On May 4th Jason Monet celebrated his 70th birthday kicking off a weeklong party and retrospective exhibition of his work. The opening night was an extravaganza of traditional Balinese music followed by rock and roll.
Other reasons for the shindig were raising money for the Sumatran Orangutan Society and a house warming for his recently completed 2 bamboo house complex. Jason has worked tirelessly promoting the plight of the orangutan. Part of his mission to save them is promoting bamboo as an alternative resource for wood. If more people used bamboo, which is complete renewable, the habitat of creatures like the Sumatran Orangutan would be saved. This is more than lip service as his beautiful bamboo palaces clearly state. Everything is made of bamboo.
Thanks to Jason and S.O.S. for a wonderful time.
Similar art in: Original Fine Art, Updates, Jason Monet, Charity
Recently at a charity event for Mercy High School in Northern California, JL Galleries and Jane Flynn donated a Neal Adams painting. This small painting of a flower raised over $850- for the school. JL Galleries would like to thank the buyer and Jane Flynn for their participation in helping the students of Mercy High. It is a pleasure to help out while spreading good art around the world.
Similar art in: Flower paintings, Original Fine Art, Neal Adams, Charity
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JL Galleries is excited to offer the art of Neal Adams. Originally from England, Neal is living in Bali, Indonesia with his wife and young son. |
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Private collection The First Lady of Indonesia
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| His subject matter is often the beauty and importance of nature and our connections to these natural miracles. Recently, Neal Adams has developed a new technique using gold and silver leaf that is both avant-garde and commercially desirable. This idea of painting with actual gold and silver is not new. It was made most famous by Gustav Klimpt who used it in a decorative manner. Neal is pioneering the use of these mediums with paint as backlighting for the subject matter. His glimmering backgrounds are abstract masterpieces in their own right with reflective color transformations constantly evolving due to light and angle. This creates a great deal of life that moves through each of Neal’s pieces. |
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Bird of Paradise
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Golden Tree
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Padang Bai Tree
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| At the JL Galleries “An evening of art,” Neal Adams was the biggest seller and conversation piece. Appearently we didn’t unveil his work a minute to soon. He sold 10 of 11 paintings for a beautiful followup to his sold out show in Jakarta earlier this year. Neal Adams Gallery
Some of the other new artists making a commotion were Spauldero, Pranoto and Tantri featured below. |
| New Hot Pieces from the Fall Show |
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Not enough art from this trio. Everyone wanted to see more by these newly represented painters. We had only one testpiece by each of the three and could have sold each multiple times over. Spauldero’s Badut Pantai (oil on canvas), Pranoto’s ‘Girls’ (oil on canvas), and Tantrix’s beautiful abstraction of colors. |
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Badut Pantai
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Girls - Pranoto
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Tantri
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| More to come from all these artists and more as JL Galleries looks forward to 2008 after an exciting year of art! |
Similar art in: Original Fine Art, Updates, Neal Adams
Recently I made my second appearance on Indonesian Television as an international art critic, collector and representative. The first was in Yogya for Indosat. This recent interview was with their sister station in Bali, BaliTV and was filmed in the studio of artist F. Malik. They asked me about local artists and what I was most likely to become involved with, who I felt were the best artists and of which styles I was most fond. I informed their viewing public that I liked all styles of art. Further, I said that while Bali and especially Ubud were known for an abundance of paintings, that there are very few painters. Much of what can be found is in my opinion ‘wall decorations’. They seemed very pleased, as did the Indonesians with whom I have discussed the program. Bali TV said they would like to use me again in the future and promised me a DVD of the program.
Similar art in: Original Fine Art, Updates
Last month JL Galleries donated Kerry Pendergrast’s ‘Amed’ to a charity event in Southern California benefiting the Shea Center / Fran Joswick Riding Center. They work with disabled children providing therapy through the riding of horses. These horses can be very costly with the stables and feed. The night was a complete success with Kerry Pendergrast’s painting raising $1800- for the cause. We at JL Galleries would like to thank all the other donators’ of auctionables and a special thanks to the volunteers that make this wonderful program function.
Similar art in: Original Fine Art, Updates, Charity
Jason Monet has a new gallery! Check out some scenes from Jason’s life in the tropics. This gallery has some traditional Balinese Culture and Ceremony with a touch of the lush countryside. It also shows the unique flare that is brought to any area Jason Monet is in proximity to: the sink/fountain sculpture. Be sure to check back to this new gallery soon because it is growing! The above bicycle is his daughter Louise’s. This particular piece was painted in Australia one year ago. 2007 promises to be a prolific year for Jason Monet. He is nearly finished with his new eco-friendly bamboo house, and this home is surrounded with future Jason paintings. Stay tuned! New Monet Gallery
Similar art in: Original Fine Art, Updates, Jason Monet
Jesse Miller
Glass and Wood
This beautiful flower is a completely new direction for Jesse Miller. It seems logical that after using so many mediums that eventually the canvas would disappear altogether. The wood looks like flower petals hanging off the sky surrounding the bird of paradise blossom. This painting hangs from above not on the wall. Wonderful lines and color. Another Jesse Miller success!
Similar art in: Flower paintings, Original Fine Art, Jesse Miller
Sudarso was born in 1914 during the times of Dutch Colonial Rule. Under the Dutch, Indonesian children were denied basic education, not to mention specialized training like traditional art techniques and methods. Priority was only given to aristocrats and intellectuals or civil servants. Generally, children from lower classes would be destined to serve as laborers or delivery boys.
Sudarso was no different. Fortunately, one of his deliveries was milk and eggs to his future teacher Affandi. Sudarso would sit for hours watching Affandi paint.
One day Affandi looked at him slightly irritated and asked, “Why do you like to watch me paint for hours and hours?” Sudarso informed him that he wanted Affandi to instruct him in drawing and painting. Affandi started giving him lessons and half used tubes of paint thus, beginning a lifelong friendship.
Perhaps it was luck that led Sudarso to dedicate his entire life to painting. Still, there was much for him to overcome. At the time the only successful Indonesian painters were those who completely detached themself from being Indonesian. Sudarso chose a very different route and experienced a very hard life, but through art Sudarso was able to float through all realms of Indonesian Society.
The period was very discouraging for aspiring painters, as the door was shut on any Indonesians that might posses undiscovered or creative talent.
The Dutch press along with the Dutch artists living in Indonesia until the Japanese occupation, all belittled and degraded the potential of the indigenous people.
It was impossible for Indonesian painters to get showings because the Dutch could not fathom an Indonesian painter having talent unless he spoke Dutch, dressed Dutch, and was formally educated by a Dutch painter.
When the Germans invaded Holland and the Japanese moved into Indonesia they were astonished to find such brilliant work in painters giving exhibitions for the first time.
As the Indonesian art scene began to flourish he moved to Yogya and began teaching at Akademi Seni Rupa Indonesia, which was the most prestigious art school of its day. He was also head of the legendary “Pelukis Rakyat”.
Sudarso choose happy and simple, beautiful young women and girls as his subjects. He found such amazing beauty and intensity in women but was most noted for his rendition of hands and feet. Everything about the hands and feet is realistic down to the smallest details.
Besides fathering the painting revolution, Sudarso and his wife Hj. Asiyah had 8 children. All five of the boys became painters. The youngest of these sons has established himself as a father figure to another generation of Indonesian painters. Gono, is a magnificent abstract painter with a color and texture sense unparalled in all of art. His paintings sell all around the world for thousands of dollars.
Sudarso’s paintings are extremely rare at this point in time. He has been collected around the world and is in many museums. His most notable collector, and close personal friend, is President Soekarno. First President of the Republic of Indonesia.
To truly biography Sudarso, who passed away in 2006, would be a much larger task. He was monumental in the transformation of art into a political tool for Indonesians. The real Sudarso experience is too vast for a single post. Check back for future postings.
Similar art in: Original Fine Art, Biographies
Neal and I met through a mutual friend in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. He had invited both of us over to look at his most recent foray onto the canvas and after looking at the painting Neal and I had the exact same comment. We found this interesting and immediately gave each other a bit of credibility. Later Neal and I bumped into each other at a restaurant where we laughed, started talking art and made theoretical plans for me to see his work. Shortly later at his neighbor’s birthday party we slipped away and looked at the painting he was currently working on. I was obviously impressed and the rest is shall we say history.
Similar art in: Original Fine Art, Neal Adams
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