Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2023 i Artists Magazine

“Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.” –PAUL KLEE TRAVEL LIKE AN ARTIST Whether you’re taking part in a guided group tour, a family road trip or a solo pilgrimage; whether moving by means of planes and trains, car or RV, or by pokey canal boat; there are almost as many ways to travel as there are places to travel. You might, like Jessica Bastidas (page 38), plan a journey that takes you to an unfamiliar locale with time to accommodate a slowed-down pace, immersion into the local scene and scenery, and plenty of occasion to record the experience with your favorite art-making tools. Thanks to study-abroad programs in school, volunteer programs and foundation sponsorships, Bastidas has enjoyed unique opportunities in Italy, Dominca and São…

“Art is a lifelong pursuit. It’s not a sprint and it’s not a marathon. Take the time to work on mastering the instrument so you can make music for the rest of your life. To quote Robert Henri, ‘I am interested in art as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living.’ ”TODD M. CASEYARTIST AND AUTHOR OF OIL PAINTER’S COLOR HANDBOOK “You’re going to ruin paintings. Full stop. Get used to it. Embrace the failures and give the successes a nod, but understand the ruined paintings are the real teachers. They bite like the serpent but the lesson is to look for where you went wrong and try to correct that. Don’t coddle your work. Don’t be tentative. Make your marks and learn.”IAIN…

Artists should have fun while painting and drawing. Anxiety shouldn’t be part of that experience, and yet there’s one word in an artist’s vocabulary that can easily strike terror in the heart: perspective. Some artists understand perspective, but most either avoid it in their work or simply guess at it. And while a stigma may exist around one- and two-point perspective, utter panic can set in at the mere mention of three-point perspective. Considering it took ancient artists centuries to develop the rules for basic perspective, and hundreds more years to understand three-point perspective, modern-day artists shouldn’t judge themselves for any confusion they may feel around the subject. In this lesson we’ll clarify one- and two-point perspective to shed light on what three-point perspective represents, how its effects are achieved…

Which colors to put on your palette is a choice—and a very important one. Today’s artist has access to more colors of paint than ever before, but having access doesn’t necessarily mean that an artist should use all of the available options. It’s important to understand how intertwined pigments are with art history. The accessibility of pigments, for example, has been a significant factor in determining which colors appear on a particular painter’s palette. While most artists would have had access to pigments attainable in their own town, city or region, many pigments come from Italian or French sources, as is often indicated by their names—Venetian red, for example, or Naples yellow. We know what paints were used by some artists of the past from the portraits and self-portraits that…

DRAWN TO THE VISUAL “It is drawing, and the understanding or ‘knowing’ that it nurtures, which informs convincing illustrative image-making in all its forms,” says teacher, illustrator and writer Martin Salisbury. The professor of illustration at the Cambridge School of Art knows what he’s talking about. The goal of his latest book, Drawing for Illustration (Thames & Hudson), is to help students and others develop their drawing—specifically in relation to the art of illustration—while also gaining broader insights into historical context. Salisbury uses case studies to explore key aspects of this vital discipline, from the basics of line, tone, composition and color to essentials of book illustration, graphic novels, advertising art and reportage. Featuring more than 20 renowned illustrators discussing their creative processes, as well as a range of contemporary…

Supply List If you go light on supplies, you’ll be able to set up and pack up quickly—ideal when you’re passing through locales. Plus, you won’t overwhelm yourself with too many options. • A sketchbook and a few pens and pencils are a great starting point for a travel kit. • Traveling with mediums and solvents isn’t an ideal option, as almost all are flammable. Instead, buy those at your destination, ship them in advance or consider working with water-based media while you’re away. • If traveling with tubes of oil paint, label them clearly and specify that they contain no solvents. Pack them in a separate container or bag so that if they burst in transit, the damage is localized. Also, most artists recommend stowing these in a checked…

New York GEORGIA O’KEEFFE: TO SEE TAKES TIME THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART • NEW YORK THROUGH AUGUST 12, 2023 MOMA.ORG The Museum of Modern Art is hosting the first exhibition to investigate Georgia O’Keeffe’s (American, 1887–1986) works on paper made in series. Some of those sequences also gave rise to related paintings, which will be installed alongside the works on paper. “Georgia O’Keeffe: To See Takes Time” reveals a lesser-known side of the artist, spotlighting her persistently modern process on paper. More than 120 works created over four decades demonstrate the ways in which O’Keeffe developed, repeated and changed motifs that blur the boundary between observation and abstraction. Seen together, these works demonstrate how drawing in series allowed the atist to revisit and rework subjects throughout her career and…

Have you ever set out on a trip armed with a bag full of art supplies and yet came home with a still-empty sketchbook? You’re not alone! If there’s one word to summarize the secret to successful travel sketching, it’s simplify. Paring down your sketching kit and setting up realistic expectations that take into consideration your busy itinerary can help you move from a blank sketchbook to pages full of memories to treasure. SIMPLIFY YOUR SETUP When traveling, consider switching to a sketchbook that’s smaller than your regular book—perhaps one that’s pocket-sized. The smaller the format, the less intimidating the sight of a blank page will be, which increases the likelihood that you’ll pause and sketch along the way. Another option is to bring along a pack of postcard-sized pieces…

“THERE IS NO TRUTH,” OBSERVED FRENCH NOVELIST GUSTAVE FLAUBERT. “THERE IS ONLY PERCEPTION.” The idea that the world is more malleable, less certain and less knowable than our conventional understanding of it underpins the paintings of New Mexico artist Beau Carey. His canvases feature mountainous, generally Arctic, landscapes in which multiple horizons and repeated views combine with highly colored flat shapes to create fractured, disorienting and deeply mysterious images. To understand how the artist came to paint these pictures, it’s necessary to go back to his early passion for plein air painting. “As an undergrad, I was lucky enough to take classes that encouraged me to work outdoors,” Carey recalls. “It was such a gift early on not to need a studio. Working that way prompts me to ask certain…

At some point during the first year of design school, in my training to become an architect, the word “place” became part of the general lexicon in assignment descriptions. This frustrated me to no end. It seemed to be such a simple word to define, but in reality is incredibly complex. “Place,” when used as a noun, is synonymous with space and atmosphere. To capture the essence of place, then, is to describe a particular space and the atmospheric conditions we encounter there. To reach that kind of understanding requires a familiarity with a location that can only be achieved by putting in the time. For artists, there’s no substitute for working on-site, recording your surroundings. It can change the way you see the world. Once you begin to observe…

During the two decades that she was working in the paper-crafting industry, Kansas artist Michelle Wooderson had a large room dedicated to her job. When she quit and got back into painting, she wanted to start afresh. “After my husband and I became empty nesters, I turned my daughter’s smaller bedroom into my very own painting studio. I cleared everything out and created a brand new space,” Wooderson says. “It immediately became my very favorite room in the house.” For many artists, a studio is not just a place to work, it’s something of a sanctuary. In Wooderson’s case, her detour to painting coincided with a period of time when both of her parents developed Alzheimer’s. Her art-making became a means of escape, and her studio a creative haven. “To…