Innholdsfortegnelse for March/April 2021 i Artists Magazine

“Sometimes art makes the world a better place by affirming the joy and beauty of life, but art can serve us in other ways. Art sometimes unsettles us, points out the dark side of human nature, or reminds us of the terror of our times. We need our Macbeths and King Lears as well as our Midsummer Night’s Dreams. That darker side of art makes the world a better place by keeping us mindful of our flaws and warning us of future paths that are better left untaken.”JAMES GURNEY ARTIST AND AUTHOR OF THE ILLUSTRATED BOOK SERIES DINOTOPIA “Art reaches the soul and draws us in, touching us through the artist’s hand and heart.”DENISE WILLING BOOHER ARTIST AND PRESIDENT, NATIONAL WATERCOLOR SOCIETY “Art can offer visual interpretations in response to…

What is the relationship between an artist’s personal life and their work? “This fundamental question,” writes art historian Elizabeth Cropper, “must be asked by historians of all art and will never be answered definitively. But in the case of Artemisia Gentileschi [Italian, 1593–1653], the relationship between the work and the life is immediately bound up with both misogyny and feminism in a way that is not true for others.” Consideration of Artemisia’s painting is inevitably linked to her biography. This was true of the recent exhibition at the National Gallery in London, which comprised Artemisia’s paintings, correspondence and courtroom transcripts in the first major installation of her art in the United Kingdom. The London show included more than 30 works of art spanning the arc of the painter’s career, from…

We can trace the romantic roots of the mythic relationship between artists and their models back to the story of Pygmalion, a sculptor who falls in love with the life-sized statue of a beautiful woman he carved out of ivory. The statue, named Galatea, comes alive in response to her creator’s kiss, and the two ultimately marry. Pygmalion is part of ancient Greek mythology, but the tale is more commonly associated with the Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C–A.D. 17) and his poem Metamorphoses. The tale has been the source of inspiration for innumerable works in the visual arts, music, dance and literature. The theme of a creator becoming infatuated with his or her creation most notably intrigues artists—in particular, Jean-Léon Gérôme, the academic French painter and sculptor, who explored the…

Cauley’s recent paintings of action figures are very different in approach from his portraits. Dubbed his Childhood Revisited series, they’re made in ink and tempera, using a resist process that creates a modest sense of form and a lively surface while retaining a strong graphic quality. “These paintings were a fun experiment,” says the artist. “Since nostalgia plays such a large role in my life, I decided that instead of painting portraits of people, I would attempt to paint ‘portraits’ of my childhood toys. These were the toys my mom had purchased for me some 30 to 40 years ago, so there are all of those added memories and associations with the subject matter.” To make the paintings, Cauley adopted a novel technique. “I begin with a very tight outline…

Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) was the greatest French artist of his time and the immediate precursor of the Rococo movement that he inspired. He excelled at the genre he created, fête galante, in which figures posture elegantly in Arcadian settings. These were paintings as light as a madeleine, frivolous except for two elements: Watteau endowed the subjects with an aching wistfulness, and he drew with an extraordinarily sharp eye. It would be 100 years before France produced, in Ingres, a draftsman of comparable refinement and 50 more until a true successor appeared in Degas. “Watteau’s life studies are exquisite in their rendering and possess understated wit; the artist seems to have delighted in the people he drew.” Born in Valenciennes, France, Watteau moved to Paris while still in his teens and…

For figure painters, the work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a loose collection of mid-19th-century London artists, is bound to be a source of fascination. The group, comprising nine members, all of whom signed their work not only with their names but also with the cryptic initials “PRB,” formed in September, 1848, with the aim of upturning the established conventions of subject matter and technique in painting. With none of the members older than 25 years, their attitude strikes me as akin to the unconventional students of Germany’s Bauhaus—or even the youthful rebellion of rock bands like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones in the 1960s and 1970s. In light of tumultuous changes in painting since then, their work no longer shocks, but it retains unique and impressive qualities that helped…

Aristotle, some 2,000 years ago, expressed a realization that the human mind has the power to manifest into reality anything it can visualize in the imagination. He understood that our brains don’t know the difference between a real event or one that’s imagined, and—in either case—it immediately begins responding to the situation. Regardless of whether a danger is right in front of you or only in your mind’s eye, the brain sends signals to your body to flee. Similarly, whether you actually see something you desire, or whether you simply evoke it, the brain sets the psyche in pursuit of that end. This theory isn’t just some sort of self-help gimmick. Rather, modern-day scientific evidence posits that “outcome visualization” is a part of our nature. Dreams or desires don’t magically…

The first thing you notice about the paintings of Fahamu Pecou is the color—bright eye-popping hues that set up a bold graphic backdrop for what is a very contemporary expression of Black male identity. In fact, Pecou spent a number of years designing promotional material—graphic images, mostly—for hip-hop artists. “Doing that type of work is what led to my visual aesthetic,” he says. HIP-HOP PERSONAS Pecou wouldn’t be the first artist who transitioned from commercial art to fine art; Jenny Holzer and Andy Warhol both applied the look of magazine covers and advertising illustration that they’d produced earlier in their careers to the images they created for the art gallery milieu—and Pecou has also re-created the look of commercial design in his paintings. What differs is that the subject isn’t…

Surface: Fredrix Red Label canvas Paint: Winsor & Newton Professional Acrylics Palette: “My palette features mostly reds, oranges and yellows, and of those, all are cadmium in composition,” says Cauley. “I rarely have any green on my palette and only a few blues. I prefer to mix greens myself instead of using colors straight from the tube. Still, I do spread out quite a few colors, mostly to have paints on hand in case they’re needed—as splashes of color, perhaps, placed here and there as accents.” He uses a Sta-Wet palette, which allows him to mix a complex range of colors while keeping them wet. Brushes: “I prefer white sable brushes,” says Cauley, “particularly brights because their flat edges work better with my patchwork approach to painting.”…

The Most Famous Female Artist of the 19th Century March is Women’s History Month. In honor of the occasion, learn nine fascinating facts about celebrated French artist Rosa Bonheur (1822–99). artistsnetwork.com/go/rosa-bonheur Photograph Your Art Like a Pro Perfect the art of photographing your work for your website, gallery sites, online art competitions and more. artistsnetwork.com/go/photograph-art Create Your Best Composition Yet Tell your stories with five strategies for creating powerfully built paintings. artistsnetwork.com/go/best-composition…

When I was in art school, honing my technical skills in oil painting was one of my priorities. By my senior year, I’d developed a solid foundation to the point that I felt confident and accomplished as an oil painter. For the last semester I enrolled in a portrait-painting class that fit perfectly with my plan at the time to become a professional portrait artist after graduating. Unfortunately, that class proved to be a big blow to my artistic ego. It left me deflated for the entire semester and years beyond. There was a student in the class whose oil-painting skills blew mine out of the water. Every week, this student brought in a portrait that made me drool. This artist’s work had gorgeous passages of luminous light that fell…

PAINTING SURFACE: illustration board sized with gesso TRANSFER MATERIALS: • tracing paper• Saral transfer paper• tape• red colored pencil WATERCOLOR BRUSHES: ⅛- to 1-inch synthetic flats OILS: • Cremnitz white• Mars black• raw umber• transparent earth yellow• Spanish earth• alizarin crimson• Winsor red• neutral tint• brown ochre• Indian yellow• Naples yellow• sap green• ultramarine blue• phthalo turquoise MEDIUM:  ¼ linseed stand oil to ¾ Gamsol…

1 FLOOR PLAN To begin, draw a floor plan on grid paper. Each square should represent one square foot. Place the furniture of your choice in the room using the grids to measure. Be sure to show where windows and doors are located. When complete, set your plan aside for later reference. 2 CENTER OF VISION Early Renaissance paintings viewed rooms straight-on, facing the rear wall of a room, creating a one-point perspective scene. For your design, draw the rear wall, then choose a viewing height (horizon line) and place your “center of vision.” In this example by Elena Daly, the viewing height is 5½ feet. Next, from the center of vision, project a gridded floor into the room that replicates the gridded floor you drew in your floor plan,…

Diana De Santis WHITESTONE, NEW YORK Connie III pastel on board, 30x22 The unassuming manner, serenity of expression and everyday look of the model Connie incited me to paint her, resulting in Connie III. She posed for me more than once, and because she wasn’t sitting in a chair, getting her to resume the same position was a bit of a challenge. To solve the problem, I used masking tape to mark the floor around Connie’s feet, which allowed her to more easily find her previous position after a break. My favorite part of the process is capturing a model’s expression. ... Viewers look at the painting and take the expression with them. —DIANA DE SANTIS I like to paint on sanded board, which I prepare myself so it will…

One of the curiosities of the contemporary art world is that we generally expect an artist to be focused on one activity and to display a consistency of style and approach. This was not always the case. Artists before the Romantic era would often run studios that offered a wide range of services that might include painting, decoration, architectural design, interior design or almost anything else connected to the visual arts. It’s a legacy that certainly resonates with New York artist Matt Cauley, whose superb and electrifying portraiture is only part of a creative output that includes sculpting custom action figures, making prints featuring toy imagery and working as an art director for a major music company. ZOOM IN, ZOOM OUT When it comes to portrait painting, Cauley looks at…

LIFE IN THE TIME OF COVID Body Alive Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael drew the human body with an understanding of its workings from the inside out—as have thousands of artists since. Who better to teach this method than Robert Osti, who trained as a medical illustrator before turning to fine art and who teaches figure drawing and anatomy for artists at the New York Academy of Art; the University of the Arts, in Philadelphia; and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts? Osti’s Dynamic Human Anatomy: An Artist’s Guide to Structure, Gesture and the Figure in Motion (Monacelli Studio), a follow-up to his book Basic Human Anatomy, explains how this methodology can be used to reach beyond static depictions in order to “convey a sense of life or…

Artists never stop learning. Each new painting or drawing can bring another revelation, but when you want to learn more about a specific technique, medium or style, you can’t do better than to take a workshop. Start planning now. On the following pages, you’re sure to find one or many workshops just right for you. Workshops Annie Strack June 2021, Bretagne, France With an exclusive invitation to visit the Sennelier and Raphael companies September 2022, La Marche, Italy AnnieStrackArt.com, info@AnnieStrackArt.com The Art Engine FRANCE. Instructed Workshops. Paint with exceptional master painters in France. Perfectly-balanced painting workshops with instruction and total immersion in French life. All-inclusive: instruction, food, wine, accommodation at the Chateau, except air-fare. September 2–11, 2021, Joseph Zbukvic Paints Provence -10 days Chateau Workshop, painting en plein air with…

“Social realists Raphael Soyer(1899–1987) and Reginald Marsh (1898–1954) were longtime friends, but their art reflected different outlooks. Soyer worked in the tradition of 19th-century naturalism. Thus, as in this beautifully realized portrait of his friend, Soyer underlined the dignity and individuality of his subjects. Marsh, by contrast, was obsessed with the mass spectacles of 1930s New York—the Bowery, Coney Island and, especially, burlesque, a voyeuristic entertainment focused on naked women. By including a drawing of an undressed woman among the sketches in front of Marsh, Soyer slyly hints at his friend’s favorite subject matter.,,ALAN WALLACH Ralph H. Wark Professor of Art and Art History and Professor of American Studies Emeritus The College of William and Mary…