visual art 20
Impressionism & Conté
Impressionism is one of the most famous movements in art. European artwork prior to the impressionist period was (generally speaking) very realistic. Painters especially obsessed over capturing exactly what they saw. This is often talked about as an effort to do what the photograph so easily does - capture an image or likeness of a person, landscape, or scene. But that is a great oversimplification. No one can really look at a Rembrandt painting and associate his genius with the photograph. Painters were using oil paint in such a way as to truly capture life, obsessing over things like perfectly replicating the glow of skin. In any case, by 1862 realism in painting was an established principle and then the impressionists came along and toppled that idea.
Artists such as Claude Monet (1840-1926), Édouard Manet (1832-1883), and Edgar Degas (1834-1917) started painting in a way that was meant to capture the impression of the world around them, rather than a fixed scene. The wind in the trees, waves on water, the movement of a ballerina; all of these became important aspects of their painting. A few things helped with this of course. The advent of tubes of paint allowed artists to work en plein air (outside) rather than having to work in a studio where paint was painstakingly mixed. This meant artists could work directly from nature rather than sketching scenes and then re-creating the colours and the play of light from memory once they were back in their studio. Also the fact that their work was initially rejected and despised by critics and the public alike allowed the artists room to embrace their new "radical" painting ideas. They held their own shows and changed how we think about art-making to this day (it is ironic that impressionism gave rise to the avant-garde mode of working and pushing boundaries, while today many impressionist paintings are some of the world's most popular, with many considered priceless. They couldn't be more mainstream).
In 1874 Monet displayed the painting below, entitled Impressionism, Sunrise. The painting looks like a study an artist would do as they prepared for a more complete or polished work. But this was the painting that started a new way of painting the world. (Side note - did you know that the reason so many French impressionist painters were known for painting famous scenes from England is because the French painters were living abroad to flee the Franco-Prussian of1870-71? I didn't know that. But now I do, and so do you.) (Second side note - did you also know that the impressionist exhibitions included several women artists, one of the fist movements to promote and include the female perspective on an equal platform with male artists (took long enough...). Berthe Morisot is probably the most well known, check out a few of her paintings below as well.)
Below I've included some famous classic impressionist paintings. You can click on the images to see the full painting(s).
Notice a few things about the work? Look carefully at the brushstrokes these artists use. So loose and layered. Click over to the image of the girl reading. Look at the movement of the line, the way colours are piled on one another to create movement. You can feel the wind blowing through the leaves or grass behind her. Her hair is loose, and the pages of the book almost seem to be moving. This is what we are going to try and do in this project. We don't always need to try and make everything crisp and neat. Sometimes we want to be able to blend and layer a medium in a gestural way.
Now take a look at two contemporary artists creating impressionist landscapes. Erin Hanson is an American painter who works primarily in the U.S. and especially focuses on wide open areas and national parks. Randy Hayashi is a Canadian painter who lives and works in and around Edmonton and bases much of his imagery on his trips into the Rocky mountains. Take a look at their work.
Do you think these contemporary artists should belong amongst the impressionists of the past? What similarities and differences do you see when you compare the two groups of work? Which style do you prefer? If you could pick one piece to have in your home, which piece would it be? And where would you put it? Why?
The medium for this project is conté. Conté is a chalk-like stick that comes in a wide variety of colours. It can be blended with other colours to create your own unique look, but it can also layer one colour over another (Usually! Test to see if the colours you want to use layer well. For example, an orange colour may not go down well over, say, a red. But you may be able to layer the same red easily over the orange. Test first!) You'll notice conté is much firmer than chalk or chalk pastels, and sits much better on the paper. I'll provide you with some conté so you can see how it works.
We are also going to be using black paper for this assignment. I will provide you with a small 9x12" piece of black paper for the exercise, and a larger 18x24" piece of black paper for your project. The black paper and the conté are expensive so don't waste them! You have two chances with the paper, the front and the back. If you need to start over just flip your paper and give it another go. So don't write your name in huge letters across the back...
Exercise
In order to get the feel for the conté and the style of art we are looking at you are going to copy a work of art by a master. Spend some time Googling impressionist paintings and choose one you like. You can work off of your device or I can print the image for you (which is nicer). Try and replicate the mark making of the artist you chose. For example, go to the images above and click over to the Van Gogh painting. Look at how he uses dashed lines to create his scene. If you were using his pointing for your exercise, you would use those same dashed lines. Generally speaking you want to use your lighter colours first as well, but again check to see how they layer and blend first. You might not want to put down large areas of yellow, say, if you planned to later use a lot of blue (unless you like green. So much green...). Once you are done take a photo of your piece and send it to my email address. (or hopefully we are back in class and you can just call me over and show me).
Assignment
Once you've finished your exercise, it's time for your assignment. Your assignment is going to be based off of a photograph you have taken! It must be of a place you have been and saw with your own eyes and happened to have taken a photograph. This is because we aren't going to have the luxury of all going out during class to an area where we can work on our piece en plein air. Also, if you remember the impressionists ideas, they want to create a sense of the place they are painting. So you want to reflect for a bit on what it was like for you when you were at the location, and which aspects of your photograph you want to try and render. If you don't have a photo go out for a bike ride or a walk to any area around Moose Jaw and take a lot of photos. Be sure to include the sky! Interesting cloud formations help, you could capture sunrise/sunset images, include some trees near to you and also include the horizon as it recedes away from you into the distance. Try and take photos that are similar in composition to the art examples I've included, might help!
One you have your picture chosen, start thinking about how it will look using the media we're using. How might you change or alter the colours, layers, etc. to better give the viewer a real sense of the place? Think of your mark-making. How might you use dashes or short marks or blended layers to create that atmospheric effect. Have fun with it! Play around with the colours and shapes. Take pictures of your work as you go and send them to me for feedback or suggestions. As always consider your composition! You may not focus on the entire photograph, feel free to crop people/things out, or shift the image off center to better fit the rule of thirds. But make the piece your own, a reflection of a memory of a place.
Here's some student examples to help you out. Below are all done using conté on 18x24" black paper.
Photography & Portraits
Taking photographs of people, especially a posed sort of portrait, is tough. People often look uncomfortable on camera. Or they try really hard to smiiiiiiile. Or they make dumb faces or purse their duck lips out or or or...
So how do you take good portrait photography? How do you get people to look natural and relaxed - you know, the way we actually see them? We're going to try and tackle those questions with this project.
Go to this website - Portraits of our City. This is an art project which is based on taking black and white portraits of the residents of Indianapolis. The artists asked the people they were photographing one question:
Where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?
So here's what i'd like you to do. Get your phone (or camera if you have one) and change the setting to Black and White (it is probably a filter you can use). As a quick aside, black and white photography feels more timeless than colour photography. So let's try it.
Portrait, April 2020 Jamaica or Mexico
Portrait, April 2020 On a unicorn in a rainbow
Portrait, April 2020 Jamaica or Mexico
Choose your subject - anyone around you. It could be a family member but it could also be a friend, neighbor, anybody. Tell them you'd like to photograph them so they can prep themselves a bit (unless they are my daughter who just stays in her pajamas). Then sit them down somewhere with a plain background. Don't sit them too close to the wall behind them or it will seem to crowd the picture. A plain wall of any colour that has natural light coming in a window beside them would be ideal. The lighting really matters. If possible turn off the artificial lights wherever you are and use natural light, again positioning your subject so the light hits them from the side a bit. You will need to be a little closer to your subject then you might normally be. Get comfortable yourself, get your camera ready, and then ask them your question: Where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?
Take many pictures as they think about their answer and talk to you about it, don't rely on one single shot. You want to capture them acting much more naturally than if they were posed, with a stiff and strained smile. Take many many pictures and then choose the one you think best captures who they are as a person. Try and position your camera in your hand so you can snap away without looking at the camera. Look at and talk to your subject about their answer. Ask some follow up questions, give them prompts, keep them talking and thinking. The longer you spend talking with them the more relaxed they will be, and the more natural your photo will turn out. You could do this with your entire family and create a little album. Then, if you want to and your subjects agree, send them over to me and i will post them here.
Optional project extension:
A possible second part of this assignment could involve how we display the portrait. But we're going to have some fun with that part. Once you have your portrait chosen (or portraits - feel free to do more than one) send it to me and i will print it in a large format, 11"x17". I will get you the printed version, and you will also get a piece of white 18"x24" paper. You are going to decorate, colour, add text to, or in any way alter the 18x24 paper, and we are going to mount our photos on the background you create. You could simply add colour to the background. Or you could surround the portrait in pencil drawings. The idea is to use colours or images or doodles to reflect the person in the black and white photo. Gold ink and charcoal would look cool, like a gilt frame.
Fauvism
Ah fauvism! This project is for the students who love using colour. If you're a student who is still obsessed with pencil, how did you ever make it to my grade 11 art class? Fauvism is a very freeing style because it really allows you the artist to make decisions purely based on how colours will work together - the "real" means nothing to us for this one. The artist Paul Gauguin has a great quote that really sums up how we are going to work for the next couple weeks:
"If the trees look yellow to the artist, then painted a bright yellow they must be." - Paul Gauguin
Fauvism can be summed up as a movement in painting typified by the work of Matisse and other artists, and is characterized by vivid colors, free treatment of form, and a resulting vibrant and decorative effect. So technical. Really it just means that we are going to spend a lot of time looking at and thinking about creative, original and interesting ways to put colour on the page. Our medium for this one? Oil pastel!
Exercise
We have a simple exercise to et started with this project. You are going to take a piece of 8.5x11 white paper, and fold it in half. Oil pastels are expensive, so we want to be able to experiment with the idea of colour without using too much material, and if you work small it won't use up a bunch of time as you experiment with colour schemes.
Take a look at the exercise example below. You want to think of the colour wheel. Choose several colours that would be very close to each other on the colour wheel, and then choose one colour which would be directly across from your grouped colours. A contrasting colour that would add some pop to your piece. Simple.
This is a great example. Orange, red, pink would be very close on the colour wheel, and that slight hint of blue adds a great contrast and pop. Of course you can add black and white as they exist outside of the colour wheel (plus help frame and structure the piece). This is a perfect exercise. Do you see what it is?
Now look at this example. There a only a couple different blues used here, and where is the contrasting colour? This is a not great example. Well actually I'd make you do this again. It's pretty bad. Do you see the difference between this one and the first one? We need way more colour here!
Whoah but not this much colour... See on this one the student just picked colours from all over the colour wheel. It doesn't have any aesthetic, nothing seems to really work. The colours become too uncomfortable all mashed together. Now for a different project, sure maybe this would work. But not for this project. If you look just at the figure in the middle and ignore the background the exercise would be great.
Project
Let's take a look at some professional examples. Now, I've got some artists here who aren't technically considered Fauves, but I'm going to be honest with you - I'm not a huge fan of Henri Matisse. But I think the influence of the Fauves and their movement inspired many artists to create works that really encapsulate the values they were going for. take a look through and see what you think. (Full disclosure, the first painting below is one of my all time favorites - love the Kirchner). Pay careful attention to the use of colour. For your project you are obviously going to be able to use a wide array of colours. But for each segment of your piece make an effort to use the same strategy as the exercise - a range of colours near each other, contrasted against opposing colours. An effective strategy.
Student examples - every kid's favorite. The imaginary pressure of a looming and edited past.... All of the following were created on 18"x24" heavyweight white paper using a variety of oil pastels.
Surrealism & Graphite
I try not to push you too much in any one direction with the pencil projects as I'd like you to be able to work on something that is your own. If you have an idea you really want to do, or a picture you've taken that you'd really like to draw, you should go for it. But if you are struggling for an idea, here's what i suggest.
Surrealism was a movement in art focused on dreams. Salvador Dali is perhaps the best known surrealist artist, and it is probably a good idea to take a look at some of his paintings before we go too much further.
Essentially the Surrealist artists were interested in exploring our subconscious mind - one way to do this is to think about our dreams. This gives you two ways to think about this project: the first, you could spend time looking at the style these artists worked in and think about how you could use aspects of that style in your own work; or second (and maybe more fun), you could keep a pen and paper next to your bed for the next couple of nights and whenever you wake up make a point of jotting down whatever comes to mind. Maybe an image in a dream you had or even just strange ideas that pop into your mind. These notes (which will likely be pretty nonsensical when you read them later) can be a great way to start shaping a composition. Had a dream about a lion chasing you one night, and the next night you were for some reason flying? Maybe look up some lion photography and draw it in a sky. It doesn't need to make sense, but it might be really interesting.
Of course, you could also just draw a photograph you really like. Your call!
Ok, so stay with me here, but let me give you a look at surrealism and why it is such a famous art movement. The image below is NOT a surrealist painting. It is a painting by a French painter named Jean-François Millet done between the years 1857-1859. What a nice painting! But what is going on with the two people in the painting? Look carefully and think about it.
The Angelus, Jean-François Millet, 1857-59
Now there are several interpretations of the relationship between these two people (husband and wife, two peasants pausing at work, family members, etc.). But given the steeple in the distant background, it was widely believed that the two peasants - no matter their relationship - were pausing at work to say a simple prayer as the church bells rang in the distance.
But Salvador Dali saw this painting and said, "No". These two people are obviously mourning the loss of a child, and are posed as if they are at a graveside, tragically sorrowful. Look at the painting again - do you agree?
Dali was so certain of this that he insisted the painting be x-rayed to see what might be painted beneath the surface. And it turns out - there is a small rectangular box painted directly below the two figures, under the layers of paint making the ground and potato basket, and both figures have their heads bent as if they are addressing the box/coffin. Could Dali have been right?? Are these two sad peasants saying a prayer over their deceased child? Did the artist paint a coffin and then literally bury the coffin under the layers of paint on top? If so, wow. What a painting. In any case, how does this relate to surrealism?
Well, Dali made the painting below in 1933 and called it Archeological Reminiscence of Millet's 'Angelus' - take a look at it below.
Archeological Reminiscence of Millet's 'Angelus', Salvador Dali, 1933
Dali paints a strange, dreamlike image of the scene depicted in the original Millet work. The figures are rendered as ruins. The landscape is empty and barren, but still strangely atmospheric. There are many layers of meaning created by Dali, not all of which we will get into here. Nonetheless, this is a great example of an artist creating an artwork based on the lingering memory and impression a classic painting made on his mind.
If you'd like to take a strange voyage into this painting, watch the interactive video below made by the Dali museum. You can use the directional buttons to look around "inside" the painting. And then go work on your surrealist drawing!
Surrealist Artwork
Student Examples
Here are some student examples to give you a sense of the project. All of these are created on 18"x24" paper, using 6B pencils and 6B graphite sticks (and blending sticks, which are the worst).
Acrylic Painting
So you made it to grade 11, and now it's time to learn how to paint with acrylics... In my opinion, there's just no way around it - painting is a little tricky to learn how to use. The most important thing is to be patient - often you will be asked to work in layers, incorporate underpainting techniques, and maybe even use some glazing to adjust your colour tones. Lots of stuff to learn! But in order to focus mostly on technique and certainly in order to avoid your at-times exasperating obsession with the real, we will look at - and be inspired by - abstract expressionist painters. Of course, it's a big world out there, so I'll throw you some modern painters embracing a more abstract style as well.
Before all that though, check out the painting below.
Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase No.2, 1912 (57.9 in × 35.1 in)
Here there is an attempt by Duchamp to capture motion. Although not considered an abstract expressionist piece (predating the movement by decades), I still think the piece is a good introduction. How does the artist capture motion in a static medium such as paint? Duchamp's piece is one interesting solution. Likewise, how does an artist capture emotion in paint? Time? Suffering? Wind blowing through trees? The problem is the same - paint is fixed and unmoving, but so often the artist is concerned with capturing something that is the opposite.
Take a look at some abstract paintings. You could choose to focus first on the use of colour and technique. Or maybe for you it's the emotive quality of the painting. Whatever the case, view the work with an open mind.
The post-WWII world saw an explosion in the abstract expressionist movement. The artists all worked in the style for different reasons, and often were not particularly affiliated with one another. Uncovering their process is your next step. Choose a couple of the paintings above and head over to the website The Art Story and see if you can find your artist on there. This website is great because it will include quotes - this is key. For the project you're going to do in acrylic paint, you are going to choose a quote from an abstract expressionist painter. The quote is going to be the thing you use as inspiration for your piece. Not copying the style, or the colours. The reason for making your piece is the idea contained in the words of the artist. Make sense?
One thing about the artists above is they were all working quite a few years ago. Here is an artist who also works in the abstract style we're looking for, but is a contemporary to us. Miska Mohmmed, an artist from Sudan. Check these out:
Exercise
In order to learn some of the techniques required to paint with acrylic effectively, we're going to use the image below as an exercise. The first step is to gesso your paper. I like to use bristol board to paint on - not the glossy stuff, just a nice heavy weight matte bristol board. You are going to put one nice smooth layer of gesso across your page, painting only in one direction. You could let it dry, then add another layer of gesso working in the opposite direction. This will give your paper a similar texture to canvas. It will also help it stay flat as you paint on it. But since this just an exercise, one layer of gesso is good. Now you'll need to take a look at the example for the next steps.
The image above is what we are going to try and copy for our exercise. This is a high school student painting of Edgar Allan Poe (which i took from some art textbook a long time ago, so I can't cite my source, sorry random high school kid.... But good job!) In any case, the reason we use this one is because it is an excellent example of how to use an underpainting. The first step to this piece is to paint the entire background black (or slightly off-black, maybe add a touch of blue). Then if you look carefully you'll notice that the black details in the face, the hair, and the coat are not painted in at the end - they are always there as an underpainting. The first brush stroke you will start with is the nose. The mustache and upper lip are left unpainted - the painting of the face reveals the lip and mustache. Similarly, the bluish-grey outer colour is added around the face, and now you have hair. It stops where the coat starts, and now there's a coat. Get it? The underpainting is used as all the black areas.
I only really buy primary colours in the acrylic, so you will be mixing your own versions of the pinkish face (red and white obviously, but notice the slight purple tinge? Add a tiny bit of blue. See that slight peach tone? Add a tiny bit of yellow to your pink). The back ground is a mix of white, black and blue. I'll show you how to lay out your palette in class, and how to use a palette knife to properly mix your colours (Hint: don't make one big pile of pink! You'll mix a range of whitish pinks all the way down to a dark pink, adding that touch of blue on the extreme edge of your dark pink so you have a purplish colour as well). This is tough to explain but easy to demonstrate - i'll make a video someday to add here. Or just come to class (the best option).
Project
Now on to the project! Even though we spent a lot of time looking at abstract paintings, we're going to look at some more pop art style work as well. How you paint your project is up to you - i'll give you some suggested steps for process, but the level of abstraction vs. a more pop art style is totally up to you.
Elaine de Kooning, portrait of a scowling Robert de Niro, Sr., 1973
Above you can see a really cool painting by Elaine de Kooning. Note to expressive brushstrokes that surround and fill out the painting of the fairly realistic face. Maybe you want to lean into a style similar to this.
Below is a series of work from Cody Burt Creative. Although these are digital works they are an updated spin on the work of Andy Warhol. I've got a famous Andy Warhol painting first, and then some of the Cody Burt work next. Check them out - do you want to work more in this style?
Student Examples
All of the student examples below are done on 18"x24" gessoed paper. Note the range of styles the different students chose for their paintings.
Art Nouveau
Ah, compressed charcoal. So dark. So easy to blend. So fun... Compressed charcoal is a great medium, offering maximum range between dark (pressing hard with the charcoal creates an incredibly matte, dark black) and pure matte white (assuming you chose white paper). Compressed charcoal is also very easy to blend, requiring nothing more than your finger to create a range of greys. This range allows for a versatility and dramatic effect that few other media offer. One downside? Very messy. To get started, we're going to try and draw a realistic eye in compressed charcoal on white paper. Try and make your eye about the size of your open hand - don't make it too small. Use the video below to help, via Stan Prokopenko. (He also has a series of video tutorials you can check out).
The style known as Art Nouveau was hugely influential. Artists such as Aubrey Beardsley, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and perhaps most famously Gustav Klimt made artwork that combined aspects of the craft and design worlds with more traditional painting and artmaking techniques, resulting in a "New Art" that really became the precursor to modern art trends.
We are going to create a piece taking aspects of Art Nouveau and making them our own. The media for this piece will be compressed charcoal as per the exercise, and we are going to use the charcoal to render any human aspect semi-realistically. So hands, feet, faces, eyes, skulls, bones - any human anatomy. We are then going to use a combination of mixed media to think about design elements including patterns. You are going to add some life and fun to your image using metallic paints, acrylic paint for some colour, and/or metallic oil pastels.
Below are some examples of Gustav Klimt's work. Note the use of human features combined with flattened, patterned areas. Also - that gold!
Below are some student examples of this project. All of these are on 18"x24" paper and are a mix of media including compressed charcoal, acrylic paint, metallic inks, and metallic oil pastels.
Watercolour & India Ink
Watercolour and India ink s a great media combination that lets you take advantage of watercolour's ability to give you bright colours, while also giving you the crisp details of a nib and India ink. The exercise for watercolour is below.
Here are some student examples of this project. All of these are 18"x24" on140lb watercolour paper. The students put down all the colours first, let their work dry, then added India ink using an assortment of nib sizes and occasionally brushes (but mostly using nibs).
Artist Study
The artist study is an independent project you will do in grade 11 and grade 12. It is a very straightforward project that allows you to become familiar with an artist of your choice, their life and their artwork. This is a presentation you will put together for me only - it is not expected that you share this with the class. If you would like to present your artist, or if you would like me to share your artist with the class on your behalf, of course you will be able to. The outline is below.