Wandering Artist's Journal

Last night at the de Young I was pleasantly surprised to see John Koch 's painting, " The Bridge " (circa 1950, oil on canvas, 24" x 20".) His work almost never shows up in public exhibitions, so this was a rare treat. This was one of his classics: a cool, quiet interior, lit with grey window light, but sizzling with narratives. His narratives, if not his style fell somewhere between Fairfield Porter and Andrew Wyeth. This one reminds me more of Wyeth. Since I'm more familiar with his work in reproduction (books) than from seeing the actual paintings, it's always a surprise to notice how his painting is much looser than it seems. In 2002, Robert Hughes wrote a piece about Koch for Time magazine, titled " A World of Grownups :" "Koch had a wonderful eye for nuance. It lifts images that might otherwise seem beautifully rendered but fringed with banality into real, unforced poetry." Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0...

Saw the Shanghai show at the Asian Art Museum yesterday. It strikes me as an historical exhibit, using art to tell the history of Shanghai, one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities, and sister city with San Francisco since 1979. Using paintings, prints, posters, furniture, clothing and installations, the show is arranged chronologically, covering the the period from 1850 to present. It's an abbreviated telling - the accompanying catalog is excellent however, and fleshes out many of the political and historical details between/behind the visual art. "Shanghai Style" is on display here - an aesthetic sensibility that grew out of a place that had plenty of wealth, plenty of artists, a long history of cultural pluralism, and pride in local historical art motifs. The resulting innovation is a kind of torrone, with startling surprises like photorealist heads on the otherwise traditionally painted portrait scroll "Huang Jinrong and Du Yuesheng." (Click images ...

About 6 more weeks of King Tut at the de Young. Last chance to get your own replica throne. But don't come on a rainy day unless you feel like hauling your dripping raincoat and umbrella with you all day. The museum did away with coat check to make way for an additional (third) gift shop. When my husband and I were there a few days ago, we asked where the coat check went and were incredulous when they told us there was none. And if that wasn't bad enough, then the guards in the galleries kept hassling my husband about why he was carrying an umbrella.

I entered an artist's video contest, sponsored by Jerry's Artarama . I managed to make it into the top 28 finalists, but the winners will be chosen by popular vote. Which means, how many views my video entry gets between now and April 31st. I think they are measuring views, not viewers (meaning multiple views count.) Here's what the contest sponsors say: "28 finalists have been chosen for the Art Stars: My Art Journey Contest. The ultimate winner of the contest will will be determined by whichever video gets the most views on You Tube over the next 90 days, with each view counting as one vote. The voting phase will conclude on April 31, 2010." So, if you get a chance, even if you've already seen it, can you please take another look ? Thanks! My goal is to win lots of art supplies. And if I win, I'm splitting the supplies with Sandra Yagi , who helped me by shooting some of the video and convincing me to do this in the first place.

When I was in Los Angeles recently, I visited the J. Paul Getty Museum and the first thing I wanted to see there was the exhibition of drawings by Rembrandt and his students. It exceeded my expectations. It was fascinating, moving, and educational. Rembrandt's students, assistants, and associates sketched along side each other, drawing the same models, landscapes, and biblical subjects. The students and assistants tried to emulate the master's style and Rembrandt often corrected or added to their drawings, making authorship unclear. Student drawings remained with the workshop when the apprentice moved on and at Rembrandt's death there were 2,000 drawings listed in his estate. The drawings attributed to Rembrandt proliferated after his death, sometimes when the estates of his former students came on the market. At one point there were 5,000 "Rembrandt" drawings in circulation. How many of these are considered authentic drawings from the hand of the master, depen...

Early last month I visited the studio of Los Angeles artist, Carole Es . Her "Moppet" space is located in the Highland Park area, in a rectangular pumpkin-colored building with a steam-punk Dutch door. The moppet is painted over the door and rests on the studio divan. The space is small, bright, attractive and incredibly neat. She offered us some drinks, showed us her work and then sat down to chat. I first became aware of Carol and her work in (I think) 2004, via the nascent art blogging community. There weren't many artists blogging then and almost none were women. Carol's voice was funny, powerful, and true. So I guess I was drawn to her words, at first. When I started noticing her visual art, she was working on prints, drawings and books, so I mistakenly assumed she was not a painter. Wrong. I wasn't paying attention. But I have to say, her books, prints, collage projects, and other non-paint projects are fabulously original, stunningly well-crafted and full ...

Immediately after I returned from Los Angeles, Dave was on 2 weeks vacation, so I haven't gotten much done around here, which is OK, but now it's time to get back to work. First up: a report on my studio visit with Carol Es (next post.)