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Ah, I love these moments in my blogging career, where I get to hand you a great deal on a silver platter. Today's scoop is that ArtSelect is having it's annual Red Hot Summer Sale:

This is my favorite sale of the year. Everything in the sale room is beautifully custom framed and ready to hang -- which makes decorating super easy. Plus, this stuff is seriously marked down! Some pieces are 75% off! Need I say more?

Yes, actually, I do. The best part is that all of our Red Hot artwork ships for free! Woohoo!

It's like I said, right? Super savings on a silver platter. There's some really lovely stuff in there (mirrors, tapestries and other neat art finds), so be sure to check it out soon. The sale runs all month, but you want to get there before all the goodies are gone.

See you next week!

15% Off Art Prints for Pet Lovers

The dog days of summer are upon us, as they say -- it was 90 F yesterday, and temperatures are supposed to keep on climbing. How are your pets holding up, if you have any? Mine are braving the heat beautifully, as you can see below:

From left to right, there's MuShu (8 years old), D'Artagnon (10), Sascha (10 1/2) and Raichu (4). They're all from local shelters, and they enrich our lives so much!

Here at the ArtSelect office, we all figured, what better way to honor our favorite pooches and pets than by having a special Dog Days of Summer Sale? It's on now, so if you're a pet lover in the market for new animal art, check it out! We're offering 15% off all sorts of adorable images, like this one:

Obsess
By Sharon Beals

Isn't he too much? Baseball is America's summer pastime, but it looks like this little guy has run off with the ball. This image is a great shot for summer, and a year-round favorite for dog-lovers, especially bully-breed fans. Here's another fun pooch shot. A "pugshot," as it were:

Pugsy Malone
By Jim Dratfield

Let's not forget our feline friends. Here's another great image from our sale collection:

Lu Lu
By Kay McDonagh

I love the simplicity of this piece. Both color and composition are understated, and yet so much is expressed. There's nothing like the quiet comfort of a cat curled up on one's lap, is there?

I think I'll finish up with this lovely piece by William Stewart MacGeorge:
The Goldfish Bowl
By William Stewart MacGeorge

It's just so lush and beautiful, isn't it? My husband is the aquarium enthusiast in our family and has a tank filled with all sorts of colorful fish.

In any case, whether your favorite pet is a dog, cat, rabbit, fish or bird, I'm sure our Dog Days of Summer collection has the perfect art print to honor him or her. Unless, of course, you own an iguana or a shark or something!

All the best, and see you next week!

Lovers
By Marc Chagall, July 7, 1887

Did you happen to notice the Chagall-style banner on Google this past Monday? Kudos to Google for remembering Chagall's birthday and giving him props. The late artist is one of art history's most beloved painters, celebrated the world over for his colorful, whimsical works.

If you haven't read up on Chagall, here's a nice, brief biography about his life, art and loves:

As you can see in this video, and of course in the artist's work as well, love played a key role in Chagall's creative inspiration. He is quoted as having once said, "In our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love." For Chagall, love, life and art were all intricately interwoven.

Here is one of the artist's most famous works, I and My Village:

I and My Village
By Marc Chagall

Goats, donkeys, lovers, flowers, vivid colors -- these are all the hallmarks of Chagall's joyful paintings. Viewing all things with equal tenderness, Chagall even saw the colors on his palette as as friends: "All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites."

On the Roof of Paris
By Marc Chagall

So a happy, happy belated birthday to Marc Chagall! Here's another great quote to end with:

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works;
if from the head, almost nothing. - Marc Chagall

I'm sure you've heard of South African-born Canadian artist Tandi Venter by now. Her work really seems to be gaining in popularity, so I recently decided to put together some new sets to showcase her work. Here are a few:

Silver Lining
By Tandi Venter

Before Winter
By Tandi Venter

Technically, it's not winter anymore, but the images above seem to be perennial favorites among art fans and home decorators. Perhaps it's the color scheme -- these days, no matter what season it is, silver is always in. More than likely though, it's the universal, nature-inspired subject matter and the abstract, geometric flair the artist lends them.

Here's another intriguing pair. Please note, I scaled them down so you could see them side by side in this blog -- but they're about as wide as the others in actuality.

Birds of a Feather I & II
Art set by Tandi Venter

I really like the peacock feathers in this pair. The set somehow reminds me of something I studied in art history, about how peacock feathers got their "eyes" in the first place. So the story goes, the Greek god Zeus seduced a priestess named Io, but then turned her into a cow to hide his affair from Hera, his wife. The clever Hera asked Zeus for the cow, and what could he do? He gave it to her, and Hera sent Zeus' son Argus to watch over it. Argus apparently had many eyes, so who better to choose as a watchdog, right? Well, father or not, Zeus didn't like Argus watching over Io the cow. So he sent Mercury to kill him (ah those Greek gods - such lovely kinfolk). When Argus' body was returned to Hera, she took his eyes and immortalized them by placing them in the feathers of the peacock. And that's how peacock feathers got their eyes...

But now I've gotten off track a bit. Back to Tandi. Here's a final set for you to take a look at today. In my books, this pair would be a great choice for the Global decorator -- partly because of the earthy colors and global-chic imagery, and partly because I've framed them up with our new bamboo frames.

Safari Sunset
By Tandi Venter

Safari Sunset II
By Tandi Venter

So that's our latest work from Tandi! What do you think of it? Drop a line and let me know. We also have a great assortment of her older work as well, so be sure to check it out. Until next Tuesday...

Vega-Nor
By Victor Vasarely

If your summer travels happen to take you near Buffalo, NY, this year, be sure to head to the Albright-Knox museum. Aside from the gallery's already impressive collection (over 6,500 works of modern and contemporary art), the facility is also housing a terrific Op Art Exhibit -- starting today.

Whether or not you're familiar with the term "Op Art" (also known as "Optical Art"), you've probably seen works by many of the genre's most popular artists, like M. C. Escher, Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely. Like it sounds, Op Art offers the viewer some sort of optical illusion, whether hidden images or a sensation of movement, swelling or flashing. In a nutshell, it's pretty trippy stuff! Here's a fun one by Riley:

Movement in Squares
By Bridget Riley

There's a distinctly mathematical quality to all Op Art. Clearly, the artists have a strong sense of proportion, ratio and pattern, and how to manipulate depth, perspective and space using shapes, lines and color. The famous M. C. Escher was known for his mathematical prowess:

Circle Limit IV
By M.C. Escher

The Albright-Knox's Op Art exhibit lasts through most of January, and it's pretty dazzling. If you're shuffling off to Buffalo, don't miss it!

I was just reading up on art and design at msn.com and came across a great article that discussed all the recent trends -- which ones are still holding their weight, and which are starting to fail. This past year, as I'm sure you noticed, woodland animals like birds, deer and bunnies were really big in everything from fashion to art and decor. Birds were particularly popular, appearing on skirts, wall paper, bedspreads...just about everywhere!

MSN article on home design trends

MSN says the bird trend is still on the wing, and I'd have to agree. If anything, I'm seeing more and more bird-themed images in the world of art. I love the selections we're getting at ArtSelect! There's something kind of nostalgic and romantic about them, like this one:

Bird Collage Study I
By Katie Pertiet

The original image was a collage, and the visual texture really carries over beautifully into this fine art reproduction. It has a lovely, Old World feel, doesn't it? We also carry some great sets in this category, like this adorable pair, which has a more contemporary feel:

Existentialism II & III
By Jennifer Goldberger

A slightly more modern take on the bird theme, wouldn't you say? I could see these two images working beautifully in a master bedroom suite...or a guest bedroom suite, or a study, or a hallway, by the umbrella rack. There's something so universal about the subject matter of bird art, isn't there? It's almost like these images would suit just about any room.

Here's one last image for today:

Maple Chorus I
By Keith Mallet

I just love the striking simplicity of this piece. With its streamlined color palette and brilliant use of shape, balance and space, this artwork is at once understated yet powerful. It also has a bit of an Asian flair, wouldn't you say? The color scheme also reminds me a bit of autumn -- which, believe it or not, is just around the corner, waiting for us to start nesting.

So three cheers for bird art, and see you next week!

p.s. By the way, all the frames you see in this entry are brand new ones we've recently added to our collection. We're always adding new mouldings to offer you more selections that will give you a perfect fit for your decor. Next time you're looking at an image, be sure to scroll down all the different frame options to the right of the image -- there are so many possibilities to consider!

According to a recent news story on excite.com, Pablo Picasso’s famous Guernica painting is in pretty robust shape -- despite its long history of travel.

Guernica
By Pablo Picasso

Art preservation experts at the Reina Sofia art museum are currently taking X-rays of the enormous painting (it's 11' x 25' , if you can imagine!), and the initial results show no major damage over the last 10 years. This is great news, because the last time it was examined (about 10 years ago), experts found 129 imperfections, including stains, creases, cracks and other marks.

Commissioned by the Republican government of Spain in 1937, Guernica spent over 20 years on the road after its first showing at the Universal Exposition in Paris. A powerfully political piece, the painting was created in protest of Spain’s bloody civil war under General Francisco Franco and toured dozens of cities in North America and Europe.

With every new venue, the painting had to be rolled up and then unrolled again -- which obviously gave the piece a bit of wear and tear! Eventually, in the early 1960s, Picasso decided to leave Guernica on display at MOMA, where it stayed until it was transferred back to Spain in 1981, after the country's civil war ended.

They say that Guernica is one of the most studied artworks in art history -- and you can certainly see why. It's an incredibly powerful piece, both politically and artistically, and it's a great testament to the suffering, and eventual triumph, of the people of Spain

Picasso was such a multifaceted artist. Be sure to check out our entire collection of his work!

Boy, the rich art world of Spain has really been making the news these days! Just last Friday, we were talking about Picasso's Guernica in the Reina Sofia art museum, and now I've just read about an exciting new Salvador Dali exhibit at the Palau Robert, in Barcelona.

Apparently, it's a large display of photos of the Surrealist painter with his beloved wife, Gala, and other close friends. The pictures were taken by his friend Robert Descharmes and really offer a unique glimpse into the personal life of the man behind the art.

I've been a huge Dali fan since high school, and I'd love to see the display. In the meantime, though, we certainly have amazing access to the artist's work here at the Salvador Dali Museum in Saint Petersburg, Florida. It's the permanent home of the world's biggest collection of Dali's work, and if you haven't been yet, I highly recommend it. Have you ever seen Discovery of America up close?

Discovery of America
By Salvador Dali

This painting is absolutely huge in real life! The Dali Museum had to build a special sunken area in the building to accommodate this piece, and other large works. Dali's wife, Gala, appears in it, as she does in many of his works, including The Hallucinogenic Toreador:

The Hallucinogenic Toreador
By Salvador Dali

That one is incredibly huge also. Another famous painting, and one that's been discussed on this blog in a previous Dali posting, is Melting Clocks:

Melting Watch
By Salvador Dali

The melting clock was one of Dali's most recurring symbols, said to represent the omnipotence of time and its mastery over human beings. As the hours, days and years fly by, I know I often feel like time is getting the better of me. Don't you?

Speaking of which, I'd better wrap up! Until next week...