I know the rain is dreary, especially when our moods are pulled by pandemic, isolation, news. But the rain has rinsed the pollen from the air, and for that I am thankful.
In class on Tuesday, Fran O’Neill shared a few of her favorite landscape paintings. She showed the Van Gogh above, one I haven’t seen before. How could I not have seen this?? It’s instantly one of my favorites.
Vincent van Gogh, Rain, 1889
In these, Van Gogh has a way of describing rain in a way that creates mood, movement, and atmosphere, darkening the sky and slicing through the space. The angled lines are direct and descriptive. I relate Van Gogh’s depiction of rain with these straight diagonal lines to the rain in Ukiyo-e and Hiroshige’s prints. You can see Van Gogh’s copy of a Hiroshige below.
Hiroshige/ Vincent van Gogh
For a creative challenge today: depict rain in a scene with a repetition of parallel and crisp diagonal lines. The lines can be all coming in a single angle, or in two or more angles, to suggest wind. Give it a scribble and post to social media with #seattleartistleague #rain.
Viewing things on the internet, sometimes I don’t know which photograph is more accurate for color….
I’ve posted about rain before in V. Notes. Here are three:
In the previous post featuring Stanley Lewis, Lewis was quoted on his admiration of Wilbur Niewald. “You have got to find out about his paintings (…) Wilbur is an interpreter of Cézanne and Mondrian.” – Lewis Following this advice, I looked up Wilbur Niewald. My eyes were most eager to look at his drawings, still life, and …
You may recognize Morandi for his dusty still life bottles, carefully and quietly clustered in the center of the canvas. Recently, I’ve been revisiting his lesser-known but more personally inspiring collection of landscapes. In classes, we’ve been talking about simplifying a composition into shapes, and applying those shapes to pull you through the composition with …
I tell you Leaguers, it’s tough being the sole guardian of high culture, but someone’s gotta do it. [image_with_animation image_url=”6039″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Trouble reading the tiny text? Here’s the script: Calvin – “How unoriginal! How jejune! Stupid kid. If you don’t have anything to say, just keep quiet! Well, this is certainly shocking! Face …
[image_with_animation image_url=”11664″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] For the purpose of torturing my Still Lifes Class with a level of realism few on the planet can reproduce, here are some Still lifes by Israel Hershberg. Israel Hershberg lives and works in Jerusalem, Israel. While he is known primarily as a landscape and figurative painter, his realist …
Van Gogh’s Rain
I know the rain is dreary, especially when our moods are pulled by pandemic, isolation, news. But the rain has rinsed the pollen from the air, and for that I am thankful.
In class on Tuesday, Fran O’Neill shared a few of her favorite landscape paintings. She showed the Van Gogh above, one I haven’t seen before. How could I not have seen this?? It’s instantly one of my favorites.
In these, Van Gogh has a way of describing rain in a way that creates mood, movement, and atmosphere, darkening the sky and slicing through the space. The angled lines are direct and descriptive. I relate Van Gogh’s depiction of rain with these straight diagonal lines to the rain in Ukiyo-e and Hiroshige’s prints. You can see Van Gogh’s copy of a Hiroshige below.
For a creative challenge today: depict rain in a scene with a repetition of parallel and crisp diagonal lines. The lines can be all coming in a single angle, or in two or more angles, to suggest wind. Give it a scribble and post to social media with #seattleartistleague #rain.
Viewing things on the internet, sometimes I don’t know which photograph is more accurate for color….
I’ve posted about rain before in V. Notes. Here are three:
Hiroshige’s Rain
Hiroshige’s Rainy Moments
Rainy Moments in Art
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Wilbur Niewald, interpreter of Cézanne and Mondrian
In the previous post featuring Stanley Lewis, Lewis was quoted on his admiration of Wilbur Niewald. “You have got to find out about his paintings (…) Wilbur is an interpreter of Cézanne and Mondrian.” – Lewis Following this advice, I looked up Wilbur Niewald. My eyes were most eager to look at his drawings, still life, and …
Morandi’s Landscapes
You may recognize Morandi for his dusty still life bottles, carefully and quietly clustered in the center of the canvas. Recently, I’ve been revisiting his lesser-known but more personally inspiring collection of landscapes. In classes, we’ve been talking about simplifying a composition into shapes, and applying those shapes to pull you through the composition with …
The sole guardian of high culture
I tell you Leaguers, it’s tough being the sole guardian of high culture, but someone’s gotta do it. [image_with_animation image_url=”6039″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Trouble reading the tiny text? Here’s the script: Calvin – “How unoriginal! How jejune! Stupid kid. If you don’t have anything to say, just keep quiet! Well, this is certainly shocking! Face …
Israel Hershberg’s Quiet Still Lifes
[image_with_animation image_url=”11664″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] For the purpose of torturing my Still Lifes Class with a level of realism few on the planet can reproduce, here are some Still lifes by Israel Hershberg. Israel Hershberg lives and works in Jerusalem, Israel. While he is known primarily as a landscape and figurative painter, his realist …