Odd Fish - An Oil Painting by Vakhtang Kakulia

Odd, very odd indeed. This odd-bod of a fish looks like he's been pulled apart and reassembled as a patchwork quilt from odds-and-end found on the ocean floor. Rags and sticks appear to make up his scales. Another of Vakhtang Kakulia's oil paintings with a sea theme.

My Boat - an Oil Painting by Vakhtang Kakulia

The subject matter of Vakhtang Kakulia's paintings are typically of mundane objects of daily life. They are presented in compositions that suggest deep symbolic meaning, and are typically painted in a style in which flat planes are broken down into patchwork pieces that give the impression of cubist construction.

This is one of four paintings in this collection that features a boat either as the main subject or as a background object. This painting is notable, however, for the fact that it uses pastel colors in the background, which is something that is not typical of the artist who typically uses earth tones.

Las Vegas First Friday Art Walk

The LA Times reported today about the First Friday art event in downtown Las Vegas. Downtown Las Vegas, of course, is not the strip, but if you keep going south on "The Strip" a.k.a. Las Vegas Blvd, you will land in Downtown Las Vegas. Like many downtowns, Downtown Las Vegas has suffered over the years, falling victim to suburban flight or, in this case, the gradual move northward into Clark County and the world famous gabmling scene that is known as Las Vegas.

Over the last decade or so, cities have attempted to revitalize their downtowns by encouraging artists to move in. So it was with Las Vegas, which joined the party a little late in the game with its "First Friday" art event launched in October 2002. The event is now drawing a consistently large crowd to warrant that streets are closed off.

In my area of Orange County, there are similar events known as "Art Walks". The first Saturday of each month you will find the "open house" for the artists of the Art Village in Santa Ana. And in the famous Laguna Beach, it's the first Thursday of every month.

Feel free to post details of art walks in your area.

Musician - Oil Painting by Vakhtang Kakulia

The young man from Tbilisi strikes again! Now we have a body that has the body of a violin where the head should be, and another almost skeleton-like man dressed in a harelquin suit with a trumpet that floats in the air behind him. Complete the picture with a white flag, bed, and chair in the background and you are left wondering what is going on here. Oh to get inside the head of Vakhtang Kakulia!

Valentines Day Gift Ideas

Valentines Day Gift Ideas bascially seem to be limited to chocolates and roses. Ever thought of breaking the mold? Guys, you know that women like to be surprised by your creativity and sensitivity, so how about throwing in some art with those roses? We have several suggestions for unique Valentines gifts from our online galleries. Do check them out!

Moonlit Boat - an Oil Painting by Vakhtang Kakulia

Vakhtang Kakulia approached by out of the blue about posting his artowork on ArikiArt so I don't know him at all other than what he provided me in his bio. (Read Vakhtang Kakulia's biography) So as I post his works and study them to I'm finding it very intriguing and frustrating to understand what is behind his symbolism, what are his life experiences that inspire his artwork, etc. So my comments are all drawn from my own interpretation and may be far from the mark since I am flying blind. I wonder what Sister Wendy would come up with? Anyhow, in this painting which Kakulia entitles "Moonlit Boat" you get quite a surprise to find that the boat in question actually appears to be under a spotlight on a stage! The boat looks a little "tempest-tossed" with the sail blown out from the mast. You wonder where the people are: the boat is empty and there's an empty chair sitting beside the boat too. Towards the back on the right side there is what I first thought was a street lamp, which is an image I've noticed in a few of his paintings, but after working on his "Liberation" painting last night, I'm wondering if perhaps it's the guitarist's microphone that is part of the entanglement in that painting.

What are your interpretations of the painting? Post your thoughts.

Here's a book published by the Getty Center called Symbols and Allegories in Art (Guide to Imagery Series) about interpreting images in art. It gets good reviews at Amazon.

I referred to Sister Wendy Beckett above. If you are not familiar with her, I thouroughly recommend her. This remarkable diminutive Carmelite nun with glasses and bucked teeth, was made famous by her series for British public TV in which she travelled widely to art museaums interpreting and reviewing the masterpieces of art. I think many people became fans of hers for how she handled herself calmly and without embarassment on TB when reviewing nudes and other racy material. She also did a series for U.S. public television (PBS) entitled Sister Wendy's American Collection.

Here are a few of her many books and DVDs available at Amazon.

Liberation, an oil painting by Vakhtang Kakulia

Having looked at this painting for a while I started to understand the symbolism of the work. If you look closely, you’ll see there is a single guitar string running from the woman’s back to the guitar. The guitar has been smashed, it seems, and the woman is finally making a break for it. It’s all guess-work on my part what all this symbolism might mean as I haven’t discussed any of the works with Kakulia. The guitar may be literal, and the woman is finally escaping whatever command over her playing the guitar might have had. But then while thinking of the previous work in this collection entitled “Guitarist”, you get the clear impression from that painting that the guitarist is a man even though we only see his outer garments. Perhaps then the guitar in this painting represents the guitarist from the prior painting, and the woman is actually fleeing from him? It is obviously a very symbolic painting, and it is certainly fun to conjecture at what the meaning of it is.

Do you have any ideas yourself after studying this painting? Post your ideas. And read and study how to interpret the meaning of paintings with
How to Read a Painting: Lessons from the Old Masters.

Painting of a Guitarist by Vakhtang Kakulia

Vakhtang Kakulia likes to deconstruct his subjects into their parts, and this goes not only for the actual physical properties of the subjects in his paintings, but also of the living essence of them too. Take for example this oil painting which he titles “Guitarist”. While the title suggests we will see a painting of a man or woman strumming a guitar, instead we find just the trappings of the guitarist: his guitar, of course, and then his outer clothing: an edge of his hat, his red jacket, his shoes – but no actual guitarist in sight. As always, the objects in the painting are broken apart and painted this way and that in a collage or patchwork effect. There are echoes of Picasso’s cubism in his paintings in a way; the planes are pulled apart and reassembled in a striking manner.

Please post your comments and observations of
Vakhtang Kakulia’s painting of a guitarist.

Painting of a Fish by Georgian painter Vakhtang Kakulia

That’s Georgia in Eurasia, not the state in the South of the United States. Artist Vakhtang Kakulia hails from Tbilisi, Georgia, which while being located on the banks of the Kura (Mtkvari) River is nonetheless pretty landlocked. In the collection of art that Kakulia provided me with for posting to ArikiArt several paintings feature the sea and fish. I wonder at this fascination for the sea. His style of painting is not to paint the subject in one plane of continuous color, but actually to compose the image in parts which give the impression of collage or patchwork. Please feel free to post you comments and impressions of this oil painting of a fish by Vakhtang Kakulia.

Tax Deduction for Donating Art

Is it really tax season again already! Well, believe it or not, there is a tax write-off available for donations of art. The IRS rules require that you have owned the artwork for a minimum of 12 months and that the artwork is donated to an IRS-approved charity. The amount you can deduct on your tax return for a charitable donation of art is the appraised fair market value (FMV) of the artwork. My article gives all the tax help you need to take this deduction and also explains what to do now so that you can claim this write off next year if it’s not available to you for last year. The way to maximize this tax write-off is to buy art at less than fair market value whenever you can, hold it for a year, and then donate it to the charity of your choice and take the full fair market value for the year in which you make the donation. Effectively if you are lucky enough to be able to buy works at below market value, you will get a deduction for an amount greater than what you paid out in cash.

A House by the Sea - Painting by Vakhtang Kakulia

A House By the Sea, an oil painting by Vakhtang Kakulia

Do you see what I mean when I say that Vakhtang Kakulia's paintings give the impression of being collage? If you take a closer look at this painting of a house doesn't it look like each of the elements that make up the house are cutouts that are stuck to the canvas. Each of the different elements no doubt have some symbolic meaning for the artist, and the fact that there are a couple of playing cards in there make me feel sure that this is a "house of cards".

What do you think? Post a comment.

Artists Ripped Off in Giclee Reproductions Fraud

Here's a scary story that was published in the LA Times yesterday. Kristine Eubanks of Van Nuys California offered successful artists giclee printing and marketing services. The prints were to be issued on a limited edition basis. She even had a TV show called "Fine Art Treasures Gallery" in which the artists' limited edition prints were auctioned off. That wasn't the only sales channel: the prints were also auctioned on Princess Cruise Lines. Trouble was, numerous quantities of these prints were unauthorized, far exceeded the limited edition quantity, and had forged signatures on them.

To prove her credentials as a fraudster without any scruples, Eubanks was found guilty of running up $144,000 in charges on the credit card of a dead business associate! Eubanks is currently serving time for the credit card fraud, and here's hoping she will also get her due for devaluing the art of several successful artists by flooding the market with large numbers of unauthorized giclee prints.

Note: ArikiArt can arrange for limited edition giclee reproductions of many of the paintings found in our online galleries and can guarantee that the artists' signature is authentic and series limitations are adhered to strictly. Contact us if you are interested in a giclee print of any of the artworks on our site and we will work with the artist to see if they are willing to supply a giclee print.

Drunk Girl on the Toilet

This painting of a Drunk Girl on the Toilet by Vakhtang Kakulia really cracks me up. What was not so long ago a slender young beauty has been reduced to basic humanity by the demon drink. Take a closer look at Vakhtang's painting of a drunk girl and come back and post your comments. We want to hear what you think.

Butterflies in the Forrest - an Oil Painting by V Kakulia

Here is the latest oil painting by artist Vakhtang Kakulia of Tbilisi, Georgia. It amazes me as I post Kakulia's works how much many of his paintings give the impression of collage. Obviously it takes a lot of expert technique to be able to paint shadows in a way that the objects in the painting appear to be three dimensional and pasted to the canvas. The butterflies in this oil painting give the impression of being crumpled newspaper.

Please post your comments on oil on canvas paiting Butterlies in the Forrest by Vakhtang Kakulia.

New Artist, Vakhtang Kakulia, Joins ArikiArt

Recently I was contacted by painter Vakhtang Kakulia asking if I would host his art at ArikiArt. Upon reviewing his work, my response was a resounding "Yes" as the quality and interest of his paintings simply blew me away. Kakulia hails from Tbilisi, Georgia, part of the former Soviet Union. Born in 1974, he initially studied at The School of Art in Tbilisi, and subsequently at the Tbilisi State Academy of Art where he studied art design, interior and exterior design, monumental art and sculpture. He graduated in 1997. A unique style is evident in Vakhtang Kakulia's paintings. The technical aptitude demonstrated in his paintings is remarkable, and draws on his knowledge of classic painting. his paintings are complex in terms of subject, composition, and color. The subjects of his works are often mundane objects from daily life, but are represented in a manner that is compellingly full of interest.

You can keep an eye on Vakhtang's online gallery and I will make blog posts for his individual works so that you can comment on them.