Black Sabbath album art by Harry Carmean sold.

This beautiful drawing by Harry Carmean featuring the members Black Sabbath was originally used on the back of their Heaven and Hell album (middle image). A well known rock and memorabilia and guitar collector has just purchased the drawing and now it is surrounded by some of the world's most epic guitars, including Jimi Hendrix's.

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Some recent Harry Carmean painting discoveries....

The Poetic Eye galley is working on a comprehensive catalogue raisonne of Harry Carmean's paintings which will take a number of years to complete. Below are some paintings that have not been shown for the last forty years, if at all. The pastel is one of a few Carmean did in the late 1960's and which for my mind rivals the pastels of Degas.

Two recent Harry Carmean painting sales at the Poetic Eye gallery. Both were purchased by a collector in New York.   

Harry Carmean and Miriam Slater photographed by Greg Preston

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Harry Carmean paintings in elegant Santa Barbara homes

We just spotted this ad in Santa Barbara Magazine - over the mantle is Harry Carmean's "Spanish Dancer" painting. There are a number of prominent collectors in Santa Barbara who have been purchasing Carmean's work over the years including the upscale Bacara Hotel, contemporary art collector Barry Berkus, actor Jeff Bridges and his wife Susan, Diana Basehart (founder of the Diana Basehart Foundation), Sarah Gore Lee and philanthropist Nancy Koppleman.

Jeff Bridges purchases another Harry Carmean painting

Jeff and Susan Bridges have been fans of Harry Carmean's for twenty years, a relationship which began back when they met in Los Angeles in the late 1980's. Bridges, (who, like Harry Carmean now lives in Santa Barbara) owns a number of his paintings (as well as some of Miriam Slater's work) and has just purchased another oil painting with a family theme to celebrate the birth of their grandchild.

New Harry Carmean website in Spanish

Harry Carmean's has a new website in Spanish: http://harrycarmeanpintura.com/

Harry Carmean drawings of ballet dancers

Harry Carmean generally preferred to draw the nude figure and only rarely drew models in costume. Fortunately for us, he did make some beautiful drawings of ballet dancers done from live models, some of which ended up in being used in his ballet paintings done in the 1990's on through the 2000's. The photo below was taken in one of Carmean's life drawing classes held at Art Center in the early 1980's.

Miriam Slater and Harry Carmean studios in Apartment Therapy Magazine

Harry & Miriam's Artistic Creative Spaces

Harry Carmean and Miriam Slater, both artists, live in Santa Barbara and enjoy the benefits of his and hers studio spaces. Oil paintings, water colors, illustration, and even teaching workshops — these two have found wonderful bright airy spaces to create their artwork.

Harry has a drawing studio in Santa Barbara, as well as his primary studio in Acton where he teaches workshops and works on his large scale painting. Miriam keeps a smaller mid size studio in Santa Barbara where she continually works on oil and acrylic painting.

My interest in sharing these dual spaces was to show how different artists organize and decorate their spaces. They are eclectic, roomy, drenched in natural light and decorated with minimal distraction. There is nice collection of books, art materials, and international collectables; I just love how bohemian and warm the setting is.

I sat down with Miriam and Harry to find out more about their artistic retreats:

1. What mediums do you practice and what did you design your artist studios for specifically?

My studio – I work in acrylics and oil paints, painting objects as well as canvases. Harry’s drawing room is in Santa Barbara – in this room he only works on smaller sized art - watercolors, drawings and wax sculptures.
Harry’s large studio in Acton – in this studio he works on oil paintings of all sizes. He also uses it for figure-drawing workshops (black and white photo).

2. What inspired the style of the studios?
When creating this studio, I wanted for the originally dark and dingy room to feel,light and airy despite its small space (12’ x 13’). Thiswas achieved by vaulting the ceilings and putting in a french doors. The window along the side was removed so I had a wall to hang art. Along with my own pieces, I like to surround myself with inspiring things such as an old Tibetan wheel of life painting, a Japanese wood block print and a painting by Harry Carmean. I wanted it to be very simple with white walls and let the art be the focus of attention. Since I work relatively small, I do not need a grand space, rather my goal was to create a cozy, cheerful place to work and that I could fill up lots of art.

The style of Harry’s “drawing” room a follows traditional Santa Barbara look. The room has a rubbed pale yellow finish and traditional palette (pale yellow, olive green). In this space, Harry surrounded himself with inspiring art by other masters as well as his own work. His art library is close at hand for reference. It is in this room that Harry works specifically on drawings and small wax sculptures seen on the table in front. (The playing card chairs are by wife Miriam Slater.)

Harry’s studio in Acton was designed to be his dream workspace. He built the entire structure by hand, from start to finish, beginning in the middle 1980’s and completing it in the early 1990’s. It was designed by architect Jocelyn McKay, to Harry’s specifications. The main room is very large, so that he could work on multiple large canvases at once. Harry likes to have controlled light so the only substantial windows in the room are those that face north. Harry purposefully put in only a few windows so he can focus entirely on his art. The design of the space is spare and with a modern feeling to it, so as to display the artwork without any distractions.

3.Has having a separate designated studio for each of you, impacted your work at all?
We enjoy having separate studios for several reasons. One is purely technical, that is, we can control the lighting in each space according to of our individual tastes (Harry likes controlled lighting, with most of the studio dark with a single spot light, whereas I like a room flooded with natural light). Separate studios also allow us to each go into our own worlds without interruption, which is very important because creativity for us involves a fair amount of introspection. Also, we both have so much work that we can’t fit everything into one studio!

Thanks for sharing with us Miriam and Harry!

Images: Miriam Slater

Harry Carmean rare "classical" drawings

These are some of Carmean's most beautiful drawings which were always done from his imagination. They are done in a more formal style with carefully thought out compositions reminiscent of the Baroque and Mannerist periods of art. A number of them ended up as paintings, such as the top one, titled "The Poem" which also became a print (which is currently available at the Poetic Eye on ebay.). Most of these drawings were done in the 1970's and have been sold so they are extremely hard to locate these days.

Painting by Harry Carmean of Nick artist Brigante sold

This painting of artist Nick Brigante just sold through the Poetic Eye to a southern California collector. Brigante and Carmean were friends for many years so it was inevitable that Carmean would end up painting him. This portrait is actually part of a larger canvas which Carmean destroyed (see our blog on portraits by Harry Carmean to see the original painting.) An example of Brigante's work is seen above.

Two Harry Carmean paintings - whereabouts unknown..

Photographs were just discovered of these two beautiful paintings from the early 1960's (the top one is a formal and quite interesting portrait of Carmean's gorgeous third wife). The paintings were sold a long time ago and their whereabouts are unknown. Unfortunately the photographs are not of a high quality, so we would love to relocate the paintings to photograph them properly. If anyone knows who the owners of these two masterworks might be, please contact this gallery. Carmean's work does not sell at auction very frequently as most people that buy his work keep it for life.

Harry Carmean is in a new art book

Harry Carmean's art has been included in this book titled L.A. Rising - SoCal Artists before 1980. It is available at Hennessey Ingalls art and architecture book store online for $75.

More Harry Carmean painting sales @ The Poetic Eye Gallery

Harry Carmean painting sales at the Poetic Eye Gallery

Here are some recent sales of Harry Carmean paintings through the Poetic Eye Gallery (see earlier blog to see previous sales). Although we are in a recession and the sales of art has slowed down substantially in the mainstream gallery system, here at the Poetic Eye, our loyal and committed collectors have been consistently purchasing Carmean's work, because, I suspect, they know a good investment when they see one.