American Artist

[bburtner@moran]

Who is your favorite American artist,living or dead?

 

[Dinerman]

John Baeder.

 

[bburtner@moran]

Baeder

He is the diner & trailer painter,nice work.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

John Plumer Ludlum : http://www.listedartistsgallery.com/Ludlumjohnplumer.html

-dixon cannon

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Richard Estes, a painter who was one of the founders of the Photorealism Movement.

http://search.aol.com/aol/image?q=Richard%20Estes

John Held, Jr.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

This is an almost impossible question to answer. As soon as I commit to one, I think of another whose work has moved. I truly love Thomas Eakins. "The Gross Clinic" has always been a favorite. And being from Philadelphia...

Then, I think of the breadth of John Singer Sargent's work. His portraits! His watercolors of Venice... and he was a Bostonian. OK. I'm going with Sargent.

 

[Foofoogal]

yes, impossible.

Andrew Wyeth. Once upon a time I walked onto a ramshackled porch loaded with stuff. I picked up a old large framed print.
I knew very little about the Artist but just knew I was standing in that room and at that window and somehow could feel the breeze on me like when I was a child.
http://www.artinthepicture.com/paintings/Andrew_Wyeth/Wind-from-the-Sea/
I could not find anything on the net that would come close to showing how awesome this is.

 

[Foofoogal]

I go gaga over childrens illustrators of times past also.
http://www.loganberrybooks.com/most-wilkin.html
many, many others.

 

[cptjeff]

Not really a specific artist, but pretty much anyone in the Hudson valley school.

Stuff like this one by Albert Bierstadt:

I've seen some of his work in person- very, very impressive to see if you ever get a chance. They're huge. 10 feet wide huge.

 

[Harp]

Then, I think of the breadth of John Singer Sargent's work. His portraits! His watercolors of Venice... and he was a Bostonian. OK. I'm going with Sargent.

While in college, I found an old Sargent reproduction inside a dusty
bookshop; and invested $250 of GI Bill money for it on the off-chance
of an original discard. A busted flush, but a wild week researching.
And I missed my art history final, which I failed.

 

[Miss 1929]

Devynor Rhys!

No one knows who that is, right?
He did the Delineator magazine covers from 1930 to 1935. Beautiful illustrations. All I have been able to learn abo9ut him was that he was an American living on Paris at the time. I would adore to have an original of his. But they don't seem to exist, and the Google just gives me Welsh soccer players of the same name.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I go gaga over childrens illustrators of times past

One of the most prolific illustrators of children's books was Johnny Gruelle who's best-known as the creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy.

http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/Raggedy_Ann_Alpha/index.htm
Raggedy Ann's Alphabet Book (1925)

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Thomas Cole 1801 - 1848 I have these in my home.

Cole's renowned four-part series traces the journey of an archetypal hero along the "River of Life." Confidently assuming control of his destiny and oblivious to the dangers that await him, the voyager boldly strives to reach an aerial castle, emblematic of the daydreams of "Youth" and its aspirations for glory and fame. As the traveler approaches his goal, the ever-more-turbulent stream deviates from its course and relentlessly carries him toward the next picture in the series, where nature's fury, evil demons, and self-doubt will threaten his very existence. Only prayer, Cole suggests, can save the voyager from a dark and tragic fate.

From the innocence of childhood, to the flush of youthful overconfidence, through the trials and tribulations of middle age, to the hero's triumphant salvation, The Voyage of Life seems intrinsically linked to the Christian doctrine of death and resurrection. Cole's intrepid voyager also may be read as a personification of America, itself at an adolescent stage of development. The artist may have been issuing a dire warning to those caught up in the feverish quest for Manifest Destiny: that unbridled westward expansion and industrialization would have tragic consequences for both man and nature.

The Voyage of Life: Childhood, 1842 oil on canvas

The Voyage of Life: Youth, 1842

The Voyage of Life: Manhood, 1842

The Voyage of Life: Old Age, 1842

 

[rlk]

Frederic Church

Cole's Student

Also from the Hudson River School:
Thomas Moran

 

[skyvue]

There are many I like, but Edward Hopper's my favorite:

Hopper was even a fedora wearer:

 

[dhermann1]

I'd certainly put Eakins and Sargent right up there. I docented at the New-York Historical Society for a while around 20 years ago. They had a bunch of Cole and Church stuff. I really love the Hudson River school, but I think I OD-ed on Cole while I was there.
Another name that comes to mind is Winslow Homer. I like him a lot.

 

[AmateisGal]

Funny - I was just thinking of this the other day if someone were to ask me who my favorite painter of the 20th century was. Definitely Norman Rockwell.

 

[Alex Oviatt]

Just one? That is hard. I think that Gilbert Stuart's portrait work was wonderful--beyond the iconic Washington portraits that we all know. Sargent for all of the obvious reasons. Some of the California Plein Air artists like Edgar Payne and William Wendt. On the more illusrative side, Maxfield Parrish and J.C. Leyndecker and for modern/abstract, Calder and Robert Motherwell. Just to name a few....