Various Zen calligraphers
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)
Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940)
Edward Hopper (1882-1967)
Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Depicting depth in painting
Just some handy tricks:
- Overlapping
- Diminishing sizes
- Linear perspective
- Parallax
- Aerial perspective (invented by Leonardo Da Vinci, the effect of air: lighter and bluer in the distance)
- Less detail in distance
- "Down in back" (This is from Paul Georges: open up the space in your painting by having a vertical intersect with the bottom edge of your canvas. The viewer almost feels that he can 'step in' or 'reach in.'
Artists we have looked at
Masaccio (1401-1428)
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
Rembrandt von Rijn (1601-1669)
Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675)
Jurgen Wilms (contemporary)
Rackstraw Downes (contemporary)
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
Rembrandt von Rijn (1601-1669)
Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675)
Jurgen Wilms (contemporary)
Rackstraw Downes (contemporary)
Saturday, December 6, 2008
"Don't be a raggedy-ass painter!" --Neil Welliver
Whether your work is rough and painterly or smooth and detailed, painting is all about creating a surface and controlling it. You can be as loose and painterly as you like, as long as your strokes are 'felt' as a surface.
It is a paradox that the more your paint creates the illusion of a surface, the better it can depict whatever depth you choose to depict, even a deep space. Why is this?
Painting is all about accessing the non-verbal part of your brain. If you look at a chair, you 'know' it is a chair and you can skip a lot of the experience of looking. In painting that chair, however, most (but not all) artists want to say something about actually looking at and experiencing something about that chair. If you 'skip' areas of your painting, viewers are forced to fill in with their knowledge and memory instead of actually experiencing anything new. Knit your painting together like a quilt, and a miracle will happen.
It is a paradox that the more your paint creates the illusion of a surface, the better it can depict whatever depth you choose to depict, even a deep space. Why is this?
Painting is all about accessing the non-verbal part of your brain. If you look at a chair, you 'know' it is a chair and you can skip a lot of the experience of looking. In painting that chair, however, most (but not all) artists want to say something about actually looking at and experiencing something about that chair. If you 'skip' areas of your painting, viewers are forced to fill in with their knowledge and memory instead of actually experiencing anything new. Knit your painting together like a quilt, and a miracle will happen.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
I guess I should have introduced myself and this blog
Welcome! I am a landscape painter, living in the beautiful western US. My husband & I spend all the time we can in the back country, hiking, driving, exploring, whatever. We never tire of it.
In this blog I am posting the things I talk about with my painting students, trying to distill many complex ideas into small, useful nuggets that I often pull up to help me work through a painting. I put my URL in my profile.
In this blog I am posting the things I talk about with my painting students, trying to distill many complex ideas into small, useful nuggets that I often pull up to help me work through a painting. I put my URL in my profile.
Think in terms of negative space.
The shapes or intervals around your subject matter are one of your most expressive tools.
Vary the intervals
If some of the shapes in your painting look awkward or boring, they may be too close in size. Think about making one shape larger than the other. This is so simple, but thinking about it at the right time is about the handiest trick to have up your sleeve that I know.
Painting is all about being aware on many different levels: color, composition, light, paint-on-a-surface, and of course the mysterious essence that we all are after. It all comes with practice.
As Wylene aptly put it, "Let your brain take over." Every artist in the world knows exactly what she means!
Painting is all about being aware on many different levels: color, composition, light, paint-on-a-surface, and of course the mysterious essence that we all are after. It all comes with practice.
As Wylene aptly put it, "Let your brain take over." Every artist in the world knows exactly what she means!
"Those diagonals are a steel trap." --Neil Welliver
Beware of awkward stops in a painting. Make your shapes and intervals dance with the edges, the center lines, and the diagonals.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
The Interaction of Color
“In visual perception, a color is almost never seen as it really is-- as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art.”
• Due to physical processes in our retinas, our eyes quickly acclimate to whatever color we are looking at. We can observe this process in afterimages: when we stare at a colored shape and then at a blank field we see an image of that shape in its complementary color.
• Josef Albers, a student of Hans Hoffman, wrote a very influential book called The Interaction of Color, which shows studies of many color phenomena based on this physiological process. Simultaneous contrast is his term for the tendency of a color to appear different from an adjacent color and to make colors that are not adjacent to the color appear more similar to it. (Think about how when hazel-eyed Anna wears a green shirt her eyes look green.)
• ‘Local color’ is the named color of a thing, i.e. whether it is red or blue. Color in painting, however, is about local color and more, a whole universe of more. Color can seem to dissolve into pure light; it is all about the relationship of the colors.
-- Josef Albers
• Due to physical processes in our retinas, our eyes quickly acclimate to whatever color we are looking at. We can observe this process in afterimages: when we stare at a colored shape and then at a blank field we see an image of that shape in its complementary color.
• Josef Albers, a student of Hans Hoffman, wrote a very influential book called The Interaction of Color, which shows studies of many color phenomena based on this physiological process. Simultaneous contrast is his term for the tendency of a color to appear different from an adjacent color and to make colors that are not adjacent to the color appear more similar to it. (Think about how when hazel-eyed Anna wears a green shirt her eyes look green.)
• ‘Local color’ is the named color of a thing, i.e. whether it is red or blue. Color in painting, however, is about local color and more, a whole universe of more. Color can seem to dissolve into pure light; it is all about the relationship of the colors.
Artists we have looked at
Adele Alsop (contemporary)
Duane Keiser (contemporary, 'Painting a Day' movement)
Willem Kalf (Dutch, 1619 - 1693)
Duane Keiser (contemporary, 'Painting a Day' movement)
Willem Kalf (Dutch, 1619 - 1693)
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Artists we have looked at
Piero della Francesca (Renaissance)
Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890)
Claude Monet (1840 - 1926)
Fairfield Porter (1907 - 1975)
David Hockney (contemporary)
Alex Katz (contemporary)
Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890)
Claude Monet (1840 - 1926)
Fairfield Porter (1907 - 1975)
David Hockney (contemporary)
Alex Katz (contemporary)
Veil of Color
• During the Renaissance, where did an artist go to get paint? Often to an alchemist. Paint consisted of minerals, dug from the earth, often semi-precious stones. The artist or his assistant laboriously ground it and mixed it with linseed oil. There were no tubes, so they had to mix for the session.
• Toward the end of the nineteenth century, however, advances in chemistry produced a plethora of new pigments, fantastic colors that the world had never seen. Artists (Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin) explored the possibilities of the new pigments.
• Artists became aware of a different way of seeing. It had always been there of course, but had never been articulated before. Claude Monet painted a quick little painting of the sun rising over a harbor on a foggy day. He called it “Impression, Sunrise,” and critics took that up as a snarky term: “Impressionism.” Artists have always painted sketches, of course. The difference was that he exhibited it as a finished painting, a radical statement. He went on to paint the facade of Rouen cathedral at different times of the day, with different types of light falling on it. In these paintings the very solid, almost cliff-like cathedral is dissolved into a veil of color, which demands that we experience its reality almost as peripheral vision, an instant of seeing.
• Our eyes have two kinds of cells. Cones confer color vision, while rods are more sensitive to value (dark & light). In a painter’s mind, value often contradicts color. Value is often more closely connected to the left-brained, verbal world: we see something and reflexively think, “What is that thing?” As artists we also need to be able to access pure seeing, independent of our verbal minds. Our challenge as artists is to be able to move around in both worlds, the verbal and the non-verbal.
• Toward the end of the nineteenth century, however, advances in chemistry produced a plethora of new pigments, fantastic colors that the world had never seen. Artists (Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin) explored the possibilities of the new pigments.
• Artists became aware of a different way of seeing. It had always been there of course, but had never been articulated before. Claude Monet painted a quick little painting of the sun rising over a harbor on a foggy day. He called it “Impression, Sunrise,” and critics took that up as a snarky term: “Impressionism.” Artists have always painted sketches, of course. The difference was that he exhibited it as a finished painting, a radical statement. He went on to paint the facade of Rouen cathedral at different times of the day, with different types of light falling on it. In these paintings the very solid, almost cliff-like cathedral is dissolved into a veil of color, which demands that we experience its reality almost as peripheral vision, an instant of seeing.
• Our eyes have two kinds of cells. Cones confer color vision, while rods are more sensitive to value (dark & light). In a painter’s mind, value often contradicts color. Value is often more closely connected to the left-brained, verbal world: we see something and reflexively think, “What is that thing?” As artists we also need to be able to access pure seeing, independent of our verbal minds. Our challenge as artists is to be able to move around in both worlds, the verbal and the non-verbal.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Artists we have looked at
Sorry that I can't post images, but I'm sure that would violate all kinds of copyrights. I encourage you to visit museums and galleries as much as possible, as well as seek out seek out all kinds of art and artists on the internet.
Chardin (Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, 1699-1779)
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)
Henri Matisse ((1869-1954)
Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947)
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Paul Gauguin (1848=1903)
Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964)
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Georges Braque (1882-1963)
Hans Hoffman (1880-1966)
Josef Albers (1888-1976)
Janet Fish (contemporary)
Harriet Shorr (contemporary)
Jane Freilicher (contemporary)
Caroline Brady (contemporary)
Erin Westinslow Berrett (local)
Lindsey Frei (local)
Chardin (Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, 1699-1779)
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)
Henri Matisse ((1869-1954)
Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947)
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Paul Gauguin (1848=1903)
Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964)
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Georges Braque (1882-1963)
Hans Hoffman (1880-1966)
Josef Albers (1888-1976)
Janet Fish (contemporary)
Harriet Shorr (contemporary)
Jane Freilicher (contemporary)
Caroline Brady (contemporary)
Erin Westinslow Berrett (local)
Lindsey Frei (local)
More on Mixing. (Sorry, that’s not too pithy, is it.)
• Mix your neutrals with complementary colors. Keep the color wheel in mind. Your neutrals can be more varied and “coloristic” when mixed from complements. In other words, it’s easier to get the color variation that you need to light up your painting and make it look real, as we talked about in the first section. (The eye likes color change.)
• By now you will have figured out that each pigment has its own set of characteristics. Some are more transparent than others, some have more tinting strength. None are pure color, they all have other wavelengths mixed in. Most of them are dug out of the earth, after all. Try to be aware of the secondary characteristics of your pigments so that you can eventually predict their behavior and pick the best ones for a job. It’s best to get to know them gradually and thoroughly, one by one.
• By now you will have figured out that each pigment has its own set of characteristics. Some are more transparent than others, some have more tinting strength. None are pure color, they all have other wavelengths mixed in. Most of them are dug out of the earth, after all. Try to be aware of the secondary characteristics of your pigments so that you can eventually predict their behavior and pick the best ones for a job. It’s best to get to know them gradually and thoroughly, one by one.
“Push-pull Theory” or “The Plasticity of Paint”
• This is from the very influential teacher Hans Hoffman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Hoffman).
• Color has dimension in the front-to-back direction. Due to the wavelength of red light (don’t ask me to explain further!) red shapes sometimes seem to float above the picture plane, and blue to recede behind.
• It is a paradox, but the more your colors adhere to each other on the picture plane as a “skin” the more you will be able to achieve the illusion of space in your painting (or flatness, if that is what you are going after).
• In other words, try for “no holes.” By controlling your painting in the front-to-back dimension, it becomes something you can model (plasticity) or ‘push’ and ‘pull’ to create the magical veil of illusion known as a painting.
• Here is a fun website that allows you to play with the push-pull concept: http://www.pbs.org/hanshofmann/push_and_pull_001.html
• Color has dimension in the front-to-back direction. Due to the wavelength of red light (don’t ask me to explain further!) red shapes sometimes seem to float above the picture plane, and blue to recede behind.
• It is a paradox, but the more your colors adhere to each other on the picture plane as a “skin” the more you will be able to achieve the illusion of space in your painting (or flatness, if that is what you are going after).
• In other words, try for “no holes.” By controlling your painting in the front-to-back dimension, it becomes something you can model (plasticity) or ‘push’ and ‘pull’ to create the magical veil of illusion known as a painting.
• Here is a fun website that allows you to play with the push-pull concept: http://www.pbs.org/hanshofmann/push_and_pull_001.html
“You gotta read the slicks!” (Alex Katz)
• He was referring to the glossy art magazines. Looking at art is an important way to feed your inner artist. If you can’t get to galleries, use the internet or the “slicks” and collect things that resonate with you, so that you can start to figure out what you are about as an artist.
“Teeter-totter”
• This concept is from Paul Georges, who was instrumental in getting figurative painting back into the mainstream after serious painting was dominated by Abstract Expressionism and its many derivatives for most of the last century.
• Teeter-totter: using color and varying its intensity to balance the two halves of a painting.
• Just as a weight on a see-saw has more force when it is closer to the ends, we instinctively want to balance intense color at the far right or left edges of a painting. Color in the center acts differently. We find it more stable. Of course color in the exact center is a bit dull, so the art is in making it dance but still feel satisfying, giving it gesture that seems to be conscious of the whole.
• This balancing act can use variations in size or saturation to achieve a feeling of stability.
• Sometimes, however, a very bold painting can find a balance using two or more different colors, i.e. a small yellow shape can balance a large blue shape. It can work.
• This process takes place unconsciously, but sometimes it is helpful to pull up this concept to figure out why something does or doesn’t work.
• Teeter-totter: using color and varying its intensity to balance the two halves of a painting.
• Just as a weight on a see-saw has more force when it is closer to the ends, we instinctively want to balance intense color at the far right or left edges of a painting. Color in the center acts differently. We find it more stable. Of course color in the exact center is a bit dull, so the art is in making it dance but still feel satisfying, giving it gesture that seems to be conscious of the whole.
• This balancing act can use variations in size or saturation to achieve a feeling of stability.
• Sometimes, however, a very bold painting can find a balance using two or more different colors, i.e. a small yellow shape can balance a large blue shape. It can work.
• This process takes place unconsciously, but sometimes it is helpful to pull up this concept to figure out why something does or doesn’t work.
“No such thing as white” or “The Eye Likes Color Change”
• White takes on the color of whatever light is striking it, and its shadows are always tinged with the color that is complementary to the color of the light.
• The eye is most comfortable seeing color changes in a painting, because that is how it sees the world.
• The first and most noticeable characteristic of amateurish-looking art is the tendency to use value (dark & light) rather than color change to define highlights and shadows.
• The eye is most comfortable seeing color changes in a painting, because that is how it sees the world.
• The first and most noticeable characteristic of amateurish-looking art is the tendency to use value (dark & light) rather than color change to define highlights and shadows.
“The technique will come.”
As a student I found this impossible to believe, but now I know it to be true. Whatever technique you desire comes with patient seeking, and trying different things. That is why we will not worry about technique, just concentrate on the dynamics of what makes a good painting work. Which brush to use for what, how different pigments act--all that--will accumulate in your painting vocabulary as you pick up your brush and try different things. And each time you try something it will stay in your memory for reference later. Your hand and your unconscious have their own memory, which works on its own and as quickly as lightning sometimes, when you are open and in the flow. This is not really a time to be worried about a finished product (if there ever is a time for that, really).
Pithy Phrases
“Painting is all about painting yourself up against a wall. What’s important is what you do then.”
When I am stuck, which is a lot of the time, phrases from my teachers come into my head, tools that help me analyze the problems I am looking at. So, it really helps me to take a huge, complicated concept and encapsulate it into a phrase, the pithier the better. Sure, art is a “right-brained” activity, creative, non-verbal, existing in the flow of the moment; but without analytical tools painting would sooner or later become boring and repetitive.
(--approximate quote from Frank Stella)
When I am stuck, which is a lot of the time, phrases from my teachers come into my head, tools that help me analyze the problems I am looking at. So, it really helps me to take a huge, complicated concept and encapsulate it into a phrase, the pithier the better. Sure, art is a “right-brained” activity, creative, non-verbal, existing in the flow of the moment; but without analytical tools painting would sooner or later become boring and repetitive.
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