I've Suffered Through A Bit Of A Dry Spell With Finding Nice Artwork Until Lately. Here's A Couple Of The Keepers That Have Turned Up Recently. Status: Just For The Pretty

I've found a number of nice prints and originals lately and of them I'm smitten with this black and white painting of what I've figured out is Piazza San Marco in Venice Italy.  I had a couple other pieces out and asked the Girlfriend whether they should stay or go and the pencil portrait by a June Kessler struck her fancy.

'67.  My favorite year of Corvette!  Rolling Stone magazine was born.  The Graduate won

best musical or comedy and was the top grossing picture of the year.  And somebody drew

this find portrait.  I love the child like "form be damned" style.  I remember an art class

exercise in high school where the teacher had us look at an object and, not taking our eyes

off of it, draw the object with one line using a pencil.  I remember the results looking a lot

like this! 

This may or may not have been done by a trained artist but the style is reminiscent of Willem

De Kooning's "Eyes Closed" works.  Since I found this at a local thrift I'm sure it was done

by a local resident and I've not found anything on the interwebs concerning any artist of note

named June Kessler.  Still, it is striking and evocative.  It's a keeper.

I got nothing on that signature.  Pretty sure it starts with an R. Then maybe an M. I see a

couple of Es and a couple of Ls and maybe a V between them?   I can't find anything on

the web that I can liken it to.  It took me about 20 minutes of searching to find the location

though.  I swear, I've never been to Venice Italy but I guess having watched Rick Steves on

PBS for years, some of those travel shows are gonna stick in your brain.  It was the subtle

criss crossing on the upper section of the building that I recognized.  Oh, and the surface of

the ground.  I knew I'd seen it all before.

And of course you have the dome in the background. Italy, right? I started of with searches

for Rome Plazas. Nothing recognizable came up so I thought I'd try Venice Plazas. Bingo.

It's the Piazza San Marco in Venice Italy.  I think it goes nicely with the G. Pierre painting

I picked up at the Cornbread "Worlds Largest" Garage Sale flea market a few weeks ago.

This is as close a photo as I could find. The photographer is just on inside of the flag poles

as apposed to the artist who would be just outside the poles. Neat, huh?! By the way, that

photographer has some great photos of Venice. You should click on the photo to go check

out his Flickr page! It's like taking a mini vacation there!