World’s Top 10 Greatest Painters & Sculptors

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One of my most favorite college courses while studying art was Art History. It helped of course that I had a professor who was so passionate about our world’s greatest artists and masterpieces. I recall taking notebooks full of handwritten notes on these artists, and making flashcards of each painting and sculpture with all the known facts about them. I’ve been fortunate to see some of the masterpieces in person at the Louvre in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Here is a top 10 list of the world’s greatest painters and sculptor compiled by Neil Collins MA LLB.

#10 Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
#9 Jan Van Eyck (1390-1441)
#8 Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
#7 Claude Monet (1840-1926)
#6 Donatello (1386-1466)
#5 JMW Turner (1775-1851)
#4 Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
#3 Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
#2 Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69)
#1 Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

Did you know that Gallery Direct offers some of these amazing and beautiful masterpieces such as from Claude Monet? You can also search our Photo Vault for stock images from all of these artists or photographs of their works. We also have a Classic Art section where you can find masterpieces by many famous artists such as Klimt, Van Gogh, Degas and others. Even though they did not make it on this top 10 list, they certainly made their mark on history in the world of art.

Since these artists are so famous it’s a given that current artists will give us a new rendition (maybe with a modern twist) on some old masterpieces. Here’s an example from one of our exclusive artists Randy Slack.

Want a masterpiece hanging on a wall in your home or office, get it from Gallery Direct. We can print it for you on canvas to closely resemble the original masterpiece, or give it a modern look and print it on acrylic, birchwood or aluminum like this blogger did with Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

Study: Men + Art = Happiness

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Norwegian’s are known for seeking happiness in life, they even build research teams tasked to discover how we can be more satisfied in life!

In a recent study conducted by these happiness seekers,  it was determined that men that enjoy cultural activities are better off in mind and body than their uncultured counterparts.  The study followed on over 50,000 men and women to tracked their personal satisfaction, perceived state of health, anxiety and depression.

Overall, both men and women who participated in cultural activities—including enjoying fine artwork, had lower levels of anxiety and depression, reported more life satisfaction, and generally “felt better” than those not participating in cultural activities.

But the biggest beneficiaries were men. And here’s the strange part: men more interested in watching and looking at fine art images— at home, in museums and art galleries – enjoyed the greatest benefits of all; even more than men actively participating in cultural and creative activities.

Lucky for you guys, Gallery Direct has a lot of images hand selected just for the guys!   Here are our top “Guy Art” picks:

The Gunfighter by Benjamin Arnot

This image of the Cowboy is a favorite among the guys in the Gallery Direct office. Printed on aluminum and framed it sits outside the CEO’s office in our Gallery.  This is a creation by Benjamin Arnot, he combines his painting with digital imagery, adding in a geometrical element.  Very manly, yet tasteful!

Urban Radio II by Sara Abbott

Graffiti images are very trendy right now and are a top pick among our male customers. Sara Abbott has several graffiti images, including the image to the right. These images look great on any substrat, I think the bigger the graffiti image, the cooler the effect.

These next images are sexy, yet sophisticated. Appreciating the female form in a tasteful way can liven up any room, giving it a sexy contemporary look. Cherry Rain I & II by Sia Aryai

For more art for guys browse www.gallerydirect.com

New Year = Feel Good Art

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Happy New Year 2012 to all of our blog readers and customers!

Each new year many of us do our best to get inspired, motivated and feel good about our lives. And then come the 2nd week of January we loose the inspiration and motivation. So why not get creative, make your own inspirational and motivational art to hang on a wall in your home – something that brings a smile to your face and makes you feel good everyday you see it. It’s really not that hard to do, I’ll show you how…

 

At Gallery Direct we offer an Americana line and a Vintage line of art. You will see from both these art subjects that “posters” from that time period often had a message (type) on them. And now they have become great focal points and works of art to hang up and admire. You can create your own “poster” with your favorite inspirational and motivational quote, upload it to Gallery Direct to be printed – and then you will have your own one-of-a-kind artwork that you made to hang in your home!

First determine the size you want your “poster”. Go to the Gallery Direct website and click on the “Print Your Photo” tab on the top right hand side.

Choose the size you want it to be and using Photoshop (or a similar photo program) create a file at that size. To make a textured or colored background for your “poster” you can find free vector art, graphics and patterns at FreeVectors. I used Seamless Flower Pattern 3. Make sure the graphic or pattern you choose for your background is set to the print size you want at 300dpi. Next just add your quote!

 

For all of you that are familiar with the world of Pinterest, you can find a ton of inspirational, motivational quotes, or quotes that make you laugh, or quotes that just make you feel good from there. I chose a quote that makes me smile and laugh. Just type your quote on top of your background in Photoshop. To fancy it up, use some cool fonts. I found my free fonts at Fonts For Peas. I used Rage for the “R”, Before the Rain for “Nice”, and Haettenschweiler for “Normal”. And that’s it, you’re done creating your poster artwork! Flatten the image and save at 300 dpi. Format: JPG, TIF, PNG or BMP. File Size: 500KB to 50MB. And upload your file at Gallery Direct!

We will print it for you on paper, canvas, aluminum, acrylic or birchwood. Frame it and ship it to you ready to hang on your wall!

 

We encourage you to keep your new year’s resolutions this year, and do it by putting up some feel good art in your home!

Move that bus!

Gallery

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This gallery contains 34 photos.

Recently, Extreme Makeover Home Edition was in our neck of the woods, literally!  In Season 9-Episode 14, the Extreme Team makes their way deep into The Lost Pines forest of Smithville, Texas. No longer than two months ago the most … Continue reading →

New Artist: Andreas Langley

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Yesterday we launched artwork from Andreas Langley, our newest member of the New Era – Gallery Direct family. His art is very unique as it is of something we’ve never seen! He explores the mystery and wonder of ancient crystals revealing to us layers never seen before. Andreas has “an inherent and spontaneous drive for spirituality and a passion for metaphysics“. Andreas grew up in both Europe and the United States but now resides in Arizona. He has a background in broadcast television and film. But lucky for us he explores in the visual arts by revealing the micro cosmos of mineral consciousness expressed in crystalline form of quartz.

Above are 2 companion pieces, Record Keeper and Gateway Mystical. Andreas describes them as follows… Energies take shape in other worldly Gnome formations and entice with warm Salamander glow… A gateway offering to a forgotten Land of Dreams.

In this series of 3, Spirit Timberland, Andreas describes them as follows…  The Nature Spirit of Forest and Trees expressing its range of energies in its mystical workings.

LY114A Triumphant Celebration by Andreas Langley

We hope you enjoy Andreas’ work as much as we do!

Click here to visit his gallery of work.

 

Screencast: Color Correcting

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My main job duties have me focusing on color correcting all of our digital image files from scans of original artwork. I thought I’d give you a short screencast showing you what is involved when color correcting in the Imaging Department. Using Adobe Photoshop I am able to “fix” overall or select areas of the image that the scan did not capture perfectly. It’s important to us here at Gallery Direct that we offer our art-loving customers limited edition prints that pretty much look exactly like the original artwork. In the above photo you will see the original series of artwork (larger paintings) with my paper printed proofs next to them.

In this screencast you will see we work in adjustment layers. When I first start on an image I will make some basic overall adjustments by sharpening, bringing in the black & white levels, adjusting overall color casts in selective colors, adjusting the hue and saturation and finally adjusting the brightness and contrast. Since our monitors are specially color calibrated, what I see on my screen should be exactly what prints out. So I want the colors on my screen to match the colors from the original artwork up on the wall in front of me. Right away I saw that there were some specific areas on the image which needed some tweaking. The green/yellowish background behind the flowers needed to be adjusted. Also several of the stripes needed to be color tweaked or toned down.

Once I made those layer changes, I print out some paper proofs to see how they look in comparison to the originals.

Do anymore areas need a little more tweaking? Take a look closer…

It’s not perfect yet, back to working on the adjustment layers until it’s just right!

New Artist: Stella Alesi

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This is an exciting week, we get to launch artwork from a new artist that has joined our New Era family! We are introducing Stella Alesi, who resides in Austin, Texas and has a very distinct style of painting.

My coworkers and I, who have been color correcting the digital files from the scans of Stella’s original artwork here in the Imaging Department, have noticed her interesting painting style. Her oil paintings have a very soft and subtle texture to them, yet they are bright and alive with color.  The botanicals Stella paints are very realistic imagery.

Stella already has several different series of artwork. One of them being her Vanitas series. In the arts, vanitas is a type of symbolic work of art especially associated with Northern European still life painting in Flanders and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries, though also common in other places and periods. I just love how realistic Stella painted these companion pieces, Backyard Plums I&II. She was even able to capture the dusty-white coating that gives them a glaucous appearance.

Another series Stella paints is her Mandalas series. Maṇḍala (मण्डल) is a Sanskrit word that means “circle”. In the Buddhist and Hindu religious traditions their sacred art often takes a mandala form. The basic form of most Hindu and Buddhist mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. This piece, Intuition Intenetion, is the first of this series that New Era has launched.

Lastly Stella also has a collage series. I find these companion pieces, September 11th I&II, very interesting. The older photographs really draw your interest in on the meaning behind the pieces. The colors, texture and pattern to the collages also make for great focal points.

So take a look around on Gallery Direct of all of Stella Alesi’s new art we are offering, you’re sure to not be disappointed!

 

A Smile On a Student’s Face: InvisionART

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Not to sure if this is a Texas thing or maybe it was just my old school, but I hated walking the hallways and seeing nothing but brick walls.  Me, being an art person, always wanted to see colors and pictures, but my school just never had that.  Tuesday I had the pleasure of giving a tour to the Principal and a couple of teachers from Oak Meadows Elementary School, Manor ISD.  We recently put up a Mural in their school and I can’t tell you how grateful they were to have something so wonderful on their walls.

The teachers absolutely loved the mural, but the kids thought it was the most awesome thing!  (especially the young man in the picture J)

So as I gave the tour, I spoke more about what our CEO, Joe Garcia, wanted to do and in the making.  He wants to help cover up those ugly brick walls with some nice, beautiful artwork made by our artist and these students.  Here is part of an e-mail he wrote to the company:

“In the meantime, we still want to continue with the mission of helping disadvantaged schools and school districts by providing art, art supplies such as our bi-products which can be stretched canvas, rolls of paper, loose canvas, wall coverings, returned art work, etc. Our cause is to help keep art essential! Many schools districts are cutting or eliminating art programs. This teaches kids that art is not important. I would love to see more people involved in this great cause which aligns well with the company”

I am absolutely stoked about this project in the making, which we hope will be called InvisionART, a non-profit foundation.

We thank the Teachers, Principles, Director of Advanced Programs and Fine Arts and Superintendent from Manor ISD for all the help, inspiration, and excitement that they have given our company.  We hope that the art given to you all brings joy to you and your students as much as it gives us!

On an ending note please keep a look out as we continue to work hard on building this foundation!  We are excited! Take a look at the link below for a sneak peek!
InvisionART MANOR ISD

Decorating Your Bathrooms

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The bathroom is often one of the most visited rooms in the house. The holidays always remind me to pay extra attention to my powder rooms as they can make or break a visitors experience. I also find that re-decorating my bathrooms makes me feel like I refreshed my living space.

Mirrors and bathrooms make sense.  Why not pick an image and print in on a mirror? This is a great way to add a creative touch to a bathroom. How contemporary and cool does the mirror to your right look? This would look beautiful above a bath tub or behind the toilet. Think that is too much? Than go for a calmer image like a seashell or foot prints in the sand. You can search through thousands of images in the Gallery Direct Image Vault.

Obviously this is wall art decor, it’s not for the main mirrors in the powder room. You could pick interesting shapes and frames for the standard mirrors if you want to add some spice to the functional mirrors.

The hallways and stair cases are not the only places to place family photos. Go ahead and post some of your favorite family moments in the powder room.  You can always rotate the images from around your house. Move some from the hallway into the powder room. Themes are great. I like to put the memories from the past seasons in the bathrooms. I have last years New Years photos that I plan to put up around Christmas and then some beach images in the summer.

If your bathroom is off of the living room or a bedroom, it’s nice to incorporate that decor and colors into the bathroom. Keeping the wall decor consistent throughout the transition from the bigger room to the powder room makes your home flow nicely.  If your living room has bold abstract images, go ahead and place a large bold abstract in the bathroom and keep the shower curtain or towels in a solid complimentary color. I like to add a touch of uniqueness to my powder room images by printing on aluminum. Aluminum will give any image a shine with a contemporary edge.

Have a bathroom decor tip? Please share it with us by leaving a comment.