"Moonlight Seascape, Gloucester Harbor," Mary Blood Mellen, c. 1870s.

Mellen (1819-86) was the major female member of the Hudson River School, a group of artists of the 19th century who specialized in sweeping Romantic-style landscapes of North America.

Born in Massachusetts, she learned to paint early on, but her marriage to the Universalist Rev. Mellen was a turning point. The couple became acquainted with Fitz Henry Lane, a great painter and teacher, and through him she developed her skill and talent.

New England, especially the coastal areas of Massachusetts and Maine, were her specialty, including a number of marine subjects. Most of her work is undated so we can only guess at when it was painted, but it is known she collaborated with Lane several times.

After her husband's death in 1866 she moved to Hartford, CT, supporting herself with her work, which was evidently popular. Her passing from typhoid generated a number of complimentary obits, praising her work.

From a private collection.

#Art #MaryBloodMellen #HudsonRiverSchool #AmericanArt #WomenArtists #Moonlight

"Tug of War," Ethel Spowers, 1933.

Australian Spowers (1890-1942) combines two of her loves in this work: she loved depicting children at play, and she loved experimenting with modern art.

An acclaimed illustrator of children's books, Spowers here depicts a game of tug-of-war, but also turns the two teams into a pattern of near-identical figures.

She started off illustrating fairy tales, but in the 30s moved to linocuts featuring simplified forms, skillfully depicting movement, and painting children in modernist ways, like she does here. Her work was popular not only for its artistic quality but its sheer charm.

She co-founded the Contemporary Art Society of Australia, encouraging modernist works and young artists. She died young, of cancer, but today her work fetches steep prices at auction.

From the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

#Art #EthelSpowers #Modernism #GrosvenorSchool #WomenArtists

New painting finished. 🧭❤️

A winged figure folded into herself, sitting at the center of cracked earth with the world glowing behind her. I kept coming back to this idea that having wings doesn't mean you're always ready to fly. Sometimes you just need to hold yourself together for a while.

Acrylic on canvas, 2026.

Would love to know what this brings up for you. 💙

#OriginalArt #Painting #FigurativeArt #EmotionalArt #AcrylicOnCanvas #SpiritualArt #WomenArtists #ArtWithMeaning

Rosa Tavarez (1939-2023)

https://palianshow.wordpress.com/2026/04/27/rosa-tavarez/

"Roses, Orange Blossom, and Other Flowers in a Blue Vase," Anna Vallayer-Coster, c. 1800.

Vallayer-Coster (1744-1818) was a French painter best known for her still lifes, which was not a popular genre of painting at the time...but she was, and is, noted as a very skilled artist in that school.

She achieved fame and recognition early on, at the age of 26, and her works (including portraits, florals, and scenes of everyday life as well as still lifes) were in demand by the aristocracy.

Her career was hurt by the French Revolution. A very private and hardworking woman, she was spared the anger and bloodshed, but the market for her work dried up. Reportedly she worked in a tapestry factory for a while, just to make a living, and was still painting up until a few years before her passing at 73.

Today, while not regarded as a genius,, she is admired for her ability to treat just about anything with a certain grandeur, and to make everything seem solid and permanent, even flowers.

Happy Flower Friday!

From a private collection.

#Art #AnnaVallayerCoster #FlowerFriday #WomenArtists #StillLIfe #Neoclassicism

"It All Depends on the Point of View," Franciszka Themerson, c. 1975.

Polish-born Themerson (1907-88) was educated in Warsaw, lived in Paris for a few years, where she met her husband, and lived the rest of her life in London. She was primarily a painter but also was an illustrator, graphic designer, set designer, and filmmaker. She and her photographer husband made a number of experimental films (most of which are now lost) and a documentary about Nazi atrocities in Poland.

One of the more philosophical modern artists, she spoke of how this painting addressed the act of looking, and how what we see is shaped by our viewpoint, our experiences, our expectations, and our habits, and is never truly neutral. One can see that; a face on the left looks out at us, while on the right some faces look at what seems to be both a door and a wall. And you might see other things.

Ultimately, what we see and perceive is subjective, and sometimes sorting out the ultimate truth takes time...and gathering multiple viewpoints. A heady idea for a painting, but it works.

From the Museum of Art, Łódź, Poland.

#Art #FranciszkaThemerson #AbstractArt #WomenArtists #ActOfLooking #EverythingIsSubjective