Laura JG
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laurajg.bsky.social
Laura JG
@laurajg.bsky.social
650 followers 180 following 1.1K posts
Artist, art history, deconstructing. The banner is one of my artworks, created on my iPad using the Sketch Club app, with my Apple Pencil in hand. http://laurajeannegrimes.com
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In 1963, Norman Rockwell left The Saturday Evening Post after 50 years. Due to the hate mail this cover received, the Post editors had told him, basically, no more like this. Rockwell, their most beloved illustrator, walked. Look Magazine welcomed him with open arms. #Art #racism #illustration
From the Norman Rockwell Museum: “The Saturday Evening Post: cover, April 1, 1961. A group of people of different religions, races and ethnicity served as the backdrop for the inscription "Do Unto Other As You Would Have Them Do Unto You." Rockwell was a compassionate man, and this simple phrase reflected his philosophy. "I'd been reading up on comparative religion. The thing is that all major religions have the Golden Rule in Common. 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' Not always the same words but the same meaning." - Norman Rockwell’
November 26, 2025 at 8:53 PM
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My Thanksgiving table won't look like this, but a girl can dream. By Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1684), Still Life, oil on canvas,
29 3/8 x 44 3/8 in. (75.3 x 112.7 cm.), photo: Christie's London, 1 Jul 2025. #art #arthistory #painting #oilpainting
Description from the Christie's website: "A pie on a pewter plate, a partially peeled lemon and overturned silver spoon on a pewter plate, crayfish and shrimp in a Wanli bowl, fruit, a walnut and an oyster on a pewter plate, a basket of fruit, a fluted glass, a silver-gilt cup, a roemer, an overturned silver tazza on a strong box, a silver ewer and a bread roll all on a partially draped table with a curtain beyond."
November 25, 2025 at 9:33 PM
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“Sing like there’s nobody listening, And live like it’s heaven on earth.” ~ William W. Purkey. Photo shot with my iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Tintype app. Edited in Hipstamatic (Jack London lens/Indio film/Apollo lens). #iphonography #iphoneonly #selfportraitsunday #instagram #hipstamatic
November 24, 2025 at 8:36 PM
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By Hassan Soliman (Egyptian, 1928-2008), The Last Supper, 1967, oil on panel, 47½ x 78 1/8in. (120.5 x 198.5cm), photo: Christie’s Dubai, 19 Mar 2014. #arthistory #painting #oilpainting
Excerpts from the lot essay: “In The Last Supper, Soliman alludes to Leonardo Da Vinci's infamous fresco of the same title. Soliman replaces the figure of Christ with a figure of an Egyptian individual - his features are distinctly North African - deceived and deeply disappointed by his surroundings. The figures surrounding the protagonist are dressed in green facial masks in an attempt to evoke an implicit sense of deceit and concealed truth, motive and identity. The use of the emerald green stands out against the sombre hues of the painting. By highlighting these individuals, Soliman intended to raise questions of their real power, in a way very much questioning the powers of those political players that were involved in the downfall of Pan-Arabism following defeat. Additionally, the use of the masks transforms the painting into a scene at a masked ball, as if implying that Egyptians were all players in a theatrical scene controlled by the master in the centre or an expression of someone who has bared their soul only to be deceived in the intensity of the illusion and tragedy… An interesting addition to the composition is the single loaf of bread that remains on the table in front of the central figure. A link to the Christian symbolism of the bread as the body of Christ and thus as the body of His people, Soliman also uses the bread to allude to the socio-economic situation and poverty that thrived in Egypt in the 1960s, implying that the bread not only represents the population, but the lack of food available to the poor and the struggles they were forced to endure. In this sense, it represents a challenge to authority and questions, much like the rest of the composition, those who held high positions of power. The present work, despite its multiple references to Western history of art, reveals the artist's Egyptian heritage and his observation of the society in which he lives.“
November 24, 2025 at 7:18 PM
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By Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), Head of a Child in Mother's Hands, 1900, pencil, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden. “It is my duty to voice the sufferings of humankind, the never-ending sufferings heaped mountain high. This is my task, but it is not an easy one to fulfill.” ~ Käthe Kollwitz #arthistory
A young child, resting their head on their mother’s lap. All of the mother that we see are her hands, gently holding her child’s head on her lap.
November 23, 2025 at 11:18 PM
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Sketching mannequins at the mall. Yes, we still have a mall. Each sketch no longer than 20 minutes. If interested, click each for full length. Drawn freehand on my iPad Pro using the SketchClub app. #digitalart #digitalartist #ipadart #ipadartist #artapp #drawingapp.
Mannequin in a Mrs. Claus outfit. Mannequin in a long formal dress. Mannequin in a short skirt, long sleeves.
November 23, 2025 at 10:50 PM
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Excerpt: “Operation Charlotte’s Web was never really about crime or safety. It was about power. The Trump administration has to make Charlotte look like Gotham so that Trump can look like Batman, not someone who’s more interested in punishment than protection.“ #ICE #immigration #undocumented #DHS
November 23, 2025 at 1:22 AM
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By Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), Turkey Girl, 1884, tempera on paper, 81 x 65.4 cm (31 7/8 x 25 3/4 in.), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. #arthistory #art
A young peasant woman holding a thin switch in one hand, watches over a group of turkeys. They are in an open field, with a few haystacks and buildings in the far background. On Pissarro, here is Christie’s auction house: ‘Although Pissarro was inspired by Jean-Franois Millet, who by 1880, five years after his death, was universally recognised and much copied, he did not treat his peasants with the same romanticism. In his article about the seventh Impressionist exhibition of 1880s, Octave Mirbeau declared: "Some had reproached Pissarro with imitating Millet, but nothing could be more absurd. Pissarro imitates nothing but nature itself, and he sees it with a very individual eye: gay and beautiful light, limpidly serene transparencies, and along with this very tight, very expert draughtsmandhip in a style that belongs absolutely to him alone" (O. Mirbeau, 'Exposition de Peinture. 1, rue Lafitte', La France, 21 May 1886).’
November 22, 2025 at 2:41 PM
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Here’s my latest sketch, “Meeting Santa.” Kind of different for me. Based on a photo reference from the Museum app. Drawn freehand on my iPad Pro using the SketchClub app. I guess I’m channeling my inner Norman Rockwell here. Spent about 4 hours total on it. #digitalart #ipadart #artapp #drawingapp
A young boy stands and looks at Santa, seated. They are both in profile. The boy’s expression is ambiguous. Is he happy, in awe, a little unsure? Hard to tell.
November 22, 2025 at 2:59 AM
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By an unknown Indian artist, Untitled (Indian Cook on the So-Called Stand Knife), ca. 1879, oil on canvas, 51 x 38.7 cm. (20 ⅛ × 15 ¼ in.), photo: Sotheby’s London, 30 September 2025. #arthistory #art #oilpainting #painting #india #southasia
From the catalogue note: ‘Untitled (Indian Cook on the So-Called Stand Knife) depicts a woman scaling a fish using a traditional foot-operated curved knife - a tool identified on the label on the reverse as ‘arurhamani’, likely a phonetic variant of the South Indian term aruvamanai. These knives have been integral to Indian culinary tradition for centuries and continue to be used today. The label, signed by mechanical engineer Franz Reuleaux, notes that the work was painted in 1879 by ‘an Indian Raphael’ and was presented by Indian Commissioner Sir Edward Charles Buck at the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition… Stylistically, the work reveals notable affinities with Raja Ravi Varma’s celebrated work. The intense background hue, the use of lead white in the sari and the softly modelled facial features and feet recall Varma's figures and point to an artist deeply attuned to the master’s style. Unlike the more conventional portraits of the period, Untitled (Indian Cook on the So-Called Stand Knife) is a rare, 19th-century example of Indian oil painting, remarkable both for its theme and its historical context.’
November 21, 2025 at 6:35 PM
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#vax #vaccine www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | No, God is not ‘an anti-vaxxer’
Readers respond to Post articles and commentary.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:51 PM
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By Diego Rivera (Mexican, 1886–1957), The Flower Vendor (Girl with Lilies), 1941, oil on masonite, Norton Simon Museum, © Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. More in ALT. #Art #arthistory #painting #oilpainting #mexicanart
From the museum: “ Rivera was among the leading North American artists of the twentieth century, best remembered for the public murals he painted throughout Mexico and the United States. He arrived at his distinctive brand of stylized naturalism after a decade in Paris (1909–1919), where he had befriended such European artists as Picasso and Duchamp and experimented with various avant-garde approaches. Pre-Columbian art of his native country, however, would present the key source for Rivera’s mature style, characterized by emphatic color, simplified forms, and a dramatic tension between flatness and three-dimensional modeling. The figure of the flower vendor formed a recurring theme in Rivera’s work, appearing both in his murals and in easel paintings like this one. The indigenous girl, kneeling before her pile of calla lilies—a flower associated with funerals and death—constitutes an ode at once to the beauty of Mexico’s native cultures and to the suffering of her native peoples.”
November 20, 2025 at 1:30 PM
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Don’t let this happen at your Thanksgiving feast! By Paul Poincy (1833–1909), Dogs in the Market, 1889, oil on canvas, New Orleans Museum of Art. #art #arthistory #painting #oilpainting
From the museum: “Featuring an sizable slab of meat and a pile of vegetables in the background, this painting by Paul Poincy, Dogs in the Market, captures the ravenous side of all of us when it comes time for Thanksgiving dinner. A New Orleans artist, Poincy captured portraits and places around this city in his paintings. Portraying a scene in the French Market, this work shows a moment in the height of the historic market’s popularity in a time before Winn Dixie. Historians mark that dogs frequently ran through the market, searching—or taking—food. Hopefully your dog is a little more well-mannered, and he simply begs for your turkey scraps!”
November 19, 2025 at 10:57 PM
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Accidentally posted the wrong info about this work, so I’m reposting with corrections: by Ecuadorian artist Eduardo Kingman (1913-1998), but is titled La Cena Miserable (The Poor Supper), 1945, gouache on paper, 15x20 inches, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC. #arthistory #art #ecuador
From the museum: "Painted in an exaggerated expressionistic style, The Poor Supper depicts a lone woman sitting in a wooden high-backed chair at a tiled table. Her disproportionately large hands and arms coil around the empty soup bowl on the table in front of her. Gnarled from overwork, her hands become magnified symbols of pain and torment. A small spoon rests in the bowl, suggesting that the meager meal has been finished but two tiny morsels of what appears to be bread remain on the table in front of her bowl. These meager portions could not possibly have satisfied the appetite of the impoverished diner. The wall behind her, painted in shades of blue and gray, shows signs of wear and age, with layers chipped away to reveal the brick beneath. Her garments, too, are gossamer tatters that float off her shoulders without providing adequate warmth. Kingman has employed the techniques of cubism, tipping the table upward toward the picture plane to crowd and condense the space, creating a sense of entrapment in this penurious setting. The angular corner of the table echoes the woman's sharp chin, linking her visually to her desperate circumstances. Kingman's loose gestural brushwork further emphasizes the crudeness of the scene and the conditions of poverty.”
November 19, 2025 at 1:38 PM
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Art to keep you warm today. Crazy Quilt, ca. 1887–1900, Louisa Joiner (1844–1911), silk, ribbons, lace, velvet, embroidered, heat transfer; 186.7 x 182.9 cm (73 1/2 x 72 in.), The Cleveland Museum of Art. More info in ALT. #art #arthistory #fiberart #womanartist #womenartists #quilting
From the museum: “Crazy quilts got their name from being made of seemingly random scraps of material assembled in an apparently arbitrary pattern… Made from an eye-catching combination of fabrics and ribbons, this quilt was created by Louisa Joiner, whose initials appear on a panel at lower right. Some of its pieces are believed to be scraps cut from clothing worn on lake cruises. Little is known about the artist aside from the fact she was married to a captain who sailed on the Great Lakes.”
November 17, 2025 at 2:38 PM
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Excerpt: ‘… the sculpture can be seen outside the 2021 14th Street NW location of Busboys and Poets Art Cafe, which describes itself as "a community where racial and cultural connections are consciously uplifted."’ #art #epstein #sculpture

www.artnews.com/art-news/new...
Statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Returns to D.C. After Newly Released Emails
A statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein is back in D.C. again after a set of newly released emails related to Epstein.
www.artnews.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:32 AM
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By Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Baby John Nursing, ca. 1908, pastel on canvas, 32 x 25 ¾ in. (81.3 x 65.4 cm), photo: Christie’s New York, 19 Nov 2014. More information in ALT. #arthistory #womanartist #womenartists #art
A mother nurses her child. From the lot essay: “Baby John Nursing, which captures the tenderness and mutual bond of a young woman and her infant, is exemplary of the confident yet sensitive manner in which Mary Cassatt executed her mature pastels. While Cassatt's work in the 1870s had reflected her interest in the experience of modern women in Parisian society, in the 1880s her emphasis began to shift from the public to the private domains of women's lives, and thus to the quiet, intimate moments spent within the domestic realm. Depictions of motherhood, largely comprised of simple, daily interactions between mothers and their children, were a natural outcome of Cassatt's movement into the private sphere, as these shared moments played a significant role in women's experience of modern life… In pastels such as Baby John Nursing, Cassatt sought to capture, celebrate and elevate the intimate, hidden scenes of women's domestic life. Her sophisticated approach to the subject of motherhood was praised and distinguished her from her contemporaries. "She saw herself as a standard-bearer for the new freedom in art that had been won by the Impressionists, and was seen that way by others." (N.M. Mathews, Mary Cassatt, New York, 1994, p. 267) Cassatt's ability to convey the inimitable tenderness often present in a mother's interaction with her children while creating paintings that are simultaneously modern and traditional instills masterworks such as Baby John Nursing with a timeless appeal.”
November 15, 2025 at 11:14 PM
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By Raphael Soyer (1899-1987), Mother And Child, 1969, lithograph, Image: 42.2 × 27 cm (16 5/8 × 10 11/16 in). As an original print, it appears in many collections, both public and private. More information on the artist in ALT. #arthistory #printmaking #lithography #lithograph #Art
A young woman with long black hair holds close to her a young child. Above her we see the universal symbol for Bomb Shelter. Virginia M. Mecklenburg Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Museum of American Art, 1987): ‘Raphael Soyer was a painter, draughtsman, and printmaker who believed that "if art is to survive, it must describe and express people, their lives and times. It must communicate." From an early age Soyer and his brothers Moses and Isaac were encouraged to draw by their father, a teacher of Hebrew literature and history. Forced to leave Russia in 1912, they immigrated to the United States and settled in Brooklyn. In the mid 1920s, having studied at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design, and the Art Students League, Soyer painted scenes of life on New York's east side. His portrayals of derelicts, working people, and the unemployed around Union Square during the Depression reveal more of a poignant vision of the human condition than the art of social protest popular with many of his contemporaries. Throughout his life Soyer painted people—his friends, himself, studio models—with an unerring eye for intimacy and mood.’
November 15, 2025 at 12:40 AM
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By Filipino artist Alfredo Esquillo (b. 1972), Thanksgiving Prayer, 2007, oil on canvas, 61 x 183 cm. (24 x 72 in.), Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 26 May 2013. #art #painting #oilpainting
A man lying on his back on what might be a wooden platform, his arms open in what might be called a prayer posture. He is covered with a partly broken down cardboard box. His bare feet peek out from under the box, his slippers underneath the platform, around him red brick. A shallow space, uncovered. Beside his head, a sandwich on top of a cup. The image suggests homelessness.
November 13, 2025 at 9:12 PM
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My latest just-for-fun sketch: “Jes is Ready for the Christmas Party,” based on a photo she posted on the Museum app, drawn freehand (except for the background, which is a a community template) on my iPad Pro using the SketchClub app. #digitalart #ipadart #artapp #drawingapp #sketchclubapp
A young woman wearing a flirty Mrs. Claus outfit in front of a kaleidoscope background.
November 13, 2025 at 1:52 AM
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By Malvin Gray Johnson (1896-1934), Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, 1928-1929, oil on canvas, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. More info in ALT. #art #arthistory #blackart #blackartist #blackhistory
A group of people look up at a dark sky that has a cloud formation resembling 3 horses drawing a chariot behind them. From Swann Galleries: “Johnson's Swing Low, Sweet Chariot became one of the first modern paintings to be recorded in the canon of African-American art and culture. It launched his career, and placed him alongside Aaron Douglas and Henry Ossawa Tanner as one of the great African-American painters at that time. According to Mary Ann Calo, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot was "widely celebrated as evidence of the black artist's potential to make a distinctive contribution to American culture" with "near ecstatic" critical response. The monthly Art Digest described the painting "as a significant art world event...worthy of the highest traditions in American painting," and compared its mystical and spiritual themes to Albert P. Ryder. The evident influences of Tanner and the Renaissance were generally overlooked due to the resonance of the painting's emotional and spiritual subject. This painting visually portrays African-American spirituals as popularized by such performers as Paul Robeson and the Fisk Jubilee Singers.”
November 12, 2025 at 8:34 PM
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By Grant Wood (1891-1942), Seedtime and Harvest, 1937, lithograph on wove paper. As an original print, it appears in many collections. #art #arthistory #printmaking #lithography
The Brunnier gives this information: 'Seed Time and Harvest, a paradox of prosperity, illustrates Wood's appreciation for the rural work ethic. Harvest season is often the most taxing on farm families since the window of time to shelter harvested crops and seeds is modest at most. Although no clouds are present, the sky appears ominous, shrinking further that window of time. The fine line that defines a successful season from abject poverty is typically drawn during harvest. In this lithograph, garlands of corn hang on the barn in celebration of a prosperous reap. "In this lithograph, there is embodied all of the technical skill that has brought Grant Wood wold fame. Solely with his play of lights and shadows the artist has introduced an extraordinary degree of color. Competent draftsmanship and brilliant balance in composition make this an outstanding lithograph. The rolling landscape has been handled expertly and the tonal values of the work is remarkable." (R.L. December 6, 1937)'
November 11, 2025 at 9:49 PM
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Here’s a sketch I’ve been working on for a few days. I think I’m going to call it done. Titled Portrait of Nerea, based on a photo she provided. Drawn freehand on my iPad Pro using the SketchClub app. #digitalart #ipadart #artapp #drawingapp #portrait
A young woman, brown skin, dark curly hair, red lipstick, holding up her cell phone, which has a cell phone case featuring a woman who might or might not be her.
November 9, 2025 at 7:39 PM
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Grateful Dead concert poster, Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 16th-17th September 1966, designed by Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley. The skeleton and roses image was taken from an illustration by Edmund Joseph Sullivan for a 1913 edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. #arthistory #illustration #art
Primarily colored with blue and red. From Christie’s: “The central image is a skeleton surrounded by/entwined with roses. This poster marks the first use of the 'Skull and Roses' motif which became so closely associated with the Grateful Dead and remains one of the most famous and instantly recognisable images associated with any band in the history of rock & roll.”
November 9, 2025 at 3:56 PM
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By Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma Moses,” (1860-1961), Catching the Thanksgiving Turkey, 1944, oil and glitter on masonite, 19¾ x 26 in. (50.2 x 66 cm.), photo: Christie's New York, November 19, 2014. More info in ALT. #arthistory #painting #oilpainting #art
A rural winter scene. In the foreground, a horse-drawn sleigh and people walking, people chasing turkeys. In the mid ground two barns and a house. In the background a church. In the far back ground, wooded hills and 2 barns, one tucked away behind a hill. Snow on the ground throughout. In the farthest background, mountains. From Jo Ann Lewis, "The Green Meadows and Wild Woods of Grandma Moses," The Washington Post, February 12, 1979: ''1, Anna Mary Robertson was born back in the green meadows and wild woods on a farm in Washington County, New York," says Moses... Those "green meadows" were to provide subject matter for some of her most beautiful paintings... As a child she had made drawings of the landscape which she inventively colored with grape juice and berries, giving lie to the prevailing notion that her creativity had been bottled up until age 70... The prevailing mood in all of these paintings is pleasure and contentment with the simple events of life, and it is communicated in every detail. Even a threatening blizzard or hurricane or thunderstorm fails to disturb tranquility, though hats fly, trees sway and skirts whip around formless bodies as the cows brace matter-of-factly against the wind.’
November 8, 2025 at 4:46 PM