artamaze by Katherine Hilden

Finished and Still Edgy

Posted in Achievement, Composition, Cropping, inspiration, Seeing, Still life, tagged composition, matting decisions, space perception, still life drawing on July 28, 2020| Leave a Comment »

HoyaCleanMatLine

Look what happened with the sketch we talked about a few days ago.

Two posts ago we said the sketch felt modern because it was unbalanced, incomplete, surprising and edgy.

Now look how the asymmetrical composition –the most fundamental decision the artist made—maintains that modern feeling. Still surprising and edgy!

I think the mat needs to make a clean window, rather than showing the drawing fading out into white paper.

Here it is with fuzzy edges so that you can see what I mean.

Hoya

Stay with this question of edges for a while. See if you can articulate for yourself why you like one version better than the other. Is it about your perception of space? Do you feel closer to this scene in one version than in the other? Do you have a greater sense of “presence” in one version than in another?

Crop that Plant and Mat it

Posted in Composition, Cropping, Imagination, inspiration, literalness, Negative space, Still life, Technique and Demo, tagged drawing, edgy, Incompletion, matting, modern, placement on paper, unbalanced on July 23, 2020| 1 Comment »

Hoya1

Same plant. More daring.

I call this view of the plant more daring because it’s not centered.

When the object of your gaze is not centered, you’re likely think it is…

not traditional

unbalanced

incomplete

unexpected

surprising

edgy

engaging

modern

Which of these stands out because it contains all the others?

If you say “modern” you might be running a gallery or ready to start one.

If you say “engaging” your insight goes to the heart of the matter. Because the drawing is incomplete, unbalanced, surprising, etc, you sit up and pay attention. The viewer is challenged to participate in completing the view of the plant. The art experience becomes a conversation. That’s how we as moderns relate to art.

This drawing also says “incomplete.” We see it as a work in progress. That’s how we experience conversations when we’re in them.

For that reason we want to see the marks on paper as just that, marks on paper. We can see that more marks may come. Therefore we want to see the paper as paper with all the sense of potential that that implies: show the unmarked edges when you mat it. See above.

The sharp edge of the mat, announcing this drawing is finished, conveys a misleading feeling. Do you agree?

Hoya1CleanMat

Just a Plant

Posted in Achievement, Composition, Negative space, Seeing, Still life, Technique and Demo, tagged house plant, intense focus, light reflection, negative space, still life drawing on July 16, 2020| 2 Comments »

Hoya2

You have a plant in your house. Draw it.

It’s so ordinary. And so interesting.

The light reflects differently from the leaves. Some leaves appear very dark; some almost vanish in the intense light.

Pay attention to the spaces between the leaves: the distinction between positive and negative space evaporates.

You’re seeing shapes. Sit still in your quarantine room and see this play of shapes in front of you. Dark, light, dark, light.

Never seen anything like it before. No idea what this thing is called. Words fail you. Who needs words. You are drawing.

Could it be, that intense focus is our greatest pleasure?

Hoya2

Drawing by Mary Shieldsmith. Graphite on paper, 18” x 12”

And Now a Message from the Mat

Posted in Composition, Cropping, Imagination, Seeing, Still life, Technique and Demo, tagged Chardin Still Life, Homage to Chardin, Katherin Hilden, Matting a drawing on July 14, 2020| 2 Comments »

103ClassMOIChardin2

Working on a drawing is a kind of conversation. It’s an interaction between the artist and her materials, her graphite sticks, erasers, paper texture and size. When you’re in the process you may not think of it as a conversation because you’re so involved, but later, when you’re asked to verbalize what it feels like, you may analogize it to a conversation. Then the conversation comes to a conclusion and you call the work finished.

You think you’re finished when your drawing is finished.

But then a whole other conversation starts. Now the mat has to put in its two cents. It says, here or…here? Do you want to have a clean edge with the mat overlapping the pencil marks (see above) or do you want to show how the pencil marks fade into the blank drawing paper (below)?

103ClassMOIChardin1

You can see that the feeling is quite different.

In class I showed both versions. The consensus was in favor or version two, the pencil marks fading into the blank drawing paper. The students had no difficulty articulating why they liked this version better.

Well, what is the difference in feeling?

The question will come up again, soon. It’s worth reflecting on with more examples to consider.

Drawing by Katherine Hilden. Homage to Chardin. Graphite and white conté on toned paper, 18”x26”

Matisse, Picasso and Gilot

Posted in Achievement, Composition, Imagination, inspiration, Still life, tagged Francoise Gilot, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Red Onions, still life painting, Vence Chapel on July 5, 2020| Leave a Comment »

RedOnions

The painter Françoise Gilot met Picasso in 1943. They lived together from 1946 to 1953, dividing their time between Paris and the south of France, where they paid frequent visits to Matisse, who lived nearby. Her book Matisse and Picasso, a Friendship in Art (1990) gives us a glimpse into how hard everybody worked.

Both Picasso and Matisse are world famous and immeasurably wealthy by this time. What impresses me as I read this book is that neither of them is interested in fame, interviews or paparazzi. During their visits they talk about art. Matisse is working on an extensive project for the Vence Chapel, designing textiles and murals. When Picasso and Gilot get home they are back at their easels, painting late into the night.

At the beginning of the chapter entitled A Merry-Go-Round of Objects we see a photo of objects often used in Matisse’s still-life paintings.

MatissePots

Gilot writes:

In the twentieth century, with the decline of historical and religious painting, the end of the Symbolist movement, and the freedom of choice in subject matter, still lifes reached equal status with other themes or nonthematic works, and great painters renewed this form of art and brought it to new heights.

From the start Matisse recognized the importance of still lifes in his own development. He copied one of books and a candle from a composition by Chardin and others from deHeem. (p.145)

Being an artist is so easy. All you need is a few ordinary pots and the perseverance to paint all day and late into the night.

Henri Matisse, 1869-1954

The Red Onions, 1906

Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973

Françoise Gilot, b. 1921

https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/table-desserts

Matisse’s Big Riff

Posted in Achievement, Color, Composition, Illustration, Imagination, inspiration, Seeing, Still life, Technique and Demo, tagged chiaroscuro, color, Dutsch still life, Henri Matisse, Jan de Heem, perspectice, Renaissance, the Louvre on June 20, 2020| Leave a Comment »

In 1915 Matisse, at the age of 45, painted his variation on Jan de Heem’s “A Table of Desserts.” The Dutch still life, 80 inches long, depicts heaps of fruit and pies on an enormous table, accompanied by a lute and decorative objects, in front of some architectural structures that are partly obscured by, what else, a swath of red-maroon drapery. The image is a fantastic, exuberant invention. You can say those grapes are so realistically painted, they make your moth water. Not to mention that gashed-open pie. Imagine standing in front of this huge painting, being entranced by its realism.

Now shake your head and tell yourself to wake up. This is not realism. Every object in this painting is painted to seduce you into thinking it’s real, but the whole pile of stuff, wall to wall, is assembled in the most contrived way. Ask yourself what it would take to construct this scene out of three-dimensional material.

So, it’s not realism. It’s a construction. And all the more wonderful for being an invention! That was 1640.

Now in 1915 Matisse sees this painting at the Louvre and feels so drawn to it that he has to do his own riff on this fantastic composition. He will paint his own invention inspired by de Heem’s invention. Why not! It’s the 20^th century!

Matisse’s painting is also big, about 6 feet long. I saw this a few years ago when the Art Institute of Chicago had a Matisse show. Breathtaking.

Let’s play with this.

Stare at Matisse’s painting so that you see only

-the yellow areas

-the blues & greens

-the red bits

-the black

-where lines converge

-curved lines

-straight lines

This takes time. Don’t rush. Do this over several days.

Now notice that yellow, orange and red come forward in the picture plane. The cool colors—blue and green—recede. Practice seeing that. Stay with it. Some colors come forward, some recede, and what you get is a sense of depth. Foreground, background, transition. It’s powerful.

He does this without any of the techniques perfected in the Renaissance, which he knew very well. No perspective, no chiaroscuro.

When you look at Matisse, you’re contemplating the painting and your own contemplation. It’s a bit much, isn’t it.

Ah, Matisse!

Henri Matisse, 1869-1954

Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 1606 -1684

http://www.blogmuseupicassobcn.org/2015/11/the-inhabitants-of-the-museum-las-meninas-2/?lang=en

Riffing on Chardin

Posted in Achievement, Composition, Imagination, inspiration, Roundness, Still life, Technique and Demo, tagged Chardin, ecole des Beaux Arts, Las Meninas, le riff, Matisse, Paris, peonies, Picasso, Selina, still life, Velazquez on June 17, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Copying an admired work of art is a highly recommended exercise for any art student and for any artist at any age. We know that as a student Matisse spent many days at the Louvre copying paintings, by Chardin, for example, and that he continued the practice as a mature artist.

Or take Picasso. In 1957 Picasso—at the age of seventy-six—did more than fifty variations (“riffs”) on Velazquez’ Las Meninas, a painting he greatly admired.

So when we took Chardin’s Still Life with Peaches and Mug (Cup) as our subject for study we were following an honorable tradition.

One of the students in that class copied and then riffed on the motif by plopping a hand full of peonies into the mug. Peonies? Or a riff on peonies? Pure invention!

You may think the peonies are a decorative embellishment, an indulgence of prettiness.

But I think this is witty. I see drama. It’s the centripetal vs the centrifugal.

The cluster of fruit with pear and peaches reads like a classic still life, perfectly executed as if were a 19^th century submission for entrance into the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. It is serene and balanced, rendering the spheres convincingly three-dimensional with faithful observation of shadow gradations and reflected light.

If you try to stay centered in this serenity, good luck, because the turbulence at the right is coming to get you.

The petals of the peonies are as exquisitely articulated as the peaches, but they are of a different vitality. Where the round fruits say “centripetal density,” the peony petals are centrifugally chaotic.

Notice that the flower petals do not touch the fruit. The student/artist shows us these ordinary objects arranged on a shelf, fruit and flowers, but they are of two different domains. The knife cuts right through the divide. If the flower petals overlapped the fruit spheres, this “still life with fruit and flowers” would be just what you’d expect, harmonious. It would be uneventful.

At its best, the work of copying an admired painting is not an act of obedience, but a conversation. My guess is that Chardin would enjoy this conversation and would encourage more of “le riff” on his paintings.

Drawing by Selina, graphite on paper, 12”x18”

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/sit-perfectly-still-be-moved/

Chardin

Posted in Composition, Seeing, Still life, Technique and Demo, tagged Boucher, composition, Gainsborough, golden section, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Louis XV, Madame de Pmpadour, Rococo, Versaille on June 15, 2020| Leave a Comment »

101fChardinStillLife

The previous six drawings were derived from this painting by Chardin. To help us see composition and form without being charmed by the color, I had black-white Xerox copies for everybody to work from.

101eChardinStillLifeBW

We immediately noticed that there was a triangle implied in the arrangement of peaches and cup (green line), giving these random objects a solid organization.

101eChardinStillLifeBWGreenLine

We had encountered the triangle in the Gainsborough landscape. https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2019/09/07/markmaking-with-gainsborough/

While the arrangement of peaches from small to large takes your eye from left to right, the knife disappearing behind the peaches leads the eye from right to left into the middle of the composition. We also noticed the crack in the table top which adds interest to that horizontal line.

That was enough to organize the students’ seeing and, without further analysis, we immersed ourselves in the drawing process.

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) painted scullery maids and piles of kitchen stuff. He seems to have been a quiet, stubborn character who paid no attention to the Versailles aristocracy at a time when satin and wigs were the only things worth painting. The style preferred by the aristocracy in the mid-18^th century is called Rococo and I’ll show one painting to illustrate the boneless frivolity of that aesthetic: Boucher’s portrait of Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV’s mistress.

BoucherMmPompadour

Now imagine an artist trying to make a living in Paris by insisting that a woman cleaning turnips was a subject worth painting. She looks up from her drudgery in a moment of reflection. WomanTurnips

How can you not like Chardin. He must have had a “whadaya-lookin-at” sense of humor, depicting himself in some get up to keep out the damp weather without any regard for heroic pretentiousness.

selfportrait

Getting back to analyzing his still life, I could not find the Golden Section as such in this painting, but he has two perfect squares (pink and red) which hold this composition together and make it compelling to look at.

101eChardinStillLifeBWGoldenSec

For a review of the Golden Section, see https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/the-golden-section-in-beas-painting/

For more insights into how still life paintings work:

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2012/12/25/still-life-a-misnomer/

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/still-life-momento-mori/

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/still-life-with-doll/

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/turbulent-still-life/

The six student drawings derived from Chardin’s painging:

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/still-life-with-peaches-pear-and-cup-1/

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2020/05/13/still-life-with-peaches-pear-and-cup-2/

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2020/05/14/still-life-with-peaches-pear-and-cup-3/

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2020/05/15/still-life-with-peaches-pear-and-cup-4/

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2020/05/16/still-life-with-peaches-pear-and-cup-5/

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2020/06/08/4044/

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/still-life-with-peaches-pear-and-cup-1/

Frame That!

Posted in Achievement, Imagination, inspiration, Negative space, Seeing, Semiotics, Still life, Therapy, tagged Chelsea, cup, Incompletion, peaches, pears, still life on June 8, 2020| 1 Comment »

You’re visiting your dear friend Chelsea for tea and catching up. Her house is as interesting and welcoming as always. You love the nuanced color combinations, the witty juxtaposition of antiques and glass-with-chrome and the good jazz coming from the far corner of the bookcase. Then you notice a new art work. It’s a still life nicely framed with a generous museum-grade 4” mat.

Two possibilities:

One, you’re taken aback, you don’t know what to say and you try not to stare. You think something has happened to dear Chelsea. She seems like her old self, speaks in complete sentences, with her usual intelligent sense of humor, shows interest in your life, remembers everything and converses as gracefully as always. But what’s up with that drawing there? It’s not finished!!! How could she! What kind of person frames an unfinished drawing!! How irresponsible! Uncivilized! Disrespectful! Better watch her closely. Has she been drinking? Was she on something all these years you’ve known her and now suddenly she’s gone cold turkey?

Two, you’re thrilled, excited, inspired, uplifted and liberated by this incompletion. You and Chelsea smile quietly. No need for verbalizations, for explanations, for theories or for questions. It’s all there. Conversation flows, cups tip and click.

Later, alone at home on your computer, you review the last few posts of the artamaze blog. You scroll down at the other drawings of this kitchen still life with peaches, pears and cup. At the sight of every one of these drawings you jump up and shout out loud, “FRAME THAT!”

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2020/05/13/still-life-with-peaches-pear-and-cup-2/

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2020/05/14/still-life-with-peaches-pear-and-cup-3/

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2020/05/15/still-life-with-peaches-pear-and-cup-4/

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2020/05/16/still-life-with-peaches-pear-and-cup-5/

http://www.katherinehilden.com