Brandywine Museum of Art- Dale Nichols

 Art, Artists, Painting / Painters
Jan 292026
 

Chopping Ice from the Water Trough, 1935, an oil painting by artist Dale Nichols, is part of Brandywine Museum of Art‘s permanent collection.

From the museum about the work-

Rising to popularity during the Great Depression, a style known as American Regionalism brought modern stylization to images of rural life. In his landscape painting Chopping Ice from the Water Trough, Dale Nichols engages Regionalism by bringing a clean, minimal approach to his representation of daily farm chores by highlighting the smooth contours of the snowy slopes and the sharp-edged geometry of the barn. Nichols, a native of Nebraska, trained and taught for many years at the Art Institute of Chicago but returned throughout his career to the farm subjects most familiar to him from his childhood. His work was so attuned to farm life that International Harvester Company commissioned him to depict a series of works marking the development and use of the famous McCormick Reaper in agriculture.

Brooklyn Museum of Art- George Wesley Bellows

 Art, Artists, Painting / Painters
Jan 272026
 

A Morning Snow– Hudson River, the 1910 oil painting by George Wesley Bellows, is part of Brooklyn Museum‘s permanent collection (but not currently on view).

From the museum’s website about the work-

Assured, slashing strokes of a heavily loaded brush capture the effects of morning light reflected from freshly fallen snow. This view shows the Hudson River and New Jersey from Manhattan’s Upper West Side. George Wesley Bellows conveyed the sense of the city awakening through his depiction of the man shoveling snow, people going to work, boats plying the river, and smoke and steam interrupting the still, crisp atmosphere.

Elements of this composition move toward abstraction. The elevated vantage point reduces the illusion of depth, while horizontal and vertical components, seen particularly in the fence and tall trees, provide a subtle gridlike structure.

Cleveland Museum of Art- Grant Wood- “January”

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Cleveland, Ohio Art Shows, Painting / Painters
Jan 252026
 

“January”, 1940-41, Oil on masonite panel

Grant Wood‘s painting January is on view at Cleveland Museum of Art as part of their permanent collection. It feels like a good time to post it with both a big snowstorm happening in many parts of the U.S., and it being January.

From the museum about the work-

One of the last paintings Wood created before his untimely death from liver cancer, January has a decidedly nostalgic cast. According to the artist, the painting was “deeply rooted in the memories of my early childhood on an Iowa farm. . . . it is a land of plenty here which seems to rest, rather than suffer, under the cold.” One sign of activity, in the form of rabbit tracks, infiltrates the otherwise dormant scene. Wood’s composition teems with abstract design, most notably through the rhythmically geometric array of snow-laden corn shocks that seem to recede infinitely into the distance.

Artist Birthdays- Remedios Varo

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Mixed Media, New York Art Shows, Painting / Painters
Dec 162025
 

“Allegory of Winter”, 1948, Goache and paper

“The Juggler (The Magician)”, 1956, Oil and inlaid mother of pearl on board

Surrealist artist Remedios Varo was born on December 16th, 1908, in Spain. Throughout her life, she was a part of avant-garde circles— first in her homeland, and later in Paris and Mexico. She and several other intellectuals and artists fled to Mexico during World War II, where they were given asylum and citizenship. It was there that she would create the majority of her best-known works.

Varo’s paintings are filled with symbolism and mystical imagery. They also often reference her own experiences creating art. While Allegory of Winter (first image) is currently in a private collection, The Juggler (The Magician) can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art.

From MoMa about the work-

This painting’s titular juggler (or magician) stands on the platform of a carnivalesque cart filled with fantastical objects and animals. He performs before seemingly identical figures robed in a single gray cloak. To produce this composition, Varo worked in the manner of early Renaissance masters: she transposed preparatory drawings onto a gesso-primed panel, which had been scratched to give the surface variation. She also deployed decalcomania, a technique favored by the Surrealists in which materials such as paper or aluminum foil are pressed onto wet paint to transfer a pattern that may then be embellished. This textured effect can be seen in the magician’s garments and in the background trees.

 

Hope Gangloff’s “MacDowell Cheney Cabin in the Winter Super Moon” at Susan Inglett Gallery NYC

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, New York Art Shows, Painting / Painters
Feb 242024
 

Hope Gangloff’s painting MacDowell Cheney Cabin in the Winter Super Moon, 2019, was shown at her 2019 solo exhibition at Susan Inglett Gallery in NYC.  It is one of several created during her residency at MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

Flashback- Calvin Marcus from the 2019 Whitney Biennial

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, New York Art Shows, Painting / Painters
Jan 202024
 

Calvin Marcus’ Tall Snowman, 2019, (Watercolor and vinyl paint on linen), was one of several of his large paintings included in Whitney Museum’s 2019 Biennial.

He and fellow Los Angeles artist Laura Owens will be in an exhibition together at Gaga gallery’s Guadalajara, Mexico location, opening 2/2/24.