Pawel Kontny

“New Mexico” Adobe Painting by Pawel Kontny, 20th C. Southwestern Watercolor

Mid 20th Century

This striking 20th-century modernist watercolor by Richard K. Ayers depicts a captivating scene of an old mine and houses in Cortez, Colorado. The artwork features a rich color palette of blue, green, gold, and brown, capturing the rugged beauty of the landscape with a unique, abstract perspective. Presented in a custom frame with all archival materials, the outer dimensions of the piece measure 36 ½ x 30 ½ x ¾ inches, with an image size of 24 ¾ x 18 ¾ inches. About the Artist: Richard K. Ayers (1921–2003) was a talented artist who studied at Miami University...

This dynamic abstract watercolor by acclaimed New Mexico artist William Lumpkins (1909–2000) exemplifies his signature fusion of vibrant color, spir...

This stunning gouache painting by Wolfgang Pogzeba (1936-1982) captures the beauty of Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, depicting a dramatic cliffside landsca...

Vintage 1930s watercolor and ink painting of Estes Park, Colorado, by American artist James Russell Sherman (1906-1989). This captivating work features a detailed view of storefronts...

VFD #3 is an industrial watercolor painting on paper by California artist, Ferdinanda Florence. It is 11.25 x 7, unframed. It is based on the building in Vallejo California where the fire department conducts training. Ferdinanda Florence was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Arlington, VA. She received a degree in art history and studio art at The American University in 1994, and has continued to pursue a successful professional life as a scholar, teacher, and practicing artist. She earned her Master’s degree in art history at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1998. A second-generation Armenian-America, Ferdinanda has explored in her research the role of place in artistic expression. Her Master’s thesis detailed the link between Armenian religious rituals and church architecture. In her travel to sites in France, Italy, and Germany, she has researched the symbolism of doorway and floor decoration in Romanesque buildings. In her artwork, she uses industrial sites in her home city of Vallejo to explore issues of place on a more personal level. Ferdinanda’s exhibitions reflect her varied interests and concerns. Her work has appeared at the Di Rosa Preserve, Napa (“All in the Family IV,” 2005); the University of San Francisco Law School (“Creative Justice: A Social Art...

"Southwest" ruins is an original watercolor and ink drawing by David Barnett. The artist signed and dated the artwork in the lower right. It depicts a beautifully colorful barren lan...

"Footloose in Carefree, AZ" is an original watercolor painting by David Barnett. The artist signed the piece in the lower left corner. David Barnett has done several pieces centered ...

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. This one bears the influence of Sam Francis. 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...