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Unique, artistic gift bag and bottle tags, favors and ornaments
Unique, artistic gift bag and bottle tags, favors and ornaments
My Blog
My Blog
Blog
What's going on in my shop/dining room/kitchen
| Posted on September 1, 2013 at 5:37 PM |
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I am excited to announce that Martha's Gardens on Selby and Snelling is carrying my cards and gift tags. This is a wonderful little shop with many fascinating things to peruse. This florist won the WCCO "best of" for fresh flowers. They concentrate on weddings and large events. After Labor Day I'll be making my first delivery to Lexington Floral on Lexington Avenue in the Vadnais Heights/Shorview area. This shop has scarves, jewelry and many other interesting items for sale and I'm happy to be among them. I just finished creating 200 wedding invitations and am now gearing up for the holidays. I'm hoping to take part in some craft fairs and I could use your help in letting me know if you hear of any. I'm hopeful that I'll be selling on this website soon but I have some kinks to work out. Recently I've added a line of larger cards, 4" x 5"and I have many Fall and Halloween images. Please send me an email if you are interested and we could get together. I've posted three new artist profiles on my blog. I have images in my library for all but Violet Oakley. If you have something in mind let me know. Thanks for stopping! |
Violet Oakley
| Posted on September 1, 2013 at 5:10 PM |
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 Violet Oakley (1874-1961) is the final member of the Red Rose Girls. Her self portrait is to the left. (c.1900) Unlike her cohorts, Oakley was born into an artistic family and was always encouraged to pursue a life of art.With two grandfathers that were members of the National Academy of Design, she described her interest in illustration as "hereditary and chronic". She studied first in New York, then Europe but returned to study illustration with Howard Pyle at the Drexel Institute for Illustration. She was a popular illustrator for magazines and periodicals such as Collier's, St.Nicholas Magazine and Woman's Home Companion.  A depiction of Tynsdale printing his translation of the Bible into English...at great risk no doubt. On The advice and recommendation of Howard Pyle, Oakley received many mural commissions, the most famous of which is In the Pennsylvania State Capitol building for the Governors Grand Reception Room which she titled "The Founding of the State of Liberty Spiritual". In the 14 reception room murals Oakley depicts the story of William Penn and the founding of Pennsylvania.  When Edwin Austin Abbey died in 1911, Oakley was offered the job of creating the murals for the Senate and Supreme Court Chambers, a 16 year project  Oakley was raised Episcopalian, embraced the political beliefs of the Quakers and became a Christian Scientist after a significant healing of asthma. Her insistence on adherence to Victorian aesthetics on the cusp of Modernism led to the decline of her reputation by the middle of the 20th Century. She lived with Henrietta Cozens, the fourth in the Red Rose group for many years. |
Elizabeth Shippen Green
| Posted on September 1, 2013 at 3:50 PM |
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 Elizabeth Shippen Green (1871-1954) was born in Philadelphia and encouraged in her artistic endeavors by her father who was an artist/correspondent during the Civil War. She studied with several painters and in 1894 found herself in Howard Pyle's class where she met Violet Oakley and Jessie Willcox Smith. She published her first drawing the in Philadelphia Times at the age of 18 while still studying with Pyle. While a student, she did pen and ink fashion drawings and other illustrations for children's books. For 14 years Green shared living and working space with the other Red Rose Girls, Jessie Willcox Smith and Violet Oakley. She found the communal arrangement conducive to her artistic processes, with large living and work space, the encouragement of other artists and finding inspiration in the surrounding gardens and  countryside.Green's work has sometimes been compared to that of Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). In The Mistress of the house, a series of paintings commissioned by Harpers, she depicts a romanticized version of domestic life, featuring a beautiful young mother. However, during her career with Harpers, she was also called on to depict a number of different moods with characters in drarmatic situations. Like her contemporaries, Green worked for all the major periodicals and illustrated numerous books. Of the three Red Rose Girls, perhaps she was the least recognized in her own life time. Perhaps this was due to the fact that she could not be easily categorized Smith was known mostly for her depiction of children, Oakley for her murals and stained glass. But Green was probably the most talented of the three.  Green was the only one of the three illustrators to marry. In 1911 she married Huger Elliott, a professor of architecture. The couple moved several times for his teaching career but she continued to illustrate for Harpers as late as 1924. Following Elliot's death Green returned to Philadelphia to live near her old friends.  The next two illustrations are from "The Journey". The boy in the rail car is subdued, while the colors outside the window are more vivid, creating an interesting perspective.  The verse was also illustrated by Green. |
Jessie Willcox Smith
| Posted on September 1, 2013 at 2:12 PM |
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 Jessie Willcox Smith (1883-1935) is probably my favorite artist of the Golden Age of Illustration. Her work epitomized the home life of the late Victorian era. During the 44 years that she was artistically active, she illustrated over 60 books, 250 periodicals and over 200 covers for Good Housekeeping, as well as calenders, posters and prints. Smith was born on Philadelphia and at 16 was sent to Cincinnati to live with relatives and to attend school. She started out her career as a kindergarten teacher. While chaperon on a trip to an art class, she picked up a pencil and drew the object that was in front of her. Eventually, she moved back to Philadelphia to study art and ended up in Howard Pyle's class. In a 1917 interview in Good Housekeeping, she said of Pyle: He seemed to wipe away all the cobwebs and confusion that so beset the path of the art student, and with his inspiration and practical help I was soon in the full tide of book illustration.  It was in Pyle's class that she met the other Red Rose Girls, Elizabeth Shippen Green and Violet Oakley with whom she lived for the next 11 years until Green married and Smith found her own home/studio. (Henrietta Cozens and Violet Oakley remained together until their death). Smith spent most of her career illustrating children. She never married and had no children of her own. Much has been made of the communal life style of the Red Rose Girls. Is it relevant? Probably not. Smith once said "A women's sphere is as sharply defined as a man's. If she elects to be a housewife and mother-that is her sphere and no other. Circumstances may, but volition should not, lead her from it. If, on the other hand, she elects to go into business or the arts, she must sacrifice motherhood in order to fill successfully her chosen sphere".  During her lifetime, Smith attained notoriety and wealth and lived an independent life, which for her time was remarkable. She was an inspiration to women trying to make their own way in the world and left funds for her artist friends upon her death. |
The Red Rose Girls of the Brandywine School of Illustration
| Posted on September 1, 2013 at 12:48 PM |
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 Pictured left are Violet Oakley, Jesse Willcox Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green (with Henrietta Cozens). These three illustrators were known as the "Red Rose Girls". They met while studying with Howard Pyle. They became popular and successful illustrators in a man's world. They first rented The Red Rose Cottage where they had studio and living space. Their friend, Henrietta Cozens, tended to the gardens and housework while the artists churned out covers for the major periodicals, illustrated books and painted murals. They liked to refer to themselves as the "COGS family"; the first letter of their last names. Eventually, they purchased their own compound "Cogslea", again with studio and living space.  Violet Oakley, Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green, with Henrietta Cozens "watering the roses". These gals would have been great on Facebook! They're celebrating Oakley's commissioned poster in background, c 1901.Following will be individual posts on each of the artists.  A rendition of the Red Rose Girls garden parties entitled Life was Made for Love and Cheer, by Elizabeth Shippen Green. Harpers Magazine, 1904 |
Howard Pyle 1853- 1911
| Posted on July 5, 2013 at 2:40 PM |
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 Howard Pyle was an American illustrator and author, mostly of books for young people. Pyle was interested in art and literature from a young age. He studied at the studio of F.A.Van der Weilen in Philadelphia for three years and had a few lessons at the Art Student's League of New York. This was the extent of his formal education. His first illustrating commission was from Scribner's Monthly and subsequently Harper's Weekly and for many other publications. In 1900, he founded the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art in Wilmington, DE. Pyle and his students became known as the Brandywine School. Of note, an unprecedented 50% of his students were women, remarkable for the time. His first book, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, was published in 1883 and received international acclaim from critics such as William Morris. Other books include Otto of the Silver Hand (1888) which was about the life of the son of a robber baron during the Medieval Period . (He wrote and illustrated this book.) He also illustrated a four volume set on King Arthur. Pyle's illustrations of pirates (above) are responsible for our current stereotype of pirate dress. (Look like anyone familiar?!) He also was a muralist and painted the mural, The Battle of Nashville, at the Minnesota State Capitol! van Gogh, a contemporary, wrote in a letter to his brother Theo that Pyle's work ".....struck me dumb with admiration". Twentieth Century Literary Criticism notes: "As time passed,Pyle's historical position as the founder of a distinctly American school of illustration and art, as the innovator who introduced the total-design approach and as the great reinventor of children's books, would outshine any single work he did, so that he is remembered less for any one project than for his total stance".  Pyle's students included: N. C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, Jesse Willcox Smith, Violet Oakley and many others. We'll look into them later. From the Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
What was the Golden Age of Illustration?
| Posted on July 5, 2013 at 1:04 PM |
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The Golden Age of Illustration (roughly the 1880s to the 1920s) was a period of excellence in book and magazine illustration. The printing press had advanced to the point that illustrations could be reproduced accurately and inexpensively, but photography hadn't quite gotten there yet. There were many magazines and periodicals along with niche hobby/interest publications too; all in need of illustrations. In Europe, Golden Age artists were influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements. American illustration during this time was largely represented by the Brandywine Valley tradition which was begun by Howard Pyle whom I will profile in the next Blog entry |
