Robert W. Stark, Jr.

Red Rascal, 2014

2014

A contemporary impressionist painting of a rural fall landscape. Frame: 38 1/4 x 48 1/4 in.

Signed lower left Elizabeth Higgins (Canadian, b. 1960) Elizabeth Higgins describes herself as an abstract figurative and landscape painter. Everything around her serves as a potential subject, an inspiration to begin a painting. Fidelity to the landscape, the figure, or the still life is relative, as she isn’t interested in literal depictions; instead, it’s the abstract relationships of these shapes and colors, the abstract pictorial design that drives her work. Higgins’ paintings are rooted in the tradition stemming from Courbet, Derain, Bonnard, Matisse, Morandi, German Expressionism, and the Canadian Group of Seven (also known as the Algonquin School of landscape painters, 1920–1933). She is influenced by the work of her artist-teachers Paul Resika—himself a student of Hans Hofmann—and Robert De Niro, Sr. (1922-1993), as well as the paintings of contemporary artist Peter Doig. Her artistic evolution stretches across this continuum. It is the “in-between”, the hovering between representation and abstraction, that interests her, not the labeling effect of details; instead, she aims directly at the spirit of the painting—of making something come to life. John Goodrich wrote in her catalog essay, “Elizabeth Higgins’ direct brushwork and simplified forms suggest an energy, but crucially, reveal a painter who knows the power of color…” Elizabeth Higgins was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1960. As a Helena...

American b. 1939 Renowned Impressionist painter Shirley Cean Youngs is a native New Yorker who now lives on a family compound in Connecticut surrounded by nature and those she loves...

Landscape oil painting depicting a misty shoreline with three birds near the water, and a sloop visible off in the upper left of the scene.