Kissing the War Goodbye, Times Square, May 8th, 1945

Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt was born in Germany in 1898. His first assignment, a photographic report of the Nobel Prize being awarded to Thomas Mann in 1929, earned him early recognition.

In the following years, while still living in Germany, his portraits of high-profile personalities such as Marlene Dietrich, George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Goebbels, Hitler and Mussolini brought him further photographic recognition.

He went on to work for the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung and other tabloids in Berlin and Paris.

Eisenstaedt, who was Jewish, emigrated to America in 1935, where he began working for Harpers Bazaar, Vogue, Town and Country and, from 1936, for Life magazine.

It was chiefly Eisenstaedt’s photographs of people that earned him a place in photographic history.

One of his most famous photographs is VJ-Day, a grab shot of a spontaneous kiss during a victory parade of sailors in New York’s Times Square at the end of World War II.

Eisenstaedt is regarded as a pioneer of available light photography, dispensing where possible with flash photography and using simple, unobtrusive camera gear.

Actress Lauren Bacall Smoking a Cigarette on Film Set

Author Ernest Hemingway in Fishing Village

Leonard Bernstein Conducting Rehearsal of NY Philharmonic

Tchaikovsky Competition Winner Van Cliburn

Prof Norbert Wiener, American Mathematician who Founded Cybernetics

See also Marilyn Monroe by Alfred Eisenstaedt, and these fine Alfred Eisenstaedt Fine Art Prints.

Actress Marilyn Monroe at Home

Alfred Eisenstaedt, born in Germany in 1898, is often referred to as the “father of photojournalism” because of his groundbreaking candid photography and use of natural light.

Eisenstaedt’s motto of “keep it simple” shows clearly in his unforgettable series of photographs of Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe.

After emigrating to America in 1935, Eisenstaedt’ began working for Harpers Bazaar, Vogue and Town and Country, and then from 1936 on, for Life magazine.

He shot over 90 cover pictures and undertook over 2,500 assignments for Life and it was chiefly Eisenstaedt’s photographs of people that earned him a place in photographic history.

Eisenstaedt’s portraits of Marilyn Monroe, taken in 1953, show the screen legend in a new way, very different from the sex symbol stereotype, yet emphasising her striking, luminescent beauty.

According to the photographer, when he photographed Marilyn he used two cameras, shooting in both color and black and white. “I took many pictures. Only two color ones came out all right. My favorite picture of Marilyn hangs always on the wall in my office. It was taken on the little patio of her Hollywood house”.

Portrait of Actress Marilyn Monroe on Patio of Her Home

Marilyn Monroe Reading at Home

Marilyn Monroe Relaxing at Home

Marilyn Monroe on Patio Outside of Her Home

Marilyn Monroe at Home

See more fantastic Marilyn Monroe Prints and Posters.

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Superb selection of 2012 fine art calendars now available. Calendars are visually eye-catching, practical, and inexpensive, making them the ideal gift.

This gallery of fine art calendars for 2012 features art collections plus renowned individual artists such as Impressionists Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, Camille Pissarro, and also more modern masters like Henri Matisse, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Kandinsky, Klimt, Paul Klee, Mark Rothko, Ton Schulten, and Jack Vettriano.

For the full selection fo 2012 calendars now available for ordering online, see the Calendars page.

When considering what paintings or photographs to hang in your home, always remember that it’s your home and you have to live with your selection. So choose only pictures that you like.

When it comes to art many people are concerned about what others may think — they don’t want to be judged as having poor taste. As a result, they’re too easily influenced by fashions and trends rather than relying on their own judgment.

So, although it may be common sense, many ignore this most basic rule — only hang pictures that appeal to you.

Some people buy arwork because other people told them so, or because they saw others buying similar pieces. If you find a painting or photograph that moves you in some way, then buy it. You don’t have to wait for the approval of others in making this choice.

We all have different tastes and preferences and there’s no sense in living with a picture that you don’t enjoy. Click below to read about the most common types of pictures people hang in their homes.

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Arts and crafts fairs are great venues to showcase your creativity and make money at the same time. There is a wide array of products, which can be showcased. Listed below are the 10 types of items that are very popular and generally sell very fast in an art and craft show.

1) For the Kids

Kids are priority always and parents are happy to buy things for them. It is good to encourage your kid?s creative talent and taking them to various art and craft shows is good way of boosting their talent. You can find many items for children aged 0 to 12 in crafts shows to catch their attention. Items like painting tools, paper crafts which the children can do by themselves, or which children and their parents can do together.

2) Limited Edition Crafts

Giving a timeline for an item is also eye-catching. When you make an announcement or put a tag on your item that it will only be available, for example, on that day because of limited stocks perhaps, then people tend to give attention and take advantage of its availability, like art collectible dolls, cards, home ware items etc.

3) Crafts with themes

Crafts items with theme also catch interests. For example, you may sell items for pets such as dog collars, leashes and pet clothes like dresses and sweaters.

4) Unique Items

Products that cannot be seen and bought easily in public places like malls or even online, gain attention too. Browse ebay.com or etsy.com for unique crafts items and you will find a new shape candle or design, or embellishments, which can also be customized.

5) Environment friendly

Recycled products made from organic materials are also a hit. This is because there are a lot of people now concerned about the environment. Examples are home displays made from used papers, sculptures from broken glass or paintings from coffee beans.

6) Jewelry

This may be a regular product in arts and crafts shows but it has never lost its touch. You may blend uniqueness in style so that each item would look like it’s personally crafted for the buyer. This difference will give the items an edge from the others selling jewelries too.

7) Glass products

Making glass items like vases, or mirrors with beautiful frames is not a common skill. Showing these types of items in arts and crafts shows also showcase the superior talent of the makers because this skill is really difficult. People who appreciate this kind of talent will show their appreciation by buying the glass items.

Items for women

Women make up a great proportion of any country’s population. Most consumers are the homemakers too. You can get their interest with items such as bags, knitted or crocheted tops, cross stitch items or homemade perfumes and scented candles.

9) Products for laptops and the like

Laptops, mobile phones and other products help people communicate are used by all these days. Feature items like laptop bags and covers and mobile phone holders or cases are also great selling craft items these days..

10) High Quality items

Quality is always essential for any product. Making sure your item may it be big or small has top quality will also ensure your buyers will buy and even comeback or refer you to other buyers even if the product is just a regular one.

Creative talent is always great to have. You can either pursue it as a hobby or can also make living out of it if you are really good at it. Take the time to research items will sell in arts and crafts shows so that you can earn maximum profit out of your creation.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/top-10-selling-items-in-arts-and-crafts-shows-2189451.html

Vincent van Gogh, Mulberry Tree, c.1889 …. Buy This at Allposters.com

Budget Canvas Art Prints are a great way of decorating a home or office, particularly for those who want art prints that stand out from the norm. Stretched canvas prints are visually superior to prints on paper, exuding fine taste in decorative art.

For those on a budget, stretched canvas prints offer the best compromise between value and superb quality. The range of value canvas prints is wide enough to cater for all tastes and is not restricted to fine art prints and includes subjects like travel, vintage art, and animal or pet art, as the article below illustrates.

Beauty Of Animals Captured In Canvas

Even if it is just on the mantel, many pets can now live forever thanks to the great talent of a lady painter. Every master will think that his pet is the most beautiful or most intelligent be it a pony, cat, white rat or dog, and she agrees with them. The proud masters have to go through so much coaxing and cooing, making them go to the camera so they can remember them, and have their likeness retained on the mantel. But when the film comes back, scottie’s ear drooped or samantha yawned. A foot of Blue boy was gone as shadows ate up poor little Willy. What was planned to be a perfect pet photographic remembrance became a disaster.

This female portraitist solves this woe by getting a snapshot of the beloved pet showing his best sides. Today, it has become very common among illustrators to create portraits from photographs.With a true and experienced portraitist, one can still come up with an excellent portrait even when the animal lovers bring in photos of their pets that are extremely fuzzy, off centered or dimly lit. She finds painting people hard while depicting animals on canvas exciting. Detailed resources on photos into paintings are located there.

Her subject’s spirit must be achieved by her.If there is someone who would stand back and say of a portrait she has created, the subject looks lonesome, gleeful or whatever. The picture makes her quite satisfied. Human being snapshots, much like ones of pets leave much to be wanted from composition and lighting while very little of the person’s personality would shine through. Oftentimes, the photo quality won’t allow enlarging a print to framing size and be hung on a sturdy wall. The role of the portrait painter kicks in here. From her own close up pictures, she is able to achieve portraits that are intimate, warm and even personable.

She changes color and tone to make things more effective and she is able to do this thanks to her creativity. She does not veer away from the real things deviate from the facts before her but adds subtle improvements. During times she is commissioned to do someone’s portrait, the customer suggests to her what mediums to use and she will paint them on their suggested tools.In a local sheriff’s portrait, for example, she fused pen, ink and watercolor to create it. Such a procedure is used for most of her works.

When you look closely, the shading of the portrait is a series of tiny flecks. In the sheriff portrait, there are about 100,000 dots, she shares. She was able to demonstrate how the rapidogarph pen was able to help her achieve the effect. Being particular with details, this pen can truly help as it can easily be moved in different directions as you draw and it also does not splatter the like old ink in drawing pens. It is quite smooth and easy to handle. Go to this site for further information on photos to oil paintings.

A full fledged artist is one who has developed his own style. It is fairly easy to see that definite realism is this woman’s choice.Back when she was younger, she was very much into the subject of horses and now she is into actually creating portraits. She has reaped many a valuable insight during times that she exhibits in various art fairs and shows.

The curiosity of people grew the more they saw her works from college libraries, private collections as well as a Legion Hall. And her paintings became famous in the Midwest thanks to this. Making portraits of people with their pets give her the most satisfaction and such is something she could never reap from commercial works and even nude on velvet oil paintings.

We hope you enjoyed the above article and have a greater understanding of the talent and dedication involved in producing a memorable canvas artwork of your favorite pet.

For those looking for Value Canvas Art Prints our gallery has a wide selection of stretched and framed canvas prints on display at hard-to-beat prices!

Example of Stretched Canvas Animal Print:

Stick-leg Elephant II … Vess, Erica J. … Buy This Allposters.com

Rolling Stones Limited Edition on Canvas … Aaron, Richard E.

The release by Keith Richards of his autobiography, Life, is bound to stir renewed intererest in The Rolling Stones. Richards, the “bad boy” of music since the 60s who’s never been afraid of abusing his body, has confounded his fans and critics by simply staying alive for so long.

Now his new book is creating fresh controversy with its frank revelations and less-than-flattering portrayal of Richards’s long-time friend, music collaborator and front-man of the Stones, Mick Jagger (below).

Rolling Stones Madison Square Garden 1975 Limited Edition … Pownall, Ron

For those raised on the music of the 60s and 70s, the Rolling Stones are true rock ‘n roll icons of the period, up there with Elvis and the Beatles. For some of the younger music fans, they’re probably regarded as decrepit old farts who should long ago have retired and been put to suburban pasture.

However, anyone genuinely interested in modern music cannot ignore the Rolling Stones and if you’re one of those who’d like to know more about them, the article below gives a good overview of how the band was formed, the evolution of their music, and their rise to stardom.

The Rolling Stones Music – A Short History

One of the legends of rock and roll are the Rolling Stones. The band was formed in April 1962 in England. Its founding members include Mick Jagger (vocals), Keith Richards (guitar), Ian Stewart (piano), and Brian Jones (guitar and harmonica). They started out by playing rhythm and blues music and just playing cover songs of other more famous bands. However, they later gained fame when they started to write their own songs, primarily because of the songwriting collaboration between Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. This launched the true Rolling Stones music that fans around the world would later learn to love.

The group’s early history.

Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were close friends in the 50s and they were both into rock music at that time, particularly they loved listening to the music of Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. Sometime later they met Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, and Ian Stewart. They then formed a band with the intention of playing only rhythm and blues music.

If there is one music artist who has the greatest influence on the band, and not just pertaining to the Rolling Stones music, it would be Muddy Waters. It was from one of his songs that they got their name. Keith Richards said that Brian Jones was then on the phone trying to place an ad for the band on a magazine. When Jones was asked what their name was, he noticed the Muddy Waters LP beside him and picked the song, “Rolling Stone”.

The Rolling Stones made some very important changes that led to their eventual success. One of these was when Andrew Loog Oldham became the band manager as well as producer in 1963. When the Beatles gained fame with their good boy looks and persona, it was Oldham who insisted on the Rolling Stones sporting the opposite, a bad boy image. It was also to support the flamboyant and exciting stage performance of Mick Jagger.

Oldham was also able to get Decca Records to sign the band with their first major record label. Decca executives at that time were feeling guilty for not signing the Beatles and so they gave the Rolling Stones more favorable terms in their contract such as more artistic freedom and better royalty fees. With the release of their first album, their popularity soared leading the way to even having Rolling Stones merch in major clothing stores to satisfy the wants of their fans.

The second great thing that worked to the advantage of the Rolling Stones was the Mick Jagger and Keith Richards songwriting collaboration. It was in a way to imitate the success met with the Lennon/McCartney songwriting duo. It also paved the way for the band to graduate into becoming a band that plays its own songs as to what they were previously doing, just covering songs.

Through the years there have also been changes to their line up. However, the most controversial would be the departure of Brian Jones who was considered by many as the one who really founded the band. Brian Jones died because of drowning in the pool of his house.

There is more to the history of the band, but just like with any other rock and roll group, oftentimes it is its early years that are deemed most important. Because it was the era when the Rolling Stones music was forged, developed, and the fans continued to love and enjoy.

Fans today and still showing their support through the songs that the Rolling Stones have released, the albums, the concerts and the band merch. It only means the band’s influence continuously span throughout the decades.

Gimme Shelter – Rolling Stones, 1970 Giclee Print

Rolling Stones, 1966 Art Print … Buy at AllPosters.com

See more Rolling Stones Fine Art Prints and Posters

Convergence Art Print … Jackson Pollock … Buy at AllPosters.com

Even if you’re only vaguely interested in art — or have a good general knowledge — you’ve probably heard the name Jackson Pollock. So, you may have wondered, who is this person, where is he from, and why is his name so well-known? Other questions likely to arise are: What type of art does Jackson Pollock specialise in? Is his work realistic or abstract? What era is he from?

Well, the article below should answer many of your questions and provide a deeper understanding about the artist and his work, while the examples of his paintings on this page will also give readers a good idea of the type of work for which he’s famous.

Jackson Pollock

Author: Alice Shown

Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter, founder of the so-called ‘Action Painting’ movement, which centered around a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled on the canvas. Without doubt he is one of the most famous abstract impressionists in the world.

At sixteen years old he joined the Los Angeles’ Manual Arts High School, from which he was expelled within a year. After this he moved to New York City where he studied with his eldest brother Charles Pollock at the Art Students League of New York under Thomas Hart Benton, an American painter and muralist.

During his life in New York he had enjoyed the reception of a number of successful exhibitions. The New York Times reported James Sweeney`s words ‘Pollock’s talent is volcanic. It has fire. It is unpredictable…It is lavish, explosive, untidy…’ but despite this, Pollock’s paintings were unsuccessful when it came to sales. It is interesting that the most expensive of Pollock’s paintings that was sold during his lifetime brought him only $8000. Yet now the most expensive painting ever sold in the world is No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock. It was sold for $140,000,000.

In 1945 Pollock married Lee Krasner, an American abstract expressionist painter, and they moved to a small house in East Hampton, Long Island. Right in this house, or to be more precise in the shed, Pollock`s famous ‘Dripper Painting’ came into the world and Jackson Pollock became the ‘Jack the Dripper’. Pollock put the canvas on the floor and covered it with the paint drops that trickled down at random from his brush or hand.

In his early years Pollock attended camp meetings with Jiddu Krishnamurti, a popular Indian writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual issues. Part of Jiddu’s teachings was that truth can only be reached by an individual through intuition, through a process of independent, free ‘exploration’ of the personality. These words evidently had a very significant impact on Pollock’s creative work.

Pollock fought with alcoholism all his life. Unfortunately in 1956 he lost the fight, and died in an automobile accident whilst drunk. Now the small house in East Hampton is the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center.

In 2000 an Academy Award-winning biographical drama film directed by and starring Ed Harris was produced, simply entitled ‘Pollock.’ If you want to dip into Pollock’s world and feel as if you are present during his impetuous work this film is what you need. Pollock’s unpredictable and distinctive personality, as well as his unique talent, come across strongly in the film and have become part of the history of the art world.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/digital-photography-articles/jackson-pollock-3909184.html

About the Author
Find oil, acrylic paintings, bronze sculpture and limited editions prints at Art-mine.com.

We hope the above article about Jackson Pollock was useful to you and that you now have a much better understanding of this artist, his life and his work, and his contribution to contemporary art.

Yellow, Grey, Black Art Print … Jackson Pollock … Buy at AllPosters.com

Author: Alice Shown

Visiting art galleries and reading art magazines and books is great. But sometimes you just want to lie on your sofa with a cup of tea and relax watching a good movie. Now that it’s winter, you might feel this desire more often. A movie can be an art form and when it is a movie about great artists and art, it’s like watching ‘art squared’, so to speak. So don’t miss out, give it a try – you won’t be sorry.

Here is a list of movies about contemporary art to get you started. Some are old, some new, but all are really inspiring. I have listed the movies alphabetically, and I haven’t given any of them a personal rating since as far as I’m concerned, all of them are worth watching. This is just to inspire you to watch these films, and perhaps move on to others afterwards.

Art School Confidential
Who said anything about talent?
IMDb rating: 6,3
Director: Terry Zwigoff
Production year: 2006
This movie is a comedy rather than drama, and it focuses on the story of an art student who had spent all his life dreaming about being a great artist. Although the film makes fun of the contemporary art world in many respect, it also shows its attractive side, and gives an idea of the dedication artists can feel to their work.

Basquiat
In 1981, A Nineteen-Year-Old Unknown Graffiti Writer Took the New York Art World by Storm. The Rest Is Art History
IMDb rating: 6,8
Director: Julian Schnabel
Production year: 1996
This is an absolutely unforgettable movie about American street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. It gives you a deep view of Basquiat’s world, his life, friends, love and works. Julian Schnabel is an artist himself, and so has personal experience of the world he’s looking into, something that adds an unusual and meaningful level of validity to the movie.

Exit Through the Gift Shop
The incredible true story of how the world’s greatest Street Art movie was never made…
IMDb rating: 8,2
Director: Banksy
Production year: 2010
It is brilliant movie, which keeps you guessing and puzzling right through to the end. At first sight you may think that the film is about street art documentary filmmaker Thierry Guetta, but actually it is about world famous graffiti artist Banksy. I won`t be surprised if after watching this film you want to hit the streets with a spray can.

Factory Girl
When Andy met Edie, life imitated art
IMDb rating: 6,1
Director: George Hickenlooper
Production year: 2006
Although the movie is dedicated to the life of underground film star Edie Sedgwick, and this aspect of it is certainly interesting, much of the appeal comes from his explored relationship with Andy Warhol. Watching the movie will give you the a fairly comprehensive impression of the Factory, a place where artists of any genre met and created what became a game-changing part of modern art.

Frida
Prepare to be seduced
IMDb rating: 7,3
Director: Julie Taymor
Production year: 2002
This is a fantastic biographical story about the life and work of an extraordinary and immensely strong woman, the well-known Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The film is like her works: colorful, full of love, powerful and unique.

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
IMDb rating: 6,2
Director: Steven Shainberg
Production year: 2006
This is a sincere look at the iconic American photographer Diane Arbus and her real love for Lionel Sweeney, who helped her to become an artist who came to help define photography in the twentieth century.

The Great Contemporary Art Bubble
IMDb rating: 7,3
Director: Ben Lewis
Production year: 2009
This is an extremely interesting BBC production, by a UK art critic, Ben Lewis. It will take you on a journey into the contemporary art world, with all its secrets. You will visit world famous auction houses and galleries, and even the homes of art collectors.

How to Draw a Bunny
IMDb rating: 7,2
Director: John W. Walter
Production year: 2002
This is a documentary about Ray Johnson, who has been called ‘New York’s most famous unknown artist,’ and is about the mysteries of his life and art, and of course his influence on the Pop Art world.

My Left Foot
A film about life, laughter, and the occasional miracle
IMDb rating: 7,8
Director: Jim Sheridan
Production year: 1989
This is based on the fantastic true story of Christy Brown, painter and author, who could control only his left foot. It is the only film in this list that won 5 Academy Awards, – Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Supporting Actress (Brenda Fricker), Best Director (Jim Sheridan), Best Picture and Best Screenplay (Shane Connaughton and Jim Sheridan). With that recommendation, how can you fail to give it a go?

Pollok
I thought I knew all the outstanding artists in New York and I don`t know Jackson Pollock
IMDb rating: 7,1
Director: Ed Harris
Production year: 2000
Wonderful movie about world famous American painter Jackson Pollock. This film demonstrates his great talent and difficult nature, and the way he tried to combine the two.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/digital-photography-articles/top-10-films-about-contemporary-art-3909206.html

About the Author

Art-mine.com is the perfect place to find affordable contemporary art, paintings and photographs by top emerging artists.

NB: Please also check out our gallery of
Classic Movie Posters as in the small “taster” below.

Caption: A pair of Yellowbilled Hornbills (Tockus flavirostris), wide angle view, Kruger National Park, South Africa.

Picture Details: I took this photograph of a pair of yellowbilled hornbills in Letaba Camp in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. The birds in the camp are habituated to people, and will often hang around the bungalows in hopes of being fed a few scraps.

I scattered a handful of bread crumbs among some attractive winter leaves lying on the ground near our bungalow and waited for the birds to find these. Once a few starlings started snacking on the crumbs, other birds soon followed.

I placed my camera, a Canon 450D with Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens, on the ground facing towards the leaves with some trees in the background. After some experimentation, I used manual exposure to avoid the meter being fooled by the overcast but bright sky and set auto focus to all focus points. The lens was at 18mm, its widest, which is equivalent to around 28mm on a full-frame camera.

Using a wireless remote shutter release, I was able to stand a few meters away, partly behind a tree stump, to avoid intimidating the birds. After the glossy starlings had pecked around for a while, I was delighted when these two hornbills arrived. With their huge yellow bills and big eyes, they provided ideal subjects for the experiment.

I took a number of shots of the two of them and was very happy with the results – most were pretty sharp and the images gave a delightfully different view of the birds. In fact the prominent bills were sometimes exaggerated to near ridiculous proportions because of the wide angle of view and the subjects’ closeness to the lens.

I’ve digitally manipulated the above image, using software to remove some of the extraneous detail and “simplify” the picture, giving a more painterly effect.

To find out more about how the pics were taken and view other examples without the “arty” look, see Taking Wide Angle Bird Photos.

Hornbill Art Print:


A Southern Yellow-Billed Hornbill Sits Perched on a Branch; Photographic Print
Buy at AllPosters.com