Above: 25 of stephen's individual letter paintings
I was happy to see that one of my favorite painters, Michigan artist Stephen Magsig, has compiled two book of his daily paintings; Postcards from Detroit and The Urban Alphabet.
Above: Stephen Magsig, Palace Detail, 2006, oil on canvas, 60" x 42"
Stephen, known for his photo-realism work of exteriors in oils, joined Daily Painters a little over a year ago and has had two beautiful series of works he's been creating simultaneously on a daily basis in small format works. One is "Postcards from Detroit", a collection of images, some urban, some suburban, and some rural, many seemingly abandoned and dilapidated -- all beautiful, if not a little eerie and lonely.
He sells these small paintings through Daily Painters and ebay and if you're not fast enough, or don't bid high enough, you won't get one of his 5" x 7", 7" x 5" or sometimes 5" x 5" renderings in oil on thick board. But if you do (and I'm lucky enough to have acquired three of them), you won't be disappointed.
His second series, is that of individual letters (some of which are shown at the beginning of this post), found on various signage - be it neon, painted or plastic- that he has painted in faithful reproductions with his beautiful painterly style (looser than his larger works). As a fan of these Letters from his Urban Alphabet series, I actually have purchased three of them; the A, The O and the K.
Now, much to my delight, Stephen has translated his daily painters work into book form, both the Postcards from Detroit series as well as his Urban Alphabet collection. Available on Blurb, you can choose from soft cover, hardcover with dust jacket or image wrap. A wonderful option for those of us who cannot afford his stunning large canvases available at either of the galleries that represent him.
Postcards from Detroit, Volume #1
Contains 80 pages of paintings posted from Aug 2007 -Dec 2007
Buy it here.
In the artist's own words:
Postcards from Detroit is a daily diary in small paintings by American artist Stephen Magsig. The inspiration came from Duane Keiser's innovative A Painting a Day blog, and Julian Merrow-Smith's Postcard from Provence. I am not new to daily painting. I started doing daily artwork, drawings, sketches, collage, polaroid images and paintings in 1987, and continue to work daily. Most of the work on this site will be Detroit based paintings. A visual diary of Detroit in paintings. I started to do paintings of Detroit more than 20 years ago, and continue to find inspiration in the place I call home. I will frequently post images of larger paintings that are available at the David Klein Gallery and the George Billis Gallery. Please contact them if you are interested in the larger paintings.
The Urban Alphabet, paintings by Stephen Magsig
Buy it here.
Below are a few examples of Stephen's large format oils, from the David Klein Gallery and the George Billis Gallery in New York, which I wish I could afford, but cannot:
About the artist:
Born in 1946, Steve studied at Ferris State College and the College for Creative Studies. As a painter he is really self taught, and has been painting for over 30 years. He's had more than 20 solo shows and numerous group shows. He currently shows with the George Billis Gallery in NY and LA and with with the David Klein Gallery in Birmingham, MI. His work is in over twenty corporate and museum collections and in hundreds of private collections. He lives and works with his artist wife, Janet Hamrick and their two studio cats, Artie and Bella, in Ferndale, Michigan. They also sublet a painting loft in New York City.
See his Daily Painters gallery here.
David Klein Gallery in Birmingham, MI
George Billis Gallery in NY
Magsig's Postcards From Detroit blog
Stephen Magsig on artnet