Monet "Road to Vetheuil"

The Phillips Collection is incredibly rich according to artist Jay Rolfe. It was the first museum of modern art, opening in 1921, just 8 years after the famous Armory Show of 1913 in NYC which introduced modern art to the US. Ironically, Duncan Phillips wrote a scathing review of the Armory Show, with nothing good to say and pointed insults to specific artists he later collected. It took him all of 5 years to change his mind and begin collecting modern art.

The photo of the day is one of Jay Rolfe's many favorites from the collection, Claude Monet's 1879 painting "Road to Vetheuil." It's a beautiful landscape full of light and shadow.

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 signature style, his innovative 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Monet "Water Lilies" at Carnegie Museum of Art

Artist Jay Rolfe presents one of Claude Monet's "Water Lilies" paintings as his photo of the day. This painting is in the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. It is a very beautiful and very wide painting, approximately 18-20 feet wide and about 4 feet high. This photo was assembled in the camera from 3 separate shots to get the full width.

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 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.

"The Seine At Argenteuil" by Renoir

One of artist Jay Rolfe's favorite Renoir paintings in the Renoir Landscapes exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is the subject of today's photo. It's another painting titled "The Seine At Argenteuil" and painted in 1874. A painting from the previous year, 1873, has the same title and is painted from a similar place, yet is very different, showing the near bank, the river, and the far bank and is not about boating. I featured that painting in my post on December 19, 2007.

The photo of the day is one that artist Jay Rolfe believes is a beautiful painting of leisure boating on the Seine near Paris. Renoir painted that day along side Monet, who painted a similar canvas. Renoir's painting was lent to the exhibit by the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, and it only appeared in Philadelphia.

Artist Jay Rolfe has saved some of the best images until the last few days of the exhibit in case you've been on the fence. The Renoir Landscapes exhibit is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art continues only until Sunday January 6, 2008, 3 more days. Artist Jay Rolfe recommends you get there. If you miss it, you can see a few Renoir landscapes and many, many more Renoirs (181 total Renoirs) at the Barnes Foundation in Merion PA. In fact, I posted a photo of Renoir's "Red Boat At Argenteuil," a fall scene with women boaters, on November 8, 2007.

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 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.

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

Inspiration!

On Saturday, Jay Rolfe went to "The Clark Brothers Collect" at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC. It was an exhibit of Impressionist and Early Modern paintings collected separately by two wealthy brothers who didn't get along. The exhibit was great and very inspiring. I really enjoyed it.

Sterling Clark had some outstanding Renoir paintings which were on display. His collection of 38 Renoirs (!) was the second largest private collection of Renoirs - to Albert Barnes 181 which are all on view at the Barnes Foundation in Merion. He also had some great Monets. Since one can't take photos of visiting exhibitions, here's a photo of a beautiful Monet from the Met's permanent collection, "Haystacks" from 1891. It was one of about 30 paintings of haystacks under different weather and lighting conditions. The Art Institute of Chicago has acquired six of them and displays them side by side for comparison.

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

Tires and Pissarro ... my journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso

Since Jay Rolfe painted all weekend, today he had to do other things, like get tires for his car.

In Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, art critic Edward J. Sozanski had a great article/review of an exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art titled "Pissarro: Creating the Impressionist Landscape." As I'm fond of Monet's and Renoir's Impressionist landscapes, I think I'll go see what impressed Ed Sozanski.

That's today's step on the journey of Jay Rolfe From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You can see some expressions of my unique artistic idea on my website at www.3dssc.com.