Shawn Sullivan

Ambulance Chaser

Bird perched on bowl of bones

Bird in still life

Zoa Ace's "Lavender in a Deer Vase" is an original, handmade oil painting. About the Artist: "My work is figurative and deals primarily with human relatio...

Sybiline's "Looking for the Kitty" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a surreal still life of a blue eye on a red apple as it floats on a cloud shaped like a white ca...

Rachel Linnemeier's "All Dogs" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a purple Tamagotchi toy on a green background. About the Artist: Born in 1...

Rachel Linnemeier's "Purrfect Pet" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a yellow Tamagotchi toy on a pink background. About the Artist: Born in 1989 in rural Indiana, Rachel Linnemeier creates her figurative paintings in the medium of oil paint. In 2013 she completed her undergraduate BFA with an emphasis in Painting and a minor in Art History from Herron School of Art & Design in Indianapolis. She has studied in workshops with painters Alyssa Monks...

The painting in question captures the dynamic energy of a moment seemingly frozen in time—an oil sketch by Eugen Kask featuring two ants engaged in an intense wrestling match. Kask’s approach to this piece is fluid and spontaneous, with broad, swift strokes that lend an air of immediacy to the scene. Much of the canvas remains untouched, its raw state highlighting the areas where Kask chose to concentrate his efforts, thus drawing the viewer's gaze directly to the central action of the ants. This decision to leave the background undefined gives the work a sense of incompleteness, a characteristic that is often celebrated in studies and sketches for its authenticity and connection to the artist's initial spark of inspiration. Eugen Kask, born on January 18, 1918, in Kiev and passed away on May 11, 1998, in Vimmerby, was an Estonian-Swedish painter of diverse talents. A descendant of an architectural lineage, with his father Kristjan Kask and his own background in architecture and fine arts, Kask brought a structural eye to his compositions. His life, marked by the upheaval of wartime displacement, led him to Sweden where his contributions to art continued to flourish through exhibitions and group showcases. His work spans a variety of subjects from pastoral landscapes to intimate animal studies...

English Native School, 19th Century, still life with fish Oil on canvas 54x63 cm frame included. Beautiful native English painting, representing an elegant still life of fish, cabba...

This painting is typical of the art of Jan Weenix, one of the best still life and hunting painters of the Dutch Golden Age. In a cleverly disordered manner, he depicts ten studies of dogs (mainly spaniels and greyhounds) and the sumptuous study of a stole. These studies were probably intended to be used as a source of inspiration and adapted in the painter's compositions, as we will see in a close examination of some of his paintings. 1. Jan Weenix, a prolific still life painter Jan Weenix was born into a family of artists: his father Jan Baptist Weenix (1621 - 1659) was also a landscape and still life painter and his mother Josyntgen d'Hondecoeter was the daughter of the animal painter Gillis d'Hondecoeter (1575 - 1638). His father trained him together with his cousin Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1636 - 1695). In 1664 Jan Weenix became a member of the St. Luke's Guild in Utrecht, to which he belonged until 1668. In 1679 he married Pieternella Backer with whom he had 13 children. His compositions, often related to hunting (still lifes, portraits of hunters) were very successful, ensuring him a certain financial ease. Jan Weenix also painted large-scale decorations: while staying in Düsseldorf with the Prince-Elector of the Palatinate between 1702 and 1712, he executed twelve gigantic compositions combining landscapes, hunting scenes and still life for the Bensberg hunting lodge. 2. Description of the artwork The painting displays a great apparent disorder that hides a rigorous organisation in four quarters. It presents ten studies of hunting dogs and one study of a stole. The studies of the stole and of two of the dogs (the greyhound in the lower right and the spaniel in the upper right quarter) are quite elaborate, whereas those of the other dogs are sketchier. As an example, the dog in the upper right corner is only partially painted. The dogs' coats, of different colours - brown, sandy, grey or black - stand out against the warm brown background and are illuminated by the shine of their white hair. This white colour, probably executed with ceruse white, illuminates the study of a stole which stands out in the lower left-hand corner while the red colour of its lining warms up the composition. The purpose of this stole is enigmatic: we think it is probably a neckband, but it could also be the back of the turban of an oriental character. To the right of this stole is the outline of a long animal leg, perhaps a horse leg. Similar studies are rare in the work of Jan Weenix, but the Rijksmuseum recently acquired the study of a seated monkey. This study, executed in the same brown chromatic range, is much more accomplished. It has been reused with minimal change in many compositions. It is likely that Jan Weenix had less frequently a monkey at his disposal, and that he therefore depicted it in great details, whereas he could probably easily find dogs as models. Note the characteristic white dot in the corner of each pupil that brings them to life! 3. Related artworks We have tried to relate the various dogs in this study to the countless dogs that appear in the paintings of Jan Weenix, as listed in the catalogue 'Father and Son - Weenix' compiled by Anke van Wagenberg- Ter Hoeven in 2018. A first example is the painting entitled "The Prodigal Son on the Steps of a Palace" (catalogue number 7 - 8th photo in the gallery). In the lower left-hand corner of the composition, a spaniel is barking at a peacock perched on a stone. This spaniel, which is depicted in a similar manner in the "Portrait of a Young Man with a Falcon" in the Bremen Kunsthalle (catalogue number 76), is reminiscent of the spaniel in the upper left-hand quarter of our study (although the latter is slenderer and the direction of its head differs). We also find, in a slightly different pose, the seated greyhound that is at the top of our painting in the composition representing "A Swan, a Stag, a Hare and Birds presented by two hunting Valets" (catalogue number 130 - last photo in the gallery). The sketch of this greyhound in our study is unfinished: the painter only painted the grey undercoat and the white parts of the coat, without completing the sandy coat which appears in the final painting. We can see from these various examples that our study was probably more a repertoire of forms than a model for a specific composition. The painter probably used it for inspiration before adapting each dog study...

The French Heraldic Coat of Arms French, 19th century oil painting on board, unframed board: 17 x 21.5 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: overall good and sound...