Blue Shadow Art Visual Essay

Blue Shadow Art Visual Essay

Eight Artists Paint the Presence of Blue Shadows
Four Men / Four Women, painted 1882-2023,
in Arizona, California, Maine, New York, and
Oregon, United States, as well as
Finland and France.

1
Sand and Shadows
Carol L. Douglas (1967- ) American
Oil on linen board, 16" x 8" (w x h), circa 2023
Sold, $722, Private Collection

Carol L. Douglas (1967- ) paints and teaches in Rockport, Maine, where she has her own studio and gallery. She's painted from as far north as Canada to as far south as Argentina. She studied at the Art Students League, New York. Carol writes an art blog Watch Me Paint. Her blog / website is HERE.

2
Figure with Clothesline
Lois Dodd (1927- ) American
Oil, 2000

Source: Wiki edited:
Lois Dodd (1927- ) is known for her observational paintings of landscapes, nudes, and still lives. "I would find it, see it, and say 'that's exciting' but I don't want to set things up." Lois Dodd painted her immediate circumstances. There is nothing glitzy about the work, neither in its subject matter nor in her use of materials. She does not celebrate excess, ownership, or leisure, nor does she condemn it. Her paintings embody an implicit critique of those who believe acquisitiveness, possession, and leisure are integral to the pursuit of happiness. As part of the wave of New York modernists to explore the coast of Maine after the end of the second world war, Dodd helped to change the face of painting here, exploring the landscape and the figure, that were anathema in the era of Abstract Expressionism. Her work is in the collections of many major art museums.

3
Shadows on the Sea - The Cliffs at Pourville
Claude Monet (1840-1926) French
Oil on canvas, 32" x 22" (w x h), 1882
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark

Source: Wiki and Art Institute of Chicago edited:
In 1879 Claude Monet's wife, Camille, died. In 1881, Claude Monet moved with Alice Hoschede, who he would marry in 1892 following her husband's death in 1891, and her children to Poissy. Alice's third daughter, Suzanne, would become Monet's preferred model, after Camille. Shadows on the Sea was painted the last time he exhibited with the Impressionists was in 1882, four years before the final Impressionist exhibition. In 1883 In 1883, Monet and his family rented a house and gardens in Giverny, beginning his painting adventures with water lilies.
        But in February 1882, Claude Monet went north from Poissy to Normandy to paint. This was also a retreat from personal and professional pressures. France was in the midst of a lengthy economic recession which affected Monet's sales. In addition, the artist was unenthusiastic about divisions within the Impressionists group. Disappointed in the area around the harbor city of Dieppe, which he found too urban, Monet settled in Pourville and remained in this fishing village until mid-April. He became increasingly enamored of his surroundings, writing to Alice and her children: "How beautiful the countryside is becoming, and what joy it would be for me to show you all its delightful nooks and crannies!"

4
Seawall
Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) American
Oil on canvas, 26" x 20" (w x h), 1957
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Gift of Phyllis G. Diebenkorn

Source Wiki and Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco notes edited:
Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) was an American painter and printmaker. He was a fan of and influenced by the works of Matisse and his use of color. Diebenkorn's early work is associated with abstract expressionism. His late 1960s abstract paintings, known as the Ocean Park paintings, were instrumental in leading to his worldwide acclaim.
        Seawall (1957) reflects his interest in new visual terrain that he experienced in 1951 during his first cross-country flight. Diebenkorn was one of the most influential American artists working in the post-World War II era, and Seawall evokes an elemental meeting of sea, sky, and earth. Like many of the works Diebenkorn painted during his Berkeley Period (1953-1966).
        In 2018, Diebenkorn's Ocean Park #126 painted in 1984 became the most expensive picture by the artist auctioned when it sold for $23.9 million at Christie's New York. The previous record from 2012, also at Christie's, was Ocean Park #48 painted in 1971 for $13.5 million.

5
Cityscape with Blue Shadow
Martha Diamond (1944-2023) American
Oil on canvas, 48" x 96" (w x h), 1994
Gift of the Alex Katz Foundation
Portland (Maine) Museum of Art, Portland, Maine

Source Wiki edited:
Martha Bonnie Diamond (1944-2023) was an American painter. Her paintings first gained public attention in the 1980s and are included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and many other institutions. Her father, a doctor, inspired her interest in light, space, and structure in the city while taking her on drives to see his patients. She graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota. in 1964 and returned to New York in 1965 after a year in Paris. She subsequently received an M.A. from New York University in 1969, moved into a loft on the Bowery, and became an active participant in the downtown art and poetry scene.

Diamond was one of several New York painters who spent time in Maine during the summer months and developed a long-term association with the state. She served on the Board of Governors of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine, from 1982 to 2018. She also taught at Skowhegan beginning in the 1970s, as well as at the School of Visual Arts in New York and at Harvard University. Diamond also supported artistic programming by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the Goddard-Riverside Community Center. She died December 30, 2023 at the age of 79. Her website by her trust is HERE.

6
Into Blue Shadows
Carol Marine (1982- ) American
Oil on gesso board, 6" x 6" (w x h), 2012
Private collection

Carol Marine, a graduate of the University of Texas, Austin, is an American painter. She is known for her pronounced unique brushstrokes in her paintings. Growing up in Texas, her family has moved to Oregon, and finally to Montana. She's written Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist, Watson-Guptill, New York, NY, 192 pages, 2014, on amazon HERE, where you can see and read a sample of her illustrated book by clicking on "Sample Page" under the cover illustration. Her website is HERE. When she lived in Texas, I took an oil painting workshop with her.

7
Lake Ruovesi in Winter
Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1861-1931) Finnish
Oil on canvas, 47" x 40" (w x h), 1916
Sotheby's 2019 UK auction
estimate $76,000 to $100,000 USD
Sold $442,000 USD

Source Wiki and Sotheby's edited:
Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) was a Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. His work is considered a very important aspect of the Finnish national identity. He changed his name from Gallen to Gallen-Kallela in 1907. In 1894, he moved to Berlin to oversee the joint exhibition of his works with the works of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch.

By 1916, the year of this painting, his style had shifted towards Expressionism, his preferred subject being Finnish landscapes, usually, as in this example, painted from his hide-out wilderness studio in Kallela, looking down through trees towards one of the lakes that dominate the countryside there. The cold blue shadows of the trees in the foreground add interest and strength to the painting. The single, large tree dominating with its unusual composition shows the influence of Japanese prints on his art.

He had returned her after some fifteen years of absence. In 1894-95 he'd constructed this studio on a rocky promontory overlooking Lake Ruovesi. Inspired by the massive farm houses of Karelia that he had visited on his honeymoon, he incorporated into its design many of the ancient motifs that he had found. It was at Kalela that his wife gave birth to their children Kirsti (1896) and Jorma (1898). And it was there that he worked on some of his most important projects.

8
Olivenhain / Olive Grove
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Dutch
Oil on canvas, 37" x 29" (w x h), 1889
Dimensions      73 x 93 cm
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine Art,
Kansas City, Missouri

Source Wiki edited:
Vincent van Gogh painted Olive Grove at Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France in June of 1889, where he painted at least fifteen paintings of olive trees. At his own request, he lived at an asylum there from May 1889 through May 1890 painting the gardens of the asylum and, when he had permission to venture outside its walls, nearby olive trees, cypresses and wheat fields.

 Van Gogh found respite and relief in interaction with nature. His series of olive tree paintings made in 1889, despite his mental illness and emotional turmoil, are considered to be among his finest works. One painting, Olive Trees in a Mountainous Landscape, was a complement to his most famous The Starry Night.