Healdsburg Museum Fair

museumIf you missed the Healdsburg Museum Antiques, Arts and Collectibles Fair this year, it’s certainly worth putting it on the calendar for next year. The fair took place at the Healdsburg Plaza on Sunday, August 24 from 9-4. Over 90 vendors attended and were displaying everything from Persian rugs and pottery to antique prints and maps, sterling silver, country furniture and more.

The Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society added to their support for the fair this year with their “Healdsburg Hospitality” where they had local businesses offer special offers for fair-goers.

Upcoming Auction: Painting by Emiliano di Cavalcanti

All eyes are on the estate auction taking place next weekend at the Crescent City Auction Gallery in New Orleans. On the auction block is a figural oil-on-canvas painting by Brazilian artist Emiliano di Cavalcanti (1897-1976). He created it in 1948 and titled it “Pescadores” which means fisherman in Spanish. They expect it to bring in $150,000-$250,000 at the estates auction.

It is signed by the artist and shows fishermen bringing in their catch with a fishing boat and a setting sun in the background. One of his paintings sold at Sotheby’s in May for $360,000.

Read the full article on this upcoming auction here.

Historic Rugby Antique Street Fair

street-fair-poster-jpg-791x1024Historic Rugby is a gem in Tennessee, offering a beautifully restored Victorian village where guests can walk around and enjoy. And now, on June 21 and 22, they will be opening the grounds to thousands of visitors for their annual Antique Street Fair.

As Zachary Langley, the executive director of Historic Rugby explains,

“We welcome guests to the area each year to not only take part in the Rugby Antique Street Fair, but to learn about our ‘little hidden gem’ we call home. We hope visitors leave with an appreciation of our history and some once-in-a-lifetime treasures to begin or add to his or her cherished antique collection.”

For more information, enjoy the details here: http://www.historicrugby.org/antique-street-fair-june-21-22/

Staten Island Arts Opening Soon

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For those in New York who love art, this information is quite exciting. The Staten Island Arts will open on June 7th in the new Culture Lab in the St. George ferry terminal. The multi-use lounge will include offices, exhibit space, performance space and a 400 square foot retail Artist Market, totaling 2500 square feet.

As Melanie Cohn, executive director of Staten Island Arts, said “We’re excited on the national level to put art in a transit hub. We really want to be a national example for what can done.”

The location will be available to visitors from Monday through Friday from 10 am to 7 pm and on weekends from noon to 5pm. Tuesdays will be hopping, with the space open until 10pm for evening classes that are geared towards local artists.

As explained on the Silive website, “The Artist Market will be updated frequently, featuring a variety of unique, handmade goods under a New York harbor theme. Items will include everything from paintings, to scarfs and artisanal soaps crafted by local artists. Upon opening, the market will feature about 30 artists’ works. Fifty percent of the price tag will go to Staten Island Arts, the other 50 percent to the artist.

Similar to a museum gift shop, the market will showcase plenty of area-specific works as well as a revolving door of holiday-related goods.”

Learn more about this exciting project here.

Scottish National Gallery Launches Venetian Art Exhibition

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The Scottish National Gallery is getting ready to open a new exhibition featuring two of the world’s most famous paintings: Titian’s Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto. The gallery, entitled Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Art, will display a collection of sixteenth-century Venetian paintings, drawings and prints to compliment Titian’s two masterpieces.

According to the Edinburgh Reporter:

“A major coup for the exhibition is the opportunity to show for the first time in Scotland Titian’s late masterpiece, the Death of Actaeon, from the National Gallery, London. This is the first time it has been lent anywhere since the National Gallery acquired it in 1972. In total, the exhibition will include 16 paintings and some 30 drawings and prints by most the top names in Venetian art of the period. Another highlight will be a drawing which the Gallery acquired at auction in 2007, which has subsequently been identified as a rare drawing by Titian.”

The upcoming exhibition will feature 16 paintings and over 30 drawings and prints by some of the most extraordinary Venetian artists of the period, including Lorenzo Lotto, Palma Vecchio, Jacopo Bassano, Jacopo Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese.

Chairman of the Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland Ben Thomson said: “Thanks to a fantastic collaboration with the National Gallery in London we were able to secure two superlative masterpieces for the public. We look forward to building on this collaboration in the future.”

Freer Gallery Opens “The Nile and Ancient Egypt” Show

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The Freer Gallery, one of the two Smithsonian museums of Asian art, recently unveiled the new “The Nile and Ancient Egypt” show. Though the museum is generally dedicated to one specific field, the Gallery has made an exception with its newest addition.

“Most of these objects were collected by Charles Lang Freer himself,” explains Alexander Nagel, curator of the exhibit. It makes sense, therefore, to display them in his eponymous museum. Freer’s mission has been to help scholars connect between various great civilizations throughout human history, an effort that would be lacking if it did not include specimens from the Egyptian empire.

Freer made three trips to Egypt between 1906 and 1909. There, he collected more than 1,500 artifacts, including glass vessels, mosaic tiles and animal-shaped amulets. He explained that the Egyptians had a close relationship with the Nile’s waters, a fact which is reflected in the wave-like decorations on vessels as well as the amulets, which are shaped like river creatures such as crocodiles and hippopotamuses. These amulets were believed to give the wearer protection and blessings.

Freer was a self-made millionaire who retired at the age of 46. He spent the rest of his life collecting art from around the world, focusing primarily on Asian pieces. He traveled to Egypt three times as well, and when he died in 1919, his eclectic collection became the Freer Gallery.

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Joslyn Art Museum Releases 2014 Exhibit Schedule

Omaha’s Joslyn Art Museum recently revealed its exhibit schedule for 2014. The shows will explore all areas of the art world including movement, media, ancient art, works from the American West and modern art as well.

Next year’s Pavilion Galleries include:

“Poseidon and the Sea: Myth, Cult and Daily Life,” a collection of Greek, Etruscan and Roman art and artifacts from the ancient Mediterranean area

“Yellowstone and the West: The Chromolithographs of Thomas Moran,” an exhibit which reveals “portfolio images released in 1876 to coincide with the nation’s centennial, introduced 19th century Americans to a part of the country none of them had seen.”

“Mark di Suvero: River’s Edge Park,” this exhibit “complements the unveiling of a Mark di Suvero sculpture in Council Bluffs’ River’s Edge Park with the artist’s works on paper and gallery-scaled sculptures.”

“Andy Warhol in Living Color: Contemporary Prints From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation,” a collection of the artist’s prints from a collector in Portland, Ore.

As well as “American Moderns, 1910-1960: From O’Keeffe to Rockwell,” “Art Seen: A Juried Exhibition of Artists From Omaha to Lincoln,” “Keith Jacobshagen: Retrospective, 1995-2015,” and “Go West! Art of the American Frontier From the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.”

 

The Ancient Art of Bonsai Trees

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bonsaiScott Elser, a graphic designer and painter, has a collection of hundreds of bonsai specimens in his backyard. The unique display showcases the ancient art of turning trees into miniature plants.

“I’ve always been interested in the artistic aspect of trees,” Elser said, explaining that the passion was passed down to him from his grandfather. His first trees were a pine and a juniper from Arizona. “They lived despite me,” he said. “Everything changes when they get in a pot.”

Elser is not the only artist who loves to manipulate roots and tree trunks. Chas Martin, another painter, is also devoted to the process.

“You’re totally immersed in the moment,” he describes. “You observe the minute, day-to-day changes. You know what the tree wants to do, or that it’s time for you to do something. It’s very settling.”

The art of bonsai is becoming more popular, possibly because the trees are outliving their original caretakers. The trees can live for centuries with proper care. Martin recalls seeing an oak that was 2 feet tall with an 8-inch diameter trunk.

“I thought it must be 100 years old,” he said, “but it was 400 years old. Part of it is creating an illusion. But a tree well cared for can outlast their owners by a long shot.”

Martin says the process is the most important part. “You tend to them, they tend to you,” he says.

‘Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt’ Exhibit Opens at the Brooklyn Museum

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ancient egypt catsThe Brooklyn Museum recently launched a new show called “Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt”. The exhibit demonstrates the importance of cats in ancient Egyptian imagery.

The collection features 30 feline representations, including a large limestone lion, a bronze Pharaoh as a Sphinx, and a cast-bronze figurine of a cat nursing her kittens.

The museum explains:

“Likely first domesticated in ancient Egypt, cats were revered for their fertility and valued for their ability to protect homes and granaries from vermin. But felines were also associated with royalty and closely linked with a number of deities.”