Painted by Ruth Peabody in 1925, this painting is apparently showing a pensive looking women planning what meal to cook. Peabody gave the painting to Laguna Art Museum in 1966 and I liked the pose and look of the woman in the artwork. Although, as ever, I’m confused as to why the items on the table are painted in what I consider a clunky way which is out of perspective, but I’m sure it’s very artistic indeed.
This is a quirky piece of artwork and one which I thought was actually quite thought provoking. It relates to the 1980 Canyon Project in Laguna Beach and the artists wanted to show that the area was important environmentally. So the artists collected a load of trash from along the road and they then arranged it on light-sensitive paper. It’s apparently a Cibachrome photograph, although that’s not something I’ve ever heard of.
Sadly the artists have both died now, Jerry Burchfield in 2009 and Mark Chamberlain in 2018, but the artwork feels modern and contemporary even though it dates to 1988. Dominating the section of the gallery that it’s located in, the artwork is fifteen feet wide and five feet high and is split into seven sections.
Paul Lauritz was a Norwegian painter who ended up in California, with his desert paintings apparently being his strong-point. After trying to find money in gold prospecting, he opened an art studio in Los Angeles in 1919. This painting of Los Angeles City Hall was painted in 1930, just two years after it was completed. This is also the building which has been on the badge of Los Angeles police officers since 1940.
“Simpson began experimenting with interference paints, soon becoming fascinated with the mercurial characteristics of the medium. Interference paints, which have only six pigment variations containing micro-particles covered with titanium oxide, reflect and refract light, giving rise to nuances of color and optical illusions of depth.”
I’ve pinched this text from Wikipedia and it was written about David Simpson, who created this artwork in 2018. I have to say, it was in my very inartistic opinion, the most abstract artwork the museum had on display. The viewer is meant to look at the various tones of what looks to me like nearly the same colour. But, each to their own, I’m sure it’s a masterpiece to some people.
I’ve come to the conclusion though when the information panel by a painting manages to describe solely how the painting was created and doesn’t mention any meaning or relevance that it might have that there’s one obvious conclusion which can perhaps be drawn. And that’s the art gallery hasn’t got any clue what it is either. But perhaps art isn’t meant to mean anything.
Dan McCleary is a Californian artist and he has been spending some time trying to promote art to communities in Los Angeles. This oil painting seemed to have some clarity, and the information panel noted that “this seems to highlight the sometimes absurd complications in one human being’s attempts to understand another.”
McCleary, who was born in 1952 and is still painting, has the honour of having an artwork in The Met in New York, which I consider to be the best gallery in the United States. It’s called McDonald’s Number 1, but The Met has decided not to put it on display. That would irritate me if I’m being honest, if such a great gallery had a work of mine and then they left it out the back….
Anyway, I know nearly nothing about art, but I like the style of this artist’s paintings.
