Art Blog

Sorry about the late post this week! Monday’s class we will begin to explore Modern Landscapes! From Monet’s impressionist landscape paintings focusing on the effects of spontaneous light; Cezannes Le Mont Saint -Victoire and Van Gogh’s post impressionist paintings; the colourful landscapes of the Fauve Artists,  Matisse and Andre Derain to Post Modernism and Contemporary Artist we will explore what, why and how of Landscape painting.

Project:

1. Choose an artist and genre of painting who’s landscape paintings inspire you.
2. Choose a landscape image, photograph or drawing or past painting that intrigues you.
3. Divide your image into it’s largest defined shapes ( see how few shapes you can reduce the image to without abstracting the content).
4. Allocate a value from 1 to 6 for each of your landscape shapes.
5. Allocate a distinct color for each of your landscape shapes.

When reducing your image to it’s fewest shapes - give consideration to varying the size, scale and direction of your shapes. Vary the value in your shapes from one shape to it’s neighbor, and consider colour temperature when allocating colours to those shapes.

See you all on Monday

Papblo Picasso

For Mondays class I would ask you all to come prepared with surface either primed watercolor paper, board or canvas, no smaller than 11 x 14 and no larger than 16 x 20. Feel free to bring several prepared surfaces textured in a variety of ways. In the last class we looked at samples of Christiane, where she had applied silica sand, plaster spackle, collaged fabrics, cheese cloth, twin amongst other things from a simply as using gesso to create a textured background.

In this class we will look at still life through the eyes of two giants of modern art. Cezanne and Picasso! Our two week assignment will be to create a modern still life using some of the techniques we explored in our investigation of abstract painting or apply painting approaches of one of the great masters of modern art. For class discussion we will look at Cezanne ( who Picasso regarded as the grandfather of modern art) and Picasso himself who many art historians believe is the single most important painter of the modern age. We will focus on Cubism as painting approach created by Picasso and Baraque marking a significant turning point in art history; reinventing our perception, the possibilities and understanding of Modern Art.

You may wish to explore still life by other artist if you choose. We will have a still life set up in the studio for students to walk around and explore shapes, colour and space or you may choose to bring in reference material which inspires you.

See you in class on Monday!

Mark

I am a big fan of Charlie Rose interviews as he regularly features curators of contemporary exhibitions please see some of the links below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op4QQ1Wo7eY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJGpMYtXHS4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf1Mn0gDVrA

This week we will focus on the elements of design with a strong focus on colour and it’s place in abstract art. To understand the impact of design elements in terms of visual communication one must consider the the viewers perspective of this visual information ” Human Perception”.

How do we perceive visual information? Well that is not a simple question to answer as human perception is not a constant. There are many influences which determine how we see and interpret visual information; there are cultural influences, economic influences, sexual influences etc. For simplicity; this discussion we will set aside the physical mechanics of how our eyes and brains actually translate light into visual information and we will focus the aspects of human perspective that are more generalized. So we will deal with Norms of Human perception and in this format I should add …. rather superficially.

In the visual picture plane large shapes appear closer than small shapes ( all other elements being equal), in other words we perceive the larger shapes appear nearer to us than the smaller shapes. Dark shapes appear closer than light shapes, shapes lower on the picture plan appear closer than ones higher in the picture plan. The shape of a circle is calming, the square strong and rigid, the triangle implies direction; Straight lines make our eyes travel across the picture plan faster than curved lines. We will look at more of these as we explore other relational design elements and how they effect visual problem solving.

Please consider that not all the elements of design are constant and that there are many other components influencing human perception. For example : In Western cultures we have a preference for visually entering the picture plan from the left, conversely in Japanese culture, influenced through reading from right to left would tend more to enter the picture plan visually from the right. It fair to say that men have a different perspective than women based on their life experience and cultural influences and religion, politics, age can have a large impact on our perception.

Basic human instincts play a huge role in understanding human perception. Modern art has embraced these ideas and with the maturing of psychology and the theories of Sigmund Freud the last hundred years in painting have illustrated this relationship like no other time in the history of art. Matisse and the Fauves were instrumental in exploring these relationships in particular with psychology of colour. Abstract expressionism focused on emotional response to visual yet non representational information. The relationship between the elements of design to human perception are in visual literacy what reading and writing are to literature

Think of the elements of design as visual grammar.

Relational Elements: These two elements of design hold a special place for me in visual literacy because they exemplify my ideas about composition and visual communications. They are the most integral components of design and I refer to them as the Yin-Yang elements. These elements I refer to a relational elements because they are dependent on the visual elements

Contrast: the juxtaposition of opposing elements : light vs dark - large vs small - warm vs cool etc.

Balance: is the consideration of visual weight of opposing elements:

Visual Elements:

Line: can be considered as a continuous mark (or marks) along the picture plane

Shape: self contained defined area within the picture plane

Value: or tone is the relative lightness or darkness of any element existing within the picture plane

Texture: is the surface quality of the shape, texture can be physical (tactile) or visual

Form: refers to volume or size … any element occupies within the picture plane

Colour: also referred to as Hue

Design Principles (for in class discusion)

Emphasis

Harmony

Unity

Variety

Depth

repitition

movement

Colour: Colour also refered to as Hue is the most closely related element to Human emotion - We will dedicate the majority of our in class discussion around issues or colour. Here is some terminology

Hue: Colour title “blue” “green” etc.

Tone: the inherent value of the Hue

Croma: the purity of a colour relative to it’s intensity or saturation

Colour Tempature: the appearance of colours to be warm or cool

Tint: the variation of colour obtained by adding white

Shade: the variation of colour obtained by adding black

Primary: Colour which can not be mixed or formed by any other combination of colours. All other colours are derived from these three: Cyan, magenta, Yellow

Secondary: the sum of any two primary colours mixed together : Green, Orange, purple

Tertiary: or Nuetral colour are made when all three primaries are mixed together

Complimentary: Colour opposite on the colour wheel

Analogous: Colour relationships close together on the colour wheel

For our next class we will be exploring abstract art (the visual language of form, color and line creating a composition which exists independently of literal visual references.) We will approach this by exploring a combination of painting or mark making techniques, experimenting with colour and texture and design. Class discussion will focus in yin/yan and the visual elements of design. Don’t worry you will find out what all this means on Monday.

In addition to the basic acrylic list posted earlier - there are many other items students may wish to assemble before class on Monday below are some ideas you may want to experiment with. For the students working in other mediums take you lead from the list below and try and apply it to your chosen medium. I will be providing Hi-line illustration board for the watercolour painters and 140lb watercolour paper pre-painted with white gesso for the other students.

Please post comments or questions (see below)

Mark Making instruments:

wooden skewers; old credit cards, plastic wrap. sponges, plastic utensils, brayer’s, foam rollers, exact o knife, straws, hair comb, charcoal, wax crayon, old tooth brush, kitchen scrub pads, sand paper.

Collage and pattern aids

rags, fabrics, newsprint, magazine cuttings, rice papers,paper doilies, cheese cloth, silica sand, string,

Mediums

Gesso, Modeling paste, Gel medium, Spackle,

other ideas:

Spritzer bottle for water, scissors

Festival in Carmona

We arrived Back from Spain September, 19th … Wow what an experience! Our group kept very busy as Spain has so much to offer from the unique historic monuments like Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and Alhambra in Granada to the World class Galleries in Madrid. No doubt the highlight from a painting percpective was the sleepy Spanish white hilltop village of Carmona which was our home for a glorious week of painting and lounging by the pool.

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ACRYLIC PAINTING Supply List

This list is designed to give beginner painters all they need to get started at a reasonable price. If you have any question with understanding this list please don’t hesitate to visit our store in Steveston Village (Students registered in the Workshop classes will receive a minimum of 10% off all their supply needs)

Here are some good and inexpensive options for acrylic painting palettes

Disposable palette: these waxed vellum Pads are Cheap and easy … no cleaning just toss the whole thing out when you are done and start a fresh sheet when your ready to paint again.

Plastic or Styrofoam Plates: make sure you get the large one so you have lots of space to put paint out.

Tri Art Non-stick Palette: This is what I use as I love the convenience and has low environmental impact.. a little more expensive than the other options

Other: traditional artist pallets come in wood or plastic, the lids from gallon ice cream containers as well as a ¼” thick piece of tempered glass with sanded edges ( all be it heavy)

Brushes: A wide variety of brushes is a good idea although it should be said that acrylics are notoriously hard on brushed ..so don’t spend the earth on them

Ø Round Natural or Blended # 6

Ø Round Synthetic or Bristle # 10

Ø Flat Hog #6

Ø Flat Hog #10

Ø Large Flat 2” – 3” Bristle

Palette Knife

Newspaper and Rags (for cleaning brushes and palette)

Charcoal - Willow Stick

4b – 8 b pencils

Acrylic Matte or Gloss Medium

Water Container

Pigments

Choose one or two pigment from each group of colours. To get the most benefit from these classes, please have at least one colour pigment from each group.

Acrylic Paints

Ø Titanium White

Ø Cadmium Yellow Light, Lemon Yellow or Windsor Yellow

Ø Cadmium Yellow Medium, Naples Yellow or Yellow Ochre

Ø Ultramarine, Cobalt or Windsor Blue

Ø Phthalo , Prussian, or Cerulean Blue

Ø Alizarin Crimson , Permanant Rose or Rose Madder,

Ø Cadmium Light, Medium, Vermillion, Grumbacher Red

Ø Sap , Phthalo or Viridian Green ( Optional )

Ø Mars Black or Ivory Black, Paynes Grey ( Optional )

Ø Burnt Sienna ( Optional )

Ø Burnt Umber( Optional )

Ø Raw Umber( Optional )

2 X Stretched Canvas, Painting Board or Masonite 11” x 14“

2 X Stretched Canvas, Painting Board or Masonite 16 x 20”

Modern Art Outline

Week One:

What is modern art: hand out and slide presentation.

Review course outline:

• Discussion about Techniques of Modern art and developing an image bank of ideas, colours, design and techniques.

Week Two:

Abstract Art : developing a repertoire or ideas through exploration.

A conversation about design: Design in Modern Art

Week Three:

Abstract Art: continued exploration

A conversation about colour: Colour Design

Week Four:

Still Life: Continued exploration

A conversation about cubism and collage

Week Five:

Still Life: Continued exploration

A conversation about Space

Week Six:

Landscape: Continued exploration

A conversation about Impressionism: Light and colour

Week Six:

Landscape: Continued exploration

A Conversation about colour

Week seven:

OPEN STUDIO

or

Figure in modern art

Week Eight:

OPEN STUDIO

or

The figure in modern art

Our Fall Newsletter is Here!

Take a look through our Fall Newsletter , and get ready for new classes. Don’t forget to take a look at our next painting excursion to China .

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The Phoenix Art Workshop is a privately run visual arts centre with art classes for young people and adults emphasizing visual literacy, design, individual creativity and interests. Our focus is largely centered on painting and drawing mediums although you may be interested in having a look at our Community Art page to get a feel for what we are really about. A community based resource for art supplies, custom framing, and education. Come on in for a visit !