About the Artist: Norman Rockwell

“The Street was Never the Same Again” by Norman Rockwell. Detroit Historical Society.

Born Norman Percevel Rockwell in New York City on February 3, 1894, Norman Rockwell knew at the age of 14 that he wanted to be an artist, and began taking classes at The New School of Art. By the age of 16, Rockwell was so intent on pursuing his passion that he dropped out of high school and enrolled at the National Academy of Design. He later transferred to the Art Students League of New York. Upon graduating, Rockwell found immediate work as an illustrator forBoys’ Life magazine.

His piece “The Street was Never the Same Again” is available for custom reproduction to fit your home decor. See this image on RequestAPrint. 

By 1916, a 22-year-old Rockwell, newly married to his first wife, Irene O’Connor, had painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post—the beginning of a 47-year relationship with the iconic American magazine. In all, Rockwell painted 321 covers for the Post. Some of his most iconic covers included the 1927 celebration of Charles Lindbergh’s crossing of the Atlantic. He also worked for other magazines, including Look, which in 1969 featured a Rockwell cover depicting the imprint of Neil Armstrong’s left foot on the surface of the moon after the successful moon landing. In 1920, the Boy Scouts of America featured a Rockwell painting in its calendar. Rockwell continued to paint for the Boy Scouts for the rest of his life.

The 1930s and ’40s proved to be the most fruitful period for Rockwell. In 1930, he married Mary Barstow, a schoolteacher, and they had three sons: Jarvis, Thomas and Peter. The Rockwells relocated to Arlington, Vermont, in 1939, and the new world that greeted Norman offered the perfect material for the artist to draw from. Rockwell’s success stemmed to a large degree from his careful appreciation for everyday American scenes, the warmth of small-town life in particular. Often what he depicted was treated with a certain simple charm and sense of humor. Some critics dismissed him for not having real artistic merit, but Rockwell’s reasons for painting what he did were grounded in the world that was around him. “Maybe as I grew up and found the world wasn’t the perfect place I had thought it to be, I unconsciously decided that if it wasn’t an ideal world, it should be, and so painted only the ideal aspects of it,” he once said.

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(Information credit: biography.com)

Individual Artist: David M. Band

 

David M. Band, a native of Portland, Maine, now lives in Texas. He has devoted the majority of his life to art as a painter, printmaker, educator and collector.

David is a member of Allied Artists of America, Inc., Audubon Artists, Inc., Watercolor USA Honor Society, Salmagundi Club, Artists Fellowship, Inc., and is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society.

His work can be found in the collections of the Butler Institute of American Art, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Mo., Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Museum of Texas Tech University, Salmagundi Club, Dunnegan Gallery of Fine Art, and the United States Air Force collection.

He is the author of “Enrich Your Paintings With Texture”, North Light Publications.

To see David M. Bands collection visit this link: http://www.requestaprint.net/artist/gallery.php?gallery_id=20

Gary T. Erbe: Individual Artist

Gary T. Erbe was born in 1944 in Union City, NJ where he maintained his studio for 35 years. Self taught, he began painting in 1965. In the early years, every painting Erbe created would become a learning experience bringing him closer to understanding what makes good art. This was a challenging time for him. Then he discovered and became interested in Trompe l’oeil painting. In 1969, he conceived a way of creating Trompe l’oeil paintings that would be contemporary and different from the 19th Century Trompe l’oeil masters and coined the term “Levitational Realism”. In 1970, he quit his job as an engraver to pursue art fulltime and in the mid 1970’s, he began to explore the idiom of abstraction and cubism and how it can be applied to Trompe l’oeil painting. The idea of integrating modern principles into his painting was very challenging and exciting. Bridging the gap between modern art and realism would be his vision. In fact, today his work has less to do with Trompe l’oeil and more to do with the creative process.

Erbe’s work is the creation of a synthetic sense of space derived from the combination of flat space integrated with abstract forms exaggerated and enhanced by shadow, light and color. Mr. Erbe has exhibited extensively throughout the world and has garnered many awards for his paintings. Gary T. Erbe served as President of Allied Artists of America, Inc. from 1994-2005.

To see Gary’s work available for reproduction click here!

Monica Allen-Perin: Individual Artist

Monica Allen Perin, a painter from her youth, began her fine art studies at the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California. She subsequently obtained a Masters degree in the decorative arts (Museum Studies) at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and consecrated her theses to the garden frescoes found in and around Pompeii.

Teaching art history with the University of Maryland she continued to teach studio art and paint watercolors of the Italian country and seaside.

Following a move with her French husband to the South of France in 1998 she expanded her repertoire to include ‘buon fresco’ painting on fresh lime plaster in the manner of the Renaissance, and is currently involved in an important project to add fresco work to the façade of the parish church in Le Pradet, France.

Monica is also a US Navy artist attached to the Naval Historical Center at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington D.C. As a ‘combat’ artist she has passed numerous weeks in ex-Yugoslavia and more recently with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean documenting daily life in an operational capacity on board an aircraft carrier or logistics support with a forward deployed unit. Monica has exhibited her watercolors in Italy, the US and in France, in particular in Marseille, Toulon (awarded best in show for watercolors at the Salon des beaux-arts 2002), and most recently in Cannes where she was awarded the silver medal at the salon international des arts and culture.

Monica teaches watercolor painting and fresco from her studio in France.

To see Monica’s work available for reproduction purchase click here

Michael P. Smith (1937-2008)

During his nearly forty-year career, photographer Michael P. Smith (1937-2008) immersed himself in the larger world of New Orleans’s musical culture. At public events, from music festivals and concerts to street parades both mournful and celebratory, Smith was there with his Nikon cameras and, in later years, a tape recorder.

Beyond his public presence, Smith earned the trust of musicians and churchgoers who let him into their private lives. These relationships allowed him to create a photographic record bearing witness to often elusive cultural and spiritual events.

Though documentary in style, his photographs transcend the mere description of their subjects, pushing viewers to consider the cultural diversity of the world around them.

To view his collection of work go to RequestAPrint.net