Jeffrey Bale: The Art of the Pebbles

 

After the summer hiatus, art blogging is back! I searched quite awhile looking for an artist to kick off the return. It would be an artist - a mosaicist - originally from the city I call "home." His name is Jeffrey Bale, who grew up in Eugene, Oregon and graduated from our local university.

 

 

Bale received his degree in landscape architecture in 1981. After a short-lived experience in an architectural firm, he found his inspirations from trips to Portugal and Spain. There, he saw the beautiful pebble inlay designs in the sidewalks and gardens. 

 

 

 

His pebbles are something he finds or otherwise purchases from vendors, who provide the pebbles from beaches in Baja, He works out his designs in sand. Once he's satisfied, he disassembles the design and begins the process of setting a section at a time in mortar. 

 

The quality and uniqueness of his designs means that his works can be found throughout this country and many other nations. He's also the author of 4 books and has been featured in NY Times, Martha Stewart Living and Better Homes and Gardens.

The Pastels of M. Henri Roche, Paris

 

As I've been preparing some of my original pastels, for a Spring sale, a memory of seeking out pastels in Paris came to mind. Two famous pastel stores were a goal - Sennelier and La Maison du Pastel. The first was easy as it's just across the Seine from The Louvre. The second would prove to be a challenge.

 

It wasn't easy locating the little shop that still made the pastels that chemist, Henri Roche, had made for such famous pastelists as Degas, Redon, Whistler, up to present artists. I had read about La Maison du la Pastel on the internet and wanted to find this out-of-the-way shop that was only open on Thursdays from 2-6 PM. I did find it but, alas, it was closed. There was a note on the door. I don't know French, but two-years of  Latin gave me a rudimentary idea of what was written. It seems the person in charge was next door having tea.

Bold American (me)walked into the bar and asked for Madam Roche. The waiter had no idea what I wanted. He kept trying to seat me. By a process of elimination, I found Isabelle Roche. Nothing like I expected. She was the young, college de-greed granddaughter of M. Roche.

  She had decided to use her grandfather's book of formulas to re-create his work. I thought her very clever considering the challenge she set up for herself. After all, her grandfather had collaborated with Degas, known to be difficult at best, to create acceptable pastel sticks. 

Madam Roche and I walked to the shop, which looked and felt like a typical old Paris warehouse. 

She asked what color I wanted. I said, "Gray." From behind her, she pulled out tray after tray of grays... blue gray, red gray, and so it went. I was enthralled and next asked for green. Out came tray after tray of every imaginable green.

 

 

I made the mistake of not asking the price. Madam finally brought me back to reality. She said, "These pastels are expensive," and rang up what I had so far. Mon dieux! I left in a financial daze with my carton of beautiful pastels wondering if Degas had experienced the same dazed feeling. (Below are pastels by Degas, Redon and Whistler in that order)

Émile Gallé: The Forgotten Art Nouveau Master

 

 

Art Nouveau was at its peak from 1890-1910. The style reigned in art, architecture, furniture and even clothing. It was a means of bringing nature, especially abstract versions of plants and floral, into sinuous and flowing motifs. One of the art forms that thrived during that time was glass as a medium. It lead to a resurgence of stained glass as well as appreciation for blown glass and molded glass.

There are some names known for the beauty and innovation of their glass works such as Lalique and Tiffany. Yet, there were others who created equally beautiful glass objects, but whose names have not continued into the 20th century and beyond. Among that group is Émile Gallé (1846-1904), This is in spite of his reputation as one of the most innovative Art Nouveau glass designers.  

Gallé's innovations included such techniques as glass marquetry and patinated glass (the latter technique he patented).

He also experimented with inorganic compounds and metals to create new colors - many adopted into common usage by other glass makers.

 

His glass works were considered to be the finest glassware on the market with their beautiful forms, rich color and inspired decoration. Today, if you are in Nancy, France, be sure to view the 400 pieces of his glass works and ceramics at the Musée de l'École de Nancy.

 

 

 

One last thing: Gallé's talent wasn't limited to glass, he also created beauty in ceramics and furniture. Perhaps topics for another time... Next week: His interns who became famous for Art Deco glass works.           

 

 

 

Dmitry Kustanovich: Melding Techniques to Create New

 

The art of Dmitry Kustanovich (1970-) brings to mind the techniques of Van Gogh, as a Post-Impressionist with his use of impasto to create a 3-D effect. Yet, there's also the melding with Pointillism more reminiscent of Seurat or Signac with their daubs. Add to all that, a dynamic sense of movement or immediacy and you have a skilled contemporary artist.

 

 

 

 

A Belarusian by birth, Kustanovich trained in art in his homeland and in Russia. He currently lives in St. Petersburg, where in 2009, he opened the Kustanovich's Gallery as a cultural center. There, evening events include music, creative expression and the artist himself teaching master classes in art. 

 

Getting back to his technique, he is considered to be an originator of not only the amalgam of techniques, but also to accomplish them using palette knives instead of brushes. As he states on why he prefers palette knives, his reply is:

 

 

I model the space with the palette knife expressing its to-day state, its momentous, its current minute. This is my technique. It is emotional. It has its own philosophy. The world expressed through it is manifolded. It is different.

 

All of his originality, combined with recognizable techniques and subjects means that 100 galleries have featured his works over the past 30 years... even in his flora!

 

Dylan Eakin: Master of Charcoal Photorealism

 After the invention of the camera, there was a question about the need for artists to paint fine detail anymore. After all, portraits of wealthy people with their riches on display could be memorialized by the camera. Yet, certain artists continued to work successfully in the technique of photorealism. 

 

 

These artists caused viewers to wonder in the hand/eye skills of the fine details no matter how subtle. The technique brought into photorealism the knowledge of art, draftsmanship and media such as paint or pencils. (

 

 

Recently, I learned of an artist, Dylan Eakin, who uses charcoal as the base for his portraits. Charcoal for photorealism seemed messy and inexact.  Eakin, who graduated in sculpture, but by 2016 began to train himself in charcoal portraiture also uses graphite for fine detail. 

With the amount of detail that each piece requires, Eakin spends about 200 hours on a single 18"x24" piece. That is the equivalent of almost a month!

Here are examples of his portraits of  faces and hands... truly a master!

Chie Hitotsuyama: Sculpting from Old Newspapers!

 

 

It never ceases to amaze me how artists can find art media in the humblest, most common of materials. This blog is about an artist who makes wonderful animal sculptures from tightly rolled newspaper strips. Her name is Chie Hitotsuyama (1982-) As a child, her family ran a paper mill and she was quite familiar with paper processing. 

 

 After graduating with a degree in design, Hitotsuyama began her artistic career as a two-dimensional illustrator. In time, she began to follow her interest in sculpture. She was so familiar with the way her family turned old or discarded newspapers into strips. That inspired her to take it a step further and and roll the strips into "strings."

Hitotsuyama figured out that by  bending and contouring the strings, the strings begin to take on the shape or form of an animal she had sketched. Her first completed newspaper-string figure was of a rhino.She would continue to build animals, including groupings, such as monkeys and walrus.

 

She finds so much inspiration in animal sculptures, to quote: "... I have continued to sculpt forms of animals and while doing so I have become acutely aware of the life force in all beings. I admire the animals I study. I am in awe of their strength and survival in unforgiving nature.”

Below more of her finished animals. Do you have a favorite?

(You can view her processes in online videos.)

Fidelia Bridges: Once Famous Pre-Raphaelite Painter

 

 

 

In this hectic holiday time, it's good to feel a peaceful calm by looking at the small beauties of nature - especially when the eye can fall on what is (unfortunately) referred to as "negative space." It gives the eyes and the mind a sense of well being. Such an artist, who recreated that environment in her paintings was Fidelia Bridges (1834-1923).

 

 

Once again, we rediscover a woman artist who was renown in her time and who made a living at her art, but whose name has almost disappeared in our time. 

 

 If it wasn't for her art, her life would be a mirror of life for women as written by Jane Austen. She and her 3 siblings were orphaned by the loss of both parents. Her oldest sibling, Eliza, supported the other three by working as a school teacher - one of the few professions considered respectable for women.

 

 

 

Fidelia was sickly and spent time in her room drawing. When she was well enough to find work, she was a nanny to a wealthy family. Meanwhile, she pursued her growing interest in oil paintings. 

 

Through her employer, she met a renown painter of pre-Raphaelite nature art. His style not only influenced Bridges, but he sold some of her paintings to his patrons.It was the recognition from this patron of her art that led to support from her employer into creating a studio in the top floor of their house.They even provided the funds to send her to Italy for further training. 

 

 

By age 34, her reputation as a specialist nature painter led to membership in the American Watercolor Society - the first woman to be invited to join. Her circle of patrons included Mark Twain.

In later years, she lived in a hillside cottage overlooking meadows and a stream. There, she continued to paint, but rarely exhibit, enjoying her quiet rural setting and using the scenery for inspiration. (She was named in the book titled: "Notable American Women: 1607-1950") 

 

Suzanne Crane: From Professor to Artisan

 

 

 Born into a family of birders and botanist, it was the most natural thing for Suzanne Crane to find her inspiration for her beautiful and elegant vessels in nature. As she writes, "Each of my botanical pieces begins with a walk in the mountains and woods of Central Virginia where I gather my wild plant specimens."

 

 

From these specimens, Crane incorporates the leaves, birds, berries and even the occasional frog into her works. 

 

 

 

 

As with many artists and musicians, she covered her need to earn a living by getting a Master's degree in English. With her degree in hand, she worked as an English professor at community colleges for 13 years. During this time, she was taking classes in pottery making. 

 

 

 

It was after the purchase of a 19th century house and barn that the opportunity came for her to have her own studio. It was this transitional three years, that lead to enough pottery sales for her to quit teaching and focus on her love of nature and the feel of the earth in clay.

 

Crane is a prolific potter and here are more examples of her graceful works: