In the small town of Hillsborough, North Carolina, Leland Little Auctions saw major sales during its Winter Catalogue Auction.
 
Leland Little’s recent Winter Catalogue Auction from December 2-5 proves that small-town auctioneers can realize huge sales while offering outstanding lots. In the town of Hillsborough in central North Carolina, Leland Little Auctions provided connoisseurs and collectors with a dazzling collection of objects to be had, including gorgeous antique jewelry, fine art, vintage wine, and furniture. All told, the auction saw more than $1.5 million in sales, and Little’s Spring Auction — slated for March 9-11 — is expected to be as successful.
 
Particular highlights of the auction were a few paintings, among them Albert Ernest Backus’s “St. Lucie Reflection,” which was sold for $16,000. The beautiful landscape displays a calm river winding through a rich tropical forest. The surface of this slightly impressionistic piece has an outstanding expressive quality and engages the viewer. Further, Backus’s use of calm pastel hues reveals the delicate character of the scene. Portraits of “Mr. & Mrs. John Moore Mütter of Richmond, VA” by Cephas Thompson realized $30,000 while a dramatic picture by Wojciech Kossak, entitled “Cavalry Charge,” hammered for $13,000.
 
To learn more, visit Leland Little Auctions.
 
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It’s that time of year when gifts are exchanged, loved ones are near, and we all reflect on the artful fortunes of 2015.
 
Happy Holidays from all of us at Fine Art Connoisseur! As the end of 2015 nears and our families gather to celebrate, it’s that time when our team steps aside for a two-week intermission. However, we also like to use this opportunity to give thanks and muse on the range of outstanding events, news, and artists covered.
 
Fine Art Today has — as one would expect — covered an expansive scope of topics this year. We’ve featured many of the top exhibitions from acclaimed museums around the United States in 2015, from a major exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts that stepped into the mind of Leonardo da Vinci to the Frick’s amazing display of Frederic Leighton’s masterpieces. We’ve also celebrated the achievements — and artworks — of some of the best fine art festivals and auctions, including (among many others) the esteemed Western Visions Annual Show & Sale; numerous auctions from Sotheby’s, Christies, Heritage Auctioneers, and more; the Cheyenne Frontier Days Western Art Show; the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction; Art Basel Miami Beach 2015; the Heart of the West Show; Maynard Dixon Country; and the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival. It has also been our great pleasure to highlight amazing exhibition lineups from many of the country’s finest galleries. From New York to Florida, Virginia to California, we continue to do our best to showcase traditional, representational art from galleries that share that vision. Shining the spotlight on working artists through the ongoing artist profile has proved to be infinitely rewarding as well. The ability to learn more about the inspirations, processes, and goals of some of the most accomplished artists enriches my life as I hope it does yours.
 
Since taking over the editorial role for Fine Art Today this past July, there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t felt extremely blessed and lucky. It is a great privilege bringing you the latest stories from the fine art world each week, and I look forward to detailing the artful gifts that 2016 will reveal for us all. I would like to send a most sincere thanks to you, the reader, for your continued support and constructive feedback on our newsletter. Moreover, we send our deepest thanks and appreciation to the artists, galleries, and institutions who’ve graciously provided their time, effort, and materials to help make Fine Art Today possible. We look forward to bringing you more outstanding content in 2016.
 
Cheers and best wishes during the holiday season!
 
Warm regards,
 
Andrew M. Webster
 
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 many consider him to have been one of the Italian Renaissance’s great masters, the appreciation of Sandro Botticelli’s life and career has fluctuated, itself experiencing a renaissance during the 19th century through the English Pre-Raphaelite movement. On view now in Berlin is a monumental exhibition that traces this evolution.
 
Today it seems impossible to believe that for nearly 400 years after his death, the paintings of Italian master Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) largely went unnoticed. Thankfully, during the late 19th century many English painters within the Pre-Raphaelite movement were greatly drawn to his work, igniting a rebirth of appreciation for Botticelli that began within artist circles and continues today among the public at large.
 

Sandro Botticelli, “Venus,” ca. 1490, (c) Staatliche Museen zu Berlin 2015

 
Featuring more than 50 original paintings by Botticelli along with over 150 other masterpieces, “The Botticelli Renaissance” is a major exhibition at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, which highlights this evolution from obscurity to international acclaim. The exhibition will present a multitude of artworks from across history and in various forms and styles. Via the exhibition website, “The exhibition traces the fascinating history of these shifting appropriations and re-evaluations right up to the present and is the first to present the artist’s work — a selection of more than fifty originals by Botticelli — in the context of these adaptations and interpretations in a wide range of media spanning painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, fashion and design. Among the 150 works on display are numerous masterpieces by artists such as Edgar Degas, Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, René Magritte, Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman and Bill Viola on loan from the world’s leading collections.”
 

Edgar Degas, “Venus (After Botticelli),” ca. 1858-1859, (c) Peter Schälchli, Zürich 2015

William Bouguereau, “Birth of Venus,” ca. 1879, oil on linen, (c) Musee d’Orsay, Paris 2015

 
“The Botticelli Renaissance” opened on September 24 and will be on view through January 24.
 
To learn more, visit the Gemäldegalerie.  
 
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.
 

One could argue that human nature dictates we contemplate some of life’s biggest questions: Why are we here? Who made us? And what happens after this? While we all have our individual ways of understanding these unknowns, art has — since its prehistoric beginnings — been an outstanding representation of this primal endeavor. Connecting himself to this tradition — and others — is painter Nicholas Harper, whose glittering multimedia pictures provide moments of self-reflection in himself and his viewers.
 
Like so many artists before him, Nicholas Harper’s creative process is an epic voyage that relies on years of experience, various traditions, and multiple sources of inspiration. Even so, art has always empowered creative minds to end that journey in beautifully original ways, and Harper’s work does just that. For Harper, “Inspiration for any particular piece is usually born out of a long process of internalizing ideas or ‘notes’ from passages in books I might be reading, movies watched, music, or conversation,” he says. “I usually work on a number of pieces at the same time, and while an initial sketch of an idea may be rendered relatively quickly after the first spark of inspiration, it can take months to re-approach the sketch and commit to it as a painting. Oftentimes the leading idea will have been redrawn in my mind several times and rarely does the finished product resemble what I originally conceived.”
 

Nicholas Harper, “Paris,” oil and mixed media on panel, (c) Nicholas Harper 2015

 
Caught somewhere between representation and abstraction, the style of Harper’s art is mesmerizing, often juxtaposing two-dimensional patterning and gold leaf with captivating and naturalistic faces and hands. The play between two and three dimensions commands extended meditation from the viewer.
 
Building upon Russian and Byzantine iconographic traditions, works such as “Helios” present the figure with golden halos — an element of importance for Harper. “It is my hope to elevate the figure to the status of symbol and allegory,” he suggests. “The figure is used to create a point of entry or access by the viewer into the work and it’s meanings.” Speaking of the influence of religious icons, Harper adds, “Of particular interest to me is the degree to which the process of making an icon is meant to be a prayer or meditation on the mystical understandings of God, man, and nature. The gold halo, for example, is a direct reference to the spirit that lies within each of us. The process of applying the gold leaf in the Russian tradition directly mimics passages from the Bible in which God breathes life into clay, creating Adam.”
 

Nicholas Harper, “Susannah,” oil and mixed media on panel, (c) Nicholas Harper 2015

 
Once the viewer has granted Harper’s “point of entry,” narrative comes to the fore. He writes, “I have over the years created a symbolic narrative of my own to relate to what I see as a push and pull struggle within people, between our worldly natures and our divine potential. For example, the head in many of my portraits represent the divine, while the hands represent the worldly. They are disconnected from each other and separated further by the use of a long neck, giving a visual cue to the nature of the individual. However, if the viewer steps away from the piece and looks at the painting as a whole, it takes on a completeness, alluding to the idea that this inner tension most of us feel is illusory or only existent based on perspective.”
 

Nicholas Harper, “Untitled,” oil and mixed media on panel, (c) Nicholas Harper 2015

 
The parts of Harper’s pictures work in conjunction with one another to achieve his artistic goals, including the traditional, uniform, and smooth surface texture. “I will often use a gloss varnish as well,” the artist says. “In this way I tend to think of the painting as a mirror that the viewer might see himself or herself in.” Certainly, it is self-reflection that Harper is after, both in himself and his viewers. He continues, “My primary goal in art is to better understand myself as a person by using the art-making process as a form of contemplation, meditation and prayer. Secondly I would like to create something that can be of value in a similar way to those who view and acquire my work. Just as icons where used as points of meditation in the home, so too I wish for my work to be a focal point in the home and an object capable of sparking self reflection.”
 

Nicholas Harper, “Brida,” oil and mixed media on panel, (c) Nicholas Harper 2015

 
Recently, Harper has been exploring more multimedia materials in his work, a feature he hopes to increase in the future. “I know I’ll be painting in five years,” he says, “though I have no idea what I’ll be painting. I’m sure it will probably still revolve around the figure, but hopefully it will have transformed as I will have transformed in my own life. I believe that as an artist grows and changes, so should their work. I hope to have gained a further understanding of myself and the universe I am part of while developing continued humility in understanding that I probably will never know the answers to life’s biggest questions.”
 
Harper opens a solo exhibition entitled “OPULENCE: A Masquerade” at Rogue Buddha Gallery tomorrow, December 11, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
 
To learn more, visit Rogue Buddha 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.
 

How do artists borrow and trade ideas? How do they inspire one another and build upon tradition to form a voice uniquely their own? These questions and more form the core of an outstanding representational art exhibition in California. Where is it, and who’s included?
 
Featuring a stunning array of representational works, “Transmission: Secrets of the Studio” is an amazing exhibition that hosts some of the biggest names in the representational art world. Organized in conjunction with TRAC (The Representational Art Conference), the exhibition explores the ways in which artists inspire each other. Via the exhibition’s event page, “The secrets of the studio are passed between artists, in a gradual sharing of technique and encouragement. This exhibit reveals the relationships between contemporary representational painters and sculptors and their inspirations in 19th-century artists through their work and in their own words.”
 

Daniel Graves, “Tomara,” oil, (c) California Lutheran University 2015

 
Among others, artists featured include William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Lynn Christopher, Giambologna (Jean Boulogne), Alexandre Falguière, Adrien Étienne Gaudez, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Daniel Graves, F. Scott Hess, Luke Hillestad, Regina Jacobson, Brad Kunkle, Hüicho Lé, Richard MacDonald, Antonin Mercié, David Molesky, Annie Murphy-Robinson, Odd Nerdrum, Michael Pearce, Alicia Ponzio, Jon Swihart, Ruth Weisberg, Gary Weisman, Lea Colie Wight, and Pamela Wilson.
 
The exhibition is currently located in the William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art on the campus of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.
 
“Transmission: Secrets of the Studio” opened on October 30 and will hang through January 21. To learn more, visit California Lutheran University.
 
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.
 

Opening on December 11 is a tantalizing exhibition of acclaimed printmakers Leon Loughridge and Joel Ostlind at Ann Korologos Gallery in Basalt, Colorado.
 
The beautiful prints by master artists Leon Loughridge and Joel Ostlind will illuminate Basalt’s Ann Korologos Gallery on December 11. Both artists show highly coveted works, which are held in public, private, and corporate collections.
 
Drawing intensely from his love of New Mexico, Loughridge’s prints display a rich variety of color, excellent compositional strategies, and captivating atmospheric depth. “Indian Summer 15/20” is one example that typifies the beauty of the southwestern landscapes that Loughridge portrays. Using the ancient wood block method, Loughridge captures a stunning level of detail and spatial reality in the piece. The piece is also endowed with great character, as nearly each stroke of the carving can be detected.
 

Joel Ostlind, “Back to the Drawing Board 13/18,” copper plate etching, 8 x 4 in. (c) Ann Korologos Gallery 2015

 
The works by Wyoming native Joel Ostlind are equally beautiful, especially “Back to the Drawing Board 13/18.” Predominantly using etching to create his images, Ostlind’s prints have a more detailed, finer, and linear character. In “Back to the Drawing Board 13/18” we find an image of a classical nude. Albeit simple and not heavily detailed, there is a stoic and timeless appeal to the print. Viewed from behind, the figure is imaged with short strokes of the burin, with hatching used to form the figure’s three-dimensionality.
 
“Works on Paper: Leon Loughridge and Joel Ostlind” opens tomorrow, December 11, and will hang through January 4.
 
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.
 

Featuring a number of his latest works at the Arden Gallery is accomplished painter Danny Galieote, who draws upon his affinity for 1950s American pop imagery to create illustrative beauty.
 
Painter Danny Galieote seems to have always displayed rare artistic talent, and indeed he continues to ascend in the art world via outstanding works that display not only a beautiful illustrative style, but capture — and comment on — popular imagery of the 1950s and 1960s. Hailing from Los Angeles, California, Galieote studied at several colleges before instructing students himself and becoming one of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ top artists. Still working out of his L.A. studio, Galieote is thrilled to be showcasing his latest works during a solo exhibition at Arden Gallery in Boston. Having opened on December 1, the show of Galieote’s works will be on view through December 29.
 

Danny Galieote, “The Picnic,” 2015, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 in. (c) Arden Gallery 2015

 
A highlight of the exhibition is the gorgeous — albeit unconventional — “I Think It’s Ready Dear.” Undoubtedly inspired by popular 1950s advertising, a plush-looking woman dressed in period clothing stands in her kitchen. The stove and oven before her display the evening’s meal: a lobster, which rests on top with lemon and garnish, and an octopus, which eerily emerges from a pan in the oven with carrots. The creature is clearly alive, possibly contradicting the picture’s title, but nevertheless adding a striking improbable feature to the painting. Every other element within the work appears in its right place and time. The illustration is outstanding in the piece and clearly displays Galieote’s acute skill.
 

Danny Galieote, “Sweet Innamorata,” 2015, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in. (c) Arden Gallery 2015

 
“Danny Galieote” opened on December 1 and will hang through December 9. To learn more, visit Arden 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.
 

“Through the Eyes of a Child” will be the theme during the 2016 Washington Winter Show, which is sure to warm hearts — and open checkbooks — through the displays from more than 40 premier antiques and fine arts exhibitors.
 
Taking place January 8-10, 2016, at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, D.C., is the 2016 Washington Winter Show, which will feature more than 40 exhibitors and a loan exhibition from Gunston Hall. This year’s theme is “Through the Eyes of a Child”; the Winter Show annually works with local charity partners, including the Bishop John T. Walker School for Boys, THEARC, and St. John’s Community Services. Since 2011, the partnership has generated more than $250,000 for the charities, with that number looking to expand exponentially over time.
 
Interested parties will be treated to a preview of the exhibitors’ objects on January 7 before the show officially begins on the 8th. Presented by PNC, the Winter Show will also feature an outstanding lecture from best-selling author James Farmer at 10:30 a.m. on January 8. Via the event’s press release: “A professional garden, floral and interior designer, cook, author and lifestyle expert, James Farmer is a young, fresh voice for his generation. His lecture, ‘Inviting the Generations to the Table,’ reflects his love of Southern food, culture and cooking that put him at the forefront of the garden-to-table lifestyle.”
 
A wide range of fine antiques and art will surely delight all who attend this year’s show. A full list of participating exhibitors can be found here. To learn more about the show, and for ticket reservations and event schedules, visit the Washington Winter Show.
 
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.

Whether it was landscapes, figural works, cityscapes, or portraiture, the range of subjects explored by Australian painter Tom Roberts was eclectic and far-reaching. As one of the nation’s best-known artists, his life and career are being celebrated through a major exhibition at Australia’s National Gallery.
 
Although painter Tom Roberts (1856-1931) was born in Dorchester, England, he would end his life having spent nearly half of it in Australia, continuously learning and coming to understand the nation’s land and the culture and people that it harbored. Working alongside Australia’s legendary Impressionist group, which included Frederick McCubbin, Arthur Streeton, and Charles Conder, Roberts “travelled widely around Australia, and particularly to sheep stations in rural New South Wales,” the museum writes.
 

Tom Roberts, “Charcoal Burners,” 1886, oil on canvas, 61.4 x 92.3 cm. (c) Art Gallery of Ballarat 2015

 
December 4 was the day the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra opened a major retrospective of the artist aptly entitled “Tom Roberts,” which will hang through March 28. In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum will host many fun family events, a list of which can be found here.
 

Tom Roberts, “A Break Away!,” 1891, oil on canvas, 137.3 x 167.8 cm. (c) Art Gallery of South Australia 2015

 
Works such as “Shearing the Rams” are typical of Roberts’ subjects/themes and style, which bear some similarities to the outstanding pictures explored by Gustave Courbet around the rural town of Ornans, France, in the 1850s. Roberts preferred places like sheep stations throughout the Australian Bush because such sites highlighted the industry (a major export), rural life, and ordinary people.  
 

 
“Tom Roberts” opened on December 4 and will be on view through March 28. To learn more, visit the National Gallery of Australia.
 
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.
 

For some time scientists have argued that beneath the surface of the world’s most famous painting hides evidence of multiple portraits and clues to the picture’s construction. French scientist Pascal Cotte believes he’s just found proof, but has he simply deepened the portrait’s mystery?
 
Ever since Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” was stolen in 1911 — and indeed since its execution more than 500 years ago — the painting has captivated the hearts and minds of millions for the subject’s enigmatic features — including her ambiguous smile and contradictory background. For the past hundred years, scientists have continually used the latest technology and multifarious approaches in an attempt to better understand the painting’s nuances and construction. However, it seems that every time a new “discovery” is made, Mona’s allure and mystery only deepens.
 
French scientist Pascal Cotte is now arguing that his latest scans of the portrait will “shatter many myths and alter our vision of Leonardo’s masterpiece forever.” Using cutting-edge Layer Amplification Methods (L.A.M.), Pascal recently suggested that he has definitively discovered the presence of three hidden paintings beneath the surface of the “Mona Lisa,” one of which likely represents Lisa del Giocondo (Lisa Gherardini) — the woman many believe is the portrait’s subject. By projecting specific and intense lights upon the work, computers can detect subtle changes in the layers of paint, revealing each stage of the painting’s construction.
 
Despite the apparent revelation, the scans can only  tell scholars about what we cannot see rather than what we can with our own eyes. Reception to Cotte’s reports has been varied. Renowned art historian Martin Kemp has been skeptical, arguing that trying to analyze subtle changes in the process of construction and layering is — in itself — flawed. Kemp writes, “There are considerable changes during the course of the making of the portrait — as is the case with most of Leonardo’s paintings. I prefer to see a fluid evolution from a relatively straightforward portrait of a Florentine woman into a philosophical and poetic picture that has a universal dimension.”
 
One thing is for certain: neither this nor any future discovery will succeed in quenching both academia’s and the public’s thirst to deconstruct the painting further and look for something more behind Mona Lisa’s face.
 
To learn more, visit CNN.
 
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.