On view now through March at 717 Gallery is an exhibition of the newest masterpieces from nationally recognized artist Louis Escobedo.
 
For lovers of color, look no further than the outstanding works by nationally recognized painter Louis Escobedo. On view now at the gorgeous 717 Gallery of Fine Art in Easton, Maryland, Escobedo’s newest works are presented along with paintings from the artist’s private collection. The show offers a unique look into Escobedo’s own collection and highlights some of the ways in which those works have influenced his own. Among others, works by Zhang Win Xin, Carolyn Anderson, and Roman Kelley are included.
 

Louis Escobedo, “Cloud Burst,” oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in. (c) 717 Gallery 2016

 
“Winter Exhibition” will be on view through March 2016.
 
To learn more, visit 717 Gallery of Fine Art.
 
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.
 

Partnering with realistartonline.com, the Academy of Realist Art in Toronto has a new website that boasts great design and new opportunities.
 
Both new and seasoned artists will be pleased to discover that Toronto’s Academy of Realist Art has partnered with RealistArtOnline.com to offer a new website with outstanding opportunities. For those wishing to discover the secrets of the Old Masters, a one-time registration fee earns you unlimited access to one of two courses: the Classical Method of Drawing the Figure, or Drawing the Barque. The courses are extremely flexible and allow students access anytime, anywhere.
 
In addition to course access, one-on-one feedback from ARA Senior Instructor Fernando Freitas is available. The new website itself offers a fluid, user-friendly platform that fittingly highlights the outstanding artistic products of the school.
 
To learn more, visit Realist Art Online.
 
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

Although the opening was delayed by a massive winter storm last week, the Florence Academy of Art in New York City is ready to open an amazing group exhibition featuring alumni, students, and instructors from its branch in Sweden.
 
The anticipation will only build now that The Florence Academy of Art’s “Scandinavian Artists of the FAA” exhibition has been delayed. Originally scheduled to open on January 24, a winter storm that slammed the Eastern seaboard caused organizers to push the opening to February 1.
 

Ellen Barkin, “Ralph,” 2015, soft ground etching, (c) Florence Academy of Art 2016

 
Per the exhibition’s press release, “Norway, Denmark, and Sweden have contributed some of the greatest artists to have worked within the figurative tradition. From Anders Zorn to Edvard Munch, we celebrate the significance of Scandinavian art by showcasing paintings from our Scandinavian alumni, students, and instructors from our FAA Sweden branch.”
 

Zacheriah Kramer, “The Thousand-Year Oak,” 2013, graphite on paper, (c) Florence Academy of Art 2016

 
The exhibition was curated by Jordan Sokol, Amaya Gurpide, Richard Greathouse, and Alexa Marino.
 

Charles Weed, “Winter Portrait with Pine Forest,” 2015, oil on panel, (c) Florence Academy of Art 2016

 
To learn more, visit The Florence Academy of Art.
 
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.
 

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: Daniel Ridgway Knight, “On the River’s Edge.”
 
A Pennsylvania native, artist Daniel Ridgway Knight (1839-1924) would spend much of his life abroad in Paris, where his paintings of peasant women amidst the countryside earned him great success. In addition to his pastoral subjects, Knight was a supremely skilled and acute observer of the natural world. Knight was also known for his talent for rendering the human form, which was comparable to that of his 19th-century contemporary William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
 
Early in his career, Knight was fortunate to have studied under Gleyre at the École des Beaux-Arts and later worked in the private studio of Meissonier. Knight was honored several times throughout his life, including a silver medal and the Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1889. He was also made a Knight of the Royal Order of St. Michael of Bavaria in 1893. The Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, also awarded the artist a gold medal of honor in 1893.
 
Knight’s works are heavily collected and the market frequently demands in excess of $50,000 for his works. Sotheby’s expects similar numbers when Knight’s “On the River’s Edge” heads to the block on January 30 in New York City. This work in particular displays Knight’s proficiency as a colorist. At center one finds a young peasant girl sitting on a stone wall. Perhaps toward the end of the day, a soft glow of sunlight blankets the scene. All around the central figure are colorful flowers and foliage. At distance one discovers a lake and town beyond. The application of paint is superb. The piece features degrees of precision and expression that are hypnotic.
 
“On the River’s Edge” heads to auction on January 30 during Sotheby’s “Master Paintings & 19th Century European Art” sale. Estimates are between $40,000 and $60,000.

To view the full catalogue, visit Sotheby’s.
 
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.

“Storm Rider”
Oil on canvas
39 x 54 in.
$18,000

www.celebrateart.com

About the Artist:
Born and raised in England, Richard Hall started drawing as a child. His grandfather was a master craftsman and furniture maker who taught him to be resourceful and to have a keen eye for detail – character traits which can be seen in Richard’s work. 

It’s hard to say what stands out most when you first see Richard’s work:  for some it’s his utterly realistic and almost translucent style, almost free of brush strokes; while for others it’s his uniquely inventive and often witty compositions that most catch the eye.  Either way, Richard’s pieces give us a look on reality that combines the nostalgia of everyday objects such as produce, kitchen utensils or tools.  Ad when you stand back and look at his works, it’s easy to see why he is a storyteller at heart.

His still life paintings don’t just represent reality:  they trigger in the view emotions, memories and questions as if to suggest we try out a different way of looking at things.

 Richard says, “There are a lot of one-liners in my paintings.  My wide likes to say it’s because I’m English, but as I get older, I realize how important it is to look at things with some humor, especially these days.”   Humor, yes.  But as with all good humor, there’s a lot of truth – and sometimes a slight pang or regret or melancholy behind his work. 

Richard resides in Mesa, AZ with his wife Sharon and his children and six grandchildren nearby.  Richard’s work is on exhibit at the Celebration of Fine Art in Scottsdale, AZ.

The Celebration of Fine Art is a unique art experience which gives visitors the opportunity to watch 100 artists in their working studios January 16 – March 27, 2016 in Scottsdale, AZ. Open daily from 10 am – 6 pm. Visitors will enjoy strolling through the 100 artist studios under the 40,000 square foot exhibit tent.  Artists are on-site creating, allowing for the visitor to watch them at work, discover what inspires them and the techniques used to create the works of art.  

www.celebrateart.com
 
 
 

Making its California debut is a fantastic Raphael original. See where you can catch a view and experience a host of connected events.
 
As one of the most famous names in the history of art, Raphael gets people to museums, even if it’s a single painting. “Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn” is permanently housed at the Galleria Borghese, Rome, but traveled to the States for the first time this fall, premiering at the Cincinnati Art Museum on October 3.
 
The painting is now being shown at The Legion of Honor in San Francisco before its return to Europe. Painted around 1505, “Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn” is a quintessential example of Raphael’s excellence in female portraiture. The blush of the skin radiates off the canvas, and the sitter’s beautiful vermillion dress is absolutely stunning. The background displays a typical Tuscan landscape, with rolling hills and trees fading in the atmospheric perspective.

The Legion of Honor offers, “‘Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn’ features an unidentified blond-haired sitter and epitomizes the beauty of Raphael’s female portraits during his Florentine period. The exhibition explores the possible identity of this subject, as well as the painting’s distinct iconography, including the unicorn she holds in her lap. Scholars believe that the painting was commissioned to celebrate a wedding, and the unicorn, a conventional symbol of chastity, may offer clues to her familial lineage.

“The exhibition further highlights the stylistic relationships between this masterpiece and Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa.’ Leonardo’s canonical work, painted in Florence in the early years of the 16th century, had a great impact on the younger Raphael, who also practiced in the city during this period. Raphael’s sophisticated adaptation of Leonardo’s innovations in portrait compositions resulted in ‘Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn,’ a painting that hints at the Mona Lisa with its half-length format, its sitter with hands folded in her lap, and its setting before a distant landscape. Visitors are able to explore Raphael’s painting in detail and get a glimpse into its intriguing history.”

In conjunction with the exhibition of the masterpiece, the Legion of Honor is hosting a number of lectures on January 23 and 31; and February 2 and 7. The painting will be on view through April 10. To learn more, visit the Legion of Honor.

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.
 

The first retrospective in the United States for one of history’s greatest female painters is just about to open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Will you attend this historical exhibition?
 
Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) is considered by many to have been one of history’s most successful women painters, especially when taking into account the turbulent times in which she worked. In a career that spanned the reign of Louis XV to that of Louis-Philippe, Vigée Le Brun witnessed first-hand the violence and chaos of the French Revolution.
 
A woman of high social status, Vigée Le Brun produced a wealth of self-portraiture that not only revealed that status, but served to showcase the professional she had become in the face of gender inequality in the arts — a masterful portraitist and painter. A number of Vigée Le Brun works will feature during the artist’s first ever retrospective in the United States, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on February 15.
 
Via the Met: “Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) is one of the finest 18th-century French painters and among the most important of all women artists. An autodidact with exceptional skills as a portraitist, she achieved success in France and abroad during one of the most eventful, turbulent periods in European history. ‘Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France’ is the first retrospective and only the second exhibition devoted to this artist in modern times. The 80 works on view at the Metropolitan Museum will be paintings and a few pastels from European and American public and private collections.”
 
“Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France” opens on February 15 and will hang through May 15.
 
To learn more, visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
 
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.
 

Ann Korologos Gallery in Colorado is hosting a “Best of the West” exhibition, which features nine acclaimed artists from the gallery’s roster who were also participants in the Coors Western Art Exhibition and Sale this month.
 
Totaling more than 50 works in a variety of media, the “Best of the West” exhibition at Ann Korologos Gallery is self-explanatory. Gallery Director Julia Novy says, “We asked each artist to submit what they consider their best new work for this exhibition. These are iconic pieces of art that represent what each artist is most well known for, and most sought after.”
 

Andy Taylor, “Doggie Park,” oil on canvas, 25 x 34 in. (c) Ann Korologos Gallery 2016

 
The gallery has taken the opportunity with this exhibition to showcase the artists in its roster who were participants in the January 2016 Coors Western Art Exhibition and Sale, one of the nation’s premier events for Western fine art. Continuing, the galley writes, “An expansive outlook is the common denominator, with each artist offering a personal vision of the American west.”
 

Dean Mitchell, “Early Snow,” watercolor on paper, 9 x 15 in. (c) Ann Korologos Gallery 2016

 
The nine accomplished artists included in the exhibition are Terry Gardner, Dean Mitchell, Jill Soukup, Andy Taylor, Dan Young, Dinah Worman, Leon Loughridge, Joel Ostlind, and Amy Laugensen. An exhibition catalogue is also available for review here.
 
The “Best of the West” exhibition will be on view through February 16. To learn more, visit Ann Korologos 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.
 

Founded in 1905, the American Watercolor Society (AWS) is one of the nation’s top membership organizations for artists. Beginning at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center on February 20, the AWS will exhibit for the 148th time.
 
It wouldn’t take much to motivate one to visit the beautiful city of Sacramento, California, but in case you needed it, the city’s fine arts center is hosting the 148th showing by the American Watercolor Society (AWS). Forty works will compose the show, which was carefully juried from thousands of submissions from members of the organization. This exhibition of works is, without question, considered one of the premier watercolor exhibitions in the world. Some of the world-renowned artists included in 2016 are Mike Kowalski, Cheryl Fausel, John Salminen, Frank Eber, Mike Bailey, Qian Gao, and Myrna Wacknov.
 

Carla O’Connor AWS, “Bellissime,” watercolor, (c) Sacramento Fine Arts Center 2016

 
The exhibition will open on February 20 and run through April 9. To learn more, visit the Sacramento Fine Arts Center.
 
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.
 

A hypnotic solo exhibition in New York is “testing the boundaries of painterly abstraction and photorealism within the context of contemporary portraiture and delicately painted modern interiors,” the gallery suggests. Interested?
 
Artist Maxwell Stevens has mounted an ambitious exhibition at onetwentyeight gallery in New York that combines both modern and traditional interpretations of art. The resulting works offer something for lovers of representation and of abstraction.
 
The artist writes, “I’m interested in the domestic arena as the primary site for our psychological and emotional experiences, and in how we exist differently, historically, within each passing moment. I try to use abstraction and the fragmentation of representational imagery to evoke this.” The paintings selected represent several years of work for Stevens and convey his love for both Dutch Golden Age painting and for Abstract Expressionism.
 
The gallery offers, “The viewer encounters an array of intricacy and detailed brushwork executed in the individually rendered scenes underlying each picture. These intimate, miniaturized portrayals are subsequently overpainted in thick impasto, fragmenting and disrupting the initially calm scenery. This interplay arrives at a newly hybridized pictorial space, one that makes allusions to both the Dutch Golden Age and to Abstract Expressionism, yet clearly would not exist in any other era than our own.”
 
“Maxwell Stevens: Summer Table Paintings” opened on January 17 and will hang through February 7.
 
To learn more, visit onetwentyeight.
 
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.