Charles Ford

V and M Delicatessen

1981

James Tormey (American, 1938-2017) "Candyland (Mixed Bowl)" on table with white tablecloth cover. Oil Painting on Canvas. Hand signed lower right. Measures approx. - 32" high x 37" wide, total with frame - 37 1/2" high x 42 1/2" wide. James J Tormey, NYC artist, He was born in Brooklyn in 1938. As a young man he moved to Manhattan where he lived and worked for more than 60 years. James Tormey studied at the Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn, and at Columbia University and worked in advertising for several years while he painted part time. In the 1960s he supported himself as a photographer, covering openings and events for the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City. For many years he was represented by the Madison Avenue Gallery, in New York City, where he had numerous one-man shows. He has also exhibited in Japan and Germany. The artist makes his home in Manhattan and is represented by the Uptown Gallery, also in New York City. James Tormey paints still lifes of traditional subject matter: fruit, vegetables, or eggs appear in bowls or on surfaces illuminated by powerful directional light. Tormey builds stronger and more precise meaning into his work by exploring how the backgrounds and settings for his still lifes can convey particular ideas. In his recent work, for instance, he painted a series of images in which fruit—a traditional still-life subject—is placed in architectural settings or frames that we usually associate with religious imagery. In Icon, for instance, the artist painted a red cabbage and placed it inside a Renaissance-style frame that he built and decorated himself. Instead of being presented with a saint or a Madonna within such a context, we are given a fully realized, but quite ordinary, vegetable. Tormey’s painting technique involves great care from the beginning. He works in his apartment in Manhattan’s Upper West Side in a meticulously clean space equipped with a very solid easel and a large glass palette on a painting table. For reference he uses photographs he has taken of still-life setups in conjunction with pictures of architectural or other settings he has collected over the years. “I start with a careful graphite drawing right on the canvas,” he explains. These days he uses lightweight cotton duck, although much of his earlier work was done on smoother surfaces. Once the graphite line is established, the artist makes a thin monochrome version of the image with a dull green. “I don’t add anything to the paint other than turpentine,” he explains. “I don’t use oil or glazing mediums because I don’t like shine. The turpentine dulls the paint, which suits what I’m doing.” Once the green layer has dried, the artist applies a second thin layer in a warm brown using burnt sienna or burnt umber. “In all these stages I’m working from dark to light,” he says, “so that I’m always getting a rendered, three-dimensional image.” Tormey works on two or three paintings at a time to allow for sufficient drying time between layers. “I also like the way one painting seems to talk to another,” he says. “It makes for a richer process.” Once he starts working in full color on the image, he continues slowly, applying many thin layers and gradually achieving subtle tonal and color shifts until his forms burst with three-dimensional life. “I work with a very dry brush,” explains the artist. Many of Tormey’s paintings contain dark backgrounds, some of which are pure black—something that can present its own technical problems. “I don’t want those backgrounds to feel present,” he says. “I want them to simply drop out.” Because he doesn’t want any shine on his work he doesn’t use varnish. It’s not surprising that Tormey’s work, with its heavy contrasts and smooth tonal transitions, is strongly influenced by photography. Tormey worked as a photographer for some years, and when he began doing still lifes he often photographed them against black backgrounds. His work was also published as fine art cards, posters, and fine art Giclee prints. He pioneered the "larger-than-life" still-life with his work combining traditional subject matter with a contemporary interpretation that produces startling images of heroic proportions. Light reflected and transmitted lends the natural objects, which are the subjects, a quality which may evoke in the viewer clarity of vision and a delight in the forms of the natural world around them. His work conveys a powerful positive philosophy and he once said "I believe the only way we can come to terms with the world is if we look at it as it really is." He believed that artists should take responsibility for the meaning their works carry and stated that "there are definite ideas behind my paintings". He studied at Pratt Institute and Columbia University and worked in advertising and as a photographer before turning to full-time painting. His paintings were exhibited in dozens of galleries around the country, in Germany and Japan and are now seen in numerous public and private collections. While he was not officially part of the Photorealism art...

Arie Azene, Israeli painter, born in Germany, 1934 Arie (Eisman) Azene was born in Hamburg, Germany. He immigrated to the Land of Israel with his parents soon after birth. In 1958, after studying art in Paris, he settled on Kibbutz Tzova in the Judean Hills, where he lived for 28 years. He spent 1968-1970 in France, England and Germany. In 1984, he moved to Jerusalem. Stylistically, Azene was influenced by the New Horizons group to which he was exposed during his studies at the Avni Institute in Tel Aviv. Other influences were Joseph Zaritsky, Avigdor Stematsky and Yehezkel Streichman. Azene works in oil paint, pencil and aquarelle. His early work was abstract, but over the years, it has become more figurative and realistic. His colour palette is often based on two complementary hues, with a predominance of various combinations of gray. Education 1948-51 Avni Institute, Tel Aviv 1951-52 Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem 1957-58 Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris, France, Advanced Studies Select Exhibitions Autumn Exhibition Autumn Exhibition Yad Lebanim Museum, Petach Tikva 1974 Artists: Shimon Avni, Mordechai Avniel, Azene, Arie, Eli Ilan, Michael Argov, Naftali Bezem, Nachum Gutman, Shraga Weil, Boaz Vaadia, Shmuel Katz, Ruth Schloss. Zaritsky Artists House, Tel Aviv 1976 Artists: Yitzhak Danziger, Menashe Kadishman, Osvaldo Romberg, Michal Wolman, Raffi Lavie The Kadishman Connection Israel Museum, Jerusalem 1979 Artists: Larry Abramson, Jacob El Hanani, Ovadia Alkara, Yosl Bergner, Marcel Janco, Lea Nikel, George Chemeche, Igael Tumarkin. Israeli Prints...

Large acrylic painting by Pat Rosenstein, American Woman Artist, graduate of Pratt Institute whose work has been exhibited extensively. Rosenstein, who...

Suong Yangchareon (Thai American, 1952-) Acrylic on Canvas Los Angeles Street Scene with yellow taxi cab and cars. Hand signed with Initials. Dimensions: Overall Size: 25 1/4 x 49 1/4 in. Sight Size: 23 5/8 x 47 5/8 in. Yangchareon came to Los Angeles, California from Lampang, Thailand, Southeast Asia where he studied Fine Arts at the Arts & Crafts College (Poh Chang), Bangkok, Thailand and Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. In California he continued his studies at Woodbury University, receiving a degree in Advertising Design. He is a contemporary figurative realist artist. He painted the urban landscape of California, which have been exhibited in solo and group shows. His work is represented by prominent galleries nationally. Yangchareon spent much of his childhood at his father’s movie theater where he became fascinated with the world of American Westerns. The nostalgia for this idyllic film Americana can be garnered through his subject matter. Abandoned theaters, factories and businesses of an almost extinct era of architecture are carefully rendered in the soft morning light. Working from his own photography, shot during the early hours of the day, Yangchareon’s acrylic and oil paintings are largely devoid of human figures, but deeply imbued with their past presence. Recently, the artist has broadened his focus to include imagery of the city at night––rendering glistening rain-soaked sidewalks bathed in the artificial light of street lamps and movie marquees against an inky black sky. Yet, Yangchareon’s motivation remains the same; to find the hidden beauty in varying industrial landscapes and seeing splendor where most would argue it does not exist. Reminiscent of Edward Hopper, a sense of melancholy pervades his compositions in a quiet, detached manner. The influence of Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud can also be detected in the artist’s sense of color and in his interpretation of light. Moody LA auto culture artwork dealing with themes of isolation and alienation. Select Exhibitions 2017 Golden Dreams, The Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University, Orange, CA 2016 In the Land of Sunshine: Imaging the California Coast Culture, Pasadena Museum of California Art 2016 Recent Paintings & Works on Paper, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2013–2014 Suong Yangchareon: Places Out of Time, St. Supéry Estate, Vineyards & Winery, Rutherford, CA 2012 Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, Palm Springs Convention Center LA Art Show, Los Angeles Convention Center Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo) Texas Contemporary Art Fair, George R. Brown Convention Center, artMRKT San Francisco, Concourse Exhibition Center Art Chicago 2011, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 2010 San Francisco Fall Antiques Show, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA San Francisco Fine Art Fair, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA Art Chicago 2010, Merchandise Mart, Chicago IL 2009 Recent Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo) 2008 Twenty-Five Treasures, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA Robert Arneson, Joan Brown, Fred Dalkey, Eileen David, Roy De Forest, Richard Diebenkorn, David Fertig, John Graham, Robert Hudson, Ed Musante, Manuel Neri, Arthur Okamura, John Santoro, Richard Shaw, Pam Sheehan...

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