Art Online | April 2001

In the Studio by Gay Faulkenberry. painting, southwest art.
In the Studio by Gay Faulkenberry

By James Turrell


PAPA Launches Site
The prestigious Plein Air Painters of America has launched a new user-friendly Web site, www.p-a-p-a.com. Now you can surf through images of works by PAPA’s prominent members, including George Strickland, John Budicin, and Gay Faulkenberry. Dozens of landscape paintings are featured on the site, ranging from marine scenes to dry desert vistas. Links to the artists’ galleries and additional examples of members’ works in other genres, such as interiors and cityscapes, are also displayed.


Museums Benefit from Shoppers
Who would have thought that buying a suitcase, sweater, or a 10-pound turkey could benefit your local art museum? But that’s the case with the launch of the Web site www.shopformuseums.com. Cyber-shoppers are able to view items from more than 125 merchants including Land’s End, Hickory Farms, Disney Store, and Sharper Image. If you buy something, for example a car cell-phone system from Sharper Image, 2.5 percent of the transaction is distributed to the museum of your choice. Just click on the Portland Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, or one of the other participating institutions. The percentages vary from 2 to 7 percent depending on the merchant.


Just Browsing
International Style
So you want to go abroad this summer, but life is keeping you stateside. Consider taking a virtual art tour instead. Major museums from Paris to St. Petersburg feature Web sites in English.

If you’ve never been to France or stood in front of the Mona Lisa, weep no more. Take a cyber-foray instead to view this masterpiece as well as other artworks in the Louvre’s collection at the museum’s Web site, www.louvre.fr/lou vrea.htm.

The legendary State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg has an equally fascinating Web site, www.hermitagemuseum.org. There are hundreds of images of its vast holdings—paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures. The IBM-powered site offers zoom-in capability for close inspection of the museum’s masterpieces, which span centuries.

Also, if you are interested in learning about the art of Spain, check out the official Prado Museum Web site, www.museoprado.mcu.es/. In addition to images of paintings from the museum’s collections, the site features an in-depth analysis of a specific artwork each month. Past tours have included works by El Greco, Francisco de Goya, and Peter Paul Rubens.


Featured in April 2001