cannot be found anywhere else for sale. $25,000. Included all taxes and shipping worldwide.

“THE LIFE CYCLE suite of twelve lithographs by John Hunter published by the Lakeside Studio, Lakeside, Michigan.  Forty copies printed on Arches Cover by Plucked Chicken Press, Chicago, Illinois; Will Petersen and Cynthia Archer Petersen, Proprietors.  Typography by Patrick Surgalski, Cranbrook Academy of Art,  Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.  Handset in 18-point Kennerly Bold.  THIS IS COPY 6.   Signed/dated  in pencil by the artist on the cover page and on each lithograph. $25,000.

Since John Hunter studied art and lived in Los Angeles, (his friends included Dennis Hopper and Richard Chamberlain – his college roommate) it is somehow fitting that I found a true Hollywood photographer to render these prints to you, dear art lovers.

THESE CRYSTAL CLEAR PHOTOS OF THE ARTWORK were taken by the best professional photographer in Hollywood.  Robert Antal.  He is also the busiest photographer in town what with the stream of actors getting headshots and portfolios, but I managed to engage him for this month, and hopefully, I can squeeze some more beautiful art for the gallery in between the beautiful people in the future. Robert and his gracious wife can be found at 7095 Hollywood Blvd. Suite 201 here in town, and he said he wouldn’t mind if I publish a link to him: HollywoodPro@Yahoo.com… If you email him, he will answer. And,course, you can simply Google his name and find out everything!!! (By the way, he did NOT solicit this home-made advertisement for his studio.)

Please read more about JOHN HUNTER on “Literary Pages.”

For all those who are wrongly accused and who suffer at the hands of the ignorant. Caraveggio’s Flagellation. (1607.)

For all those who are persecuted and tortured by greedy and envious people. Caravaggio’s Crowning of Thorns. (1606)

The Passion of Christ by El Greco. (1577)

For all those who are mocked, humiliated and spit upon by the ignorant who cannot tolerate of maybe even recognize holiness. Daumier’s Ecco Homo (1850)

For all those keeping a holy Passiontide, humbly accepting life’s many sorrows, and to comfort those who mourn the loss of loved ones at this time.

The faces, as seen by Heironymous Bosch, of those who would murder the innocent:

Here is a healing Psalm. (excerpt/22) Reprinted from the Sunday bulletin from the Anglican Catholic liturgy for Palm Sunday:

But be not Thou far from me, O Lord. Thou art my succour;  haste Thee to help me. Save me from the lion’s mouth;  Thou has heard me also from among the horns of the unicorns. My God, my god, look upon me; why hast Thou forsaken me?  And art so far from my health and from the words of my complaint?  Oh my God, I cry in the day-time, but Thou hearest not, and in the night season also I take no rest.  And Thou continuest holy, O Thou worship of Israel.  Our fathers hoped in Thee;  they trusted in Thee and Thou didst deliver them…I have been left unto Thee ever since I was born; Thou art my God even from my mother’s womb…Go not from me; for trouble is hard at hand, and there is none to help me…For many dogs are come about me, and the council of the wicked layeth siege against me. They pierced my hands and feet. …They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture….Thou art my succour, haste Thee to help me. Save me from the lion’s mouth….

In respect for Holy Week and those who keep it holy.

May God bless us in our trials.

From Saint Apollonia Church in  Florence, Italy, a great work by Andrea Del Castagno when he was around 24 years old. Last Supper and stories of Christ’s Passion. MOSAIC.  (1447).  Unlike the other famous depiction of the same great experience, this one has not faded. This may be why so many of the beautiful “paintings” in the Vatican are actually tiny bits of glass. Mosaics do not fade.

GOOD FRIDAY

MATTHIAS GRUENWALD’s ISENHEIM ALTARPIECE 1515 AD

Christ of Saint John of the Cross. Salvador Dali. (1952) in the National Gallery in Glasgow, Scotland.

EASTER SUNDAY

 Resurrection of Christ from the tomb by Piero della Francesca (1463-65)  Mural in fresco and tempera. Pinocoteca Comunal, Sansepolcro.

English writer Aldous Huxley described the Resurrection by Piero della Francesca, which is in the Museo Civico, as “the greatest painting in the world”.

The English novelist, Iris Murdoch, viewed the painting with her husband, John Bayley. He reported that Iris was fascinated with the picture, and later would use the vital force expressed in the painting as inspiration for some of her writing.