August is an exciting month at Santa Fe’s Meyer Gallery, as this accomplished painter showcases his latest memories of Taos, New Mexico, in paint.
 
Opening August 19 and running through August 25, Francis Livingston will present his latest works at Meyer Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Featuring 13 oils, the show has a distinct historical flavor meant to evoke bygone eras and memories of Taos — one of the most beautiful areas in North America, and one with a rich artistic tradition.
 
Among the highlights of the exhibition is Livingston’s magnetic “Field of Bloom,” which calls attention to his mastery of color, expressive brushwork, and impressionistic influences. Four Native American figures — all draped and covered — walk through the landscape. Their clothing gives the figures a statuesque character, which contrasts sharply with the organic foliage and landscape that surrounds them. The subjects’ heads are slightly lowered, endowing the piece with a somber tone. However, the overwhelming use of bright colors enlivens the work.
 
To learn more, visit Meyer Gallery.
 
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In this ongoing series for Fine Art Today, we take a longer look at the history and features of a soon-to-be-available artwork of note. This week: Sir Anthony Van Dyck, “Mary Magdalena.”
 
Arguably the most important Flemish painter of the 17th century after Peter Paul Rubens, Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) was an extremely successful painter of portraits, as well as mythological and religious subjects. Court painter to Charles I, Van Dyck was also an accomplished draftsman and creator of etchings, of which several examples have survived.
 
Scholars have suggested that Van Dyck’s flattering representations of Charles I and his family set a new standard in English royal portraiture for centuries to come. Although much of his life was spent in England, Van Dyck made travels throughout Europe, including Italy, where the works of Titian are said to have made a major impression on the artist and the paintings that would follow after 1621.
 
Available via Akiba Antiques on August 16 in Dania Beach, Florida, “Mary Magdalena” is a rare opportunity to acquire an original from Van Dyck. In good condition, the piece has been verified by numerous scholars as by the master’s hand. The relatively small panel presents the viewer with a penitent subject, nude and hefty — undoubtedly a preference taken from Van Dyck’s mentor Peter Paul Rubens. Tears streaming from her face, Mary gazes toward the heavens. Her long red hair shows a soft glow from behind — perhaps hinting at her divine favor. The spatial context of the scene is rather vague, but hidden branches of foliage, a few trees, and a shoreline complete the piece.
 
Auction estimates are between $100,000 and $200,000. To view the full catalogue, visit Akiba Antiques.
 
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It’s never quite clear to artists when and where inspiration may strike. Such was the case with American Impressionist Childe Hassam, who fell in love with a particular place that would occupy his imagination for nearly 30 years.
 
For the first time in nearly 25 years, a series of lovely oils of Maine’s Isles of Shoals by renowned American Impressionist Childe Hassam is the subject of a fascinating collaborative exhibition, at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.
 
“American Impressionist: Childe Hassam and the Isles of Shoals” will present more than 40 oil paintings and watercolors that highlight the artist’s ongoing love for and fascination with a group of small, rocky islands lying in the Gulf of Maine six miles off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. From the late 1880s to about 1912, artist Childe Hassam was fascinated with this particular location and concentrated his creative energy on capturing the gorgeous colors, rhythms, and vistas so common on the isles. Via the museum webpage: “‘American Impressionist: Childe Hassam and the Isles of Shoals’ is the result of an unprecedented collaboration of research between geologists, marine scientists and curators that led to new discoveries about Hassam’s paintings and artistic practice.
 
“When Childe Hassam stepped off the ferry onto the rocks of Appledore Island, he found the place that would occupy his imagination for three decades. Comfortably ensconced in a rambling resort, waking to bright sun and Atlantic breezes, the artist gave himself over to painting en plein air. Hassam created a body of work that remains a pinnacle of American impressionism. This is the first exhibition in more than 25 years to focus on Hassam’s paintings of the Isles of Shoals.”
 
“American Impressionist: Childe Hassam and the Isles of Shoals” opened on July 16 and will be on view through November 6. To learn more, visit the Peabody Essex Museum.
 
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For the last 10 years, Manitou Auctions has proudly presented one of the nation’s best opportunities to collect great American Western art. Collectors should take note as this year’s auction is just weeks away.
 
Auction in Santa Fe is simply another outstanding opportunity for art collectors to get their hands on their next stellar acquisition. Beginning Sunday, August 7, and running through Tuesday, August 9, Auction in Santa Fe presents some 700 artworks over a two-day session. Among the notable artists included are Gerald Harvey, Emerson Glass, Leon Gaspard, William R. Leigh, Len Chmiel, Odon Hullenkremer, and many more.
 
An auction preview will kick off the 2016 events on August 7 at the Historic Hilton Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The first auction session begins at 1 p.m. on Monday, August 8, with the second session beginning at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, August 9. Absentee and telephone bidding are accepted.
 
To learn more and/or register for this fantastic opportunity, visit Auction in Santa Fe.
 
This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.
 

Indiana is a beautiful state, home to 28 parks filled with stunning vistas, wildlife, and more. This skillful painter has captured many of them during this gorgeous solo exhibition. When and where?
 
Opened today and running through August 13, “The Nature of Art: Painted Parks” is a stunning solo exhibition of works from Indiana native Rick Wilson. Hosted by the lovely Castle Gallery in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 70 paintings will be featured in the show, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Indiana Parks system and is in celebration of the state’s Bicentennial.
 
The body of work captures — in some form or another — each of the state’s 28 state parks, which feature a diverse range of subjects, from wildlife, waterscapes, landscape, woodland, winterscapes, and so much more. To learn more, visit Catle Gallery.
 
This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.
 

Husband-wife tandems in the art world are always a fascinating — and often successful — story. Two partners will soon mount a joint exhibition in Texas that will juxtapose themes and the body.
 
Julia C. Butridge Gallery in Austin, Texas, is excited to be presenting husband-wife artistic team Dana Younger and Felice House in “Sum You Some Me.” Opening on August 13 and on view through September 10, “Sum You Some Me” will showcase 20-plus artworks including paintings, sculptures, and drawings that “focus on juxtaposed themes and the human body,” the gallery writes. “The art addresses some of society’s most fundamental contrasts: masculine versus feminine, natural versus cultural and the part versus the whole.
 
“With her paintings, Felice House, assistant professor in the Visualization Department at Texas A&M University, hopes to provide a counter-narrative to common passive female representations that are pervasive in art history as well as contemporary figurative painting. ‘For this exhibition, I chose to focus my work on the head and shoulders of the woman,’ said House. ‘I put women’s power center in the portrait rather than using the art to portray her sexuality.’
 
“While House focuses on the female head and shoulders, Younger’s sculptures deconstruct the male body by displaying only fragments of it, and at times, in vulnerable positions. His work culminates in a reflective examination of self, the only portrait he includes in this exhibition. Different mediums contrast and appear more striking due to their range in scale from small to monumental size. Working in harmony, the art all reflects a common theme and a desire to have viewers look at themselves and the world around them in a different way.
 
“‘The resulting tension between superficial beauty and philosophical provocation creates an expansive and fertile interpretive space within which the viewer can project and reflect on his or her own senses of self, nature and wholeness,’ said Stephen Caffey, art historian and critic. House and Younger have held exhibitions all across the country, but this will be their first joint exhibition in their hometown of Austin, Texas.”
 
To learn more, visit Julia C. Butridge Gallery.
 
This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.
 

If you were in a museum staring at a masterpiece that had actually been replaced with a fake, would you be able to tell? A new treasure hunt and television show in the UK is asking just that.
 
It’s being called “Fake! The Great Masterpiece Challenge,” and it’s unlike anything you’ve seen before. In coordination with five national galleries in the United Kingdom — Cardiff, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, and Manchester — seven masterpiece paintings (all by British painters) have been secretly removed from their galleries and replaced with fakes. Only the museum curators, production team, and hosts will know which paintings have been switched.
 
The show challenges the public of all ages and experience to locate the fakes in person at the museums or online. The prize for a correct identification? How about an appearance on the show’s finale and a chance to win a specially commissioned copy of one of the works to keep!
 
The challenge is an awesome way to generate interest in the arts as well as potentially boost patronage at the museums. Each episode of the show will delve into a particular period of British art, with special curatorial and art historian guests. Also included in the show are the contemporary artists who were asked to re-create the paintings from scratch.
 
The competition doesn’t appear to be limited to residents in the United Kingdom! To learn more, visit the competition webpage here.
 
This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.