Drawing Nature Morte

Nature Morte, means literally, nature dead and that is the subject of our weekly art study. We have some wonderful tree branches with dried leaves stubbornly clinging to them and a small bonsai (which is actually alive).

You might not think tree branches would be very inspiring to draw but they're actually quite a fascinating subject. The bark on the branches is quite intricate in texture, pattern and color. The branches themselves, like all things in nature are especially graceful and their growth patterns are created by the sun and wind. So the record of years of weather is preserved in the twists and elegant turns of a tree's branches.

Claudia and I have once again each followed our instinctive way of working. Claudia focusing on line using pencil and markers and I am using charcoal and approaching the subject through value masses.

How amazing that nature and art are so diverse!

We both felt such a peaceful, relaxed atmosphere in the studio as we concentrated on these very ordinary oak branches, explored them and really looked at them in an effort to see them and know them through drawing.

The act of drawing is the heart and soul, the core, of being an artist. Drawing, not just seeing. Artists know and understand the world not just by observing it but by drawing it. They know and understand themselves not just through introspection but through drawing. This is why keeping a sketchbook and drawing throughout their lives is such an obsession for artists.

Painting is a whole other enterprise. Drawing is our first, most basic language as an artist. Drawing is a journey and an exploration. A drawing is not meant to be a finished product but an action, a process, a record of our artist mind working.

Next week we will continue on with our tree branches and our journey to see, know and understand them through drawing.

Vermeer: An Artist that Influences

Norman Rockwell's ad for Sunmaid Raisins mid 1920's

I recently visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, and one of the delightful surprises I found was this 1920's ad Rockwell did for Sunmaid Raisins. As soon as I walked into the gallery I caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye and it looked for all the world like a Vermeer!

Vermeer is one of those artists that captivate and influence across the centuries. Through the skillful use of light, composition and color his work fascinates. All his paintings had moral stories to tell that would have been easily understood by his contemporaries and sometimes political commentary that would not have gone unnoticed as well.

Rockwell borrows the light effect coming through the window from Vermeer's Milkmaid. I wonder if he got the idea to use the Milkmaid for inspiration because the product he was advertising was Sunmaid! LOL

Other similarities are the bowl on the table in the ad, and the bowl the milkmaid pours her milk into, the basket on the wall in the Vermeer correspondes to the light (?) in the upper left of the ad, and the bit of shelf is reminiscent of the windowledge in the Vermeer.

Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid, 1658

Though not a exact correspondence of posture the woman in blue from the ad immediately reminded me of  Vermeer's Lacemaker  with her down-turned gaze and busy hands.

Johannes Vermeer, The Lacemaker, 1669

The seated woman in the ad brought to mind Vermeer's Astronomer leaning over the table top. Also notice that Rockwell has artwork on the wall in the ad and a paper poster tacked to the wall as The Astronomer has tacked on his cabinet.

Johannes Vermeer, The Astronomer, 1668

The table top itself, and the bundle of blue cloth to the left in the ad, are borrowed from Woman Holding a Balance,  as well as the Delft blue color or her garment, though brighter and more modern in the ad..

Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance, 1664

For just a small taste of the moralistic and religious messages in Vermeer's work notice that the painting on the wall behind the Woman Holding a Balance is a depiction of The Last Judgement. Serene in expression, robed in celestial blue, and pure white, bathed in light that shines in through a golden curtain, the woman holds the scales of judgement in her hands. Earthly riches are scattered on the table, the small frame on the wall opposite her holds a mirror, meant to symbolize the need for inner reflection on the state of one's soul in the face of the brevity of life, the temptation of earthly riches and the certainty of death and judgement.

Vermeer continues to influence with books and movies like The Girl with the Pearl Earring, Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Chasing Vermeer , The Music Lesson, and collections of poems with titles like, Vermeer's Light, Poems 1996-2006 , Like a Vermeer and Other Poems

In Quiet Light: Poems on Vermeer's Women

 

I think it's safe to say that Vermeer's paintings continue to fascinate and inspire.They also have become so well known and iconic that the general public recognizes them and feels a resonance with them because of their incredible light and beauty.

I have my own Vermeer influences too. In art college we had to choose a masterwork and translate it into a paper mosaic using color aid paper. 

I chose Vermeer's Young Woman with a Water Jug, above.  This was essentially an exercise in color and value matching (as well as a test of patience as we were using rubber cement and the very expensive and very easily marred color aid paper!)  I wish I had a photo to show you but the photo is long gone and the piece sold at my senior show to someone who was totally captived by it.

My second piece influenced by Vermeer is more lighthearted and was painted just a few years after the movie,The Girl with the Pearl Earring, thrust Vermeer back into the public consciousness.  This one is sold too, by the way...

The Cow with the Pearl Earring....

Silly and whimsical, yes (this was the era of the Painting a Day craze causing me to pump out all kinds of creative things day after day, ) but the truth is, the  moment I saw the cow with the shiny tag in her ear it immediately reminded me of the title of the Vermeer painting. I think that's a testament to Vermeer's far reaching influence!

Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, 1665-66

So, from Sunmaid Raisin ads, to novels, poetry, movies and whimsical paintings Vermeer exerts influence on artists and viewers alike. I think it is a splendid thing that beautiful art becomes a part of our everyday culture and life. I think that it is important to have artworks of amazing beauty and skill embedded into our cultural awareness so that we are all reminded of the goodness of creating works of art and of acknowledging and applauding a standard of beauty.

Black & White at Salmagundi Club

 I am thrilled to tell you that both these charcoal drawings were accepted into the historic Black & White Exhibit at Salmagundi Club, NYC.  Jan. 23- Feb. 10, 2012. Top right, Northern Marsh , lower right, Snow on Chittenden Hill .

Below is a bit of history about the Black & White Exhibits.

The early exhibitions were called “Black and White”, in reference to the important annual show that the young club held on drawings, graphics and grisaille oils. From 1878 to 1887, the club gained a national and even international reputation for these annual exhibitions, which were open to all artists, passing before a jury of club members. Such international artists as Sargent, Whistler and Eakins submitted entries as well as many prominent women artists. Without a permanent location, the exhibitions were first held at Leavitts Art Gallery on Broadway, moving to Kurtz’s Gallery (American Art Association) and then to the National Academy of Design. A critic for the New York Herald in 1879, reviewing this exhibition, gives praise to Winslow Homer who “sends a frame of very clever and effective outdoor studies in pencil on gray paper with the highlights in Chinese White. In another are grouped three decidedly impressionistic memoranda of scenes of Coney Island and an incisively drawn characterful sketch of a pretty, determined girl standing on the beach.” ~ Excerpt from Alexander W. Katlan’s book The Salmagundi Club Painting Exhibition Records 1889 to 1939: A Guide to the American Exhibition of Oil Paintings and the Annual Exhibition and Auction Sale of Pictures

For more fascinating history books about the Salmagundi Club check out Alexander Katlan Conservator, Inc's website

• Click HERE to see drawings by John Singer Sargent
• Click HERE to see a selection of James Abbot McNeill Whistler's etchings  and HERE for chalk drawings
• Click HERE for a large collection of drawings by Thomas Eakins
• Click HERE for drawings by Winslow Homer

I took this picture at the Salmagundi Club of John Francis Murphy's grisaille oil painting, A Bit of Lowland, which was exhibited in the first Black & White Show in 1878.

Drawing has such a long history, and is so fundamental to the creative process that I grow more inspired by drawing and looking at drawings with each passing year. Whether they are finished works of art in their own right or conceived as studies, preparatory sketches or simply the artist's doodles in a sketchbook, drawing more than anything else, captures the artists own unique mark making and documents their mind and thought process. If you really want to study an artist, study his drawings.

Pansy Painting Pandemonium

Pansy Pandemonium, 10x10, acrylic on linen panel, Jan Blencowe, copyright 2012

Temperatures are mild again, I have a hyacinth growing in the studio and my thoughts have turned to spring!! There's nothing I enjoy more than filling my planters with pansies, violas, and Johnny Jump Ups. I buy them in flats the minute they become available. The painting above contains all those varieties.

Painting a floral, especially a pure floral, (no vase and surrounding still life objects, and not a garden scene with structure, large masses and perspective), but rather a painting where your point of view is pulled tightly in on just the flowers, is much like painting the sea, it's about painting abstractly.

Both the complexity of the surging sea and the complexity of the tangle of petals, stems and leaves requires the artist to edit, suggest, improvise and work from what she has stored in her memory about the subject. A good deal of thought must be given to rhythm, pattern, balance, and movement in the composition. Values and color are laid on top of the rhythmic pattern.

Here you can see that I had a photo and also a sketch that worked out and  identifed the major movements in the composition as well as the arrangement of shapes, and though you can't see it the photo, the sketch also indicates where the most complexity of shapes will be.  In this instance I deliberately decided to work on a square canvas, even though the photo is a rectangle thereby giving me good reason to edit and rearrange, lest I be tempted to copy the photo too closely.

Some color adjustments were made as I chose to emphasize the blue/orange complementary color scheme. As a result much of the yellow was sacrificed.

 It's All About Design

When you're working with this type of subject, flowers that are up close with little distance, you'll encounter many repeating shapes, made up of many small parts. There are several design strategies that can be used to help you organize your composition.

• Overlap forms to create a sense of space, distance, of one thing being in front of another
• Make sure repeated flower forms are presented in different sizes, small, medium, and large
• Make sure that your flowers are not all facing the viewer, show some in three quarter view, some from above, some turned obliquely etc.
• Decide which size flower form will dominate. Will there be mostly large forms or mostly small forms?
• Show flowers in various stages of openness, some fully open, some in bud, some partially open. 
• Study the characteristic of the foliage and the growth habit of the flower. 
• Decide on a dominant movement for the composition. The piece above is based on a diagonal with the large yellow/orange pansy in the upper left as the counter point.

These close up florals work best in small formats which I think adds to their charm!

Here's another example of a close up pansy painting done in oil...

Morning Pansies, 6x8,  (sold)

Now go find some flowers and think DESIGN ( and spring) !

The Garden of Mindfulness

The Garden of Mindfulness, 20x24, acrylic on linen, Jan Blencowe, copyright 2012

Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you're mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience. ~ Psychology Today

Winter is upon us, with the marsh frozen, snow on the ground and more on the way. But, in my studio soft morning light is gently waking the Japanese Garden of Mindfulness. Isn't this an inviting scene?  This is a visual representation of  "quiet" and "awareness".  It's interesting to think about portraying ideas, like "quiet" that involve the other senses in visual form that your eyes can see.  What does "cool" look like? What does "fragrant" look like?  What does "bitter" or "noisy" look like?  

When we assess our subject matter, it's recommended that you clarify in your mind what the one thing is that drew you to the scene. Usually we think of things like "The shadow on the barn", "The way the light rakes across the meadow", "The angle of the bridge against the city skyline".  It's that essential quality that artists are encouraged to focus on to help them direct their efforts to create a coherent, strong painting. But what happens when the thing that draws you to a scene is not visual?  What happens if it involves the other senses or some emotional quality?

It is then that I believe artists dig deep and begin to share their unique vision of the world.  They use everything that's presented to them and re-arrange and use it to create that other sensation.  They move, re-size, push or subdue color, add or subtract elements and use all kinds of painting techniques to achieve the desired sensation in their viewer.

Having been a gardener for many years I can tell you that a walk through a garden, very early on a beautiful June morning is an extraordinary experience. It is a breathless time, just before the birdsong begins, when the dew is still fresh on the grass.  It is a time that gently commands your awareness. You begin to look and listen. You become aware of nearly imperceptible fragrances and sensations of moisture in the air and the movement of the breeze. That experience is so profound yet really, so ordinary, something that is available to most people. There in lies the secret, taking a moment to cultivate the  awareness of the beauty that surrounds us. I hope that this painting brings that to you!

On the Drawingboard

Charcoal still life on green tinted handmade paper, Jan Blencowe, copyright 2012

It's hard to believe it's Wednesday again! Wednesday is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week because it means one whole day in the studio with my good friend and fellow artist Claudia Post.  Nine o'clock to four o'clock dedicated to our growth and development as artists.

Today we finished up the still life from last week. I chose vine charcoal and a very nubby, textured green hand made paper, which is an unusual choice for a still life, though it would be fabulous for a landscape.

Here is Claudia's final.....

Click HERE to read last week's post about our different drawing styles.

Today after finishing up these pieces we decided to push ourselves in a different direction. Claudia had received a beautiful bouquet of roses for her birthday so they were our subject. Besides the complexities of roses with all their voluptuous petals we each chose to work on a new, different kind of paper and to work in a medium that would require us to work in the style opposite to what we usually do.

I chose to work on rose colored handmade paper that had tiny flecks of white in it, and to work with a pastel pencil and do a tight drawing.....

 

Claudia on the other hand abandoned her sharpened Nu-Pastels and drawing method and worked on Wallis paper using Pan Pastels.

Here's where she ended up at the end of the afternoon....

Pretty awesome !!!  She took lots of photos and she will finish up from those since the roses will open overnight and look totally different tomorrow.

 

Our art study Wednesdays are proving to be very productive and positive, enriching us, expanding us, and energizing us. Just what we need through the long, cold winter months. 

The Love of Drawing is the Root of Many Things

New England Coast, sepia chalk on rose gray paper, 12.25 x 16.5, Jan Blencowe, copyright 2012

It's good to go back to your roots. That which is basic to your craft, fundamental, essential and foundational will always be important to the work you are currently doing. For an artist there will never be a time when drawing is not important. A true artist is a student of art throughout her whole life.

In that spirit, that art spirit, my friend Claudia Post and I are meeting on Wednesdays, for art studies. On these days we will go back to the roots of our profession, literally back to the drawing board.

We will be exploring drawing mediums, papers, still life, figure work and possibly some new mediums as well. When the weather gets nicer we may venture outside to draw from nature.

This is what we set up for our first study...

We had been looking at the still life work of Soren Emil Carlsen (1853-1932) and finding great inspiration in his quiet, contemplative but powerful still life work.

"The Samovar" 29" x 27" Oil on Canvas c. 1920 (Courtesy of New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut)

"Study in Grey" 34" x 38" Oil on Canvas 1906 (Dallas Museum of Art)

Here I am working from the set up and below is Claudia Post working from her vantage point....

Take a look at our drawings on the drawing boards, see mine way over to the left, and notice how differently we have approached the work. That's because though both Claudia and I have excellent training in our backgrounds we have been trained in two completely different, but equally respected and legitimate,  drawing traditions!

Claudia's training comes out of what is known as the classical tradition. This tradition is linear, (the emphasis is on line), it is balanced and carefully composed. My training, and preferred style, is the Romantic tradition which is painterly and relies on value masses (as opposed to lines) and emphasizes loose, broad strokes. 

Take a look at our drawings of the very same subject and see if you can see the difference....

Claudia is carefully building her drawing with lines, including using parallel lines to indicate areas of shadow. She sharpens her charcoal and works with a very delicate touch. Note that we worked on these drawings for the exact same amount of time!

After a very quick use of line to place the objects I turn my charcoal on it's side for broad strokes to lay in values, use my charcoal stick blunt, not sharpened and pull out the lights with a kneaded eraser. This process mimics the "ragging out" technique I use when painting.

I think it's easy to see the difference in the linear and painterly approaches!!  Both are beautiful and will yield different but wonderful results.

As the sun encroached on our easels we set up another small still life in another part of the studio and began a second project.

By now I'm certain you can guess whose is whose!!

My painterly drawing, using charcoal powder and vine charcoal on steel gray Canson paper.

This is Claudia's more linear drawing. Notice how much detail she is able to capture in the paint brushes!!

To which tradition, classical or romantic do you belong???  This is actually a very important question for artists to answer. Knowing how you fit into the family of artists and to what branch of the art family tree you belong helps you appreciate your own unique way of working and helps you focus on the areas of painting that are most important to you. Next time you're in a museum and viewing paintings ask yourself which tradition you think the artist belonged to. 

Next week we will be continuing to develop that first still life set up so you will be able to see how both of us bring our works to a finish.

Charcoal Drawing and Paper Review

Snow in the Berkshires, charcoal/white pastel, 19x12, Jan Blencowe, copyright 2012
see it in a sample frame on my website

Yesterday a nice big box of drawing supplies arrived at my door!  Several sizes of willow charcoal, (very soft, grayish, and what I use the most in the beginning of the drawing process to block in and cover big areas), a nifty sharpener do-dad, which is really for pastels but is working quite well for charcoal, powdered sepia, and some chunky sepia sketching sticks, tortillons, kneaded erasers, an electric eraser and Sennelier Delacroix Fixative (never used this before so we will see how it is in the next day or two and I'll let you know).

However, the most important part of the order were two kinds of drawing paper which I have never used before. As with pastels the surface you choose for your charcoal drawing makes a huge difference in the character of the final piece and how the charcoal will adhere, layer, remove and blend. Today's drawing was done on Cartiera Magnani Pescia. It's grey, (also comes in white, cream. light blue and soft white), 100% cotton, acid free, chlorine free, 140 lb., lightly sized, cold pressed surface. It's sold as a multi-media paper appropriate for all dry media, pen and ink and watercolor. That made me skeptical (too many uses, can't be good for all of them!) as did the fact that, although it has a cold pressed surface, it was a smoother surface than I generally use for charcoal. The good news is that I really love the light gray color and the weight of the paper and though smoother than I thought it was going to be, it held a ton of layers and grabbed even the soft willow charcoal nicely. I do miss the texture of other handmade papers I've used but now that I know what this surface is like I can use it to advantage. This would be an absolutely beautiful surface for still life, portrait and figure work.

The other paper I purchased is Garza Papel from Spain. That one has lots more texture and it's white. Now if I could just find a nicely textured paper in gray!! I'm hoping to get to New York Central Art Supply soon and get some great handmade paper.

If you like drawings take a look at the slide show at Spainerman Gallery of their upcoming exhibit of works on paper by Peter Moran (1841–1914), to be held January 19–February 18, 2012. Part of the noted Moran family of artists, Peter Moran was a painter and etcher, specializing in rural scenes and pastoral landscapes.  This exhibition presents drawings in graphite and Chinese white, including views of East Hampton, New York, and probably other sites on Long Island, (my home territory!).

Don't forget....
Live with Art, it's Good for You

Don't Die without Paintings on your Walls

In 2012 I'm making an effort to improve my relationship with time. I'm reading a book called Receiving the Day, Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time.  by Dorothy C. Bass 

Today I learned this lesson about time, I am to live within each day that is given, not lamenting the past or fretting over the future, nor cursing the interruptions of this day, nor trying to squeeze out of this particular day more than it can give, nor squandering away the day, but simply doing what can be done in this day.

This poem was shared in the chapter I read today...

Otherwise

Jane Kenyon

I got out of bed

on two strong legs.

It might have been

otherwise. I ate

cereal, sweet

milk, ripe, flawless

peach. It might

have been otherwise.

I took the dog uphill

to the birch wood.

All morning I did

the work I love.

At noon I lay down

with my mate. It might

have been otherwise.

We ate dinner together

at a table with silver

candlesticks. It might

have been otherwise.

I slept in a bed

in a room with paintings

on the walls, and

planned another day

just like this day.

But one day, I know,

it will be otherwise.

Here is the author's observation of the poem, from the book...No bland acceptance of death informs this poem. Kenyon asserts mastery of a certain kind over this day, seeing to it that what she needs - walk, work, rest, food, companionship, beauty -- surrounds her.  

Of the many gems of wisdom that struck me (mastering our time rather than being mastered by it, finding balance, listening to your body's needs, respecting the various tasks you must do each day) the one that fairly leaped off the page was the need to be surrounded by beauty, to sleep in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls.I suspect that that is a need many people ignore. But to ignore that need is to rob oneself of deep comfort, joy, and sweet delight. Jane Kenyon wrote this poem a few years before she was diagnosed with cancer. She was diagnosed in January 1994 and died in April 1995 at the age of 47. Think what she would have missed had she not slept in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls. Think what you will miss if you live without paintings on the walls in your room . I am coming to believe that owning art, surrounding yourself with beauty is as necessary as food, even as necessary as love.

Above is one of the sitting areas in our house. There are no less than 5 paintings in just that area, three are mine but two are by other artists. If you could see to the left into the sun room there would be eight more paintings gracing the walls, four by other artists. They all bring me exquisite joy. Imagine what my sitting area would look like without those paintings.

Jane Kenyon's poems and life remind us that we never know how long our stay on this earth will be and that our life will be richer, fuller and deeply satisfying if art is a part of it. Art can be expensive because each piece is a unique, one of kind creation. But art comes in all sizes and prices and can be purchased over time. I am more convinced than ever that art is a necessity in our lives and like the pearl of great price worth sacrificing other things to acquire. One of my goals for the new year, other than improving my relationship with time is to acquire one really beautiful piece of art to add to my home. Will you join me and do the same?

A New Year's Gift for You

I read books. A lot. I also spend a fair amount of time reading on the internet, other blogs, articles, Facebook, videos, websites, many of which I find by following links that others have posted. And if you're a regular reader of The Poetic Landscape you know that I also do a good amount of writing. During my literary travels throughout the year I come across many wonderful ideas and images. When I read I always have a highlighter with me plus a notebook, and when I'm on the internet I book mark a lot of pages so I can go back and find the things that made an impression on me. This little movie I made brings together some of the words, ideas, images and videos that caught my attention during 2011. Please take a moment and enjoy The Best Art Quips & Quotes of 2011, my New Year's Gift to you.

May the muse visit you often and bestow beauty and creativity on you in 2012,

Jan