Fountain of Youth

The Secret of the Old Masters is none other than the Fountain of Youth. The secret is hidden in the paintings in the form of the chemical equation of the varnish. 

Artists I Collect

Dale Nichols, Peter Bruegel the Elder, Peter Brueghel the Younger, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Thomas Hart Benton, Charles Burchfield, Richard Estes, Vincent Van Gogh, John Marin, John Sloan, Reginald Marsh, David Burliuk, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Maarten de Vos, Sebastian Vrancx, Peter Max, Max Weber, Arthur Bowen Davies.

Art Thief

What would be more glamorous than being an art thief. Think Pierce Brosnan or George Clooney or Brad Pitt. Actually I was once locked in alone in the Van Gogh Vault in the basement of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Well thats a story I will leave for another day. If you were able to get away with a priceless Van Gogh or Picasso, what could you do with it except stare at it. It would be too too hot to sell. Actually I have a friend that is a bonifide art thief. She goes into museums and takes microscopic pieces of art from paintings, sculpture etc. She calls it microcollecting.

Bruegel/Hidden Images

On April 6th, 2006, I purchased at Christies Important Old Masters

Painting Auction  "Circle of Peter Brueghel the Younger, Allegory

of Spring, oil on panel".  On the back of the panel are three wax

seals with coats of arms, as well as, a label reading Collection

of Prince Esterhazy, Budapest.  It had been in the collection of a

South American family since 1949.

 Approximately two weeks after acquiring the Brueghel, I started

noticing strange anamolies in the panel/painting.  First of all

there was an odd incongruous grid system raised on the panel.

After careful observation and analysis, I started noticing words

written on the panel.  After awhile, those words became the

outline of figures and faces on the panel.  By shining and shaking

a raking light (flashlight) on the panel at eye level, thus

mimicing a strobe light, a different image other than the original

visible painting begins to emerge.  Further, at different

distances from the panel, different images appear.  Thus there are

at least 4 different images (paintings) painted on the panel,

depending on your distance from the panel.  At first I shined the

raking light in a dark room, but after months of experimentation,

it seems the images are clearer with the lights on in the room,

all but the ones shining directly down on the painting, the ones

that would be considered the correct way to see the original or

outer image on the panel.  When I was looking at the painting from

very close or about 1 foot away, it was blurry to me because I

need to wear reading glasses.  The blurriness is what enables me

to see the images (the new images are clear to me).  They are

painted out of focus.  In other words, with reading glasses so the

outer image is perfectly clear, the other images disappear.  The

same goes when I am standing far from the painting.  In that case,

the outer visible image is clear to me without glasses and I

cannot see the hidden images.  When I put the reading glasses on

and look at the painting from a distance everything is blurry

again and I can now see the hidden images again clearly.  The old

masters had some sort of optical or lense device to hide the

images.  Also, the panel is slightly bowed or warped inward which

forms a concave (convex?) mirror.  The ground under the painting

is made with a lead white paint which may figure into the process

by reflecting what is underneath outwards.  The process is similar

to anamorphic art, however, you do not need to be at an

exaggerated angle to see what I m referring to.  The only written

documentation I can find to possibly explain what I am seeing is a

little anecdote to the life of Albrecht Durer.  Apparently, in

1506, Durer went to Bologna to hopefully find someone to teach him

the "secret perspective of Leonardo DaVinci".  It was being taught

by a friend of DaVinci.  Durer supposedly wrote about his findings

in "History of Measurement".  To support my hypothesis, I figure

Brueghel must have left clues to show future generations how to

see his hidden images.  In fact he did.  I have found two clues in

his paintings.  One is in the  drawing entitled the artist and the

connoisseur by Peter Brueghel the elder.  The connoisseur is

wearing a pair of spectacles.  Also, in the Adoration of the Magi

by Peter Brueghel the Elder, again one of the main figures in the

painting is wearing spectacles.

Abraham Ortelius, the 16th century cartographer, friend to Peter

Brueghel the Elder, said in his epitaph on his friend that "Peter

Brueghel  paints the unpaintable  and often paints a picture

beneath his painting".  Todays critics have taken that to mean

that there are hidden meanings in his paintings.  They are

misinterpreting Ortelius.  He was being literal.  There are

paintings beneath his paintings.

Winter Art Show Palm Beach Convention Center Feb 15th

I went to the Palm Beach Art Show at the convention center two weekends ago to check out the art market. Lots of people looking. I do not know if they were buying. Saw a few friends (dealers). Mostly contemporary artists or post-contemporary. Did not know most of them. Prices not to bad, more than I would pay, but not to high. The best part of the show was a dealer wearing red pants and a yellow shirt with a dark sports jacket. I liked the combo. Made me think of Italy. Received a letter from Christies looking to push Russian artists. Did not mention Burliuk, I guess he is considered Russian American. One dealer said my Benton drawing is worth more than I paid. There was a number of dealers selling photography. I do not get it. Maybe I will some day.

Bahamas

I just came back from the Bahamas in search of Art. Did not find anything on this trip but did buy a painting in Germany last week. Traveled on Jet Blue and stayed at the Atlantis, the Cove. Nice trip, but no art. Nice Dale Chihuly chandeliers in the casinos.

4 Paintings in South America

I am The Art Hunter. I seek out flemish old master paintings. I search and travel the world looking for undiscovered masterpieces. I recently found 4 paintings in South America. The price that is being asked is too high.  My background research tells me these paintings may have questionable provenance. They may have come from Berlin in the 30's or 40's and may have belonged to Jewish families. I am always looking to buy. I believe the secrets of the old masters are just that, secrets, and have been hidden from view for the last 500 or so years. There are hidden images in these paintings. More on this later.