Image of the Day, June 14, 2012

The Coeur D’Alene Art Auction

The Illustrators at Auction

For every illustration that ever graced the cover of magazines like Harper’s, Field and Stream, Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post, there is an original work of art in a collection or museum attesting to the veracity and story telling capacity of the artist. Here are just a few that will be sold at the rollicking, painting a minute, Coeur D’Alene Art Auction in Reno on 21 July 2012.

Philip R. Goodwin (1881-1935), In Troubled Water, 1908, oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in. $40,000-60,000. Credit: Coeur D’Alene Art Auction

Philip R. Goodwin (1881-1935), Unexpected Guests, n.d., oil on canvas, 24 x 33 in. $60,000-90,000. Credit: Coeur D’Alene Art Auction

W.H.D. Koerner (1878-1938), Waiting for His Return, 1918, oil on canvas, 36 x 26 in. $40,000-60,000. Credit: Coeur D’Alene Art Auction

Frank Stick (1884-1966), On Alert, 1919, oil on canvas, 30 x 35 in., $8,000-12,000. Credit: Coeur D’Alene Art Auction

Image of the Day, April 16, 2011

Chief Joseph (1840-1904), Beaded War Shirt, mixed media, variable inches.  Estimated to sell at auction for between $800,000 – 1,200,000. Chief of the Nez Perce tribe, Chief Joseph’s given name was Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, translated as Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain. In 1877, this great man whose very name made men tremble, gave his now famous surrender speech, “Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired.  My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.”

Credit: The Coeur D’Alene Art Auction

Chief JosephThis stamp, released in 1968, depicts Chief Joseph wearing the beaded war shirt.

Credit: 123RF

Paintings Without Color: The Grisaille

By Donna Poulton

Known as ‘dead coloring’ by the old masters, grisaille paintings are characterized by the use of monochromatic (one color) paint.  Typically the paint used is a tone of black, but artists also use indigo blue, sepia or brown.  Starting in the sixteenth century the technique was used as ‘underpainting’ to help artists define light and dark areas of the painting before adding color.

Credit: Coeur D’Alene Art Auction

Thomas Moran (1837-1926),  Avalanche in Cottonwood Canyon, c. 1895, oil on board, 14 x 11 in.

Grisaille paintings are often offered for sale by western art auctions and galleries today. Oftentimes you’ll hear viewers wondering why the artist “didn’t finish the painting.” The simple answer is the works are finished. Newspapers and magazines in the latter part of the 19^th century and early 20^th needed black and white images for their publications—especially as they tried to fill the high demand of their readership for images of the West.

Credit: Coeur D’Alene Art Auction

Frederic Remington (1861-1909), He Made his Magazine Gun Blaze…, 1900, oil on canvas, 40 x 27 in.

In order to create the truest color, with the highest sense of drama, illustrators such as Thomas Moran, Frederic Remington, Charles Russell, Maynard Dixon, Frank Tenney Johnson, Herbert Buck Dunton, and William H.D. Koerner painted their illustrations for print using the tonal variations of black and white paint.

Credit: Christie’s New York, Rockerfeller Center

Frederic Remington (1861-1909), He Was the Law (Billy the Kid), c.1901, oil on canvas, 27 x 40 in.

Credit: Christie’s Los Angeles

Maynard Dixon (1875-1846), Go Get One, 1912, oil on board, 27 x 19 in.

Credit: Bonhams & Butterfields San Francisco

Maynard Dixon (1875-1846), The Car Was at His Hip-Almost, 1913, gouache on paper, 29 x 20 in.

Credit: Christie’s Los Angeles 10.29.08

Herbert Buck Dunton (1878-1936), Follerin’ the Tracks, 1907, oil on canvas, 30 x 18 in.

Painting of the Day, November 9, 2011

By Donna Poulton

"I paint the Indian as he is. In the garden digging--in the field working--riding amongst the sage--meeting his woman in the desert--angling for trout--in meditation" (Walter Ufer, American Art Review, June, 1999).

Credit: Coeur D’Alene Auction

Walter Ufer (1876–1936), In the Garden, c.1920, oil on canvas, 30.50 x 30.50 in.

Unlike his fellow artists working in Taos in the 1920s, Walter Ufer rejected the image of Pueblo people as idealized, opting to instead to show the native culture at work with such titles as: The Washer Women, A Pueblo Well Scene and In the Garden.

Painting of the Day, November 8, 2011

“I choose subjects that are timeless, the things I see today—landscape, wildlife, rocks. I do outdoor sketches, but I am a studio painter. If I had lived in the East, my paintings would be different. I live in the West, so my painting reflect the West—but I hate to be categorized. People in the West like realistic art because they think of Westerners as realistic people. They are straightforward, honest, and unpretentious, so the art has to reflect these things.” -– Tucker Smith

Credit: Coeur D’Alene Art Auction

Tucker Smith, Ahead of the Storm, c. 2008, oil on canvas, 24 x 32 in. Private Collection