I’ve been painting (yippee!), so there was a pause in the V. Notes for a few days, but I didn’t want another day to go by without putting another artist in your inbox. Here he is: Hurvin Anderson. Anderson is a British-Jamaican artist, and another one of Carlos San Millan’s favorites. You may have noticed that most of San Millan’s favorite paintings vibrate with light as if they were power generators? This artist is no exception. His informal daily scenes have rich saturated color with vibrant energy, contrasted by fastidious linear mathematical elements of perspective and patterning. The painting above is from a series he did on barbershops. Below is a photograph reference. I get so much from seeing a painter’s reference! I am so fascinated to see how artists put things together.
Hurvin Anderson’s original photograph of Peter Brown’s attic. Source: Phillips
“‘At first it was the physical space itself that intrigued me, the attic seemed to have a presence; it seemed like somewhere that had been forgotten, some sort of secret meeting hall. I realized that there was something about the figure in the chair and the whole nature of that intimate but shared space that was compelling and that I wanted to paint.’ He retrospectively studied his photographs of the room, which he amalgamated from multiple memories of the space and imagination, to construct this dynamic, varied series.” – Phillips
Look at all of those straight lines! Looks like Anderson applied some stamped lines of paint, and some simple stencils. A piece of paper isn’t fancy, but it does make an effective stencil for a clean line in a paintingMore straight lines!Hurvin Anderson, Country Club Chicken Wire, 2008Hurvin Anderson, Country Club Chicken Wire. (Detail of line work)You can see Anderson is playing with depth and color by juxtaposing opaque & transparent paint, and implementing what Carlos San Millan calls “mechanical glazes” in which the artist applies a layer of wet paint over a dry area of color, then scrapes the wet paint so the previous color shows through. These mechanical glazes put colors next to each other rather than blending them together, which causes the colors vibrate, especially when they’re complementary or near-complementary colors. Hurvin Anderson
Drawing & Painting the Effects of Light
There are a few spots left in my Thursday class, in which we delve into the effects of light in paintings and drawings. This is a class series sparked after Carlos San Millan shared so much information about the effects of light in paintings that nearly everyone who attended immediately requested a class series, so their hands could catch up with the information they’d received. This is that class.
30 Day SAL Challenge: January 1-30
SAL Challenge
Get the new year started off with a creative boost: the 30-Day creative SALChallenge starts in January. You might choose to complete all thirty creative challenges, or do one with a friend on the weekend. Stay tuned to V. Notes for the posts. We start January 1!
Alice Mao, a 17 year old student at the League, teamed up with her 15 year old classmate Taylor Wang, to mastermind “Student Art Spaces” a venue for young artists like themselves to show their work. The League is mentoring Student Art Spaces (SAS), and will showcase their curations. We are proud to support SAS in …
I’ll be sharing my drawings on Facebook. I’d love to see yours too. Maybe your posts will inspire more people to join the challenge. Post your pics to Facebook: SeattleArtLeague, or Instagram: SeattleArtLeague. #drawingaday #seattleartleague – or email them to me. I’d love to see what you create!
[image_with_animation image_url=”7935″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] In January we did a series of creative challenges. January 15 was “Strange Mail” an invitation to “let standardized paper and implements be darned. Mail us something strange.” And you did! Here is our postman, posing with one of Strange Mail pieces (he had previously shoved it under the door …
1907-1997 Look how the grain of the wood became the courtyard gravel. I love when rather than making a material pretend to be something different, a material is a material, and just a little bit more. I have been looking at Kiyoshi’s woodblock prints. He was most famous for his “Winter in Aizu” series. Sorry …
Hurvin Anderson
I’ve been painting (yippee!), so there was a pause in the V. Notes for a few days, but I didn’t want another day to go by without putting another artist in your inbox. Here he is: Hurvin Anderson. Anderson is a British-Jamaican artist, and another one of Carlos San Millan’s favorites. You may have noticed that most of San Millan’s favorite paintings vibrate with light as if they were power generators? This artist is no exception. His informal daily scenes have rich saturated color with vibrant energy, contrasted by fastidious linear mathematical elements of perspective and patterning. The painting above is from a series he did on barbershops. Below is a photograph reference. I get so much from seeing a painter’s reference! I am so fascinated to see how artists put things together.
“‘At first it was the physical space itself that intrigued me, the attic seemed to have a presence; it seemed like somewhere that had been forgotten, some sort of secret meeting hall. I realized that there was something about the figure in the chair and the whole nature of that intimate but shared space that was compelling and that I wanted to paint.’ He retrospectively studied his photographs of the room, which he amalgamated from multiple memories of the space and imagination, to construct this dynamic, varied series.” – Phillips
Drawing & Painting the Effects of Light
There are a few spots left in my Thursday class, in which we delve into the effects of light in paintings and drawings. This is a class series sparked after Carlos San Millan shared so much information about the effects of light in paintings that nearly everyone who attended immediately requested a class series, so their hands could catch up with the information they’d received. This is that class.
SAL Challenge
Get the new year started off with a creative boost: the 30-Day creative SALChallenge starts in January. You might choose to complete all thirty creative challenges, or do one with a friend on the weekend. Stay tuned to V. Notes for the posts. We start January 1!
Related Posts
SAS – These kids are rockin’ it!
Alice Mao, a 17 year old student at the League, teamed up with her 15 year old classmate Taylor Wang, to mastermind “Student Art Spaces” a venue for young artists like themselves to show their work. The League is mentoring Student Art Spaces (SAS), and will showcase their curations. We are proud to support SAS in …
Drawing A Day, Day 12
I’ll be sharing my drawings on Facebook. I’d love to see yours too. Maybe your posts will inspire more people to join the challenge. Post your pics to Facebook: SeattleArtLeague, or Instagram: SeattleArtLeague. #drawingaday #seattleartleague – or email them to me. I’d love to see what you create!
Strange Mail Received
[image_with_animation image_url=”7935″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] In January we did a series of creative challenges. January 15 was “Strange Mail” an invitation to “let standardized paper and implements be darned. Mail us something strange.” And you did! Here is our postman, posing with one of Strange Mail pieces (he had previously shoved it under the door …
Saitō Kiyoshi
1907-1997 Look how the grain of the wood became the courtyard gravel. I love when rather than making a material pretend to be something different, a material is a material, and just a little bit more. I have been looking at Kiyoshi’s woodblock prints. He was most famous for his “Winter in Aizu” series. Sorry …