An Artist Who Inspires- Arvie Smith

Arvie Smith (born 1938) is a nationally recognized African American painter based in my hometown of Portland, Oregon.

Arvie Smith, Ease on Down the Road, 30x22

There is a nice little bio of him here on the Hallie Ford Museum website, where he is having an exhibition from January 22- March 26th, 2022.

Smith's work is so, so, so many things. 

Arvie Smith, Dem Golden Slippers, 2007 68x68

Some words I think of when seeing his work:

Arvie Smith, Steppin' Out, 30x22

Beautiful

Sad

Ironic

Tragic

Funny

Sensual

Alive

Courageous 

Sharp

Glorious   

 

 

The figures in his paintings shift from being vivid individuals, to embodying biting racist tropes, and back again.  He celebrates Black culture and tradition, and in the same image crams racist symbols from the larger, white dominated culture. These images live side by side in the same painting, which is what I imagine it may be like for African Americans every day, all day long.

Arvie Smith BestMan 2016 72x60

As a "nice white lady" my impulse is to avert my eyes from the ugly racist images, and yet, Arvie Smith's paintings are just so gorgeous, so funny and alive, I cannot help but bask in them. I must look and look and look. 

Arvie Smith, Honkie Tonk, 68x78 2015

Seeing these paintings on your tiny phone or desk top will in no way indicate what it is like to see them in person. They fairly leap off the wall at you, and they seem to pulse with color and light. 

His website is here: www.arviesmith.com

Arvie Smith Scare Crow 2016 60x48

Arvie Smith, Trial of Tears 68x60

Arvie Smith 68x60 diptic right

An Artist Who Inspires- Leland Bell

In my current work in progress, I have been toying around with a bright window behind my protagonist. This is inspired by the great Leland Bell. ⁠
*I should note that there is another artist named Leland Bell who's work is inspired from his Native American heritage, and his work looks very different than the Leland Bell I am referring to. ⁠

 Leland Bell, Morning III 1985 Acrylic on canvas, 62x43

Leland Bell (September 17, 1922 – September 18, 1991) was an American painter, who was introduced to me as an art student at Queens College in NYC. (In fact, a may have even met him at an opening for his wife, artist Louisa Matthíasdóttir… it was so darn long ago, I can’t be sure!)

Leland Bell, Frank O'Brian, 1979, Acrylic on canvas, 24x32

Leland Bell, Morning II 1985 Acrylic on canvas, 74x58

Bell has been a guide and an inspiration for me for so many years, I find it surprising to see that there is an absolute dirge of information and images about him on the internet. I was always under the impression that he was famous.

Leland Bell, Skull and Plant, 1978, Acrylic on canvas 40x42

Leland Bell, Three Figures with Butterfly 1979-82, 52x102

Leland Bell, Ulla and Frank Playing Cards, 1975-78, Oil on canvas, 52x64

One of the things I share with Leland Bell is his obsessive repetition of certain themes, creating many versions of the same basic image. He also sometimes worked on one painting for many years. ⁠
I love the way he simplifies, his use of that heavy black line, and his compositions. I refer to him often as I am working on my art.⁠

Leland Bell, Morning V 1985 Acrylic on canvas 71x56

Ulla, Temma, and Frank, 1978, Oil on canvas, 72x66

An Artist Who Inspires- Marc Chagall

Today is the last day of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. In celebration of this, I am featuring Marc Chagall.

Marc Chagall The Birthday 1915

 Marc Chagall is one of the twentieth century’s most famous artists, and probably the most famous artist that is associated with being Jewish. He is considered a Modernist, a Cubist, a Symbolist, a Fauvist, and sometimes “Naïve” painter, who is also well known for his stained glass windows.

Marc Chagall I and the Village 1911

He was born in 1887 in Belarus, and migrated to France in 1910. He escaped Nazi persecution to the US in 1941, returning to France in 1948, where he lived the rest of his very long life, dying in 1985. 

Marc Chagall The Fiddler 1913

 
His subject matter is wide and free-wheeling, and although he was not a practicing Jew, he wove images of the memories of his Hasidic upbringing in Belarus when he was young.

Marc Chagall Solitude 1933

 I am inspired by Chagall’s work and sometimes wish I could break up space with such aplomb. 

 

I love the air of mystery, sadness, joy, romance and spiritualism that his work combines. Maybe someday I will get there, too!

Aleko and-His Wife Zemphira from an Old Russian Tale

Marc Chagall Blue Village 1975

Marc Chagall The Circus 1964

 

An Artist Who Inspires- Vilhelm Hammershøi

There is something so very intriguing and mysterious about viewing someone’s back.

A lot of images in my art depict people’s backs. 

First of all, they are interesting visually, because they are the least body-like body-part. They are like a wall, or a blank page. There is an inherent tension created by being in someone’s presence, yet not being able to discern their expression, like they have closed eyes, or are wearing a mask. 

I recently found a postcard I have had for years. Before the internet, anytime I went to a museum, I would buy a slew of postcards to take home with me, because collecting images didn’t just happen with the click of a button.

This postcard says it was produced by The Louvre. This means I bought it around 1998. I’ve had it in my possession ever since. I was drawn to its elegance, simplicity and mystery.

Vilhelm Hammershøi was born in 1864 in Copenhagen, Denmark. His style is distinctive and consistent. His landscape are muted and empty, and even when he painted citiscapes, he found an unusual point of view to express an atmosphere of mystery. But he is best known for his interiors, and the multiple depictions of people’s backs, particularly the nape of a woman’s nape neck.
 

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Rest

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Ida Sitting and Reading

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Bedroom

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Ida, Interior with a White Chair

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Figures By the Window

An Artist Who Inspires- Suzanne Valadon

On my social media I often share posts about other artists who inspire me. I have decided to start a blog post series based on the same thing. Here is the first installment.

An Artist Who Inspires- Suzanne Valadon

Suzanne Valadon has what might be the coolest biography anyone could hope for.
She was born named Marie-Clémentine Valadon in Montmartre district of Paris. 

What is Montmartre? The site of the famous Moulin Rouge, and an incubator of art and culture. A partial list of artists who hung out there over the years include Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, van Gogh, Raoul Dufy, Picasso, Les Nabis (Vuillard, Bonnard), Matisse, André Derain, and later Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, and Django Reinhardt.
And yes, she was born there! 

She was very poor, and her father is unknown. She quit school at age 11 and by age 15 was an acrobat at the famous Cirque Fernando. An acrobat!

Paintings of the Cirque by Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas

But very soon after she started, she fell from a Trapeze, injuring her back, and that was the end of that. 

She started modeling for artists, such as Puvis de Chavannes, Renoir, and Toulouse-Lautrec. During this time, she gained the nickname "Suzanne" after the biblical story of Susanna and the Elders (a story where dirty old men spy on a naked young woman). 

Paintings of Suzanne Valadon by Toulouse-Lautrec

Valadon by Renoir- him, being Renoir, may have idealized her just a bit.

 While observing her artist employers, she began to teach herself how to draw, and then paint. Degas, in particular, encouraged her and bought her work. She became an accomplished and respected artist. 

Etude de Chat by Suzanne Valadon

Valadon’s work seems to be mostly post-impressionism, but she really stood out because of the subjects she was willing to handle. 

Most female painters at that time, such as Cassatt and Morisot confined themselves to landscape, still life, and domestic scenes involving children and women. Valadon painted all these subjects, as well...  but she also did nudes.

Reclining Nude by Suzanne Valadon

 Nudes nudes nudes. She did nude women, but did not idealize their bodies.

The Blue Room by Suzanne Valadon

She did self portraits and recorded her aging face.

Self portraits by Suzanne Valadon

 She drew her son as he bathed or slept.

My Son Utrillo by Suzanne Valadon

 And she painted nude men, unheard of at that time, and one of the first and few examples of a man being seen through the “female gaze”.

Casting the Net by Valadon- model is her husband Andre Utter

At 18, Valadon had a son who also became a famous painter, Maurice Utrillo. She married twice, once to a wealthy banker, and then to a man 21 years younger than she, Andre Utter. She died of a stroke in 1938 at age 72.
To top off the world’s coolest biography, she also has a crater on Venus named after her. And an asteroid.
How cool is that?