ArtCorner

OverstockArt.com, the online leader of handmade oil paintings, has officially released its annual “Top 20 Best Sellers of the Art and Oil Painting World” ranking for 2006.

According to Amitai Sasson, VP of OverstockArt.com, the company releases its Top 20 list each year as a way of allowing customers to know which works-of-art are the “hippest, most desirable” paintings on the market – a fact, he says, many people are interested to know.

“A lot of people want to know what’s selling best because it gives them an idea of what’s trendy, what’s hip, what’s cool and what their respective peer groups are going to enjoy,” he said. “This is especially true in the business world where offices have to keep up with the latest interior décor in order to maintain a sense of modern quality to impress customers and clients…a lot of business owners like to make sure they’re up to speed.”
By tracking sales statistics, OverstockArt.com is able to compile data allowing them to create the list.

This year’s top-selling oil painting is Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”, followed closely by another of his masterpieces, “Café Terrace at Night”. In fact, according to Sasson’s statistics, Van Gogh is the top seller for his company both online and offline. Read more »

This is a brief insight into the color choices and techniques of the Father of Impressionism, Claude Monet.

1. Even though Monet is considered the Father of impressionism, his paintings were not done spontaneously. In fact, Monet studied his subject intensely, planned ahead, and worked meticulously to achieve his results.
2. Claude Monet paintings are often in sequence of the same subject because he often painted a series of the same subject to capture the changing effects of the light, swapping canvases as the day progressed. Monet painted many subjects again and again, but every one of his series paintings is different, whether it’s a painting of a water lily or a hay stack.
3. Many figure that Claude Monet painted his masterpieces on-location, when in-fact; many of his oil paintings were painted or finished back in his studio.
4. Monet used a limited palette. Not many earth tones found their way into the Claude Monet canvas.



5. According to James Heard’s book “Paint Like Monet,” Monet used ten main colors:
1. Lead white (modern equivalent = titanium white)
2. Chrome yellow (modern equivalent = cadmium yellow light)
3. Cadmium yellow
4. Viridian green
5. Emerald green
6. French ultramarine
7. Cobalt blue
8. Madder red
9. Vermilion
10. Ivory black

Just thought I’d clear the smoke from some of the things you hear about Claude Monet. He was a great artist, and his vanguard approach earns him the right to be considered the father of the most admired art movement of the modern era.

Most people have never seen it before, so they can’t even gage the essence of what I’m talking about. Handmade oil paintings are beautiful to behold and considered to be the most classical of any wall décor medium…

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(OverstockArt.com) — Low profile jeans showing off derrieres, deep-cut shirts for exposing as much cleavage as possible, daisy-duke jean-shorts and bun-huggers — these days what’s hot is what’s not. When it comes to fashion, it seems the more there is to see, the better.

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“More than Coffee was served”… that is the name of the new exhibition at the Gallery St. Etienne, celebrating “the role of the coffeehouse as both hangout and inspiration” for artists throughout history.

Either the coffee or the coffee house causes the artists of recent and of old to create and articulate great art. That correlation in itself is fascinating. Even the deranged Van Gogh, used Café Scenes as inspiration. The Earless café that he painted in his famous Café Terrace at Night painting is now a Mecca for South of France tourists.

Not so well known as a Café-patron, Gustav Klimt is a great example of a European artist that spent many hours on the café front, sipping on a latte and drawing loosely on his sketch pad “balanced between his knees.”

So, drink up a Cup of Joe and head down to the Gallery St. Etienne and celebrate the intriguing relationship between Art and caffeine.

Steve Wynn the owner of the Mirage and Bellagio Hotels and Casinos from Las Vegas, accidentally punctured a hole in the Pablo Picasso painting “The Dream”.
Wynn accidentally punctured a hole in it while showing the painting to some friends and accidentally elbowed the famed Picasso!

Wynn actually sold the masterpiece to a collector for an estimated $140 Million dollars. Wynn had decided to release the buyer from the sale agreement and to repair and keep the painting for himself.

Wynn, suffers from an eye disease that damages peripheral vision. When he punctured the hole in the 1932 Picasso portrait of his mistress Marie-Therese Walter, he said: “Look what I’ve done. Thank goodness it was me.”

Nora Ephron wrote about the occurrence in her Huffington Post Blog, it is a very funny post, but I was very sad to hear about this occurrence. The Dream is my favorite painting, that I got for my mom this past May, hopefully they’ll have it repaired soon.

In the last few years there has been a shift in the Hospitality Industry, Hotels are being judged by the quality of their wall décor not just the size of their pools. The walls of the industry are going through a face-lift, don’t be left behind.

Everything since the year 2000 has been about class and style; cars, homes, fashion, personal accessories and decor – the modern way.

In particular, America has become entranced by the home-decorating industry. New home design programs and interior decorating shows have been airing regularly on all the major networks, and people are buying-in 100 percent to the idea that proper feng-shui is next to godliness.

But recent trends like these aren’t exclusive to the home-buyer/home-owner market. These days, everyone wants to get in the game, including the hospitality industry. Read more »

Woman have always been known to have an impact on the art world, but it was always through their passion and talent, not their managerial skills. However, the impact that women have on the art world is starting to shift over to the business side as well. There are more and more women that run contemporary art and oil paintings galleries all across the world, according to Alice Rawsthorn, a Design critic for The Guardian, which wrote a compelling article on why women do so well running their galleries.

Apparently, women have the right skill sets to take care of the artists, the artworks and have the patience and stamina to look at the big picture as a business owner.
The ability to multi-task is something that every entrepreneur should posses, however, as a gallery owner you need to be ready and take part in tasks that force you to get down and dirty. Read the “Space Women” article and get inspired, may be you could become an art gallery owner one day…

This is a short list of information about the color theory. This is important because colors are the main focus of any design and decor endeavor. So let’s plunge back to the basics…

1. Primary Colors – Red, Yellow, and Blue. With these three colors (and black and white) all other colors can be made. The primary colors themselves can not be made by mixing other colors.
2. When you mix two primary colors together you get a secondary color. So if you mix Red and Yellow, you’ll get the secondary color Orange. If you mix Blue and Yellow, you’ll get the secondary color Green. If you Mix Blue and Red then you’ll get the secondary color Purple. When mixing two secondary colors together you get a neutral gray color.
3. Tertiary Colors are natural colors such as browns and grays that contain all three primary colors. The tertiary colors differ by varying the proportions of the primary colors you’re mixing.
4. Complementary colors sit on opposite sides of the color wheel. If placed next to each other in a painting, they make each other appear brighter.
5. Using Black to Darken an oil painting – you shouldn’t use black automatically to darken a color because it tends to make the color appear dull and gloomy.
6. Warm colors appear closer and cool colors appear further away. Reds, oranges and yellows are generally considered warm colors and blues, green and purples are considered cool colors.
7. Mixing lighter and darker colors. It doesn’t matter if you add darker color to lighter or lighter color to dark, the end result is the same, but usually dark is added to light as it takes less dark to change a light than light to change dark.

If you have other tips that you think are important about the color theory then let me know… it is always good to go back to the basics…

After Adele Bloch-Bauer I sold for a whapping $135 million. The next in line, Adele Bloch-Bauer II, is about to hit the auction house. This painting is estimated at around $40 to $60 million.

There are actually going to be four Klimt up for auction November 8th at Christies, the portrait Adele Bloch-Bauer II and 3 other landscapes including the famous “Birch Forest” (1903) estimated at $20 to $30 million.

These paintings are the last of five paintings that were retrieved from the Austrian Government that held on to these precious works ever since the Nazis took them away from the Jewish Bloch-Bauer Family during World War II. The paintings found their way back to the hands of their rightful owners after 20 years of legal battles.

The Gustav Klimt gallery at OverstockArt.com has a great selection of very unique Klimt reproductions done by hand on canvas oil paintings. They are all handmade and therefore, share a great deal of power much like the originals.