The following is a collection of the top posts of the week that we’ve shared on our facebook wall. We try and make our facebook posts informative and engaging as we love to hear what our fellow art lovin’ friends have to say about particular artists and their art.

So if you have a moment, check out our facebook page and share your passion for art and wall decor with us!

1. May all your dreams come true in the New Year!

   Born on New Year’s Eve of 1869 (d.1954) – 142 years ago – Henri Matisse once said, “What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter”, and he dedicated over a half century of his life to fulfilling his dream.

   Matisse is often regarded as an artist devoted to pleasure and contentment, and his art, particularly his expressive abstractions, has a rhythmic balance of color and design that achieves pictorial harmony and communicates the artist’s joy in life. Matisse’s experimentation with different styles and techniques while exploring the expressiveness of color was instrumental in moving art beyond the imitation of nature to an artistic expression of emotion and ushering in the new age of Modern art. Celebrate Matisse’s birthday and usher in the New Year on a positive, uplifting note with a visit to our Matisse galley.

2. Gustav Klimt’s “Mother and Child”, a detail from “The Three Ages of Woman”, has become an iconic portrayal of maternal love and infantile contentment, an enduring expression of unconditional love.

   A forerunner of the Modernist and Art Deco movements, Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) used the female form as his primary subject, often depicting a lone woman ornately dressed, but “The Three Ages of Woman” includes three feminine subjects at different stages of life. Klimt often explored the cycle of life and death, love and regeneration in his art, and the blissfully content mother and infant daughter on the right side of the painting are juxtaposed by an aged woman, sorrowful and decrepit, to their left.

   “Mother and Child” is among our collection of Klimt’s beautifully expressive artworks.

3. The Japanese consider the orderly unfolding of a chrysanthemum’s petals to represent perfection, and Chinese philosopher Confucius suggested mums be used as an object of meditation. Capturing the beauty of a single red and gold bloom, Father of Impressionism Claude Monet pays tribute to this long celebrated flower in today’s featured work “Vase of Chrysanthemums”.

   In most gardens even the late bloomers retire for the winter, but grown indoors the chrysanthemum – the most popular container plants in the U. S – can be encouraged to brighten winter days with its colorful, attractive blooms.

   Our Floral gallery also blooms year round, with a colorful display of artwork that will brighten even the bleakest winter day.

4. “It often seems to me that night is still more richly coloured than the day; having hues of the most intense violets, blues and greens. If only you pay attention to it you will see that certain stars are lemon-yellow, others pink or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance… it is obvious that putting little white dots on the blue-black is not enough to paint a starry sky.” (Vincent Van Gogh, in a letter to his sister Wilhelmina)

   Always fascinated with color and light, Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) embraced the challenge of painting the night sky. Capturing the nighttime nuances of color and shadow, his night scenes, including today’s featured work “Starry Night Over the Rhone”, are among his best known works.

   Painted en plein air from the riverbank in Arles, “Starry Night Over the Rhone” captures much more than just white dots on a blue-black background. The sparkling colors of a turbulent star studded night sky are juxtaposed with the new gaslights illuminating the town, with the reflections of both the natural and the artificial lights captured in the rippling waters of the Rhone.

   For our full gallery of Van Gogh’s oil paintings.

This is it! We hope you will continue to enjoy reading our ArtCorner blog in the new year and come join us on facebook for more artistic discussions!