Donald Roy Purdy

Red Vase, Oil Painting by Donald Roy Purdy

circa 1962

R Bagson - Floral Still Life, Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, signed in pencil lower right, Size: 11.25 x 15 in. (28.58 x 38.1 cm)

Shadow Reds by Ronald Julius Christensen, American (1923–1999) Date: circa 1979 Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition Size: 295 Image Size: 26 x 17 inches Size: 30 x 22 i...

DIMENSIONS: (With Frame) H:36" L:29 7/8" (Without Frame) H:29.5" L:23 3/8" Donald Roy Purdy is an American painter whose work evolved through a range of styles and subjects over the course of his long career. Born in 1924, the self-taught artist seldom used models. Rather, Purdy worked largely from the memory and impressions certain subjects and objects left upon his mind. The artist only occasionally paints on canvas, preferring masonite which he considers to be a stronger and longer-lasting material. Though he admits to using gesso, Purdy is known for his special preparations of painting surfaces through a method he keeps secret. Purdy first began painting in an abstract style. He later combined the abstract techniques with representational subject matter, and would continue experimenting with new styles. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Purdy became influenced by the palette of the Barbizon painters and developed a unique approach, melding abstraction with the rigid Realist techniques to produce his signature Impressionist style. Before pursuing a career as an artist, Purdy earned a B.A. from the University of Connecticut and an M.A. in Psychology from Boston University. Two Purdy paintings were included in the US State Department's "Art in America" show which recently toured Europe and several "First Awards" have been given to Purdy in competition with major artists. Among these is the Gold Metal of Honor from the National Academy in New York City. Purdy's pieces are exhibited by the noted Van Diemen-Lilienfeld Gallery, which shows his work alongside the works of Vlaminch, Derain, Pissaro, Monet, Chagall and Picasso. His one man exhibitions have been seen in New York at the Ruth...

Still Life, Red & Yellow Flowers, Gouache Painting by Peter Potworowski, c 1955 Additional information: Medium: Gouache 23.6 x 33.3 cm 9 1/4 x 13 1/8 in Tadeusz Piotr (Peter) Potworowski was a Polish abstract and figurative painter who lived and exhibited in Paris, Poland, Sweden and England. Potworowski was born in Warsaw in 1898. After serving in the First World War, Potworowski enrolled at the Warsaw University of Technology to study architecture, though his studies were halted by the Bolshevik campaign. After the end of the Polish-Soviet War in 1921, Potworowski returned to Warsaw and began to study art at the school of Konrad Krzyżanowski. By the following year, he had taken a place at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, where he studied under Józef Pankiewicz. It was Pankiewicz who incorporated Potworowski into the Paris Commute, or Kapists, a group of Polish artists who travelled to the French capital in 1924. During his seven years in Paris he became personally acquainted with Pablo Picasso, Pierre Bonnard, Jean Cocteau, Constantin Brancusi and attended for a short time Fernand Léger's studio. It was through this job that he met his first wife Magdalena Mańkowska, a student of anthropology in Paris. After marrying in France, and visiting Britain in 1928, the couple returned to Poland in 1930, where their first son John was born. In 1931, Warsaw was the locale of the first Kapists exhibition, entitled New Generation, which took place at the Artist's Club, Hotel Polonia, and the Institute of Art Propaganda. Here, Potworowski received a prize for his painting Three Women in the Interior. The following year, he held his first solo exhibition at the Makowski Salon in Poznań. This success was sustained through 1937 when the artist received a silver medal at the International Exhibition of Art and Technology in Paris, as well as the award from the Minister of Foreign Affairs. After this strong development, Potworowski had a travelling solo exhibition arranged, held in 1938 at the Institute of Propaganda of Art in Warsaw and then in Lviv. Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, Potworowski escaped to Sweden via Lithuania. It was from here that the artist, with his wife and two young children, made his way to Britain, arriving in 1943. After serving in Scotland, Potworowski settled in London, and in January 1946, an exhibition of 33 of his works was held at the Redfern Gallery. This was followed by regular exhibitions with the Redfern, Gimpel Fils (1948 onwards) and The London Group, to which he was elected a member in 1949. He was also the president of the Association of Polish Artists and published regularly in the monthly magazine "Nowa Polska". Potworowski's teaching career included eight years as Professor of Painting at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham (1949-57), where he had considerable European influence, specifically on abstraction, and was acknowledged by contemporaries including Peter Lanyon, Bryan Wynter...