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Art Studio of Garric Simonsen
Here's another
artist's studio. This is the workspace of American artist Garric Simonsen. If you like Cy Twombly or Willem de Kooning you'll enjoy browsing through Garric's work on his website.
See Garric's paintings and works on paper at his Website Here.
See more
Art Studio photos.
Being in the Flow or the Zone
Here's an interesting quote from Robert Genn's latest newsletter called "Transartistic meditation," which is something like Transcendental Meditation.
"Studies of "flow" and "the zone" have been done using all stripes of artists. This is where the artist gets into a relaxed, intuitive state somewhere deep down in the lizard brain and the good stuff rains down like ripe pomegranates. Tired of rotten apples, I was curious about these concepts as well." Robert Genn
I have never been able to figure why artists would want to waste their time meditating as they drink from the same pond while they have their tools in their hand. It may be an active form of meditation, especially if you're an expressionist of any kind, but you're forced to hang out in places that zen monks would be comfortable in. Personally, I think it's why so many artists suffer from depression or are just downright wacky; as they can't handle being in that space. You have to look at yourself naked in silence, which is why television, radio, and any other distractions are so popular with society.
FBI Top 10 Art Thefts
Art crime is big business with an estimated $6 billion in losses annually! Here's a list of the FBI's Top 10 art crimes at the moment..
Iraqi Looted and Stolen Artifacts - The significant Statue of Entemena was recovered in 2006 but there are still many pieces missing.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft - Thieves stole as much as $300 million worth of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston in 1990 with paintings by Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Manet being among them.
Theft of Caravaggio's Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco - Back in 1969 thieves stole Caravaggio's Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco from the Oratory of San Lorenzo, Palermo, Italy.
Theft of the Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius - In 1995 the Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius violin worth $3 million was stolen from the violinist Erica Morini's New York City apartment.
The Van Gogh Museum Robbery - Two paintings by Vincent van Gogh called "View of the Sea at Scheveningen" and "Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen" were stolen from the Vincent Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam in 2002 and have never been recovered, even though the two thieves were caught.
Theft of Cezanne's View of Auvers-sur-Oise - Paul Cezanne's View of Auvers-sur-Oise was taken from the the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England in 1999.
Theft of the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Murals, Panels 3-A and 3-B - Two Maxfield Parrish panels were cut from their frames in West Hollywood, California in 2002.
Theft from the Museu Chacara do Céu - In 2006 four paintings were stolen from the Museu Chacara do Céu, Rio de Janeiro. They included work by Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso.
Theft of Van Mieris's A Cavalier - A self portrait by the Dutch Master Frans Van Mieris was stolen from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney in 2007. It was taken in broad daylight, while the museum was open.
Theft from E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich - The E.G. Bührle Collection in Zurich, Switzerland had 4 works stolen in 2008, with two important painting by Paul Cezanne and Edgar Degas still missing.
The FBI top ten list has changed a little from back in 2005.
Art Studios and Workspaces
I enjoy looking through artist studios so much that I decided to make it a semi-regular thing. So if you have a few photos of your art studio or workspace and would like to share them, please
send them to me.
Make sure the images are under 1mb in size as they don't have to be MASSIVE and my inbox clogs up. Include a short paragraph about your space if you wish and your website address if you have one. Artist studios from all creative people are welcome and it doesn't have to be a beautiful working space.. it just has to work for you.
Here's the studios so far (listed alphabetically so that my studio is conveniently placed at the top..lol)
Dion Archibald's Painting Studio - Working space of an Australian artist.
Jessica Burko's Artist Studio - Mixed media artist based in Boston, MA, USA.
Leith O'Malley's Art Studio - Australian painter based in South Australia.
Gail Sauter's Painting Studio - American painter working in Maine, USA.
Garric Simonsen's Art Studio - Studio of an American artist in Washington.
Do Hoang Tuong Painting Studio - Vietnamese artist working in Saigon, Vietnam.
I'll add to the list as artists
send them in (I have a few other studios to add at the moment.. be patient if you have sent photos as I will post them)
Gail Sauter's Painting Studio
Here's another artist's studio. This one belongs to Maine artist Gail Sauter.
So many artists that I know have dogs hanging around their studios. Painters seem to be dog people more than cat people.
And little gems like this come out of her studio..
Update: Here's a few more photos of Gail's art studio (which was originally a Victorian Dry Goods Store) and her studio pooch. Gail says
"I don’t get a lot of foot traffic here in Kittery, but that allows me to work and hanging out my welcome flag does draw in a sale now and then. I do think that we, as artists, are largely invisible to the public and that it is good to have open studios etc."

Outside view of the studio with the welcome flag out.
See more paintings by Gail Sauter at her website here and/or read her blog here.
Jessica Burko's Art Studio
Jessica Burko is an artist based in Boston, MA, USA and creates photographic mixed-media works on wood, and is currently working on a series of paper quilts called "In Stitches".
She has kindly sent in a few photos of her studio. It looks much cleaner and more ordered
than my studio.
To see what comes out of Jessica Burko's artist studio see her website here.
Artist Studios
I have been spending quite a bit of time in the studio lately, which is one reason why I haven't been updating the blog as much (the other reason is laziness). I'm painting a bit of everything with no real focus, but I'm having fun which is the most important thing. I counted the paintings I'm working on at the moment and found that I have 21 pictures in various stages of completion, so I'm definitely not starting any new ones until I start finishing a few!
What does your studio look like?
If you send me a few (smallish) photos of your art studio I might post them. I love seeing other artist studios, it's like reading the artist's diary.
Here's a few pics from this afternoon..

T-bone steaks, mince meat and potatoes.

Paintings and easel.

Paints, brushes, and phone.

Tiger comes down to check on me and remind me that I have to feed her while her owner is away.

Landscape, Melbourne scene and meat.

Self portrait (in need of a shave).

Portrait and box of canvases.

Sydney cityscape.
Here's some of my older paintings online.
Madonna Nude

The nude Madonna and Guy Ritchie painting by Peter Howson ended up selling this week. It failed to sell at a recent contemporary Scottish art auction by McTear's Auctioneers in Glasgow but has since been sold for more than the £15,000 reserve price.
McTear's employee Brian Clements told the BBC
"We were very confident we would find the right buyer for 'Madonna and Guy' and we are delighted to have secured such an excellent price for the painting. Although we cannot divulge the name of the buyer, we can confirm that the painting will be leaving Scotland."
The 2005 nude portrait of Madonna and her ex husband Guy Ritchie is one from a series of the famous singer by Peter Howson. It's not what I would call a flattering naked portrait of Madonna. She looks like a transvestite with funny fingers if you ask me.
Also in the UK, in Brighton, England the Impure Gallery (which calls itself
"a naughty little gallery") is showing some nude photographs of the young Madonna from 1979. New York Photographer, Martin Schreiber got Madonna to pose naked for just $30. I'm guessing that he would have to add at least a few zeros to that price to get the now super-famous Madonna to get naked.

Madonna Nude by Martin Schreiber

Madonna Naked by Martin Schreiber
Top 200 20th Century Artists?
The Times and Saatchi gallery have compiled 1,461,523 votes from the public to come up with a list of the 200 top artists of the 20th Century. It's a method that has flaws as some artists will be missing and other artists will get more attention than they really deserve, but any list compiled by anyone is flawed as lists are an art rather than a science. They're not meant to be taken too seriously.
1 Pablo Picasso 21587
2 Paul Cezanne 21098
3 Gustav Klimt 20823
4 Claude Monet 20684
5 Marcel Duchamp 20647
6 Henri Matisse 17096
7 Jackson Pollock 17051
8 Andy Warhol 17047
9 Willem De Kooning 17042
10 Piet Mondrian 17028
11 Paul Gauguin 17027
12 Francis Bacon 17018
13 Robert Rauschenberg 16956
14 Georges Braque 16788
15 Wassily Kandinsky 16055
16 Constantin Brancusi 14224
17 Kasimir Malevich 13609
18 Jasper Johns 12988
19 Frida Kahlo 12940
20 Martin Kippenberger 12784
21 Paul Klee 12750
22 Egon Schiele 12696
23 Donald Judd 12613
24 Bruce Nauman 12517
25 Alberto Giacometti 12098
26 Salvador Dalí 11496
27 Auguste Rodin 8989
28 Mark Rothko 8951
29 Edward Hopper 8918
30 Lucian Freud 8897
31 Richard Serra 8858
32 Rene Magritte 8837
33 David Hockney 8787
34 Philip Guston 8786
35 Henri Cartier-Bresson 8779
36 Pierre Bonnard 8778
37 Jean-Michel Basquiat 8746
38 Max Ernst 8737
39 Diane Arbus 8733
40 Georgia O'Keeffe 8714
41 Cy Twombly 8708
42 Max Beckmann 8690
43 Barnett Newman 8643
44 Giorgio De Chirico 8462
45 Roy Lichtenstein 7441
46 Edvard Munch 5080
47 Pierre Auguste Renoir 5063
48 Man Ray 5050
49 Henry Moore 5045
50 Cindy Sherman 5041
51 Jeff Koons 5028
52 Tracey Emin 4961
53 Damien Hirst 4960
54 Yves Klein 4948
55 Henri Rousseau 4944
56 Chaim Soutine 4927
57 Arshile Gorky 4926
58 Amedeo Modigliani 4924
59 Umberto Boccioni 4918
60 Jean Dubuffet 4910
61 Eva Hesse 4908
62 Edouard Vuillard 4899
63 Carl Andre 4898
64 Juan Gris 4898
65 Lucio Fontana 4896
66 Franz Kline 4894
67 David Smith 4842
68 Joseph Beuys 4480
69 Alexander Calder 3241
70 Louise Bourgeois 3240
71 Marc Chagall 3224
72 Gerhard Richter 3123
73 Balthus 3090
74 Joan Miro 3087
75 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 3084
76 Frank Stella 3078
77 Georg Baselitz 3048
78 Francis Picabia 3046
79 Jenny Saville 3034
80 Dan Flavin 3024
81 Alfred Stieglitz 3017
82 Anselm Kiefer 3010
83 Matthew Barney 3005
84 George Grosz 2990
85 Bernd And Hilla Becher 2980
86 Sigmar Polke 2966
87 Brice Marden 2947
88 Maurizio Cattelan 2940
89 Sol LeWitt 2926
90 Chuck Close 2915
91 Edward Weston 2899
92 Joseph Cornell 2893
93 Karel Appel 2890
94 Bridget Riley 2885
95 Alexander Archipenko 2884
96 Anthony Caro 2879
97 Richard Hamilton 2878
98 Clyfford Still 2864
99 Luc Tuymans 2862
100 Claes Oldenburg 2843
101 Eduardo Paolozzi 2839
102 Frank Auerbach 2836
103 Dinos and Jake Chapman 2827
104 Marlene Dumas 2827
105 Antoni Tapies 2825
106 Giorgio Morandi 2824
107 Walker Evans 2823
108 Nan Goldin 2819
109 Robert Frank 2818
110 Georges Rouault 2818
111 Jean Arp 2817
112 August Sander 2809
113 James Rosenquist 2808
114 Andreas Gursky 2804
115 Eugene Atget 2802
116 Jeff Wall 2790
117 Ellsworth Kelly 2789
118 Bill Brandt 2787
119 Christo And Jeanne Claude 2782
120 Howard Hodgkin 2781
121 Josef Albers 2781
122 Piero Manzoni 2777
123 Agnes Martin 2771
124 Anish Kapoor 2768
125 L.S. Lowry 2761
126 Robert Motherwell 2754
127 Robert Delaunay 2747
128 Stuart Davis 2742
129 Ed Ruscha 2731
130 Gilbert & George 2729
131 Stanley Spencer 2720
132 James Ensor 2719
133 Fernand Leger 2718
134 Brassai (Gyula Halasz) 2717
135 Alexander Rodchenko 2715
136 Robert Ryman 2711
137 Ad Reinhardt 2709
138 Hans Bellmer 2700
139 Isa Genzken 2699
140 Kees Van Dongen 2698
141 Weegee 2698
142 Paula Rego 2695
143 Thomas Hart Benton 2689
144 Hans Hofmann 2684
145 Vladimir Tatlin 2679
146 Odilon Redon 2653
147 George Segal 2619
148 Jorg Immendorff 2611
149 Robert Smithson 2435
150 Peter Doig 2324
151 Ed and Nancy Kienholz 2293
152 Richard Prince 2266
153 Ansel Adams 2262
154 Naum Gabo 2256
155 Diego Rivera 2239
156 Barbara Hepworth 2237
157 Nicolas De Stael 2237
158 Walter De Maria 2229
159 Felix Gonzalez-Torres 2228
160 Giacomo Balla 2225
161 Ben Nicholson 2221
162 Anthony Gormley 2218
163 Lyonel Feininger 2216
164 Emil Nolde 2213
165 Mark Wallinger 2211
166 Hermann Nitsch 2209
167 Paul Signac 2209
168 Jean Tinguely 2209
169 Kurt Schwitters 2209
170 Grayson Perry 2208
171 Julian Schnabel 2208
172 Raymond Duchamp-Villon 2208
173 Robert Gober 2208
174 Duane Hanson 2208
175 Richard Diebenkorn 2207
176 Alex Katz 2207
177 Alighiero E Boetti 2206
178 Henri Gaudier-Brzeska 2206
179 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy 2205
180 Jacques-Henri Lartigue 2205
181 Robert Morris 2205
182 Sarah Lucas 2204
183 Jannis Kounellis 2204
184 Chris Burden 2204
185 Otto Dix 2203
186 David Bomberg 2203
187 Fischli & Weiss 2203
188 Augustus John 2203
189 Marsden Hartley 2203
190 Takashi Murakami 2203
191 James Turrell 2202
192 Isamu Noguchi 2201
193 Robert Mangold 2201
194 John Chamberlain 2201
195 Charles Demuth 2200
196 John Currin 2200
197 Alberto Burri 2200
198 Arnulf Rainer 2200
199 David Salle 2200
200 Hiroshi Sugimoto 2199
Find out more about the top 200 20th century artists over at the TimesOnline and at Saatchi.
A Guide to North American Birds by Matt Sesow
Before I went on my
recent road trip I received a painting by Washington, DC. artist Matt Sesow called "A Guide to North American Birds." I have a thing for birds and a thing for quirkiness so I really like the painting. I also buy art that I couldn't or wouldn't paint myself, so I end up buying bright, bold and colorful paintings which are in contrast to my own paintings that are almost colorless.

Guide to North American Birds - Matt Sesow
I bought these smaller works from Matt too..

Traumatized - Matt Sesow

Cardinal - Matt Sesow
Matt Sesow's website can be found Here. I also mentioned a
video by Matt Sesow earlier.
Art Jobs Board
ArtInfo's jobs board is now online. They're listing art jobs, internships, artist residencies, artist opportunities, artist calls for entry and more.
Here's some more info from Art Info..
"One of the strengths of ARTINFO is our network and our commitment to institutions and individuals within the art world. Because we realize the months ahead will continue to be challenging, we extend this offer to you to post your opportunity free of charge.
ARTINFO has a targeted audience of engaged art world individuals who interact on many different levels and within many different regions of the world. We have a global focus, but advocate a localized point of view. During this time, we would like to help you - our network - connect with potential opportunities" View their art jobs board here.