Artists Take The Plunge: Swimming Pool As Subject

I got such a wonderful response to my post about varying artists' freeway and overpass paintings, that I thought I'd do the same with one of my other favorite subjects; the swimming pool.

Years ago, I bought one of my favorite paintings, an empty swimming pool painted by Christy Botkin Reeves of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, a nasty subletter stole the painting upon being evicted from my apt...so if you see it, let me know (seriously...).

Perhaps it's the stillness of pools when no one is in them, or the beckoning of an empty pool, that appeals to me. But either way, I'm clearly not the only one who finds beauty in them.


Above: My now stolen pool painting by Christy Botkin Reeves, 48" x 72"

When it came time to replace it, I was craving one of Glenn Ness' photo realism pool paintings, but couldn't afford an original the size I wanted.

Here are a few of his that I've coveted:

Above: Glenn Ness' Should I have Stayed?


Above: After The Lie, 12" x 18", Glenn Ness


Above: A Mysterious Childhood by Glenn Ness


Above: Fading Of June by Glenn Ness


Above: Maintenance by Glenn Ness

Upon realizing I'd never have the huge Glenn Ness original of my dreams, nor would I get my Christy Botkin Reeves' back, I actually began looking for pool paintings. This became a labor of love, not to mention enlightening.

Anyone familiar with David Hockney is aware of his fabulous pool paintings and images of pools done with paper pulp and printed as monotypes. For those who aren't, let me show you:


Above: David Hockney's "A Bigger Splash"


Above: David Hockney's "Pool With 2 Figures"


Above: Hockney's painting "Peter getting out of of Nick Wilder's Pool"

As I said, he not only painted pools, he used paper pulp to create monotypes of pools, now very collectible. The one below went for over $5,000 at Sotheby's in 2000 and would easily fetch over double that now:



Well, by now I was hung up on the photo realism thing after Glenn Ness, so this led me to find several contemporary realists who knew their way around a pool, so to speak.

There were so many talented artists who paint pools.
Empty Pools.
Still pools.
Pools at Night.

I'm going to break this article into three posts.
Today's is just paintings of POOLS, next week will be paintings of PEOPLE SWIMMING IN POOLS, so be sure to come back.
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Johannes Schramm and his photo-realistic pools:






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And one of my other absolute most coveted artists, Patricia Chidlaw:


Above: Whites Motel

Above: Still Pool

Above: Pool and Birds of Paradise

Above: Patricia Chidlaw's White Chairs
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I've always been a fan of Rick Monzon's work and was happy to see that he, too, painted a pool!


Above: Rick Monzon's Florida Pool
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Above is Cindy Stapper's Vernal Invitation
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Above: Sharilyn Neidhardt's Lazy pool
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Above: James P. Kimack's Pool
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Above: My Houses (Pool with Waterfalls) by Julia Jacquette
available here from Pace Prints.
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Below: Jane Freilicher's The Pool:

Available at the Tibor De Nagy Gallery
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For today, I will leave you with another one of Glenn Ness's works and be sure to see the upcoming post about swimming in pools, it's almost twice as long!


Above: ... finally, Glen Ness' Long Thoughts


Be sure to see the amazing pool paintings in the following posts:

Part II: Paintings of People Swimming

Part III: More People Swimming Paintings

Product Pick Of The Week: Ebon-aide Inclusive color bandages

Finally, someone has come up with what should be so obvious, bandages in all skin colors.
   


product description from their site:

New Ebon-Aide™ is the adhesive bandage specially designed for people of color. From the licorice look to mocha, coffee, cinnamon, and honey skin, new Ebon-Aide™ blends with your skin to help conceal as you heal™.

Ebon-Aide™ comes in three different sizes and five different shades. At last you've got it made in your shade.™

If you would like to purchase individual boxes of Ebon-Aide™ adhesive bandages please visit our online store where you can buy individual boxes with secured transactions.

It's about time someone came out with band-aids in various skin tones.
Now, I just have to divide mine up between my summer band-aids and my winter band-aids!!

Read more about them by clicking here.

A Shop That Sells Consumer Awareness: The FLOWmarket

A shop selling consumer awareness
FLOWmarket™ is a shop designed to inspire consumers to think, live and consume more holistic.

Present imbalances from the 3 dimensions of the FLOW model™ have been addressed and transformed into physical products in the shape of aesthetically designed (empty) packings with humorous and thought awakening labels that the visiting consumers can buy at prices ranging from 5-20 dollars.



FLOWmarket™ ”basic collection” offers 40 different scarcity goods in 3 product categories:





The product category ”Individual flow” offers e.g: ”stress killers”, ”ups and downs”, ”addiction liberators”, ”detox”, ”obesity dissolvers”, ”a lack of exercise killers” and ”symptom removers”.




The product category ”Collective flow” offers e.g: ”off liners”, ”commercial free-space”, ”presence”, ”tolerance”, ”exploitation free produce” and ”consumption moderators”.




The product category ”Environmental flow” offers e.g: ”organic food”, ”clean tap water”, ”pollution dissolvers”, ”factory farming antibiotics”, ”renewable energy ” and ”100% GMO”.

In relation to these new scarcity goods the FLOWmarket™ is addressing imbalances from each of the 3 product categories as well as elite companies that have succeeded in gaining a leading position in the rapidly emerging “holistic market” through their unique approach to sustainable innovation.

The first FLOW market™ opened in 2004 and has due to it’s commercial success been granted a permanent status at the Danish Design Center in Copenhagen, Denmark. The goal is to make FLOWmarket™ a global franchise success.

Of appraisals FLOW market™ has received a danish design award in 2004 along with a Danish broadsheet and a Swedish TV-program naming it the danish design event of 2004. In 2006 FLOW market™ won the ICFF editors award in New York.

FLOW

A brand and template that meets the rising demand for sustainable innovation
Throughout the 20th century the pursuit for technological and economic progress has given the industrialized world great new possibilities but has also resulted in a wide range of imbalances and challenges on 3 levels:

The individual - man’s relation to oneself:
(rising stress- depression- and obesity curves, addictions, eating disorders, symptom treatments etc.)

The collective - man’s relation to society:
(over-consumption, increasing fear, xenophobia, global inequality, cultural rectification, conflicts over resources etc.)

The environmental - man’s relation to nature:
(pollution, agricultural toxics, factory farming, decreasing biodiversity, non renewable energy consumption etc.)

Challenges that individually and together bear witness to an unhealthy development of our societies.

As a response a need for more sustainable growth is rising to the top of the agenda of individuals, business and nations.

Thus a new consumer market based on values is expanding rapidly, where the materialistically rich consumer increasingly judges products and sevices on their immaterial values and on level of sustainability.

Businesses, whose role is changing from being production units to becoming ”corporate citizens” know this.
They themselves point towards social responsibility and innovation as the most important competitive parameters of tomorrow, but they lack the skills to combine the to notions.

FLOW™ - a template and brand
In order to meet the rising demand for sustainable growth and innovation we will have to be able to navigate within
the term sustainablility. For this purpose we have created the FLOWmodel™, a design model that reflects our three dimensional view on creating sustainable growth:

Individual flow:
Balanced physical, mental and spiritual growth.

Collective flow:
Balanced interpersonel, cultural, economic, social and technological growth.

Environmental flow:
Balanced environmental growth.

A holistic mindset that is the essential basis of all our future commercial and non-commercial activities. Thus FLOW™ is the brand name for our products and services that in each of their own way catalyze sustainable growth.

A FLOW™ product is caracterised by providing beneficial solutions on both the individual, the collective and the environmental level.

A wide range of products created from theFLOWmodel™ are in progress, and will be serving consumer markets in the near future. The first product launch will be FLOWbottle™ in august 2007.

You can buy the products here.

all information and images courtesy of FLOW.

Seriously Cute Cable Management from Copenhagen. Meet Woofy.

Earlier this week I wrote a post about cable management and charging stations, but little did I know that one of the cutest forms of cable management was about to hit the market; Woofy for Normann Copenhagen.





Okay, actually I did know it was about to hit the market, only I forgot until I received the invite to the extremely cool launch party in Denmark (see below) for Woofy in black:



Woofy comes in white, this new black edition is a limited release only:


Woofy was designed by Gabriel Nigro (shown below with Woofy) and is made of hardened plastic.


He’s cute, smart and doesn’t bite – normann copenhagen presents your new friend…

Introducing Woofy, our new addition to the normann family. Woofy is a cable container dog with many good qualities, designed by Gabriel Nigro. Woofy is your new friend and a personalised way to conceal cables.

The story of Woofy is one of experiences, of pleasure and love of design. Woofy’s Dad is Gabriel Nigro and the idea for Woofy came about during a visit to one of Gabriel’s friends, who happened to have cables lying around all over his flat. On the way home, Gabriel began drawing, and by the time he was finished Woofy was born.

Woofy never needs to be walked, fed or trained. His fur is smooth and he doesn’t cause allergies or wet the floor. Woofy can conceal your cables in his tummy and he will always be there when you need him.



Dimensions:
Width: 20 cm
Height: 33 cm
Length: 48 cm

Price: $200 USD

Woofy will be sold in stores and online here beginning the end of August 2007.



Normann Copenhagen

Get Off The Net, It's Beautiful Out!

Click on any of the items below for more information or to purchase

With the glut of stunning outdoor furniture, gazebos, tea houses, rockers, loungers -even outdoor showers and tvs, there's hardly any reason to be indoors -unless of course, you're shopping for those items online.

Now, if only I could take my own advice.....

See more of my Get Off The Net, It's Beautiful Out! list at ThisNext.

A Beautifully Designed Site: The Astier de Villate Online Catalogue

The other day, I came across an online manufacturer's site that was beautifully done.

Aster de Villatte is a manufacturer of tabletop and home accents that is carried in high end boutiques all over the world. Although you can't order direct from their site, you can browse their interactive catalog and locate many stores that carry their products.



But that's not the point of this post. The point is how much fun you'll have looking for those stores, and at their objects, because of the unique interactive presentation of their wares.

In their online catalog, not only is each page a new mystery (click around and find info) but each is photographed beautifully and the animation is pretty darn seamless.



When clicking on certain objects, you will see how they are showcased.
Click on the plates above, for example, and you will get this:



Click again, and it becomes this:



even the search page is very cool:



And the way you choose the country to locate a store:



If I show you anymore, it'll give away the fun, so go check it out for yourself by clicking here.

Credit for this compellingly designed site belongs mainly to:
Sophie Delaporte (photographer), William Simon (webmaster) and Ivan Pericoli (art director).