Realism and Cubism Together or Apart

A great way to fully understand an art movement...

To have to paint the same subject matter realistically and then in that style.

It especially helped me to both both canvases at the same time.  I would take one object, paint it realistically then move to the other canvas and break and repaint it down cubist style.

I would know I was painting too long when I would accidentally mix up the canvases.  Not sure which one I prefer, but I can now tell you much more about cubism than I ever thought I would ver be able to.

Main take away, it is not as easy as it looks!

Cubistic and Realistic Still Life

A great study practice....my strategy is the paint the first object realistically, then use the leftover paint to paint the same object in a cubistic fashion on the other canvas...

Obviously these babies are still in progress...

Great Work from Winter 2017 Class!

What a fun time we had, painting, learning, solving all the world's problems...;)

These paintings certainly do not look like beginner level at all!

Fantastic work!

Click here it see the schedule for our next class!

Abstraction/Reality Part Deux!

So the art geek in me just cannot get enough of this looking waaaay up CLOSE to artwork and seeing the little abstractions in the BIG reality.  I blame (or thank) both Chuck Close with his gridded portraits of the 90s (zoom in close on one and see what I mean) as well as digital photography...

Yes it is such a geeky love of mine that I took about 1000 close ups photos of paintings in the louvre.  Just like these...

And yes sometime I spend my evenings just scrolling through them...

looking at them, I try to see the technique and palettes used, trying to guess what the artist was thinking and planning while creating their masterpiece ...

Forging for What? Aesthetic Experience vs. Financial Investment

Did you know that by some estimates, as much as 1 out of 3 pieces that you see in a museum are forgeries?

 In fact it is so prevalent that some museums are now hosting shows devoted to forged art!

Shocking, isn’t it?

Or is it?  Really?

Art forgeries are not as bad as say, terrorism, famine, and catastrophic illness... I think we would all agree. While it does sham many out of millions, could this be just a large scale buyer beware situation?

In fact, if you do not personally invest huge wads of $$$$ into the art market, it may actually be kind of intriguing...this Youtube video on the history of art forgery sum it up quite nicely.

This article from NPR puts an fresh perspective on it for the little museum goers, like you and me...Signature vs. Architecture in paintings (and other forgeries).   I really wish NPR still had the comments section for this one, would love to hear the overall reception of it.  It brings up a great point, should the average viewer really even care if it is a fake or not, should that come into play at all with the aesthetic interaction they are having with the piece right in front of them?

Happy Reading! And Pondering!

In Reality, It Is ALL Abstract!

And the scale!  Take this warm/cool study I just finished...

Here is the whole image, and it is fairly realistic by my standards of viewing and style of painting...

24"x18"

And now at super hyper close-up....

...these images are standing on their own...

                                                              ...but give a totally different feel

                                    ...even if you can tell which part of the big picture it is.

Try this the next time you see realistic large scale paintings, try to get as close as possible to see the abstractions...a wild way to interact with art!

Just Off the Easel...

Essential Tool for Political Discourse

22”x30"

Acrylic and graphite on paper

 not sure if this guy is political or not...

But I just had to comment on the political discourse I have heard in the last 16 months or so...

Not the content of it (that is much needed), but the style and method of it (which I feel is detrimental to achievement).

Busy Hands

I just kept thinking, what if all these debaters, FB posters, marchers, legislators and demonstrators had to do something constructively expressive with their hands while stating and debating their points? (and no typing does not count as constructive...think talk-to-text) Something that was NOT related to what was coming out of their mouths?

But what would those hands be busy doing?

Maybe using one of these things in my painting above...a mini zen garden.

We have a small one on the desk in my sun room at my house.  I also gave one to a high school counselor years and years ago.  And while many of us are probably think, “whoa Kathy, how is this constructive?  Playing with a zen garden is just frivolous fun or energy burn off.”  To which I say maybe, or maybe not.  Depends on the result of the conversation. 

High School Non-Drama

And back to that high school counselor, she told me that she put the zen garden on her desk at work thinking it would just look cool and that was about it. 

 But then something wonderful happened...

When her students came into see her, instead of only mumbled mono syllable responses...(well she still got those in the first few minutes)  while raking the mini zen garden for a while, these students starting talking.  Really talking. Telling her the below-the-surface stuff that was weighing on their young souls.  She said that cheap little novelty desk top toy made her job much easier because when they opened up like that, she knew how to help these students better.  

And a lot of time the deeper talk was the only thing these students needed.  

Political Therapy

I like to think of this zen garden as constructive mini art therapy in the moment.  Would love to send out about 1000 of these little guys to all the knee-jerk posters, marchers and politicians out there...

Whoever thought a plastic container with some sand and rocks  could make such a big positive difference?