Month: August 2015

Bastille, “Flaws”

Bastille, “Flaws”, Recorded at Abbey Road Studios

Bastille (stylised as BΔSTILLE) are an English indie band formed in 2010. They began as a solo project by singer-songwriter Dan Smith, who later decided to form a band. The four-piece is completed by Chris ‘Woody’ Wood, William Farquarson and Kyle Simmons. They recently added a touring member to the band, Charlie Barnes. The name of the band derives from Bastille Day, which is celebrated on 14 July, Smith’s birthday.

After an independently released debut single and a self-released EP, the band signed to Virgin Records. Their first studio album, Bad Blood, was released in March 2013 and entered the UK Albums Chart at number 1. The band was nominated for four Brit Awards at the 2014 ceremony, winning the British Breakthrough Act. As of November 2014, Bastille have sold over 5 million records in the US and 2.5 million records in the UK alone.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

David Ligare

David Ligare, “The Cane Gatherer”, 2010-14, Oil on Canvas, 152.4 x 228.6 cm, Private Collection

David Ligare is an American contemporary realist painter. Since 1978, he has focused on painting still lifes, landscapes, and figures that are influenced by Greco-Roman antiquity. Chief among his stated influences are the aesthetic and philosophical theories of the Greek sculptor Polykleitos and the mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras, as well as the work of the 17th-century classical painter Nicolas Poussin. A resident of Salinas, California, his paintings often depict the terrain of the central Californian coast in the background.

Super Heros

The Art Deco Style: Super Hero Posters

Design influences were many, from the modern art movements of Cubism, Futurism and Constructivism to ancient geometric design elements from the exotic cultures of Egypt, Assyria and Persia. In poster art, precursors of Art Deco were the German Plakatstil, the Viennese Secession, the Deutscher Werkbund, and the Parisian fashion design revolution which commenced in 1908.

The style received its name from the Decorative Arts Exposition of Paris in 1925.This exposition marked the mature phase of Art Deco design, a style that by that point had become very popular and widely recognized. Simplification and abstraction were always hallmarks of Art Deco, although the soft elegance and exoticism of its early days yielded to a more muscular and forceful style in the ‘30s.

Many of these posters are available in editions.

Robert Riggs

Robert Riggs, “Roman Nose, the Famous Cheyenne Warrior in the Full Battle Regalia of the Elk Soldiers”, Oil Painting on Board, Date Unknown

This remarkable painting by the well-known artist and illustrator, Robert Riggs, depicts famous Cheyenne warrior Roman Nose in battle, dressed in the full regalia of the Elk Soldier warrior society. A dramatic, powerful image, it is one of a handful of paintings by Riggs.

Robert Riggs (1896-1970) was in his heyday one of the best-known artists and illustrators in the United States. After studies at the Art Students League and service during World War I, Riggs settled in Philadelphia, his home base for the rest of his life. In the 1930s and ‘40s he rose to national prominence as an illustrator, lithographer, and commercial artist, producing well-known images of boxers and circuses (two life-long obsessions), and of soldiers during World War II.

John Pierre Simon

John Pierre Simon, Lithograph, “Angels” from “Paradise Lost”, 1794 Publishing Date

Born in London, it is believed Jean Pierre Simon studied stippling techniques under Francesco Bartolozzi. Early in his career he engraved plates for Worlidge’s, Antique Gems. By 1790 Jean Pierre Simon had established himself as one of England’s finest stipple engravers and was commissioned to create engravings after such contemporary artists as Gainsborough, Reynolds, Fuseli and Wheatley. Jean Pierre Simon’s abilities to capture strong tonal values and contrasts placed his art in great demand and John Boydell frequently commissioned him to produce engravings for both his ‘Shakespeare’ and ‘Milton’ sets.

“The Poetical Works of John Milton” was published in three parts in 1794, 1795 and 1797. Sparing no expense, Boydell commissioned George Romney to design a portrait plate and Richard Westall to design images illustrating each part of Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained as well as the more famous individual poems. The engravers included Richard Earlom, Thomas Kirk, J. P. Simon, Benjamin Smith, M. Haughton, Dutterau and John Ogborne.

The Milton prints were constructed almost solely in the stipple technique. Stippling reached its golden age in late eighteenth century England. The technique was promoted and taught by Francesco Bartolozzi (Venice, 1727 – London, 1815). Briefly, stippling was a tonal method where the image was created not with solid lines but with a multitude of dots or flicks. Under a master’s hand, stippling magnificently captured tonal values by contrasting areas of light and shade. Unfortunately it was most laborious and quickly became extinct with advances in aquatint engraving in the early nineteenth century. Yet to this day some of the most subtle and sensual engravings in the history of British art belong to the stipple engravers of the late eighteenth century.