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
This first image was from the ‘Transience and Eternity’, Angie Dixon’s exhibition at Foster/White in the 1990’s. It was a combination of installation and paintings. It was about creation and the formation of everything before it becomes tangible. The paintings were meant to be of the actual tangible results of the creative formation. The installation …
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. ERINACEOUS adj. – of, pertaining to, or …
[image_with_animation image_url=”10630″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] My last post was about Botticelli’s Squidgy Feet. In that post, I described Venus’ feet: “These hams are worms. Those are some long second toes, a sign of intelligence, say some. A second toe as long as a finger can be a very attractive feature…” The next day I received …
Today, after skittering around with tasks, I was able to attend Fran’s Giant Figures Workshop, held in the spacious light-filled Drawing and Painting Studios at the Seattle Artist League. Years ago, when Lendy and I looked at this big Equinox warehouse space, we had NYSS style drawing intensives like this in mind, so it was …
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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Sumi Installations, by Angie Dixon
This first image was from the ‘Transience and Eternity’, Angie Dixon’s exhibition at Foster/White in the 1990’s. It was a combination of installation and paintings. It was about creation and the formation of everything before it becomes tangible. The paintings were meant to be of the actual tangible results of the creative formation. The installation …
SAL Challenge 15: ERINACEOUS
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. ERINACEOUS adj. – of, pertaining to, or …
Venus’ Feet
[image_with_animation image_url=”10630″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] My last post was about Botticelli’s Squidgy Feet. In that post, I described Venus’ feet: “These hams are worms. Those are some long second toes, a sign of intelligence, say some. A second toe as long as a finger can be a very attractive feature…” The next day I received …
Fran O’Neill’s Giant Figures Workshop, Day 1
Today, after skittering around with tasks, I was able to attend Fran’s Giant Figures Workshop, held in the spacious light-filled Drawing and Painting Studios at the Seattle Artist League. Years ago, when Lendy and I looked at this big Equinox warehouse space, we had NYSS style drawing intensives like this in mind, so it was …