Raffaelo Monti (Italian), "Veiled Lady," marble, 1860. A bust subsequent to his famous full-figure sculpture "Veiled Vestal," seen in the 2005 film of "Pride and Prejudice." Why did he return to the same subject? I suspect he wasn't satisfied with his first attempt....

Odilon Redon (French), "Two Trees," 1875, charcoal. I see trees as figures in motion. Actors on a stage, hitting their marks, performing a mysterious drama. They have bodies and limbs and gestures that suggest movement by the way they have grown in response to the...

Nikki McClure, "Start Over Time." Paper cut. Olympia, Washington. A squirrel drey in a tree high above (where it belongs, not in my window AC where the fluffy little pea brains have been packing sticks and leaves). Like all of Nikki's work, this image was cut from a...

Katherine Stone, "Icarus III." A fallen Ruby Crowned Kinglet, its wing feathers mirrored by the pages of an open book. This one touched my heart. A lifeless but miraculous creature to behold. I'm fond of these wee birds, the little wren, the titmouse, the finch,...

Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), The Deposition, c.1603. Also called "The Entombment of Christ," but that's not what is depicted. John and Nicodemus are laying the body of Jesus on the stone to be bathed and anointed before burial. We see grieving Mary the Mother,...

Anders Zorn (Swedish), Portrait of Mrs. Walter Rathbone Bacon (Virginia Purdy Barker), 1897. This artist is most famous among painters for what is known as the "Zorn Palette." Our best guesses at the modern equivalents of his pigments are titanium white, yellow ochre,...

Philip Guston, American, "This Be Not I," 1945. This painting is special to me. As WWII comes to an end, young city boys play outside with whatever they can find to engage their imaginations. The kind of "pretend" play we enjoyed before computers replaced the mystery...

Gustav Klimt, Austrian, "Meadow in Flower." Most of us are familiar with Klimt's popular decorative figure paintings from what is called his "Golden Period." Here is one of his lesser known landscapes. Look past the impressionist brushwork to the structure of the...

Gustav Vigeland (Norwegian). Granite. A mother pleading with her despondent son. My friend Kevin Kresse introduced this sculptor to me. Vigeland designed the Nobel Peace Prize medal, and has a dedicated sculpture park for his work in bronze and stone in Oslo. One can...

Jacek Yerka (Polish), "Illegal Production of Light." The inside-outside theme is prominent in his work. I love the ones that are most intimate in detail; one senses the presence of an individual, but that person is never depicted. A theme in my own world. We're in a...

George Inness (American), "Early Moonrise, Florida." Prominent "tonalist," a landscape style some say began with Inness, but was also pioneered by James Whistler. Notice the key highlights –– the moon, the house, and the bright notes in the foreground. They form a...

Caspar David Friedrich (German), "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog," 1818. "May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through...

"The Mirror," Will Barnet. Collection of what used to be the Arkansas Arts Center. Now becoming AMFA, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. A young woman combing her hair. I remember the first time I saw this painting. I walked through the lobby, took a right through the...

Lowell Birge Harrison, "Fifth Avenue at Twilight." This won't be the only painting I share by this guy. I've not seen the original painting, and the images of it online are wildly different, but I prefer this one. It conveys the misty atmosphere of the city after a...

Randall Exon, "September on the Susquahanna." Best laid plans often go awry. May your 2023 flow downstream. Happy New Year, y'all.