If most of us were asked who our favourite modern artist was, we’d be stuck for a reply. Any other time period and we might say, Turner, Picasso, Cezanne, Constable …

But today we simply don’t know too many modern artists, and those we do tend to specialize in unmade beds and pathetic collages of everday objects.

I did a piece a while ago about an artist who sent a sculpted head, mounted on a bought-in plinth, to the Royal Academy’s prestigious Summer Exhibition in London. Unfortunately, the head got separated from the plinth during transit.

A panel of worthies duly examined the entries. They rejected the head but accepted the plinth, which was probably made in China.

However, all is not lost. The lovely Amy Crehore, a favourite of our own Marshall Sponder over at Art NYC, continues to paint delectable pictures with a faintly mythic quality. Here’s her latest. it’s called Wild Cat Fever :

You can view it over on Art NYC.

You can also see an interview with Amy Crehore over on our Celebrity at Work site.

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Now there’s versatility for you, bridging the “two cultures” of art and science in New York City, a place built on versatile personalities.

Marshall Sponder tours the galleries and exhibitions of the Big Apple reporting back on the latest pictures and buzz for our Art NYC site, which is rapidly gaining a huge reputation in art circles around the city.

Here’s Marshall painting his own portrait :

Apart from working as a Web analyst for IBM, Marshall also has a thriving interest in his own painting, which he throws himself into at the Brooklyn Artists Gym. Of his self-portrait he says :

“I did make it over to Brooklyn Artists Gym this afternoon and ended up doing a self portrait. Here’s a picture Peter Wallace, owner and manager of BAG took of me with my SideKick 3 camera. I feel this painting, self portrait, is one of my best. The photo is decent — but many of the subtleties are not showing up in the digital picture — the work is much richer when looking at it — and some of the lighting I captured on my face looks more arbitrary in the photo than in real life.”

If you really can’t get enough of art in New York City, Marshall’s spot is the place to be.

Art NYC is part of our Allusionz network magazine.