Saturday, September 29, 2012

Compare & Contrast : Seurat & Signac


Two of the paintings I found to be most interesting during my visit to The Metropolitan Museum of Art were Georges Seurat’s Study for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte and Paul Signac’s Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde (La Bonne-Mere), Marseilles. Both immediately caught my eye with their dynamic compositions and strong usage of color.  Also, I was excited to see work by Seurat because he was an artist that we had briefly discussed in class. 
Study for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte is exactly what it sounds like.  It is a preliminary oil painting describing the overall composition for A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. The most noticeable difference between this study and the complete painting is the way in which Seurat applied the paint to the canvas.  In the preliminary study the colors come together by way of short, patchy brush strokes.  While in the final work of art, the paint was applied in a more purposeful and systematic manner. His style of painting has come to be known as Pointillism or Divisionism.  It involves the placement of small touches of individual colors in close proximity to each other.  This allows the colors to blend in the eye of the spectator, giving the painting a brilliant and harmonious unification.
In comparison to Seurat, Signac delved even deeper into the methodology of Divisionism.  He focused on the division of light into components of pure color, arranging rectangular brushstrokes into mosaic-like patterns.  Also, due to the fact that he employed the use of unmixed pigments, the color of this painting is more luminous and vibrant that those of Seurat. 
Other than the style in which they were painted, what the two paintings have in common is quite obvious.  They share a fairly similar subject matter with both depicting calm, relaxing scenes near bodies of water.  Also, in areas, they demonstrate a shift in color from dark to light, creating depth and clear points of focus.

Study for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884
Georges Seurat
Oil on canvas
Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde (La Bonne-Mere), Marseilles, 1905-6Paul Signac
Oil on canvas

My Experience at The Metropolitan Museum of Art


Visiting The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City last Thursday was a blast.  I really enjoyed the experience and am so thankful for the opportunity!  I definitely hope to return again some day soon.

The sections of the museum that I most enjoyed were those that showcased European paintings (especially the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works).  I both literally and figuratively found myself lost in those particular galleries.  I felt so privileged to have to chance to view works by artists such as Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, Seurat, and Toulouse-Lautrec.  These are artists that I admire greatly and I loved being able to view all of the details and brushstrokes up close, and in person.  Although I have viewed many photographs of work by the above-mentioned artists, when in person, I felt as though I was seeing them with new eyes.  It was as if I were finally seeing them as they were meant to be seen.

Also, I was so excited to have to chance to travel through the “Regarding Warhol” exhibition! It is best described on The Met’s website: “Through approximately forty-five works by Warhol alongside one hundred works by some sixty other artists, Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years juxtaposes prime examples of Warhol's paintings, sculpture, and films with those by other artists who in key ways reinterpret, respond, or react to his groundbreaking work.”

*******************

Below are some of the photographs that I took with my iPad that day J

Terracotta amphoriskos (flask) in the form of a bird-man
Greek, late 5th century B.C.

Gold jewelry
Greek, 6th-5th century B.C.
Portrait of a Young Woman as a Vestal Virgin1767
Francois Hubert Drouais
Oil on canvas

Madame Grand (Noel Catherine Verlee, 1761-1835), Later Madame de Talleyrand Perigor, Princesse de Benevent
1783
Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun
Oil on canvas

Madonna and Child
Berlinghiero
Tempera on wood, gold ground

Still Life with Flowers and Fruit1629
Juan van der Hamen y Leon
Oil on canvas
 
St. Ives Bridge, St. Ives, Huntingdonshire
1895
William Fraser Garden
Watercolor, pen and gray ink, touches of gouache, over graphite

Works by Paul Siganc

The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer
1922
Edgar Degas
Bronze, partially tinted, with cotton skirt and satin hair ribbon


Works by Edouard Manet
Pastel on canvas

Jockey
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Pastel and gouache on paper

House on Fire
1981
James Rosenquist
Oil on canvas


Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Fire & Water Concepts

Our latest project in class is the fire and water panel project.  The goal is to produce a finished piece (12" x 24" in size) that employs various line qualities in black marker to express the organic elements of fire and/or water. 
Along with working to create a panel that meets the proper criteria, I am making a big effort to create a solid concept that will translate well to a viewer.
For my piece, I am exploring the properties of only water.  I am interested in the absence of water, as well as the destructive and powerful rushing force of it.  I am also seeking to describe a progression, or transition, between 3 emotions that will correlate to the drawn image. Emotions such as anxiety, peaked frustration, and explosive anger are those which I hope to put on display in my fire and water panel.
At the moment I am excited to continue developing the line work in my finished piece. Also, I enjoy seeing the growth and expansion of my ideas (from initial inspiration to thumbnail sketches to rough draft to final panel).

Below are a few of the photos that I initially drew inspiration from:










Saturday, September 15, 2012

Sketching It Out

Currently working on thumbnails for the fire and water panel project. Sketching out some ideas, trying to decide what direction I want to go in!



Optical Line Layouts

Top Left: Shape & Line
Top Right: Curvilinear
Bottom Left: Thick to Thin (ebb & flow of light to dark)
Bottom Right: Architectural