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Still life painting

Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Neil Jenney

Thursday, November 6, 2025 | Karl Cole

Painter Neil Jenney has been part of what the Whitney Museum called in 1978 New Image Painting. It is neither Pop-oriented or abstract. Jenney’s work emphasizes vigorous, exciting brush work ...

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Curator's Corner

Art for National Fig Week: Luis Meléndez

Monday, November 3, 2025 | Karl Cole

November 1-7 is National Fig Week, and we celebrate with Baroque art! Just as very different painting styles co-existed in late Baroque France – the Rococo which catered to the nobility, and ...

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Curator's Corner

Daylight Savings Time: Pierre Roy

Monday, October 6, 2025 | Karl Cole

Now you see it, now you don’t. Daylight Savings Time ends in about a month, and I’ll finally have a little light in the morning to see the bunnies in the yard at city hall. The paintings o ...

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Curator's Corner

National Coffee Day: Elizabeth Murray

Monday, September 29, 2025 | Karl Cole

Cups of coffee appeared frequently in Elizabeth Murray's paintings.  National Coffee Day was first celebrated in about 2005, but did not take off as a holiday until September 29, 2009. That&rs ...

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Curator's Corner

National Oyster Day: Osias Beert, the Elder

Tuesday, August 5, 2025 | Karl Cole

Art historians consider Osias Beert possibly the first significant Baroque Flemish still life painter. The still life medium was just catching on in popularity during his period of activity, ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Juan Sánchez Cotán

Wednesday, June 25, 2025 | Karl Cole

Juan Sánchez Cotán was a Spanish Baroque painter who helped popularize the still life genre in Spanish Baroque painting. Spanish Renaissance and Baroque art were greatly influenced by th ...

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Curator's Corner

National Cheese Day: Clara Peeters

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 | Karl Cole

Although little is known about her upbringing or training, Peeters was one of a growing number of women artists who were widely acclaimed as professional artists. She was also a pioneer in the relativ ...

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Curator's Corner

National Floral Design Day

Friday, February 28, 2025 | Karl Cole

Clara Peeters's work carried on the great tradition of observed realism established by the early Flemish Renaissance painters Jan van Eyck (1390–1441) and Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400– ...

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Curator's Corner

International Pomegranate Month: Lu Zonggui and Keiko Mori

Monday, November 11, 2024 | Karl Cole

I can’t find anything about the history of International Pomegranate Month. However, I think pomegranate juice is yummy (and good for you), so let’s celebrate the month with art! ...

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Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Pieter Aertsen

Monday, July 29, 2024 | Karl Cole

I have presented quite a few posts about still-life painting over the years because (1) I like doing still life paintings myself and (2) still life is one of the first types of painting lessons many y ...

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Curator's Corner

National Meat Week 2024

Monday, January 29, 2024 | Karl Cole

National Meat Week, a celebration founded in 2005 by Chris Cantey and Erni Walker in Tallahassee, Florida, goes from 28 January to 4 February this year. It is meant to be a celebration of feastin ...

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Curator's Corner

October Is National Apple Month: Levi Wells Prentice

Monday, October 23, 2023 | Karl Cole

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate National Apple Month than with one of THE most incredible paintings I’ve ever seen on the subject. The first time I saw this painting by Levi Wel ...

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Curator's Corner

Thanksgiving Week 2022: John F. Francis Still Life

Monday, November 21, 2022 | Karl Cole

I don’t usually attend a large buffet-style Thanksgiving dinner, but I always observe the underlying reason for Thanksgiving: being grateful. Among the many things I am grateful for—a ...

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Curator's Corner

Swiss National Day Bundesfeier: Le Corbusier

Monday, August 1, 2022 | Karl Cole

The first of August (Erschten Ougschte in Bernese) is the Swiss “Independence Day,” celebrating the establishment of the first Swiss Confederation of thirteen cantons (districts) seeking l ...

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Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Wang Zhen

Monday, July 25, 2022 | Karl Cole

This beautiful still life is representative of a period in Chinese art when Chinese artists began to be influenced by elements of Western art, before the Communist government was established. Man ...

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Curator's Corner

Remembering Wayne Thiebaud

Monday, January 10, 2022 | Karl Cole

We lost a truly unique artist this past December 25th. I associate Wayne Thiebaud more with New Realism of the 1960s, but he has been inexorably linked to Pop Art in many Western art history texts. Re ...

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