Realism of Ewelina Koszykowska

Ewelina Koszykowska was born in Wrocland, Poland in 1981. Her family (she, her mother and brother) immigrated to the United States when she was two and a half years old to be reunited with her father. Their new home was in Mahwah, New Jersey.

Ewelina states that her father was a keen landscaper and she spent considerable time in the garden picking weeds (a duty assigned to her) and enjoying the fruits of her labors. One day, while enjoying the garden, the young Ewelina encountered a praying mantis. The insect, at this young age, impressed and frightened her. For that reason she uses it (to this day) as a metaphor for challenge, criticism, and foe.She states that she has been inspired to paint since birth. She trained at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio. At twenty-three she was hit by a taxi-cab while crossing the street. This experience not only left her in a lot of pain, but caused her to contemplate her life to that point. She began painting with more urgency and the textures and patterns in her backgrounds took on a detailed richness.

In order to alleviate the pain from the injuries Ms. Koszykowska took up yoga and went to a vegetarian diet in order to detoxify after weaning herself off of pain-killing medication. She remains vegetarian to this day. Ms. Koszykowska claims as inspiration spiritual growth, meditation, dreams and all the opposites of those things.

She paints mainly in oil on canvas, but will also paint on prepared board. She uses Williamsburg oil and impasto medium, including what she calls “some concoction spread on top which includes cold wax medium, linseed oil, and the substance Galykd.”

 

Gallery

Futurism : An Italian Art Movement

What is Futurism;

 

Futurism was born in Italy with the publication of Filippo Tommasso Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto on February 5, 1909. Every medium of art affected from this manifestation, including but not limited to painting, literature, sculpture, music, theatre, architecture. However, literature and the visual arts in particular were greatly influenced by Futurism. Marinetti was a writer, and some of the first artists to join this movement were painters such as Boccioni, Balla, and Severini.

If you read the manifesto, you will clearly see that it is not a friendly artistic programme at all, rather its aggressive philosophy states the significance of rebellism, anarchism, extreme nationalism and patriotism for an artist. In fact, one of the most distinguished aspects of Futurist art is the rejection of every artistic tradition and harmony in art.

Futurist painters used such Divisionist techniques as, short brush-strokes and broken-down light and colors, as developed by Giovanni Segantini. Meanwhile, with the adoption of the Cubist methodology, especially by Gino Severini and Umberto Boccioni, many Futurist painters were affected by the cubist style.

 Futurism is generally considered an Italian art movement, but it soon came to the end with the First World War. During the war, many of the artists enlisted as soldiers and some lost their lives in the war. Furthermore, with the subsequent European art movement, the so-called Return To Order, as an embrace of traditional art, Futurisim and Cubisim were abandoned. Thus, in these six years, relatively few works produced by the Futurist artists, as you expected.

 

Paintings of Umberto Boccioni

 

 

 

Russian Futurism

 

The other country mainly inspired by Futurism is Russia. Russian Futurists, like their Italian contemporaries, embrace the dynamism and restlessness of modern life. Hylaea, a literary group, publish a manifesto called A Slap in the Face of Public Taste on 15 December 1913. Even though Hylae was regarded as the most influential group, there were other movements formed in Russia such as Ego-Futurism that created by Igor Severyanin and his companions.

Ego-Futurism was born in 1911 with a small brochure entitled as Prolog. Nonetheless, The movement finally get remarked after joining of Ivan Ignatyev to the group. Ego-Futurists advocate the ideology of Ego-God and searching for spirituality. At the same time, they disregarded by other Russian Futurists, because they found Ego-Futurist as immature, distasteful and offensive.

The other important movement was Cubo-Futurism established by Russian Futurist Painters, embrace the idea of dynamic spirited and modern art form. They formally adopted Cubisim and successfully combine it with the works of their Italian compeers.

 

Cubo-Futurists

 

 

All images are taken from Wikimedia.

 

 

 

Women Painters of the Renaissance

The Renaissance

The Renaissance (which means ‘rebirth’) heralded cultural movements anchored on the energetic interest in classical literature and art. However, unlike the scholars before them, the Renaissance enthusiasts were not ‘professionals’ and mainly studied for the pleasure of it. And while Medieval art and literature were confined in particual purpose and interest, the proponents of the Renaissance pushed for works that existed independently and defined the ideals of beauty and learning. Suffice to say, their interest spread past antiquity into more contemporary endeavors. And eventually, this humanist-driven (humanists believed it is possible to improve human society through classical education)period opened the doors for individual growth. And a few women grabbed this opportunity for education and achievement. And they did so by transcending their roles in society as defined by their gender.

Below are some women of the Renaissance period who learned the art of painting through their fathers or by themselves. Their art, as was common during the period, focused on portraiture, still lifes and religious themes.

1.Lucia Anguissola (1540-1565)

Lucia Abguissola was born in Cremona, a city in northern Italy. She was the third in a family of six sisters who were all painters Although she only lived into her mid-twenties, her skill is considered to be on the same footing as that of Sofonisba, her more famous sister. Moreover, many scholars believe that it was Lucia who trained her sister as their portraitures have similarities both in style and technique.

The painting Pietro Maria, Doctor of Cremona, 1560 (see above) is her only signed work and it showcases her sensitive depiction of a doctor in a controlled pallete of browns and greys.

Lucia was a Mannerist painter. Mannerism is a style in art and architecture characterized by the distortion of proportion and space other elements. It was popular in the early 1600s.

pietro maria, doctor of cremona, 1560

2.Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625)

Sofonisba Anguissola was an expert portraitist and was one of the first women to gain a international recognition as a painter. During her time, she served as a role model for other women artists specially in Italy.

Sofonisba was born into a noble family in Cremona and studied art under local artists Bernardino Campi and Bernardino Gatty. She also had close relations with Michelangelo when she travelled to Rome in 1554.

Her painting, Three of the Artist’s Sisters Playing Chess or simply The Chess Game, 1555 (right) is considered to be the first ‘conversation piece’, a type of portait wherein the subjects are depicted along with the elements of his/her usual surroundings.

Sofonisba became Spain’s court portraitist in 1559 for Philip II. And towards the end of her life, she became friends with the young Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyck. Van Dyck did portraits of her and one drawing of her even appeared in his sketchbooks along with the advices she gave to him about painting.

 Sofonisba was a prolific painter with at least 50 works attributed to her.

bernardino campi painting sofonisba anguisolla, 1557-70

3.Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614)

Lavinia Fontana was born in Bologna, Italy and was the daughter of a leading mannerist painter of the city Prospero Fontana. She received training from her father and eventually became one of the most successful women painters of her era. In fact, during her entire career as an artist, she was given a sizeable number of public commissions and painted both religious and mythological themes – a rare feat since women painters then were limited to portrait painting. One of her more famous religious works is Noli me Tangere, 1581, (see title image above) which showed Mary Magdalene’s vision of the resurrected Christ.

 Typical of the mannerist style, Fontana’s depiction of the human figure was elongated as it was elegant. She was also known for her precise rendering of textures as can be seen by her execution of articles of clothing.

 Upon the invitation of Pope Clement VIII, Fontana became an official painter to the papal court. She moved to Rome in 1603 where she continued doing commissions for portraits and of religious themes.

lady with a lap dog, date unknown

4.Fede Galizia (1578-1630)

Fede Galizia was born in Milan, Italy and studied painting under her father. Her talent as a painter was first reconized when she was 12 and by 1956, her portraits and religious paintings were largely known. Alhough she did a lot of comissioned works for alterpieces in churches, it was her still-lifes that have become her hallmark today.

Characteristically, her still-lifes often featured a basket or a bowl of fruits that faced the viewer and are in proportion. Scholars believe that her style had been influenced by Carravagio but Galazia evidently exhibited a more simplistic style compared to the ‘lavishness’ showcased by the former and her other contemporaries in the genre. But nonetheless, her rendering was also natural and realistic, in keeping with what was popular then.

Galizia never married and died in 1603 in the Milan plague.

judith with the head of holofernes, 1596

5.Barbara Longhi (1552-1638)

Barbara Longhi was born in Ravenna, Italy. Her father was the painter and miniaturist Luca Longhi (miniaturists are artists who paint miniatures or small pictures, as in illuminated manuscripts).

She was not a prolific painter and only about 15 or 16 surviving paintings from the period are attributed to her. Her favorite theme was the Madonna and Child and in fact, 12 of all her known works showcase this theme.

Longhi was admired for her bright colors, distinct landscaping and purity of lines. Also, many scholars believe she was highly influened by both Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, specially the painters’ use of the pyramidal composition and the sfumato effect or the gradual blending of one area of color into another without a sharp outline.

madonna and child, 1596

6.Marietta Robusti (1560-1590)

Marietta Robusti was born in Venice, Italy. She was also known as La Tintoretta, a moniker derived from her painter father Jacopo Rubusti’s other name, Tintoretto. Robusti was trained by her father and became famous for her portraiture.

Robusti’s relationship with her father was so strong that she had to turn down invitations from the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II and King Philip II of Spain to paint at their court in order to stay with him. And when she married, she and her husband lived with Jacopo.

Unlike her women contemporaries, it is believed that Robusti never accepted commissions and was mainly known as a portraitist whose style was reminiscent of that of her father’s. She died at the age of 30 in childbirth.

young venetian, 1580s

7.Levina Teerlinc (1510-1576)

Levina Teerlinc was a Flemish miniaturist who served as a painter (Artist of the Tudor – painters and limners engaged by the Tudor dynasty and their courtiers) to the English court of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

Teerlinc was born in Bruges (Brugge), capital of West Flanders Province, western Belgium and moved with her husband George Teerlinc to London in 1545.

Teerlinc is acknowledged for making portrait miniaturism popular during her time. And as a court artist, most of her works are individual portraits of important figures of the English monarchy.

princess elizabeth, 1565

8.Caterina van Hemessen

Caterina van Hemessen was born in Antwerp, Belgium (Flanders). She learned to paint from her famous father, Mannerist painter Jan Sanders van Hemessen, and collaborated with him on some of his paintings.

Van Hemessen’s subjects were mostly the affluent men and women of her day with Queen Mary of Hungary, Regent of the Low Countries, as her main patron and sponsor. She also taught art to male students.

Van Hemessen mostly painted her small portraits with the subjects (often) seated and set against a plain, dark background. She painted realistically and many scholars believe she originated the ‘self-portrait’.

self-portrait, 1548

Art Photography by Milla Kazimir

Introduction

A photographer, artist, painter, poet, writer, translator…living in Italy.
Milla is available for photo services, exhibitions (in solo and/or collective), as extra for video making (music, for example), selling posters and canvas from her photos, article and essay writing, technical translations (art, architecture, software and engineering)… or simply exchanging ideas about contemporary art!

The name “Milla Kazimir” is an alias she chose for some reasons. Milla was taken from the contraction of her real register name: She thanks one of her university classmates, Alì, a very smart and well-educated boy who came from Congo and couldn’t pronounce so well her real register name, and Kazimir was chosen by her from Kazimir Malevič (1878 Kiev – 1935 Saint Petersburg), one of the most important painter of Russian avant-garde, whose principles inspire her pretty all the time she presses the “shoot” button!

Milla is very social, find her :

1) On Art-profiles

2) On Facebook

3) On Twiiter

4) On Flickr

Or visit her Personal Website.

 

Photography

 

 

 

Art of K. A. Donald

K. A. Donald is an artist from United Kingdom.

A self taught artist, Keith works in various mediums including oil, arcrylic, digital and pencil. Over the past few years Keith has worked in the computer games industry, his games portfolio includes titles such as: Men In Black, Alien V Predator and Call of Duty.

Keith takes his influence from fantasy artists such as Chris Achilleos, Brom and Gerard Trignac. Other inspiration comes from architecture, Art Nouveau and Art Deco themes. Keith’s work can be found in various fashion magazines and a number of pieces can be found in The Big Book of Contemporary Illustration by Martin Dawber.

You could find more of his work :

1) On Art-profiles

2) On his website

 

Artwork

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conceptual Realism : The World of Lori Earley

Introduction

Ms. Earley describes herself as a “surrealist figurative artist”. She was born in Rye, New York. At nineteen she moved to New York city to attend school and continues to live there.

Since Rye is a small town she says there was very little to do there, she spent most of her time drawing to keep herself occupied. After attending the School of Visual Arts she began showing her works in 2004.

She states that her aim in painting is to convey passion and mood on paper and canvas.

“I don’t like to talk about what my paintings mean since they are so personal, so I like to leave it up to the viewer’s interpretation. It’s very strange to pour your heart out onto canvas and then put it on display for the whole world to see.” – Lori Earley

Upon viewing her paintings you can see her subjects (almost exclusively women) as elongated willowy thin figures in mannerist surroundings and baroque lighting.

She has held solo exhibits in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York City and London.

Ms. Earely sketches out her subject matter on paper or canvas and paints exclusively in oils from her own personalized palette of colors. Though she is very “closed mouthed” about what inspires her (see the quote above) she does state that she’s also inspired by music, often incorporating the very songs she was listening to while painting at her shows.

Ms. Earley uses graphite (pencil) on paper or canvas and paints in oils.

Please, visit her personal website for her full portfolio.

 

Artworks

 

 

 

 

A Tribute to Berthe Morisot

Introduction

French artist Berthe Morisot was wealthy, cultured and accomplished, an integral member of the group of painters who became known as the Impressionists. Although constricted in many ways, she managed to rise above the constraints that nineteenth-century French society placed on someone of her class and gender to produce great work, the equal of her more famous contemporaries.

Berthe Morisot was born in Bourges in 1841. Her family moved to Paris in 1855. It was her mother’s idea that Berthe and her sister Edma take painting lessons from Joseph-Benoît Guichard, a gifted teacher who was the first to spot the sisters’ talent.

Such talent compelled him to warn their mother: “Considering the character of your daughters, my teaching will not endow them with minor drawing room accomplishments; they will become painters. Do you realize what this means? In the upper-class milieu to which you belong, this will be revolutionary.”

 

Summer day, by Berthe Morisot

 

Art in Berthe’s Life

Art was considered an appropriate accomplishment for young women in nineteenth-century polite society, but making a living at it was not. Berthe and Edma had their mother’s support however, and by 1858 they had started, like any other budding artist of the time, to copy the Old Masters at the Louvre, accompanied by their mother who acted as chaperone. It was at the Louvre that Berthe met artists such as Henri Fantin-Latour and Edouard Manet, and was drawn into the circle that would soon be labelled Impressionist. She posed for Manet on a number of occasions, and, in 1874, cemented the friendship with a family bond when she married Eugene Manet, Edouard’s brother.

The Morisot sisters made their first submission to the Salon – the official forum for exhibition of contemporary art in Paris – in 1864. The Salon could be an arbitrary place, however. Many artists – including Claude Monet, Pierre-August Renoir and Camille Pissarro – had their work rejected by the Salon, which preferred a more stately, traditional kind of painting, preferably depicting historical or mythological scenes. Contemporary artists, who were becoming more and more interested in depicting day-to-day scenes of modern life, were increasingly frustrated.

With her interest in painting out of doors – en plein air – and her preoccupation with capturing the fleeting light of the moment – Morisot was a natural fit in the Impressionist milieu. She was a founder member of the group which organized an independent group show in 1874, where she exhibited nine works. With just one exception, the exhibition of 1879, Morisot exhibited works in all the exhibitions put on by the group, often to some acclaim. The critic Gustave Geffroy declared of her work at the 1881 exhibition, “No one represents Impressionism with more refined talent or with more authority than Morisot.”

Berthe Morisot died in March 1895.

 

Eugene Manet, by Berthe Morisot

 

Influence of his World

For all her pioneering professional accomplishments, which so challenged the traditional view of femininity, Berthe Morisot always conducted herself with great decorum, according to the expectations of her time. She never attended the informal gatherings her male colleagues did as that would have been considered improper, and her paintings remained centred on the domestic sphere of the home and family. While her work was overshadowed by that of her contemporaries, such as Renoir and Monet, it has since come to be recognised as a prime example of Impressionist art.