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
Still Lifes I haven’t had much time to write but I’m seeing V. Note inspirations everywhere, so even though I can’t type a long and thoughtful post, I wanted to send you these still lifes by Lucy MacGillis, because I like them and they get me thinking about my own work, and upcoming classes for …
Last Thursday I posted over 100 orange artworks. Now there are more! Image right: A Dalecarlian horse is a traditional carved, painted wooden statue of a horse originating in the Swedish province of Dalarna (Dalecarlia). Several different types of Dalecarlian horses are made, with distinguishing features common to the locality of the site where they are produced. This one is from around 1950 and is …
Exercise your creativity This SAL Challenge is a vocabulary based creative challenge every day for January. Materials are artist’s choice. You can draw, paint, sew, collage, sculpt your food, anything you want. See below for today’s creative challenge. Set the timer for 20 minutes and see what happens. TONDO At my recent artist’s talk, Suzanne …
We are like crabs I was marveling out loud about how our left and right hands look the same but one works and one doesn’t, when I was gracefully informed by a dancer that one side of our body is best for fine motor skills, and the other is for strength. Could this be true?? …
JS Sargent: 1 Hour Portrait
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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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Lucy MacGillis
Still Lifes I haven’t had much time to write but I’m seeing V. Note inspirations everywhere, so even though I can’t type a long and thoughtful post, I wanted to send you these still lifes by Lucy MacGillis, because I like them and they get me thinking about my own work, and upcoming classes for …
More Orange Artworks
Last Thursday I posted over 100 orange artworks. Now there are more! Image right: A Dalecarlian horse is a traditional carved, painted wooden statue of a horse originating in the Swedish province of Dalarna (Dalecarlia). Several different types of Dalecarlian horses are made, with distinguishing features common to the locality of the site where they are produced. This one is from around 1950 and is …
SAL Challenge 13: TONDO
Exercise your creativity This SAL Challenge is a vocabulary based creative challenge every day for January. Materials are artist’s choice. You can draw, paint, sew, collage, sculpt your food, anything you want. See below for today’s creative challenge. Set the timer for 20 minutes and see what happens. TONDO At my recent artist’s talk, Suzanne …
30SAL Challenge: Two Handed Drawing
We are like crabs I was marveling out loud about how our left and right hands look the same but one works and one doesn’t, when I was gracefully informed by a dancer that one side of our body is best for fine motor skills, and the other is for strength. Could this be true?? …