Daily Chai

Jack Yeats

One of the highlights of a recent trip to Ireland, was discovering the incredibly varied work of Jack Butler Yeats in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Yeats -- yes, that is the brother of poet William Butler Yeats -- is well regarded among those who know him, but not exactly a name that's dropped a lot in Art History 101.  In other words, he's one of those artists who is fun to discover.

It is obviously quite a challenge to do justice to his work in this format. I will say what struck me most, aside from his loose, paint-heavy style, was his  breadth. I was truly astounded that evening when I ran into the National Gallery an hour before closing to glimpse this artist that someone had recommended, only to find he had such a range of styles from quite realistic to bordering on abstract.

It's called "La condicion humana"

Doesn't the title just say it all?

(Rene Magritte, 1933)

I've been holding onto this greeting card for years.

Yes, literally years ago I paused over a square greeting card featuring a simply yet somewhat sloppily painted image of a pale blue flower. Inside the card was the message, "There's something about sky blue and you."

It struck me as the kind of card you would send to someone you loved: this card with its not entirely clear message conveyed some raw emotion beyond the cheesy images that are so often on greeting cards, and even beyond the words of some of the more cheesy greeting cards that bear phrases that were once moving but are just plain overused, like the one about life shrinking or expanding according to our expectations.

Anyway, I love Koco cards both for their quirky and sometimes mystifying messages, and for their lovely images.  I usually find them in Whole Foods, but notice more independent card sellers are also carrying them. As a writer who has random thoughts as often as I have profound ones, and whose most profound thoughts sound a little random to other people, and as a painter who has always tended toward vibrant color over fine detail, and most of all, as a hopelessly nostalgic person who spends way too much time selecting the perfect greeting cards, Koco is a business I truly wish I had though of myself.

Regina Saura

Regina Saura's paintings have the whimsy of a quick sketch, the fluidity of a watercolor, the vibrancy of an oil painting, the compositions of an artist well versed in both older and more abstract traditions. She tends to paint on very large, wall-sized canvases like the ones that grace the oversized walls of banks and other big companies, yet her subjects are relaxed and fun -- the sort of images that you would probably like to hang in your house.

If you are like me, you have neither the space, nor the money to hang her art in your home, but you can still enjoy her craft in a gallery. She shows frequently in galleries in New York and San Francisco, such as this convenient downtown San Francisco location.

It's always very hard to put into words what attracts you to one artist or another. With Saura, I think its her whimsy and her excellent use of color, but also the way she combines  her obvious technical skill with a permissiveness to let the paint do what it will. When the goal is to paint inside the lines, Saura can do so as well as anyone, but she often leaves her -- and the viewer's -- comfort zone.

Between Picasso and Matisse

Raoul Dufy was a French painter born eight years after Matisse and four years before Picasso, who today is not as famous as either of those masters.

Fame aside, I love his work, partly for his unique use of color and partly for the way he brings cohesion to what often seems a very haphazard use of brush strokes, and a somewhat scattered composition.

He is often associated with his outdoor scenes of marinas and what not. I think he shines with his unusual treatment of buildings and interiors, like his very pink Trente Ans Ou La Vie En Rose. I also think he's a painter's painter, for the way both his brush strokes and his command of his material, always come through on the canvas.

Another favorite painting: Artist's Studio.