Willie Nelson Art and Creativity

Today is the first day of winter in the astronomical calendar!

We’re welcoming in the with this evocative painting by Duncan Shanks.

As the longest night gives way to returning light, enjoy this glimpse of warmth on a winter’s morning.

How do you mark the return of light and new beginnings?

🖼️ Duncan Shanks, ‘Bonfire on a frosty morning’, 2000–05. © the artist.

Incredible news! 😍💖

The jury - chaired by director of Tate Britain, Alex Farquharson - commended the 59-year-old Glaswegian for her “bold and compelling work”.

Raoul Dufy trained in Le Havre before moving to Paris at the turn of the century, where he encountered Matisse’s bold early work and shifted his own style almost overnight. Colour became central to his practice from that point forward. His early paintings show the influence of Fauvism, though he moved quickly into a language of his own. Loose outlines, bright fields of pigment, and calligraphic gestures began to define his landscapes, regattas, and coastal scenes. These were not exact records of place or time, but expressive impressions that captured something else entirely: feeling. Dufy also worked widely beyond canvas. He designed textiles for Paul Poiret, illustrated books by poets like Guillaume Apollinaire, and later created large-scale decorative murals. His 1937 work La Fée Électricité, commissioned for the Paris World Fair, remains one of the largest painted panels ever completed in modern Europe. The quote most often associated with him — “My eyes were made to erase all that is ugly” — isn’t a dismissal of reality. It reflects a lifelong tendency to focus on what could be beautiful, even when the world was not. His work became a kind of aesthetic optimism, grounded not in denial, but in choice. #raouldufy #fauvism #french #colour #gallerywall

Vivian Springford (American artist) 1914 - 2003
Yellow and Rose #50, 1976
(Expansionist Series)
acrylic on canvas
152.4 x 152.4 cm. (60 x 60 in.)
signed, titled and stamped with the Estate of Vivian Springford stamp ''expansionist series' V. Springford' (on the reverse)
private collection
© photo Christie's

Vivian Springford (American, 1914–2003) was an Abstract Expressionist artist, most famous for her Black Paintings done in the late 1950s and early 1960s. She born in Milwaukee, WI, and educated at the Spence School in New York City, and then at the Art Students League. Originally a portrait artist, she illustrated Albert Carr’s 1938 book Juggernaut with portraits of 20 political dictators from the Napoleanic era to the early 20th century.

She was championed in the late 1950s by Howard DeVree, art critic for The New York Times, and Harold Rosenberg helped Springford get her first show at Great Jones Gallery in 1960. The show generated much excitement, and was featured in the movie Bowl of Cherries, in the film library of The Museum of Modern Art. Prominent collectors such as Leon Mnuchin purchased paintings from the exhibition.

Springford shared studio space with the Asian American artist Walasse Ting (American/Chinese, 1929–2010) for 10 years, and helped him with the translations of his poetry. Through her association with Ting, Springford developed close contacts with artists such as Pierre Alechinsky (Belgian, b.1927), Sam Francis (American, 1923–1994), and Karel Appel (Dutch, 1921–2006).

Springford also had a solo show at Preston Gallery in New York City in 1963, but became a reclusive artist after that, only showing in a few group exhibitions at the request of fellow artists and friends. She otherwise refused to sell or promote her own works. She worked in her New York studio through the mid-1980s until macular degeneration rendered her blind.

Having no immediate family, she was unable to leave her small New York Midtown apartment. In 1998, a volunteer from United-Neighbors-of-the-East-Side, which works with New York City's elderly "shut-ins," was visiting with Springford and learned about a storage room in Chelsea that held her life's work. They visited the room and found more than 40 years' worth of paintings and drawings covered in plastic and a decades worth of dust. The volunteer brought samples of Springford's work to Gary Snyder, an art dealer known for his revisionist exhibitions of historically rooted art and artists. Snyder immediately recognized its importance, and began the process of cleaning, restoring, and showing her work. Snyder's first exhibition of Springford's work in 1998 was nearly sold out before its opening.

Vivian Springford died in 2003.

Source: Artnet

Frank Mason Robinson (1845–1923), a bookkeeper for pharmacist John S. Pemberton, played a pivotal role in creating the iconic Coca-Cola brand. In 1886, while working at the Pemberton Chemical Company in Atlanta, Robinson suggested the name "Coca-Cola," believing the alliteration of the two "C"s would be visually striking in advertising. He designed the logo using Spencerian script, a flowing, elegant handwriting style popular among bookkeepers at the time, which conveyed sophistication and distinctiveness. This script, first used in 1887, became the foundation for Coca-Cola’s visual identity. Robinson also crafted early marketing strategies, including newspaper ads in the Atlanta Journal and distributing free drink coupons, helping establish the brand’s popularity. The logo, initially in black, later incorporated the brand’s signature red and white color scheme, with minor adjustments over time, such as trademark placements. Standardized in 1923, the logo has remained largely unchanged, symbolizing timelessness and global recognition. Robinson’s design, rooted in simplicity and memorability, is still used on billions of Coca-Cola products today, making it one of the most recognizable logos worldwide.

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