Contemporary Fresco Gazette

Strother Martin Monument 1972, artist Kent Twitchell
photo by Ruth Wallach

Reading through some of the blogs responding to the LA Times story I see that there is still some misunderstanding about the graffiti issue. I only oppose spray paint when it is used to cover over murals or other public art. That is called vandalism and that alone is the reason "we cannot coexist" as I was correctly quoted as saying in the Times. It is the reason LA is no longer the mural capital. Once there were 2 - 3 thousand murals here and every one has been destroyed by spray paint. Either they were painted out because the vandalism became such a blight or they are still out there covered with spray paint and therefore just waiting to be coated over with beige paint.

Spray paint on murals has caused a slow redefinition of the exterior mural,
once an oasis in Los Angeles. Now many people see murals as ugly when actually it is the vandalism that is ugly. I'm not against artists who use spray paint in their work. I used it myself during 1962-63, but every muralist I know is demoralized by all of their works being destroyed by the stuff.

-Sheldon Mak Rose & Anderson spearheads settlement vindicating artists' rights

Pasadena, CA - Renowned artist and muralist Kent Twitchell, faculty member of the Fresco School, has settled his lawsuit against the U.S. Government and 12 other defendants for painting over his 70-foot tall landmark mural of Ed Ruscha, an important Los Angeles-based Pop artist. The settlement amount $1.1 million is believed to be the largest settlement ever under the seldom-invoked Federal Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) or the California Art Preservation Act (CAPA). VARA and CAPA forbid desecration, alteration, or destruction of certain public works of art without prior notice to the artist to allow for removal. The U.S. Government is contributing $250,000 to the settlement amount. William Brutocao, with the intellectual property law firm Sheldon Mak Rose & Anderson PC, served as Mr. Twitchell's lead trial attorney in this complex and legally-challenging case.

'This settlement sets an important precedent which will benefit other artists,' said Mr. Twitchell. 'This resolution makes it clear that when it comes to public art, you have to respect the artist's rights, or incur significant liability.' Both an artist and muralist, Mr. Twitchell is recognized for his larger-than-life realist mural portraits, often of celebrities and artists.

In it's essence, fresco or fresco painting is an - application of natural mineral pigments to a surface on which a following chemical reaction takes place:

Ca(OH)2(s) + CO2(g) ----> CaCO3(s) + H2O(l)

Calcium Hydrate (burned lime stone or marble mixed with water) combined with carbon dioxide resulting in the formation of Calcium Carbonate - lime stone, marble. It is like "Painting with molten Marble".

A 1930s mural at SDSU, hidden for decades under ceiling tiles, is restored

Mallios hopes to parlay the momentum of this mural's successful restoration into a fundraising campaign for the other mural. It's an egg-tempera fresco that depicts each stage of the local tuna industry, and features Portuguese fishermen in Point Loma, women on an assembly line processing the fish, and Asian merchants preparing to sell the cans.

Full Article
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Medieval times in California

A beautiful fresco of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth is painted above the hand-carved altar.

There is the Great Hall, frescoed with medieval scenes and headed by a massive five centuries old hand-carved fireplace brought from Europe. Above the fireplace is a fresco of an imposing baron holding his coat-of-arms.

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B'nai Tikvah to sell paintings by famed local artist
New Jersey Jewish News - Whippany,NJ,USA

He worked in collaboration with a student of renowned artist Diego Rivera to create the frescoes for the San Francisco Jewish Community Center and the
University of California Medical School.

Full Article at:

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Special crane sought for Lahore Forts preservation in Pakistan
Unique Pakistan - Karachi,Sindh,Pakista

It is embellished with panels of tile mosaics and fresco paintings. The decorations are between the two cornices which are divided into a double row of arched recesses of different sizes. The fresco paintings are carried out in the arched recesses, while the spandrels are tastefully decorated with tile
mosaics, depicting men, fairies, elephants, lions, dragons, scenes of animal fights, men playing polo, and numerous other games. The human figures on the
wall give an insight into the fashion sense of that time, from royalty down to the servants and gladiators.

Full Article at:
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The Tassili n' Ajjer [Algeria]: birthplace of ancient Egypt?
Journal3 - Oran, Algeria

He wrote a series of books, the best known of which is "The Search for the Tassili Frescoes. The Rock paintings of the Sahara." It is a popular account of the hardships he encountered in trying to discover and make drawings of

the rock paintings that were scattered on the rock faces in the various corners of the Tassili. Lhote himself built on the work of Lieutenant Brenans, who was one of the first to venture deep into the canyons of the Tassili

during a police operation in the 1930s. As the first European to enter that area, he noticed strange figures that were drawn on the cliffs. He saw elephants walking along with their trunks raised, rhinoceros with ugly looking

horns on their snouts, giraffes with necks stretched out as if they were eating at the tops of the bushes. Today, the area is a desolate desert. What these paintings depicted was an era long gone, when the Sahara was a fertile savannah, teeming with wildlife... and humans.

Full Article at:

Fading Heritage: Frescoes of the famous painter fall in oblivion
ArmeniaNow.com - Yerevan, Armenia

The center was ruined during the earthquake and only the wall decorated with the painting has survived. Ordinary people have built some metal covering to protect the painting from rain and sun but the construction is not effective.

Full Article at:

Critics log: 20 turning points in art
AZ Central.com - AZ,USA
Second, Giotto's interior frescoes for the Arena Chapel in Padua, for waking up to the idea that painting not only could, but should try to capture...
Abbey of Strahov
Catholic Online - Bakersfield,CA,USA
These beautiful frescos are the work of the Prague artist Georg WilhelmNeuherz (d. 1743). The Chapel of St. Norbert has the saint's relics in a casketof...
[SACRED SITES] The story of Akdamar
Today's Zaman - Istanbul,Turkey
... frescos that depict religious scenes. The cycle of Nicholas at
the church represents a significant step in the development of Byzantine wall
painting...
Great man, small reputation ... Taschen's new large format ...
Guardian Unlimited - UK
Michelangelo is still one of the world's top famous artists; queues still snake around the Vatican to see his frescoes; even a show of his drawings can draw...

by Margaret Springe

I believe that children learn most effectively through completing a process to achieve a desired outcome. It is this belief that led me to include Buon Fresco in my after school art program.
Googling ?fresco? led me to iLia Anossov, founder of The Fresco School, who graciously agreed to conduct a workshop for me while on holiday in LA. iLia?s expert knowledge of the technique and process provided me with enough guidance and confidence to fulfill my desire to teach buon fresco to several groups of 5th and 6th graders at the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence, Ks.
The workshops I conduct consist of 12 to 18 students and last about two hours. The fresco steps that I teach the kids are: making a cartoon, poking holes in the cartoon for pouncing, applying the intonaco coat of plaster on their tile, pouncing and painting. The children are encouraged to use all of the tools associated with each step.

The frescoes were recently uncovered in a room at the Church of the Birth of John the Baptist in Presnya, located on a quiet side street near the Moscow Zoo. Vasnetsov painted the frescoes in the 1890s, but they were painted over in the Soviet era and forgotten for decades.

The restoration will give art historians a chance to examine previously unstudied works by the artist, who is best known for "The Three Bogatyrs," a painting of three medieval Russian warriors on horseback that often turns up in parodies and advertisements.

The discovery also comes at a time when works by Vasnetsov and his peers are hot items on the art market, eagerly snapped up by rich Russians seeking to amass prestigious art collections. Last year, a canvas by the artist called "Wise Oleg" set a record for his work when it sold for $637,000 at a Sotheby's auction in London.

from The Walls have The Word by Melchor Peredo


Being a student, I went at times to the Palacio Nacional to invite Diego Rivera to give a conference at the School "La Esmeralda", the voluminous artist himself moved-disturbed by the interruption, slightly in its scaffold, descending his protruding eyes towards me and skewered: Yes I will go, because that is a revolutionary school. "The Yuca" that more than his assistant he was from time to time his model, posed as the face of the black slave brought by the army of Hernon Cortez from Cuba. Diego was shading with smooth tones of vineyard black before applying color. Naturally, already on the wet plaster. According to Juan O'Gorman his great friend and communist comrade the master always worked this way, what gave him total liberty at the moment of the application of color. The curious thing if this resulted for him for the fresco; his easel paintings generally in oil were executed under the impressionist principle to exclude black in the shadows. What he did instead, then, was to shade with the Complementarie's. The amazing thing is that his frescoes, initially almost grisaille (monochrome) in color, in the end, black turns out to be almost imperceptible one. What is his secret?

For the Fresco School, June 2007 came with exciting event - release of hard cover edition of "The House That Faux Built", which includes a reproduction of the "Dolphin Fresco" by Fresco School's founder and head instructor, iLia Anossov.

Dolphin Fresco was painted using classic Buon (true) Fresco Technique. In true fresco the artist must start applying his colors on the wet (or fresco) intonaco as soon as it has been prepared and laid on the wall. When it dries and hardens, the colors become one with plaster. Technically speaking the plaster does not 'dry' but rather a chemical reaction occurs in which calcium carbonate is formed as a result of carbon dioxide from the air combining with the calcium hydrate in the wet plaster.

FrescoSchool offers variety of workshops and programs on traditional fresco painting technique.

About "The House That Faux Built":
Transform Your Home Using Paints, Plasters & Creativity

100 top artists from across the U.S., England and France participated!
Together they transformed the rooms of a 1940s colonial fi xer-upper in Metro DC
and an inner-city Chicago church into incredible works of art.
The Artist's version of 'We are the World,' This amazing
project-turned-book has a dual purpose:
- Raise money to house Katrina victims.
- Showcase the cutting edge in painting/plaster home make-overs.
(Includes the latest in green paint products and techniques.)
The House that Faux Built captures the project in over 500 full color
photos. It is being snapped up by homeowners, DIYers, realtors and
designers eager to see the latest in faux and home transformations.