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Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

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Item Ships From: Continental US
Valentines Night - Original Romantic Playful Still Life Collage Artwork on Paper
By Maria C. Bernhardsson
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Maria C. Bernhardsson is a colorful artist who lives and paints in Sweden. Most of her works are influenced by the architecture and geometry of houses. Bernhardsson travels the world...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

Dogwood Flower - Dramatic Abstract Purple Botanical Floral Still Life Painting
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Xiao Wen Xu is a Chinese-born Canadian artist based in Toronto, Canada, Her artistic practice is deeply influenced by her profound appreciation for the nat...
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Powder Coating, Watercolor

Pensando en ti, Marzo 13, Drawing
By Celso José Castro Daza
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Drawing on paper is his basic work tool, some are sketches of his surviving works, others are sketches of moments he documents. Undefined by medium, Celso Castro’s works each carry...
Category

1990s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper, Watercolor

Flamingo Lily - Dramatic Abstract Pink Botanical Floral Still Life Painting
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Xiao Wen Xu is a Chinese-born Canadian artist based in Toronto, Canada, Her artistic practice is deeply influenced by her profound appreciation for the nat...
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Powder Coating, Watercolor

"Foxglove" (2024) By Ania Mohrbacher, Original Fantasy Watercolor Painting
Located in Denver, CO
"Foxglove" (2024) Is an original watercolor fantasy painting, which depicts a young witch and her black cat in the center of a clearing in a forest, rife with magical flora and fauna...
Category

2010s Surrealist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper

"Floral Escapades 1 2" 2025 Oil on yupo 38 x 25 in.
By Tess Michalik
Located in New York, NY
Tess Michalik Floral Escapades 1 & 2, 2025 Oil on yupo 38 x 25 in. (mic032)
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil

Indulgent Coastline, Original Painting
By Dwight Smith
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
A modern landscape watercolor painting conveys a playfully surreal scene. Giant jelly doughnuts pose navigational hazards along the coast. The lighthouse on the...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

1920 s Historical Fashion Illustration of Lady in 17th Century Dress
Located in Soquel, CA
Finely detailed historical figurative fashion illustration painted in watercolor in 1921, of a lady in 17th century dress; complete with a full blac...
Category

1920s Realist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Flowers, Impressionist Watercolor by Eve Nethercott
By Eve Nethercott
Located in Long Island City, NY
Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Flowers (P6.49), Year: 1948, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 22 x 15 in. (55.88 x 38.1 cm), Description: Set against a washed back...
Category

1940s Impressionist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Still Life Watercolor - Resplendent Roses
Located in Houston, TX
Watercolor still life painting of brilliant roses by contemporary Burmese artist Ko Khine Thin Thar, 2013. Initialed and dated lower right. Displayed ...
Category

2010s Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Red Tulips in a Tall Vase / watercolor
By Gary Bukovnik
Located in Burlingame, CA
'Red Tulips in a Tall Vase' original watercolor painted in 2018. in mainly red and green with blue and yellow from Cleveland-born and educated Gary Bukovnik who has lived in Californ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

19th century American watercolor - Flowers Butterfly Alps Switzerland Germany
Located in Aartselaar, BE
This beautiful and vibrant 19th century American watercolor is an hommage by Paul de Longpré to the Alps, as it features a rich variety of Alpine flowe...
Category

Late 19th Century Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

A Compelling, Surrealist 1946 Mid-Century Modern Still Life by Harold Haydon
By Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A Compelling, Surrealist 1946 Mid-Century Modern Still Life Drawing by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). A visually striking, finely executed charcoal drawing o...
Category

Mid-20th Century Surrealist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal

Original Flower Drawing inscribed signed twice bound in Whitney Museum monograph
By Jeff Koons
Located in New York, NY
Jeff Koons Original Flower Drawing (signed twice), 2016 Original, hand signed drawing inscribed to Nadine, done with silver sharpie, and held in hardback monograph with dust jacket, ...
Category

2010s Pop Art Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media, Permanent Marker, Lithograph, Offset

Flying Composition no. 2
By Gary Bukovnik
Located in Burlingame, CA
'Flying Composition no. 2' original watercolor painted in 2021. Large work at 40 x 60 inches, in multi-color including an explosion of blue, orange, yellow, and green from Cleveland-...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper

White Iris, Original Painting
By Jay Jensen
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
A white iris blooms against a gray and blue background. Its petals glow with purity, while subtle shadows echo the tones of the surrounding light. For artist Ja...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Aster - Purple Yellow Floral Nature Painting on Paper
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Xiao Wen Xu is a Chinese-born Canadian artist based in Toronto, Canada, Her artistic practice is deeply influenced by her profound appreciation for the natural world. In her series, ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor, Pigment

Still Life Botanical of Plum Branch with Three Plums
Located in Fredericksburg, VA
This beautifully detailed botanical watercolor of a plum branch is the work of Royal Charles Steadman (1875–1964), one of America’s most accomplished botanical illustrators. Notably,...
Category

Early 20th Century Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Engraving

"Caught" 2025 watercolor on paper
By Katie DeGroot
Located in New York, NY
Katie DeGroot Caught, 2025 watercolor on paper 40 x 26 in. (groo122)
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

"Some far away speech" Still life, Ink and watercolor
By Brian Spolans
Located in Philadelphia, PA
"Some far away speech" is an original ink and watercolor work on paper by Brian Spolans. The piece ships framed as pictured and measures 20.5in x 28.5in. Alternative custom framing...
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Watercolor, Archival Paper

Sea Shells – Blue Gold
By Zama Vanessa Helder
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Sea Shells – Blue & Gold, c. 1940s, watercolor on paper, signed upper left, 15 x 19 ¼ inches (image); title and artist’s name and address inscribed verso, presented in a newer glazed...
Category

1940s American Modern Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Talavera Composition 2
By Gary Bukovnik
Located in Burlingame, CA
'Talavera Composition 2' by master watercolorist Gary Bukovnik, who fuses sensual vitality with fluid yet powerful colorations to create floral images of great depth, intensity, and ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Still Life with Windmill
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in Beverly Hills, CA
Roy Lichtenstein Still Life with Windmill, 1973 Colored pencil on paper 5 x 8 ¾ inches (12.7 x 22.2 cm) NB: The work is included in the Roy Lichtenstein catalogue raisonné. Provena...
Category

1970s Pop Art Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Color Pencil

"Yanggen un tånom, siempre dokko", Contemporary, Butterfly, Daffodils, Pastel
By Fu una
Located in Franklin, MA
Fu’una’s “Yanggen un tånom, siempre dokko’ (If you plant it, it will grow)” is a contemporary pastel depicting a black swallowtail butterfly landing on artificially colored pink daff...
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pastel

Moody Magnolias, Original Painting
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist Jinny Tomozy captures the drama of light and shadow on blooming Magnolias. She renders the flowers with a realistic approach, carefully detailing the d...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

The Yellow Phone
Located in Burlingame, CA
'The Yellow Phone, 2021' a highly collectable original watercolor by internationally acclaimed American Realist James Torlakson. The art is 24 x 14 inc...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper

Claudio Bravo Melocotones Drawing
By Claudio Bravo
Located in Miami, FL
Claudio Bravo Melocotones, 1985 Pastel on paper 11 x 12 in
Category

1980s Realist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Recordando el gran artista Alberto Riano "Mangos" Marzo, Drawing
By Celso José Castro Daza
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Drawing on paper is his basic work tool, some are sketches of his surviving works, others are sketches of moments he documents. Undefined by medium, Celso Castro’s works each carry...
Category

1990s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel, Acrylic, Paper

Purple Iris #4, Original Painting
By Jay Jensen
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist Jay Jense depicts an iris patch in his backyard. It portrays a moment of a humid spring evening, capturing a vivid memory of seeing the blooms in the lig...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

"This Way More Than That" 2025, watercolor on paper
By Katie DeGroot
Located in New York, NY
Katie DeGroot This Way More Than That, 2025 watercolor on paper 50 x 60 in. (groo121)
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Samantha Haring "Opaque - Chalk Pastel on Paper
Located in New York, NY
"I make quiet paintings in a noisy world. My work is an intimate meditation on humble objects and the detritus of studio life. I aim to promote a reengagement with the mundane while ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Chalk, Pastel

Sun Ripened, Original Painting
By Dwight Smith
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Complementary colors take center stage in this still life. Purple plums rest in a yellow bowl, creating an immediate impact of bright hues. Above, a brightly ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

April Blooms, Original Painting
By Dwight Smith
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Brightly colored lollipops burst from hand-crafted pottery, mimicking tulips blooming in spring. The arrangement hints at nostalgia and playfulness, blending wh...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Pear
By Stephen Namara
Located in Burlingame, CA
Pear - sill life composition - exquisite highly contemporary still life oil and collage painting on wood panel, 48 x 48 inches. The work has a quiet overall presence. Artist signed, ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Mixed Media, Oil, Wood Panel, Archival Paper

Beach Houses - Original Watercolor Abstracted Colorful Red Cityscape
By Maria C. Bernhardsson
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Maria C. Bernhardsson is a colorful artist who lives and paints in Sweden. Most of her works are influenced by the architecture and geometry of houses. Bernhardsson travels the world...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

"Butterfly Altar" 2025 Oil on yupo 38 x 25 in.
By Tess Michalik
Located in New York, NY
Tess Michalik Butterfly Altar, 2025 Oil on yupo 38 x 25 in. (mic033)
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil

Thin Dahlias - unframed
By Gary Bukovnik
Located in Burlingame, CA
'Thin Dahlias' - unframed by master watercolorist Gary Bukovnik, who fuses sensual vitality with fluid yet powerful colorations to create floral images of great depth, intensity, and size. Internationally exhibited and celebrated worldwide, Bukovnik’s iconic works express a spiritual exultation - a joie de vivre - a vivid celebration of beauty. The painting captures the season of nature’s rebirth when the world awakes from its winter repose — Forever Spring...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

All We Need Is Flowers - Still Life Flowers in Vase Colorful Contemporary
By Maria C. Bernhardsson
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Maria C. Bernhardsson is a colorful artist who lives and paints in Sweden. Most of her works are influenced by the architecture and geometry of houses. Bernhardsson travels the world...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

1951 Ink Drawing Still Life, Studio Interior by Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon
By Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A highly finished, 1951 detailed ink drawing of a still-life and studio interior by notable Chicago Modern artist, Harold Haydon. A striking drawing completed on fine, hand-made pap...
Category

1950s American Modern Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

"Cursed March" (2024) By Dustin Panzino, Procreate Illustration on Metal
Located in Denver, CO
"Cursed March" (2024) by Dustin Panzino is a beautiful digital painting created in Procreate, which details a renaissance style depiction of a parade of spirits, marching forward in ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Metal

Rose and Agapanthus
By Gary Bukovnik
Located in Burlingame, CA
'Rose and Agapanthus' by master watercolorist Gary Bukovnik, who fuses sensual vitality with fluid yet powerful colorations to create floral images of great depth, intensity, and si...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Coconut Palm Trees (Composition 1), Original Painting
By Suren Nersisyan
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Part of artist Suren Nersisyan's Palm Tree series. He says he is drawn to their elegant shape and fresh tropical vibe. In this painting, Suren paid special attention to the bright sunlight radiating across the fronds, giving the study great depth and dimension.


About the Artist
Suren is an impressionist painter eloquently capturing nature, landscapes, and cityscapes in paint. His body of work reflects several different stylistic approaches. Suren’s scenes in oil are inspired by Impressionist masters Monet and Van Gogh, while his watercolor series of flowers and birds are influenced by Eastern styles of painting and the colors of the Middle Eastern environment. Suren believes his role as an artist is to remind viewers that we all are part of the same natural universe.


Words that describe this painting: tropical, island, foliage, palm trees, coconut palm...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Vase of Flowers, Impressionist Watercolor by Eve Nethercott
By Eve Nethercott
Located in Long Island City, NY
Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Vase of Flowers (P3.15), Year: 1960-61, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 13 x 17 in. (33.02 x 43.18 cm), Description: Filled with l...
Category

1960s Impressionist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

An Interior By french architect Joseph Dirand. Watercolor on paper
By Manuel Santelices
Located in Miami Beach, FL
A new series inspired by architecture, décor and stylish personalities of the world of interior design. The worlds of fashion, society and pop culture are captured in the illustrati...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor, Gouache, Pen

Ignite, Original Painting
By Dwight Smith
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
A weathered can rests beside a Bible atop a wooden stool. Golden wheat stalks rise from a small tin cup, adding a touch of nature and warmth to the scene. The a...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

"The Queen of Cups" (2022) By Jerianne Fulton, Original Gothic Ink Illustration
Located in Denver, CO
Artist Interview: Jerianne, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today. Like most people, I began drawing as a kid, but as a ...
Category

2010s Gothic Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

Antique Pears, Original Painting
By Dwight Smith
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
"As an artist, I constantly look for the ordinary to elevate and give it the attention that it deserves," says artist Dwight Smith. "In this painting, it was my wife's dresser. A beautiful rustic antique walked...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Two Eggs on a Metal Plate
By Robert Peterson
Located in Dallas, TX
This pastel is unframed
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pastel

Jeff Koons Original Signed Inscribed Flower Drawing and Limited Edition Plate
By Jeff Koons
Located in New York, NY
Mixed Media Boxed Set includes original signed and inscribed drawing plus limited edition plate held in bespoke Bernardaud presentation plate Jeff Koons ...
Category

2010s Pop Art Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Porcelain, Mixed Media, Permanent Marker

Samantha Haring "Cover" - Chalk Pastel on Paper
Located in New York, NY
"I make quiet paintings in a noisy world. My work is an intimate meditation on humble objects and the detritus of studio life. I aim to promote a reengagement with the mundane while ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Chalk, Pastel

Fruit of the Vine, Original Painting
By Dwight Smith
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist Dwight Smith depicts a modern interpretation of a strawberry plant. Ready for harvest, the fruit grows from the silverware that represents vines. This wa...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

1930s Surrealist Still Life with Profile and Hanger by Artist Jan Matulka
By Jan Matulka
Located in Chicago, IL
A 1930 graphite on pencil drawing of Surrealist still life of an egg beater by notable artist Jan Matulka. Image size: 8 1/2" x 11". Archivally matted to...
Category

1930s Modern Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Graphite

Anemones - Colorful Green Still Life Flowers in Vase Bright Original Art
By Maria C. Bernhardsson
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Maria C. Bernhardsson is a colorful artist who lives and paints in Sweden. Most of her works are influenced by the architecture and geometry of houses. Bernhardsson travels the world photographing and sketching houses...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

Pomegranate Section, Hyperreal Red Fruit Drawing in Colored Pencil on Paper
By David Morrison
Located in New York, NY
This striking colored pencil drawing by David Morrison showcases his unrivaled mastery of the medium. Rendered with extraordinary precision, this larger-than-life section of pomegran...
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper, Color Pencil

Catch of the Day, Original Painting
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
The simple arrangement of mackerels and lemons creates a strong diagonal composition. Complementary colors enhance the palette. Selective and soft brushstrokes ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

"Clown Fish" (2020) By Dustin Panzino, Procreate Illustration on Metal
Located in Denver, CO
"Clown Fish" (2020) by Dustin Panzino is a beautiful digital painting created in Procreate, which details a fantasy scene of a knighted version of a court's...
Category

2010s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Metal

Large Indigo Iris
By Gary Bukovnik
Located in Burlingame, CA
'Large Indigo Iris' watercolor on paper. Gary Bukovnik, who fuses sensual vitality with fluid yet powerful colorations to create floral images of great depth, intensity, and size. I...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Flowers
By Julian Alden Weir
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
Flowers, 1882 Gouache and watercolor on paper 14 x 20 1/8 inches (35.6 x 51.1 cm) Framed dimensions: 23 x 29 1/4 inches Signed and dated lower right: J. Alden Weir / '82 Signed lowe...
Category

1880s American Impressionist Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Gouache

Garden Flowers
By Charles Demuth
Located in New York, NY
Charles Demuth was one of the most complex, talented, and deeply sensitive artists of the American modern period. Whether he was painting floral still lifes, industrial landscapes, or Turkish bathhouses, art was, for Demuth, fraught with personal meaning. A fixture of the vanguard art scene in New York, Demuth navigated the currents of Modernism, producing some of the most exquisite watercolors and original oil paintings in twentieth-century American art. Demuth was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the only child of a well-to-do family. He had an awkward and introverted childhood shaped by a childhood illness, Perthes, a disease of the hip that not only left him permanently lame, but, as part of the “cure,” bedridden for two years in the care of his mother. This long period of incapacitation had a deep impact on Demuth, who came to see himself as an invalid, an outsider who was different from everyone else. It was perhaps during this period of indoor confinement that his keen interest in art developed. Several relatives on his father’s side had been amateur artists, and, following his convalescence, his mother encouraged his artistic pursuits by sending him to a local painter for instruction. The majority of his early pictures are of flowers, a subject for which Demuth maintained a lifelong passion. Following high school, Demuth enrolled at the Drexel Institute of Art in Philadelphia, a school renowned for its commercial arts program. He advanced through the program rapidly, and, in 1905, at the encouragement of his instructors, he began taking courses at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The two leading teachers then at the Academy were William Merritt Chase and Thomas Anshutz. Anshutz, himself a former student of Thomas Eakins, was well liked by his students, and is best known as the teacher of Robert Henri, John Sloan, and several of the other artists of the Ashcan School. Demuth, too, adopted a similar idiom, working in a controlled, realistic manner while at the Academy, where he remained until 1910. In 1907, Demuth made his first trip to Europe, staying in Paris. He spent time on the periphery of the art scene composed of the numerous American artists there, including John Marin and Edward Steichen. He returned to Philadelphia five months later, and immediately resumed courses at the Academy. Despite his introduction to advanced modern styles in Europe, Demuth’s work of this period retains the academic style he practiced before the trip. It wasn’t until he had summered at New Hope, Pennsylvania, in 1908 and 1911, that his style began to evolve. New Hope was a prominent American Impressionist art colony whose members were largely affiliated with the Pennsylvania Academy. Demuth dropped the conservative tone of his style and adopted a freer and more colorful palette. Although he remained based in Philadelphia, Demuth frequently went to New York during this period. Many of the same American artists of the Parisian art scene Demuth had encountered on his earlier European trip now formed the nucleus of New York’s avant-garde, which centered around Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 gallery. It wasn’t long before Demuth began to apply modernist-inspired strategies to his work. He was particularly influenced by the watercolor work of John Marin, also a former student of Anshutz, whose bold use of color in the medium Demuth freely adapted into looser washes of color. In 1912, Demuth again left for Paris, this time studying in the Académie Moderne, Académie Colorossi, and Académie Julian. In Paris Demuth met the American modernist Marsden Hartley. Hartley, a principal figure in the expatriate art circle, acted as a mentor to Demuth, and introduced him to the wide array of modern styles currently practiced in Europe. Hartley also introduced Demuth to many of the members of the Parisian avant-garde, including Gertrude Stein. Demuth was an aspiring writer, and he spent many hours in conversation with Stein. He wrote extensively during this period, and published two works shortly after his return to America. He also developed an interest in illustrating scenes from literary texts. From 1914 to 1919, Demuth produced a series of watercolors of scenes from books such as Emile Zola’s Nana and Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw. Upon his return to America, Demuth settled in New York. In 1914, Demuth had his first one-man show at Charles Daniel’s gallery, which promoted emerging modern American artists, including Man Ray, Rockwell Kent, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Stuart Davis, and Max Weber. Demuth drew closer to the artistic vanguard in New York, becoming friends with many in the Stieglitz and Daniel circles, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Marcel Duchamp, Carl Van Vechten, and Edward Fiske. New York’s cosmopolitan atmosphere and active nightlife appealed greatly to Demuth. In a sketchy style well suited to watercolor, he painted many vaudeville and circus themes, as well as nightclub, café, and bathhouse scenes. Often with Duchamp, Demuth took part in an urban subculture replete with nightclubs, bars, drugs, and sexual permissiveness, which, for a homosexual artist like himself, allowed room for previously unattainable personal expression. Demuth’s pictures of sailors, bathhouses, and circus performers embody a sensual and sexual undercurrent, expressing the artist’s sense of comfort and belonging in the bohemian subculture of New York. Simultaneously, Demuth deepened his interest in floral pictures, painting these almost exclusively in watercolor. His style evolved from the broad color washes of his earlier pictures to more spare, flattened, and sinuous compositions, inspired by the drawings of Aubrey Beardsley and other artists of the Aesthetic Movement. Demuth’s flower watercolors are moody and atmospheric, sensuous and elegant, introspective and yet full of expressive power. Moreover they are beautiful, and are unequivocally among the finest still lifes in American art. Despite numerous subsequent artistic undertakings that led him in a variety of directions, Demuth never stopped painting flower pictures, ultimately adding fruits and other still-life objects to his repertoire. In 1916, Demuth began to develop a style later known as Precisionism, a form of landscape painting infused with Cubism, in which space is divided into precisely drawn geometric regions of color. Demuth first began to paint the landscape in an appropriated Cubist mode while on a trip with Hartley to Bermuda. In these early landscapes, in which the curvilinear forms of trees intersect the geometrically articulated architectural forms, Demuth explored ideas that shaped the future development of modernism in America. The full realization of Demuth’s explorations came after his return to America in 1917, when he turned his attention to industrial subjects. These works derive from a “machine aesthetic,” espoused by New York artists such as Francis Picabia, Joseph Stella, Albert Gleizes, and Duchamp, by which artists viewed machines as embodying mystical, almost religious significance as symbols of the modern world. Rather than painting the skyscrapers and bridges of New York as did most of his like-minded contemporaries, Demuth returned to his home town of Lancaster, where he painted factories and warehouses in a Precisionist idiom. The titles for these pictures are often contain literary references, which serve as clues for the viewer to aid in the decoding of the artist’s meaning. In 1923, Demuth planned a series of abstract “poster portraits” of his friends and contemporaries in the New York art and literary scene. In these “portraits,” Demuth combined text and symbolic elements to evoke the essential nature of his sitters’ distinguishing characteristics. In this fashion, he painted portraits of such artists as Georgia O’Keeffe, John Marin, and Arthur Dove. His most famous poster portrait, I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold...
Category

20th Century American Modern Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Barca de Refugiados, Figurative Drawing
By Celso José Castro Daza
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Drawing on paper is his basic work tool, some are sketches of his surviving works, others are sketches of moments he documents. Undefined by medium, Celso Castro’s works each carry...
Category

1990s Contemporary Continental US - Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil, Crayon, Pastel, Paper

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