A fine art, film, history and literature site oriented to, but not exclusively for, the gay community. Please be aware that there is mature content on this blog. Information on images and links to sources will be provided if known. Enjoy your visit and please subscribe.
Charles Keeping, Detail of the Illustration, 1970, “Hades’ Chariot” from the Book “The God Beneath the Sea”
“The God Benaeath the Sea” is a children’s novel based on Greek mythology, written by Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen, illustrated by Dharles Keeping, and published by Longman in 1970.
Dennis Campay, “Bull”, 2018, Ink on Paper, Private Collection
“Drawing holds a central place in my work. I have spoken of its role and uses both as its own and as a key part of my paintings and sculptures but most surely in my creative process. I have explored and investigated through drawing a language of marks that communicates different narratives which creates feelings, memories of environments and elements of things that we encounter in everyday life. My images represent a period of time-a glimpse into the ongoing evolution of a body of work. This creates a kaleidoscope of stories allowing the work to grow with the viewer through the lens of the experience of life.” -Dennis Campay
Watercolors by Philip Dunne
Phil Dunne is an illustrator from Dublin, Ireland, where he lives and works. He received his degree in Visual Communications in 2003 at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin. After graduating he started to build his portfolio with work on his clients’ projects.
Reblogged with thanks to https://k250966.tumblr.com
Six Chinese Ink Paintings by Wu Lan-Chiann
Originally from Taiwan, Wu Lan-Chiann now lives and works in California. She specializes in Chinese ink painting, taking century old techniques and presenting her art by connecting the East with the West; old traditional painting in a contemporary format.
Wu Lan-Chiann received her BFA -with highest honors- from the Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan. She holds a MA from New York University’s Fine Art Department.
At the core of Wu Lan-Chiann’s paintings is a personal contemplation of universal values and themes that connect people across time and place. While Wu Lan-Chiann’s sources of inspiration are broad and diverse, she creates work that centers on the essence and meaning of life. In her most recent work, she explores the rhythm of nature as an allegory for the human cycle of life.
Wu Lan-Chiann has exhibited her art and lectured on the subject of Chinese ink painting in the Los Angeles area, San Francisco, and well as in New York, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and Japan. Wu Lan-Chiann’s work is collected on four continents.
Paintings by Fabienne Verdier
Fabienne Verdier is an abstract painter who explores the dynamism of forces in nature, movement and immobility by drawing on her intimate knowledge of techniques and traditions of both Western and Eastern art.
As a young art school graduate, Verdier left France for China in 1985 to study the art of spontaneous painting and other Eastern traditions with some of the last great 
Chinese painters who survived the Cultural Revolution. Her adventure and immersion as an apprentice painter would last nearly ten years, recounted in her 2003 book, ‘Passagère du Silence’.
Verdier paints vertically in ink, standing directly on her stretchers, using giant brushes and tools of her own invention suspended from the studio ceiling. Her work combines Eastern aspects of unity, spontaneity and asceticism with the line, action and expression of Western painting.
Notes: Fabienne Verdier’s website, which includes several videos that present her exhibitions and follow her work process, is located at: http://fabienneverdier.com
Insert Image: Fabienne Verdier, “Color Flows 3”, 2012, Mixed Media on Canvas, 40 x 46 cm, Private Collection
, “Le Conservatoire”, Detail, Black and Red Ink, 1963, Centre Georges Pompidou
Nightonaut, “Kamperen aan Zee (Camping by the Seaside”, 2001, Ink Drawing
Hou Beiren, “Mountain Temple”, 2016, Ink and Color on Paper, 33 x 59 Inches, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, California
Hou Beiren was born in 1917 in Liaoning Province. A painter, scholar, author and poet who studied painting with Huang Binghong and Zheng Shiqiao, Hou Beiren’s art works embody the traditional Chinese literati spirit. Yet, Hou Beiren has adapted his style to today’s contemporary world. Hou Beiren is considered one of China’s last living master literati artists. His poetry pays homage to literati artists and poets of Chinese history and redefines the ancient form of literati painting style.
While in China, Hou Beiren was already a prolific writer. When Hou Beiren left China in 1949 and moved to Hong Kong for seven years, in addition to his artistic pursuits, he became one of the active leaders in the development of Hong Kong’s modern Chinese literature movement. He published several books and many articles under the names Hou Beiren (侯北人), Duan Muqing (端木青) and Hou Haiyu (侯海域). Hong Kong is also significant historically as the city where Hou Beiren and Zhang Daqian began their decades-long conversation, discovery and individual style development of “splash color ink” in Chinese painting.
As a resident of California since 1956, Hou Beiren made many trips to Yosemite Valley and other local natural sites for inspiration. There, he began to incorporate new innovations such as “wild cursive” (狂草) brush strokes, contemporary abstract structures, and a vibrant, contemporary color pallet.