Snow Storm

Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth, exhibited 1842
J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851)
oil on canvas
image: tate.org.uk

Beauty and violence and near abstraction. J. M. W. Turner's scenes of the British landscape from land to sea are powerful, usually with a central "vortex" pulling the viewer in.

"It is famously said that Turner conceived this image while lashed to the mast of a ship during an actual storm at sea. This seems to be nothing more than fiction, but the story has endured as a way of demonstrating Turner’s full-blooded engagement with the world around him" (From the display caption February 2004) tate.org.uk

The fierceness of nature, expressed through the masterly painting technique, try to see a Turner if you haven't, online digital images? No justice.

This work is from the Tate, which has an incredibly significant collection of works by Turner. A few years after Turner's death his estate of paintings were bequeathed to the nation (England) and those 300 or so painting make up the majority of the Tate's collection. Highlights of the collection.

Totem

Totem 2
Wayne McDowell
oil on canvas, 36x24 in.
Chase Gallery

Discovery via a gift subscription to Art in America. Like most magazines, Art in America has a slew of ads. In this particular case most of the ads are for gallery shows. I've gotten into the habit of dog-earing not only interesting articles but also works featured in the gallery ads. It has turned into an additional source of inspiration for my art of the day as well as an introduction to many new artists.

A landscape for today. McDowell's paintings are quiet but dense, they appear to have (as much as I can tell in a reproduction!) a light impasto. Most of the landscapes in his current show are seascapes that consist of a low horizon line, the sky filling up most of the canvas. I like the addition of dimension in this particular painting. The thin, slightly gnarled trunk of the tree appears to be just a pedestal for the leaves which look like more like a cloud.