Hellhound - Oil study for Metropolitain

The Ghosts of the Metropolitain, a new selection under the Strange Visions gallery, required a ghost hellhound. This is an oil study of such a demented creature, one of the ghosts of the Paris Metropolitain

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The Coming Crisis in Art Criticism

Note: We are honored to re-publish this important article by Dr. Duphus-Jones, which was copied in its entirety and without permission from the website, ArtCrit2050.com. Dr. Duphus-Jones is professor emeritus of Art History at Aioleation College, England. He is past chairman of the Council on Aesthetic Non-Conformity and the author …

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Is Wall Art Dead?

Painting has a problem. Actually, all wall art has a problem. We’ve run out of walls. Is wall art dead? When I say we’ve run out of walls, I mean that here in America, and Europe is even worse, all the wall space is taken up. There is junk packed …

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Riff on Red

Red is primary. Red is real. Red is fun. I like red. A lot of artists don’t. They fear red. Red is powerful. Red is dangerous to sales. “You should only use just a little red, as an accent,” the teachers say. I found this description of red’s emotional nature …

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Why Is So Much Art So Boring?

  It’s not that I get bored easily. It’s just that most art I see bores me. Does that mean it’s boring? To me it is. I go in a gallery. Fifteen seconds is all I need to know if its art is boring. It almost always is. I’m speaking …

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Photography is Taking Over (and why this is a bad thing)

Go do the gallery scene. Once you saw paintings, sculpture. Now you see photos. Uhh…. excuse me, I mean Photography (capital “P”). Not just photography, but fine art photography. A recent crawl around San Fran on a first Thursday gallery night got me in a dither. Gallery after gallery was …

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A Little Fun with the Bigeye

Bigeyes bug the hell out of me. You see it all over, oversized eyes. Didn't that Keene guy start this horrible trend with his big-eyed waifs back in the 70s? I found this drawing in an old notebook - just a few quick lines - and thought I'd try to …

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What’s in a Name: what is an Outsider Artist?

Since I’ve already gnawed on Naïve Art, why not take on an even more vague term – Outsider Art?  In the voluminous literature on the subject, one immediately encounters several threads: what is outsider art?; how is it different than other related art forms like naïve, folk, etc.; what is …

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New Magazine Cover - The Monthly

The Berkeley art and culture monthly, The Monthly, ran The Three Vincents on its March 2011 cover. Many thanks to Adreas Jones and the staff of The Monthly.

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What’s In a Name – Is It Naïve or Something Else?

Last year I showed some prints of my paintings to my friend Peter Silverman, the noted Parisian renaissance art broker (who, incidentally, discovered the ‘Principessa’ attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci that was much in the news, and which I riffed on in the picture “The Princess in Black and Gold”  …

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Magick and Transformation in Jupiter7’s ‘Strange Visions’ Paintings

Magick and Transformation in Jupiter7’s ‘Strange Visions’ Paintings By Jacques Beauzot Another post from critic Jacques Beauzot. (reprinted and translated from the elusive guerilla Parisian online art journal, Art Primitif.) My recent fascination with Jupiter7 continues as I have had more opportunity to see the artist’s works in the original. …

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Expressions of an Inner Space – Jupiter7’s World of Wonders

By Peter Simplex, art editor Committee on Symbolic Activities   In one day, one hour really, my gloom about the state of painting lifted and I laughed. My brain laughed, and I got out a good belly laugh too. I entered the world of Jupiter7. This is a virtually unknown …

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New Review from Paris

One of my contacts in Europe alerted me to this post from the distinguished French “finder” and critic Jacques Beauzot. (reprinted and translated from the elusive guerilla Parisian online art journal, Art Primitif.) A Profound Look at Another Dimension By Jacques Beauzot A few days ago, while in Geneva, I …

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New picture - Village Life

New pic in town, or on the wall more accurately. I found this in a box, rolled up linen with a roughed-in design, must have been started sometime around 2000. I barely remembered it, but it looked like something I'd like to finish. Silly me! I thought it would take …

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Do Art Galleries Matter Any More?

I can’t help noticing that art galleries are closing in droves. In the USA, anyway. Maybe someone will comment on how things are in Europe, Japan or wherever. It’s easy to blame this on tough economic times, when spending on luxury items – even cheap luxury items like a small …

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What Thomas Kincade Can Show Us About Art and Happiness

I dig Thomas Kincade. Maybe not for the reason you think. I met him once, many years ago in Carmel before he got famous. He is said to live somewhere nearby, in the Santa Cruz mountains of northern California, but I have no idea where. It’s a big place, easy …

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Two Art Worlds - Which One Are You In?

In its Nov. 28th (2009) issue, the Economist magazine ran a special section on the art market. It was notable for its shameless pandering to the high end and its distaste for everything else. If we believe the Economist, there are really only four or five artists that matter: Andy …

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New Toy Portrait- Fly Away

Spring is definitely here in the Santa Cruz mountains, with the rain clouds nowhere in sight and the temperatures turning warm and sweet. I just added a new work to the Toy Portraits catalog - called Fly Away...http://www.charleslewisart.com/toy-portraits-paintings/detail/fly-away/. Fly Away is an encounter painting. The fun part of an encounter …

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What Is Good? Meditations On Power In Art

What is Good Art ? Thankfully we can’t ever define good and bad art. Actually, we personally can certainly know, or believe we know, what is good [to us]. But on a larger level, there is no criterion for good or bad. Few people even have the confidence to declare …

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What do we call them -  Prints or Reproductions?

From Zatista.com: What is the difference between a print and a reproduction? A true print for the purpose of our site is a work that the artist has created by hand, and is created in such a way as to preserve the intention of the original work, such as with …

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Wayne Thiebaud at the San Jose Museum of Art

I just came from the Wayne Thiebaud show at the San Jose Museum of Art. The SJMA is really cooking these days, with quality shows coming one after another. I’ve seen Thiebaud’s paintings in various places over the years, including a show of his “aerial” paintings of what appear to …

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Todd Schorr at the San Jose Museum of Art

The Todd Schorr show at the San Jose Museum of Art over the winter was an assault. The artist grabs you and wrings you out, then you stagger away, dazed. Mr. Schorr is important, a fact nicely recognized by the SJMA in this very large solo show, which gathers paintings …

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