Michigan - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Ernest William Christmas (Australian, 1863-1918) Signed: E. W. Christmas (Lower, Left) " Moss Beach, Ocean Shore, Cal. ", 1915 (California) Watercolor on Paper 20" x 25 3/4" Hou...

Joseph Guerin (Irish/American, 1889 - 1954) Signed: Joseph Guerin (Lower, Left) " New York Harbor with Statue of Liberty in The Distance ", circa 1930s-1940s Watercolor on Arches ...

The idyllic atmosphere of this evening country scene falls within a couple of styles one being regionalism, an American realist modern art movement that included paintings, murals, lithographs, and illustrations depicting scenes of rural and small-town America primarily in the Midwest and frequently associated with Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. The other style is romanticism wherein the scene depicted is a more desired or dramatic version of what actually is. “Untitled (Winter Scene)” is set in the deepening light of evening or a dark overcast day threatening snow. The stubble of last year's grasses is covered in a blanket of snow and distance orchard's trees seem lifeless. Despite the feeling of cold and isolation there is a quiet atmosphere to this field that was once a hubbub of summer activity causing the viewer to consider the warmth of the farmhouse where the farmer resides before spring work begins. This piece has been professionally reframed with acid-free matting and conservator glass. In a 1952 Detroit Free Press article, entitled “Artist Explains His Work,” Culver was asked why he painted the way he did. He stated: “I try to ‘see’ though not too exactly; I try to think though not too ponderously; I feel emotion yet I try not to become overwrought. I interpret rather than describe, and design rather than depict. I work with values, not light and shade; hence, when I am successful, I achieve substance rather than three-dimensional form, and this satisfies me as being wholly sufficient. In my work I wish to be serious without becoming a bore, exuberant without being frivolous, humorous without being silly. I believe that good paintings are conceived, not contrived; and I am interested in art much more than in pictures.” Charles Culver...

Tatiana Flis’ “Cloud Minder” is a minutely detailed 8 x 10 inch graphite and gouache drawing of a fantastical landscape. Ice blue and shimmering silver solar panels line the roof of an A-frame house. A cloud of smoke rises from the chimney, which mimics the landscape of clouds in which wooden stilts hold up the floating house...

Tatiana Flis’ “Whispered Apace” is a surreal 8 x 10 inch graphite and gouache drawing on thick rag paper with a deckled edge. A glacier sits on top of a slatted home, skewing the pe...