Free Republic

George Zimmerman earned a new title today — professional artist — when eBay bidding ended on his six-figure oil painting. The winning bid: $100,099.99. It wasn't immediately known who bought Zimmerman's original oil painting showing part of an American flag washed in blue with the words "God," "one nation," and "with liberty and justice for all" printed in the flag stripes. Bidding ended at 12:55 p.m. today. "Whoever wins within the Continental United States, will receive this painting delivered by me personally. Your friend," Zimmerman told his commenters on the eBay auction site.

Francis Bacon’s three-paneled painting “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” became the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction on Tuesday when it soared to $142.4 million at Christie’s.

It was in a 1925 essay entitled “The Best Picture” that Aldous Huxley made the claim that a 1478 fresco painting by Piero della Francesca (1420–92), in the little Italian town of San Sepolcro (Holy Sepulcher) in the upper Tiber valley, was “the greatest picture in the world.” It is true that critics and connoisseurs before Huxley, and many after him, also made very high claims for Piero’s relatively few surviving paintings. Much of his work, sadly, was destroyed shortly after his death, and in the early 1800s vandalistic Napoleonic French troops fired damaging shots at his great fresco...

A 6-year-old South Dakota girl who was initially accused of cheating in a federally-sponsored art contest was restored as a winner, and her painting of a duck is again on track to be used on a U.S. postage stamp. A 9-by-12-inch oil painting of a canvasback duck by Madison Grimm, of Burbank, S.D., was declared the winner from some 29,000 entries in the 2013 Federal Junior Duck Stamp Contest. In addition to having their artwork immortalized on a stamp, winners receive a $5,000 scholarship. But days after the April 19 announcement, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials said Madison —...

I'm no art sophisticate or anything, but I know what I like. And as much as I didn't like George W Bush's spending and government expansion, I DO like his work in watercolors- the guy is good- But if you're surprised, so's Dubya... he had no idea he could paint: seems about a year ago he did some 'doodling' to explain something to the Bush daughters at the ranch one day, and and lo-and-behold a family friend in the art business told him he may have a hidden talent. Bush had read a book by Winston Churchill on amateur...

CHARLES MUENCH loves the lonely places. It is in the West, under a vast open sky, that the artist finds inspiration for his landscape paintings. “To truly understand the subject of your art,” he declares, “you must immerse yourself in it fully.” And so he does—his home ground is outside the small town of Gardnerville, NV, with its high desert bordered by the Pine Nut Mountains to the east and the massive Sierras to the west. From here he journeys to favorite spots he revisits regularly throughout the West.Paul and Susan Bingham, founders of the Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts,...

LAST SUMMER while driving home to Texas after participating in the first annual Artistic Horizons show in Bozeman, MT, Denise LaRue Mahlke swung through Yellowstone National Park. “One of the things that grabbed me there were the geyser pools,” she recalls. “They were infatuating to me. It was magical how they all looked so different. Some were like mud pots in opaque greens or reds. Others were clear, giant pools that looked incredibly deep and almost iridescent in shades of emerald and sapphire. One reminded me of a peacock feather. I could have stood and stared at them for hours,...

The art world has been set ablaze about the advent of a stunning new talent in the medium of painting. Thanks to some hacked emails, the first works by a certain former president named George W. Bush have been revealed for all to admire.

Small painting sets a record for its' size.

A painting that features President Obama posed as Jesus Christ crucified on is on display at a community college art gallery in Boston. The painting by Michael D’Antuono is part of a larger exhibit called “Artists on the Stump – the Road to the White House 2012.” It’s on display at the Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery until Dec. 15th.

ELK GROVE (CBS13) – An Elk Grove mayoral candidate’s campaign sign was spray-painted, and the person accused of doing it is also a candidate. “And I just about fell over,” said Sophia Scherman, whose sign was vandalized. “I couldn’t believe when I heard the name.” That name – fellow candidate LaWanna Montgomery. For Scherman, this isn’t about politics — it’s personal. “At this point in time, an apology is too late,” she said Monday. A witness called the cops after seeing someone with a bag over their head spray-painting a Scherman sign late Saturday night. Police say the suspect’s car...

The Zurich-based Mona Lisa Foundation said today that it has evidence that a painting that first came to light in the late 1800s is an early "Mona Lisa" also done by Leonard Da Vinci. Known as the "Isleworth Mona Lisa," the painting is a "portrait of a young woman with an enigmatic smile" much like the famous work of art in The Louvre, as The Associated Press writes. The foundation, which was created for the specific purpose of researching the history of the "early Mona Lisa," says it believes the painting was created 11 or 12 years before the more...

(Newser) – The flea market box lot was less than $50, and the buyer picked it up mostly for the Paul Bunyan doll it contained. But it turns out the box lot also contained an original painting by Renoir that could fetch up to $100,000 in an auction at the end of the month, reports the New York Times. The 5.5-inch-by-9-inch painting of the Seine riverside is believed to be Renoir's Paysage Bords de Seine. It was bought from a French gallery in 1925 and later sold to a Maryland collector, but art historians aren't sure when or how it...

I chose to use an undisclosed studio so I could paint privately, without interruption, to focus on the task of embedding in a single painting all the subtle, mindless, radical and dangerous atrocities of the Obama administration. I am just one person, a citizen of this country using my first amendment rights to speak out through my art. This is my declaration that we have never had a president do more to harm our country than Barack Obama. To those who scoff or wish to trivialize this painting, I challenge you… I DARE YOU… study the links of the various...

<p>Three separate photographs of “Ecce Homo” by painter Elias Garcia Martinez show extensive damage caused by an elderly woman who decided the masterpiece needed a little refurbishment.</p> <p>But in a time of austerity, rather than calling in a professional to complete the job, the unnamed woman attempted to restore the mural herself – at a devastating cost.</p>

A clip from the Emmy Award winning 'Rob Bartlett's Not For Profit TV Special'.

The city’s first known Trayvon Martin mural is going up on a wall of an East New York laundromat - adding to a brewing campaign to make sure history doesn’t snub the slain teen’s image. Teenage boys will start painting the 100-foot picture July 16 on New Lots Laundromat’s wall underneath the elevated tracks of the IRT No. 3 train. The East New York mural will join a growing list of similar street art popping up in black neighborhoods across the country. “We want him to become a martyr, and it’s sad that we even have to say that,” said...

Officials at the Menil Collection don't know why a man spray-painted Pablo Picasso's "Woman in a Red Armchair" at the museum, but the act wasn't caught just on surveillance cameras. It also was captured by a bystander with a smartphone camera and subsequently posted on YouTube with a caption naming the alleged perpetrator as a young artist... The damaged artwork, with the spray paint barely dry, was rushed down the hall to the museum's conservation lab, where chief conservator Brad Epley quickly began its repair. The 1929 painting, one of nine by Picasso owned by the Menil, has "an excellent...

When Frank Faryab bought an obscure oil painting for thousands of pounds in a private sale, it was just the start of his outlay on the work. For the art and antiques dealer has since spent more than £2million and much of the past five years trying to convince others it was by JMW Turner, one of Britain's greatest painters. The perseverance appears to have paid off - because three leading authorities on the artist work now agree it is a lost Turner masterpiece which could be worth about £4million. Experts at the auction house Sotheby's will examine the painting...

What Do You Think of the Painting 'One Nation Under Socialism' Love It. Unnecessary. Offensive.