phoenixrising
LightNews LightNews
banner
mmcarthur.bsky.social
phoenixrising
@mmcarthur.bsky.social
4.1K followers 700 following 11K posts
Aardvark Digital Agency studio, designer, poetry junkie, voracious reader, lover of Indie, punk, and Obscure Rock, Jazz, Classical, Science & the Resistance. 🧷💪 #ArtHeals - always Read the Alt Text
Posts Replies Media Videos
mmcarthur.bsky.social
James Hamilton :
Burning Oil Well at Night, near Rouseville, Pennsylvania, 1861

oil on paperboard
22 x 16-1⁄8 in | 55.9 x 40.9 cm

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Further info in the alt text 👇
Rouseville, Pennsylvania, lay within a few miles of Titusville and Pithole City, two of the most famous boomtowns in Pennsylvania ’s oil fields. From 1859 until after the Civil War, new gushers brought investors, cardsharps, saloons, and speculators into these rural settlements. As quickly as they grew, however, the towns collapsed, often from the effects of fires like the one shown here. In the 1860s, American industrialist John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) was in the thick of this oil boom, maneuvering to establish the Standard Oil Company. Rockefeller’s investments in railroads and refineries would make him one of America’s richest men, long after the wildcatters in the Pennsylvania fields had gone bust.
February 20, 2026 at 1:49 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Ramona Nordal :
The Dance #6, 2022

acrylic and ink on canvas

Courtesy of The Patrons
This piece is part of The Patrons' private collection, which is being featured in "Unreliable Narrator", in addition to Bryce Holt's paintings. Of this painting, Nordal says, "The Dance series is something that I started in 2022. I mainly paint women and for this series I wanted to focus on the narrative of the thought process of a woman and everything that women juggle. It is almost like doing a dance. Each woman doing their own dance to forge through their life. The vines in the painting are the different growth periods of one's life. They represent 'growth' and 'organic strength.' They filter through the torso and through the mind, continuing on and on. These paintings represent strength, boldness, and resilience. An example...you can trample on grass and it still grows."
February 20, 2026 at 5:14 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Henri Rousseau : Self-portrait, 1890
February 20, 2026 at 5:00 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Will Barnet : Self-Portrait, 1981
February 20, 2026 at 4:59 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
David Hockney :
Self-Portrait, 1983
February 20, 2026 at 4:59 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Albrecht Dürer :
Self-Portrait (or Self-Portrait at Twenty-Eight), c.1500

Oil on panel
67.1 × 48.9 cm | 26.4 × 19.3 in

Completed just before his 29th birthday, it is the last of his 3 painted self-portraits. Considered to be the most personal, iconic and complex of these.

Further info below 👇
The self-portrait is considered remarkable because of its resemblance to contemporary representations of Christ, which could be interpreted as a feat of either stunning arrogance or blasphemy. The similarities with the conventions of religious painting include the positioning of his hands which seem to be in the act of blessing, the manner of his direct gaze, and the sober and earthy tones. Dürer's face has the inflexibility and impersonal dignity of a mask, hiding the restless turmoil of anguish and passion within. In its directness and apparent confrontation with the viewer, the self-portrait is unlike any that came before. It is half-length, frontal and highly symmetrical; its lack of a conventional background seemingly presents Dürer without regard to time or place. The placement of the inscriptions in the dark fields on either side of Dürer are presented as if floating in space, emphasizing that the portrait has a highly symbolic meaning. Its sombre mood is achieved through the use of brown tones set against the plain black background. The lightness of touch and tone seen in his earlier two self-portraits has been replaced by a far more introverted and complex representation. In 1500, a frontal pose was exceptional for a secular portrait. In Italy, the conventional fashion for profile portraits was coming to an end, but being replaced with the three-quarters view which had been the accepted pose in Northern Europe since about 1420, and which Dürer used in his earlier self-portraits
February 20, 2026 at 4:58 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
James Ensor :
Self-portrait with masks, 1936

26 x 30 cm | 10.4 x 11.6 in
oil on panel
February 20, 2026 at 4:49 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec :
Portrait of Vincent van Gogh, 1887

pastel on cardboard
54.2 × 46 cm | 21.3 × 18 in

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Toulouse-Lautrec had encountered Vincent van Gogh, 11 years his senior, when they were both taking lessons at the open studio (atelier libre) of Fernand Cormon in Paris from 1886 to 1887. This work is brightly colored Impressionist work, mainly of blues, oranges, and yellows. It portrays Van Gogh in early 1887, during the time he was living with his brother, Theo, in the Montmartre district of Paris. He is depicted in profile from the right, leaning forward at a table in a bar, with a glass of absinthe, as if in conversation, at Café du Tambourin on the Boulevard de Clichy. Van Gogh was rumoured to be having a love affair with the café's proprietor, Agostina Segatori. She had worked as an artists' model, and he painted her at least twice, including Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin. Van Gogh had an arrangement to give artworks to Segatori when he was unable to pay his bills, and he put on an exhibition of his Japanese prints at the café. Their relationship ended acrimoniously when he asked for his early paintings of flowers to be returned.
February 20, 2026 at 4:44 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Andromeda

Richard A. Proctor :
Flowers of the Sky, 1879
February 20, 2026 at 4:38 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Georgia O’Keeffe :
Starlight Night, Lake George, 1922

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
February 20, 2026 at 4:34 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange.
As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.

~ Carson McCullers, born otd in 1917 🎂
February 19, 2026 at 2:01 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Pablo Picasso :
Nude Standing by the Sea, 1929

Oil on canvas
51-1/8 × 38-1/8 in | 129.9 × 96.8 cm

More info in the alt text 👇
Picasso responded to many different artistic stimuli throughout in his career. 'Nude Standing by the Sea' testifies to his contribution to Surrealism, a movement that aspired to tap into and visualize psychological states of being, often through the distortion of the human body. Here, Picasso rearranged anatomical parts and altered the proportions of a standing nude, thereby creating an ambiguous sculptural mass. This rather threatening bather perhaps reflects Picasso’s inner turmoil over the dissolution of his marriage to Olga Khokhlova and his affair with Marie-Thérèse Walter.
February 19, 2026 at 1:58 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Constantin Brâncuși (born otd in 1876) 🎂 :
Golden Bird, 1919-22

Things are not difficult to make; what is difficult is putting ourselves in the state of mind to make them.

The Art Institute of Chicago

(tap for full view)
February 19, 2026 at 1:52 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Mitchell Grafton :
Cheshire Cat Teapot, n.d.

Raku fired pottery
February 19, 2026 at 1:48 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Wassily Kandinsky :
Bild mit Pfeilform
(Arrowhead Picture), 1923
February 19, 2026 at 1:44 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Robert Motherwell :
from the series
Beside the Sea, 1962

oil on paper

This series comprises 60 small works capturing the rhythm of waves crashing outside his studio. These paintings, feature bold, spontaneous splashes and drips, illustrating faster, more automatic, gestural expression.

More 👇
Context: The series was created as a direct, energetic response to the ocean view from the artist's seaside studio on Cape Cod. Technique: Motherwell used a "rapid, splashing" technique, where he applied thick paint with quick, decisive gestures. This approach is often associated with a transition from "jetting" (a continuous flow) to dripping. Style: The works are prime examples of Abstract Expressionism, characterized by automatism—a form of spontaneous creation meant to reflect the inner psyche. Composition: These paintings are frequently defined by a horizontal, often dark, streak or "splat" across the upper portion of the paper, representing the sea against the sky or land. Medium: The works were created on paper, allowing for a different texture and quicker, more fluid application than canvas. The series is considered a significant part of Motherwell's oeuvre, showcasing his ability to translate a natural, rhythmic experience into a "pure,, direct, and, in a sense, simple expression," as described by the YouTube video.
February 19, 2026 at 1:29 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
📸 - Lorna Simpson (b. 1960) :
Collide, 2019

Simpson has been a premier force for conceptual art - principally photography and collage - since 1985 when she graduated with her MFA from the UC - San Diego.

Her work encourages self and societal reflection.

Further info in the alt text 👇
#BlackHistoryMonth Her thought-provoking photographs, collages, paintings and films challenge and redefine malleable constructions of history and identity through the appropriation of figure and text. "As a young woman, and a young Black artist, I felt like I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted, because I didn’t quite have the assurance of success, but I had a strong desire to create.” ~ Lorna Simpson In the late 1980s, Lorna Simpson burst onto the art scene with photographs of unidentified Black figures accompanied by text. These early works interrogated stereotypical images of Black women that existed in popular visual culture and art alike. “The whole premise of the work was to engage with the audience in a way they wouldn't be used to—to put them off balance,” Simpson has said. - madeinbed co uk - moma org .
February 19, 2026 at 1:12 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Kenne Gregoire (Dutch, b.1951) :
Window Picasso, 2017

Acrylic on linen
96 x 86 cm
February 19, 2026 at 12:59 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Eyvind Earle (1916-2000) :
Christmas card illustration, c.1950s
February 18, 2026 at 4:38 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Ewald Schönberg (German, 1882-1949) :
Rotes Pferd (Red Horse), 1932

Oil on Canvas, 91 × 140 cm

Schönberg's work belongs to the New Objectivity movement, including elements of Magic Realism and Naïve Art , and characterized by motifs from his native Ore Mountains and the people who worked there.
February 18, 2026 at 4:02 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
The Crocus > Bringer of Spring!
💙💜
February 18, 2026 at 3:26 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Wassily Kandinsky :
Le Rond Rouge, April 1939

Oil on canvas
35 x 45-3/4 in | 89 x 116 cm

Further description in the alt text 👇
Le Rond rouge, conveys the viewer into the realm of pure aesthetic expression. The exquisite arrangement of the composition's forms and colors represents Kandinsky’s final phase of development at a time when the Surrealists dominated the cultural topography and the city of Paris was a hotbed of creative rivalry. He spent his formative years in 1906-07 on the outskirts in Sèvres with Gabriele Münter. The use of color, shape and biological morphology are all at play in Paul Overy’s analysis of Le Rond rouge: “One of the most intriguing works of this period is The Red Circle (1939) which is almost like a journey through the insides of one’s own body. The dark pathways which link the red circle with the other colored elements are like alimentary tracts. Within these intestinal convulsions are built up brightly-colored structural forms like ladders or pylons. The dark areas are fringed with blue which is in turn fringed with a very pale blue aura, so that the positive and negative reversal effects of light and dark forms are used to draw us into the convolutions of the paintings; changes of scale from the little ladders of bright pastel colors to the more sonorous forms and colors of the major forms involved the spectator as in a densely crowded street-scene or a panoramic landscape.” “The Paris imagery typically reflects an accommodation between the geometry of preceding years,” writes Vivian Endicott Barnett, “and a new vocabulary of organic forms. The triangles, circles and squares, the basis of Kandinsky’s Bauhaus grammar, do not completely disappear but are still alluded to in irregular, fantastic biomorphic shapes. They ultimately assume an independent pictorial life and endow the paintings and gouaches of Kandinsky’s late years with their unique character. Kandinsky’s new subject matter seems to exist in an almost natural realm of strange shapes and unusual colors, yet the distance he established between his art and the recognizable object has not diminished.
February 18, 2026 at 3:11 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Salvador Dalí:
Face of Mae West Which May Be Used as an Apartment, 1935
February 18, 2026 at 6:29 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Anthony van Dyck :
Self portrait, 1630
February 18, 2026 at 6:28 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Pablo Picasso :
Self-Portrait, 1901
February 18, 2026 at 6:28 AM