The Great Women Artists Podcast - and Georgia O'Keeffe

How one blog post leads to another....

The Great Women Artists Podcast was started by Katy Wessel, one of this year's Judges of the Derwent Art Prize. (see yesterday's post - Call for Entries: Derwent Art Prize 2022)

Created off the back of @thegreatwomenartists Instagram, this podcast is all about celebrating women artists. Presented by art historian and curator, Katy Hessel, this podcast interviews artists on their career, or curators, writers, or general art lovers, on the female artist who means the most to them.

I'd not come across it before so had a listen yesterday while doing my daily "keep osteoarthritis from getting any worse" walk.

I accessed it via Apple Podcasts and picked the one about Georgia O'Keeffe.

Wanda Corn and Georgia O'Keeffe

This is it - Wanda M Corn on Georgia O'Keeffe - which Katy Wessel announces via Instagram stories and publishes on Wednesdays.

Wanda Corn was the Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita in Art History at Stanford University (before she retired in 2017), a very knowledgeable speaker AND has actually met Georgia O'Keeffe. 

Her talk about her work related to O'Keeffe was fascinating - but periodically interrupted by Katy Wessel saying "Oh WOW!!!"

This introduction to the podcast gives you a sense of how Katy Wessel talks to her interviewees.

I am SO EXCITED to release this episode with Wanda Corn who not only **KNEW** Georgia O'Keeffe in the 1980s, but who is the curator of the staggeringly brilliant and HIGHLY successful exhibition, Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern at New York’s The Brooklyn Museum in 2017, which toured around the US.


This was an exhibition that looked at how the renowned modernist artist proclaimed her progressive, independent lifestyle through a self-crafted person – from the way she dressed to how she posed for photographs – expanding our understanding of who O’Keeffe was, and her determination to be in charge of how the world understood her identity and artistic values.

Looking for more info about Wanda led me to these two videos about her particular interest - the clothes of O'Keeffe and how she created a 'brand image' as it were

Out of O'Keeffe's Closet: Clothes, Fashion, and Dressing Modern with Wanda Corn (1 hour 33 mins) 

Dr. Wanda M. Corn, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor in Art History, Emerita, Stanford University, explores artist Georgia O'Keeffe's use of dress to join body and art in a common aesthetic. Painter Georgia O'Keeffe's clothing style became an intimate part of her artistic identity. She dressed like she painted, putting high value on abstraction and simplicity. Exploring how modern artists redefined themselves and their art, Wanda Corn has carefully researched the apparel of select key artists. Dr. Corn is a leading scholar of American modernism. Among Corn's numerous honors, she is the recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2014 from the College Art Association, the learned society for the visual arts.

Exhibition Insights | Guest Curator Wanda Corn on "Georgia O’Keeffe Living Modern" (13 mins)

Georgia O’Keeffe’s sartorial style became an intimate part of her artistic identity. She dressed like she painted, highly valuing abstraction, simplicity, and seriality. Art historian Wanda M. Corn, guest curator of the exhibition, Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern, explores the way O’Keeffe used her distinctive taste in clothes to model for photographers, creating a public persona for herself that still dominates the American imagination.

Plus this is a Stanford News article about Art historian Wanda Corn tackles Georgia O’Keeffe

More about The Great Women Artist Podcast

It's a very eclectic list of artists which are featured in the podcast. So far there have been 75 podcasts - all of which are accessible via Apple Podcasts.

I'll probably keep listening - but pick all the ones I've heard of to listen to first!

Painting Georgia O’Keeffe Country

Three of the paintings in Lydia Bauman, Looking for Georgia - Painting Georgia O’Keeffe Country
- the central view is of the Ghost Ranch landscape

Yesterday morning I saw one of the most impressive solo exhibitions in the Mall Galleries that I've seen to date. It has large and small landscapes which are visually stunning, has a big theme and a story behind it and the painting is splendid.

I wish more people were inspired by an exhibition about an artist and take themselves off to find the countryside where a painter painted and then find the places and spaces and paint them again.

I guess one of the reasons it appeals to me is that I'm an inveterate seeker out of places where people painted. I guess it's something that either appeals to you or it doesn't. For me I learn something about the painter by being able to see what they see - although it doesn't always work out. Trees have a habit of growing in front of views as I found out on my Van Gogh trail in Provence!  However back to the exhibition....

Lydia Bauman, Looking for Georgia - Painting Georgia O’Keeffe Country

The feature wall - The Road to Mesa Pedenal Triptych

Lydia Bauman, Looking for Georgia - Painting Georgia O’Keeffe Country is on until Saturday 2nd March 2019 at the Mall Galleries.

I highly recommend a viewing if you can get there - it's very impressive. Indeed it is by far the most impressive exhibition of landscape painting that I've seen in the Mall Galleries after many years of visiting.  The big Main Gallery can overwhelm wimpy painting and needs bold painting to draw you down the stairs. Bauman's larger paintings 'read' well from 100 feet away and get better as you get closer!

This is a woman who really knows how to paint big landscapes in an appropriate way - and how to use mixed media to give a 'grounded' and spiritual sense of the landscape.  Her colour palette is slightly exaggerated and yet remains true to the place. Her tonal values are spot on so that all the zones in terms of distances and changes in landscape read really well - despite the fact that for many people the New Mexico landscape will be something they've never experienced.

The road to iconic landscapes of O'Keeffe Country

The story of how the exhibition came about

Imagine Georgia O'Keeffe on television

The latest episode in the current series of Imagine on BBC1 is a programme about Georgia O'Keeffe: By Myself. It's timed to coincide with the major exhibition of her work at Tate Modern - Georgia O'Keeffe.

I'm guessing as an artist she doesn't need much of an introduction to the people who read this blog (see Georgia O'Keeffe at Tate Modern - a review of the exhibition reviews which reference the many blog posts I've written about her)

This is how the BBC introduces her

On the brink of the Depression in 1929, Georgia O'Keeffe - America's first great modernist painter - headed west. In the bright light of the New Mexico desert, she forged an independent life and found the solitude she needed for her truly original art.

The photographs taken of her by her older lover scandalised the public. Her flower forms were seen as a shocking and vibrant display of femininity, her bones and skulls as surreal and disturbing. Now, 30 years after her death, to coincide with a major Tate Modern show, imagine... tells the story of Georgia O'Keeffe, one of the most inspiring artists ever.

It adds

Imagine tells her story, through film of her charting her own progress through life, through her outspoken letters, especially the many thousands to and from Alfred Stieglitz, through his photographs, her paintings, and interviews with her surviving relations and artists who have fallen under her influence.

We visit the farm where she was born, the New York college where she studied back in 1906, the skyscraper hotel where she lived with Stieglitz, Lake George where she often felt suffocated but did much of her most beautiful work and the legendary landscapes of New Mexico, with her two extraordinary houses there. We find an inspiring, honest and witty woman, and a truly original artist.

The film is fronted by Alan Yentob - who meets her biographer, surviving relatives, friends and acquaintances - and was produced and directed by Jill Nicholls.

You can view it on iPlayer for the next 29 days.

Alan Yentob with the famous
Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 - painted by Georgia O'Keeffe in 1932

Georgia O'Keeffe at Tate Modern - a review of the exhibition reviews

The Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition - which includes the most expensive painting by a woman sold at auction - opened at Tate Modern last week.

Tate Modern presents the largest retrospective of modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) ever to be shown outside of America. Tate

I'm a huge fan of her work but have not been to see it yet. So I thought I'd do a round-up of:

• the reviews to see what the general conclusions are so far.  I'm actually amazed at the number of so-called serious art journals etc who have ignored this exhibition
• all my previous blog posts about Georgia O'Keeffe - following an intensive study of her work - which are listed at the end of this post.

The exhibition is on until 30 October 2016 and is open daily 10.00 – 18.00 and until 22.00 on Friday and Saturday. For more information about the Tate or the exhibition For public information call +44 (0)20 7887 8888, visit tate.org.uk, follow @tate #Tate2016

Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 1932 by Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986)

(Oil paint on canvas 48 x 40 inches) 

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas, USA

Photography by Edward C. Robison III

© 2016 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum/DACS, London

This is said to be "the most expensive painting by a woman"
- it sold at Sotheby's for $44.4 million in 2014

Media response

I've included a quotation from each review which attempts to indicate the tenor of the review.  I've put the RECOMMENDED reads first.

Watch out for the tired old cliches about female anatomy used by some.

“When people read erotic symbols in my paintings, they’re really talking about their own affairs,” she said.

UK Media

• RECOMMENDED: BBC - Georgia O'Keeffe's work at Tate Modern - a picture biased review with access to more pics than those released
• RECOMMENDED: The Independent - Georgia O'Keeffe, Tate Modern, review: 'an extraordinary show, long overdue' by Karen Wright. I was two third through before I realised that she had visited New Mexico and knew the landscape and her appreciation of O'Keeffe's work is original and genuine.

The major retrospective of Georgia O’Keeffe’s work that opened this week at Tate Modern in London is a rare opportunity for British viewers to engage with this revered American artist.

• The Telegraph - 
• RECOMMENDED: How Georgia O'Keeffe left her cheating husband for a mountain: 'God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it' by Alastair Sooke. This is a biographical note - and rather a good one - which was published in advance of the opening.

A new exhibition of paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe will shine a light on an odd, obsessive artist

• Georgia O’Keeffe at Tate Modern: more than flesh by Louisa Buck - very tiresome (and lazy) focus on "sensuality". She needs to try visiting New Mexico as I have.

her highly suggestive studies of the swelling hills, rocks and canyons of the New Mexican landscape which she first visited in the late 1920s and where she moved permanently in 1949. There is also a curvaceous physicality to her numerous studies of the bleached animal skulls and bones that she gathered in the desert.

• RECOMMENDED: Evening Standard - Georgia O'Keeffe at the Tate Modern: Why she matters - a simple and straightforward explanation of why this exhibition matters. Great for the uninitiated!

She used art to overcome her husband’s infidelity before Beyonce did

• The Financial Times - Georgia O’Keeffe at Tate Modern by: Jackie Wullschlager. This review places her work in a biographical context and gives a tad too much emphasis to Steiglitz who after all is context and not the subject.

Tate Modern’s superb new retrospective, the largest ever devoted to O’Keeffe outside America, is a once-in-a-generation chance to explore a figure entirely absent from British collections.

• The Guardian -
• Georgia O'Keeffe at Tate Modern review – one long, strange trip by Adrian Searle

This blockbuster retrospective seeks to show there is more to Georgia O’Keeffe than anodyne prints, signature aprons and sexual stereotypes – but her own gorgeous, awkward art compounds the cliches

• Georgia O’Keeffe at Tate Modern review – the sensuous and the dust-dead by Laura Cuming - who doesn't appear to be a fan. She seems to focus more on what she doesn't like and what isn't included. Very odd.

after such a long wait for a British retrospective, this one is peculiarly disappointing, not least because it is padded out with numerous photographs and flaccid paintings.

• Time Out - Georgia O'Keeffe - awards 4*

In the art world, women are simply worth less. And not just financially. Throughout art history women have consistently been ignored. But modernism would be an entirely different beast without O’Keeffe.

• Culture Whisper - Georgia O'Keeffe, Tate Modern - awards 4* and asks where are all the flowers and then  points out that they are but a small part of her total output.

Revelatory it certainly is for those who thought O’Keeffe was either brazenly or innocently preoccupied with painting sexually suggestive flowers: they make up less than 5% of O’Keeffe’s artistic output.

• Artlyst - Georgia O’Keeffe Retrospective Explores Founding Figure of American Modernism - Preview - a preview post - and hasn't bothered with a proper review.
• ArtNet News - nothing
• BlouinArtinfo - nothing 

American media

• Wall Street Journal - The Real Meaning of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Flowers - Look at this one for the fabulous images of the flowers. It does include a fabulous quote!

O’Keeffe, for her part, found the emphasis on her gender overblown. As early as 1922, she was peeved. “They make me seem like some strange unearthly sort of creature floating in the air—breathing in clouds for nourishment—when the truth is that I like beef steak—and I like it rare.”

• El Paso Times - Georgia O'Keeffe gets big London show - I don't often have cause to quote this one! I liked the openening sentence - the remainder seems to be culled from the press release and previously published material.

Georgia O’Keeffe has come to London, like a bracing American desert wind rippling the River Thames.

More about Georgia O'Keeffe

Back in 2007 I spent a month doing research about the life and work and development of artwork by Georgia O'Keeffe. In part this came from having visited New Mexico and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe ten years ago - in July 2006.

 Travels with a Sketchbook: 22nd July - Santa Fe and Georgia O'Keeffe is about my visit to the Georgia O'Keeffe museum in Santa Fe. I'd been wanting to go to the museum for a very long time - on the basis that you can't beat seeing art 'up close and personal' as an aid to understanding art - and was not disappointed!

The remainder are blog posts on Making A Mark - starting with the most recent

Georgia O'Keefe - major retrospective at Tate Modern in 2016

Yesterday the Tate announced its exhibition programme for 2016. It will include a major retrospective of the work of Georgia O'Keeffe as the Summer Exhibition at Tate Modern running between 6 July – 30 October 2016. Booking will open shortly and I predict this will be an extremely popular exhibition.

The above link goes to an article about what we can expect from the exhibition.

Tate Modern will present a major retrospective of the American modernist artist Georgia O’Keeffe, a century after her New York debut. The exhibition is the first important solo institutional exhibition of the artist’s work in the UK for a generation.

Below are links to my own research about O'Keeffe and her work in the last ten years.

Georgia O’Keeffe | Abstraction White Rose (1927)
Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 (91.4 x 76.2)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.
Gift of The Burnett Foundation and Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation
© Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

She straddles the line between figuration and abstraction with her abstracted paintings of flowers and landscapes and the figurative features of her deliberately abstract paintings.

"One paints what is around" Georgia O'Keeffe

I'm a huge fan of her paintings of flowers and these have very much influenced my own approach to developing macro perspectives on cacti and succulents. I also love her landscapes and her ability to see a rich and colourful language within the landscape of Northern New Mexico

"Nothing is less real than realism...details are confusing...it is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things" Georgia O'Keeffe

My Georgia O'Keeffe Month

Back in 2007 I did a project on Georgia O'Keeffe which I recorded on this blog.  It was prompted by my July 2006 visit to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I was a fan when I went and came away an even bigger one.

Travels with a Sketchbook in.......: 22nd July: Santa Fe and Georgia O'Keeffe

The Georgia O'Keeffe museum was stunning. I've felt an affinity with the work of Georgia O'Keeffe and her approach to art (her focus on landscapes, macro flowers and colour) for some time and have been keen to know how she achieves such deceptively simple images. I've been wanting to go to the museum for a very long time - on the basis that you can't beat seeing art 'up close and personal' as an aid to understanding art - and was not disappointed.

Subsequently I wanted to find out more about Georgia O'Keeffe and her art, her flowers and her landscapes.  Here's a record of the posts I published in 2007 and subsequently. These posts record the process of discovery and my conclusions as I studied her art. 

Macro Flowers

I adore flowers and images of flowers and enjoy the process of developing artwork based on a flower or flowers as much as looking at the end result. In developing my own work I've become increasingly drawn to the notion of exploring the flower through focusing on the structure of a single bloom. I now want to see how I can develop further and this is what this month will be all about. Naturally, in wanting to learn more about how best to do this, I've become very interested in the work of Georgia O'Keeffe - hence Georgia O'Keeffe month!

Two white irises (and three buds)

As you know I've been hunting down useful books for my Georgia O'Keeffe month. On Friday, I bought "Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Collections (Volume 2)" by Barbara Buhler Lynes at Kew Gardens. Having now had a chance to look through this book - which is the right way to describe a book which is mainly full page plates of colour images of her work - I've come to a few conclusions.

Cactus and quotations

I've included some quotations from Georgia O'Keeffe which I copied down when I visited the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe last year.

Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #1

I'm trying to get to grips with Notan - using "Composition" the book by Arthur Wesley Dow, first published in 1899, which was Georgia O'Keeffe's bible when she went through the same process.

Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #2

This post follows on from Learning about Notan #1. I thought I'd share something about what Dow has to say about Notan - the Japanese concept involving the placement of lights and darks next to the other to read as flat shapes on the two-dimensional surface - and harmony in two value designs and then how this can apply to compositions involving flowers.

Learning about Notan #3

I've been finding it very difficult to reduce to just two value Notan. Although I understand the principles, it would appear my brain does not want to play!

Also included are reviews of books about her art

"O'Keeffe" by Britta Benke

"O'Keeffe" by Britta Benke (subtitle Georgia O'Keeffe, 1887-1986, Flowers of the Desert) is a splendid and very informative book. It's also a complete bargain, being available for an amazing price whichever country you live in.

I also published posts about her work on other blogs

The Art of the Landscape: Georgia O'Keeffe's landscapes of northern New Mexico

Georgia O'Keeffe's favourite 'place to paint' landscapes was northern New Mexico. My personal view is that her landscapes although less well known are just as worthy of public attention and acclaim as her very famous paintings of flowers.

Making a Mark reviews......: Book Review: Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico

Summary review: HIGHLY RECOMMENDEDThe landscape of New Mexico is just a strong motif in Georgia O'Keeffe's work as her popular flowers. This book explores the locations she painted in and analyses her approach to her landscape work in New Mexico. It provides insight into both the character of the place, the painter and the person.

I love this video of her talking about her work on YouTube



I love this quotation of what Georgia had to say to those people who developed their own (often perverse) ideas about what her flower paintings were about.

Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven't time - and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time.

If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small.

So I said to myself - I'll paint what I see - what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it - I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.

...Well, I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower - and I don't.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Review - Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Photography Competition

I love the flower photographs selected for the brand new annual Georgia O'Keeffe Photography Competition.  Click the link to see a page devoted to works selected for the competition that have been awarded prizes or honourable mentions.

Georgia O'Keeffe Photography Competition - Flowers - Place Winners

The competition was inaugurated to celebrate the 125th year of Georgia O'Keeffe's birth. (see my earlier posts Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Photography Competition and Georgia O'Keeffe - 125th Birthday)

The theme for the 2012 competition paid homage to one of Georgia O'Keeffe's favourite subjects "Flowers" (see Georgia O'Keeffe's Flower Paintings)

Entry

• 3,830 images of flowers were submitted by 930 photographers, from 47 states and 17 countries.  

Prizewinners

You can see the prizewinners at the top of the page. It appears that not all prizewinners have a practice or portfolios which involve shooting flowers on a regular basis

Adult 1st Place Winner: Joanna Stoga, Dancing Tulips.  I've seen this Polish artist's x-ray photography work before - in the Nash Conservatory at Kew Gardens last April when she was displaying her work in the International Garden Photographer of the Year 2012 Exhibition (see won the Portfolio Award - see Kew Prints).

See my post International Garden Photographer of the Year 2011 at Kew Gardens

She also has had her work displayed in Vogue Magazine.

Joanne Stoga - 1st Place Portfolio Category
International Garden Photographer of the Year 2012 Exhibition
Kew Gardens
photograph by Katherine Tyrrell

Having seen her work before. I immediately recognised the winning work for this competition as an X-ray photograph - although I'm still not entirely clear about she takes these

Part of a 3 year long X-ray project named Qi, which express my fascination with plants and is dedicated to my favorite photographer Karl Blosfeld.Title refers to the energy Qi, that in traditional Chinese culture is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is frequently translated as life energy. X-ray technique reveals not only a remarkable form and structure of plants, but also gives the possibility to feel this incredible energy. This picture is from the series

On this page she explains more about how she creates her work for her QI Portfolio - the winning image is #21 in her Qi portfolio on her website.

Adult 2nd Place Winner: Janet O'Neal, Datura 5 (I'm not entirely clear which website relates to this lady)

Adult 3rd Place Winner: Lisa Gamble, Dancing Garlic Flowers

Student (18-21) Winner: Zara Applestein, Yellow, Black, & White Flower

Student (Under 18) Winner: Hannah Mark, Tie-Dye

Honourable Mentions ( in alphabetical order).  links in the names are to the photographer's websites where you can see more of their work,

• Polly Chandle, Garlic Flower
• Audrey Derell, Spiral 
• Barbara DuBois, Awareness
• Lisa Gamble, Dancing Calla Lilies
• Meredith Hebden, Datura 
• Nancy McClure, Serpentesque
• Janet O'Neal, Datura 2 
• Janet O'Neal, Datura 4 
• Sandi Pfeifer, Alone
• Dan Shepherd, Floral Past Tense #3 
• Priscilla Smith, Night Blooming Cereus Blossom
• Carol Stanley, Intricate Beauty 
• Joanna Stoga, Zet Tulipsy 
• Stephen Strom, Datura Flower II 
• Stephen Strom, Primrose I
• Janice Tieken, Ephemeral Vision 
• Kimber Wallwork-Heineman, Petals

Selectors

The selection panel of judges were:

• Jennifer Schlesinger-Hanson, Director, VERVE Gallery of Photography; 
• Jackie M, Director of Education and Public Programs, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; 
• Mary Anne Redding, Chair, Photography Department, Santa Fe University of Art and Design; 
• Joyce Tenneson, photographer; (do check out her photographs - they're wonderful ) and 
• Norman Vanamee, Editor-in-Chief, Garden Design Magazine

I'm unclear as to whether there is to be an exhibition or whether this is online only.

Link: About Georgia O'Keeffe - American Painter

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Georgia O'Keeffe - 125th Birthday

Today is Georgia O'Keeffe's 125th Birthday - so to celebrate here's a Pandora's box - all about Georgia.  If you like her work I'd suggest you do not open until you have some time on your hands!

"Hands" by Alfred Stieglitz [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

All About Georgia

Her Estate keeps very careful control of her images so I have none to post here.

However I do have a lot of licensed images on my website About Georgia O'Keeffe - American Painter

Below is the table of contents of what this site covers - and there's a LOT below each of these headings.  I've been building and improving this website ever since my 2007 project to research her work!

Georgia O'Keeffe - Biography and Timeline
Georgia O'Keeffe - Achievements
Georgia O'Keeffe - Obituaries
Influences on O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz
VIDEO/DVD: Georgia O'Keeffe
GEORGIA O'KEEFFE'S FLOWER PAINTINGS
GEORGIA O'KEEFFE'S HOUSES - ABIQUIU AND GHOST RANCH
GEORGIA O'KEEFFE'S LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS
ART MUSEUMS, GALLERIES & EXHIBITIONS
The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
Georgia O'Keeffe - exhibitions
Georgia O'Keeffe in museum permanent collections
Individual artworks by Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe in online galleries/websites
Making A Mark - The Georgia O'Keeffe Project

I love this quotation of what Georgia had to say to those people who developed their own ideas about what her flower paintings were about.

Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven't time - and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time.

If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small.

So I said to myself - I'll paint what I see - what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it - I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.

...Well, I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower - and I don't.
Georgia O'Keeffe

Here's an Architectural Digest slideshow of photos of her home at Abiquiu in new Mexico.

And here's a video of Georgia O'Keeffe talking about her work



Georgia O'Keeffe was born on 15 November 1887 in a farmhouse near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. 

She died, age 98 in Santa Fe on March 6, 1986. Her ashes were taken up to the top of the Pedernal and as they were scattered to the wind she returned to her beloved "faraway".

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Photography Competition

125 years after Georgia O'Keeffe was born, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum is running a Photography Competition with a theme of "Flowers" - which naturally grabbed my attention right away!  I have any number of photographs of flowers - it's one of my favourite occupations for the reasons outlined by Georgia O'Keeffe many years ago

“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.”
Georgia O'Keeffe

A long look at a favourite flower
© Katherine Tyrrell

The reason for highlighting it on my blog is that submission is electronic - which opens up the competition to international entries.

All winning images will be published in the spring issue of O’Keeffe Magazine and on the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum web site (beginning February 1, 2013 – March 1, 2013) plus there are various awards to be won (see website for details).  The First Prize is $500 + Santa Fe Photographic Workshop Intensive, Annie Leibovitz signed edition of Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage; signed edition of Roxana Robinson’s biography, Georgia O’Keeffe; and a select item from the O’Keeffe Museum gift shop.

Anybody care to guess what my flower is?

The aim of the competition

Georgia O’Keeffe was famous for her interpretation of flowers. Some realistic, some abstract...but always beautiful. In her spirit, please share with us photographs of your favorite flowers — those pictures that capture your heart and capture the beauty and magnificence that is nature.

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum invites anyone enthusiastic about photography and art to enter the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Photography Contest.

Who can enter

Georgia O'Keeffe's birthday is 15 November

Georgia O'Keeffe, 2012 (Wall Calendar)

Today is Georgia O'Keeffe's birthday.  She was born on 15 November 1887 and lived until she was 98.

I've been looking at the resource site I built back in 2007 when I did a major project about her.

What I didn't realise at the time (because I didn't do the maths!) was that although she decided she wanted to become an artist age 10, she actually didn't become a full-time artist until she was in her fourth decade.  She didn't abandon teaching and go to New York until June 1918 - by which time she was 31.

So - for other fans of Georgia O'Keeffe here is.....

...first of all the website I built which provides a wealth of resources for all those who love Georgia's work - Georgia O'Keeffe - Resources for Art Lovers

...and secondly here are links to the blog posts I wrote at the time I was learning about her art and how to translate it into what I wanted to do.  I've also included some posts I've written since.

• Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Macro Flowers
• Making a Mark: Kew Gardens in June
• Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe month: Two white irises (and three buds)
• Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Cactus and quotations
• Travels with a Sketchbook in.......: 22nd July: Santa Fe and Georgia O'Keeffe
• Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #1
• Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #2
• Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #3
• Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe month: "O'Keeffe" by Britta Benke
• The Art of the Landscape: Georgia O'Keeffe's landscapes of northern New Mexico
• Making a Mark reviews......: Book Review: Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico

If you can't get enough of her art, why not try a wall calendar - which is what I do (when I'm not buying books)!

For Georgia O'Keeffe fans

Those who love the work of Georgia O'Keeffe might like to take a look at today's posts on two of my other blogs.  These are:

• Making A Mark Reviews - Book Review: Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico
• The Art of the Landscape -  Georgia O'Keeffe's landscapes of northern New Mexico

Red Hills with Pedernal, 1936

Georgia O'Keeffe

Buy From Art.com

Those of you who were not reading this blog back in June 2007 won't have seen the series of posts I did that month for my Georgia O'Keeffe project - see Making A Mark - The Georgia O'Keeffe Project.

I have a problem with posting her images in this blog. Basically since she's not been dead for 70 years her work is not copyright free and in the public domain. However her drawings and paintings of flowers are extremely popular which means that there are lots of images on the web which can be linked to - try googling Georgia O'Keeffe and you'll see what I mean!

These are also listed below:

Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Macro Flowers

I adore flowers and images of flowers and enjoy the process of developing artwork based on a flower or flowers as much as looking at the end result. In developing my own work I've become increasingly drawn to the notion of exploring the flower through focusing on the structure of a single bloom. I now want to see how I can develop further and this is what this month will be all about. Naturally, in wanting to learn more about how best to do this, I've become very interested in the work of Georgia O'Keeffe - hence Georgia O'Keeffe month!

Making a Mark: Kew Gardens in June

I can highly recommend Kew Gardens in June. Yesterday it was full of flowers associated with Georgia O'Keeffe - arum lilies, poppies and irises. Kew also has a great glasshouse which has wonderful orchids which are another favourite O'Keeffe flower.

Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe month: Two white irises (and three buds)

As you know I've been hunting down useful books for my Georgia O'Keeffe month. On Friday, I bought "Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Collections (Volume 2)" by Barbara Buhler Lynes at Kew Gardens. Having now had a chance to look through this book - which is the right way to describe a book which is mainly full page plates of colour images of her work - I've come to a few conclusions. These are offered here by way of guidance to anybody who wants to participate in the project this month.

Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Cactus and quotations

I've included some quotations from Georgia O'Keeffe which I copied down when I visited the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe last year.

Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #1

I'm trying to get to grips with Notan - using "Composition" the book by Arthur Wesley Dow, first published in 1899, which was Georgia O'Keeffe's bible when she went through the same process.

Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #2

This post follows on from Learning about Notan #1. I thought I'd share something about what Dow has to say about Notan - the Japanese concept involving the placement of lights and darks next to the other to read as flat shapes on the two-dimensional surface - and harmony in two value designs and then how this can apply to compositions involving flowers.

Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #3

I've been finding it very difficult to reduce to just two value Notan. Although I understand the principles, it would appear my brain does not want to play!

Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe month: "O'Keeffe" by Britta Benke

"O'Keeffe" by Britta Benke (subtitle Georgia O'Keeffe, 1887-1986, Flowers of the Desert) is a splendid and very informative book. It's also a complete bargain, being available for an amazing price whichever country you live in.

Plus

Travels with a Sketchbook in.......: 22nd July: Santa Fe and Georgia O'Keeffe

The Georgia O'Keeffe museum was stunning. I've felt an affinity with the work of Georgia O'Keeffe and her approach to art (her focus on landscapes, macro flowers and colour) for some time and have been keen to know how she achieves such deceptively simple images. I've been wanting to go to the museum for a very long time - on the basis that you can't beat seeing art 'up close and personal' as an aid to understanding art - and was not disappointed.

You may also be inteersted in my information website Georgia O'Keeffe - Resources for Art Lovers where you can find out about American artist Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986),

• her life and her artwork; 
• where her paintings are in museums and art galleries; 
• online sites about her and her art; 
• books and videos about her, 
• her art and her home in New Mexico.

Georgia O'Keeffe month: "O'Keeffe" by Britta Benke

Yet another Taschen art book to recommend to people! "O'Keeffe" by Britta Benke (subtitle Georgia O'Keeffe, 1887-1986, Flowers of the Desert) is a splendid and very informative book. It's also a complete bargain, being available for an amazing price whichever country you live in.

The book focuses on her life, her artistic career and the development of her artistic practice. It attempts to identify all those people and events which appear to have influenced her unique vision and practice.

I was particularly struck by how her work was both stimulated by notions derived by others from the art of other cultures and, at the same time, by contemporary notions shared by other artists in her circle. A number of them developed along similar paths although ultimately producing different work.

It also became clear while reading this book that, as suspected, the advent of photography and the scope for taking close-ups appears to have had an influence on her direction.

In brief, the book covers :

• her early development including her abstracted charcoal drawings of organic and geometric forms. This highlights:
• the impact of Arthur W Dow (as taught by Alon Bennet) and his argument for the adoption of simplified clear forms in order to bring out the essence of things and the importance of the relationship between light and dark - 'Notan'.

Keefe's interest was particularly aroused by Dow's emphasis upon the careful and balanced arrangement of all the elements in the composition - colour, form, line, volumes and space - in order to arrive at a harmonious overall design. (O'Keeffe page 10)

• her introduction to the organic pastels of Arthur Dove (1880-1946)
• her affinity with Kandinisky's fundamental thesis as expressed in "Concerning the Spiritual in Art" and its enduring influence on her

colour and form should no longer be indebted to outward appearances in nature, but rather to the feelings and 'inner world' of the artist (O'Keeffe page 10)

• the circle of artists around Alfred Stieglitz, the photographer, gallery owner and her future husband, and his early influence of her career through exhibiting her work at his gallery. Stieglitz was always interested in photography as an art form and produced a photoraphic portrait of O'Keeffe over the years.
  
• O'Keeffe became particularly attracted to the photographic work of both Stieglitz - who was increasingly emphasising the abstract quality of nature - and Paul Strand (1890- 1970) which she first saw in 1917.
  

Influenced by trends in Cubist painting, Strand photographed familiar objects very close up....the resulting effect of magnification dissolved the realistic forms into an almost abstract composition of geometric organizations (O'Keeffe page 23).

• Magnification was something she has been experimenting with. As she explored magnification, it enabled her art to become separate from the conventional notions of what still life art should look like.

"It is surprising to me how many people separate the objective from the abstract. Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense. A hill or a tree cannot make a good painting just because it is a hill or a tree. It is lines and colors put together so that they say something. For me that is the very basis of painting" Georgia O'Keeffe quote in 'O'Keeffe' page 28

• a chapter devoted to flowers with some excellent colour plates of a few images of her flower paintings. She painted more than 200 flower paintings between 1918 and 1932.

In O'Keeffe's flower paintings....the entire canvas is usually filled by just one or two blooms. These are painted in extreme close-up, as a result of which the outer edges of the leave sand stems are often cut off.....The close-up angle permits a detailed examination of the individual structure of each bloom......O'Keeffe nade a number of these flowers the objects of a series of paintings, seeking to refine the motif in each fresh version. The series was a concept she pursued throughout her career and suggests a parralel with Japanese art, in which the same subject is treated again and again in new variations. from various angles and at different times of year. 'O'Keeffe pages 31-32)

• two chapters focus on her life in the desert of New Mexico and her home, the landscapes and motifs associated with that place. What I was struck by is how often the geometric forms she finds most appealing (eg the triangle) are repeated in both landscapes and still lifes
• late in life she began to travel widely and her art began to change - often reflecting the views she had seen from the aircraft in which she travelled
• The book includes a very detailed timeline for her life and artistic career at the end.

I've included links below to the Taschen site and major Amazon sites but if you have access to a really good art book shop you should be able to find it there. What was rather irritating for me was that I'd already bought this given I was planning to do O'Keeffe and then managed to mislay it until nearly the end of O'Keeffe month - I need more bookshelves!

Looking forward - next month my focus is going to be on flower painting (after cacti and succulents proved to be a major distraction this month). I'll be highlighting a number of artists who paint flowers and I'll also be continuing to pick up on some of O'Keeffe's practices in this respect.....

...and finally, the last cacti is making an appearance tomorrow with the weekly round-up.

Links:

• O'Keeffe" by Britta Benke, published by Taschen February 2001; Paperback 96 pages; ISBN-10: 3822858617; ISBN-13: 978-3822858615 ;
  
• Amazon.com - as above
• Amazon.co.uk - as above
• Taschen Art Books
• Kandinsky "Concerning the Spiritual in Art" - an e-book with an introduction by Michael Sadler with hyperlinks and annotations by Theodore Gracyk 2002
• Artchive: Arthur Dove
• Voorhies, James. "Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) and His Circle". In Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (October 2004)
• Department of Photographs. "Paul Strand (1890–1976)". In Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.(October 2004)

Georgia O'Keeffe Month: who else is posting?

Prickly Pear Profile
7" x 5", coloured pencil on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've been most remiss in not making any reference as yet to the other people who have been following Georgia O'Keeffe month but have now remedied this omission. Here's a list of blogs and blog posts stimulated by study of O'Keeffe's work and approach to art - and we're very international this month.

There also some other interesting links......and a real treat at the end.

Rose Welty - living in North Texas and blogging about Rose's Art Lines has really got into Georgia and the Notan studies

• Georgia O'Keeffe and her memories
  
• Georgia on my mind
  
• O'Keeffe Value Studies - at this point Rose is showing me up for not working harder at the Notan - I was spurred on!
  
• Tomato Flower
  
• In a Georgian Way (sort of)
  
• A Notan Link today - check out the link, it's brilliant
  

Robyn - an Australian lady living in Tuscany and blogging on "Have Dogs Will Travel"

• Georgia O'Keeffe month
  
• Taking a Frangipani for a spin
  

Chuck Law - artist, part-time florist, ex-floral designer and the man who knows everything about flowers - living in New Jersey and blogging on Chuck Law's Art Pages

• An Iris for Katherine
  

Adam Cope - artist, painter, teacher, dreamer, living in France and blogging about Dordogne Painting Days

• Notan - La Maison Peyerade, Bergerac

If I've missed anybody out or omitted a blog post please let me know and I'll include you in the next round-up.

In the meantime - here are a few more links (this time of blogs or from other blogs) to works by Georgia O'Keeffe

Thanks to the Dublin Community Blog for the link to the Irish Museum of Modern Art's exhibition of work by Georgia O'Keeffe earlier this year called "Nature and Abstraction". (I LOVE the painting of the yellow leaves - I had in mind to develop studies of leaves next - after I'd got the cacti out of my system!). The exhibition will travel to the Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada, from 6 October 2007 to 13 January 2008. For details of the catalogue publication see details at the end.

The Art Law Blog documents a major court case involving work by Georgia O'Keeffe.

Finally this is a link to a film posted by Kim Obrist on You Tube. It's a a film of 92 year old Georgia O'Keeffe talking about her life and her work at her home in New Mexico. The original source of the film is unclear (does anybody know where it comes from?) but I'd personally like to thank whoever made this film as it works better than any book at explaining some of her subjects and her paintings.

Links:

• Marshall, Richard D. GEORGIA O'KEEFFE: Nature and Abstraction. 192 pages, including 97 color and 3 b&w plates. 4to, cloth. Milan, Skira, 2007. (to be published September 2007 - it can be pre-ordered through Amazon)
  

Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #3

Cactus #4
8" x 8", coloured pencil on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've been finding it very difficult to reduce to just two value Notan. Although I understand the principles, it would appear my brain does not want to play!

Prior to my recent studies, my habit has been to test out the design of a composition and a crop either using a thumbnail sketch or PS Elements or both.

So, for example, in developing Cactus #4 (still awaiting a name!), I first of all developed a line drawing (see below for images of stages). The next stage was to develop the background leaving the cactus spikes undeveloped. This was supposed to be my equivalent of filling part of the design with one darker tone - but of course I started to develop it a bit by deepening some of the marks on the cactus!

It clearly indicated to me how much the introduction of colour can complicate design and makes me understand why Dow recommends focusing on two values and working in monochrome only to start with. If you look at my drawings of the head you'll see that in representative drawings I have no problem in working in mono and then hatching in lines to get tone.

I've also had problems reducing to just three values in the past and tend to want to blur edges between value shapes.

In developing Two White Irises (and three buds), I first of all developed a thumbnail sketch of the design (see left). This was meant to be a three value sketch but note the blurring........ The problem might be because I don't tend to do a thumbnail so much as use most of a sheet in my A5 sketchbook. Maybe I ought to try working smaller?

I'm going to say a bit more about Dow and three value notan later this week.

A new website gallery for Plants and Cacti.
I'm really rather excited about my cacti even though I know absolutely nothing at all about them - I just love the shapes, patterns and colours!

I've set up a new gallery on my website so they can all my cacti can be seen together. It's accessed via the 'Still Life' gallery and is called Plants and Cacti. I've also been rounding up all the cacti photos I took while travelling and sketching in the southwestern states of the USA last year. It's very exciting, I've got lots of good cacti shots and I find virtually all of them very stimulating - so this could be a big series!

I'd be really interested in what you think about how the four completed to date look together in the gallery.

Links:

• Making A Mark: Learning about Notan #1
• Making A Mark: Learning about Notan #2
• Making A Mark: Two White Irises (and three buds)
• Pastels and Pencils: Plants and cacti by Katherine Tyrrell
• Travels with a Sketchbook: Sketching in the southwestern states of the USA....what happened next
  

Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #2

"The Peacock Skirt", illustration by Aubrey Beardsley for Oscar Wilde's play Salomé (1892)

This post follows on from Learning about Notan #1. I thought I'd share something about what Dow has to say about Notan - the Japanese concept involving the placement of lights and darks next to the other to read as flat shapes on the two-dimensional surface - and harmony in two value designs and then how this can apply to compositions involving flowers.

Two value Notan

"Line melts into tone through the cluster of many lines. Direct study of tone-intervals begins with composition in two values - the simplest form of Notan" Arthur Wesley

Dow identifies Notan as a way of identifying visual harmony. Key learning points for appreciating two value Notan are:

• start with avoiding representation at first. He recommends recommends checking out how simple black and white patterns are used in the decorative design of the world - and how they can found in the patterns used in tiles, textiles, (eg see Elizabethan coifs, lace and brocade quilts) wood inlay, inlaid boxes and inlaid instruments, fret work, page ornaments, seals and architecture (I immediately thought of Siena's Duomo and timber-framed buildings in England such as Little Moreton Hall)
  
• focus first on ensuring that the line design works before beginning to darken certain shapes within the overall design with black
• observe how each line design has the potential to generate several Notan arrangements (different arrangements of black and white). The arrangement which should be chosen is that which is most beautiful
  
• note how a limited field of expression often stimulates greater inventive activity. An example he quotes is the artist Aubrey Beardsley who scarcely went beyond black on white - see the image at the top and more images here. (I've also included a couple of links below to a website about Beardsley with a lot more information and images and also Charley Parker's post about Beardsley).

Dow considers two value Notan at length - in relation to its application to textile patterns and rugs, gothic sculpture, Japanese design books and representation of the landscape.

Flowers and two value compositions

Katsushika HOKUSAI1760–1849
Peonies and butterfly c.1832
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

In relation to flowers and two value compositions, the focus is on setting the floral lines into a space in a fine way - and I finally begin to understand the impact of his book on the art of Georgia O'Keeffe. (This is also a quotation which is especially relevant to anybody who has ever struggled with backgrounds in drawings or paintings).

It is essential that space should be cut by the main line. A small spray in the middle of a large oblong, or disconnected groups of flowers cannot be called compositions; all the lines and areas must be related one to another by connections and placings, so as to form a beautiful whole. Not a picture of a flower is sought - that can be left to the botanist - but rather an irregular pattern of lines and spaces, something far beyond the mere drawing of a flower from nature, and laying an oblong over it and vice versa. Arthur Wesley Dow "Composition"

He provides an exercise for developing flower compositions. In essence this involves:

• producing a fine line drawing of a flower with clear outlines
• deciding the shape (eg a rectangle or square) which will provide the best shape for the overall composition
• refinement of the line composition within the format of the shape
• create further designs by painting areas of the design in black to produce opposing and intermingling masses of black and white

His examples highlight the crucial importance of cropping the image and the way in which cutting across a flower can produce a much more interesting picture than producing what might otherwise be called a vignette view or botanical art. I would love to show you the page of examples in the book and I'm looking for a website which illustrate his thought. Failing that I'll produce some notan 2 value drawings of flowers to show what he means!

[Updated to include the wonderful example of the Hokusai print - part of the National Gallery of Australia's Exhibition on Monet and Japan. This particular print was owned by Monet - part of his collection of over 200 prints.]

Links:

• Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Arthur Wesley Dow and American Art and Crafts
  
• Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and TeachersArthur Wesley Dow (Author), Joseph Masheck (Author)
  
• Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month - Learning about Notan #1
• Aubrey Beardsley Art
  
• Lines and colors - Aubrey Beardsley