Charles Ragland Bunnell

Pikes Peak, Southern Colorado Mountain Watercolor Painting, 1960s Landscape

1962

This captivating 1960s abstract painting, titled "Desert Landscape," is a striking original work by acclaimed New Mexico and Colorado artist Ann Sink. The composition beautifully cap...

"Walpi #4" is an original semi-abstract Southwestern landscape by renowned 20th-century artist Bert Van Bork (1928-2014). This captivating watercolor and mixed media painting portrays the dramatic beauty of a Native American Pueblo village nestled on the mesa of First Mesa, Arizona. Van Bork skillfully uses vibrant hues of deep blue, yellow, orange, and pink to convey the cultural richness and natural splendor of the Hopi people. The piece features adobe structures set against the expansive desert sky, merging the artist’s unique style with his deep reverence for Native American heritage. Presented in a custom white frame with archival materials and UV-protectant glass, the framed artwork measures 8 ½ x 10 ½ x ½ inches, with the image size being 4 ¾ x 7 inches. Provenance: Estate of Bert Van Bork, Evanston, Illinois About the Artist: Bert Van Bork (1928-2014) was a German-born artist, filmmaker, photographer, and writer. Trained under Karl Schmidt-Rottluff in Berlin, he played a significant role in the post-war German art scene before immigrating to the U.S. in 1954. Known for his work as a printmaker and photographer, Van Bork's powerful documentary films earned global recognition, including an Academy Award nomination for EYEWITNESS, the Legacy of Death Camp Art...

This striking original abstract oil painting, titled Mesa Verde, was created by artist Wilma Fiori (1929–2019) on November 17, 1988. The piece is a vibrant...

This original 1949 painting by Kansas artist Zona Wheeler (1913–1998) beautifully captures the essence of Colorado’s majestic mountains through an abstract lens. Using vibrant shades...

Abstract watercolor composition bearing the influence of the earlier color-block compositions of Paul Klee. Pawel August Kontny, (Polish-German-American artist) He was born in Laurahuette, Poland, in 1923, the son of a wealthy pastry shop owner. In 1939 he began studying architecture in Breslau where he was introduced to the European masters and to the work of some of the German Expressionists, soon afterward banned as "degenerate artists" and removed from museums throughout Germany by the Nazi regime. His studies were interrupted by World War II. Drafted into the German army, traveling in many countries as a soldier, he sketched various landscapes but in 1945, he was captured and held as a prisoner of war in Italy. After the war, he studied at the Union of Nuremberg Architects to help design buildings to replace ones destroyed in the war. He recorded his impressions of the local population and the landscapes through his watercolors and drawings. Pawel Kontny thereafter moved to Nuremberg, Germany, becoming a member of the Union of Nuremberg Architects and helping to rebuild the city's historic center. He soon decided to concentrate on his professional art career. He married Irmgard Laurer, a dancer with the Nuremberg Opera. Pavel Kontny 's career as an artist was launched with his participation in an all German exhibition, held at the Dusseldorf Museum in 1952. He held one-man shows in Germany, Switzerland and the United States. During his trip to the United States in 1960, Kontny became instantly enamored with Colorado, and decided to relocate to Cherry Hills with his wife and two children. He quickly established himself in the local art community, being affiliated for a time with Denver Art Galleries and Saks Galleries. His subject matter became the Southwest. During this time he received the Prestigious Gold Medal of the Art Academy of Rome. His extensive travel provided material for the paintings he did using his hallmark marble dust technique. he also worked equally in pastel, watercolor, charcoal and pencil-and-ink. in a style which merged abstraction and realist styles, influenced by Abstract Expressionist painting and South Western American landscapes. In the early 1960s he was one of only a few European-born professional artists in the state, a select group that included Herbert Bayer (1900-1985), a member of the prewar Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau, Germany, and Roland Detre (1903-2001), a Hungarian modernist painter. As a Denver, Colorado resident, Pavel Kontny exhibited at galleries and museums throughout the United States, Germany and Japan. There, he was inspired by frequent trips to Native American pueblos in the Southwest, as well as by the study of the Plains Indians of Montana and Wyoming. Over the years Kontny had a number of students and generously helped young artist by hosting exhibitions at his Cherry Hills home. For many years he generously donated his paintings to support charitable causes in Denver. Influences during his European years included German pastelist C.O. Muller, German Informel painter Karl Dahmen and Swiss artist, Hans Erni. In the early 1950s his painting style showed the influence of the Die Brücke (The Bridge), a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905 who had a major impact on the evolution of modern art in the twentieth century in Germany. By the middle of the decade his style incorporated more referential abstraction and total abstraction, resulting in part from his study of Hans Hartung, a German artist based in Paris who exhibited his gestural abstract work in Germany. The American moon landing in 1969 inspired Paul Kontny...

Red sun. 1969, gouache on paper, 59x70 cm Gunars Klava (1933 – 1989) Gunars Klava was born in 1933 in Priekule. 1953 - graduated from J. Rosenthal Art School 1964 - began to partic...

This painting reflects the summer sun over Skye on the break of day as the mist lies low in the valleys and the promise of a beautiful day. Using vibrant turquoises to convey the fee...

‘Pink Lavender’ Modern Abstract Landscape Painting on Canvas from leading British Artist. Margaret Francis received her Degree in Fine Art from Winchester Art...