Art Reflection – Caillebotte Gustave Caillebotte (1848 – 1894) was a French impressionist and avid gardener. In this work we see his garden, greenhouse and house in a remarkable and detailed composition. This scene is filled with the elements of art, the language of the artist. Here, line, shape, color, space, texture, perspective sing to us of a lovely late …

Art Reflection – Paulsen Sarah Paulsen (b. 1977) is an artist, filmmaker and community organizer living in St. Louis, Missouri. She paints from interest in diversity and exploration of her white privilege. Hearing once that “whiteness means not having to think about it” prompted her interest in the circumstance, culture and heritage of her life and the lives of others. …

Art Reflection – Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was a French artist who helped develop Impressionism. His innovation came in his use of color. Here we see his impression of a bouquet of roses in a piece that seems to glow in an almost overpowering manner. This image seems to meet our eyes before the page as it jumps into our …

Art Reflection – Gauguin French artist, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), led a rather disjointed life. He was a stockbroker first. He married a Danish woman, Matte-Sophie Gad and had five children. The stock market crashed in 1882 and the loss of his profession also eventually crashed his marriage. Gauguin decided to become a painter which his stern, conservative wife could not …

Art Reflection – Harker I would like to introduce you to the work of Charles Harker. He is a current emerging artist from the Phoenix, Arizona area. His works are stylized and abstracted through simplification, structure and pattern. In Wild Flowers we see flat, bowl-shaped and wedged flowers embellished with geometric design, all vaguely familiar and vaguely not. His use of color …

Art Reflection -Monet This beautiful summer scene is the creation of the beloved French Impressionist, Claude Monet. Monet and his family lived in Argenteuil from 1871-1878. This beautiful place provided him with much subject matter and helped him develop his impressionistic, plein air signature. Poppy Field near Argenteuil seems a breath of fresh summer air with beauty of sky and field, …

Art Reflection – Kandinsky Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866. He was educated at the Odesa Art School and then pursued law and economics at the University of Moscow. He was successful in law and academia. He began painting at 30 and found success there, also becoming a pioneer of abstraction and a prominent art theorist. Kandinsky of …

Art Reflection – Clausell The French Impressionist Movement had a far-reaching influence on the art of its time. Their fresh view of the world around us with attention to light and air gave us this work by Mexican artist Joaquin Clausell (1866-1935). Clausell has been referred to as the most prominent Mexican Impressionist. Clausell has an interesting story. He was …

Art Reflection – Bernini Gian Lorenzo Bernini was a sculptor and architect of the Italian Baroque period. He was closely associated with the church of his time. He designed the colonnade enclosing the piazza at Saint Peter’s Basilica and was also thought to be the leading sculptor of his age. Here in marble he shows us Saint Bibiana. This statue …

Art Reflection – Feininger Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) was a painter of the Cubism Movement. He sought to simplify his subjects by reducing these to geometric shapes. In The Bicycle Race, which is part of the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., he shows us abstracted bicyclists floating on a surreal plane without a horizon line. Both soft and …