Barbara Grossman, Blues Trio, 2015, 26×20″ charcoal
I was interested in learning some new language to talk about what is so captivating about Charity Baker’s drawings and paintings. Charity gave me a list of her teachers, Barbara Grossman was one of them.
Barbara Grossman, Islamic Tiles, 2016, 28 x 30″ oil on linen
Barbara Grossman’s artworks are impressionistic, abstracted, full of color and pattern. Instead of drawing with focal points and perspective, she describes space in a more abstract or impressionist way. In these works, you’ll see that Grossman creates interest by leading us through the composition via pathways and a variety of marks that maintain their intensity all the way through and to the edge of the composition. Pathways to the edge of the rectangle can function as a powerful tool to hold us in a drawing and painting; tools that in the process of trying to render the figure, I often neglect. I frequently emerge from a drawing session with a drawing of a face or figure, without the impact of a full composition. This is most often a mistake of a desire to get it “right” and hyper-focus on the features of the face and form. It’s something I am working diligently to change, especially now that I’m seeing the student works that implement the strength of these tools, and notice how impactful they are.
Barbara Grossman studied art and music at Yale, and in the drawings below you’ll see making music as a theme. In these artworks that describe both the experience of making music and the experience of making art, notice how the shapes, marks, and pathways hold us in the frame, and lead us around the composition, continuously giving us something new to discover in the work.
Barbara Grossman, Trio Singing, 2015, 30 x 22.75″ charcoalBarbara Grossman, Trio Rehearsing, 2005, 26×20″ charcoal and conteBarbara Grossman, Duo Andante, 2005, 26×20″ charcoal and conteBarbara Grossman, Trio – Vermillion 2002, 30 x 26″ charcoal Barbara Grossman, Trio – Blue 2002, 30 x 22″ charcoalBarbara Grossman, Duo – Bright Red, 2002, 30 x 22″ charcoalBarbara Grossman, Trio – Naples Yellow, 2002, 30 x 22″ charcoal
One year ago in March, to protect our students and teachers from a new coronavirus, the Seattle Artist League moved our classes online. The virus was declared a national emergency, and we went into quarantine. We have now been in quarantine for thirteen months. Through this year, we have met each other online to draw, …
Most of the time when people draw something such as a still life, they draw the objects and then neglect everything around the objects, like the table holding it up, and the wall behind it. A drawing like this shows us a thing floating in nothing instead of an interaction of depth, volume, and surfaces …
Last quarter Keith Pfeiffer and I taught a series on color. As promised, this was not a typical color theory class. Here are a few of my favorite student works from one of my favorite exercises. These paintings are made with compressed values, and some are entirely all one light/dark value. Some of them are …
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. AGASTOPIA n. – admiration of a particular …
8 Drawings by Barbara Grossman
I was interested in learning some new language to talk about what is so captivating about Charity Baker’s drawings and paintings. Charity gave me a list of her teachers, Barbara Grossman was one of them.
Barbara Grossman’s artworks are impressionistic, abstracted, full of color and pattern. Instead of drawing with focal points and perspective, she describes space in a more abstract or impressionist way. In these works, you’ll see that Grossman creates interest by leading us through the composition via pathways and a variety of marks that maintain their intensity all the way through and to the edge of the composition. Pathways to the edge of the rectangle can function as a powerful tool to hold us in a drawing and painting; tools that in the process of trying to render the figure, I often neglect. I frequently emerge from a drawing session with a drawing of a face or figure, without the impact of a full composition. This is most often a mistake of a desire to get it “right” and hyper-focus on the features of the face and form. It’s something I am working diligently to change, especially now that I’m seeing the student works that implement the strength of these tools, and notice how impactful they are.
Barbara Grossman studied art and music at Yale, and in the drawings below you’ll see making music as a theme. In these artworks that describe both the experience of making music and the experience of making art, notice how the shapes, marks, and pathways hold us in the frame, and lead us around the composition, continuously giving us something new to discover in the work.
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One year ago in March, to protect our students and teachers from a new coronavirus, the Seattle Artist League moved our classes online. The virus was declared a national emergency, and we went into quarantine. We have now been in quarantine for thirteen months. Through this year, we have met each other online to draw, …
Day 23: Set the Stage #30SAL
Most of the time when people draw something such as a still life, they draw the objects and then neglect everything around the objects, like the table holding it up, and the wall behind it. A drawing like this shows us a thing floating in nothing instead of an interaction of depth, volume, and surfaces …
Faves from Color Class: Compressed Values
Last quarter Keith Pfeiffer and I taught a series on color. As promised, this was not a typical color theory class. Here are a few of my favorite student works from one of my favorite exercises. These paintings are made with compressed values, and some are entirely all one light/dark value. Some of them are …
SAL Challenge 16: AGASTOPIA
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. AGASTOPIA n. – admiration of a particular …