Merry Christmas 2013 !

Shown: Snow on the Foothills, oil on canvas 20 x 60

Art in Film: A little film companion to the recent film Gravity

I couldn't resist passing on this out of the box idea, a treat for those that have seen the movie "Gravity."  Click to play 

Jonas Cuaron's seven-minute companion short, filmed in Greenland and featuring Bullock's voice, could make Oscar history.

This story first appeared in the Nov. 29 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

The idea for Aningaaq, which follows an Inuit fisherman stationed on a remote fjord in Greenland, occurred to the Cuarons as they were working out the beats for the Gravity screenplay "It's this moment where the audience and the character get this hope that Ryan is finally going to be OK," Jonas, 31, tells THR. "Then you realize that everything gets lost in translation.”

Both Cuarons spent time in the glacial region (Alfonso once toyed with setting a movie there) and fell in love with the barren vastness of its frozen wilderness. During one of those visits, Alfonso met a drunken native who would become the basis for the title character, played by Greenland's Orto Ignatiussen. But it wasn't until Jonas, on a two-week trek gathering elements for his film, was inspired by the local inhabitants' profound attachment to their sled dogs that he decided to incorporate that element into the plot.

The short was filmed "guerrilla style" on location on a budget of about $100,000 -- most of which went toward the 10-person crew's travel costs -- and Cuaron completed it in time to meld the dialogue into Gravity's final sound mix. The result is a seamless conversation between Aningaaq and Ryan, stranded 200 miles above him, the twin stories of isolated human survival providing thematic cohesion. Still, Jonas says he was careful "to make it a piece that could stand on its own." Should both get Oscar noms, an interesting dynamic would emerge: Two films potentially could win for representing different sides of one conversation, to say nothing of having come from father and son.

At Auction: Norman Rockwell Painting Sells for $46 Million

.Norman Rockwell's "Saying Grace" appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on Nov. 24, 1951

From the NY Times:

Rockwell Painting Sells for $46 Million

By CAROL VOGELPublished: December 4, 2013

Three of Norman Rockwell’s best-known paintings of homey, small-town America, which are among the most popular of the artist’s Saturday Evening Post covers, sold at Sotheby’s American Art auctionon Wednesday morning for a total of more than $57 million.

The final price for “Saying Grace,” considered Rockwell’s masterpiece, was $46 million, after nine and a half minutes of spirited bidding. The painting, which depicts a crowded restaurant with a boy and an old woman bowing their heads in prayer, sold for more than double its high estimate, and far more than the $15.4 million price another Rockwell brought in 2006. The image had topped a Saturday Evening Post readers’ poll in 1955, four years after it was painted. (The artist was paid $3,500 for the painting — about $30,500 when adjusted for inflation.)

Another favorite, “The Gossips,” a finger-wagging montage that included Rockwell’s friends, neighbors and even the artist himself, painted in 1948, sold for $8.45 million. (When the Saturday Evening Post cover ran on March 6, 1948, the magazine was flooded with inquiries from readers wanting to know what the heads were gossiping about.)

The third major painting in the sale, “Walking to Church,”brought $3.2 million and was purchased by Rick Lapham, an American paintings dealer, on behalf of a client. Mr. Lapham was one of only two bidders for the painting. It appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1953, and was based on the Vermeer painting “The Little Street.” Rockwell translated the scene to his own urban street setting, depicting family members in their Easter best, each clutching Bibles, from a composite of different buildings in Troy, N.Y., and a church steeple in Vermont.

Asked why there was not more competition for the painting, Mr. Lapham replied, “It’s stylistically different,” referring to Rockwell’s translation of an old master painting.

The paintings had belonged to the magazine’s longtime art director, Kenneth J. Stuart, who received them as presents from the artist. They were being sold by his three sons.

Fun: Thanksgiving encouragement

I put a little something together to celebrate the day and to encourage gratefulness on this special day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ken

Kid's Art Made into Masterpieces

Launching this week:

Here's something really fun. It starts with a child's art and through this service, an artist embellishes the child's artwork. It is transformed into a larger, painterly work, as they say, worthy of the Louvre or your living room. It's a great idea. I hope the kids and the artists involved do great things!

View the website:

Monet Filmed While Painting Water Lilies in Giverny

Click to view this film made in 1914 showing Monet being interviewed and painting at his home in Giverny.

Watch carefully and you can see how he takes in the subject, his brushes, palette and paint application. Surely this is not Monet working at full power with his immaculate white coat, but there is plenty to see here.

How did he ever keep from setting his beard on fire? The dangling ciggie ash creates a dramatic tension... it's an art film!

Enjoy this history. We are lucky to have this film of a master at work.

Grateful Notices: November 13, 2013

Heat in the back of the Forest, oil on canvas 48 x 60 inches
Private collection, Cincinnati, OH
Exhibited: Steamboat Springs Center for Visual Arts, CO

My grateful thanks to the buyers and the gallery involved. It is an honor to be exhibited and brought into someone's home.

This is a canvas that went through a lot of changes before reaching this final version. Last year it was a finished oil with a stand of all yellow trees with rounded tops. After viewing it for a few months, I decided the look was too uniform and less interesting.

At the end of my studio time one day, I put it up on the easel and used the left over paint from the day, completely eliminating the all yellow trees. Once they were obliterated, I added more paint and took it as far as I could comprehend. It took under an hour to completely change the look of the work and I called it a day.

For weeks after, I couldn't figure out how to finish it. A number of people came through the studio and it was always their favorite. I learned to go from 'Really?" to "Thank you." About 2 months passed with the oil in plain view every day.

While I was working on another oil, the solutions to this painting came to me. With a few changes and tweaks over the next 4-5 short painting sessions, the oil was complete. The process spanned two years, but at last I was happy with it.

The studio is very different without this big oil... I'll have to make more canvases with new problems and challenges.