Archive for October, 2010
Selecting Your Painting Surface
When selecting painting surfaces, the main distinction is between flexible and rigid. Flexible surfaces include canvas and paper, with canvas being the most popular medium. Although canvas is widely used, many people find its flimsy nature difficult to work with when painting.
Rigid surfaces, such as wood, glass and metals, offer a more consistent base for art creation, making them ideal for plein air painters and artists without a formal studio. One of the main benefits of hard surfaces is that they are difficult to damage, as they can’t be torn, wrinkled or creased. Since rigid surfaces are so varied, it is important to research and determine which is best for you.
Never Satisfied
Last week Robert Genn, Canadian landscape painter, wrote his newsletter in response to a letter from an artist who is never satisfied with his work. Robert explained that there are four main types of dissatisfaction.
First, the artist realizes that the work is now substandard and will probably remain so. The artist might enjoy the work and occasionally sell some, but the possibility of excellent work is unlikely. The popular antidote is to fool oneself that the work is okay. Lots of unsatisfactory work is delivered with the benefit of this delusion. Being really satisfied is the province of amateurs.
Secondly, the subject matter or manner of painting loses its initial interest and is seen as shallow or unworthy. At this point it’s time for the artist to move on. Thirdly, the artist has high standards that are often achieved, yet there is genuine concern for a particular surface quality, compositional problems, color weaknesses, etc. Rethinking and “back to basics” might be the solution. Fourth, an artist self compares to the truly greats and falls short. Mature professionals, particularly have developed a sophisticated eye for what needs to be done. Let’s face it, high standards cannot always be met and perfection is an impossible dream.
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse (1869-1954), leader of the Fauves, adopted Gauguin’s flat surfaces, use of visual symbols, and clashing colors in his landscape paintings. His colors want to play. His figures are stylized, rendered in a few fluid lines with almost no modeling – just two-dimensional figures. Matisse’s islands of color were revolutionary – they are geographical locations, places to hang out. Also, the colors are alternately hot and cold, harmonious and discordant, which keeps your eyes moving quickly over the canvas – as if you were being playfully chased by “wild beasts.” This enhances the-joy-of-life feel of the painting.
Matisse’s command of anatomy enabled him to reduce shapes to their most basic contours. He discovered how to express emotion with a single line or series of lines. He wrote, “I cannot copy nature in a servile way. I must interpret nature… – when I have found the relationship of all the tones, the result must be a living harmony of tones, a harmony not unlike that of a musical composition.”
Enjoying the Day
The days are getting shorter here in Maryland. And with each day comes a greater chance for rain, wind or cold weather.
The last two days have been beautiful! The temps were in the mid 70s, some clouds, a little breezy, but all in all, a great day to paint. I couldn’t resist. I just had to go out there and paint for at least part of the day! Both days I finished my landscape oil painting enough that all I have to do is put in the sky and paint the edges back at the studio. Tomorrow is the day to do that – when it is raining!
Fauvism and Expressionism
Fauvism and Expressionism – the first art movements of the 20th century – set the tone for modern art. Both groups inherited many characteristics from the Post-Impressionists, especially Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Cezanne.
Van Gogh’s expressive use of color and line (each of his brush strokes sings) and Gauguin’s clashing color patches and flattening of spaces appealed to both groups. Cezanne’s method of reducing nature to its geometric components (cylinder, cone, and cube) was also highly influential. In addition, all three artists expressed their own feelings on canvas instead of painting traditional historical and religious art. Similarly, the Expressionists and Fauves believed they should express their personal visions in their art rather than cater to public tastes.
Mark Rothko – Part 2
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche identified two creative modes. The orderly one he called Apollonian (after Apollo, god of the sun) and the wild side, he called Dionysiac (after Dionysus, god of wine and ecstasy). Apollo erects barriers that contain and restrain energy while Dionysus breaks down barriers so that energies can merge. Nietzsche contended that great art must have a balance of both.
Rothko, the abstract expressionist painter, seems to have evicted Dionysus because his boxes argue with each other and vibrate around the edges. Sometimes he paints complementary color fields adjacent to each other, creating color wars. At other times he paints analogous color fields close to each other. Because the colors are harmonious, they want to blend, but Rothko won’t let them, thus creating tension between the color fields.
In addition, Rothko began painting very large-scale designs. When criticized, he replied, “I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose. The reason I paint them, however, is because I want to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience…however, when you paint the larger picture, you are in it”.
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko (1903 – 1970), a leading abstract expressionist painter, was born in a part of Russia today called Latvia. At the age of 10, he, his sister and mother joined the rest of the family in Portland, Oregon. At the ago of 20, he found work in the NYC garment district and enrolled in the New School of Design and Art Students League of New York, and Rothko began to see art as a tool of emotional and religious expression.
Among his early influences were the works of the German Expressionists, the surrealist work of Paul Klee and the paintings of Georges Roualt. In 1936, he began writing a book, never completed, about similarities between the art of children and the work of modern painters. The modernist artist, like the child, expresses an innate feeling for form that is a physical and emotional experience. It is non-intellectual. Rothko was using fields of color in his drawings, usually in transparent water color. However, between the playful urban scenes and water color drawings of his early period and the late transcendent fields of color was a period of transition – the onset of WWII and his reading of Friedrich Nietzsche.
Abstract Art
Wikipedia states that “abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition with a degree of independence from visual references in the world”. Abstraction occurs along a continuum. A painting may vary slightly, somewhat, or totally from the original reference. Even art that aims to be totally representational is at least somewhat abstract because it is very difficult to paint exactly what one sees.
Of the many art movements that use partial abstraction, one is fauvism, popular in the very early years of the 20th century, in which color is deliberately altered. (There were a lot of red tree trunks). Another is cubism, popular later in that century, in which the forms of the figures were altered – think Picasso!
Disposable Art
In his newsletter of Oct. 1, Robert Genn, the Canadian artist, mentioned that an artist, Jill, had written that she had had five solo shows and had lots of sales, and the curator had always spoken well of her work. She was then very surprised when the curator called her work “Disposable Art”, comparing it to amateur jewelry that you wear for a while and then throw it away! Jill said she paints ”with bright colors, imagination, whimsicality, and joy” and wanted to know what Robert thought of her work.
Robert’s reply surmised that perhaps the curator is one who believes that art has to be serious, that light hearted meant light weight. Also, sometimes light weight finds homes faster than heavy stuff, making for bitter curators, dealers, collectors and artists. His final admonition was that you should paint what you love, and not for the market.
I, also, paint with bright colors, imagination, whimsicality and joy. I’m hoping my minimalist, abstract expressionist paintings are not light weight.
Challenges of Plein Air Painting
When a group of plein air painters were asked about the challenges of painting, they unanimously agreed that one of the greatest challenges is the changing light. Many artists use an 8” x 10” or similar sized board on which to paint, but the painting must be finished in 2 hours, else the shadows have changed.
Another challenge is hearing things rustle in the bushes and the wild life scurrying by. One artist in Rocky Mountain National Park just walked backwards toward her car when a bear sauntered by, apparently not seeing her, more interested in the smell of the paint. Another time she hopped the fence just as six horses came charging down the mountain.
The weather is also a challenge. Whether it is too hot, too cold, possibly rainy, or just right, the artist must find a way to be comfortable and have her easel in the shade. Plein air painting is not really about going to exotic locations, It’s really about painting what is around you and making it beautiful.