Author: A Scholarly Skater
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Skating Through Time on a Snow Day
Snow day! Who doesn’t love those words? Here in the northeastern United States, we are currently having a nice snow day, which makes it seem like a perfect time to do the second part of the winter paintings series I started around Christmas time. While part one was about winter landscapes, part two is about ice skating paintings!…
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My Experience Seeing a Live Painting Demonstration
Last Sunday afternoon (January 29th), I had the opportunity to see a live painting demonstration. This was exciting because I had never before watched a painting be made right in front of me. I met Gerard Amsellem, one of the two artists involved, at a studio tour event last fall. He and his friend/frequent collaborator Mikel Frank reached…
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Kip’s Castle – My Visit to a New Jersey Mansion
Updated with news photos from my Christmas 2017 visit to Kip’s Castle. Click on the photo gallery below! I recently took some time to visit a local landmark – Kip’s Castle in Verona, New Jersey. The former home of textile industrialist Frederic Ellsworth Kip and his family, Kip’s Castle is a sprawling stone mansion at the very top…
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Four Magical Christmas and Winter Paintings
Eager to get into the holiday spirit? Enjoy this selection of winter and Christmas-themed paintings by American, British, and European artists.
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of City Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
According to the photographer’s caption on flickr, this grotesque can be found at the City Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. Not being familiar with that particular institution but assuming it was an art museum, I searched online to figure out if this carving is a feature of the building or part of its collection. Instead, I…
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An Art Quote for the Quote Challenge
The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. – Pablo Picasso Thanks to Belinda O. and her excellent taste in quotations, I was inspired to find and post a meaningful quote relating to the theme of my blog. This one is both relevant and true. No matter your preferred medium…
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of the City College of New York
I freely admit that I haven’t been great about posting gargoyles over the past few months, but I recently found a reader grotesque that I hadn’t seen before, and it seems to have snapped me back into action. This scholarly fellow attends the City College of New York. I believe that he resides on the…
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Hudson River School Day
Thomas Cole and Frederick Edwin Church, the two most prominent Hudson River School painters, both had homes and studios in the Catskill area of New York. One summer day, I went up there to visit the two houses, which are now museums open to the public for tours. This was my experience.
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of Buen Retiro Park, Madrid
These gargoyles may not be on a building, but they are certainly serving their proper purpose. Located on the base of the Fountain of the Fallen Angel (Fuente del Ángel Caído) in Madrid’s Buen Retiro Park, these eight devil figures spit water out of their mouths and the mouths of their reptilian pets. The statue, designed…
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Houston Street by George Luks
George Luks (1866-1933) was an American social realist painter. He is known best for his images of New York City, specifically its working-class and immigrant neighborhoods, and his energetic style seems to suit these scenes’ vibrancy perfectly. He also studied and painted in Europe. Along with fellow American painters of urban life, Luks was part of the…
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of the Turnblad Mansion, Minneapolis
I belong to a wonderful group on Facebook called Mansions of the Gilded Age. Last month, I asked some of my fellow group members whether they knew of any gargoyles on Gilded Age homes. They came back with quite a few great examples, including the Turnblad Mansion in Minneapolis. Commissioned by Swedish-born newspaper publisher Swan Turnblad…
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Paris La Nuit by Charles Courtney Curran
I think there’s something quite fascinating about paintings of Europe by American artists. It’s interesting to compare how European cities look through American eyes with American scenes and with European artists’ representations of the same cities. Does a Frenchman represent Paris differently than an American? How does an American see London compared with how he sees New York? Since so many nineteenth…
