Image of the Day, March 14, 2012

Two Impressionist paintings worth watching at the Scottsdale Art Auction are Frank W. Benson’s A Northwest Day and William R. Leigh’s The Great Spirit.

Frank W. Benson (1862-1951), A Northwest Day, c. 1930, oil on canvas, 34 x 44 in. at between $500,000 and $800,000. Credit: Scottsdale Art Auction

William R. Leigh (1866-1955), The Great Spirit, 1914, oil on canvas, 37 x 50 in. at between $800,000 and $1,200,000. Credit: Scottsdale Art Auction

Image of the Day, March 11, 2012

Estimated to sell at between $400,000. and $600,000:

Frank Tenney Johnson, When All’s Quiet, 1930, oil on canvas. 24 x 30 in. Credit: Scottsdale Art Auction“The long hours of life on the range composed Frank Tenney Johnson’s palette.  The night is azure, the night is indigo, the night is aqua, the night is cerulean, the night is a deep, deep turquoise, the night is ultramarine, the night is Prussian blue. Blue … blue … blue. Blue was the lullaby of the night that sung Frank Tenney Johnson to sleep.” – Scottsdale Art Auction, 2012

Frank Tenney Johnson, Packing In, 1931, oil on board, 24 x 18 in. Credit: Scottsdale Art AuctionEstimated to sell at between $200,000. and $300,000.

To read more about Frank Tenney Johnson:

Painting of the Day, October 30, 2011

Image of the Day, March 9, 2012

By Donna Poulton

Art historian Peter Hassrick said that Ernest Blumenschein “was, indisputably, the most creatively brilliant, intellectually curios and artistically innovative of the famous Taos Society of Artists.” Homeward Bound is being sold at the Scottsdale Art Auction March 31, 2012 and is estimated to fetch between $2,000,000 to $3,000,000.  More on the auction tomorrow.

Ernest Blumenschein (1874-1960), Homeward Bound, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. Credit: Scottsdale Art AuctionErnest Blumenschein (1874-1960), Homeward Bound, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. Credit: Scottsdale Art Auction

Image of the Day, March 7, 2012

By Donna Poulton

“And there were the trees, clumped together in patches of woods left standing between stretches of fields—the sunlight, broken and spotted, streaming through tangled branches, illuminating trunks, bent, twisted and straight, that cast shadows across the … ground.” -- Bonnie Posselli

Utah artist Bonnie Posselli is well known for her red-rock images of the desert southwest and her painterly pastoral landscapes of rural Utah farmland. She counts John F. Carlson, LeConte Stewart and Edgar Payne among the artists whose techniques and styles have informed her work … but they never painted like this. Her paintings, Through the Looking Glass and Subtlety are strong images of delicate light held together by a tapestry of branches and luminosity.

Bonnie Posselli, Through the Looking Glass, 1992, oil 30x 24 in. Credit: Bonnieposselli.com The broken color and tonal variations transport the viewer to sun-drenched cathedrals--the branches acting as the lead in the stained glass windows--holding the picture together.  The tonal impression of light and movement reverberate in these scenes painted by this talented artist.

Bonnie Posselli, Subtlety, 1994, oil 10x 20 in. Credit: Bonnieposselli.comHer book, The Paintings of Bonnie Posselli can be found at BonniePosselli.com:

Credit: bonnieposselli.com

Image of the Day, March 5, 2012

© Copyright 2011. Bill Schenck. All Right Reserved. Photograph, Untitled CO-060, BW, December 2008. Credit: schencksouthwest.com“What has remained constant throughout Schenck’s career is his individuality in dealing with the subject matter of the west. Using the artistic formula of classic western film direction and the photographically reliant systems of contemporary art, he has bridged two genres that resonate with the American experience.”

© Copyright 2011. Bill Schenck. All Right Reserved. Photograph, Untitled CO-070, Color, August 2008. Credit: schencksouthwest.com“Rather than standing as an outside observer to the realities and myths of the west, Schenck is a part of the scene, figuratively and literally. From early depictions of cinematic cowboys to real-life cowboys and cowgirls to poetic reveries about the Native American existence in the Southwest, Schenck melds the real with the imagined, autobiography with fantasy.” - Julie Sasse, Chief Curator and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Tucson Museum of Art