Daily Art Fixx » Women in Visual Arts

Beatrix Potter: 1866-1943

Wendy Campbell — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:29:38 +0000

Born on July 28, 1866 in South Kensington in London, England, Beatrix Potter is best known for her illustrated children’s books. She was an author, illustrator, mycologist, farmer, and conservationist. Potter came from a wealthy family and although her father was a barrister, he devoted much of his time to his passions of art and photography. He and Beatrix’s mother Helen were socially active associating with many writers, artists, and politicians.

Potter had a lonely childhood and was educated at home by a governess. By the age of eight, she was filling sketchbooks with drawings of animals and plants and her artistic endeavors were encouraged, especially by her father.

In her teens, Potter spent most of her time studying, and painting and sketching. “Although she got her Art Student’s Certificate for drawing, Beatrix reached the age of 21 having had little real education. Like many adult daughters of the rich, she was appointed ‘household supervisor’ – a role that left her with enough time to indulge her interest in the natural sciences.”

In her 20s, Potter developed into a talented naturalist, made studies of plants and animals at the Cromwell Road museums, and learned how to draw with her eye to a microscope. She began to focus more on drawing and painting and began to earn a small income from her illustrations. She had also begun to write illustrated letters to the children of her former governess, Annie Moore. Peter Rabbit was born in a letter she wrote in September 1893 to Annie’s son, Noel.

Six publishers rejected “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” before Potter decided to publish her own edition of the story. Having seen the edition, publisher Frederick Warne decided to publish Peter Rabbit, and within a year had already had to produce six editions to meet demand. “This success marked the start of a life-long relationship between Beatrix and Warne who proposed marriage in 1905. ” Although she accepted him – defying her parents, who saw that being ‘trade’, a publisher was an unthinkable match for their daughter – Norman unexpectedly died less than a month later of a blood disorder.”

Potter continued writing and produced one or two new books each year for the next eight years. In 1909 she met and then befriended a local solicitor, William Heelis. After a period of having to battle her parents’ objections to her relationship Beatrix married William in 1913.

After her marriage, Potter dedicated herself to the role of lady farmer and became an expert in breeding Herdwick sheep. From 1920, and due to failing eyesight, Potter did less and less creative work and her books had to be pieced together from sketches and drawings done years earlier. Her last major work, “The Tale of Little Pig Robinson”, was published in 1930.

In the final part of her life, Potter concentrated on her other passion – conservation which was inspired by her friendship with Canon Rawnsley, one of the founder members of the National Trust. “Her expanding estate, funded by revenue from book sales, gave her the opportunity to fulfil an ambition to preserve not only part of the Lake District’s unique landscape but the area’s traditional farming methods.”

Beatrix Potter died on December 22, 1943. She left 14 farms and over 4,000 acres to the National Trust, land that it still owns and protects against development today.

She wrote and illustrated a total of 28 books, including the 23 Tales, the ‘little books’ that have been translated into more than 35 languages and sold over 100 million copies. Her stories have been retold in various formats including a ballet, films, and in animation.

Sources: V&A Museum, BibliOdyssey

Megan Kimber: Painting

Wendy Campbell — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:30:47 +0000

Born and raised in Poughkeepsie, New York, Megan Kimber graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1997 with a BFA in Illustration. After living and creating in Orlando, Florida and New York, she then moved to Savannah, Georgia, where she received her MFA in Illustration from The Savannah College of Art and Design. She now resides in Birmingham, Alabama.

Inspired by the color palette of the light at dusk, Kimber depicts psychological portrait studies within environments reminiscent of the Brother’s Grimm Fairy tales. When it comes to her characters, she finds beauty in flaws. Ultimately, her biggest inspiration is nature – animal movements, fossils, colors found in light and shadow, objects worn and atrophied by forces of nature. Costumes, rituals, and anything else symbolic of a specified sacred celebration is what provides her man-made inspiration.

Kimber’s paintings have been exhibited in Birmingham, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Francisco, Savannah, NY, Orlando, and Providence.

Her illustration work has been published with Lipstick magazine, Yellow Brand Skateboards, an upcoming CD project from Kebbi Williams, and Ancestry Magazine. (bio from Matt Jones Gallery)

To see more of Megan Kimber’s work, visit MeganKimber.com.

Julia Hepburn: Sculpture/Painting

Wendy Campbell — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:30:51 +0000

I came across the work of Toronto artist Julia Hepburn recently at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition.

“Each compartmentalized piece displays a single scene with virtually no context. Viewers are encouraged to use their imaginations in order to develop a narrative explaining the scene. The use of small, doll-sized scenes, not only draws people in physically, but also makes the darker imagery less threatening, permitting the viewer to assign a wide range of moods to the work depending on their personal interpretation. The unnatural size also allows viewers to feel as though they are looking at a world completely separate from their own, where the rules that govern their own lives do not necessarily apply.

Many of the works emphasize our relationship with the natural world; something that, much like innocence, I believe is lost as we grow older. This connection to the natural world is most clearly illustrated in my paintings. The works reflect my desire to re-insert myself into the natural order and often exhibit my tendency to assign human personalities to animals.”

For more about Julia Hepburn, visit JuliaHepburn.Blogspot.com.

Berenice Abbott: 1898-1991

Wendy Campbell — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:30:26 +0000

Born on July 17, 1898 in Springfield, Ohio, Berenice Abbott is best known for her powerful black-and-white photographs of New York City in the 1930’s. Her pictures of buildings, houses, trains, warehouses and store fronts, provide an incredible record of New York City during that period.

Abbott studied briefly at Ohio State University before traveling first to New York and then, in 1921, to Europe to study sculpture and drawing. Her interest in photography began when she arrived in Paris in 1923 to work as a darkroom assistant for the American Surrealist Man Ray. In 1925 she took up portrait photography and opened her own studio in 1926. She quickly achieved success with her compelling portraits of artists and writers such as James Joyce, Janet Flanner and Jean Cocteau.

Abbott’s first major photographic project, began in 1929, shortly after she returned from Paris. Her documentation of New York, a growing and changing city is some of Abbott’s best work. Many of her well known New York images were taken as part of The Federal Art Project from 1935 to 1939 (a collection that was later published as “Changing New York”). She continued to photograph New York City until 1956.

In 1939 Abbott began what many consider to be her most ambitious project that spanned more than twenty years. Believing science to be a valid subject for artistic statements, she set out to illustrate that photography was the medium uniquely qualified to unite art with science. During this period, Abbot produced thousands of photographs and designed and patented scientific equipment, including two cameras. In 1958 she was recognized by the physical science study committee of Education Services, in Cambridge, Massachusetts and worked with them for three years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create a physics text book.

Throughout her career, Abbott recorded the American scene in other states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and the Deep South. In 1953 she photographed her journey from Fort Kent, Maine, to Key West, Florida, and back, documenting a changing America from along the Route One Highway.

Abbott was also known as the person responsible for the present-day fame of the French photographer Eugene Atget, whom she met in Paris two years before his death in 1927. Abbott purchased his works, brought them with her to New York, and arranged exhibitions, print sales and the publication of several books. Atget’s photographs, which documented the architecture and street scenes of Paris, had a significant influence on the development of American photography.

In 1966, Abbott moved permanently to Maine, but maintained a connection to New York through her collaboration with the New York Public Library, which sponsored a major retrospective exhibition of her work in 1989. Berenice Abbott died in Maine on December 9, 1991 at the age of 93.

Sources: New York Times, New York Public Library, Commerce Graphics

Lola: Painting

Wendy Campbell — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:31:06 +0000

“Southern California artist Lola Gil’s dreamlike portraits are packed with imaginative subjects and curious rituals placed in surreal, often ethereal settings.”

“A self-taught painter, Lola takes great care in the unique details of each piece, with a distinct visual evolution from each new body of work she exhibits, displaying them in handpicked antique frames she finds at flea markets.”

Lola’s work is in prominent collections around the world. Her paintings have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums including Yves LaRoche, Robert Berman Gallery, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Dorothy Circus, and Riverside Art Museum.

For more about Lola, visit LolaFineArt.com

Sources: Flavorwire, Flavorpill

Rona Pondick: Sculpture

Wendy Campbell — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:07:12 +0000

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1952, Rona Pondick studied at Yale University School of Art and received her MFA in 1977. She currently lives and works in New York City.

Pondick achieved international recognition in the early 1990s and since then has become one of the most accomplished sculptors of her generation.

“Over the past decade, she has combined both ancient sculptural methods and the latest 3-D computer technologies to produce a powerful group of sculptures that fuse human and animal bodies or human and flora forms. Pondick’s hybrids evoke compelling cultural parallels from the Egyptian sphinx and Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the disturbing promises of contemporary genetic manipulation.

I want to look at how sculpture is physical and how the physical makes psychological impact. Viewers have conscious and unconscious visceral responses to objects that they feel in their own bodies and that make psychological meaning. I am interested in looking at the way the psychological has been manifested in sculptures from all periods. When these different historic sculptures and mine are installed next to one another, there is a visual communication spoken in “body language” that needs little explanation. The sculptures start losing their historical place and take on more physical, emotional, and visceral relations with the viewer. Gestures and postures don’t translate solely into symbolic interpretations particular to a culture or time period. Otherwise, why would people look at historic work?”

Pondick’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the United states and abroad. Her sculptures are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Morgan Library & Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others, and in prominent museums in France, Germany and Israel. She has received numerous awards including a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, a Mid-Atlantic Arts Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Pondick has lectured at many universities and institutions, including Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, the Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), the Whitney Museum of American Art, Bezalel, Academy of Arts & Design Jerusalem (Jerusalem, Israel), and the Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille (Lille, France).

To see more of Rona Pondick’s work, visit RonaPondick.com.

Sources: Worcester Art Museum

Del Kathryn Barton: Painting

Wendy Campbell — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:41:56 +0000

Born in 1972, Del Kathryn Barton currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia. Barton has a Bachelor of Arts from the College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales where she has also lectured on drawing. Painting, sculpture and drawing are an integral part of Barton’s practice, drawing imagery from the human form and experience.

Since her first exhibition at Arthaus Gallery in Sydney in 1995, Barton has held several major solo shows as well as participating in numerous group exhibitions in Australia, New York, and Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Barton has been featured on the cover of Australian Art Collector and is listed as “Australia’s Most Collectible Australian Artist” by Australian Art Collector in 2007. Barton was awarded the Archibald Prize in 2008 and was a finalist in 2007.

For more information about Del Kathryn Barton, visit Karen Woodbury Gallery.

Lillian Bassman: Photography

Wendy Campbell — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:30:57 +0000

Born on June 15, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York, Lillian Bassman is considered to be one of the most important fashion photographers of the 20th century.

Bassman studied at the Textile High School in Manhattan, NY in 1933 and became an assistant painter at the WPA (Works Progress Administration) in 1934. In the 1940s, Bassman was working as a graphic designer when photographer Richard Avedon, a friend of her and her husband (Paul Himmel), encouraged her towards a career in photography.

Bassman’s most well known photos were taken from the late 1940s to the early 1960s and most were published in Harper’s Bazaar. During this time she also worked as an art director for Junior Bazaar and later for Harper’s Bazaar. At Harper’s Bazaar , “Bassman brought a sophisticated, new aesthetic to fashion photography with her elegant, moody, and often abstract images. Her work diverged from classic fashion photography in that she did not rely on beautiful models and clothes as the sole essence of her photographs.”

“Bassman’s experimental and romantic visions revolutionized fashion photography. Vanity Fair magazine singled her out as one of photography’s “grand masters. ‘Full of mystery, sensuality, and expressionistic glamour, Bassman’s dramatic black and white photographs capture secret moments and dream memories. Her work is elegant, graceful and totally original. Bassman’s unique images achieve their effect through darkroom manipulation, specifically by blurring and bleaching areas of the photographs.’”

By the 1970s, Bassman’s interest in “pure form” photography was at odds with the changing fashion industry. She abandoned photography and turned back to painting, closing her studio for the next two decades. She returned to photography in the early 1990s after a friend found a bag of Bassman’s negatives in storage. Bassman, who had always had an interest in the manipulation of photographs, began altering the pictures and bleaching out backgrounds, creating dramatic effects.

At the age of 87, Bassman discovered PhotoShop and currently works daily in her studio “toying and reconfiguring” her photographs. “She claims a proud proficiency with her computer. It is a skill however that does not extend to the use of e-mail or Google. ” “I’m not interested,” she said, “in any of that.” (New York Times)

Sources: Farmani Gallery, New York Times

Sara Blake – Illustration

Wendy Campbell — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 17:07:10 +0000

Sara Blake (aka ZSO) is an interactive art director, designer, and illustrator based in New York City. Blake graduated from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a concentration in Graphic Art and Postmodern Studies.

“ZSO (pronounced |zō|) is a collection of letters that I find aesthetically and phonetically beautiful. Together they make sound much like “so,” the adverb which means “to such a great extent.” I am a person of extremes, for better or worse (most often the latter), so the ring of it was fitting, and the moniker has since stuck for good.”

ZSO currently works at Euro RSCG where she focuses on digital design. By night, she also doubles as an illustrator for clients including Yen Magazine, The KDU, and Koko & Me. Blake is having her first solo gallery show at Friends of Leon Gallery in Sydney, Australia, in September 2010.

To see more of Sara Blake’s work, visit HelloZSO.com.

Jennybird Alcantara: Painting

Wendy Campbell — Sat, 29 May 2010 15:00:38 +0000

“Jennybird Alcantara is an artist living in San Francisco CA. She received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. The majority of her work is oil paintings on wood but she also creates art dolls inspired by her paintings and acrylic works on paper. Her work has at its core a dreamlike narrative and through her paintings she contemplates the complex interconnectedness of opposites as seen through the prism of myth, fable and fantasy. Jennybird uses the symbolism of duality to explore the connection of life and death and the veil in between, as well as the relationship between the beauty and cruelness of nature, that of the natural world as well as human and animal nature. The anthropomorphic qualities in her characters show the relationship of the central figure to the world she inhabits.

Jennybird’s work has been exhibited broadly in the US and Europe. Her work has been published in the Hi Fructose Box Edition Set, Ideafixa Greatest Hits, The Age of Feminine Drawing, several small publications as well as Hi Fructose, Juxtapoz , Raw Vision and Art Doll Quarterly magazines.” (bio from artist website)

To see more of Alacantara’s work, visit JennyBirdArt.com.