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 Walker, our sparkling WTF Art Historian, BA, PhD, BFD, asked about my tondo paintings. Tondo? I had no idea what she was talking about. Yes, I had made them, but I had totally forgotten the word. I’m sending this out so you can learn it, and remind me next time.
As I worked with rectangle, square, and circular panels, I found some images worked with one shape but not as well with the other. What type of composition works best in a circle? Give it a try.
Tip: Making a study of tondo made by another artist isn’t cheating, it’s a respected tradition!
Tondo: Circular paintings and relief sculptures. Most recently popularized by Damien Hirst, the tondo was used as early as Greek antiquity to depict mythological scenes on pottery. The form became prevalent in Renaissance Italy through works by artists like Raphael and Michelangelo. Inspired by the painted trays traditionally presented to pregnant women, these tondi often depicted Bible stories and images of the Madonna and Child. The round panel or canvas put forth an alternate set of compositional concerns from those established by Leon Battista Alberti, who wrote that rectangular painting is essential for pictorial perspective. Abstract and figurative painters in various movements since have used the tondo to complement their work on rectangular canvases, from Caravaggio to Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Sol LeWitt.
#salchallenge @seattleartistleague #(word of the day)
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 or email it to me directly, and use the tags: #salchallenge @seattleartistleague #(word of the day)
Another shooting. Artists, help me grieve. My job is to look. I want no subject to be taboo. If it is a face, I will look. If it is death, I will look. Looking is how I peacefully confront, learn, maintain engagement. This blog thread is how I share. The images below are fine art paintings of …
[image_with_animation image_url=”11061″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Ruthie V, Doorzien, after Carlos San Millan. 36×24″ oil on linen Last Saturday, while the steamroller printmaking party was happening on the street, inside the studio we had a show of works inspired by doorzien, a Dutch word that when applied to the genre of painting, means to see through from …
Yesterday I posted Fran O’Neill’s studies from unidentified masterworks. In no time at all you savvy people identified three out of four. Nice work! Piero Della Francesca, Battle Between Heraclius and Chosroes Nicolas Poussin, The Abduction of the Sabine Women Diego Velázquez, The Spinners Las Hilanderas, translated to “The Spinners,” is a painting by the …
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.
At my recent artist’s talk, Suzanne Walker, our sparkling WTF Art Historian, BA, PhD, BFD, asked about my tondo paintings. Tondo? I had no idea what she was talking about. Yes, I had made them, but I had totally forgotten the word. I’m sending this out so you can learn it, and remind me next time.
As I worked with rectangle, square, and circular panels, I found some images worked with one shape but not as well with the other. What type of composition works best in a circle? Give it a try.
Tip: Making a study of tondo made by another artist isn’t cheating, it’s a respected tradition!
From Artsy:
Tondo: Circular paintings and relief sculptures. Most recently popularized by Damien Hirst, the tondo was used as early as Greek antiquity to depict mythological scenes on pottery. The form became prevalent in Renaissance Italy through works by artists like Raphael and Michelangelo. Inspired by the painted trays traditionally presented to pregnant women, these tondi often depicted Bible stories and images of the Madonna and Child. The round panel or canvas put forth an alternate set of compositional concerns from those established by Leon Battista Alberti, who wrote that rectangular painting is essential for pictorial perspective. Abstract and figurative painters in various movements since have used the tondo to complement their work on rectangular canvases, from Caravaggio to Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Sol LeWitt.
#salchallenge @seattleartistleague #(word of the day)
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 or email it to me directly, and use the tags: #salchallenge @seattleartistleague #(word of the day)
Related Posts
#30SAL Faves: Scribble Line
For the Scribble Line Challenge on Day 9, there were other artworks but this one was so special we decided to keep it …brief.
Gun Violence
Another shooting. Artists, help me grieve. My job is to look. I want no subject to be taboo. If it is a face, I will look. If it is death, I will look. Looking is how I peacefully confront, learn, maintain engagement. This blog thread is how I share. The images below are fine art paintings of …
The Doorzien Show
[image_with_animation image_url=”11061″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Ruthie V, Doorzien, after Carlos San Millan. 36×24″ oil on linen Last Saturday, while the steamroller printmaking party was happening on the street, inside the studio we had a show of works inspired by doorzien, a Dutch word that when applied to the genre of painting, means to see through from …
Mystery Masterwork Studies and a $75 challenge
Yesterday I posted Fran O’Neill’s studies from unidentified masterworks. In no time at all you savvy people identified three out of four. Nice work! Piero Della Francesca, Battle Between Heraclius and Chosroes Nicolas Poussin, The Abduction of the Sabine Women Diego Velázquez, The Spinners Las Hilanderas, translated to “The Spinners,” is a painting by the …