overstockArt.com announced last week that it has joined forces with Bravo and Magical Elves to launch a new line of artwork from the cable network’s series “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.” The exclusive line of reproduced artwork is created by the artists participating in the creative competition series produced by Magical Elves and Pretty Matches Productions.

The artwork featured in “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist” will be made available for purchase exclusively on overstockArt.com following airing of new episodes each Wednesday. Reproduced artwork created by artists who competed in the first season of the show will also be made available for purchase. The new line will be available at overstockArt.com/workofart.html.

Bravo’s “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist” is a creative competition series that seeks to discover new talent and shed light on the artistic process that typically occurs behind closed doors. Assembled in New York City under the watchful eye of art world elites, 14 up-and-coming artists are ready to make their mark on the industry and battle it out for a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum and a cash prize of $100,000.

“We’re constantly looking for ways to innovate, furthering the proliferation of our brand while providing added value for our customers,” said David Sasson, CEO of overstockArt.com. “This collaboration will take overstockArt.com to the next level by leveraging our commitment to creating high-quality, affordable art with Magical Elves’ dedication to discovering today’s hottest up-and-coming artists and jointly bringing quality products to market.”

The “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist” canvas transfer art reproductions will be offered in a variety of sizes with prices starting at $119. Customized frames can also be purchased. Reproduced artwork is first available exclusively on overstockArt.com and will later be made available for purchase by overstockArt.com’s partner online retailers.

“This partnership builds on the success of both brands, providing us the unique opportunity to engage with our fans and viewers and to connect with consumers beyond the television screen,” said Ellen Stone, Senior Vice President of marketing for Bravo.

“Work of Art: The Next Great Artist,” is produced by Pretty Matches and Magical Elves for Bravo. Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alison Benson and Eli Holzman serve as executive producers.

An increasing rejection by major galleries of assistant produced artwork is calling the definition of “Original Art” into question. During the Renaissance this wasn’t a real problem, but the Impressionists (often called the forefathers of the contemporary movement) would be appalled.

Master artists, such as Michaelangelo and DaVinci, often employed assistants to add onto large production works so that deadlines would be met. If you were a rich artist, the assistants were a sort of unspoken requirement to show how much of a master artist you were. Think of all the work put into the production of the Sistine Chapel. That is what the process was–production. By the 1800s, a renegade group of artists known as the Impressionists went against the status quo, constructing group shows of their own outside of the Salon and taking on apprentices but never laborers to mass produce their artwork.

Mary Cassatt is known for praising Edgar Degas, and the other Impressionists, for giving her guidance in a time when her work was shunned because she was simply a woman. Degas invited Cassatt to show with the Impressionists in 1879. Cassatt said this about Degas’ influence, “It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it.” Degas extended his passion for dance as subject matter with Renoir, among others.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir practiced plein air painting with Claude Monet, learning about light and its effects on elements of nature. After working with Monet in 1868, Renoir’s palette moved from a heavy impasto, dark color to lighter rendering of color and fluid motion. La Grenouillere was painted by Monet and Renoir in 1869.

For an impressionist to paint from nature is not to paint the subject, but to realize sensations, -Paul Cezanne

Cezanne may have also captured an essential component of what most of us identify with as “Art.” The capturing of sensation is the elusive dance between the concept in the painter’s mind, the paintbrush and canvas, and the viewer. Subtracting the mystery of this dance from the equation is like saying everything equals zero. Problem solved. A piece of art made by the master artist’s very own “apprentice!”

Indeed, with reality television getting in on the mix (Work of Art and Art Star, airing on Bravo), we see true artists race to be America’s Next Top Artist. Behind the scenes tells a different story.  In an interview with “Life After Reality TV” Gigi Chen and Jaclyn Santos shared their experiences of being apprentices to famous, unnamed contemporary artists before their TV debut. Of course both art stars were cautionary to say only “highly complementary things” about their experiences, but reviewer David Pierce shares his perception of repressed anxiety from the young artists. Though Chen seems to be encouraged to pursue an undergraduate degree in the subject, Santos seems to have served more of a production artists role, never having any real contact with the artist behind the false signature.

Pierce addresses the issue thusly, “Many of today’s high profile artists employ teams of assistants who would otherwise be looking for work elsewhere or perhaps working in food service and other professions that do not resemble their ambitions. It is also important to note that an individual or a smaller team could never execute their impressive and ambitious works. However, you get the sense when speaking with artists who work for larger, high profile studios that the experience is closer to that of a production artist. Their {There} seems to be a purveying sense of anonymity in their labor and it seems that their employers do little to advance or foster the careers of the artists who give them their talents.”

An assistant to Damien Hirst said that she “can’t think of anything worse” than having an assistant herself. She added that “I only paint for my own needs, not to fulfill anyone else’s,” in a Wall Street Journal interview.

And so we move from art collective to art conveyer belt. An “apprenticeship” in fine art production may be preferable to years in food service. Contemporary master artist Koons, who employs over 150 assistants, provides his artists with health insurance. Art assistants who may or may not meet these contemporary master artists report payroll at $20-25 an hour. Practice does make perfect, right?

Wichita-based artist, Jeffrey F. Pierson, is one of the founding members of the new online community for creating, selling and buying artwork online, Artist Become (ArtistBe.com). Pierson is one of dozens of artists from around the world using the social commerce site to showcase and sell his artwork.

A native of Newton, N.J., Pierson has called Wichita home for more than two decades. He emerged as an artist at a young age and began creating his art when he felt compelled to record the things he was observing and feeling and to try to make his thoughts more concrete. In his youth Pierson was inspired by primitive art, Aboriginal art, early Christian and Byzantine art, and comic books. Pierson graduated Magna Cum Laude from Wichita State University and the University of South Dakota, obtaining his BFA and MFA in printmaking. Pierson resides in Wichita with his wife, Leanna, and their son.

Pierson has had many solo and group exhibitions showing locally, regionally and nationally. He stated that while brick and mortar galleries are wonderful to experience, the internet opens doors to a global community, which is one of his reasons for joining ArtistBe.com.

“I hope that ArtistBe.com can be a vehicle by which my artwork along with my fellow artists work can reach a wider audience,” said Pierson. “My desire is that my imagery can be a catalyst for thought within the viewer inspiring thought and conversation.”

Pierson has more than 20 works of art available for purchase on the site, including:

• I Am Becoming – With age and experience hopefully comes wisdom and awareness… This image is not just a self portrait but an introspective document noting mortality and the passage of time. This one of a kind original work of art employees mixed media including; silk screen, wood cut, intaglio, collage elements and mono-print.
• Less I Forget Myself – Know thy self… The inspiration for this work of art is the exploration of one’s identity – should one concentrate solely on one’s own needs and selfish desires or fully devote life to someone else and their happiness? The painting exhibits the aesthetic qualities of print-based mixed media utilizing; woodcut, intaglio, mono print, and collage elements to enrich the surface.

“ArtistBe.com provides a unique means for artists like Jeffrey to become recognized for their work and to make a living out of their creations,” stated David Sasson, overstockArt.com’s president and CEO.
ArtistBe.com is the latest venture by the popular online art gallery overstockArt.com, the go-to source on the web for purchasing art reproduction oil paintings. There is no cost to join and members can sell their art without commission fees. Artists receive royalties for every canvas reproduction sold. The online community focuses solely on original art and its growing amount of artist members.

ArtistBe.com’s founding members come from around the world, with artists hailing from the company’s Wichita, Kan. headquarters to Calgary, Canada; Warsaw, Poland; Oberhaid, Germany; Sherman Oaks, Calif.; and Brooklyn, N.Y., to name a few places.

ArtistBe.com, also called ‘Artist Become’, is the new online community for contemporary artists around the world. ArtistBe.com is the latest venture by the popular online art gallery overstockArt.com, which announced its public beta launch last week.

ArtistBe.com is an online platform providing tools and resources to enable emerging and established artists to pursue their artistic and professional goals. ArtistBe.com membership is free and open to all. Members can create a profile and upload an unlimited quantity of their artwork. ArtistBe.com allows artists to exhibit, promote, share and sell their artwork via the online gallery. The actual launch date of ArtistBe.com has yet to be determined.

ArtistBe.com is looking for talented contemporary artists of all levels to join the community and become founding members of the site. The first 80 artists who join ArtistBe.com during its beta test will be able to list on ArtistBe.com for free.

“We are looking for early adopters to join us for the launch of what promises to be an expansive, vibrant community of contemporary artists,” said David Sasson, CEO of overstockArt.com. “ArtistBe.com will give its member artists the unique opportunity to share and sell their work to art enthusiasts around the world – something they cannot do by simply displaying their artwork at a local gallery.”

Artwork on ArtistBe.com can be purchased as an original piece of art, fine-art print or affordable poster. There is a large variety of framing options for all of the artwork sold on the site. Like overstockArt.com, ArtistBe.com has arranged its content into a variety of different galleries. Galleries are specified by artist, subject, style and type. The site is extremely user-friendly and easy to navigate.

“Since its inception in 2002, overstockArt.com has established itself as the go-to source on the web for purchasing art reproduction oil paintings,” stated Sasson. “Our goal for ArtistBe.com is in the same vain – to become the web’s go-to source for purchasing artwork from contemporary artists around the world.”

It is a well known fact that Vincent Van Gogh would paint over his own work again and again.

Now, in 2008 scientists have finally revealed the portrait of a woman thought to have been hiding just under the surface of “Patch of Grass,” created in 1887. This new technique based on “synchrotron radiation induced X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy” (repeat that three times fast) can measure the chemicals in pigment that help decipher the various images between each painted layer. These chemical differences are what separate one color from another within the layered surface of the painting forming a visually separate image.

This discovery will give art historians incite to the evolution of Van Gogh’s work and this newest technique will provide even more answers to other lost images perhaps hidden just under the surface of other artist’s paintings.

Can you imagine if they find a another masterpiece hidden behind the Starry Night oil painting?