Diebenkorn was an American painter. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. His later work were instrumental to his achievement of worldwide acclaim. Wikipedia
What I love about Diebenkorn is that his process of painting is not a straight line from start to finish. He starts a painting by making marks, he responds to those marks. He changes things. He considers the painting. He changes more things. He continues reacting to the painting in front of him until it feels finished, which could be a short time, or a long time. He just … talks to it. His brush strokes are loose so they appear to be informal, but his paintings are incredibly thoughtful. Each layer of paint he puts on does not obliterate the first, there are no “mistakes” he is trying to cover up, and through each layer you can see previous layers peeking through, showing us his process of making the painting. He plays with flat space (doesn’t try to give the illusion of depth), and lets paint be interesting as paint. It’s not important whether the glass on the table is perfectly shaped. The objects aren’t important. The painting is about the painting.
“I keep plastering it until it comes around to what I want, in terms of all I know and think about painting now, as well as in terms of the initial observation.”
– Richard Diebenkorn
My advice, if you want it: When you start a painting, try not to think that you are taking the steps to get to the final product. Think of painting as going for a walk. When you start the walk, you don’t know exactly where you are going or exactly what you will see. Explore, and react to what is in front of you. Stay engaged. See what happens. You might have more fun if you’re able to paint this way. You’ll see more, and as you see more, you’ll learn more and your work will improve. Painting (verb) is not a product, and it’s not a test. Whether it’s impressionism or realism or abstraction, painting is seeing, and seeing is a responsive process.
“I don’t go into the studio with the idea of ‘saying’ something. What I do is face the blank canvas and put a few arbitrary marks on it that start me on some sort of dialogue.”
[image_with_animation image_url=”9204″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Yesterday I posted a fragment of a sculpture and asked you to guess when it was made and who made it. I worded my question to be misleading by asking specifically “who” and “what year.” Some of the guesses I received were: Brancusi, 1952? Isamu Noguchi? Henry Moore late …
This SAL Challenge is a vocabulary based creative challenge every day for January. Materials are artist’s choice. You can draw, paint, collage, sculpt your food, anything you want. Make something today! Prizes awarded for creativity and participation To be eligible for a prize, and to help motivate other people, post your creative project to Facebook or Instagram …
My apologies for the silence this last week. We’ve been putting our new Spring schedule online, and finalizing the summer teen camp schedule. Spring classes and workshops for adults and teens are now open for registration. Summer Teen Camps will be posted February 15th. Whew! #? Throughout the month of January, artists posted over 1,270 …
Before there were art supply stores, people made art. Before there were pencils, there were sharpened mineral rocks. Before there were brushes there were clumps of grass and twigs and fur. Today’s drawing is “No Art Store Tools.” You can use paper, but no pencils. Ink is fine, but no pens. So what now? Lots! …
My Personal Thoughts on Diebenkorn
Died: March 30, 1993, Berkeley, CA
My advice, if you want it: When you start a painting, try not to think that you are taking the steps to get to the final product. Think of painting as going for a walk. When you start the walk, you don’t know exactly where you are going or exactly what you will see. Explore, and react to what is in front of you. Stay engaged. See what happens. You might have more fun if you’re able to paint this way. You’ll see more, and as you see more, you’ll learn more and your work will improve. Painting (verb) is not a product, and it’s not a test. Whether it’s impressionism or realism or abstraction, painting is seeing, and seeing is a responsive process.
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My apologies for the silence this last week. We’ve been putting our new Spring schedule online, and finalizing the summer teen camp schedule. Spring classes and workshops for adults and teens are now open for registration. Summer Teen Camps will be posted February 15th. Whew! #? Throughout the month of January, artists posted over 1,270 …
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