Molly E. Brubaker

Vintage Abstract Expressionist -- An Artist and His Tools

1977

Tea Time Figurative in Original Oil on Canvas Charming portrait of a young woman enjoying tea time by Patricia Gillfillan (American, 1924-2016). From a collection of her works. Unsig...

Mid century portrait of a clown by Marjorie Blake (American, 1920-1994). Signed "Blake" in the lower left corner. Unframed. Marjorie May Gulley Blake w...

Blocking Study pair #1 and #2, portrait of a blonde woman, by Gordon Cook (American, 1927-1985). Circa 1960. Signed on verso "G. Cook (3) #1. unframed. Image size: 24"H x 20"W each. Bay area estate sale find. Gordon Cook was born in 1927 in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington where he received his B.F.A in 1950. Cook then went on to study fundamentals and life drawing at The American Academy of Art* in Chicago. The same year he studied intaglio* printmaking with Vera Berdich at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago*. He took graduate courses and continued studying intaglio printmaking under artist Mauricio Lasansky at the State University of Iowa. In 1951, Cook moved to San Francisco. Soon after his works received the journeyman's card in International Typographical Union, Local 21. He began exhibiting his prints, drawings, and paintings at the Porpoise Gallery in San Francisco. Four years later, Cook became a charter member of the Bay Printmakers Society and exhibited in their annual exhibitions at the Oakland Art Museum for the next five years. His etchings portrayed mainly San Francisco landscapes such as the Golden Gate Park, Diamond Heights, and Lake Merced as well as flowers, especially roses. He participated in his first weekly drawing group with artist Alvin Light, Manuel Neri, Joan Brown, and William H. Brown. Cook also taught at the San Francisco Art Institute*. His etchings where exhibited in a one-man exhibition at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, in the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts. At this point Cook returned to painting. Moving to Rio Vista...

Portrait of a woman with green eyes that are highlighted by the light green background by Monterey California-area artist Patricia Gillfillan (American, 192...

A beautiful, painterly portrait of a young black woman with colorful headscarf and sarong by Lucille H. Olpin (Ethel Lucille Harman Olpin), (American, 1909-1990). Signed "Olpin" lowe...

First Catch of the Day - Young Fisherman at Sea Figurative oil painting of a young boy out at sea holding a fish on his lap by Bay Area artist Betty (American, 20th C). The boy is h...

"Take me Home" by Lu Haskew Oil 19x16" framed, 12x8" image size Signed lower left A young child very apparently ready to go home from their intense yet cute look. The child is weari...

Carl Nordell (1885 - 1957) The Pensive Beauty Oil on canvas 40 x 32 inches Signed lower left Nordell was born in Copenhagen on 23 September 1885. In 1892 the Nordell family settled in Westerly, New Jersey, where Carl Johan, one of several children, received his education. Reportedly, a local gambler and art collector, Richard Canfield was so impressed with young Nordell's talent that he assisted him to gain admittance to the Rhode Island School of Design. Carl was a tireless student and serious in his studies of art, literature, and philosophy. Friends nicknamed him "The American Frans Hals," as a result of his study of that Dutch master. After graduating from the school in 1905, Nordell continued his training at the Art Students League in New York City for the following two years. There he received criticism and instruction from George Bridgman (1864-1943), a noted teacher of anatomy, and Frank Vincent DuMond (1865-1951), a landscapist associated with Old Lyme. The popularity of Impressionism in America at this time had reached its peak, and the style was of paramount influence in Nordell's advanced studies. Around 1906, Nordell visited an exhibition of paintings by the Ten, most of whom were American Impressionists. Moved by the work of Tarbell and Joseph R. De Camp, he sought instruction from them at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Nordell worked diligently under Tarbell and experimented with the genre of women in interiors, or Intimism. In 1909, Nordell received the Paige Traveling Scholarship, which provided for two years of continued study in Europe. He became one of the hundreds of Americans to receive criticism from Jean-Paul Laurens at the Académie Julian in Paris. From this base, he made study trips to visit major museums and galleries in Italy, Holland, Spain and Germany and during this period Nordell's style reached a level of uniqueness, though he definitely remained under the general influence of French Impressionism. By the time of his return to Boston in 1911, Nordell had successfully incorporated the use of broken color, a high-keyed palette, and the practice of working en plein air to achieve an accurate representation of light and atmosphere. In October of that year, the Boston Art Club presented eighty-seven of Nordell's watercolors and oils to the viewing public. Some of the watercolors seem revolutionary in their spontaneity. Nordell continued his career in Boston at Fenway Studios and exhibited in national competitions, including the annuals of the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago; at the 1912 biennial of the Corcoran Gallery he won the fourth Clarke Prize. Nordell's finances were augmented by portrait commissions of some of Boston's affluent citizens. The artist was so intent on recording the sitter's likeness that in this genre, he deviated from his usual impressionist technique. In the women-in-interior genre, he frequently depicted a fully draped woman seated in profile or at an oblique angle to the picture plane. These pensive and attractive young ladies usually gaze into space and become an integral part of the pleasant ambiance of the scene. In this way, Nordell remained within the Genteel Tradition as it was manifest in Boston. The artist exhibited several such works in the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, and won a silver medal for his efforts. In 1918, a one-man exhibition of fifty works was presented at the Boston Art Club. Nordell remained active in the Boston area art clubs and societies through the early 1920s. In the winter of 1921 Babcock Art Galleries presented him with yet another one-man show. During this period, Nordell increased the production of prints and won the Salmagundi Club's Shaw Prize for etching in 1923. Sometime after 1927 he began taking summer sketching trips to Chautauqua Lake...

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Joseph Newman (1890 - 1979) Joseph Newman was born in New York City in 1890. He attended the Pratt Institute and the Adelphi College Art School, and served in the U.S. Army during WWW1. After the war, he married and traveled to Europe. He returned to New York in the mid 1920's, and with a group of contemporaries formed The Fifteen Gallery in Manhattan. Newman painted a broad variety of subjects including genre scenes, landscapes, figurative works, and equestrian subjects. He worked in various styles ranging from academic realism to a looser, post-impressionist approach, and is best known for colorful, animated genre scenes painted in and around Rockport Harbor and as far west as Taos, New Mexico. He exhibited frequently at the Brooklyn Museum, The National Academy, The Carnegie Institute, The Whitney and The Society of Independent Artists. He was a member of the L.C. Tiffany Foundation, The Salmagundi Club, Rockport Art Association, and the American Watercolor Society. His work is represented in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, The Newark Museum, the Boston Library...

A wonderful large self portrait of the artist with a Russian model by American artist Pauline Lennards Palmer (1867-1938). Born in McHenry, Illinois, Palmer studied at the Art Institute of Chicago between 1893 and 1898, including a one-month session with William Merritt Chase in 1897, and further temporary instruction with Frank Duveneck. She became one of Chicago's early twentieth-century portrait and landscape painters and one of the Midwest's most active and energetic exponents of impressionism. After her career was well established, she moved to Provincetown and studied with Charles Hawthorne...

A stunning depiction of James Dean done in an abstract impressionistic manner with a heavy use of paint and we also can find bold strokes of white, gray and black. Creating a black a...

An impressive and masterful depiction of a young woman with a fan. An American artist who studied and traveled in Europe and painted this painting before his return. It has its original frame which is magnificent. The frame has been regilded in th past 10 years. Vinton was abroad in the 1880s. The sitter gazes coyly over her fan in a gesture that ladies and gentleman of fin-de-siècle Europe would have understood to mean “wait for me,” and perhaps indicating her interest in a potential suitor. Vinton embarked on several trips to Europe—to Spain in 1882 with William Merritt Chase and Robert Blum, and to several different countries in 1888 following his marriage—which provided inspiration for a renewed style and subject matter. While in Spain with Chase and Blum, the three artists visited Madrid and Toledo; there, Vinton studied the masterfully tenebrous portraits of Velázquez, an influence that can be seen in Portrait with Yellow Shawl...