Category Archives: Paintings

Without paintings we are nothing

Tom Haugomat

Art Illustration, Motorcycles, Paintings, Photographs

No clutter.

For an index of articles on art illustrators, click here.

While there is a myriad of filters available for most post-processing photo applications, the one which is missing is ‘de-clutter’. You know, something that takes out all the noise in most photographed images and renders a clean whole. It’s something that Henri Cartier-Bresson was so adept at accomplishing ‘in camera’. Few photographers since have learned that skill.

The advantage a graphics illustrator has over the photographer is that he can de-clutter to his heart’s content, image composition and content aggregation being one and the same. Such a one is Parisian illustrator Tom Haugomat, and while the image below has a special place in my soul, for I am a long time motorcycle rider, it’s just one of many that Haugomat has produced.




Wrenching on the machine.

You can see more of Haugomat’s work here.

Luminous Hockneys

Paintings

Britain’s finest contemporary artist.

One of the most memorable exhibitions I attended in recent years with my son was the Hockney show in San Francisco’s DeYoung Museum. The show highlighted the artist’s iPad and iPhone works, and they were a delight to see.



Hockney’s latest.

Now, by way of relief to the horrors the world is experiencing right now, this modern master had released a new series of spring paintings from his home in Normandy. Enjoy.

Reginald Marsh

Paintings

A ‘slice of life’ street painter.

The American painter Reginald Marsh (1898-1954) was born in Paris but grew up in New Jersey. Back when Americans could still afford the best American education he graduated from Lawrenceville prep school, and went on to Yale where he drew cartoons for the school’s student paper.

His genre of choice was that of street scenes, more often than not portraying the lower classes in locations like Coney Island. New York was very much his canvas.


Battery Park, 1926.


H. Dummeyer Bar and Grill, probably 1940s.


Coney_Island, 1930


Pavonia, Jersey City, 1928.


Coney Island. Pursuit, 1936.


The Normandie, 1953.

The cartoon ethic is always there to be seen. It’s no surprise that Marsh was a major inspiration for the best gangster movie made, Sergio Leone’s ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ set, naturally, in New York City.

Here’s what I’m talking about:


An electric crowd scene in the Jewish quarter, Prohibition-era NYC, from Sergio Leone’s movie.

Notre Dame in paintings

Paintings

Some standouts.

Not surprisingly, the Basilica of Notre Dame has featured in many paintings, most of them simply execrable.

The three which follow are by special, all by famous painters who were famous for a reason. They could paint.


David’s infamous portrait of Napoleon being crowned emperor, 1805.


Maximillien Luce made a pointilliste rendering in 1900.


Maurice Utrillo, famed painter of Montmartre, had a go in 1909.