Michael Kotasek Figurative Paintings

This mural study is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Industry and Commerce, 1936, tempera on panel, 16 ½ x 39 ½ inches, signed verso “John Ballator, Portland Ore.” provenance includes: J.C. Penney Company, represented by Russell Tether Fine Arts Assoc.; presented in a newer wood frame About the Painting Industry and Commerce is a prime example of WPA Era muralism. Like a Mediaeval alter, this mural study is filled with icons, but the images of saints and martyrs are replaced with symbols of America's gospel of prosperity through capitalism. Industry and Commerce has a strong narrative quality with vignettes filling the entire surface. Extraction, logistics, design, power generation, and manufacturing for printing, chemicals, automobiles and metal products are all represented. To eliminate any doubt about the mural's themes, Ballator letters a description into the bottom of the study. Ballator also presents an idealized version of industrial cooperation, as his workers, lab-coated technicians and tie-wearing managers work harmoniously toward a common goal in the tidy and neatly designed environments. Although far from the reality of most industrial spaces, Ballator's study reflects the idealized and morale boosting tone that many mural projects adopted during the Great Depression. About the Artist John R Ballator achieved success as a muralist, lithographer, and teacher during the Great Depression. Born in Oregon, he studied at the Portland Museum Art School, the University of Oregon and at Yale University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Art. In 1936, Ballator was commissioned to paint a mural panel for the new Department of Justice Building in Washington DC, an important project that spanned five years with several dozen artists contributing a total of sixty-eight designs. Ballator completed murals for the St. Johns Post Office and Franklin High School, both in Portland, Oregon. He also contributed to the 1938 murals at Nathan Hale School in New Haven, Connecticut. During the late 1930s, Ballator taught art for several years at Washburn College in Topeka, Kanas, where he completed a mural for the Menninger Arts & Craft Shop before accepting a professorship at Hollins College...

A wonderful realistic portrait of the Penobscot, a mid-19th century coastal sidewheel steamer, rendered in Cameron’s hallmark marine portrait style - technically meticulous, historically informed, and visually serene. Executed with crisp linework and a soft, luminous palette, the ship is shown in profile navigating calm Atlantic waters under both steam and sail, her red paddle box emblazoned boldly with her name. Commissioned in 1843 by Menemon Sanford’s Steamship Line and constructed in New York, the Penobscot was a near twin to her sister ship, the Kennebec, but became especially prized for her seaworthiness. Measuring 228 feet in length with a 48-foot beam and twin 14-foot paddlewheels, she carried schooner rigging fore and aft, providing the added stability necessary for coastal and offshore passages. Initially assigned to the Maine coastal excursion routes, she would later be reassigned to the elite New York–Philadelphia line and eventually sold and renamed Norfolk for pre-Civil War service along the southern coast. This work is oil on canvas and is signed in the lower right. It is housed in its original black frame and retains the artist’s description of the ship on the reverse. Size: 22 inches tall by 44 inches wide (painting) 26 inches tall by 48 inches wide by 1 inch deep (frame) Provenance: Private collection; Acquired from the above About the artist: A Delaware artist, Scott Cameron paints the simple elegance of the America’s Cup races, serene coastal marsh scenes, timeless landscape vistas and historic steamboats in a style reminiscent of the era in which they reigned. An admirer of Andrew Wyeth and the Brandywine School of painters, Scott has combined the detail and quiet stillness of that School in his landscapes with the Luminist School’s sense of light glowing from within. A soft gentle atmosphere seems to fall over each scene adding to the peacefulness of the setting, and a sense of a time gone by. His America’s Cup scenes capture the action at a moment in time, allowing the beauty of the wind-filled sails to become the central design element of each painting. Scott Cameron has exhibited his oil paintings in numerous national and regional shows from the Mystic Seaport Museum to solo and group shows in some of the foremost galleries throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Favorite painting locations are the waterways and coastal inlets of Martha’s Vineyard and Maryland’s Eastern Shore and the gentle rolling landscapes of rural Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Meticulous research is behind every historic steamboat and America’s Cup painting...

“Eastern White Pines, c. 1910” by Charles Warren Eaton (American, 1857-1937). A wonderful example of Eaton’s renowned compositions of Eastern white pine trees in his mature style. A...

Zack Zdrale's (US based) "6 and Two" is an oil painting that depicts two male figures with an obscured faces arching their backs and extending their arms a...

Artist: Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) Title: Girl with Braided Hair Year: Circa 1947 Medium: Oil on canvas Size: 12 x 9 inches; framed size, 19 x 16 inches Condition: Excellent Inscripti...

Honore Sharrer (1920 - 2009) Woman Listening Signed lower right Caseine on paper 15 x 20 inches Provenance: Forum Gallery, New York Private Collection ...

John Hanlen (1922-2003). Flower Market, Lima Peru, ca. 1950. Tempera on paper, sheet measures 14.25 x 22.5 inches. Measurement with matting: 18.5 x 26.5 inches. The piece is unfra...

Scandinavian Family Portrait Artist 18th century 18th Century Scandinavian School Signature: Not signed Medium: Miniature Dimensions: Image size ...

American life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, Bill Bally Blacksmithing (1987), where he depicts a woman riding her bicycle by a historic and quintessential Minnesota busin...

Rod Goebel was a post-impressionist / impressionist painter of landscape, still life and figure who made his mark in Taos, New Mexico. After receiving his degree from the University of New Mexico, Goebel studied at the Colorado Institute of Art in 1968 1969, graduating in Advertising Design. He later studied at the Ramon Froman School of Art. Goebel was a charter member of the Taos Six Society of Artists with Ron Barsano, Robert Daughters, Walt Gonske, Julian Robles...

John Hanlen (1922-2003). Beach Snack Shack, ca. 1950. Tempera on paper, sheet measures 18 x 23 inches. Measurement with matting: 26 x 31 inches. The piece is unframed. There is ...

Tempera mixed with gum arabic and alcohol on Renaissance Panel There is from frame burn and scattered surface abrasions but they are minor. Additionally, there are a 3 or 4 very fine hair line scratches not visible unless you look very closely. The work is varnished and has a reflective quality to it that makes it hard to photograph. In person the viewing experience is much better. You can see more detail in the shadow areas. The colors are rich, deep and saturated. Riggs was very particular in researching the tribal costumes...