Max Jensen

Seagulls Circling above the Swell

c.1840

Chicago-based fine art painter Bruno A. Surdo is classically trained in drawing and oil painting in the tradition of Renaissance masters. With strong command of the human form, Surdo...

Exhibition-sized painting of Iona Island coast by celebrated Scottish artist Duncan Cameron (1837-1916), this is a large and expansive 19th century landscape oil painting on canvas. Renowned for his landscape paintings, this work captures the natural light on the sea, sand and rocks with splashes of rich color under a big sky. Iona off the west coast of Scotland, has attracted artists for for its dramatic scenery and northern light, including the Scottish Colourists who favored the fresh pure light. The cliffs and coastal rocks are reminiscent of works by Samuel Peploe and Duncan Fergusson of this fabled island. In 1876 Cameron won a Gold Medal for landscape painting, at the Crystal Palace exhibition. The year after this painting (circa 1870s) Cameron began exhibiting in the Royal Academy, Society of British Artists, and Royal Scottish Academy, showing his work consistently from 1880. Other venues for exhibiting his work include the Glasgow Institute, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, Manchester City Art Gallery, and the Royal Hibernian Academy. His work is sold today in Fine Art Galleries in the UK and in Saltire Gallerie, USA. His landscape paintings are widely acclaimed, and this landscape painting of considerable size and detail is a fine example. Born in Perthshire, Cameron studied in Dundee and in South Kensington, London. He later died in Edinburgh. The highest auction sale of his work reached nearly 20,000 GBP. He was widely acclaimed as a landscape artist, painting Scottish farmlands and haystacks, coastal scenes and lochs. In this work the colors of the sea change from blue to green with white crests of waves. The rocks have splashes of red, rust and orange, and the beach has red and green in the sand. Water laps at the edge of beach and rock. A sailboat is a focal point, with distant sailboats on the water, and a rowboat by the central sailboat. A hill rises behind the beach painted...