Cecil Beaton

"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary." - Cecil Beaton

Cecil Beaton (1904... – 1980) was recognized for his legendary photographs that evoked the glamorous and graceful spirit of his subjects. He covered the best of fashion and society for well-known magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair for the majority of his career. As talented as he was, he was also recognized for his brash and egotistical behavior. Capturing memorable images of icons, like Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth, didn't stop Beaton from ripping them to shreds with snarky commentary behind the scenes. The British Royals funded a large amount of Beaton's success, frequently employing him to take their family portraits. Yet he wasn't shy about his opinions of Princess Margaret, whom he stated wore her hair “scraped back like a seaside landlady.” Maybe if you're that great at what you do, you can get away with just about anything?!

Science and Art

Combining science with art, the X-rayography of Albert Koetsier reveals the beauty in nature we do not see, the hidden beauty that lies within. To create his signature style of nature photography, Koetsier thoughtfully composes his subjects..., then takes the negative image captured by the x-ray and makes a positive, often adding color using the same translucent paints used over a century ago on daguerreotypes and postcards.
 
An x-ray technician with a passion for photography, Koetsier began his career as a museum-quality X-ray artist in earnest in 1995, on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of X-rays, when the University of California’s photo museum hosted an exhibit of his images to celebrate the centennial of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen’s first X-ray experiments. Koetsier’s art has earned several awards since, and his images grace homes across the US. Find our full gallery of his revealing images at

Flower Photographer

Close-Up of Lenten Rose
Photographic Print
By Clive Nichols

“People chuckle sometimes when I tell them I am a flower photographer and that I have just spent the day shooting plant photographs. They seem unaware that to take a great flower photograph requires quite as much skill, passion and commitment as taking portrait photographs of people. Plants are fragile, ephemeral and often not as photogenic as they first appear.” –Clive Nichols

Nichols is an accomplished botanical photographer, and stands at the helm of a thriving photography business in England. He also runs several workshops for the Royal Horticultural Society, and is a judge for the organization’s annual “Garden Photographer of the Year” competition. A great part of Nichols’ success can be attributed to the respect he has for his subjects—he treats each flower as a portrait subject, and always searches for the combination of lighting, wind, and distance that makes for a perfect photo.

Nichols has also stated that he looks for the “personality” and defining characteristic of each plant, and focuses his lens on that. In the case of this hellebore (also known as the “Lenten rose”), Nichols is interested in the bloom’s interestingly-shaped sepals and nectaries. With his close-up photo, Nichols also highlights the color contrast between the pale nectaries and the rosy, almost translucent sepals, and gives the viewer a concentrated look at the beauty found in nature.

Contemporary painter Patty Baker has been an artist all her life “since I could hold a crayon”, and has been painting professionally for the past 18 years: “Art is my joy! I focus on the power of color and color relationships in my work.”

Baker earned a BFA from Colorado State University, and has a background doing interior and exterior murals in homes and schools, graphics work, as well as creating fine art prints and original acrylic paintings. For the past several years Baker has focused on her original paintings, lively still lifes and vibrant landscapes, and has sold over 2000 of her paintings to art lovers around the world. Mostly representative with a touch of the abstract, Baker’s artwork celebrates the power of color and color relationships. Discover her exciting and vibrant compositions in our gallery of her work at

Portfolios Due May 1st!!!

AP Studio Art Exam May 7th!

What's Behind The Painting?

What Science can reveal about Art!


The Beach at Trouville — An infrared composite (created using 225 individual infrared images) revealed that Monet had ...originally planned to paint a seascape, considerably larger in scale. His view was directed toward the sea, and he sketched in large sailboats at the center foreground, with more boats in the distance to the left and the right.









 










Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853. His Self-Portrait, 1887 was first X-rayed in 1990, and showed a number of anomalous brush strokes hidden beneath the paint layer that did not correspond to the portrait. When the X-ray was inverted, it became clear that there was an image underneath of a woman wearing a Dutch peasant cap, seated behind a spinning wheel.