Tina Kraft is a talented South Florida artist with connections to our besties at the New York Studio School. It was at NYSS where we met many of our great instructors such as Fran O’Neil, Charity Baker, Catherine Lepp, Sam Wade Levy, Shruti Ghatak, and Jonathan Harkham. Our own Keith Pfieffer is currently pursuing his MFA there, and Mary Shea is no stranger to the school either. (Mary Shea’s “Drawing with Color” class starts in 2 weeks, by the way.) That was a long winded family tree, but hopefully it gives some context to why I’m looking at these branches.
Tina Kraft came specially recommended to teach with us by the very highly regarded Fran O’Neil, an esteemed instructor at the NYSS, and a star with us since 2019. Lucky for us Kraft agreed to teach a couple of workshops at SAL this summer! More about that later.
Nosing through Tina Kraft’s portfolio, I found this drawing of trees.
This drawing of trees by Tina Kraft shows some methods in common with Van Gogh. Look at the marks. See how the whole composition from each edge of the rectangle is filled with descriptions? The lines go right up to the edge. The lumpy ground is dotted with pattern and texture, circles and squiggles. The generous tree canopy brings volume and movement because they’re described with a choir of curved contours across shared undulating clouds of leaves. The diagonal trunks and branches bring form and rhythm with each angled straight structure. Nothing is at a perfect vertical or horizontal, so the whole picture is in motion, and all of it is infused with energy! See how each group of marks leads you to the next group of marks? Everything is in a sort of social relationship. Nothing is isolated. These drawings give the viewer unlimited pathways in, around, and through the composition. There’s much to discover!
A big part of why we enjoy working with graduates from the New York Studio School is seen in the way they draw. There is an intensity to the descriptive information in the marks. Forgive us for being art nerds, but honestly we think it’s thrilling. These methods are rooted (sorry for the pun) in classical approaches all the way back through Rembrandt, but they aren’t static or stodgy. These keenly observational marks propel us forward into modern ideas that describe our experiences being alive now. They even lead to abstraction. NYSS artists and instructors changed the way I think about drawing, and I love them for that. More later! For now, enjoy a few more drawings of family trees.
Every January, the League sponsors a 30 day creative challenge open to all of you everywhere, working in any media. January 1-30 we’ll post a daily creative challenge to V. Notes on our website. V. Notes subscribers will receive this post in their inbox every day at 7am PST. To receive these challenges in your …
The Kodak Model 1 Box camera sold for $25 (about $680 today) with 100 exposures of film preloaded. The artist only needed to point and pull the wire (pre-shutter button). The winding key at the top enabled selfwinding. A camera reload cost $10 (about $250 today). The photographs Breitner took were less static than the …
One way to use broken color is to create optical color mixing, which is to put colors side by side, instead of mixing them together. Viewed from a far-ish distance, the colors visually mix. Viewed a bit closer up, the difference in colors visually pop and vibrate, giving the sensation or the impression of light. Think …
Today is the 26th day of our 30 day creative challenge. Wednesday is specifically a word challenge. Today’s word is an art vocabulary word, great for drawings and paintings. Sometimes when you draw with soft graphite and then erase your drawing, you can still see a some of the previous lines on the paper. Those …
Drawing of Trees by Tina Kraft
Tina Kraft is a talented South Florida artist with connections to our besties at the New York Studio School. It was at NYSS where we met many of our great instructors such as Fran O’Neil, Charity Baker, Catherine Lepp, Sam Wade Levy, Shruti Ghatak, and Jonathan Harkham. Our own Keith Pfieffer is currently pursuing his MFA there, and Mary Shea is no stranger to the school either. (Mary Shea’s “Drawing with Color” class starts in 2 weeks, by the way.) That was a long winded family tree, but hopefully it gives some context to why I’m looking at these branches.
Tina Kraft came specially recommended to teach with us by the very highly regarded Fran O’Neil, an esteemed instructor at the NYSS, and a star with us since 2019. Lucky for us Kraft agreed to teach a couple of workshops at SAL this summer! More about that later.
Nosing through Tina Kraft’s portfolio, I found this drawing of trees.
This drawing of trees by Tina Kraft shows some methods in common with Van Gogh. Look at the marks. See how the whole composition from each edge of the rectangle is filled with descriptions? The lines go right up to the edge. The lumpy ground is dotted with pattern and texture, circles and squiggles. The generous tree canopy brings volume and movement because they’re described with a choir of curved contours across shared undulating clouds of leaves. The diagonal trunks and branches bring form and rhythm with each angled straight structure. Nothing is at a perfect vertical or horizontal, so the whole picture is in motion, and all of it is infused with energy! See how each group of marks leads you to the next group of marks? Everything is in a sort of social relationship. Nothing is isolated. These drawings give the viewer unlimited pathways in, around, and through the composition. There’s much to discover!
A big part of why we enjoy working with graduates from the New York Studio School is seen in the way they draw. There is an intensity to the descriptive information in the marks. Forgive us for being art nerds, but honestly we think it’s thrilling. These methods are rooted (sorry for the pun) in classical approaches all the way back through Rembrandt, but they aren’t static or stodgy. These keenly observational marks propel us forward into modern ideas that describe our experiences being alive now. They even lead to abstraction. NYSS artists and instructors changed the way I think about drawing, and I love them for that. More later! For now, enjoy a few more drawings of family trees.
4 drawings of trees by van gogh
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Every January, the League sponsors a 30 day creative challenge open to all of you everywhere, working in any media. January 1-30 we’ll post a daily creative challenge to V. Notes on our website. V. Notes subscribers will receive this post in their inbox every day at 7am PST. To receive these challenges in your …
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The Kodak Model 1 Box camera sold for $25 (about $680 today) with 100 exposures of film preloaded. The artist only needed to point and pull the wire (pre-shutter button). The winding key at the top enabled selfwinding. A camera reload cost $10 (about $250 today). The photographs Breitner took were less static than the …
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One way to use broken color is to create optical color mixing, which is to put colors side by side, instead of mixing them together. Viewed from a far-ish distance, the colors visually mix. Viewed a bit closer up, the difference in colors visually pop and vibrate, giving the sensation or the impression of light. Think …
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Today is the 26th day of our 30 day creative challenge. Wednesday is specifically a word challenge. Today’s word is an art vocabulary word, great for drawings and paintings. Sometimes when you draw with soft graphite and then erase your drawing, you can still see a some of the previous lines on the paper. Those …