A Steep Hike to Light

A Steep Hike to Light

the woods hike behind my home on April 24, 2024 painted May 10, 2024, 10" x 8" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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.
$300

Cool Water Floating

Cool Water Floating

painted on April 14, 2024, 14" x 11" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$500

I paint an abstract based in reality, of course, since every abstract painting has a basis in reality. However, I give myself, and the viewer, something real to hang the entire visual view on, something familiar to hang my view on.

Blue in the Abstract Essay

Blue in the Abstract
Visual Essay
Eight Artist's Views
4 Men, 4 Women  /  1 French 7 American

1
Waterloo Bridge
Claude Monet (1840-1926) French
Pastel on paper, 1901
Private collection

Source: Wiki and Antiques & Fine Art News, edited
Waterloo Bridge was sketched by Monet in January 1901 from room 618 on the 6th floor of London's Savoy Hotel, the drawing is one of only 26 pastels of the River Thames to survive from this period. All other versions are held in museum collections.
        Monet arrived in London in January 1901 and stayed as he always did at the Savoy. From his hotel he could look to the right onto Charing Cross Bridge and to the left at Waterloo Bridge. He intended to paint the Thames in oil on canvas, however his paints, brushes and canvases did not arrive, frustrating Monet. He found himself, unable to work. In despair he wrote to his wife Alice and complained his luggage was missing and he resorted to working at "many pastels" describing them as being "like exercises" preparing him for the task ahead. A week after his arrival in London his artist's materials arrived and he conceded that things had gone well; "It is thanks to my promptly made pastels that I saw what I had to do."
        Waterloo Bridge is a series of 41 impressionist oil paintings of the 1807-1810 Waterloo Bridge painted by Claude Monet between 1900 and 1904. While Monet began all of the paintings in London, he completed many of them in his studio in Giverny.

2
Tent Door at Night
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) American
Watercolor on paper, 25" x 19" (w x h), 1916
University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM

Source: Wiki edited
Georgia O'Keeffe could've painted Tent Door at Night in the summer of 1916 in Virginia or the fall of 1916 in Texas. She taught at Columbia College in Columbia, South Carolina in late 1915, where she completed a series of highly innovative charcoal abstractions based on her personal sensations. In early 1916, O'Keeffe was in New York at Teachers College, Columbia University. She mailed the charcoal drawings to a friend and former classmate at Teachers College, Anita Pollitzer, who took them to Alfred Stieglitz at his 291 gallery early in 1916. Stieglitz found them to be the "purest, finest, sincerest things that had entered 291 in a long while" and said that he would like to show them. In April that year, Stieglitz exhibited ten of her drawings at 291.
        In 1912 she's taken a summer art class in 1912 at the University of Virginia from Alon Bement, who was a Columbia University Teachers College faculty member. After further course work at Columbia in early 1916 and summer teaching for Bement, she became the chair of the art department at West Texas State Normal College, in Canyon, Texas, beginning in the fall of 1916. O'Keeffe, who enjoyed sunrises and sunsets, developed a fondness for intense and nocturnal colors. Building upon a practice she began in South Carolina, O'Keeffe painted to express her most private sensations and feelings. Rather than sketching out a design before painting, she freely created designs.
        O'Keeffe taught and headed the art department at West Texas State Normal College, watching over her youngest sibling, Claudia, at her mother's request. In 1917, she visited her brother, Alexis, at a military camp in Texas before he shipped out for Europe during World War I. While there, she created the painting The Flag, which expressed her anxiety and depression about the war.

3
Composition in Blue and Black
Samuel Francis (1923-1994) American
Oil on canvas, 51" x 77" (w x h), 1955
Christie's 2022 New York auction sold $13,557,500

Source: Wiki edited
Samuel Lewis Francis (1923-1994) was an American painter and printmaker, BA (1949) and MA (1950) in Art from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied botany, medicine, and psychology. Because he worked and exhibited in the United States, Europe and Asia, Sam Francis is credited with helping secure international recognition for postwar American painting. His work has been seen most often in Europe and Japan.
        His art is in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California, The Kunstmuseum Basel, the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Centre Pompidou-Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris. During his lifetime his work was featured in 113 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries. Since his death in 1994 he has been the subject of over 90 solo exhibitions.
        In 2013 Symphony in Blue, a 1958 watercolor and gouache on paper set the record for a Sam Francis work on paper, selling at Sotheby's for $1,145,000.00. Composition in Blue and Black is his highest priced sold painting at $13,557,500.

4
Untitled
Lynne Drexler (1928-1999) American
Oil on canvas, 32" x 23" (w x h) 1962
Monhegan Museum of Art & History, Monhegan Island, Maine

Source: Wiki edited
Lynne Mapp Drexler (1928-1999) was an American abstract and representational artist, painter and photographer who worked on Monhegan Island, Maine. Her tendency to create vibrant paintings using a free brush stroke was influenced by Hans Hofmann and the work of Henri Matisse. Her work has been honored posthumously with soaring prices and is now in the collections of Her works are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, Brooklyn Museum, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York, Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, Virginia, Museum of Modern Art, New York, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Portland Museum of Art, Maine, Prentice Hall Collection, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, Queens Museum, Queens, New York, Tamarind Print Collection, Los Angeles, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst

5
The Sea, Maine
John Marin (1870-1953) American
Watercolor and charcoal on paper, 20" x 17" (w x h), 1921
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Source: Wiki edited
John Marin (1870-1953) was an early American modernist artist. He is known for his abstract landscapes and watercolors. Marin spent his first summer in Maine in 1914 and almost immediately the rocky coast became one of his favorite subjects. Over the rest of his life, Marin became intimately familiar with the many moods of the sea and sky in Maine. "In painting water make the hand move the way the water moves," Marin wrote in a 1933 letter to an admirer of his technique.
        Marin had a retrospective show in 1936 at the Museum of Modern Art. Late in life Marin achieved tremendous prestige as an American painter, an elder statesman of American art. In 1950, he was honored by the University of Maine and Yale University with honorary degrees of Doctor of Fine Arts.

6
Dunes and Sea II
Milton Avery (1885-1965) American
Oil and charcoal on canvas, 72" x 52" (w x h), 1960
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Source: Whitney Museum of American Art edited
Dunes and Sea II was inspired by the coastal landscape of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where Milton Avery spent four successive summers, 1957-1960, staying at an artists' colony in Provincetown. Avery first produced a half-scale gouache-on-paper version of the image during the summer of 1960, and subsequently completed the oil painting in his New York City studio. To achieve the bold, luminous color and stark spatial juxtapositions that were the hallmarks of his late work, Avery applied his oil paint like watercolor, in multiple layers of thin, diluted wash; he then manipulated the paint within each shape on the canvas with the aid of a rag, which enabled him to create subtle modulations of tone. Dunes and Sea II was one of the increasingly large and reductive images, marked by a unity of form and color, linking Avery's representational style to the abstract canvases of the New York School and Color Field painters.

7
Genuine Blue
Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) American
Acrylic and marker on canvas, 7'11" x 7'7" (w x h), 1970
Christie's 2023 New York auction sold $3,317,000 USD

Source: Christie's edited
Genuine Blue was painted in 1970 in the the months after Helen Frankenthaler's return to the U.S. from Morocco. It was Frankenthaler's trip to Morocco that brought about critical new developments in her work. Helen Frankenthaler. In this painting she creates a narrow channel in the work that traverses through the immense cerulean and lapis blue canvas, inflecting it with touches of gold and green.
        Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter, one of the most distinctive colorists of the 20th Century. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American abstract painting, exhibiting her work for over six decades from the early 1950s until 2011, while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work. In 2001, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

8
Study of Blue and Green after J. M. W. Turner
Violet Oakley (1874-1961) American
Watercolor on paper on board, 10" x 7" (w x h)
Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 2015

Source: Wiki edited
Violet Oakley (1874-1961), a Pennsylvania artist, was the first American woman to receive a public mural commission. During the first quarter of the twentieth century, she was renowned as a pathbreaker in mural decoration, a field that had been exclusively practiced by men. Oakley excelled at murals and stained glass designs that addressed themes from history and literature in Renaissance-revival styles. Oakley painted a series of 43 murals in the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building in Harrisburg for the Governors Grand Reception Room, the Senate and the Supreme Court.
        She received many honors through her life including an honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree in 1948 from Drexel Institute. At the 1904 Saint Louis International Exposition, Oakley won the gold medal in illustration for her watercolors for The Story of Vashti, and the silver medal in mural decoration for her murals at All Angels' Church. In 1905, she became the first woman to receive the Gold Medal of Honor from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1915, Oakley was awarded the Medal of Honor in the painting category at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco for her 1912 portrait of Philadelphia poet Florence Van Leer Earle Coates as The Tragic Muse.
        The Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has an extensive collection of her art called The Violet Oakley Experience online HERE.

Dinghies Ready

Dinghies Ready

at the Cape Porpoise Pier, Bickford Island, Kennebunkport, Maine, plein air on May 3, 2024, 7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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

Plein air setup on upside down, or is it downside up, bait bucket easels at the Cape Porpoise Pier, Bickford Island, Kennebunkport, Maine

Becca and Libby Posing Thought

Becca and Libby Posing Thought

at our drawing group in Kennebunkport, Maine on May 3, 2024, 7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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, NFS

Libby, Becca, Bruce by Hara

at our drawing group in Kennebunkport, Maine on May 3, 2024, 10" x 8" (w x h), ink on paper, by artist friend Hara Harding. We did a trade, so this is now framed in the Bruce McMillan collection.

Model Session Exclamation Point Study 4

Model Session
Exclamation Point Study 4

at our drawing group in Kennebunkport, Maine on April 26, 2024, 5" x 7" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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

Model Session Color Framed Study 3

Model Session
Color Framed Study 3

at our drawing group in Kennebunkport, Maine on April 26, 2024, 7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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

Model Session Well Seated Study 2

Model Session
Well Seated Study 2

at our drawing group in Kennebunkport, Maine on April 26, 2024, 5" x 7" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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

Model Session April 26, 2024 Study 3

Model Session
April 26, 2024 Study 3

at our drawing group in Kennebunkport, Maine on April 26, 2024, 8" x 10" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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.
$300

Walk Though a Woods at Sunset Study 1

Walk Through a Woods
at Sunset Study 1

heading home on April 24, 2024, painted on April 25, 2024 7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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

The Art of Woods - Blues and/or Purples

The Art of Woods
in Blues and/or Purples

It's wonderful to find most of the major art museums in the world with their art collections online with quality images. However it glaringly exposes those museums' cultural past practice of gender discrimination. Thus this selection below is only men. Fortunately art museums have recognized this past gender bias and are correcting it.

1
Landscape
Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910) French
Watercolor on paper, circa 1908 - 1909
Private Collection

Source: Wiki edited
Henri-Edmond Cross, born Henri-Edmond-Joseph Delacroix in 1856, was a French painter and printmaker. He was a significant influence on Henri Matisse as well as other artists. Cross is known as a master of Neo-Impressionism, playing an important role in shaping the second phase of that movement and his work was instrumental in the development of Fauvism.

2
Woods near Oele (Eastern Netherlands)
Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) Dutch
Oil on canvas, 62" x 50" (w x h), 1908
Gemeentemuseum den Haag, Hague, Netherlands

Source: Wiki and Visual Arts Magazine edited
Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (1872-1944), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian, was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the great artists of the 20th century. He is known for being one of the pioneers of 20th-century abstract art. He changed his artistic direction from figurative painting to an increasingly abstract style, until he reached a point where his artistic vocabulary was reduced to simple geometric elements.

About this work Piet Mondrian said, "This painting, painted in 1908, is very important to me because it was before the painting Square Canvases that made me famous. Before Square, I was a landscape artist, and let me tell you - I loved to fool myself with the avant-garde. The forest landscape is actually a painting in the Fauvist school, like the one we see at the Festival of Random Colors, part of a forest on the Dutch outskirts of Amsterdam. But in this work, you can also see how I distanced myself from the traditional perspective and gradually approached my characteristic abstraction by using straight lines and primary colors."

3
Sunset in the Redwoods
Werner Drewes (1899-1985) Born Germany, now Poland
Color woodcut on paper
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Gift of the artist

Source: Wiki edited
Werner Drewes (1899-1985) was a painter, printmaker, and art teacher. Considered to be one of the founding fathers of American abstraction, he was one of the first artists to introduce concepts of the Bauhaus school within the United States. Drewes was as highly regarded for his printmaking as much as for his painting. He was a university professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

4
Cosmos
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) American
Oil on canvas, 30" x 30" (w x h), circa 1908 and 1909
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio

Source: Wiki edited
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), the youngest of nine children was born in Lewiston, Maine, was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist. Hartley developed his painting abilities by observing Cubist artists in Paris and Berlin. Two of Hartley's Cezanne-inspired still life paintings and six charcoal drawings were selected to be included in the landmark 1913 Armory Show in New York. He traveled widely to paint. In 1930 he spent the summer and fall painting mountains in New Hampshire. He finally returned to Maine in 1937, after declaring that he wanted to become "the painter of Maine" and depict American life at a local level. For the remainder of his life he worked in Maine locations including Georgetown, Vinalhaven, Brooksville, Corea, and Mt. Katahdin until his death from congestive heart failure in Ellsworth in 1943. His ashes were scattered on the Androscoggin River.

5
Violet Woods
Wolf Kahn (1927-2020) American/German
Oil on canvas, 36" x 28" (w x h), 1992
Freeman's Auction 2023 sold $53,550

Source: Freeman's edited
When Wolf Kahn moved to Vermont in 1968, he found inspiration in the rural landscapes of New England. Kahn would often use vivid hues and natural light to infuse warmth and vibrancy into his works. In Violet Woods, purples, blues, pinks and bright yellow dance across the sky, while energetic trees spring forth from an electric green ground. Through his use of broad and quick brushstrokes, the artist conveyed a sense of movement and energy.

6
Redding Woods, Connecticut
Portfolio Color Nature Landscapes II
Paul Caponigro (1932- ), American
Cibachrome color print photograph, 13" x 20" (w x h), 1969
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts

Source: Wiki
Paul Caponigro, from Boston, Massachusetts was awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in recognition of a sustained, significant contribution to the art of photography in 2001. His photographic work is included in the collections of the Guggenheim, Whitney, Norton Simon Museum, New Mexico Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

7
Study in Blue and Purple
George Herbert Baker (1878-1943) American
Pastel on paper, 12" x 9" (w x h)
Eldred's 2020 East Dennis, MA auction sold $190 USD
From a New Hampshire Collection of Paintings.
Private collection

Source: Invaluable edited
George Herbert Baker (1878-1943), born in Muncie Indiana, was an American Impressionist artist who worked primarily in the Richmond, Indiana area. He was a member of the Richmond Group of painters. He worked in oil, watercolor and pastels. He studied with John Elwood Bundy, at the Cincinnati Art Academy and the Boothbay Art School. In 1925 he was a visiting instructor at Miami University.

His work is represented in the collections of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Haan Mansion Museum of Indiana Art, Richmond Art Museum, Earlham College, Miami University Art Museum, Morrisson-Reeves Library, Centerville, Indiana Library. The Richmond Art Museum held a retrospective of his work in 2001, the largest exhibition of his work ever mounted.

8
Libido of the Forest
Paul Klee (1879-1940) German born Swiss
Watercolor on gesso on fabric mounted on cardboard,
10" x 7" (w x h), 1917
The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Source: Various online edited
Paul Klee's unique style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. His art studies began in 1898 in Munich. Later he was involved with the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter, founded by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. He and Kandinsky, both taught at the Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture in Germany. His works reflect his dry humor and his sometimes childlike perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality.

Vernal Pool Springs Forth

Vernal Pool Springs Forth

in the woods behind my home on Fort Ridge, Shapleigh, Maine on April 16, 2024, painted on April 22, 2024, 12" x 9" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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.
$400

Legs High Studies

Legs High Study 1

painted during our Kennebunkport, Maine drawing group on April 19, 2024, 5" x 7" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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

Legs High Study 2

painted during our Kennebunkport, Maine drawing group on April 19, 2024, 5" x 7" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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

Back Beneath

Back Beneath

painted during our Kennebunkport, Maine drawing group on April 19, 2024, 7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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

Back to Sitting

Back to Sitting

painted during our Kennebunkport, Maine drawing group on April 19, 2024, 5" x 7" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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

March Avery - Nudes and Self Portrait

March Avery
 Nudes and Self Portrait

Source many various online:
The Avery Style, seen in the works of father Milton (1885-1965), regarded as a major American bridge between Realism and Abstract Expressionism, mother Sally (1902-2003) a working illustrator then full time painter, and daughter March (1932- ), a full time painter, reduces elements to a simplicity of forms, eliminating most details, and developing flattened interlocking shapes with strong colors. March's art includes her usual signature palette of rosy pink, dusty yellow, ochre, and cobalt. While her parents only sketched, March often uses a camera when documenting subject matter, as well as sketching, for initial documentation.
        While growing up, when March Avery showed her father, Milton, a painting, his response was "Paint another one." March Avery believes her father wanted her to become an artist. She said, "I knew no one but artists, so I knew that is all I would ever be." Her mom, Sally, an illustrator, supported their family for years until Milton's art started selling. His art sold well. But Sally didn't really come into her own artistically until her father died and had a long career for her next thirty-eight years.
        March married her college boyfriend Philip Cavanaugh (circa 1932-2022) in 1952 and graduated from Barnard College in 1954 with a degree in philosophy. She supported him for many years until he earned a doctorate in English. Once he had a diploma and a steady job, she quit her city job and continued painting full time. Her gallery exhibitions began nine years later with her first solo exhibition in 1963, continuing today. March and Philip's son, Sean (1969- ), is also a painter, though not in The Avery Style.

1
Seated Nude
March Avery (1932- ) American
Oil on canvas, 15" x 20" (w x h), 1964
Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York, New York, Sold
Private collection

2
Nude with Upraised Arm
March Avery (1932- ) American
Oil on canvas board, 14" x 18" (w x h), 1973
Bonhams, New York 2023 auction, sold $21,760 USD
Private collection

3
Nude
March Avery (1932- ) American
Oil on canvas, 19" x 12" (w x h), 1963

4
Resting Nude
March Avery (1932- ) American
Oil on canvas, 42" x 18" (w x h), 1989
Kendall Art Gallery, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, sold 1990
Private collection

5
Sleeping Nude
Oil on canvas, 24" x 18" (w x h), 1967
Rago 2021 auction sold $23,750 USD
Rago Arts and Auction Center, Lambertville, New Jersey

6
White Nude
March Avery (1932- ) American
Oil on canvas, 36" x 48" (w x h), 1975
Rago 2004 auction sold $15,000 USD
Rago Auctions, Lambertville, New Jersey

7
Self Portrait (17 years old)
March Avery (1932- ) American
Oil on canvas, 16" x 20" (w x h), 1949
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
Bequest of Ivor and Augusta Green

Established as a painter, March Avery continued her routine of working winters in her New York studio with trips during the rest of the seasons outside New York City to the Catskill Mountains, Provence in southeastern France, and Paestum, an ancient Greek city in Italy. March's oil paintings, sketches and watercolors depict domestic scenes, portraits of friends and family members, landscapes visited and revisited throughout a lifetime, and more. Today, in her nineties she paints at her home studio in New York.

Avery's work is in public collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME; Long Island Museum of American Art, Stony Brook, NY; Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN; Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, Woodstock, NY; among others.

Laid Back Studies 1 and 2

Laid Back Study One

painted during our Kennebunkport, Maine drawing group on April 19, 2024, 7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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

Laid Back Study Two

painted during our Kennebunkport, Maine drawing group on April 19, 2024, 12" x 9" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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.
$400

Milton and Sally Michel Avery Paint

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Milton and Sally Michel Avery
Paint Their Art

Female Painter
Milton Avery (1885-1965) American
Oil on canvas, 40" x 32" (w x h), 1945
Christies auction estimate $1,500,000 $2,500,000 USD

Why I enjoy this painting:

Milton Avery uses orange and blue as important color elements, in a semi-abstract composition. The orange shapes float, the focus of the figure and what she's doing. The blues, two tones, can be seen as one, or two, while creating a background for the upper part of the figure to float, this focusing the eye. The red/pink are there, supporting the rest of the painting, the dark read as an anchor. And the tension of the paintbrush about to touch the canvas. You see that brush's tip as about to touch the canvas, based on the figure, and not pulling away having touched it, don't you? And you can imagine what Sally is painting. See six of Sally's figure painting's below.

Throughout their lives, Milton and his wife Sally Michel Avery shared their studio space together, painting side by side, critiquing each other's work, while developing a shared style using abstracted subjects, color fields, and harmonious unusual colors juxtapositions. Their daughter, March, is a painter, too, and in the same style, still painting at 91 years-old in 2024.

Source: Christies
Sally, Milton's painter wife, explained that he was always more focused on color and form than the underlying subject itself, recounting, "His problem was always a painter's problem, which had nothing to do with actually what he was painting. He really thought in terms of shapes and spaces and colors and things like that. And the subject was just something that he used to start a move on this other journey." (Oral history interview with Sally Michel Avery, 1967 November 3. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution)

What Sally might've been painting... go figure...

1
Reclining
Sally Michel Avery (1902-2003) American
Oil on canvas board, 20" x 16" (w x h), 1982

2
Reclining Nude
Sally Avery
Oil on canvas board, 16" x 12" (w x h), 1981

3
Nude
Sally Michel Avery (1902-2003) American
Crayon, ink, and graphite on paper,
13" x 16" (w x h), 1989

4
Pale Nude
Sally Michel Avery (1902-2003) American
Oil on canvas board, 36" x 24" (w x h), 1963

5
Nude Asleep
Sally Michel Avery (190218" x 24" (w x h), -2003) American
Oil on canvas board, 1973

6
Model Nude
Sally Michel Avery (1902-2003) American
Oil on canvas, 35" x 49" (w x h), 1978

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Vernal Spring Pool

Vernal Spring Pool

in the woods behind my home in Shapleigh, Maine on April 16, 2024, painted April 17, 2024 7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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

Back to Front Go Figure

Back to Front Go Figure

painted on April 17, 2024, 12" x 9" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, 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.
$400