James Tissot

Above is an example of the art of James Tissot that I have been familiar with -- Victorian paintings of elegant society women.

It was a surprise to discover in a recent article in the New York Times that the same James Tissot also created an astounding 700 images illustrating the entire New Testament, and the start of the Old Testament. (He died before he finished illustrating the Old Testament.) These were created over the span of a decade, following a dream he had in which he saw a vision of Jesus administering to people within a ruined building. The dream inspired him to leave Paris and journey to Palestine to research and begin this massive project.

124 of these paintings are now on display at the Brooklyn Museum, which owns 500 drawings, watercolors, and oils from the series.

Here is a link to the article in the New York Times describing the exhibit, which includes a slide show of several of the images:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/arts/design/18tissot.html

And here is a link to the catalog, if, like me unfortunately, you won't get to Brooklyn by January 17 to see it in person: http://shop.brooklynmuseum.org/jatica.html

Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole's series The Voyage of Life at the National Gallery of Art has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid, frequenting the museum with my family. The series depicts a voyager, accompanied by a guardian angel, as he rides the River of Life through childhood, youth, manhood, and old age.

In Childhood, the infant enters a lush summer landscape. In Youth, the boy takes the helm and rides toward a palace in the clouds. Manhood is depicted as treacherous and stormy, the voyager praying to help guide him through the tumultuous rapids of the River. Finally, in the fourth picture, the voyager is an old man and the landscape is dark and tranquil while a bright light and an angel descend toward him. The guardian angel guides him toward heaven, faith having carried him through his voyage.

It was such a treat when my friend Mary sent me links to both a movie about Thomas Cole, and an excellent web site about him, too! (Links are at the bottom of this post.) Cole was the founder of the Hudson River School, and his paintings of the American landscape are awe-inspiring. The movie portrays Cole as an early environmentalist, concerned about man's ravages of nature, where he had found so much beauty.

Cool web site:

http://www.explorethomascole.org/

Movie:

http://cedargrove.squarespace.com/thomas-cole-film

Within Range by Carolyn Clayton @ FE Gallery

Tonight we went to the opening of SMALL is the new big: 25 Squared, an exhibition of 625 pieces of small art by 25 atrists at FE Gallery in Lawrenceville.

The show is delightful, made up of groupings of small works, no larger than 5" x 5". Each artist's grouping is distinct in style, media, and expression, with one thing in common-- You want to get close to them, really look closely to see the details, and this way, they offer an intimate experience.

While there was a lot I liked, I bought a glossy, sky blue ceramic cast of a walkie talkie made by artist Carolyn Clayton, whom I had the pleasure of being introduced to tonight. The walkie talkie is a piece of a larger artwork made up of multiple ceramic walkie talkies of many colors, titled "Within Range."

Having bought this piece, I am taking part in an anonymous communication game. This sky blue ceramic walkie talkie is one in a pair, and whoever buys the other sky blue one will receive a postcard from me, and I will receive one from them.

My "message" isn't much, simply a list of walkie talkie related events I experience every summer while running the Three Rivers Arts Festival's Artists' Market. Regardless of my silly note, it is a fun thing to take part in, and this ceramic walkie talkie is quite cute and will look spiffy on the wall above my desk I think!

portrait

oil on wood

Click image to enlarge.

4 Lydia Model City and some spaceships by Ryder Henry

I'm working on coordinating the visual art for First Night, Pittsburgh's New Year's Eve celebration of the arts.

On Friday, artist Ryder Henry installed the first window display for First Night, featuring his imaginative paintings, drawings, space ships, and incredible model city. It looks terrific!

4 Lydia Model City and some spaceships by local artist, Ryder Henry is on display in the Culinary Institute Window at 526 Penn Avenue (across the street from Fifth Avenue Place, one block up). It has already attracted excitement from passers by!

See more of Ryder Henry's work on his web site, here: http://www.ryderhenry.com/Ryder_Henry/Home.html

Gingerbread Houses at PPG

(photo of PPG Place by Derek Jensen, above)

My favorite part of the Pittsburgh skyline (and the favorite of many) is the beautiful complex PPG Place, made up of six buildings within three blocks. You can read about its unique architecture on its web site: http://www.ppgplace.com/building

Before I got around to learning this was called PPG Place, I just called it The Glass Castle.

PPG is most beautiful around the holidays, when a giant Christmas tree is raised in the center of a seasonal skating rink in the outdoor plaza. Above is a lovely photo of PPG during the kick-off to the holiday season on Light Up Night (from PPG's web site).

The other day on my lunch hour, I walked through the plaza and took great delight in the wonderful display of gingerbread houses made by Pittsburgh children that filled numerous display windows within the plaza. Created by students, brownie troops, and many other groups of creative children, the display is created to encourage donations for Pittsburgh Children's Hospital's Free Care Program. The display continues in PPG's beautiful Wintergardens, where the houses create a large, snowy, gingerbread village with trains zipping through, surrounding a Christmas tree. I took some photos of some of my favorites...

Gingerbread and candy carousel (above)

The Grinch (above)

(Hogwarts, above. I love the tree eating the car in the yard!)

Check out the lights of PNC Park (above). Nice.

The White House (above)

Remembering Jeanne-Claude

Cover of the book about Jeanne-Claude and Christo's project for Central Park, titled On The Way To The Gates

Jeanne-Claude, half of the Jeanne-Claude and Christo artist-partnership, known for creating environmental installations such as The Gates in Central Park, passed away last week at the age of seventy-four.

In addition to The Gates, their past works include the wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin and the Pont-Neuf bridge in Paris, and a 24-mile-long artwork called Running Fence in California.

Christo will continue their current project, Over The River, an installation that will canopy the Arkansas River in Colorado. See the work that they began together on the project’s web site, here:

http://www.overtheriverinfo.com/page_1

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Their partnership is described in this touching article on Art Beast with a wonderful image gallery featuring many of their beautiful installation works:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-26/remembering-jeanne-claude/