Antique Nasturtium Studies

Tina here, with a post to share some of my collection of original nasturtium paintings which I have collected over the years. These five are special since they have all been painted as "studies" which must have been presented in either a magazine, book or some form of class pamphlet for the budding artists to follow. I thought I might have a copy of the original study somewhere but I have not come up with it, so if I do in the future I will do my own painting and share it and the study with you as a new post. I have been wanting to try my hand at one of these anyway so it would be fun!

This lovely framed painting above appears to be an oil and it is in it's original frame. It is not dated. It is signed M. Weiserfluh. As you will see, the paintings all have the same blue bowl, and similar placement of the nasturtiums, but each artist has added his own touch, and some have added an extra bud or bloom or leaf here and there. That is what is called artistic license. One of my art teachers, Jim Estey, a teacher from high school, college, and later a friend, gone now, printed out for his students an actual "artistic license" which he had laminated, and I have always carried it in my wallet since with pride.

This watercolor above right now is not framed. It has it's own plastic cover protecting it from the elements in my dining room. This artist, only known to us as "KB.N" dated this 1916, so it is 101 years old. It sports extra nasturtium buds, leaves and a flower.

Please excuse my feet and slippers, I couldn't seem to get my photo program to cut and paste for me!

This is another watercolor, and again unsigned or dated. It appears to be in it's original frame, which all my framed paintings in this post are. Each of these paintings are at least 14 inches wide and about 9 inches long, a perfect size to hang over a window or a door.

This lovely gold leaf frame has seen better days and needs a touch-up at the corners that it is waiting patiently for me to give. It is another watercolor, and sticks pretty much exactly to what I think is the original study. It is one of my favorites of the five, and very well done. The artist is Ira Skipper, and it is dated '12. That is 1912!

 Last we have another unsigned oil. I am so sorry when I see a beautiful work of art that has gone uncredited for all these hundred years. I guess these artists just thought of these as their practice pieces and they weren't important to them. But here we are years later and they are antiques and I now collect them and hope to find more, and would love to find more information on the original artist who set up the study and perhaps even grew the nasturtiums which tumble out of the blue bowl.

Until next time, hope you enjoy these last few weeks of summer.