Marilyn Fenn Studio

Wendell Castle Music Stand (1964) Oak, Brazilion Rosewood 55.5″ x 25″ x 20″ I just discovered this great blog post about an artist/craftsman named Wendell Castle at Emily Evans Eerdmans’ blog.  Wendell Castle has been creating amazing furniture for over 50 years.  He has ten “Adopted Rules of Thumb” for staying at the top of [...]

I just learned that Ray Yoshida, one of the Chicago Imagists and one of my painting teachers at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, passed away this week. I studied with him in an advanced painting studio for one semester: he once told me my work was “too sentimental.” (Thank goodness!). I’m sad [...]

Painting by Matthew Ritchie “Self-Portrait in 2064″ 2003 Oil and marker on canvas 80 x 100 inches That quote is from an interview with Matthew Ritchie. Better yet, I found this wonderful post by Vera Mitchell about Matthew Ritchie: His work takes a basic line and takes it farther in meaning, in space, and in [...]

I like his point of view.  Painting by Adam Cvijanovic See a lot more of Cvijanovic’s colossal spectacular work online at the Bellwether Gallery.

Elevating a motorcycle rally to art by moving it indoors and placing it on a stage.

“You” by Urs Fischer Today I look at how various artists over recent time have reacted against the idea that developed through the history of art of the gallery as a sacred place, and the art within as items to be worshipped. A recent installation in New York by Urs Fisher takes place inside a [...]

Painting by Karen Jacobs “Hope Ridge” mixed media on canvas 30″ x 30″ Here’s another really gorgeous abstract landscape — makes me wish I were there (kind of like Robin Williams in “What Dreams May Come” or that bit in Akira Kurasawa’s movie (I think it may have been called “Dreams”) where Van Gogh wanders [...]

Painting by Cheryl McClure “Little Pieces of Land IX” acrylic on canvas 36 x 36″ Favorite painter of the day: Cheryl McClure, whose beautiful abstract landscapes I found online at the Jezebel Gallery. This is my favorite! Gorgeous colors, and I love how it works as a landscape and also as purely abstract shapes. I’m [...]

Painting by Karin Jurick “An older gentleman viewing an abstract painting in the de Young Museum in San Francisco” Oil on Masonite 8″x10″ A Painting a Day I Stumbled Upon this artist’s site today: Karin Jurick — through a ‘painting a day’ blog.  I love her beautiful tiny representational paintings; I especially love her paintings [...]

Art by Christian Rohlfs Aim for the Big Look: tough brutal uncompromising articulation of imagery & idea extremes of technique, like most sensitive line ever, or thickest body of paint. The need must find the idea & method. These notes are from “Notes for a Young Painter”, by Hiram Williams, Prentice-Hall, 1963. Read some notes [...]