When he practiced piano at night he often thought he could hear someone dancing
Item Number: 2018
Time Left: CLOSED
Description
Phenomal - this incredible piece is highly is stunning!
This is a signed limited edition giclee print on archival paper. It is 20" tall and 20" long. This is signed by the artist.
This is my most recent painting. The inspiration for it came from multiple sources as is the case with most of my paintings. As you all know by now, I am a big advocate for adopting shelter dogs. The before and after photos are among the things I like best about the dog rescue world. So in the first photo you see a skinny, sad, mangy dog on a concrete floor or tied to an outdoor dog house in a dirt yard. Then the second photo shows the same dog looking well fed, happy and relaxed on a comfy couch in someone's living room. A few months ago I discovered there is a little company that produces piano music especially to calm the nerves of stressed dogs. I downloaded some for my two, and oddly they did seem to enjoy it. One of my favorite Italian Renaissance painters is Fra Angelico. Lately I have been looking at his interesting and often dissonant color palettes, which influenced the yellow and blues in this painting. And lastly the title... there is a great tune that Ray Charles performed called the "Rockin Chair Blues". It is the perfect music for this painting but since the dogs are in armchairs, not rocking chairs, (that would be tricky), I changed the title a little.
100% of the funds received from the winning auction item will go to the rescue and rehoming of homeless dogs and cats.
Special Instructions
About the artist:
Kathryn Freeman is a narrative painter who combines classical composition with magic realism. Freeman?s paintings and drawings have been exhibited in New York, London, Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington DC. She has works in numerous private and public collections in the United States and Europe, and she has completed several large-scale public murals as well as privately commissioned paintings and portraits.
Freeman's career as a painter began when she lived and worked with her uncle, the American landscape painter Robert Jordan, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. She continued her studies at the University of New Hampshire and completed her Master of Fine Arts degree at Brooklyn College in New York, studying with Milet Andrejevic, Lennart Andersen, Philip Pearlstein and Joseph Groell.
Freeman began exhibiting her art with the Tatistcheff Gallery on 57th Street, New York City in 1983. Her first show with Tatistcheff was made up of figure compositions inspired by her Brooklyn neighborhood.
She left New York in 1984 to live in Warsaw, Poland, with her husband, journalist Matthew Vita. Freeman was inspired by the symbolism and allegory characteristic of Polish culture as well as the architecture and public parks in Warsaw. Among the paintings she executed during this period are ?A Street has Two Sides, A Place in the Woods, Approaching Winter, and January Thaw.
Freeman moved to London in 1987, living first in Primrose Hill, where she painted Virtues of Air, and Black Bird Fly. In 1990, she moved to the Highgate neighborhood and fell in love with Hampstead Heath, where she spent many hours drawing and doing preliminary studies for her large-scale figure compositions. Some works from these years are ?Upon a White Horse? and ?Stolen Tartes.?
Freeman returned to the United States in 1993, moving to Chevy Chase, Maryland, outside of Washington, D.C. In the months after her move, Freeman completed a series of six paintings titled ?Toward a Peaceable Kingdom.? Set at the National Zoo, the series captured Freeman?s reaction to her return to the United States after 10 years abroad. ?The Gates to the Kingdom? was the central painting in this series and in her subsequent exhibition of the same title at the Tatistcheff Gallery in 1994.
After the Peaceable Kingdom paintings, Freeman turned away from streets and parks and went back to one of her favorite subjects, the narrative interior, or what she calls ?the painted story. In 1998, Freeman had another solo exhibition at the Tatistcheff Gallery that was titled ?Sense and Sensibility.? Works that were included in this show are, Piano Lessons, Arbor Day, and Full Moon.
After this show, Freeman went outside for her subject matter again, but this time into the allegory of the garden. Freeman exhibited for the sixth and final time at the Tatistcheff Gallery in 2003 at their Chelsea location, showing such works as Goldfish Pond, Lady in Pink with Trained Rabbits, and, Counting Sheep.The Tatistcheff Gallery closed its doors in 2005.
Between 2003 and 2005, Freeman completed two three-story murals that grace the main staircase of the Main Public Library in Jacksonville, Florida, designed by A.M. Stern Architects. The two monumental murals reflect the art, architecture and music of Jacksonville, in ?Springfield Composition? and the literary history of the area in ?Allegory of a Library.?
Freeman's show at the Jane Haslem Gallery in Washington DC in February 2014 was a comprehensive exhibition combining paintings from the Dream Interior Series along side Stories from the Woods, a group of paintings that were exhibited with Freeman?s poems of the same title.
Freeman's work is represented on Artline, an online reference of artists and dealers, which was conceived of and launched by the reknown Washington DC gallerist, Jane Haslem.
Freeman continues to live and paint in Maryland and has broadened her work to include writing and illustrating books and painting narrative portraits. She is currently represented by Dog & Horse Fine Art in Charleston, South Carolina.