My New Favorite Artist {Helen Frankenthaler}

The other day I headed downtown Seattle with my mom to go enjoy some artwork at the SAM. I haven't been down to the Seattle Art Museum for quite sometime and I was excited to see what they had on display, (BTW: Every first Thursday of the month = free admission. I was pleased to see they had some of my favorite artists, Pollack and Rothko. However, a piece by Helen Frankenthaler totally caught my eye, with huge splashes of colour and organic forms. I have to admit any sign of bright colour and I am totally hooked!

When I got home and googled here and instantly fell in love with all the images that came up! I love her color choices within all her paintings and the overall "effortless" feel. The greatest thing about Frankenthaler's pieces are that they appear almost neutral because of how the colours flow so smoothly into one another.

Some fun facts:

• Frankenthaler does not prime any of her canvases and often uses wood cuts to paint upon (ie: Madame Butterfly).
• Another interseting fact is that she uses oil paints, even though at first glance her pieces easily come across as water colours.
• From 1958-1971 she was married to Robert Motherwell, another one of my favorite abstract painters.

I thought it'd be fun to pair some of my favorite pieces of Frankenthaler's with interiors to show how wonderfully versatile her paintings are in a variety of spaces. Most of her paintings are from the 1950's but come across oh so contemporary--I'd be more than happy to invest in any of her stunning pieces :)

Images Courtesy of: DecoIdeas, Domino, The Selby, Sfgirlbythebay,Helen Frankenthaler