Art Reads: Best Art Periodicals
As we all know, the art world is alive and thriving. However, aside from occasional peripheral blurbs in the news about a Picasso painting being auctioned for millions of dollars at Sotheby’s or a new exhibition opening in a museum that’s not even close to where you live, how does one keep up with what’s […]
Museum Spotlight: The Huntington Library
For today’s museum spotlight, we’re going to take a look at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens! A nonprofit research and educational institution founded in 1919, the Huntington Library showcases what were the private collections of art and manuscripts of businessman of Henry E. Huntington. Housed on Huntington’s former estate in San Marino, […]
Sandcastles: A New Kind of Sculpture?
What better way to test you (and your kids’) skills at sculpting than building the perfect sandcastle? At the beach, sand is free and sandcastles are relatively easy to build. The Guardian and Redbook even have step-by-step foolproof guides to building the perfect sandcastle, if you really want to impress the other beachgoers. To a […]
Art in Disney: Sleeping Beauty
Luckily for all of us, the VHS (yes, VHS) of Sleeping Beauty I own happens to come with a special after-the-movie feature about the making of the film, complete with commentary about the film’s stunning visual art. Upon its release in 1959, Sleeping Beauty was the film Disney Studios had taken the longest time in […]
The 6 Best Renaissance Babies
During a recent Internet binge, I came across this lovely article on Buzzfeed featuring ugly Renaissance babies. Which makes sense. Not every Renaissance artist was a da Vinci. And so, inspired by both Buzzfeed and the original uglyrenaissancebabies on Tumblr, I decided to make my own list of the best Renaissance babies. And by best I […]
What is Pageant of the Masters?
Perhaps one of the oddest and yet most entertaining spectacles in the art community is the annual Pageant of the Masters at Laguna Beach’s Festival of Arts. If you haven’t heard of it, allow me to enlighten you: the Pageant of the Masters is a show in which actors recreate famous pieces of art. A […]
Hockney Opens New L.A. Show
Prolific pop artist David Hockney opened his new show, Painting and Photography, at Venice Beach’s L.A. Louver gallery last week. The show features dozens of portraits playing with perspective to the point of creating nearly 3-D images. The 77-year-old British artist debuted Painting and Photography in London earlier this summer, according to The Hollywood Reporter. After taking up […]
Museum Spotlight: National Hispanic Cultural Center
Today’s museum spotlight features the National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum! This small but mighty sector of the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque is building up its reputation. It helps that it’s part of one of the country’s biggest cultural centers for Hispanic arts and culture. According to visitalbuquerque.org, The National Hispanic Cultural Center […]
French Art for Bastille Day!
*cue La Marseillaise* Happy Bastille Day from the Art Docent Program! Bastille Day marks the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris, France, and is basically France’s independence day. So, in the spirit of the day, we’ve decided to celebrate by looking at a small few of the many great art pieces done […]
Get Closer to van Eyck
You’ve probably heard of Jan van Eyck, famed artist of the Northern Renaissance in the Low Countries. Even if you haven’t heard of him, you’ve probably seen reproductions of his work, which includes such pieces as the Ghent Altarpiece and The Arnolfini Portrait (you know, the one where the guy looks like Vladimir Putin). […]