Dale Chihuly-The Glass Master

A true artist from sculpture to interior design, glass painting and other art media, Dale Chihuly is an inspirational and magnificent artist. He was from Tacoma, Washington, born in 1941 and studied Bachelor of Arts degree in interior design at the University of Washington in 1965. As a true artist, he had his Master of Science in sculpture after graduating college where he was mentored by Harvey Littleton who is a considered as the great American educator and glass artist.

Not contented with these achievements alone, he also studied about glass in Venice through the Fulbright Fellowship and received another Masters degree in fine arts by the year 1968. He lived a full life ahead and became influenced by the glassblowing tradition. Through this, he was influenced to produce pieces of artwork, mostly architectural glass that are considered out of this world

But Dale Chihuly met an accident when he had a head-on car collision car accident in England where he was literally thrown out of the windshield. More than anything else, his face was severely bruised and cuts where his left eye was also damaged. It then led to left eye blindness. But after months of recovering, Chihuly still continued to blow glasses for his masterpieces. In 1979 however, he also met another accident when he was body surfing and his left shoulder was dislocated by the said event.

Dale Chihuly works

Since 1975, he made different art pieces that at one of a kind and widely appreciated by people. some of his works include:

• The Navajo Blanket series where he painted the Navajo blankets on glasses
• Northwest Coast Basket series
• Seaform Series
• Macchia Series
• Persian Series
• Venetia Series
• Ikebana series and many more

He used different inspirations using glasses either blowing them or sculpting the glasses and making intricate designs making him one of the sought after glass artists in the United States. Dale Chihuly also made large-scale architectural designs of art installations where he made 3D or 3-dimensional art glasses for chandeliers. Because of this work, he became internationally famous by 1996 and then made another project which took him 2 years to finish. This was called “Chihuly Over Venice” where there are 14 hanging chandeliers.

After the phenomenal Venice project, he was also commissioned to make another glass installation where he named it “Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem 2000” where Dale Chihuly made it in Jerusalem. This was an outdoor exhibit where it showed the installations in the courtyard at the Tower of David complex which was located in the old city of Jerusalem. And as of today, there are other art pieces like the one shown in London which is the Victoria and Albert Museum; his glass houses where transformed into series of exhibitions in botanical settings such as the Garden Cycle which was exhibited in the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago; the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew and in the de Young Museum in San Francisco.

Get original Dale Chihuly Art and Dale Chihuly Paintings for sale at Originalartbroker.com. Original art broker is an online portal for buying original art and paintings of world famous artists.

Leroy Neiman: His Interesting and Colorful Life

Leroy Neiman, whose real name was Leroy Runquist was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He was a mixed breed where he came from a Turkish and Swedish descent. Young Neiman was abandoned by his father and her mother remarries and Leroy took his stepfather’s name.

He lived an interesting life since he left high school in 1942 to enlist in the US Army for four years. But then he came back and studied at St. Paul, a Catholic primary school. According to his biography, he was always seen drawing pictures, inscribe pen and in tattoos in classmates’ arm, and even winning a national art competition. Later on, he earned money by painting calcimine images of fruits, meats, and portraits of shopkeepers, vegetables and more to earn more money.

Later on, he went to college as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Chicago and even the University of Illinois. Leroy Neiman then taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for a decade. But more than being a teacher, he became popular as a contributing artist for Playboy Magazine during the 1950’s.

Leroy Neiman married Janet Byrme in 1957 and they lived in New York City for 33 years and more. According to research, their house was made up of double-height rooms which is conveniently overlooking the Central Park which is a phenomenal landmark in New York City. Not only does the couple live there but also famous people like Norman Rockwell, and celebrities like Rudolph Valentino and Noel Coward. That apartment was also home to ex New York City mayor John Lindsay.

Neiman and Playboy Magazine

To earn more, Leroy Neiman also worked as an illustrator at a department store for Carson, Pirie, Scoot & Co where Hugh Hefner was then a copywriter. In 1953, Hefner launched Playboy and he featured Neiman’s works in several Playboy issues. Until today, Neiman have a tradement illustration which is the “Femlin”. This is featured in the jokes page of the monthly issue of the magazine. This figure shows a female figure that is in black and while sprites wearing opera gloves and high heeled shoes which is seen in the Part Jokes area of the magazine.

Other works

Because of his Playboy works, Leroy Neiman then became popular and won art awards and accepted different recognitions. He works with different form of media like enamel, oil, watercolor, lithographs, etchings, pencil drawings, pastels and more. Aside from his “Femlin” he also made other arts that exposed sports art in different media. Some of his works are his 1969 painting called “Man at his Leisure: Le Mans” which was auctioned in the Playboy archives.

Currently, he is listed in the Art Collector’s Almanac, Who’s Who in American Art, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in the East and other list. Add to that, his works are also displayed in museum, being auctioned, online distributors and galleries for sale. In fact, according to research, he is one of those who can sell their products for more than $100,000 for his artwork.

Get  Leroy Neiman Original at Originalartbroker.com. Original art broker is online portal for buying Original art and paintings of world famous artists.