February 3 – Happy Birthday, Norman Rockwell

Posted on February 3, 2014

I enjoyed this artist's paintings in the form of jigsaw puzzles and magazine covers. Eventually, someone gave me a book that had pretty much all of his paintings and illustrations. 

I loved poring over that book!

The painter / illustrator whose 1894 birthday we celebrate today is Norman Rockwell. He was about as American as anyone with European heritage could be. He born in New York City. His ancestors came to North America way back in the early 1600s. He went to art school here in the U.S., and he began his career with such American institutions as Boy's Life, the magazine of the Boy Scouts of America, and The Saturday Evening Post.

Rockwell was what is called “prolific” – he produced more than four THOUSAND original works!

Rockwell has long been dismissed as too commercial, too sweet and idealistic, too kitsch. However, if you study his compositions, his techniques, and his most serious pieces – such as the series on racism he painted for Look magazine – you have to admit that he was successful artistically as well as commercially.

Enjoy some of Rockwell's pieces here. 

Learn more about Rockwell's life here. 

Here is a short video about Rockwell that was created by a student. And here is a much longer and professional video biography.

Also on this date:

Setsuban

Paleontologist Gideon Mantell's birthday

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• February holidays 
• February birthdays 

• Historical anniversaries in February

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• March holidays 
• March birthdays 
• Historical anniversaries in March

August 27 – Happy Birthday, Alexandra Nechita!

Posted August 27, 2013

She is American. She is Romanian.

At age 8, she sold a painting at a local library exhibition for $50. By age 10, her paintings had sold for a total of more than $1 million!

She was a child prodigy who sold paintings to Oprah. And to Bill Clinton. And to rock stars and comedians and the rich and the famous. And she became rich and famous!

As a child, she was self-taught. Now she is a young adult with a degree in fine art from UCLA.

She has been called the Petite Picasso, and her artwork has been compared to Picasso, Chagall, Klee, and other masters. She is also an original.

Today Alexandra Nechita turns 28. Her father escaped from Communist Romania shortly after she was born, and she and her mom were finally allowed to join him in the U.S. two years later. She grew up in Southern California, in a town really close to where I live.

And she has long hair. I mention that because I first encountered a print of one of Nechita's paintings while on vacation, and as I stared at the piece, it started to make sense to me. I looked at the painting's title: Buckets of Detangler. Oh, yes, she was speaking my language!

Nechita and cubism...

Learn about Nechita here. 

Learn about cubism here. 

Check out Nechita's paintings here. 

Also on this date:

 “The Duchess” Who Wasn't Day 

Anniversary of the discovery of gallium

Anniversary of the installation of the world's biggest battery

Plan ahead:

Here are my Pinterest pages on August holidays, historical anniversaries in August, and August birthdays.

And here are my Pinterest pages on September holidays, historical anniversaries in September, and September birthdays.

April 6, 2013 - Happy Birthday, John William Waterhouse!

I see this guy's art on posters, refrigerator magnets, calendars, journal covers, even cups and t-shirts and tote bags! (Zazzle sells SIXTY different iPhone cases decorated with his art!!!)

And although I should be used to it, since we have some of these things in the house—things I see every day!—I almost always catch my breath and turn my head to give a second glance. I just really love the romantic old-world vibe of Waterhouse's paintings!

John William Waterhouse is listed in some places as having been born on this date in 1849. But Wikipedia says that he was born between January and April of that year! (That's quite a range of uncertainty, for the 1800s!) Whenever Waterhouse was born, we do know that this English artist was born in Rome, Italy, where his parents were working as painters. We see this Italian influence in the fact that, all his life, Waterhouse his family nickname was Nino, which is Italian for “darling."

When Waterhouse was just five years old, his family returned to London, England, where they lived near the very cool Victoria and Albert Museum. His artist parents encouraged him to draw and sketch, and he used to sketch artworks hanging in the British Museum and the National Gallery. 

What an amazing city to grow up in!

After studying sculpture and painting in the Royal Academy of Art, Waterhouse found early success painting classical scenes. (Neo-classical art depicts ancient Greek or Roman figures and settings and themes. Many people speculate that Waterhouse's early childhood in Rome inspired his interest in these topics.) Soon, however, Waterhouse's paintings began to seem more like Romantic Pre-Raphaelite art—even though the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had broken up decades ago and was at this point “out of style”!

Waterhouse is most famous for his Arthurian paintings such as The Lady of Shalott. Look through these painting galleries to enjoy his art. 

JigZone offers an online jigsaw puzzle created from JWW's most iconic painting. Note: you can change the number of pieces by clicking “Change Cut” on the left side of the page. 

Also on this date:

Chakri Day in Thailand 

Anniversary of the first modern Olympic Games

Be sure to check out the story of Robert Garrett, pictured here. It's pretty strange and cool!

National Tartan Day

World Pillow Fight Day - Check out last year's post...

Sonia Kovalevsky Mathematics High School Day

November 15, 2011 - Happy Birthday, Georgia O'Keeffe

If you have ever seen a really large, really close-up painting of a flower, you may have seen a piece of artwork by Georgia O'Keeffe. Born on this day in 1887, in Wisconsin, O'Keeffe came to New York City's art scene at a time when women still had no access to training at universities, and there were no well-known women artists.

But in less than a decade, O'Keeffe had managed to make herself one of America's most important modern artists—of either sex!

Because she made such compelling artwork, and because she was a trailblazer for women artists, Georgia O'Keeffe became an important cultural icon.

Although O'Keeffe was born in Wisconsin, studied art at an art school in Chicago, worked as an art teacher in South Carolina and Texas, and gained fame in New York City, many of us associate O'Keeffe with New Mexico. She traveled to New Mexico every summer for years and eventually made it her permanent home. She often explored deserts and mountains and canyons, hiking or driving her Model A Ford. She purchased a place called Ghost Ranch, where she painted the nearby cliffs and cattle and other skulls she'd found.

O'Keeffe married a famous photographer, Alfred Stieglitz, whose gallery showing of O'Keeffe helped put her on the map. She lived to be 98 years old!

Up Close, and Closer

Georgia O'Keeffe is particularly famous for her large-scale, up-close portraits of flowers. Flower parts that aren't even three inches long have been expanded to fill a three-foot-long canvas! By magnifying flower shapes so much that we are zoomed in to flower centers, the familiar flower forms become unfamiliar abstract shapes.

O'Keeffe said, "I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty."

Check out the online images available at the O'Keeffe Museum. Then use them as inspiration as you paint your own up-close flower picture.

The images on art-dot-com are zoomable in several ways.  First, click on an image to see a larger version of it. You can move your mouse around the picture to see a closer-up image, or you can click “Zoom” to see the largest-scale image.

Here and here are some art lessons about Georgia O'Keeffe-styled pictures. 

To find out more about Georgia O'Keeffe, maybe you can find Georgia's Bones, or one of these other books, at a local library or bookstore. 

February 13, 2011

Happy Birthday, Grant Wood 

An American painter painted American Gothic—which became an American icon.

Born on this day in 1891, Grant Wood may be known largely for his paintings, but he worked as an artist with printmaking, ink, charcoal, metal, wood, and found objects. He did all kinds of things that involve art skills but that aren't necessarily considered “fine art”—painting advertisements, sketching pictures for fliers, designing stained-glass windows, teaching art, and even serving in the army as a camouflage painter. He even designed corn-themed décor for a hotel!

When it came time to design Iowa's 2004 state quarter, decision makers decided to use a Grant Wood backdrop—and clearly labeled the picture “Grant Wood.”

Grant Wood talked his dentist into posing as a farmer for the painting American Gothic, and his sister Nan posed as the farmer's daughter. Many people think that the painting is a critical comment on the narrow-mindedness and repression of rural America—but Wood himself rejected that interpretation. Some people point out that it displays traditional gender roles, with the farmer holding the pitchfork and the woman wearing an apron, and some people take the painting as honoring steadfast spirit and hard work. Apparently the painting can mean many different things to many different people—and it has been parodied many, many times.

American Gothic was a big hit right away—it created a sensation at an art show, won a prize, and was purchased by the Chicago Art Institute.

Parody the American Gothic Pair

Many artists, both professional and amateur, have created their own versions of this iconic painting. Here are some kids' efforts to inspire you. 

Here and here are some parodies created by adults. (Warning: some of the pieces shown on the YouTube video featured on the latter website are political, and some are gross.)

Learn more about Grant Wood.

August 21, 2010

Mona Lisa Stolen – 1911

It seems that it might take a lot of planning and even technology to steal one of the world's most famous paintings, but on this day in 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia just walked into the Louvre, took down the painting, hid it in his clothes, and strolled out.

Some time later an amateur painter set up his easel to paint a copy of the master painting, and of course noticed that it was gone—and that is the first the Louvre knew of the theft!

It took two years to recover the painting. Investigators and detectives couldn't find it, but Peruggia attempted to return the painting for ransom money and was caught.

Thankfully, the painting was unharmed.

Create your own portrait, inspired by the Mona Lisa.