A PAINTING bought in a market for 50p has been sold for £35,000 at auction.

David | Art news, Featured, Wall Art Gallery | May 29, 2008

The work, Chopping Logs Outside A Snow Covered Cabin, was found buried under junk in Glasgow’s Barras market 30 years ago.

But the piece, by Cornelius Krieghoff, was expected to fetch 100,000 times its original price when it goes under the hammer later this month.

The painting’s owner, who wants to remain anonymous, had no idea of its worth. He bought it for “10 bob” – because he liked it.

He said: “I often browse through the Barras and bought the painting because it was a great picture.

“I am surprised and delighted that my find has turned out to be such a worthwhile investment.”

The retired owner, who now lives abroad, added the Krieghoff to his collection of favourite paintings and thought nothing more about it until he began researching different artists and realised it was an original.

He took it to experts who valued it between £30,000 and £50,000.

Amsterdam-born Krieghoff, who died in 1872 at the age of 56, made his name painting Canadian landscapes and life outdoors, particularly in winter

Beryl Cook dies , aged 81

David | Art news, Beryl Cook news, Featured | May 28, 2008

Painter Beryl Cook has died , aged 81. She has been ill for some time.She died peacefully at her home in Plymouth on Wednesday with her husband and family at her side. She leaves behind a legacy of a wide range of paintings in her own unique style. Beryl Cook was born between the two world wars, she eventually left Kendrick School in Reading at the age of 15, where she went to secretarial school and then into an insurance office. After moving to London and then Hampton, she eventually married her next door neighbour from Reading, John Cook. He was an officer in the Merchant Navy and after he left the sea in 1956, they bought a pub for a year before John took a job in Southern Rhodesia with a motor company.

Beryl Cook was born between the two world wars, she eventually left Kendrick School in Reading at the age of 15, where she went to secretarial school and then into an insurance office. After moving to London and then Hampton, she eventually married her next door neighbour from Reading, John Cook. He was an officer in the Merchant Navy and after he left the sea in 1956, they bought a pub for a year before John took a job in Southern Rhodesia with a motor company. ” target=”_self”>Beryl Cook bought their young son a box of watercolours, and when showing him how to use it, she decided that she herself quite enjoyed painting. John subsequently bought her a child’s painting set for her birthday and it was with this that she produced her first significant work, a half-length portrait of a dark-skinned lady with a vacant expression and large drooping breasts. It was aptly named ‘Hangover’ by Beryl’s husband

BBC – Beryl Cook news

Banksy not pursued by graffiti police

David | Art news, banksy news, Wall Art Gallery | May 27, 2008

Bristol is the first city in the country to get a police team dedicated to eradicating graffiti and dealing with the so-called “artists”. However Bristol’s most famous tagger Banksy seems to be exempt from prosecution

Undercover officers are working round the clock to bring to book “taggers”

The fact that officials are not removing art by the notorious spray painter Banksy from buildings around the city is sending out the wrong message, police say.

They are also concerned that in spite of scores of spray-can vandals being arrested and put before the courts in recent months, not one has been sent to jail.

Some taggers, so-called because they daub their unique name tag on buildings and walls, are responsible for hundreds of acts of vandalism each.

One of the most prolific to appear in court was Daniel Tyndale, 21, of Fishponds Road, who was given a five-year Asbo, a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years and 300 hours of unpaid work in the community.

He admitted tagging 350 buildings, including a police station, the listed Bristol University psychology building and the Polish Church in Cheltenham Road.

He had a number of tags, including “dotcom”, “norm” and “planet” and targeted public car parks as well as private homes and vehicles, and even tagged a law firm outside the Crown Court. He alone was responsible for £1 million of damage, police estimated.

PC Ali Ross, who heads up the undercover graffiti team said: ” It’s about getting respect for their name around the world. They will spend a lot of time perfecting their style and the fact that Banksy’s work is being allowed to remain on buildings around Bristol is causing us a few problems.”

Bristol City Council refused to scrub off Banksy’s controversial painting of a man fleeing his lover’s bedroom daubed on the side of a Grade II listed building in Park Street.

Sweet Bird of Youth by Jack Vettriano

David | Art news, Featured, Jack Vettriano blog, Limited edition prints, Secondary art market | May 26, 2008

Sweet Bird of Youth is unique among Jack Vettriano prints because it has been an open and a limited edition print . Normally an image either one or the other . Sweet Bird of Youth was published as a limited edition lithograph by Jack Vettriano in one of his first sets of limited editions . The print is still popular in both formats . This week also saw the unveiling of Vettriano’s newest work based on the theme of the Monaco Grand Prix 1971 .Former world champion racing driver Sir Jackie Stewart has said it was a “great honour” to be painted by artist Jack Vettriano.
Vettriano, one of the world’s best selling artists, has completed a new series of three pictures featuring Sir Jackie and his wife Helen. The triptych of paintings tell the story of the Scottish racing driver’s third victory at the Monaco grand prix in 1971.
The pictures, titled Tension, Timing, Triumph – Monaco 1971, were unveiled by Prince Albert at a reception in Monaco on Wednesday.

Sue Howells crowned Britain's best selling artist

David | Art news, Wall Art Gallery | May 21, 2008

Artist Sue Howells has been named the best selling published artist in Britain by the International Arts and Framing Industry Annual Awards in Bristol.
Winners from previous years include best selling artists Beryl Cook and Jack Vettriano, who have gone on to become massive successes in the art scene .
Sue is inspired by artists such as LS Lowry, John and Paul Nash and Auguste Macke.
Sue said: “It was just like an Oscar or Bafta event with gold envelopes and lots of build up.”
She has often been in the top ten of the “art charts” published by leading art magazine Art Business Today.
“Nothing in my pictures is real, everything is off-kilter, which generates energy and seems to appeal,” said Sue from her studio in Harborne .
60-year-old Sue took up art classes at the local adult education centre as a hobby. Best selling art

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Thatcher portrait provokes controversy

David | Art news, Wall Art Gallery | May 21, 2008

A tinplate portrait of Baroness Thatcher has divided politicians after it was unveiled at the home of the Welsh assembly in Cardiff.
The work by artist Dylan Hammond will sit alongside one of Labour figure Aneurin Bevan for three months.
Mr Hammond said both politicians had had influence on Welsh life and it was “up to people how they respond”.
But one Plaid Cymru assembly member called the Thatcher portrait’s location “an insult” to the people of Wales.
Each portrait, measuring 4.3m x 3m (14ft x 9ft 10in), hangs against the £67m Senedd building’s glass facade so that it can be seen inside and outside.
Mr Hammond, who is based in Cardiff, said he put the founder of the NHS and the former Conservative prime minister together because “in a way, they represent a kind of polarity in a spectrum of political approach”. add your comments in the art forum

Banksy on your Xbox 360

David | Art news, banksy news, Wall Art Gallery | May 20, 2008

Either underground graffiti artist/vandal Banksy is selling out by accepting the Microsoft pound (Point), or Microsoft is selling out by trying to buy itself a bit of urban cool by associating itself with the shy ladder-carrier. Somebody, somewhere, is selling out. You, however, now have the option of splashing out your MS Points to buy yourself a new Banksy theme to go on your Xbox 360. Available now.

Chelsea owner buys Lucien Freud painting

David | Art news, Wall Art Gallery | May 19, 2008

Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich bought two paintings that were sold at record-breaking auctions last week, according to reports.
Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping sold for £17.2m on Tuesday, followed by Francis Bacon’s Triptych, which fetched £43m just 24 hours later.
The Art Newspaper quoted sources saying the London-based Russian billionaire was the buyer of both paintings.
A spokesman for Mr Abramovich declined to comment.
He said: “We don’t get into personal matters.”
The life-sized Freud painting of a sleeping, naked woman, titled Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, sold for $33.6m (£17.2m) at Christie’s in New York.

Christie’s described the work, which shows Jobcentre supervisor Sue Tilley asleep on a sofa, as a “bold and imposing example of the stark power of Freud’s realism”.
It set a new world record price for a work by a living artist.

Artist's muse -"We are not amused"

David | Art news, Wall Art Gallery | May 19, 2008

Sue Tilley commented “Just because I took my clothes off for Lucian Freud, that doesn’t mean I’m a nudist or a floozy or whatever,’ .Tilley is the subject of Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, which broke auction house records for any living artist last week, when it sold for £17m at Christie’s International in New York.

Then another Sunday tabloid rang me up. And she was really turning it on. “Oh, we want you to recreate iconic nude poses,” she said, ‘like American Beauty. You know, the one with all the petals.”
She has modestly concealed her other talents .She is the author of a biography on her late friend Leigh Bowery, the performance artist and exhibitionist who started the infamous polysexual Thursday disco club night, Taboo, where she worked as a cashier. It was Leigh who introduced her to Freud. The film rights have been sold and Tilley has been given the grand title of ‘executive producer’. ‘I’ve no idea when it will get made,’ she said. ‘It can take years, can’t it?”Give me a break. Do you think I’m going to do that? I’d look absolutely ridiculous. But she wouldn’t give up. Oh no. “What about iconic Marilyn Monroe, with the white pleated skirt flying up?” Nope, don’t think so. “Or Audrey Hepburn?” I think she was getting a bit desperate by then

Jack Vettriano and Sir Jackie Stewart collaborate on Monaco painting

David | Art news, Jack Vettriano blog, Wall Art Gallery | May 18, 2008

A unique collaboration has taken place between Jack Vettriano and Sir Jackie Stewart . It took place when Sir Jackie, who is an art collector and a fan of Mr Vettriano’s work, contacted Vettriano last year .

They met up and eventually Mr Vettriano came up with an idea for three paintings after watching the Roman Polanski film about the 1971 Grand Prix called Weekend of a Champion and studying other photographs of the era.

Mr Vettriano, who divides his time between home in Nice, London and Scotland, said: “There’s a sense of romance in risk and danger, which is very compelling, and researching idea for my painting made me realise just how different Formula 1 was in Jackie’s era.

“I was astonished to be reminded that the cars were, as Jackie puts it, ‘petrol tanks on wheels’ and it really touched me to see just how involved the wives and girlfriends were in the whole process of the race.