"Art Now and Then" does not mean art occasionally. It means art NOW as opposed to art THEN. It means art in 2020 as compared to art many years ago...sometimes many, many, MANY years ago. It is an attempt to make that art relevant now, letting artists back then speak to us now in the hope that we may better understand them, and in so doing, better understand ourselves and the art produced today.
Click on photos to enlarge.
Thursday, June 1, 2017
June Paintings
Copyright, Jim Lane
Three A.M. ca. 1982, Jim Lane
Father's Day, weddings, vacations, summer, beaches, not the most exciting lineup of painting subjects for the month of June, but better by far than the "dog days' of August or the dreary days of September. When I went searching through my own archive of photographic evidence for my own June paintings, I was startled to realized only a couple beach scenes, and fewer still of other reminders of Junes past. I did, however, find quite a number of scenes of fathers being fathers, any of which would suffice for a Father's Day card. My favorite I titled Three A.M. (above) though this was a scene I don't recall ever having endured myself.
The Colors of Summer, Sally Swatland
In looking over the vast quantity of June paintings by other artist I found surprisingly few dealing with Father's Day while the majority depicted the "lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer." I always loved that old Nat King Cole song (click below). Sally Swatland's The Colors of Summer (above) brings forth memories of summers past...a little too far past for my memories, but nonetheless, June at its best.
From a BBC Special, Summer, 1963
June weddings have long been the province of photographers far more than painters, though I found one enterprising artist willing to "perform" at a wedding reception painting one of several standard wedding scene portraits for the entertainment of guests. Of course, back before wedding photography became popular, there were artists who specialized in weddings (though not painting them on location). The British painter, Henry Frederick Bacon's The Wedding Morning (below) from 1892, is one such work.
The Wedding Morning, 1892, Henry Frederick Bacon.
In a more modern vein, the digital artist, Zhaana, came up with her own version, of an old wedding tradition painted digitally in a far more contemporary style. The Wedding Dance on the Beach (below) depicts the newlywed couple's first dance as husband and wife. It became the cover for the reception menu. Judging by the umbrellas, make that a "rainy" wedding dance on the beach.
Wedding Dance on the Beach, Zhaana, loosely based on Jack Vettriano's The Singing Butler.
I would be negligent not to include Norman Rockwell's take on the month of June as seen in his Saturday Evening Post cover, of June 6, 1956, titled, The Graduate, in which he starkly superimposes an innocent-looking, wide-eyed, college (or possibly high school) graduate over the news headlines of the day. HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!
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