Sally Swatland

Breaking Surf

Painted 2008

Pluie a Venice is painted in Hambourg's preferred palette of muted blue-green, grey, and gold with splashes of ruby red, deep blue, and emerald green. The soft colors work well for beach scenes and rainy days such as the ones portrayed in this painting. The impressionistic scene shows multiple pedestrians strolling down the boardwalk, shielding themselves from the rain with colorful umbrellas that provide pops of color and balance the overcast sky. The background contains a three-masted ship and Piazza San Marco's famous bell tower and Basilica. Hambourg uses the minimum number of brushstrokes necessary to portray ships, seagulls, buildings and people as well as reflections on the glistening sidewalk. The brushstrokes in the sky have an interesting texture that is controlled yet carefree and there is heavy impasto throughout. His portrayal is both realistic and romanticized. Hambourg was clearly influenced by the great Impressionist artists of earlier generations, perhaps none more than the one with a direct connection to his family. Hambourg's wife, Nicole Rachet, was born into a family with a large collection of works by Impressionist master Eugene Boudin. Rachet's grandfather was a contemporary and friend of Boudin's, and a collector of his work. In their later years, Hambourg and Rachet donated over 300 canvases by Boudin and other artists to the Eugene Boudin Museum in Honfleur, France. It was such a large and important gift that the collection bears...

A beautiful woman sits at an open window, gazing down at a small bird who has landed nearby in this serene portrait by Charles Levier. Warm orange tones are played off their complements in shades of blue, the artist utilizing several different layers of oils to create a subtle and relaxed view of a spring day near the sea. Beyond the window a small chapel sits on a peninsula, surrounded tranquil blue waters. This work, like many of Levier's, belongs to the French figurative movement of the Glorious Thirty (Les Trente Glorieuses) - the golden period of thirty years after WWII which were a time of great hope and prosperity in France. Inspired by Hollywood cinema, Charles Levier sought harmony in composition and purity of color and form. His said that his creations represented "a light and delicate world, of dark and subtle shades and colors." Levier worked in a somewhat abstracted, cubist style. Additionally he often employed the French technique of "cloisonnism" (after the French for "partition"), a style of post-Impressionist painting with bold and flat forms separated by dark contours, also seen in this work. The term was coined by critic Edouard Dujardin on the occasion of the Salon des Indépendants, in March 1888 and was commonly used by artists like Émile Bernard, Louis Anquetin, Paul...

An interesting homage to the issue of rank amongst the crews and officers of all vessels, a captain is carried to his ready command by one of his subordinates through the ocean surf ...

Duncan Gleason lived in New York and other places for work or studies but it was really Southern California where he felt most at home, and looking at his body of work, that love of ...

Thomas Birch is considered one of the earliest American Marine painters of importance both in his own time and historically, forming the foundation of what would become a great American Maritime movement in the successive years of the 19th century. Born in England, Birch started as a landscape painter but after the War of 1812 he turned to marine subjects, taking inspiration from the best of both English and Dutch maritime traditions but refining these techniques into a very recognizable style all his own. The work featured here is a classic of Birch's later period, when he focused specifically on maritime subjects, mainly the busy waterways of Philadelphia Harbor. Here we see one of those scenes- a series of ships plying their trade, all framed by the city as it sits across the Delaware River, with the tall, white spire of what is either Independence Hall or Christ Church to the left of the main vessel. The details of the city are particularly good in this painting, with the wharf building to the left and the long line of buildings all along the shore. The American Merchant Bark at the center of this painting is rendered in excellent detail, from her house flag and pennant, to her rigging and sails, and down to her deck filled with the activity of crewmembers readying the ship to head out, her gilt billet...

Whitehaven is a small town and port on the coast of Cumbria, England 70 miles North of Liverpool. Historically a part of Cumberland, it has a manmade harbor which partially dries out...

Oil on board painting by polish painter Maria Prokop

Oil on board painting by polish painter Maria Prokop

"India I" Painting 16" x 21" inch by Mohamed Abla Mohamed Abla was born in Mansoura (North of Egypt) in 1953. There he spent his childhood and finished school. In 1973 he moved to ...

Michelle Condrat's (US based) oil painting "Evening Magic" depicts some trees showing the fall colors of yellow and oranges. This painting is unframed, but ready to hang. "The most...

"Autumn Sensation" by Michelle Condrat is an entrancing oil on board piece that reflects the dynamic beauty of the Uinta Mountains in Utah during the fall season. Measuring 12 x 24 x...

Oil on board Board size: 18 x 13.5 inches Framed size: 27 x 22.5 inches Signed lower right