Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2019 i Artists Magazine

The 18th century English artist Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) was an in-demand society portrait painter whose sitters included kings and queens. Nevertheless, the artist found time to paint a number of portraits of his wife and children. The painting above—the first known of several he did of his daughters Mary and Margaret—can be enjoyed both as a tender portrayal of family by a loving father as well as a tribute to the innocence of childhood. In spite of the fact that landscapes were the artist’s first love, Gainsborough still felt called to use some of his noncommissioned free time to paint those dearest to him and, by doing so, immortalized them on canvas. The use of family members as models for painting is common among artists. Certainly one reason is simply…

• Make the sitting or photo shoot fun. When my kids modeled in the studio, we’d listen to music or audiobooks, make silly faces to loosen up and treat the sessions as a no-pressure way to spend time together. • Pay attention to the light. If you’re photographing in the house or yard, be aware of areas where the light is good and take advantage of that. I used to keep a small children’s table by a north window. • Take a lot of photos. I’ll shoot several hundred photos during a session. They’re kept in files on my computer where I still reference them. • Respect their space and privacy. If your models aren’t in the mood, don’t force it. Any discomfort will show in their expression and body language. • Avoid posing young…

Doing a self-portrait from life, looking straight into the mirror, is hard enough, invoking all the psychological trepidations that come from staring intently at oneself. Then there are all the physical difficulties involved in keeping the same pose: fighting glare from the light source and mirror, not to mention the ephemeral effort to create a satisfying artistic statement. But creating a side-view self-portrait entails all of this plus setting up two mirrors just right, so that one mirror reflects the side-view image of your head found in the other mirror. And yet, even with this more complicated setup, it may not be vastly more demanding to do a side view than a full-on view. You might find that a side view allows you to hold your pose better, see yourself…

Rabe spent the first decade of her career working in a creative field adjacent to the one she had wanted in the fine arts field, albeit one she believes enabled her to succeed when she felt ready to pursue fine art again. It’s a concept she shares with young artists leaving school and entering the art world. “I tell them that you can use your design skills and problem-solving skills in many different areas,” she says. “Creative thinkers are valued in every field. I’m a firm believer in a liberal arts education and the types of skills learned there. The world is changing so fast, who knows what a particular job in art is going to look like in 10 years. “You can try all you want to predict what…

• Mural Arts Philadelphia creates between 60 and 100 projects annually in direct collaboration with more than 25,000 individuals. • Every year, Mural Arts Philadelphia employs approximately 250 artists and teaching artists, contributing about 2.1 million dollars to the city’s creative economy through artist wages. • The average cost to produce a mural is $25,000 to $30,000. The most expensive mural the program has created is Philly Painting (2012), at about $500,000. • A typical mural requires about 30 gallons of paint, at an average cost of $68 per gallon. • The most expensive mural paint color is cobalt blue, at $170 per gallon. • Mural Arts offers walking, bicycle and trolley tours to more than 15,000 people every year.…

Originating in the Indonesian island of Java, batik produces colored designs on textiles by dyeing them after having first applied wax to areas to be left undyed. When a similar process is used on textured paper with paraffin and watercolor, the texture shows through without any additional effort. I became familiar with this method several years ago when I read an article by artist Kathie George. I found that painting in batik on rice paper gives my work a looser appearance and creates a luminous effect, thanks to the many thin layers of watercolor and wax. It’s a look that can’t be imitated by traditional watercolor methods. Turn to page 18 and follow along as I demonstrate this method.…

STAGE ONE I start loosely, usually with a simple circular scribble to get a feeling for where I want to position the head on the canvas. I use highly erasable vine charcoal so I can reposition the head or the proportions of my features more easily. STAGE TWO I gradually block in the features, using angles to flesh out the specific curvature of the head, hair and more rounded forms of the forehead, nose and chin. In any side view, it’s crucial to compare widths against lengths to avoid the common problem of making the head too narrow. I start by measuring the distance between the eye and the corner of the mouth (A-B) and between the eye and the ear (A-C). On average, these are similar distances. I then…

Oil painter Carole Rabe spent her childhood roaming the woods in her small central Massachusetts town, watching the way the sun reflected on and between the trees. “I think that’s where I first developed my love for light and how we perceive things,” she says. “I knew right from the start that I wanted to be an artist.” After earning her BFA from Hartford Art School, at the University of Hartford, Rabe worked as a graphic designer for 14 years, painting intermittently during that period. It was within that time period that she decided to return to school and earn her MFA at Boston University. “I landed a really wonderful job at Pine Manor College and ran its art program and directed the Hess Gallery,” she says. Now a full-time…

Dusk is an utterly transformative time of day. As the light fades to twilight, the contrast drops. Colors converging in value begin to sing. Artificial lighting is suddenly able to compete with daylight, so that interiors become visible while neon signs, streetlights and taillights take on a vibrant, magical incandescence. It’s also the time of day that sparks deep emotions and confers entirely new and mysterious properties on the commonplace. Dusk also heralds the night and the prospect of danger. “Light thickens,” says Shakespeare’s Macbeth, “and the crow makes wing to th’ rooky wood. Good things of day begin to droop and drowse; Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.” Sharing the Familiar The riches that twilight offers have enticed Maine painter Linden Frederick to devote the bulk…

As a photographer, I’m always looking for magical lighting. Beyond that, what I look for in my subjects, hands-down, is story. I try to steer clear of the smart phone camera clusters, shoot slowly, breathe and really wait for a tale to emerge. It might be a subtle shift in the clouds or a person whose expression leaves room for some mystery. Here are a few additional pointers for getting a great shot: To achieve poetic angles, embrace less-than-perfect weather, shoot through glass, and adjust shooting levels and camera tilts. Color is vibrant in southern Florida. Between the aqua of the ocean and the green vegetation, there’s an irresistible rainbow with which to play. Wherever you are, yield to the native colorscape and allow it to surprise you creatively. Try…

my favorite models are my family members. Ever since I began painting, I’ve turned to those I love as my artistic inspiration. The walls of my home are filled with modeling-sessions-turned-to-paintings of my children, in particular, and record their growth from infancy to adulthood. These familial works are more than images; they’re memories, feelings and moments captured in paint—and a testament to my creative journey. GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT The journey into painting and motherhood began at the same time, so it felt natural to focus on my son, Shawn, and my daughter, Anna, as subject matter. In their younger years, I worked from a combination of photographic references and lifetaking photos while they played but relying on life for color. Through these impromptu sessions, I learned the importance of shooting…

Materials SURFACE: Strathmore 400 series smooth, 2-ply bristol PENCILS: • No. 2B graphite pencils: Fantasia Premium and Faber-Castell • colored pencils: Prismacolor Premier, Derwent Lightfast and Faber-Castell Polychromos • Staedtler pigment ink liners COLORED PENCIL COLORS: • cool grey (10%, 20%, 30%, 50% and 70%) • light peach • seashell pink • beige rose • clay rose • burnt ochre • chocolate • dark umber • terra cotta • mineral orange • pale sage • limepeel • yellow chartreuse • peach beige • greyed lavender • moss green • pale vermillion • rosy beige • cream • sand • bronze • sky light blue • cloud blue • chartreuse • spring green • marine green • peacock blue • slate grey • Prussian blue • dark umber • espresso •…

Rabe also works in collage, which is always inspired by a preceding oil painting—and leftover oil paint. Using the leftover paint on her palette as part of her collage material, Rabe paints color swatches on lightweight sketch paper. “When I was contemplating possible imagery in my collages, I decided I’d work from existing paintings,” she says. “It’s been an interesting process because the initial design idea is already complete [as in Prayer Plant, left], and with that already resolved, I can then play with color [as in Prayer Plant, right]. It’s like a variation on a theme, working with the same imagery but exploring it in a different way.”…

Late in the 1970s I worked for the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), in Arlington, Va., the federal agency charged with reducing injury and death in the nation’s mines. Then, as today, mining ranked high in occupational dangers. As a newly hired writer, I learned about mine roofs collapsing, mine explosions and diseases caused by the continual breathing in of coal dust, but countering this despair were the bright colors and captivating expressions of the watercolor portraits that an agency artist pasted on the walls above his desk. They shone with promise—like windows of hope. I didn’t grasp at the time that I was working near a master fine artist—Columbus Pearl Knox (1923–1999), whose work, in coming years, would be widely displayed in his native Philadelphia at venues such…

Without a word, every figure makes a statement through stance, facial expression and the positioning of head, hands and limbs. In Postures: Body Language in Art (Thames & Hudson), artist and anthropologist Desmond Morris examines the significance of these silent signals in artwork from prehistory to contemporary times. Insight into these social clues presents a new perspective—even on well-known works.…