Benjamin Stahl

Crowfoot for Luck, Saturday Evening Post illustration - Mid Century

1950

Al Parker was one of America's greatest and most inventive illustrators. He did work for magazines such as: Chatelaine, Collier's, Ladies' Home Journal and Woman's Home Companion. ...

Prolific Saturday Evening Post Cover Illustrator Pearl L. Hill Worthington paints a stunning portrait of a Ballerina in a tutu with underlighting. She sits on a decorative Chinese ...

Pruett Carter captures the quintessential look of the 1950's in this loosely rendered but charming work for Redbook. Bright, punchy colors define each object and are arranged in a simplified but complex composition of intersecting and overlapping planes of color. The double portrait of the girl expresses a peak moment of introspection. She ponders her situation while preparing to get dressed for her special occasion. The whole scene is imbued with suspense about her future. Carter is a great academic painter. With just a few light touches of the brush, he quickly defines the form of the subject and achieves the X factor of the work. The profile and frontal view of the girl clearly are the same person. He nails her look. This is hard to do. Do not underestimate it. Sadly, there is a reason why there are very few contemporary artists can actually paint and draw without tracing photographs or resort to naive painting. It's hard to do. It's hard to be a painter. You can not fake...

As they take center stage, four acrobats are depicted, forming an architectural structure composed of contorted human bodies. The small gallery of onlookers displays a variety of ex...