ART AFICIONADO

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

RANDOM WEDNESDAY: Kennedymeow is Jay

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Carl Rungius

Art Appreciation

Carl Rungius (1869–1959) is widely regarded as one of North America's greatest wildlife artists, despite being born in Rixdorf, Germany, on August 18, 1869. From an early age, he developed a fascination with animals, hunting, and the natural world, interests encouraged by his family's appreciation of art and taxidermy.

After apprenticing as a decorative painter, he studied at the Berlin Academy of Art from 1888 to 1890. Although he found the academy's formal instruction limiting, he devoted countless hours to sketching animals at the Berlin Zoo and studying their anatomy through dissections. Inspired by hunting trips to Maine and Wyoming, Rungius emigrated to the United States in 1896, where the abundant wildlife of the American West became his lifelong artistic focus.

Rungius built his reputation by combining the precision of a naturalist with the vision of a landscape painter. Working primarily in oil on canvas, while also producing watercolors, etchings, and illustrations, he insisted on observing wildlife in its natural habitat rather than relying solely on museum specimens.

An avid hunter and outdoorsman, he spent months each year in Wyoming, Alaska, the Yukon, and the Canadian Rockies, sketching directly from life before completing his paintings in the studio. His compositions often featured elk, moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, grizzly bears, and deer set within sweeping mountain landscapes.

Rungius' mastery of anatomy, light, and atmosphere helped establish wildlife art as a respected fine art genre, and he became the first artist in North America to build a full-time career devoted almost exclusively to painting wild animals.

Among Rungius' best-known works are Wary Game, depicting Dall sheep in the Yukon; In His Prime, an iconic portrait of a mature bull elk; A Camp in the Rockies; and Lake O'Hara, which captures the grandeur of the Canadian Rockies.

In 1921, he established his famed "Paintbox" studio in Banff, Alberta, where he created many of his most celebrated paintings. Today, his legacy lives on through major collections at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Wyoming and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary. His work continues to be admired for i

Lake O'Hara

A Camp in the Rockies

In His Prime

Wary Game

Sources:

Wikipedia

https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/carl-rungius-papers-15935/biographical-note

https://www.wildlifeart.org/exhibits/rungius-gallery

https://www.glenbow.org/blog/artist-profile-carl-rungius

Monday, August 17, 2026

ART: Erin Lynn Welch

Erin Lynn Welsh is an American painter, set designer, and photographer whose landscape paintings, inspired by her travels throughout the United States, explore themes of memory, resilience, and the relationship between people and the natural world.

A graduate of the Pratt Institute with a BFA in Photography, she lives and works between Brooklyn and Los Angeles, creating luminous compositions that blend personal photographs with imagined elements to examine the sublime beauty of nature, the resilience of plant life, and the interplay between landscapes, human experience, and memory.

https://www.erinlynnwelsh.com/

via Uprise Art

Sunday, August 16, 2026

SPINNERS: Sara Collado - Deep House & More

via Sara Collado

Angela Bassett

Acting Appreciation

American actress Angela Bassett was born on August 16, 1958, in New York City and spent much of her childhood in St. Petersburg, Florida. Raised by her mother, Betty Jane Bassett, a social worker, she excelled academically and developed an early interest in the arts.

A pivotal moment came when she attended a high school summer enrichment program and heard acclaimed actress Ruby Dee perform the poetry of Langston Hughes. The experience revealed the emotional power of performance and inspired Angela to pursue acting. She later attended Yale University, earning a bachelor's degree in African American Studies before receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree from the prestigious Yale School of Drama.

Angela began her acting career in theater and television during the 1980s, taking on small roles while working steadily to establish herself in Hollywood. Her breakthrough arrived in 1993 when she portrayed music icon Tina Turner in the biographical film What's Love Got to Do with It. Her powerful performance captured Turner's resilience, charisma, and determination, earning Angela widespread acclaim, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. The role established her as one of the most respected dramatic performers of her generation and opened doors to leading roles in major film productions.

Over the following decades, Angela built an impressive body of work across film and television. She earned praise for performances in films such as Malcolm X, Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and The Rosa Parks Story. On television, she became a standout performer in American Horror Story, earning multiple Emmy nominations. A new generation of audiences came to know Angela through her role as Queen Ramonda in Black Panther and its sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

In a recent interview with AARP, Angela reflected on how opportunities for actors have evolved since the start of her career. She noted that performers today have more avenues to create and share their work, while she often faced limited opportunities early on. She also spoke about the remarkable cultural impact of Black Panther, recalling how the film connected with audiences of all ages and backgrounds, demonstrating the power of storytelling to create shared experiences and inspire pride.

Angela's personal life has been marked by the same values of commitment and purpose that have guided her career. She frequently praises her husband, fellow actor Courtney B. Vance, for his compassion and integrity, particularly in caring for family members during difficult times. The couple are parents to twins, and Angela has said that becoming a mother later in life brought greater patience and perspective.

Following the death of her mother from diabetes-related complications, she has become an advocate for health awareness and prevention, including education about RSV and other health risks affecting older adults. Angela continues to encourage people to reject the notion that age limits possibility, believing that growth, purpose, and new opportunities remain available throughout life.