Skip to main content
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 7

James Torlakson
Paragon Park, 1997

1997

About the Item

'Paragon park, 1997' a highly collectable original watercolor by internationally acclaimed American Realist James Torlakson. The art is 10 x 10 inches and professionally framed at 18.75 x 19.75 inches and ready to hang and enjoy. American Realist James Torlakson depicts majesty in the mundane with everyday “Americana” scenes that include gritty suburban landscapes, traveling carnivals, standing fireworks booths, abandoned drive-in theaters, and autobiographical still life scenes from his Bay Area neighborhood. The realism in Torlakson’s work is oriented toward the sensuous consumption and reinterpretation of the real world. The artist is not interested in how closely he can mimic physical images in paint, but rather in how he can change and distort them to suit his personal aesthetic. Proficiently working in oil, watercolor, and aquatint intaglio etching, the artist employs European master techniques to create his compelling photorealistic works that pull the viewer in, much like the effect of the solo light on his neighborhood street at dusk. James Torlakson’s paintings and etchings have been widely exhibited both nationally and internationally, and many of his works are housed in the permanent collections of American museums. Artist signed and dated. Condition is new and excellent. MUSEUM COLLECTIONS: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco, CA Oakland Museum of California; Oakland, CA Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, California Palace of the Legion of Honor; San Francisco, CA Brooklyn Museum; Brooklyn, NY Albright Knox Art Gallery; Buffalo, NY Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute; Pittsburgh, PA Mueum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design; Providence, RI New York Public Library, Print Collection; New York, NY Chicago Art Institute; Chicago, IL Library of Congress; Washington, D.C. Delaware Art Museum; Wilmington, DE Denver Art Museum; Denver, CO Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Santa Barbara, CA Detroit Art Institute; Detroit, MI Stanford University Museum of Art; Stanford, CA University Art Museum, Rutgers University; New Jersey, NJ De Cordova Museum; Lincoln, MA Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ Boise Art Museum; Boise, ID University Art Museum; U.C. Berkeley; Berkeley, CA Arkansas Art Center; Little Rock, Arkansas Hearst Art Gallery; Saint Mary’s College; Moraga, CA Andra Norris Gallery in Burlingame, CA
  • Creator:
    James Torlakson (1951)
  • Creation Year:
    1997
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 18.75 in (47.63 cm)Width: 19.75 in (50.17 cm)Depth: 0.2 in (5.08 mm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Burlingame, CA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: TORJ1stDibs: LU375310341662
More From This SellerView All
  • Postman - original watercolor
    Located in Burlingame, CA
    Iconic Postman original watercolor painting is 11 1/2 x 7 inches / professionally framed at approximately 19 1/2 x 15 inches. Artist signed, titl...
    Category

    20th Century American Realist Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Watercolor

  • Backyard Bench - original watercolor 1974-2016
    Located in Burlingame, CA
    Backyard Bench - an iconic American watercolor painting by James Torlakson who is known for his photorealist oil paintings, watercolors and aquatint in...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Drawings and W...

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Watercolor

  • Mobile Home with Honda - original watercolor, 1974
    Located in Burlingame, CA
    Mobile Home with Honda - watercolor is 9 3/4 x 21 1/4 inches. Artist signed, titled and dated. Condition is excellent. James Torlakson, an international...
    Category

    20th Century American Realist Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Watercolor

  • Phantom Fireworks - original watercolor painting
    Located in Burlingame, CA
    Phantom Fireworks - an iconic American painting by James Torlakson who is known for his photorealist oil paintings, watercolors and aquatint intaglio etchings. Torlakson’s photoreal...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Drawings and W...

    Materials

    Watercolor, Archival Paper

  • Empty Booth - iconic watercolor - Red Devil Fireworks
    Located in Burlingame, CA
    Empty Booth - an iconic American original watercolor painting - 36 x 24 inches - by James Torlakson, who is known for his photorealist oil paintings, watercolors and aquatint intaglio etchings. Empty Booth depicts the inside of an empty fireworks booth with a Red Devil...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Drawings and W...

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Watercolor

  • Seaward
    Located in Burlingame, CA
    'Seaward', depicting a cargo ship exiting Golden Gate, passing Seal Rock, and entering the Pacific.Ocean, is a highly collectable original 10 x 16 inch watercolor painting by Interna...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Drawings and W...

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Watercolor

You May Also Like
  • Daisies, grey realist graphite on paper floral drawing, 2020
    By Mary Reilly
    Located in New York, NY
    Mary Reilly explores the full tonal depth of graphite in her nature drawings and landscapes. She finds all of the soft subtleties of gray as she shifts seamlessly from branch to pebb...
    Category

    2010s American Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Graphite, Paper

  • One Potato - Tiny Original Still Life Painting of a Potato on Deckled Edge Paper
    By Christina Haglid
    Located in Chicago, IL
    "One Potato", by Christina Haglid, is a meticulously detailed watercolor of a potato. The paper had a deckled edge and matted with a heavy white mat. The piece is framed in a white wood frame with a heavy white mat measuring 14h x 10.5w inches. Christina Haglid One Potato watercolor and gouache on paper 4.50h x 2.50w in 11.43h x 6.35w cm Artist's Statement Tiny Sanctuaries There has always been an intersection between the process of writing and the act of painting in my work. It has somehow been my guide. In the last four years, during the making of this work, that connection intensified as I started writing short stories and flash fiction while taking online classes. I find the process of writing and painting so different in almost every way, but there is something freeing and generative in writing which helps my painting process. Or perhaps it's a reminder of what painting is for me - something intuitive that needs to be trusted. And what they do have in common is a desire to encapsulate and distill a single moment, a story, about the complexity of our emotions and experiences. At the heart of my work is the recurring depiction of perseverance, strength of will, and a subtle optimism. Symbolically through the objects, precarious situations depict a moment of possible difficulty, often involving the influence of nature. A paper crane left in the snow. A boat nearly filled to the brim, but not submerged and able to drain its own contents carefully. A slide alone at night which will return to its purpose during the day. My intention is to not show the failure because I imagine all these objects make it through to better times. Allegories of survival. Someone comes by and finds the paper crane, the rowboat owners return and see their boat undisturbed, and the slide during the day brings joy. EDUCATION 1993 M.F.A., Cranbrook Academy of Art 1991 B.F.A., Maryland Institute, College of Art 1990 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture EXHIBITIONS 2019 "Tiny Sanctuaries", Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL 2015 "Gallery Group" Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2014 "Gallery Group" Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2013 "Gallery Group" Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2012 "Gallery Group" Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2011 “Gallery Group” Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL "Meticulous Details: Conservators' Paintings" The Architrouve, Chicago, IL 2010 “Art Chicago” Merchandise Mart, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2009 “Botanica” Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2006 “Botanicus” Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2006 “Arts Botanica” Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, IL 2005 “Blumen: Group Show” Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2004-05 “Think Small” Illinois State Museum, IL [traveled] “Christina Haglid: Microworlds” Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC [solo exhibition] 2004 “Art Chicago” Navy Pier, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2003 “Small to Mighty” Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2002 “Art of the 20th Century” NY Armory, Ann Nathan Gallery, NY, NY “Art Chicago” Navy Pier, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2001 “Group Fusion” Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2000 "Small & Mighty II" Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL "Christina Haglid, New Work and Amy Lowry-Poole, Bugs and Buds" Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 1999 “Small & Mighty” Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL “Views II” Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 1998 “Maleri” Galleri Carl Michael Bellman, Stockholm, Sweden “1987 – 1997, A Skowhegan Decade, Alumni Exhibition and Benefit Auction” David Beitzel Gallery, NY, NY “On and Off the Wall, Gallery Group” Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 1997 “15 x 15” (Alumni Exhibition), Thesis Gallery, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD 1996 “Small Works” Suburban Fine Arts Center, Highland Park, IL., Special Recognition Award 1994 “Unknown Chicago” Gallery 312, Chicago, IL “15 x 15” (Alumni Exhibition), Meyerhoff Gallery, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD 1993 “Graduate Summer Exhibition” Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI “Graduate Thesis Exhibition” Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI “Michigan Fine Arts Competition” Birmingham Bloomfield Art Association, Birmingham, MI 1992 “Word of Mouth” Forum Gallery, Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI 1991 “Drawing: A Covert and Private Affair” West Gallery, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ “Senior Exhibition” Meyerhoff Gallery, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD 1990 “Fiber Exhibition” Fox Gallery...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Waterc...

    Materials

    Gouache, Watercolor, Archival Paper

  • The Junipers - Highly Detailed Surreal Landscape, Watercolor & Gouache on Paper
    By Christina Haglid
    Located in Chicago, IL
    A large translucent vessels floats upon a lake, so transparent that the wooded shoreline can be seen through this surreal boat. The artist treats watercolor much like oil paints, with layer upon layer to achieve a depth unseen in watercolor. The smallest of detail is apparent upon close examination. The piece is matted and framed in a simple white frame measuring 17.25 x 17.75 inches. Christina Haglid The Junipers watercolor and gouache on paper 8h x 9w in 20.32h x 22.86w cm CMH052 Artist's Statement Tiny Sanctuaries There has always been an intersection between the process of writing and the act of painting in my work. It has somehow been my guide. In the last four years, during the making of this work, that connection intensified as I started writing short stories and flash fiction while taking online classes. I find the process of writing and painting so different in almost every way, but there is something freeing and generative in writing which helps my painting process. Or perhaps it's a reminder of what painting is for me - something intuitive that needs to be trusted. And what they do have in common is a desire to encapsulate and distill a single moment, a story, about the complexity of our emotions and experiences. At the heart of my work is the recurring depiction of perseverance, strength of will, and a subtle optimism. Symbolically through the objects, precarious situations depict a moment of possible difficulty, often involving the influence of nature. A paper crane left in the snow. A boat nearly filled to the brim, but not submerged and able to drain its own contents carefully. A slide alone at night...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Waterc...

    Materials

    Watercolor, Gouache, Archival Paper

  • Cloud Lake - Highly Detailed Surreal Landscape, Watercolor & Gouache on Paper
    By Christina Haglid
    Located in Chicago, IL
    Translucent vessels are suspended upon the surface of the water in this surreal landscape entitled "Cloud Lake". This landscape is done in exacting detail with watercolor and gouache down to the smallest water droplet. Layer upon layer of color is added to achieve this impressively detailed painting. The piece is matted and framed in a simple white frame measuring 20.25 x 16.75 inches. Christina Haglid Cloud Lake watercolor and gouache on paper 11h x 8w in 27.94h x 20.32w cm CMH053 Artist's Statement Tiny Sanctuaries There has always been an intersection between the process of writing and the act of painting in my work. It has somehow been my guide. In the last four years, during the making of this work, that connection intensified as I started writing short stories and flash fiction while taking online classes. I find the process of writing and painting so different in almost every way, but there is something freeing and generative in writing which helps my painting process. Or perhaps it's a reminder of what painting is for me - something intuitive that needs to be trusted. And what they do have in common is a desire to encapsulate and distill a single moment, a story, about the complexity of our emotions and experiences. At the heart of my work is the recurring depiction of perseverance, strength of will, and a subtle optimism. Symbolically through the objects, precarious situations depict a moment of possible difficulty, often involving the influence of nature. A paper crane left in the snow. A boat nearly filled to the brim, but not submerged and able to drain its own contents carefully. A slide alone at...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Waterc...

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Watercolor, Gouache

  • Late March - Highly Detailed Surreal Landscape, Watercolor & Gouache on Paper
    By Christina Haglid
    Located in Chicago, IL
    Translucent vessels are suspended upon the surface of the water in this surreal landscape entitled "Cloud Lake". This landscape is done in exacting detail with watercolor and gouache down to the smallest water droplet. Layer upon layer of color is added to achieve this impressively detailed painting. The piece is matted and framed in a simple white frame measuring 20.25 x 16.75 inches. Christina Haglid Cloud Lake watercolor and gouache on paper 11h x 8w in 27.94h x 20.32w cm CMH053 Artist's Statement Tiny Sanctuaries There has always been an intersection between the process of writing and the act of painting in my work. It has somehow been my guide. In the last four years, during the making of this work, that connection intensified as I started writing short stories and flash fiction while taking online classes. I find the process of writing and painting so different in almost every way, but there is something freeing and generative in writing which helps my painting process. Or perhaps it's a reminder of what painting is for me - something intuitive that needs to be trusted. And what they do have in common is a desire to encapsulate and distill a single moment, a story, about the complexity of our emotions and experiences. At the heart of my work is the recurring depiction of perseverance, strength of will, and a subtle optimism. Symbolically through the objects, precarious situations depict a moment of possible difficulty, often involving the influence of nature. A paper crane left in the snow. A boat nearly filled to the brim, but not submerged and able to drain its own contents carefully. A slide alone at...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Waterc...

    Materials

    Watercolor, Gouache, Archival Paper

  • Vase - Watercolor & Gouache on Paper, Purple Glass Vessel, Pale Blue & Beige
    By Christina Haglid
    Located in Chicago, IL
    A small purple vase floats on a dreamy background of pale blues fading into a warm beige. The artist achieves a remarkable delicate quality by multip...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Waterc...

    Materials

    Watercolor, Gouache, Archival Paper

Recently Viewed

View All