Category: Art

  • Sophonisba Anguisciola and Livinia Fontana, 16th c. Italian Painters

    December 2019

    These two women are currently exhibited at El Prado in Madrid, which I attended recently.  It is a large collection.  Unfortunately they do not allow photos.  You can see a few more at their website El Prado expos.

    Lavinia Fontana (1552 – 1614) was trained by her father Prospero Fontana of the well known School of Bologna.  She worked in Bologna and Rome. She relied on commissions for her income, difficult for anyone, more so for a woman.  She was perhaps the first woman to do so.  It allowed her to support her agent husband and their eleven children.   She painted female nudes, also perhaps a first for women.  

     

    She began her commercial practice by painting small devotional paintings on copper.   Christ with the Symbols of the Passion (1576 age 24) , is now in the El Paso Museum of Art.  By the 1580s she was well known as a portrait painter in Bologna, often developing close friendships with her paying subjects.  She moved on to large religious and mythological works where in another likely first she included female nudes.

     

    Self-Portrait at the Clavichord with a Servant, 1577 considered her masterpiece
     

    Pope Clement VIII invited her to Rome in 1603.  The family moved with her.  She became the portrait painter,  painting Pope Paul V among others. 

     
    Lavinia Fontana, Minerva Dressing, 1613, now in the Borghese Palace

     

    I have written previously of the next painter.  See Sophonisba

     

    Three Sisters Playing Chess
    Three Sisters Playing Chess, Sofonisba’s masterpiece
     

  • Hungarian Woman 111

    Acrylics, 20 x 24,” 50 x 60 cm

    This is based on a portrait of a friend.  Despite all the decoration she is still clearly there!  

  • Plaza Redonda in Valencia

     
    Near Plaza- Redonda, Valencia
    Near Plaza- Redonda, Valencia, watercolor, 11.5 x 16.5

     “Plaza Redondo in Valencia.” 30 x 40 cm, 11.5 x 16.5′  Watercolor I did several years ago, when I was going round with a group of Spanish watercolor artists.   I  published a small illustrated book about the Spanish city which you can read for free   https://garyjkirkpatrick.com/valencia-city-on-the-med/ .

  • Carmen Stretches Forward

    Carmen Stretches Forward, pen and ink, 21 x 29 cm, 8.25 x 11″

  • Tubas at the Palau, acrylics

    Tubas at the Palau, acrylics, 57 x 76 cm, 22.5″ x 30″ Arches paper

    This is another in a series of paintings based on pen and ink drawings done at the Palau de la Musica.   There are normally tuba and contrabass sections of these symphonic bands.   

    tubas sm
    The original drawing. Contact me for availability

  • In Vincent’s Field

    This is after Van Gogh’s “Wheat Field with a Lark,”   It is the fifth in the series, starring my wife Peg and my friend Vincent. 

    In vincent's field sm
    in Vincent’s Field, acrylics on Archers, 57 x 76 cm, 22.5 x 30”

  • Trump: The Call Was Perfect. Let me prove it.

     

     

    Digital painting, prints only

  • Portrait of Van Gogh as a Young Man

    I did this pencil portrait from a photo of Van Gogh that was hanging in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.  It’s a bit hard to believe he was ever this healthy in appearance.  His self portraits reveal his struggle for mental health and artistic achievement.  

     

    Van Gogh as a Young Man

  • Frank Kirkpatrick

    Frank Kirkpatrick, my father, here age 73. Today is Veteran’s Day in the US. He served in WW2, fighting the Nazis. He landed in Le Harvre during the invasion. He achieved the rank of Sargent. Thank you for your service to our country and our allies. 

     

     

    Frank M. Kirkpatrick, graphite portrait

  • Carmen Stretches

    Carmen Stretches, pen and ink, 21 x 29 cm, 8.25 x 11″ SOLD
    Carmen is one of my favorite models. She’s lanky, a ballerina with great stretching poses.  As you can see, this had to be quickly done.   Sometimes you get the best results when you do not have much time.