Eva Slater Hard-edge artist

Eva Slater whom this gallery exclusively represents, was a core member of the Hard-edge art movement that took place in the 1950's and 60's.

She was born in Berlin, Germany in 1922 and studied art there until the outbreak of WWII. After the war she moved to the United States where she worked as a fashion illustrator in New York City. After meeting her husband, John Slater, they moved to Los Angeles, California, and it was there that she met Harry Carmean, Lorser Feitelson and Feitelson's wife, Helen Lundeburg. Feitelson was the founder of the Hard-edge art movement which begun in the 1950's in Los Angeles.

Slater's hard edge paintings are characterized by smooth, meticulously painted surfaces, spare, simplified form and elegant, subtle color schemes, reminiscent of Helen Lundeburg. Although she was adept at drawing the figure she preferred painting landscape and astronomical subjects, as well as creating purely abstract works. Her unique contribution to the Hard-edge movement was the use of intricate small triangles that would flow across the painting in irregular patterns. She referred to them as being much like "cells" which interlocked and helped to define the structure of the painting. The triangles concept was abandoned in the early sixties and she went on to make a small number of pure hard edge landscapes with large areas of flat color. She stopped painting in the late 1960's and became a scholar and collector of American Indian bastetry, writing the book Panamint Shoshone Baskety, an American Art Form. (available through this gallery)

For more information and photos about Eva Slater visit evaslater.com and the Eva Slater blog.

About Miriam Slater

Miriam Slater (1952-) Born in Los Angeles, California studied painting at California State University Fullerton, graduating in 1975. From 1978-9 she received several California Arts Council Artist in Residence grants during which she taught art and mural making at all levels throughout the public school system. In 1979, she attended Art Center College of Design and intensively studied drawing and painting with Harry Carmean, whom she later married. Aside from her paintings, she is also known for a variety of painted objects including furniture, letter boxes, musical instruments, teacups and jewelry.

Slater is the daughter of Eva Slater, a Hard Edge artist and grew up surrounded by lots of art, including that of Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeburg (who are also periodically carried in this gallery). Slater's work is in a number of prominent collections including that of Jack Nicholson, Henry Kissenger, Quincy Jones, Brooke Astor, Jeff Bridges, Anjelica Huston, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, the Los Angeles County Art Museum and Experience Music Project in Seattle. To learn more about Miriam Slater visit miriamslater.com and the Miriam Slater blog.

About Harry Carmean

Harry Carmean (b. 1922, Anthony, Kansas) is one of California’s premier figurative artists who is known for his paintings and drawings inspired by the ideas of the old masters. He practices a form of drawing known as “draughtsmanship” in which specific ideas are consistently applied throughout a drawing. His paintings are distinguished by Carmean's impeccable knowledge of the figure and complex, sophisticated compositions.

Carmean, who was raised in Southern California, was first a successful singer who had attracted the attention of Hollywood’s talent scouts. When WWII broke out he quit his singing career to join the army and when the war was over he started studying art at L’Ecole de Beaux Arts in Marseiiles. Later in the late 1940’s he studied at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. It was there that he met the pioneering figurative and abstract painter Lorser Feitelson (also featured in this blog), who strongly influenced Carmean’s work. Carmean intensely art with Feitelson for the next thirty years and is considered, along with Feitelson’s wife Helen Lundeburg, to be one of the best interpreters of Feitelson’s ideas. (Feitelson and Lundeburg's art is be periodically carried in this gallery). Carmean taught figure drawing and painting at Art Center from 1952 through 1996 spanning 44 years, and has taught literally thousands of students throughout his career. Many of these students have found this gallery and and are regular buyers of Carmean’s drawings and paintings (some of the sold artworks can viewed on this blog in an upcoming article). While he is best known for his paintings and drawings, he is also an accomplished printmaker, sculptor and watercolorist.

After retiring in 1996 Carmean moved from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara. For more on Harry Carmean visit harrycarmean.com and the Harry Carmean blog.

Welcome to the Poetic Eye Gallery!

Welcome to The Poetice Eye online art gallery which carries the work of figurative artists Harry Carmean and Miriam Slater, Hard-edge artist Eva Slater as well as other artists. After three successful years on ebay it was time for the Poetic Eye to establish to its own site online. The ebay gallery will continue to sell art at its reasonable rates because which makes original works of art by top notch artists accessible to artists and students who have limited resources. The Poetic Eye will offer a more comprehensive selection of artworks in a wider price range.

This gallery's goal is to reach our global audience through the internet rather than the traditional gallery system. The internet appears to be the way of the future so that is where we are focusing our energy. Most of the art world today, (from my perspective) has tended to acknowledge mediocre, trendy and untalented artists and favor that which is fashionable and familiar resulting in what can be best described as an "unsatisfying experience" for the art connosseur.

If you are looking for unusual art that has stunning technique, comes from the heart, is original, incorporates aesthetic principles, and that will stand the test of time, then you have come to the right place. The artists we represent are top notch and different from anything you will see anywhere else in the contemporary art world. This blog will explain in depth some of the concepts and art principles used by the artists, elaborate on the art processand also give insights how the artists think through detailed biographies.