Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2018 i Artists Magazine

For many, artful surroundings play an important role in fostering a suitable environment for artmaking, so this month, Artists Magazine explores the many connections between art and the home. We meet several artists who have fashioned studios that are small and perhaps unconventional but well-suited to their needs (page 18). We then turn and face the wall—so as to consider the history of fine wallpaper and the changes it has undergone in the era of digital printing (page 54). We tiptoe through the hushed, inconspicuous interiors of the oil painter Nicolas Martin (page 60) and revisit one of America’s most iconic houses (page 68). We also take a tour through the venerable halls of several art clubs, which serve as a second home for many members (page 82), and we…

Oil painting with a painting knife produces a dynamic surface—one quite different from that produced by brushes alone. Application of paint with a knife allows a great range of effects, from very heavy impasto (from the Italian word for “dough”) to sharp, stucco-like textures to glass-smooth finishes. I use a painting knife for various functions: paint mixing, application, scraping paint from a canvas and cleaning the palette. Any oil painter’s kit should contain at least one painting knife. BLADE: SHAPE + FLEXIBILITY Knives can be made of metal or plastic. I use stainless steel blades for easy application. Although plastic knives are economical, their tips lack flexibility. In particular, I like Blick’s RGM No. 61 painting knife (see knife No. 1, above). The oblong blade is ¼-inch wide by 2…

Stuff Matters ● Rooms have moods. Take the styling and color of a room into consideration before you depict it. ● A room without clutter that’s painted in cool colors will give you a tranquil and maybe stark interior. Look to the works of Carl Vilhelm Holsøe for inspiration. ● Warmth and intimacy enter when a room is full of furniture, patterns, colors and wall adornments. Get inspired by Édouard Vuillard, Adolph Menzel or Jan Steen. Blank Walls Invigorate those monochromatic walls—break up the color by painting the shadows, adding texture or variation in brushstrokes or adding décor. Pattern Study Devote an entire art session to capturing the patterns in your home. Consider wallpaper, curtains, rugs, tablecloths and so on. If you don’t want to paint in situ, snap photos…

Perhaps the most obvious use for acrylic mediums, especially the thick ones, is to create and control textures. Mediums collectively offer painters almost unlimited potential for dictating the appearance and character of the painted surface, from ultra-smooth to the spikiest of peaks. Touching paintings is discouraged, which I find incredibly frustrating because being able to physically feel the surface of an exquisitely textured painting can greatly increase my appreciation and understanding of it. Sadly, gallery and museum etiquette, not to mention conservation concerns, dictate that we keep our hands at a respectful distance from the artwork, so we usually have to rely on letting light, instead of our fingertips, play on those surfaces. TYPES OF TEXTURE Acrylic mediums are the masters of diversity when it comes to disrupting and dictating…

Among the attributes of a realist painting is the ability to engage the participation of multiple senses. The sense of sight is obvious, but others can also be quickened, if only in the mind of the viewer, by a purposeful inclusion, arrangement and rendition of specific objects. In my demonstration I’ve focused on a variety of objects made from wood. The many types of wood, the nearly endless forms into which human hands have coaxed this material and the way in which wooden objects appeal to our senses of touch and sound make this material a fruitful and challenging subject for painting. I began by arranging wooden objects in my studio with an eye toward presenting a connection among them beyond mere material similarity. I noticed the subtle differences in…

ROBERT K. CARSTEN LESSON: “COLOR AND LIGHT” Award-winning artist Robert K. Carsten, PSA, studied at the Art Students League of New York, the Rhode Island School of Design and the Accademia di Belle Arti (Italy). He has instructed art workshops and classes for over four decades, juried national and regional exhibitions and written numerous articles on artists and their work. “The creative process is my great passion,” says Carsten, who works in pastel, oil, acrylic and mixed media. For more information, visit robertcarsten.com. RHÉNI TAUCHID LESSON: “CREATING SURFACE TEXTURES” Rhéni Tauchid is a writer, painter and educator based in Kingston, Ontario. She is the materials consultant for the acrylic paint manufacturer Tri-Art Mfg., a member of the company’s product development team and the founder of the Tri-Art Acrylic Education Program…

“James Turrell’s Roden Crater, near Flagstaff, Arizona, which has been under construction for over 30 years and is still closed to the public. The site actually incorporates numerous individual works by Turrell, but these are all subsumed into a single, unified experience. Or so I’ve heard.” KJELL M. WANGENSTEEN ASSISTANT CURATOR OF EUROPEAN ART, INDIANAPOLIS MUSEUM OF ART “LE CORBUSIER’S NOTRE DAME DU HAUT , IN RONCHAMP, FRANCE, AND THE ROTHKO CHAPEL, IN HOUSTON.” CHERYL K. SNAY CURATOR OF EUROPEAN ART, SNITE MUSEUM OF ART, UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME “Michael Heizer’s City, in Nevada.” XAVIER F. SALOMON PETER JAY SHARPE CHIEF CURATOR, THE FRICK COLLECTION “HUBERT AND JAN VAN EYCK’S GHENT ALTARPIECE , IN THE SAINT BAVO CATHEDRAL, IN BELGIUM.” COSTA VAVAGIAKIS ARTIST “I’ve…

1 To understand how the form of a pear turns, I peeled the fruit and examined the facets. My palette knife applications will represent the planes as I follow the turn of each facet, adjusting the value and intensity of the colors. 2 I sketched the pear with vine charcoal. Then, I scraped a generous amount of raw umber onto the underside of a painting knife. Holding the knife as if it were a music baton, I applied paint in flat strokes with the blade parallel to the surface. 3 By adjusting the pressure on the blade, I could control the thickness of the impasto. The paint on the pear's light area is much thicker than that on the shadow area. Highlights came last. Colors: white, lemon yellow, cadmium green…

There’s nothing more feminine than beautifully draped fabric and ribbon with its calligraphic movement across the page. In this fabric study, I was drawn to the delicacy of the conical folds and the gentle twists and curls of the ribbon. For my colors I used a modified version of the traditional triad of red, yellow and blue. The red is a red purple, the yellow is a gold, and the blue is the very muted blue-gray of the cast shadow. I used Payne’s gray, a low-chroma blue, in the stone of the earrings. I began this study with a trip to a large fabric store in the heart of the Garment District in Manhattan. I wanted a fabric with an easy drape, something soft and utterly feminine. I did have…

ABOUT THE PRODUCTS Full disclosure: The description of acrylic mediums and their use in this excerpt comes with a caveat. While I have done my best to make this a general reference on existing acrylic mediums, I primarily reference acrylic materials produced by Tri-Art Manufacturing because of my affiliation with the company and my familiarity with and appreciation of their products. There are many dissimilarities between acrylic brands. For further information on other brands’ mediums, visit their manufacturers’ websites. This article is an excerpt from Acrylic Painting Mediums and Methods: A Contemporary Guide to Materials, Techniques, and Applications by Rhéni Tauchid, published by Monacelli Studio, 2018.…

Fallingwater is located in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, roughly 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, and can be visited via guided tour. For more information, visit fallingwater.org. Other buildings designed by Wright can be visited throughout the country, including his estates Taliesin, in Wisconsin, and Taliesin West, in Arizona. For a comprehensive list of sites, visit the website of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, franklloydwright.org.…

The best of times seemed past. Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), having made a significant mark in the art world, was beginning to get what-have-you-done-lately vibes from critics who felt she was repeating herself. Although her marriage to renowned photographer Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) remained intact, she knew her husband shared his affections with another woman. O’Keeffe struggled with depression. Then came a proposal from the advertising agency N.W. Ayer & Son: Would she like to travel to Hawaii via ocean liner for a nine-week, all-expenses-paid visit? She could roam the islands and paint whatever and as much as she pleased, retaining rights to her work, providing she produced two paintings that could be used in an ad campaign for the Hawai’i Pineapple Company (now Dole Food Company). Unbelievable Beauty O’Keeffe accepted the…

“Ryosuke Kumakura’s cat paintings are, in part, a contemporary painter’s manifestation of the Shinto tradition of displaying spirit charms in the home. Such charms include maneki-neko, the lucky cat that brings good fortune, and the paper talismans known as ofuda. By folding the canvas corners into ears and painting hidden footprints on the painting’s fold over the bottom edge of the stretcher, Kumakura fuses the painted image and the canvas together as a singular amulet. The Western classical painting tradition is used to present the Japanese concept of the ‘spirit body,’ and in the process, the artist subverts the genre of kitsch pet-portrait painting.”…

William Morris (1834–96) was a creative dynamo—a prolific designer, craftsman, painter and writer. He was instrumental in shaping the design aesthetics of the late 19th century in Britain and America, and even today, nearly two centuries after his birth, his impact on the culture of artisans and makers of all sorts is pronounced. Morris was born to a prosperous family in the East of England and educated at Oxford. He considered joining the clergy, but after being inspired by the writings of art critic John Ruskin, he decided to devote himself to art and architecture. He worked for a time in an architect’s office while also writing poetry and practicing other creative pursuits. He became involved with the Pre-Raphaelite circle of painters and was a close friend to Burne-Jones and…

“The Rosary Chapel, in Vence, France. Matisse decorated the entire thing with paintings and stained-glass windows.” —EMMA BELCHER “Guernica, hands down.” —JON APPLE “The city of Samarkand, in Uzbekistan.” —ALEJANDRINA MICHEL “I think Rothko’s work is impossible to appreciate without experiencing in person, and I hope someday to visit the Rothko Chapel, in Houston.” —GINA PESCARINO HARTWIG “The Sistine Chapel. I’m fascinated by the way the figures are painted on the curved ceiling, making them look in proper proportion—yet, if laid flat, they’d appear grotesque.” —MARIANNE BERZINSKAS…

even if you’re not a design aficionado, chances are you'd recognize a Marimekko pattern from a mile away. The Finnish company’s iconic prints—such as Tasaraita (Even Stripes) and the Unikko poppy (see Pop Go the Pillows, opposite)—helped define the fashion and culture of the 1960s and ‘70s. Marimekko’s cheerful, colorful designs have been worn by everyone from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to Sarah Jessica Parker. THE MAKING OF A BRAND The company began in the late 1940s as a small printed-textile factory called Printex, owned by Viljo Ratia. In the early 1950s, his wife, Armi Ratia, commissioned a group of young artists to create striking fabric designs for her husband’s company. In 1951, she held a fashion show featuring clothes made with these printed fabrics. Five days later she launched a…

1 I sketched a couple of donuts with vine charcoal on a canvas toned in raw sienna. I then used a brush to block in the shadows with raw umber. I continued to render the donuts with a knife, treating the brown topping as if I were frosting a confection with a cake spatula. I used a large amount of brown madder to create a rich chocolate-like texture. Colors: white, lemon yellow, raw sienna and brown madder 2 I painted the white napkins by placing the blade flat against the canvas. For the decorative drizzle, I angled the blade, using only the left edge. I brushed in the background and foreground.…

Tools If you were painting a studio, what artmaking tools and equipment would you depict? Organization Interior With the Artist's Easel (opposite), by Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1916), is spare in the extreme. Is your imagined space cluttered or austere? Do mundane affairs intrude upon the space? Perspective Hammershøi depicts the artist’s easel from the back. List some possible points-of-view and think about how each one affects the composition. MAKING THE FAMILIAR STRANGE Hammershøi’s style casts everyday spaces and situations in a somber and austere light. Many of his haunting works were depictions of rooms in his own home or of his wife going about her daily routines.…