Tuesday, January 3, 2012

More from the Crocker Art Museum

Untitled, Hans Hofmann

Flowers, Richard Diebenkorn

Green Lampshade, Elmer Nelson Bischoff

Besides Wayne Thiebaud, these three artists were also on my "must see" list for my trip to the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA. 

Hans Hofmann, legendary Abstract Expressionist, and teacher to Wolf Kahn, Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler (recently deceased!), and Frank Stella, among many others. Some of my current art teachers are students of students of Hofmann and it's little wonder that I wanted to see his color fields and the sense of push/pull in his original artwork



Richard Diebenkorn's lush application of paint and color sensibility always appeals to me. He takes ordinary objects and makes them extraordinary! 

Finally, Elmer Nelson Bischoff.  His work, and that of the other Bay Area Figure Movement artists, interests me very much. I have a lot to learn from that group of fine artists. Though this example of Bischoff's painting style is not figurative, I spent a lot of enjoyable time studying the way he assembled the elements of this composition and how he created that delicate but sure sense of light inside, coming from the lamp, and light outside.

I love road trips. Here are some drawings from my sketchbook as we drove south out of Oregon into northern California. The beautiful road, and all that it suggests, intrigues me. There might just be a series in this for me!


5 comments:

SamArtDog said...

Your blog is a treasure so I am passing along an award to you, The Liebster Blog Award. It originated in Germany and recognizes up and coming bloggers. It is meant to showcase those who have fewer than 200 followers. (Liebster means "favourite" or "dearest" in German.) This is done in the spirit of pay-it-forward. In accepting this award, the recipient agrees to:

• Thank the person that gave them the award and link back to their blog

• Copy and paste the award to their blog

• Reveal the 5 blogs they have chosen to award and let them know by commenting on their blog

Please grab your badge the Leibster badge at my site http://samartdog.blogspot.com/ and continue this lovely award process!
Happy New Year!
Sam

SamArtDog said...

Attention to what matters:
Your page of little sketches are so simple, so fine. Just shapes and colors. Nice.

Bishoff's "Green Lampshade" is so amazing. Glad you got to visit the Crocker. Definitely not wasted on you!

Katherine van Schoonhoven said...

Hi Sam!

Thank you for the award! It may take me a while to follow the rules, with limited internet, but I'll give it my best shot! And, thanks!

Suzanne said...

Thank you for sharing the inspiring images from the Crocker Museum. I'll be following your book suggestions at Powells. I love seeing your Travel Journal. You make others of us want to start traveling!

Casey Klahn said...

I am surprised by that little Hans Hoffman. It looks like a Fauvist piece, so I wonder if there were others there for you to comment on?

Did you see a video I posted of his school? if not, I'll send it to you.

Safe trip!