I’ve never been to a true masquerade ball. The closest I came is a school fundraising auction I chaired with a Carnivale theme. I have a cute photo of myself and my friend/co-chair, artist Lee Essex Doyle (you can see her Venetian interiors here), but I can’t find it right now. She invited me to a Save Venice masquerade ball, but we skipped it. Oh well, there went my chance.
I started noticing a lot of photography featuring people with elaborate rubber animal masks, which I’ve been putting aside for a later post. Enjoy these masquerade themed artworks; perhaps you’ll find inspiration for your own year-end celebration.
Since I’m spending the month on the Outer Cape, curating a collection of whale artwork seems fitting. I’ve never actually been on a whale watch, I’ve never read Moby Dick, and I’ve definitely never worn miniature whales on a belt—not even in the ’80s—but I’ve live in New England long enough to appreciate the whale.
My son spent his entire third grade year learning about whales and whaling, though admittedly I didn’t accompany the class on any whaling museum field trips. I did however buy him Don Carney’s Timid Whale print at 20×20. After the boys broke the glass with a football I moved it to their bathroom, where it lives happily.
Here are 13 not too preppy whale artworks—children’s art and grownup specimens—from a variety of artists and shops, including StyleCarrot partners.
Last night I pulled together 20 examples of architecture in art for today’s post.As I scrolled through Pinterest pinning hundreds of images that appeal, I realized that one of the categories that make my heart flutter most is architecture. (You can look at my Architecture I and Architecture II Pinterest boards and see if you feel similarly.)
Artwork sucks me in, street style compels me to lose weight and dress with more verve, and food photos makes me wish I had more time and energy to really cook, but the architectural images draw me in more profoundly. Sure, it’s the design aspects in part—the corrugated metal, black stained siding, expanses of glass, pointy rooftops, and placement in the surrounding landscape transport me to another place, another time, another life I could have. Or maybe, just a house I might someday build.
So just for that reason, the realization that looking at sublime examples of contemporary dwellings elicits a response deeper than browsing well-designed living rooms and adorable, furry animals, here are occurrences of architecture in art, including photographs, paintings, illustration, sculpture, and collage.
Classic Bowling Architecture•Vorona Photography Prints starting at $16 at Society6
Banco•Luciana Levinton Prints starting at $124 • Original $10,000 • Saatchi Art
Universal Space•Cécile Van Hanja Prints starting at $60 at Saatchi Art
If you’ve been following my art posts for a while, you’ll have seen work by my very talented, very dear friend Lee Essex Doyle. Two years ago Boston’s Childs Gallery showcased “Dreams of Dawnridge,” watercolor paintings based on the glam Los Angeles home of artist and designer Tony Duquette. In 2009 I featured her “Postcards from India” series depicting impressions of Indian temples and palaces in Rajasthan, which she showed at Peter Marcelle Contemporary in New York. (I am lucky enough to own two from that series.)
Lee Essex Doyle’s newest show, “Illuminated Moments” opens at Childs Gallery on Newbury Street in Boston this Thursday, January 22nd, 2015 (previewed on Artsy). The works are inspired by Doyle’s recent travels to Venice and Havana. This latest series of watercolors reflect the vibrant light of the two cities. The palette is more pared down than in years past, but the compositions just as masterful and the lines and patterns as intriguing and pleasing as ever. The stairways, with its curlicue railings are invitations to explore and the lanterns and chandeliers are enchanting.
I can’t wait to see Lee and her beautiful paintings in person on Thursday, but until then we can gaze at these . . .
Study for Palazzo Cini, Venice, 2014
Prada II Yellow, Venice, 2014
Prada II Giustina, Venice, 2014
Cini Panes Grey, Venice, 2014
Study for Palacio de la Condesa de Revilla De Camargo, Havana, 2014
Door to Palazzo Polignac, Venice, 2014
Study for Palazzo Priuli, Venice, 2014
Study for Scoula Grande Stair, Venice, 2014
Courtyard, Palazzo Grimani, Venice, 2014
Study for View across Fondamenta Osmarin, Venice, 2014
The IFPDA Print Fair, an art fair for prints, dating from the old masters to contemporary works, takes place at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City this Wednesday, November 5, 2014, though Sunday, November 9, 2014. It’s a well-respected fair, with top collector pieces, but also includes more accessibly priced works. Here’s a preview of ten prints from the IFPDA Print Fair from Artsy.
Mickalene Thomas • Interior: Zebra with Two Chairs and Funky Fur, 2014
Relief, intaglio, digital, collage, enamel paint, colored pencil, gold leaf • Edition of 25 Tandem Press, Madison
Peter Saville • Joy 1, 1998 -2008
Ink jet print on hahnemühle paper • Edition of 10 + 2AP Paul Stolper Gallery, London
Robert Mangold•Frame with Separation, 2014
Color woodcut • Edition of 35 Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, New York
E.V. Day•Pillow Talk (Pink), 2013
Chromogenic archival print • Edition of 5
Carolina Kitsch Contemporary Art, New York
Rochelle Feinstein • Research Park Project: Mm, 2014
Handpainting and screen print on canvas Graphicstudio USF, Tampa
Ed Ruscha • The Fan and its Surroundings, 1982 Lithograph • Edition of 55 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London & New York
Marco Maggi • Fanfold, 2014
Multiple of 12 etchings • Edition 12 Polígrafa Obra Gráfica, Barcelona
