Thursday, March 22, 2007

Art Watch






















As I've said before, I haven't been painting as much lately as I'd like... and I can't post the progress of the painting that I am working on due to the fact that the painting is a gift, and I don't want to spoil the surprise. With that said, I hate letting my blog sit for long periods of time without new posts. I've decided to begin posting images by artists that I like (in addition to my own work). I try to look at other artists' work for inspiration, but this is yet another thing that I wish I set aside more time for. So, maybe if I commit to doing an "Art Watch" post a few times a week, I'll be more disciplined about it. The painting above is called "Turning Road at Montgeroult," and it was painted in 1899 by Paul Cezanne. Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) is one of my ABSOLUTE favorite artists; I especially love his still lifes. I have a special affection for his paintings because I had one of my own painting "breakthroughs" when studying his work. Paul Hartley, one of my painting professors, was trying to get me to look at the edges of the objects in my paintings. They tended to be the same all the way around and offered nothing interesting. They also made the painting more flat and prohibited the eye from moving around with ease. He encouraged me to look at the way Cezanne painted the edges of his objects. In following the contour of just one apple, I could see him come in and go out of focus numerous times, and he also used multiple non-local colors around the edge that I find interesting. And sometimes, part of the edge of an object will completely disappear into the background behind it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

being uneducated in the world of art, i find posts like this quite interesting. i like when you explain some of the nuances. good post.