If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives): chair paintings

Showing posts with label chair paintings. Show all posts

Capturing Summer In Paintings Of Lawn Chairs. Contemporary Realism and Impressionism by Cindy Rizza.

above: Cindy Rizza, 1972-2, Blue Stripe, Nonni, Peter, Pink Stripe, Uncle Bert, Harriet, Life Gives you Lemons, Yellow Chair, 1972, Flamingo, Pink Zig-Zig, Green Zig Zag, Rosa, Happy hour, *all sold

It's been awhile since I posted a new artist's paintings of chairs, one of my personal favorite subjects. That said, these empty lawn chairs by Cindy Rizza are the perfect way to bring some warmth to the blog during this cold winter. Beckoning to be sat upon, her oil paintings of outdoor folding and yard chairs echo the longing for summer afternoons.

above: Susan Bennerstrom, Fort Mason, 32" x 36", oil painting

Artist Susan Bennerstrom began working in pastels and then moved to oil paints in 2008, but her exploration with the depiction of light has continued despite the change in mediums as you will see in this collection of her works.

above: Susan Bennerstrom, Expect to Wait, 35" x 42" 2001, oil pastels

above: Susan Bennerstrom, Still Waiting, 2010, 20" x 24", oil paint on panel

With strong plays of light, shadow and reflections, her works seem to imply either anticipation or expectation - and in some cases, absence. Despite the presence of the human figure in her work, the narrative suggests that one is either coming or has been there.

While she continues to paint interiors and objects, recently she added paintings of buildings within landscapes, to her repertoire. Focusing on the structures rather than the environment, she imbues them with the haunting light of dusk or dawn.

above: Susan Bennerstrom, Georgetown, 32" x 36", oil painting

above: Susan Bennerstrom, Stove, 32" x 36", oil painting

Lonely hallways, inviting stairwells, unmade beds, doors ajar, empty chairs and open windows offer a hint of the human presence in many of her works. Below are just a few of my favorites.

Susan Bennerstrom:

In the artist's own words:
"Since the early 1980’s my main theme has been the exploration and depiction of light. I began with landscape as a foil. Gradually, buildings started to enter the compositions, at first far away and tiny, then closer and larger, until the buildings became the main focus and the landscape shrank. Finally, I concentrated on details of the buildings and the objects within them. Always, however, the structures and objects are stage sets for light with its transformative power and ability to affect emotions. I rarely put figures in my paintings, as I find that they tend to take over; I prefer to let light and shadow imply the narrative and carry the emotional weight. In addition to the dearth of human figures, I also choose to paint quite ordinary scenes, and for the same reason: by focusing on the easily ignorable architectural detail, washbasin, household appliance, piece of furniture, or houseplant, I like to explore how a fall of light can turn a humble item into something poignant and worthy of lasting attention.

I don’t think of myself as a realist painter in the currently accepted sense. I work from photographs, which are themselves abstractions – one step removed from reality. I travel further into abstraction by removing details, shifting things around, changing perspective, exaggerating the quality, color, and direction of light, investing the shadows with greater emotional intensity. The paintings wander far afield of straightforward observations of reality, and instead become my own emotional response to the places and objects depicted.

I have worked for many years in pastels, both chalk and oil. At the beginning of 2008 I laid pastels aside and began working in oil paint. Haven’t looked back. While I continue to love the look and feel of pastels, they presented problems: with chalks it was the dust, with oil pastels it was finding a durable and easy-to-use varnish. Now I’m at home with oil paint, and finally understand why it is the granddaddy of all art mediums."

Susan is presently showing at the Sue Greenwood Fine Art Gallery.
You can see Susan's available works at the Davidson Galleries

Kimberly Applegate: Calling Her A 'Painter' Doesn't Do Her Justice.

Above: two of Kimberly's more recent works

Artist Kimberly Applegate has finally found her niche. A painter I discovered on DailyPainters.com, she has cultivated a style and subject that are selling like hotcakes... or like knoll furniture in a clearance sale.

Admittedly I wasn't a huge fan of her daily painting work initially. I didn't include her in my post about chair painters because I felt her work was a little naive, and inconsistent. But over the past few months, she has begun pairing modern chairs with contemporary artwork and has found an audience that can't get enough of it. In doing so, her work is more consistent and mature, her compositions have improved and her technical skill is clearly better than one year ago.

Above: Daily painting "Saarinen's Tulip Chair with Hockney's Tulips"

While some are obviously superior paintings to others, they are all so likable and inviting that the bidding wars over each 6" square painting on ebay are increasing weekly.

Incredibly prolific (she churns one out every day) she has yet to repeat herself and the paintings just seem to be getting better and better.

Capitalizing on two trends of the moment, modern art and modern furniture, she pairs chairs from the likes of every respected designer from Saarinen to Wegner, Bertoia to Eames- even Philippe Starck, with artwork that compliments the chair by the likes of Rothko, Hockney, Indiana, Franz Kline, Warhol and so many others.

Above: Daily painting "The Butterfly effect"

Some are clever pairings, like the Butterfly chair with Donald Sultan's Butterfly silkscreen, and others have design elements that echo one another like that of the Matisse painting of Dancing Muses with their arms linked creating a circle and the Cherner Chair whose arms arc in a similar fashion.

Above: Daily painting "May I Have This Dance? (matisse and cherner chair)"

For you non gallery goers and newbie art buyers, the red dots mean they are already sold. If you want one you have to be quick and willing to pay at least $300.00+ . Believe me, I know, I wanted the Barbara Barry Chair painting (below) and lost out on ebay.

Above: Daily painting "Infinity (Barbara Barry Chair and Richard Serra etchings)"

Take a look at more of these great little daily paintings:

And that's only one small facet of this woman's creativity. Her own bio on her bird painting blog (yep, she paints birds too) is very cute:

I earned my BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 1999 and participated in the New York Studio Program through Parsons. I've schlepped a backpacker's easel across Europe trying to connect to my "painter ancestors"--they weren't kidding about the light in south of France. And if I ever win an Oscar for painting I will thank Vermeer, Kahlo, Hopper, Richter and Barney, to name just a few.

She's incredibly multi-talented, with numerous websites of her own. A painting website (on which you can really see a difference between her recent work and not so recent work), and an ebay store, 2 blogs and two online stores.

Live A Plush Life, whose site design is both inviting and inspiring and features notecards of hers as well as other pretty handmade items and a print shop of her chair paintings.