To celebrate our forthcoming book about Japan, we are presenting a new film series that dives into the intriguing ecosystem that has preserved Japanese traditional skills over centuries. Meet the people who are future-proofing the age-old know-how.
Category Archives: Art
Artist Profiles: Finnish-American Riitta Klint – “Dreamlike” Drips Of Paint With Pencil On Clay Panels
My paintings on clay panels begin with thin veils of paint that drip, pool and congeal, and like nature, move out of my control, beautifully mysterious. I work intuitively within these initial drips and pools, searching for structure. Each successive stroke of paint or pencil mark continues to build a dreamlike otherworldly place. The mood is one of nature untamed, enchanting and rife with hidden secrets.
My paintings are my connection to the Earth, its nature and beautiful mysteries. 
There is a sadness as I witness the loss of our last wild places. My paintings are an attempt to keep alive those places and offer my audience a sanctuary in which to reflect.
Riitta Klint is from Helsinki, Finland and currently lives in Fort Worth, Texas and maintains a studio in nearby Aledo. Between these two places is a lifetime spent traveling the world thanks to her father’s career with IBM. Living in her native Finland, as well as in Iran, Portugal, Indonesia, Germany, Mexico, and the United States, together with extensive travel in Asia and Europe has shaped her unique vision and palette. Her work offers the viewer a front seat to that journey, and a threshold to cross over into their own imagination.
Klint works primarily in acrylic and pencil on Claybord™, smooth kaolin clay covered panels that offer the ideal surface for her manipulation of color and medium.
Painters Of The 1920’s & 1930’s: “Moonlight Ballad – The Art Of Martin Lewis”
Born in Victoria, Australia, Martin Lewis was a printmaker who is known for his scenes of urban life in New York during the 1920s and 1930s. As a youth Lewis held a variety of jobs that ranged from working on cattle ranches in the Australian Outback, in logging and mining camps, to being a sailor. In 1898, he moved to Sydney for two years where he received his only formal art training. During this period he may have been introduced to printmaking; a local radical paper, The Bulletin, published two of his drawings.
Lewis left Australia in 1900 and first settled in San Francisco. He eventually worked his way eastward to New York. Little is known about his life during the following decade except that he made a living as a commercial artist and produced his first etching in 1915. Lewis’ skill as an etcher was noticed by Edward Hopper, who became a lifelong friend. In 1920, dissatisfied with his job, Lewis used his entire savings to study art and to sketch in Japan. He returned to New York after a two-year stay and resumed his commercial art career, but also pursued his own work as a painter and printmaker.
During the Depression, Lewis moved to Newtown, Connecticut, but later returned to Manhattan, where he helped establish a school for printmakers. From 1944-1952 Lewis taught a graphics course at the Art Students League in New York.
During his thirty-year career, Lewis made about 145 drypoints and etchings. His prints, like Shadow Dance and Stoops in Snow, were much admired during the 1930s for their realistic portrayal of daily life and sensitive rendering of texture. The artist’s skill in composition and his talent in the drypoint and etching media have received renewed attention in recent years. Lewis is one of the few printmakers of this era who specialized in nocturnal scenes. Some scholars consider his print Glow of the City his most significant work because of the subtlety of handling. A minute network of dots, lines, and flecks scratched onto the plate creates the illusion of transparent garments hanging in the foreground, while the Chanin Building, an art deco skyscraper, towers over the nearby tenements.
Art & Humor Spotlight: 56-Year Old British Painter Harland Miller’s “Iconic Penguin Book Covers”
From a Maddox Gallery website (March 20, 2020):
Miller’s Penguin book covers and ironic titles catch the art world’s eye
These covers are closer to still life studies, rather than two-dimensional posters. Experimenting with different paper sizes and angles, he occasionally shows their spines, and the shadows they cast. It is a celebration of books as treasured objects. His drawings – in particular his studies for his large-scale oil paintings with their notes scribbled down the margins – are some of his most intimate works to date.
The ensuing images are humorous, sardonic and nostalgic at the same time, while the painting style hints at the dog-eared, scuffed covers of the Penguin classics themselves.
Starting with Jay Jopling in 1996, when Miller exhibited in a group show at London’s Institute of Contemporary Art, his works have garnered many a famous fan. Amongst which are AC/DC’s guitarist Angus Young, David Bailey, and Elton John – whose work amusingly, if a little painfully, bears the title ‘International Lonely Guy.’
George Michael, with his Harland Miller piece ‘Incurable Romantic Seeks Dirty Filthy Whore‘ commanded £237,500 in the posthumous auction of his art collection last year.
Arts: 65-Year Old Artist Jeff Koons Headlines “On Painting – Art Basel Online” (David Zwirner)
New Arts & Travel Video: “Kari Kola – Savage Beauty” In Connemara Ireland
Filmed and Edited by: Janne Tanskanen
Savage Beauty light installation in Connemara Ireland (Lough Nafooey) March 2020. Savage Beauty by Kari Kola commissioned by Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture.
Music: Lawrence Hodge
Connemara’s Islands
Flung out into the Atlantic and shaped by the sheer force of the sea, Connemara’s islands are spectacular remnants of life long lost in other parts of Ireland. Staunchly proud of their traditions and as famous for their culture as their dramatic landscapes, Inishbofin and the Aran Islands are a patchwork of tiny, tightly packed fields, rambling stone walls, pristine beaches and craggy shores.
The islands’ relative isolation has fostered a profound sense of peace and protected a rich traditional heritage. They’re wonderful places to walk or cycle, and famous for their live music and traditional dances.
Situated in the choppy waters of Galway Bay, the three Aran Islands in the Gaeltacht region. The largest and most developed island is Inis Mór, a place blanketed in fissured limestone and snaking stone walls. The island’s most famous sight is Dún Aonghasa, a breathtaking semi-circular stone fort perched dramatically on top of a 100m cliff. Other prehistoric forts dot the island, as well as numerous early Christian remains. The heritage centre, Ionad Árann, gives a great insight into the island’s history and traditions but you’ll also see them first hand in the nightly music sessions, regular dances and impromptu storytelling.
“Do Remember They Can’t Cancel The Spring” – A Message From 82-Year Old Painter David Hockney
David Hockney has unveiled a new painting to add a splash of colour to the dark times facing the country.
The 82-year-old painter, often dubbed Britain’s greatest living artist, new piece is titled ‘Do remember they can’t cancel the spring’.
Bright yellow daffodils spring up in the foreground in front of a gloomy grey mass in the back of the painting.
Mr Hockney is currently in lockdown in Normandy, northern France, where he has been located since his last exhibition opened.
From a Daily Mail online article
Art & Humor: National Park Posters Based On Visitors’ “1 Star Reviews”
Subpar Parks is a snarky love letter to the National Parks System. When I discovered that there were 1-star reviews for every single one of the 62 national parks, I set out to illustrate each park along with a hand lettered 1-star review as a way to put a positive, fun spin on such a negative mindset.
Interview: 94-Year Old Sidney Felsen, Co-Founder Of Art Publisher Gemini G.E.L. (Getty Podcast)
In this episode, Sidney talks about how Gemini GEL got started and grew into the organization it is today, sharing stories about the artists he’s worked with along the way.
In 1966, at the age of forty-one, Sidney Felsen moved from the world of accounting to that of art, founding the artists’ workshop and fine-art print publisher Gemini GEL in Los Angeles. With Gemini GEL, Sidney quickly got to work with some of the biggest artists of the twentieth century: Man Ray, Josef Albers, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg, to name a few. And Gemini GEL continues its work with new generations of artists, including Julie Mehretu, Tacita Dean, and David Hammons.
Sidney Felsen is the co-founder of Gemini G.E.L., a printmaking studio in Los Angeles that has been operating since 1965. Some of his photographs documenting the artists at work at Gemini are collected in the book The Artist Observed.
Art Books: “At First Light – Two Centuries Of Maine Artists, Their Homes And Studios” (Rizzoli, Mar 2020)
At First Light chronicles twenty-six extraordinary artists of the last two hundred years who have lived and worked in Maine. Published to coincide with the state’s bicentennial in 2020, the volume considers the significant contributions artists have made to a deeper and more profound understanding of Maine’s history, its land and its peoples. Maine’s unique and breathtaking landscape–from its rugged coastline, quaint harbors, majestic mountains, and verdant forests–continues to have a powerful effect on the artists who are drawn to its shores.
Boomers Daily 