Win FREE ART from Park West Gallery on Monday

Feb 1, 2010 is Follow a Museum Day on Twitter, and Park West Gallery will be participating!!

All you have to do to participate is sign up for Twitter (it’s free, easy, and fun), and then start following art institutions to get the latest and greatest Art News! For the latest news from Park West Gallery follow @ParkWestGal.

As a bonus, Park West Gallery will be giving away a FREE ART PRINT!! Find out how you can enter to win the art print at the Park West Gallery Art Blog.

Brief Guide to Art Basics: Painting Mediums

Here at Park West Gallery we think it is important for us to provide individuals with a better understanding of art in addition to helping them acquire fine artwork. Therefore, the Park West bloggers thought it would be fun to go over some of the basics with all of you in a series of blog posts.

Stay tuned for future “brief guide to art basics” postings….and enjoy the following definitions of various painting mediums!

Painting Mediums

Oil: A type of paint made with natural oils, such as linseed, walnut, or poppy, as the medium to bind the pigment (color). Oil painting, the traditional technique employed by artists for centuries, is typically applied to canvas, linen, paper, or wood.

Acrylic: The substance that binds the pigment is a synthetic resin, rather than natural oils (as in above). Acrylic painting has the advantage of drying faster than oil paint. Today, this modern technique is in widespread use by artists internationally and can be applied to canvas, linen, paper, or wood.

Tempera: A water-base painting medium which has been employed for centuries, typically bound with egg yolks. It is applied primarily to paper or paper-board.

Watercolor: A transparent painting medium, using ground pigment mixed with water. Most often, artists use the whiteness of the paper in conjunction with the transparency of the pigment to create effects. A highly difficult medium to master, watercolor dries very quickly and requires a great deal of practice to master.

Gouache: A medium similar to watercolor, but heavier, because of a gum substance added to the ground pigment and water. Most often applied to paper.

Salvador Dali Exhibit in Merida, Mexico

Engravings created by Surrealist Master Salvador Dali are now on view in Merida, Mexico at the Olimpo Cultural Center. The exhibition entitled Dali en Merida. Las miradas del sueño (Dali in Merida: Views of a Dream) brings together Dali’s illustrations for the literary works The Divine Comedy, Fables of La Fontaine, and The Capricious Dreams of Pantagruel de Rabelais.

For more information on the Dali Exhibit, visit the
Park West Gallery Art Blog

The Evolution of the Reproductive Print

A new exhibition dedicated to printmaking is now on view at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa. In the Footsteps of Masters: The Evolution of the Reproductive Print examines the role of printmaking in the development of visual culture. Spanning 500 years, the exhibit features approximately 80 European and American prints from the 15th to the 20th century.

This exhibit is especially noteworthy because it focuses on the often misunderstood medium of printmaking. While sometimes dismissed as an inferior method of producing artwork, it actually fosters a unique method of artistic expression and provides distinct advantages to an artist.

For more information on the Printmaking Exhibit visit the
Park West Gallery Art Blog

Romero Britto Artwork Retrospective

An exhibition featuring the work of Pop Artist Romero Britto is now on view at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU). Romero Britto: A Select Retrospective will present some of the artist’s earlier works on newsprint and cardboard as well as preparatory sketches for completed works. Recent artwork will also be on view.

From painting on scraps of paper in Brazil, to painting on just about anything and everything, Romero Britto has stayed true to his signature style that makes people the world over smile. A celebrity in his own right, some of today’s biggest celebrities including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Clinton, Gloria Estefan, Elton John and Oprah Winfrey have all added Britto works to their collections.

For more information on the Romero Britto exhibit visit the
Park West Gallery Art Blog

Matisse Exhibition Going on Now

Henri Matisse created artwork for many illustrated books during his lifetime, and works from two of these “livre d’artistes” (artist’s books) are currently being featured at the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia.

Lithographs from Matisse’s 1948 series Florilége des Amours de Ronsard and his 1930-32 series of etchings of Stéphane Mallarmé’s Poésies are now on view in Henri Matisse: A Celebration of French Poets & Poetry. The exhibit focuses on Matisse’s love and devotion to books and poetry celebrating the works of two of France’s most revered poets from the Renaissance period to modern times.

For more information on the Matisse exhibit visit the
Park West Gallery Art Blog

Salvador Dali Art App Now Available

In keeping with how well Surrealist Master Salvador Dali continually found new ways to market his artwork, the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí commissioned an art app for the iPhone/iPod Touch.


The Soft Watches app is based on Dali’s most well-known painting The Persistence of Memory (1931), and it is the first art game for the iPhone/iPod Touch in Europe. It is free, approved for all ages, and can be downloaded at the iTunes store.

For more information on The Soft Watches app, visit the
Park West Gallery Art Blog

Calling All Artists: Enter Poster Contest

An open call to all artists, illustrators, and graphic designers for original posters has been issued by the Detroit Institute of Arts and Let’s Save Michigan. These posters should be a call to action and will serve as part of a campaign to rally citizens to do the hard work necessary for Michigan to thrive in the future.


Designs must be submitted by February 15. Judges will then choose 25 finalists whose work will be featured on the Let’s Save Michigan site, where visitors will be able to vote for their favorites. The winners will be announced in early March.

Learn more about the Let’s Save Michigan Poster Contest at the
Park West Gallery Art Blog

Rembrandt Etching Found in University Bathroom

An original Rembrandt etching somehow found its way into a bathroom cabinet at The Catholic University of America. It remained hidden for years until CUA’s president happened upon it while searching for paper towels.


The artwork is currently the centerpiece of a new exhibit at the university. Fine Lines: Discovering Rembrandt and Other Old Masters at Catholic University is on view through May 21, 2010.

For more information on the Rembrandt etching, visit the
Park West Gallery Art Blog

Rare Chagall Artwork Found at Auction

Last fall, the Ben Uri Jewish Museum of Art, a small London art gallery, paid roughly $43,000 – a fraction of its estimated $1.6 million value – for a rare Marc Chagall painting at a Paris auction.

The work was immediately recognized in the auction catalog "as a missing piece of Chagall's wartime imagery" by gallery representatives.

Recently, the gallery had this to say to the press: "this previously unknown work is Chagall's deeply personal expression of horror and mourning for the Jewish civilization almost wiped out by the Nazis alongside and merged with grief for his late wife Bella, who died eight months earlier."

To learn more about this rare Chagall artwork, visit the
Park West Gallery Art Blog

Rembrandt Exhibit Online Now

Five museums in Southern California have partnered to create the Rembrandt in Southern California website. It offers a virtual exhibition of 14 original Rembrandt paintings, with each work of art accompanied by an audio discussion from museum curators and directors.

The seventeenth-century Dutch master, Rembrandt van Rijn, was both a master painter and etcher. Park West Gallery has also created a website to educate the public about this Old Master, focusing on his etching accomplishments and the Park West Gallery Rembrandt Collection.

More on the Rembrandt in Southern California website: visit the
Park West Gallery Art Blog

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Related Links:

• Park West Gallery Master Sites: Rembrandt



• Park West Gallery Rembrandt Collection

Pop Artist Peter Max and Rock ‘n’ Roll

Famed Pop Artist Peter Max is synonymous with the 1960s and, of course, Rock ‘n’ Roll. So it is only fitting that there would be a Peter Max Rock ‘n’ Roll Video Retrospective on the Peter Max YouTube Channel.

Check out the psychedelic Max artwork set perfectly to Rock ‘n’ Roll music at the Park West Gallery Art Blog.

Dali Artwork Comes Out of Storage After 33 Years

The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh unfurled a stage curtain created by the Surrealist Master Salvador Dali for the first time since the museum acquired it 33 years ago. The curtain was originally created for the production of Labyrinth put on by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

Labyrinth is based on the Greek myth of Theseus, who killed an evil Minotaur. Painted in black oil on beige canvas, the artwork depicts a struggle between the Minotaur and Theseus, who has a knife in his hand.

For more information on this Dali Artwork, visit the
Park West Gallery Art Blog

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Related Links:

• Park West Gallery Master Sites: Salvador Dali



• Park West Gallery Dali Collection