"The Dance" by Henri Matisse at MoMA

On Tuesday January 15, 2008, artist Jay Rolfe posted about Matisse's two Nasturtium paintings, one at the Met in NYC and one at the Pushkin in Moscow, both of which Jay Rolfe has seen and liked, with "The Dance" in the background. Here is "The Dance" from 1909 and now at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

That's the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's Unique Artistic Idea, his Hyper Representational 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/. Artist Jay Rolfe uses vibrant color, 3-D, recognizable shape, and huge size to reveal beauty, touch emotion in a positive way, and create an Uplifting Conversation Piece.

Matisse's "Nasturtiums With The Painting 'Dance' "

Yesterday artist Jay Rolfe came across a passage in the Matisse biography he's reading which expresses some of my own views about art. The interview Matisse gave which led to these comments was in 1909, 99 years ago! In Matisse The Master, Hilary Spurling tells of Matisse's interview published April 12, 1909 "in which Matisse explained that the invention of photography released painting from any need to copy nature. From now on art was free to condense and synthesize, eliminating surface detail in an attempt to penetrate rather than reproduce reality. He said that the aim of the new art was to 'present emotion as directly as possible and by the simplest means.' "

Today's photo from artist Jay Rolfe is of Henri Matisse's "Nasturtiums With The Painting 'Dance' " from 1912. This is the second version of the painting, and is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (the biggest tourist attraction in NYC!). "The Dance" painting from 1909 in the background is at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC displayed in a stairwell - which is what it was created for. The other version of "The Dance" was in Moscow in a collector's stairwell, the same collector who bought the first version of this Nasturtiums painting. You can read an interesting commentary on the museum's website at http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/Nasturtiums_with_the_Painting_Dance_Henri_Matisse/ViewObject.aspx?depNm=all&pID=-1&kWd=Matisse&OID=210003511&vW=-1&Pg=1&St=0&StOd=1&vT=1
The first version of Nasturtiums is now in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, and artist Jay Rolfe posted a photo of it from his visit there in his September 7, 2007 post. What the heck, here it is again!

That's the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's Unique Artistic Idea, his Hyper Representational 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/. Artist Jay Rolfe uses vibrant color, 3-D, recognizable shape, and huge size to reveal beauty, touch emotion in a positive way, and create an Uplifting Conversation Piece.

Matisse "Goldfish" at the Pushkin Museum

Last night for First Friday, artist Jay Rolfe went to an opening reception for a group show of West Chester University faculty members at Art Trust Gallery in West Chester. There was some very interesting work. Rolfe had a great time with many artists friends during and after the show.

Today's photo is another painting by Henri Matisse at the Pushkin Museum called "Goldfish," although they have translated the title into English as "Red Fish." It was painted in 1912. It's perhaps the nicest Matisse goldfish painting I've seen. This image is from the Pushkin Museum website, http://www.museum.ru/gmii/defengl.htm, down near the bottom of the very long page. I have added the photo I took of that painting in which the colors appear more vivid (which is how I remember it). I'll have to go back and see which coloring is more accurate. Seeing it in person is always better, as photos almost never do justice to paintings.

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's unique artistic idea, his 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Back To Work

Today artist Jay Rolfe completed the stretcher frameworks for three new 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings. I had a great and relaxing 3 day break from painting for the Labor Day holiday weekend.

I intended to post a photo of me working this morning. I was just downloading photos of me working earlier today when I lost all of them. The door to the camera compartment that holds the memory card came open and the memory card became unseated. The camera was on and it lost what was on the memory card.

So, for today's photo, how about another Monet from the Pushkin Museum, one of two views of Rouen Cathedral in the Pushkin collection, this one titled "Rouen Cathedral at Sunset." It's beautiful, and it was great to see two of the series Monet painted side-by-side. The lighting was dim in the museum, so the colors aren't as bright as they really are.

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's unique artistic idea, his 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Another Monet at the Pushkin!

Today is Labor Day in the U.S. Artist Jay Rolfe is taking a break from painting this Labor Day weekend, although he is planning a new series of paintings.

Today's photo is another Monet at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. The title is "Boulevard de Capucines, Paris" and it was painted in 1873. It was one of Monet's paintings exhibited at the first exhibition of the Impressionists (another of his paintings, "Impression Sunrise," inspired the name Impressionists for the rebel group of painters). This is a beautiful painting. For me it was an unexpected subject for Monet, as I was familiar with the series of Parisian Boulevard paintings by Pissarro but not with this Monet. The perspective from one side of the Boulevard to the other and the trees in the foreground make it quite different from the Pissarro paintings which generally look right down the middle of the boulevard with buildings on both sides. I've included the thumbnail photo, all of which are portrait orientation, from the Pushkin Museum website which shows the colors accurately, and my photo of the painting which shows the landscape shape accurately.

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's unique artistic idea, his 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Monet at the Pushkin Museum

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's unique artistic idea, his 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

There are a number of fine paintings by Claude Monet at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, 11 to be exact. One is a large painting of a somewhat different subject for Monet, titled "Luncheon on the Grass," painted in 1865-1866. It was apparently meant to be a large but "modest" reply to Manet's large and scandalous"Luncheon on the Grass" of 1863 which had been rejected by the Salon that year as indecent. Monet's painting is impressive in its size, detail, and casual positions of many of its subjects, as if they were captured by a candid photo. While "Luncheon on the Grass" is not my favorite of the Monet paintings at the Pushkin, it is the most unusual.

Here's a photo of Monet's painting at the Pushkin, and one of Manet's painting which is in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Here is a link to Manet's painting. http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire/commentaire_id/luncheon-on-the-grass-7201.htmlorsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire/commentaire_id/luncheon-on-the-grass-7201.html

Van Gogh at the Pushkin Museum

Artist Jay Rolfe intended to move on from sharing his fascination with the Van Gogh paintings in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow without showing you the fifth painting because it isn't very different from other Van Gogh's you can see in museums in this country. However, to be complete, I'll show it to you. It's titled "Portrait of Doctor Rey" and was painted in 1889. I've seen other portraits of Doctor Rey, and this one has a different background and in particularly well done. This completes the 5 Van Gogh paintings at the Pushkin which changed my view of Vincent Van Gogh. I hope you enjoyed seeing photos of them. I sure enjoyed seeing the originals.

That's the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's unique artistic idea, his 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

More Vincent Van Gogh

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's unique artistic idea, his 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Here's the 4th Van Gogh painting at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow which gave me a different view of Vincent (the first three were posted earlier this week). It's titled "The Red Vineyards At Arles" and was painted in 1888. It's not my favorite of the group, but it shows a different palette and a number of people - as there were in "The Prison Courtyard."

Today I'll try to finish creating the frameworks for the 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings I'm working on.

Keep Working

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's unique artistic idea, his 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

I've been working on some new paintings, but don't have any photos to show you yet. I'll be busy on them today. The late summer weather is fantastic day after day.

Today's photo is another Van Gogh from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. I think it's very beautiful. The colors are vibrant and the texture accents the ocean waves. I apologize that my photo doesn't do it justice - sometimes the camera just doesn't get the colors right. Van Gogh painted this in 1888 and the title is "The Sea At Saintes-Maries."

This painting, along with the other 2 I posted photos of the past 2 days, gave me a much greater appreciation for Vincent Van Gogh. Now I see his genius.

Vincent Van Gogh

Today is another beautiful day - bright blue sky, sunny, warm - perfect top-down driving weather. And the pool is a wonderful 80 degrees.

Today's photo is another of the Van Gogh's at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. "The Prison Courtyard" from 1890 is one of the most unusual Van Gogh's I've seen. It's very well done, but unlike any others of his I know of. (The other Van Gogh that seems unusual to me is at the Barnes Foundation in Merion PA and is an oval canvas of a nude arranged much like Manet's "Olympia" except that Van Gogh's scene is somewhat shabbier than "Olympia.")

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's unique artistic idea, his 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Rested And Ready To Paint

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's unique artistic idea, his 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Wow! A bright sunny day, a new week, the pool at a very refreshing 78 degrees, and memories of a great BBQ party Saturday night. Life is good. After a couple of days off from painting, I'm eager to get back to it. I just looked at my staging area and noticed several frameworks I've made for paintings that I haven't gotten to assembling, let alone cutting and stretching canvas for. Since they're started, I think I'll work on finishing them.

For today's photo, here's one of 5 Van Gogh paintings I saw at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow in February 2005 (Yes, Moscow winters are cooold!) that led me to change my previous idea of Vincent Van Gogh as mostly "Sunflowers" and "Starry Night." This is a colorful and detailed country farm scene with a steam engined train puffing smoke across the horizon. It was done in 1890 and is titled "Landscape At Auvers After Rain (Landscape With Carriage And Train)." It is beautiful to me.