Observations on the History of Oil Painting

Who have been the major players throughout the history of oil painting? Why is this so?
- Claude Monet
- Leonardo Da Vinci
- Henry Matisse
- Van Gogh
- ...because they are all men and they are white
Who seems to be missing from the history of oil painting? Why is this so?
- Mary Cassatt (because she was a female)
- JoAnn Bernard (because she was African American and a female)
Where in the world did most oil painting taking place?
- Italy
- France
- United States of America
Where did all these oil paintings go? Why? How does where these paintings “live” affect who learns about them and why?
- they are now in museums. people who are interested in learning about art history or art in general go to art museums.

Surface and Textures set-up pictures

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THIS IS THE ONE I CHOSE

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My White Objects Painting

What is a portrait?

1. What is a portrait? a portrait...
- ...is a portrayal.
- ...is where the face and its expression is predominant.
- ...is an accurate discription of a mood.
- ...is a painting of a real, rather than an imaginary, person.
- ...usual shows just the face, but can include a part or all of the body.
- ...is intended to show likeness, personality and even the mood of the person.
2. (Describe how the artist uses color, composition, and subject matter (objects, setting, clothing, etc.) to communicate something about the person whose portrait they’ve made OTHER than what the person looks like.)

Title: Madame X

Artist: John Singer Sargent

Year: 1883 -1884

*How does this artists use the concept of portrait? How does the artist work within the tradition of portrait-making?

This artist uses the concept of portrait by portaying the person by the way he positioned her and it the position also shows the mood of the painting. The painting is a full body portrait. The facial expression in the painting emphasizes the mood in the painting.

Title: Self-Portrait

Author: Chuck Close

Year: 2000 -2001

* How does this artists use the concept of portrait? How does the artist work within the tradition of portrait-making?

This is a self-portrait of Chuch Close himself. It is a portrait of a real person. This self-portrait is the traditional making of self-portraits with a bit of a twist. It is the tradition of portrait making because this self-portrait is an image that portrays him and also the usual self-protraits shows his face/his expression/his emotion clearly.

Title: Shiva at White Castle Creek

Artist: (unknown)

Year: (unknown)

*How does this artists use the concept of portrait? How does the artist work within the tradition of portrait-making?

Though this painting is in black and white you can clearly see what the artist portayed. He used the position to show some the mood of the painting. the position of her hands looks like she is praying. What also really help find the mood is the black, grey, and white colors. Looking at the girls face you can see the emotion that the artist is trying to portray.

A Sense of Place

Title: Psychodrama
Artist: Edward Hopper
Date: 1927

Title: The Rehearsal
Artist: Edgar Degas
Date: 1875

Describe the moods of the two paintings:

In the painting "Psychodrama " by Edward Hopper the mood is...

- quiet

- peaceful

- lonely

- a little colofrul around the person and around her it seems lifeless

In the painting "The Rehearsal" by Edgar Degas the mood is...

- full of life

- musical

- a happy ambiance

- bright

- energetic

Where Are You At?

What has been the most challenging aspect of the course so far?
I would have to say that the most challenging aspect of the course for far is trying to get the right color and shadow.
In what areas have you progressed the most and how have you progressed?
The area I have progressed in is mixing the colors. The way I have progressed is that I work fast and thing about the detail after I get the basics.
How does looking at examples of painting from throughout history affect us as painters today?
We see that many painters had different ways of painting, different color combinations, different reasons for painting what they did and they had different ideas of what to paint. I think that painters today seem to combine all the different ideas, colors, and textures to paint what we see or imagine.

SOME famous paintings

Nighthawks
- Find out who made it and where they are from?

This artist is Edward Hopper and lived from 1882 to 1967. It was made in 1942. He is to be known as to the first significant American painter in twentieth century art. His art is the "New Realism". Edward Hopper spent years in France before moving to the United States and developed his new techniques.

- What is the painting about?
The scene was inspired by a restaurant in New York's Greenwich Village. When he made this painting the light of the restaurant is the only one left still burning in the sleeping city.

Creating the Illusion of Surface and Textures

Title: Still Life With a Ginger Jar
By: Paul Cezanne
Value
(Painters use highlights (tints), mid-tones, and shadows (shades) to represent the planes they see in a form. They also vary between these three values to show the surface of an object changes across its surface.)
In this painting you can see the shadow of all the different objects. using the shadow you can see the folds of the textures. In the white cloth you can see some greenish-blue highlights. In the white cloth there is also a mixture of greyish-green mid-tones and light black shadowing in the foldes. When you look at the fruit you can see in where the light is coming from because of the direction the shadows of the fruits are going. Also he used the light brown highlights, mid-tones, and dark brownish-green shadowing to show that the drawer of the cradensa in open.
Edges
(Painters vary the way they represent the edge of an object to capture its essence whether that is what the object is made of or its weight, etc.)
When you look at the two different clothes; blue and white clothes. You can see that the blue, black, and a bit of white is heavier than the white cloth. The blue cloth actually looks more like a fancy table cloth where as the white cloth just looks like a simple light weight cloth. When you look at the green object infront of the dark green vase, the painter makes it look likes its heavy, maybe just as heavy as a bowling ball. Now when you look at the two vases; dark green vase and the blue, beige and white vase. It seems like the green vase it much heavier than the blueish-beige vase.
Brushwork
The reason why i think that the green vase looks heavier than the blueish-beige vase is because the impasto (real texture created by layering paint on top of paint to build thickness) brush strokes create the illusion of thickness.
The blending for the cradensa seems to be blended with a dry brush (when colors are mixed together using a dry brush to create a subtle change in color) Where as the white cloth seems like it was blended wet paint into wet paint. (when colors are mixed together on the canvas with short brushstrokes) What i like about the fruit is that it seems to use both a dry brish and wet paint into wet paint.

Composition

QUESTIONS:
A.) In which painting does the composition take the painting beyond being just a picture of everyday objects?
I would have to say that the painting that intregued me the most was the "Custard Cascade", painted by Will Cotton in 2001.

Title: Custard Cascade

Artist: Will Cotton

Date: 2001
B.) Which composition is the most interesting and why?
It is just so realistic. I would probably have to say that if i could eat art for dessert I would eat, "Custard Cascade" (2001) by Will Cotton, because I adore sugar, frosting, and candy's. Those aren't the only reasons why I like this painting. This composition interests me because I want to know why Will Cotton desided to paint it. Also, it makes me wonder where and what was going on when he painted it. It makes me want to know if he painted this composition to represent birthday(s), holiday(s), or any other celebration(s). . . or maybe he just painted it because he really likes sweets.

Studies in Smallness Paintings

my finished paintings.
I struggled with trying to get the right color for the background because i'm still not quite comfortable with mixing oil paint colors. But, I felt successful about getting the deatil of the seashell because of i was able to create the right tints and shades.

Color Mixing Chart

Reflection on Studies in Smallness

What was hard?:
The hard part was trying to get the right color of the set-up backgound. It was also hard to continue painting the next day when the shadow and the position of the set-up changes.

What was successful?:
The successful part for me was making the details at the end. It turned out much better than I thought it would.

Studies in Smallness: set-ups

White Objects Thumbnail Sketches

Marandi vs. Van Gogh: COLOR

Title: Still Life
Date: 1955
Artist: Giorgio Morandi

VS.

Title: Irises

Date: 1890

Artist: Vincent Van Gogh Title: Sunflowers

Date: 1888

Artist: Vincent Van Gogh

WHAT I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THESES PAINTINGS --

Giorgio Morandi's paintings are uses some detailed but doesn't use as much as Vincent Van Gogh's paintings do. Giorgio Morandi uses some white and a lot of warm colors. Which is opposite from the variety of colors that Vincent Van Gogh uses. Vincent Van Gogh uses a lot of dark hues for his paintings where as Giorgio Morandi's paintings uses a lot of tints. Giorgio Morandi's two painting are simple looking while Vincent Van Gogh's two paintings are vibrant and seem to have more meaning.

What I Know Now

The primary colors are…
- RED, YELLOW, and BLUE.
The secondary colors are…
- ORANGE, GREEN, and PURPLE
You create secondary colors by…
- They are created by mixing two of the three primary colors together.
Complimentary colors are…
- It is when two colors on opposite sides of the color wheel, which when placed next to each other make both appear brighter.
- Complimentary color for RED = GREEN
- Complimentary color for BLUE = ORANGE
- Complimentary color for YELLOW = PURPLE
- (For proof… RED + BLUE = PURPLE
BLUE + YELLOW = GREEN
RED + YELLOW = ORANGE
Two ways you could emphasize something in a painting…
- You could either make the object/person/thing larger than anything else in the painting.
- You could make the object/person/thing darker or lighter than everything else surrounding it. . .
- You could use texture to make the object/person/thing stand out. . .
If I were trying to create a shadow on an object in a painting I would…
- I would mix the color I am using with a dark shade (darker hues) of its complimentary color
If I were painting an object and I wanted to create the illusion of a highlight on it I would…
- I would use a pale shade, tints (lighter tones) of the color I am using because if I use white the painting wouldn’t look as realistic
If I were trying to make an object look like it’s far away I would…
- I would make it smaller than everything else in the painting
These are the steps I would take to build a painting…
- I would write down what my ideas are and draw them in my sketchbook. I would write down the date that I am doing the project and I would write down what the projects requirements are. Then I would check to see if I have all the materials I need. I would then organize myself by writing down in a schedule what I will each day and how much I could get done. I would then get started on my project.

A painting i remember

It is a painting of mountains, a river, and the plains. It a painting that my dad made and this painting has always camptured my attention. It reminds me of the mountains in Brittany. When i look at it it seems as if the painting is real and that i am standing right in front of it.

My skills as an artist

My stengths in art are coming up with new and creative ideas. I paint what see and I sometimes paint whatever comes to me. I stuggle with detials. . . I always for some reason focus on the details before i get the outline of the painting.

Why am I taking oil painting

I am taking this oil painting class because I wanted to try new and different things. I have done some oil painting in the past but I would like to expand on what I already know about it. I like this class because you can really use textures to your advantage.