When looking at John Singer Sargent’s “effortless” portraits, I often wonder how long he actually spent on each. He wanted the painting to look fresh, with an economy of brush strokes, so a painting that looks like it was done in one sitting could have taken many. He’s said to have scraped off hours, days even months worth of work because there was too much evidence of his struggle. Here’s a painting that Sargent did in a single hour. Aha. This is helpful.
“A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth.” – John Singer Sargent
[image_with_animation image_url=”7708″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Piet Mondrian, 1908 Did you know Piet Mondrian loved to paint trees? Draw/paint/collage a tree. Draw it from observation, not imagination, preferably from life and not a photograph. This is part 1 of 3. For the next two days we’ll do the same, only different. Add today’s artwork to this …
[image_with_animation image_url=”10521″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] I posted some paintings of feet recently. Here is something to cleanse the olfactory palette: Flowers in pots, by Odilon Redon – a French symbolist painter who lived from 1929–1983. Symbolist painters believed that art should reflect an emotion or idea rather than represent the natural world with realism or …
Do you send out a handmade holiday card this year? It’s a lot for an artist to keep up with, hand making each gift and greeting. Printmakers seem well suited for this time of year. Painters, not so much. Sending an original work of art to everyone on my list seems impossible, but an inability …
JS Sargent: 1 Hour Portrait
[image_with_animation image_url=”9047″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]
John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Eleanora Duse
When looking at John Singer Sargent’s “effortless” portraits, I often wonder how long he actually spent on each. He wanted the painting to look fresh, with an economy of brush strokes, so a painting that looks like it was done in one sitting could have taken many. He’s said to have scraped off hours, days even months worth of work because there was too much evidence of his struggle. Here’s a painting that Sargent did in a single hour. Aha. This is helpful.
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[image_with_animation image_url=”7708″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Piet Mondrian, 1908 Did you know Piet Mondrian loved to paint trees? Draw/paint/collage a tree. Draw it from observation, not imagination, preferably from life and not a photograph. This is part 1 of 3. For the next two days we’ll do the same, only different. Add today’s artwork to this …
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Flowers in a Pot, by Odilon Redon
[image_with_animation image_url=”10521″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] I posted some paintings of feet recently. Here is something to cleanse the olfactory palette: Flowers in pots, by Odilon Redon – a French symbolist painter who lived from 1929–1983. Symbolist painters believed that art should reflect an emotion or idea rather than represent the natural world with realism or …
Artist’s Holiday Cards
Do you send out a handmade holiday card this year? It’s a lot for an artist to keep up with, hand making each gift and greeting. Printmakers seem well suited for this time of year. Painters, not so much. Sending an original work of art to everyone on my list seems impossible, but an inability …