It is extremely sad that Frank Frazetta, one of the greatest legends in the history of heroic fantasy art, should have at the end of his life a divided Frazetta family fighting over the Frank Frazetta legacy.  It all started last year when Mrs Ellie Frazetta, Frank Frazetta’s wife, died.  She and his son Frank Frazetta junior had been running the Frazetta family business for many years but almost as soon as she died the other siblings made claims upon the Frazetta inheritance that escalated into a bitter feud.   You can read more about what is going on here and you’ll find other news articles on the web too.  How do you feel about it?

Artists rarely have time to put pen to paper or bash out an email about what they are doing but occasionally we get updates on what artists are doing and what shows they are at etc.  Michael Kaluta, the well-known American artist, while waiting for the go-ahead for his latest project, has told us what he’s been up to in his last busy year.  This is what Michael Kaluta has to say -

“… back in March ‘09, I was drawing the 3rd issue of a 5-issue story arc for DC/Vertigo’s Madame Xanadu comic book: the collected issues, titled Exodus Noir, just hit the stands here in the States.

Fate of Dollies Lost in Dreams by Michael Kaluta

and

Sentry by Michael Kaluta

The difficulty with some of Michael Kaluta’s work is that although it is quite immediate, vibrant and colourful, you don’t really appreciate it until you look at it closely and carefully.  So few people take the time to really look at art and they are poorer for the lack of attention they give to it.  If you want art to touch you then you have to give it your attention.  A quick glance and, “Oh that’s nice” really doesn’t do it.  Art will draw you in and reach depths of you that you didn’t know existed but you have to give it the chance to do that.  These two paintings by Michael Kaluta are very much like that.  ‘Fate of Dollies’ will probably awaken feelings you haven’t had since you were a child and possibly the same with ‘Sentry’.  ‘Sentry’ is more complex and poses more questions but both are truly evocative pieces like so much of Michael Kaluta’s work.  Let’s hope he’s doing it for many more years to come.

We continue our series of Picture of the Month with Mark Belo’s ‘Pray’ to kick of January 2010.  Mark Belo has been around for quite some time and we have had his Cosmodolphin etc on sale at www.artistsuk.co.uk for a few years.  recently however, he has produced some new work and this has been reproduced on canvas.  One of these is this lovely painting entitled ‘Pray’ -

You can see the full range of these beautiful works on canvas plus the earlier posters by clicking here.