I’ve posted so many thoughts and artists since our visit from Carlos San Millan that you would be reasonable to think I was about finished. This may be difficult to believe, but I still have more to post. Way, way more to post.
Many of you who were in the workshops said that you felt like you were presented with an enormous amount of information, but were unable to practice implementing the ideas in just two fast days. Many more of you were disappointed to miss the workshops entirely, since spaces sold out in the first hour of the announcement! For the people who did not have sufficient time to practice, and for the people who were not able to attend, I have designed a Thursday class series just for you: Drawing & Painting the Effects of Light. This is an offshoot inspired by our wonderful visiting artist from Spain.
Drawing & Painting the Effects of Light is not a realism class, and can be implemented in observational and abstract works alike, so artists of all media and genres are invited to sign up. The only requirement is that you have experience working in your chosen media, and foundational knowledge in whatever steps you use to create your artwork, enough so that we have something to attach the technical theories to.
More about that later. For now, please enjoy another one of Carlos San Millan’s favorite artists: Jessica Brilli. These are images that he chose for his private inspiration file.
Jessica Brilli (Sayville, NY 1977) has been drawing and painting since her childhood. Working in a style that encompasses American realism and 20th century graphic design aesthetics, Brilli’s paintings reveal the beauty in everyday scenes and objects.
Inspired by Kodachrome slides and generations-old photographs gathered from yard sales and basements across America, Brilli brings a contemporary eye to subjects often overlooked or forgotten. She sees her paintings as a way of giving renewed life to images that haven’t been seen in decades. Having had no direct experience with the images, the process of painting them takes on a different dimension for Brilli; like borrowing memories and elaborating, editing, or directing stories that intersect the knowledge and assumptions of two people who are strangers to each other.
This painting has been so boldly abstracted by flattened shapes, the figures look almost like little remnants on top of a streamlined composition, but take them away, and the painting falls down. Those little people, they’re useful remnants.
I’m working on a new series of posts about Alberto Giacometti’s drawings and paintings. Giacometti is the guy who made the big tall skinny guy sculptures. They look like this: For my post, I searched for Giacometti’s early works and found artworks from 1910. Alberto was born in 1901, so in 1910, he would have …
You are now at the second half of our 30 day creative challenge. It’s all uphill from here! Did you see the post with some of my favorites? Today’s challenge builds on yesterday’s. You can use the same plant, or even the same drawing, if you wish. This time, instead of drawing continuous contour lines, …
Hands do a lot of the talking for us. AJ Power reminded me of this when I dropped in on a recent Comics class. He was inviting students to illustrate the moods and interactions between characters by drawing their hands in gestures. That hit me as one of those obvious yet totally overlooked aspects of …
My email inbox has been slow lately. Everyone must be getting ready for the holiday. There is a pile of Christmas presents that need to get wrapped. They’re blocking the door of my apartment, and spilling into the recycling bin. It’s a delightful mess, all the little contained and uncontainable bits. I said goodbye to …
Jessica Brilli
I’ve posted so many thoughts and artists since our visit from Carlos San Millan that you would be reasonable to think I was about finished. This may be difficult to believe, but I still have more to post. Way, way more to post.
Many of you who were in the workshops said that you felt like you were presented with an enormous amount of information, but were unable to practice implementing the ideas in just two fast days. Many more of you were disappointed to miss the workshops entirely, since spaces sold out in the first hour of the announcement! For the people who did not have sufficient time to practice, and for the people who were not able to attend, I have designed a Thursday class series just for you: Drawing & Painting the Effects of Light. This is an offshoot inspired by our wonderful visiting artist from Spain.
Drawing & Painting the Effects of Light is not a realism class, and can be implemented in observational and abstract works alike, so artists of all media and genres are invited to sign up. The only requirement is that you have experience working in your chosen media, and foundational knowledge in whatever steps you use to create your artwork, enough so that we have something to attach the technical theories to.
More about that later. For now, please enjoy another one of Carlos San Millan’s favorite artists: Jessica Brilli. These are images that he chose for his private inspiration file.
Jessica Brilli
From her website:
Jessica Brilli (Sayville, NY 1977) has been drawing and painting since her childhood. Working in a style that encompasses American realism and 20th century graphic design aesthetics, Brilli’s paintings reveal the beauty in everyday scenes and objects.
Inspired by Kodachrome slides and generations-old photographs gathered from yard sales and basements across America, Brilli brings a contemporary eye to subjects often overlooked or forgotten. She sees her paintings as a way of giving renewed life to images that haven’t been seen in decades. Having had no direct experience with the images, the process of painting them takes on a different dimension for Brilli; like borrowing memories and elaborating, editing, or directing stories that intersect the knowledge and assumptions of two people who are strangers to each other.
This painting has been so boldly abstracted by flattened shapes, the figures look almost like little remnants on top of a streamlined composition, but take them away, and the painting falls down. Those little people, they’re useful remnants.
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