Fine Art Blog

Category: Naive Art

  • Artist Caroline Shotton – Are these cows upset? ‘blue’ even?

    This is the latest Caroline Shotton release ‘Blue Moon’ box canvas.

    Around the whole outline of the moon itself are hand placed, jewels which is a lovely finishing touch to this wonderfully vibrant piece.

    Before this piece came out my favourite colour for a Shotton background was red but now, with the very deep blue, I think this is now the clear winner.

    There is some hidden depth to this painting, the detail in the top half of the sky and the craters in the moon. It is a tribute to Caroline that she makes these paintings look so ridiculously simple but in fact there is a strong artistic intelligence behind them.

    Blue moon but very happy cows!

    thanks

    Emily

  • Artist Caroline Shotton’s pictures lie, cows do not!

    We wanted to make the point that sometimes the images that are press released (in advance of the item arriving in the gallery) don’t do the pictures justice and the finished artwork is often much much nicer in person!


    (Press release image ‘Two & A Calf’)

    This was particularly the case when Caroline Shotton released the 4 limited edition box canvas’s
    ‘Moo Too,’
    ‘Two And A Calf,’
    ‘2 Pint 4’
    ‘Meet The Famooly’
    in Autumn last year.

    Above is the press release image for ‘Two & Calf’ by Caroline Shotton. The image looks really quite flat, mostly variation of red and with no embellishments.

    Now let’s looks at some camera images we took of the actual painting:


    (picture we took of ‘Two & A Calf’)

    Take a closer look at the actual ‘jewels’ on the box canvas, on this picture they are yellow and on the other titles in the series they where various colours, I remember one was this amazing shade of purple!


    (notice the stuck on yellow jewels, and stuck on fabric hearts)


    (notice the finish on the white, starting from above the cow’s noses)

    Even the faces of the cows are actually embellished and are raised with actual paint work, this is not a flat off the printer finish but a much more special, lively image that looks like it’s actually come directly out of Caroline’s studio

    thank you

    James

    Useful links
    Cows in art
    Links to more cow art
    Fun Cow clip art

  • Sarah Jane Szikora – Spring 2009 New Releases – Comment 2

    Finally, we managed to get round to the final part of the Press Release that came with Sarah’s spring releases, hopefully we will be a bit quicker come the next releases due in September 2009 and I have had word they will be amazing!


    (‘The Merry Widdow’)

    “In a piece in joyous celebration of the end of an era, ‘Merry Widow’ has an old style musical feel with a chorus line of jelly babies and shows the absolute freedom Sarah-Jane now has after 13 years of being published by other people, to paint and publish her own limited editions prints.


    (‘Sweet Music’)

    This fresh start inspired Sarah-Jane Szikora to paint 3 wonderfully happy paintings. In ‘Sweet Music’ we view the artist conducting her own choir of gingerbread men, singing her song 🙂 and even though they maybe playing out of tune a little, it’s clearly music to Sarah’s ears!


    (‘UFO – Unidentified Fizzing Object’)

    What do jelly babies do behind closed doors? Well ‘Unidentified fizzing Objects’ playfully shows the secret double life of some of the nations favourite sweets and manages to capture our hearts at the same time.


    (‘The Makeover’)

    And last but not least there is ‘The Makeover.’ (which has proved to be the most popular piece – Emily) Sarah-Jane’s mischievous sense of humour, at a gloomy economic time, brings a welcome smile back to your face. In an art business that takes itself very seriously, gingerbread men in their underpants is just what the doctor ordered!”

    thanks

    Emily

  • Sarah Jane Szikora – Spring 2009 New Releases – Comment 1

    We have delved into the archives again to give you some of the info that Sarah-Jane Szikora people released with her Spring 2009 collection as many of you have been emailing for more and it explains, in her own words, the thinking behind each painting:


    (L’Enfant Terrible by Sarah Jane Szikora)

    “Sarah-Jane paints from her own experiences and this collection of new limited edition prints catalogues both an unusual and troublesome year in her life & career. In ‘L’Enfant Terrible’ and ‘Misfit’, Sarah-Jane records the strained relationship with her old publisher Washington Green. This situation led to what has so far been a 2 year legal dispute, an appearance at London’s High Courts in January 2008 and Sarah herself as ‘The Defendant.’


    (Misfit by Sarah Jane Szikora)

    These paintings are highly personal and to a degree the pictures describe themselves.
    During this period, Sarah-Jane has been delighted to discover huge support & goodwill from both galleries and collectors worldwide, receiving scores of letters & emails urging her to hang in there. Cleverly Sarah painted those who have followed her artwork for years and continue to do so in ‘Mischief of Mice.’


    (The Defendant by Sarah Jane Szikora)

    Part 2 coming soon! So stay tuned!


    (Mischief Of Mice by Sarah Jane Szikora)

    thank you

    James