The Dirt Road Taken

The Dirt Road Taken

painted after a woods walk behind my home, June 15, 2025, 12" x 9" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$400

No King, verso recto

No King, verso

No King, recto

 

Art, 23.5" x 39.5" (w x h), verso, recto, colored duct tape on 1" foam core board, waterproof, lightweight, June 13, 2024, gallery display, hand held, Main Street, Kennebunk, Maine, 12:00-1:00 pm, June 14, 2025.

Storm High Wave Sea

Storm High Wave Sea

painted May 12, 2025, 14" x 11" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Prismacolor waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$750

Sea Edge Scene

Sea Edge Scene

 

painted May 11, 2025, 10" x 8" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Prismacolor waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed
$300

Sea Edge Seen

Sea Edge Seen

painted May 11, 2025, 5" x 7" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$200

May Model David Studies

May Model David Study 1
At our drawing group May 9, 2025,
12" x 9" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke

Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected
for light fastness and permanence, and graphite on
140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough
100% cotton extra white watercolor paper,
framed, $400

May Model David Study 2
At our drawing group May 9, 2025,
8" x 10" (w x h), watercolors and ink
on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough
100% cotton extra white watercolor paper,
framed, $300

May Model David Study 3
At our drawing group May 9, 2025,
5 x 7" (w x h), watercolors and ink
on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough
100% cotton extra white watercolor paper,
framed, $150

May Model David Study 4
At our drawing group May 9, 2025,
5 x 7" (w x h), watercolors and ink
on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough
100% cotton extra white watercolor paper,
framed, $150

The Art of Kay WalkingStick Color and Form

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The Art of Kay WalkingStick
Nude Color and Form 1971-1973
Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
and the artist's collection

1
Two Women II
Kay WalkingStick (1935- ), American / Cherokee
Acrylic on canvas, 44" x 42" (w x h), 1973
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

This painting's eye-popping hues and lack of volumetric detail create playful confusion between the figures and the background. She describes this painting as a joyful expression of female self-determination and sensuality. Produced amid the women's movement and the sexual revolution of the 1970s, it offers a response to the long history of male artists depicting the female nude.

"One's entire personhood is represented in art and I am who I am -- a biracial woman. I'm a Cherokee, I was raised in a White culture, and both are in everything I do, whether it's landscape or figures or abstraction. It is always there because I'm there." - Kay WalkingStick, 2023

Wiki, edited
Kay WalkingStick (1935- ) is a Native American landscape artist and a member of the Cherokee Nation. Her art is in the collections of many universities and museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Israel Museum, the National Museum of Canada, and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

2
April Contemplating May
Kay WalkingStick (1935- ), American / Cherokee
Acrylic on canvas, 50" x 50" (w x h), 1972
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Source: Wiki edited
Kay WalkingStick liked to color and draw from as a child. She holds a BFA from Beaver College (1959), now Arcadia University, Cheltenham Township, PA. She received a Danforth Foundation Graduate Fellowship for Women and got her MFA Pratt Institute (1971), New York, NY. She is an author and was a professor in the art department at Cornell University, where she taught painting and drawing. Kay WalkingStick is a painter who addresses interrelated themes of Native history, feminism, spirituality, cultural memory, embodiment, and land.

3
Fantasy for a January Day
Kay WalkingStick (1935- ), American / Cherokee
Acrylic on canvas, 56" x 50" (w x h), 1971
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD

Source: Wiki Edited
Kay WalkingStick has been accepted into many artist residency programs which gave her time away from teaching duties to paint. WalkingStick has won many awards and in 1995 was included in H.W. Janson's History of Art, a standard textbook used by university art departments. Ms. WalkingStick is an Honorary Vice President of the National Association of Women Artists, Inc.

4
Me and My Neon Box
Kay WalkingStick (1935- ), American / Cherokee
Acrylic on canvas, 60" x 54" (w x h), 1971
Collection of Kay WalkingStick

Smithsonian Museum Exhibition Label
WalkingStick brings to mind casual sexuality in this grouping of nude bodies and the suggestive title. In fact, three self-portraits populate this painting. She painted both the figures and the spaces between them with vibrant color so that the background shapes become an active part of the composition.

Heritage Source: Wiki Edited and Gabriella Shypula, American Women's History Initiative Writer and Editor:
Kay WalkingStick was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1935, the daughter of Simon Ralph WalkingStick and Emma McKaig WalkingStick. Kay's mother, Emma, was of Scottish-Irish heritage. Kay's father, Ralph, was a member of the Cherokee Nation, writing and speaking the Cherokee language. Ralph, born in the Cherokee Nation capital of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, attended Dartmouth College.

Kay's parents had four other children. They raised their young family while Ralph WalkingStick worked in the Oklahoma oil fields as a geologist. He became an alcoholic. While pregnant with Kay, her mother left Oklahoma with their children and moved to Syracuse, New York. Kay WalkingStick grew up in Syracuse without having experienced the cultural heritage of her Cherokee ancestors. Her siblings, who'd spent some of their childhood in Oklahoma, had a better understanding of their father's Cherokee traditions. Her mother told her "Indian stories" and talked about her handsome father. The family was proud to be Native American.

"One's entire personhood is represented in art and I am who I am -- a biracial woman. I'm a Cherokee, I was raised in a White culture, and both are in everything I do, whether it's landscape or figures or abstraction. It is always there because I'm there." - Kay WalkingStick, 2023

Libby in May Studies

Libby in May Study 1

painted May 23, 2025, 5" x 7" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed. 
$150

Libby in May Study 2
painted May 23, 2025, 5" x 7" (w x h), $150

Libby in May Study 3
painted May 23, 2025, 7" x 5" (w x h), $150

Libby in May Study 4
painted May 23, 2025, 5" x 7" (w x h), $150

Abstract Nudes Visual Essay

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Abstract Nudes Visual Essay
Go Figure
Abstract Nudes Based in Reality

1
Orange Gesture 7
Heidi Lanino (1990- ) American
Oil, charcoal, oil stick, on paper, 23 x 31" (w x h), 2022

Source: Various
Heidi Lanino Bilezikian (1990- ), born in New York, was raised on the south shore of Long Island. She received a full-tuition merit scholarship to Pratt Institute where she earned her BFA in Fine Arts. She works in charcoal, oil and acrylic on paper, canvas, and also clay. Her studio is in Tuxedo Park, NY. Lanino's work has been exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions including Flatiron Prow Art Space, New York, NY; A.I.R Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, NJ; Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, NY; Chris Davidson Gallery Newburgh, NY; Gibbs Museum, Charleston, SC; Mindy Ross Gallery, SUNY Orange, Newburgh, NY; Albert Wisner Library Sculpture Park, Warwick, NY, and The Other Art Fair, Brooklyn, NY. Her website is HERE. Her Instagram site is HERE.

2
Nude
Hannah Alpha, Canadian
Acrylic and graphite on mylar, 9" x 11" (w x h)
$160, sold

Source: Various
Hannah Alpha, born in Egypt, is a Canadian artist based in Montreal. She's a McGill alumnus. She uses a minimalist painting style. She's taught drawing and painting at the Saidye Bronfman Center for the Arts in Montreal for fifteen years. Hannah is an active member of the Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Quebec (RAAV) and of Atelier Circulaire. Hannah is represented by Art Interiors gallery in Toronto, Canada and Atelier Circulaire in Montreal. Her work is in private and public collections including the Canada Council Art Bank (Ottawa), the Canadian Museum of Civilization (Hull), the Artotheque of the Gabrielle-Roy library (Quebec City), Loto-Quebec (Montreal), Sony Music (Toronto), the Royal Bank (Montreal), Chateau Champlain (Montreal), Sanofi Aventis (Laval), Collart Collection (Montreal) and the Hyatt Regency Hotel (Jeddah & Riyadh). Hannah Alpha's website is HERE.

3
Derriere Le Miroir Figure Study
Henri Matisse (1869-1954), French
Lithograph, 11" x 15" (w x h), 1952
$1,500 USD, American Fine Art Inc., Scottsdale, AZ

Source: Wiki edited
When ill health in his final years prevented him from painting, Matisse created an important body of work in the medium of cut paper collage. Although he was known for his color, this lithograph was issued in Paris by Maeght Editeur in 1952, when he was 82-years-old, two years before Matisse's death in 1954.

4
Untitled - Seated Female with Broad Shoulders
Morris Kantor (1896-1974), Russian-born American
Charcoal on paper, 19" x 25" (w x h), circa 1916-1918
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC
Gift of Mrs. Morris Kantor

Source: Wiki edited
Although Morris Kantor (1896-1974) is best known for his realistic paintings, over the course of his life he also spent time working in Cubism and Futurism, and produced a number of abstract works. Kantor was an instructor at the Cooper Union and also at the Art Students League of New York in the 1940s. He taught many pupils who later became famous artists in their own right, such as Knox Martin, Robert Rauschenberg, Sigmund Abeles and Susan Weil. He married fellow artist Martha Ryther (1896-1981). In addition to his downtown Manhattan studio adjacent to Union Square, he also maintained a studio on Cape Cod in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Like many American artists, in the 1920s he also spent time working in Paris. In the 1940s some of his summers were spent in Monhegan, Maine. His work is on display in many museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Hirshhorn Museum.

5
Pink Nude
Milton Avery (1885-1965), American
Oil on canvas board, 20" x 24" (w x h), 1963
Christie's New York 2010 auction sold $80,500 USD

Source: Wiki edited
Avery's work is seminal to American abstract painting, while his work is clearly representational, it focuses on color relations and is not concerned with creating the illusion of depth as most conventional Western painting since the Renaissance has. Avery was often thought of as an American Matisse, especially because of his colorful and innovative landscape paintings. His poetic, bold and creative use of drawing and color set him apart from more conventional painting of his era. Early in his career, his work was considered too radical for being too abstract.