Chiura Obata

"Jumping Trout, " Chiura Obata, Fish, Japanese-American Artist, Watercolor

1930

Oscar Bluemner Sheepshead, Long Island, 1907 Signed with the artist's conjoined initials "OB" and dated "4-30 - 5 - 30" / "Aug 3, 07" Watercolor on paper 6 x 10 inches Provenance: J...

John Marin New York from the Ferry, 1914 Signed and dated lower right Watercolor and graphite on paper 11 x 12 3/4 inches Provenance: An American Place, New York Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York Christie's, New York, March 16, 1990, Lot 278 Private Collection (acquired from the above) Sotheby's New York, American Paintings, Drawings, & Sculpture, October 2, 2014, Lot 10 A major figure in early twentieth-century modernism, John Marin captured the colliding energies of the American urban scene and the vibrant contrasts of natural elements in the coastal landscape of Maine and other countryside locales. As one of the premier watercolorists of his era, Marin developed a light, spontaneous style ideally suited to conveying the freshness and flux of city and country experience -- his watercolors are often considered to match in strength those created by Winslow Homer in previous century. At the same time, Marin's sensitivity to mass, form, color, and line and their dynamic interchanges provided a precedent for the Abstract Expressionist movement of the late 1950s. Marin was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, to a family of European descent. After studying mechanical drawing and mathematics for half a year at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New York, Marin worked as a draftsman for several architects. It was not until he was almost thirty years old that he began to study art. He enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia from 1899 to 1901, and at the Art Students League in New York from 1901 to 1903, where his teachers were William Merritt Chase and Frank Vincent Dumond. While Marin was attending the League, the radical ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow were being disseminated and had an impact on the direction Marin would soon take in his art. Marin left for Europe in 1905. The next five years, which he spent abroad, were of tremendous importance to his career. He became a significant figure in the expatriate community in Paris, frequenting the Dôme, a café that served as a meeting place for artists and writers. While in Europe, Marin visited the Louvre and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and, despite his claims that he had been indifferent to the Paris art world, he undoubtedly became aware of the art of Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse. The works Marin created in Europe most strongly reflect the influence of James McNeill Whistler, especially the pastels he rendered in Venice. In the summer of 1909, Marin met Alfred Stieglitz in Paris. In February of the next year, Marin's work was shown along with that of Alfred Maurer at Stieglitz's gallery, 291. After returning to America in the following year, Marin became one of the most consistent members of Stieglitz's inner circle, showing at all three of his galleries -- 291, The Intimate Gallery, and An American Place. After 1910, Marin developed the routine that he would follow for the rest of his life, creating paintings, drawings, and prints in New York City and surrounding areas during the winter, and in the summer, traveling to the country, where he focused on the particular characteristics of the regions that he visited. He worked mainly in watercolor until 1928, when he began also to use oil. Marin never became purely abstract. He formulated a unique style melding influences of the art of the French Fauves, Cézanne, Matisse, and the French Cubists with a personal style of luminescent colors, agile brushwork, and a simultaneously delicate and strong handling. In city views, he used broken lines, a light touch, fluid color, and rhythmic compositions to convey what he described as the "great forces at work." He expressed the warring of the great and the small through relationships between masses. As he said, he sought to express the "pull forces" of the modern urban scene. Often portraying the new tall buildings of New York seen...

Louis Wolchonok (1898 - 1973) Industrial Landscape, 1925 Watercolor on paper 22 1/4 x 16 inches Louis Wolchonok was an author of art books, etcher, painter of townscapes, landscapes, figures, muralist, and graphic artist. Wolchonok was a social realist...

Louis Wolchonok (1898 - 1973) Bass Rocks, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1923 Watercolor on wove watercolor stock paper 13 x 17 3/4 inches Signed and dated lower right corner: LWolchonok...

Lionel S. Reiss (1894 - 1988) New York City Skyline View from the East River Watercolor on paper 13 x 19 inches Signed lower left In describing his own style, Lionel Reiss wrote, “By nature, inclination, and training, I have long since recognized the fact that...I belong to the category of those who can only gladly affirm the reality of the world I live in.” Reiss’s subject matter was wide-ranging, including gritty New York scenes, landscapes of bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and seascapes around Gloucester, Massachusetts. However, it was as a painter of Jewish life—both in Israel and in Europe before World War II—that Reiss excelled. I.B. Singer, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, noted that Reiss was “essentially an artist of the nineteenth century, and because of this he had the power and the courage to tell visually the story of a people.” Although Reiss was born in Jaroslaw, Poland, his family immigrated to the United States in 1898 when he was four years old. Reiss's family settled on New York City’s Lower East Side and he lived in the city for most of his life. Reiss attended the Art Students League and then worked as a commercial artist for newspapers and publishers. As art director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he supposedly created the studio’s famous lion logo. After World War I, Reiss became fascinated with Jewish life in the ‘Old World.’ In 1921 he left his advertising work and spent the next ten years traveling in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Like noted Jewish photographers Alter Kacyzne and Roman Vishniac, Reiss depicted Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II. He later wrote, “My trip encompassed three main objectives: to make ethnic studies of Jewish types wherever I traveled; to paint and draw Jewish life, as I saw it and felt it, in all aspects; and to round out my work in Israel.” In Europe, Reiss recorded quotidian scenes in a variety of media and different settings such as Paris, Amsterdam, the Venice ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and an array of shops, synagogues, streets, and marketplaces in the Jewish quarters of Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, Vilna, Ternopil, and Kovno. He paid great attention to details of dress, hair, and facial features, and his work became noted for its descriptive quality. A selection of Reiss’s portraits appeared in 1938 in his book My Models Were Jews. In this book, published on the eve of the Holocaust, Reiss argued that there was “no such thing as a ‘Jewish race’.” Instead, he claimed that the Jewish people were a cultural group with a great deal of diversity within and between Jewish communities around the world. Franz Boas...

Leon Dolice (1892 - 1960) New York Harbor (Brooklyn Bridge), circa 1930-40 Pastel on paper 12 x 19 inches Signed lower right Provenance: Spanierman Gallery, New York The romantic b...

John Whorf captures one of the thrilling moments of fishing in this watercolor – when the fish is on the line, but still trying to escape. One of the fastest fish in the world, marlin fishing...

This artwork "The Bird Lover" c.1980 is a watercolor on heavy watercolor paper by California artist Charlotte Huntley. It is signed at the lower righ...

This artwork "Looking at the Jungle" c.1980 is a watercolor on heavy watercolor paper by California artist Charlotte Huntley. It is signed at the lower left corner by the artist. The size is 16.5 x 26.5 inches. It is in excellent condition, the colors are fresh and bright, has never been framed. About the artist: Charlotte Huntley might have been a renowned graffiti artist – her earliest work consisted of drawing on walls. But fate intervened and she learned to control these urges with a formal education at Scripps College, Chouinard School of Art, and the Los Angeles County Art Institute. These early tendencies reemerged not just in painting, but in other artistic ways as well, to the benefit of community theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area and Chicago. She spent years as a professional puppeteer and set designer, and developing her own unique watercolor painting style. Charlotte’s use of pointillism. Charlotte Huntley AWS, June Workshop Instructor “Charlotte Huntley has special insights into color and fresh approaches to cliche subject matter. Her work in watercolor is truly unique. Charlotte adapts the Pointillism of Seurat and other post-Impressionists and makes it her own in watercolor. With Pointillism, distinct points of primary colors create the impression of a wide selection of secondary colors. The technique relies on the perceptive ability of the eye and mind of the viewer to mix the color spots into a fuller range of tones. Charlotte truly makes the most of this style of painting. Over her illustrious career, Huntley has been awarded a signature membership in 29 watercolor societies, including the American Watercolor Society, California Watercolor Association, Transparent Watercolor Soc. of America, Northwest Watercolor Society, and Watercolor West. Overall, Charlotte has received 45 Awards in National Exhibitions since 2000 – an impressive achievement. This imaginative Watercolor Artist has had over 575 paintings accepted in National Juried Art Exhibitions in 46 states, also Canada and Puerto Rico, with 113 Awards. Charlotte has proven to be a popular Juror, knowledgeable Juror, inspiring Workshop Instructor, and an Award-winning Author.The work of Charlotte Huntley is held in collections in the U.S. Canada and Puerto Rico as well as in some European country. In 2016 Charlotte has been accepted in 14 National Exhibitions with 1 Award: Signature American W/C Society (CA), Rockies West National (CO) , Animals in Art (LA) (Judge’s Award) , Georgia W/C Society , Missouri W/C Society, Society of W/C Artists (TX) , Gibson Co. Visual Arts Ass’n (TN) , Illinois W/C Society, W/C Soc. of Alabama, Rocky Mountain Nat’1 W/C (CO), Alaska W/C Soc., Aqueous USA 2016 (KY), Niagara Frontier W/C Soc . (NY) and Northwest W/C Soc. (WA). Elite Awards Sylvan Grouse Guild Award, Pennsylvania Watercolor Society Elite Signature Status , Watercolor Art Society-Houston Master Signature Member, Western Colorado Watercolor Society Received over 100 Awards in National Exhibitions: 2014 3K1 Place, Gibson Co. Visual Arts Ass’n (TN), 4lb Place, Soc. of Watercolor Artists (TX) and 5 other Awards. 2013 !st Place, Gibson Co. Visual Arts Association (TN). Awards Red River W/C Society , West VA W/C Society, Watercolor Wyorning 2012 2nd Place, Gibson Co. Visual Arts Ass’n. (TN). 3’d Place, Cheyenne Artists’ Guild, Awards and 2 others. 2011 lst place Cheyenne Artists Guild, lst place Society of Western Artists, CA 2nd Place Niagara Frontier WS, NY and 6 others. 2010 Best of Watercolor, Arts in Harmony , MN, and First Place, Kentucky W/C Society Aquaventures 2009 Mary Anderson Surnner Award and Gold Medal, Red River Valley, TX 2008 Amy Freeman Award, Texas Watercolor Society, Presidents Award, Arizona Watercolor Association 2007 Founders Award, Watercolor West, CA , Third Place, Red River Valley Museum , TX 2006 AWS Traveling Exhibition 2005 First Place in Painting Division, Girardot, MO 20(A Second Award, Gulf Coast National , TX 2003 Arches Award, Aqueous Open, PA 2002 Best of Show , Visual Arts Center of NW FL, President’s Award, Society of Watercolor Artists , TX 2001 Board Of Directors’ Award, Western Colorado Watercolor Society 2000 Best of Show, Art Wyoming, WY Books and Magazines Together with Judi Betts...

Signed in pencil. Blanche Grambs, whose career started with the WPA, later developed a career in illustration. This drawing, watercolor and ink on trac...

William Sommer (American, 1867-1949) Cows in a Field Watercolor on paper Signed lower left 11.5 x 15.5 inches 17.5 x 21.5 inches, framed William Sommer is seen as a key person in br...

Malcolm Edwards. Welsh ( b.1934 ). Welsh Sheepdog, Shepherd and Sheep Watercolor. Signed. Image size 8.9 inches x 19.7 inches ( 22.5cm x 50cm ). Frame size 16.7 inches x 27.2 inches...