Painting Art Corner

Bottle Painting

2008-07-17T05:52:00.000-07:00

Romanticism

2008-07-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

Romanticism, in art, European and American movement extending from about 1800 to 1850. Romanticism cannot be identified with a single style, technique, or attitude, but romantic painting is generally characterized by a highly imaginative and subjective approach, emotional intensity, and a dreamlike or visionary quality. Whereas classical and neoclassical art is calm and restrained in feeling and clear and complete in expression, romantic art characteristically strives to express by suggestion states of feeling too intense, mystical, or elusive to be clearly defined. Thus, the German writer E. T. A. Hoffmann declared “infinite longing” to be the essence of romanticism. In their choice of subject matter, the romantics showed an affinity for nature, especially its wild and mysterious aspects, and for exotic, melancholic, and melodramatic subjects likely to evoke awe or passion.

Beginning with the late -18th to the mid -19th century, new Romantic attitude begun to characterize culture and many art works in Western civilization. It started as an artistic and intellectual movement that emphasized a revulsion against established values (social order and religion). Romanticism exalted individualism, subjectivism, irrationalism, imagination, emotions and nature - emotion over reason and senses over intellect. Since they were in revolt against the orders, they favored the revival of potentially unlimited number of styles (anything that aroused them).
Romantic artists were fascinated by the nature, the genius, their passions and inner struggles, their moods, mental potentials, the heroes. They investigated human nature and personality, the folk culture, the national and ethnic origins, the medieval era, the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, the occult, the diseased, and even satanic. Romantic artist had a role of an ultimate egoistic creator, with the spirit above strict formal rules and traditional procedures. He had imagination as a gateway to transcendent experience and spiritual truth.

Michelangelo Buonarroti

2008-07-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

Michelangelo Buonarroti was of noble birth, but was not raised by his parents. His father had him brought up by a stone carver and his wife, because his own wife was too ill to take care of the child. While living with his surrogate parents, young Michelangelo learned the skills that would serve him throughout his life, but his father was displeased when his son told him he wanted to be an artist, and it took much convincing for Michelangelo to be permitted to further his apprenticeship.

Michelangelo went on to study sculpture at Medici gardens, where, like Leonardo da Vinci, his talent was allowed to flourish by Lorenzo de Medici, patron of the arts, and ruler of Florence, who introduced him to the great thinkers of the renaissance.

Following his sojourn at Medici gardens, Michelangelo went to Bologna, then to Rome, where he saw the impressive marble statues which he would later echo in his own works.

Michelangelo truly had achieved fame as an artist, and his talent became sought after by Pope Julius II, who asked him to embark on a very demanding artistic journey, a commission to paint the ceiling of the Sistine chapel in the Vatican.

At first, Michelangelo, who had been busy painting frescos in Pope Julius' tomb, refused his successor's request, feeling that the undertaking of such a monumental task would take him away from his first love, that of sculpture, but the Pope insisted, and his word prevailed.

Ironically, Michelangelo's work on the chapel ceiling far exceeded the original outline of the commission, which called for twelve paintings instead, he covered the entire ceiling with over 300 figures, from The Creation of Adam to Noah and the great Deluge. Michelangelo's portrayal of women has also been the subject of speculation as to his sexual preference, as his depiction of Eve shows her as having very masculine features.

The next big commission for Michelangelo came when he was asked to paint the altar wall by Pope Clement VII, shortly before his death. The fresco in question was that of The Last Judgment, a vivid rendition of the Apocalypse and of Heaven and Hell. In a comic twist, Biagio da Cesena, the master of ceremonies for the Vatican, who had denounced Michelangelo's use of nude figures as inappropriate, was cast by Michelangelo as Minos walking through Hell, a serpent biting his genitalia. .

The Sistine chapel was to be the last of Michelangelo's paintings, with his focus returning to his first love, that of sculpting. Later, shortly before his death, it was decided that Michelangelo's nude figures would be censored, their sexes draped in cloth by an extra layer of paint.

"A man paints with his brains and not with his hands." Michelangelo

Salvador Deli ; The Surrealism Maestro

2008-07-11T05:23:00.000-07:00

Salvador Dali is perhaps the best known artist from the surrealist art scene, but he is not just a surrealist; his works have covered many different styles from impressionism to his own take on the classical style, and all reflect his mastery of the medium.

Dali was raised in the small farming community of Figueras, Catalogna, Spain, a place which inspired many of the landscapes found in his oeuvre. Since he was the son of a wealthy notary, Dali also had the luxury of spending time at his family's summer home, working in a studio his parents had built for him. Later, he attended the prestigious San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, where he further honed his already impressive skills, albeit in a climate of conflict, brought on by creative differences with his teachers.

His first solo exhibition took place in Barcelona in 1925. Perhaps the most important and influential figure in Salvador Dali's life was Gala. The pair had met in 1929, at Dali's Cadaques residence, where she and her then husband, poet Paul Eluard were visiting the artist. Gala soon became Dali's mistress, and later, she became his wife, muse, and reason for living; she figures prominently in many of Dali's most inspired works.

While living in Paris, Dali joined forces with a group of artists who called themselves the surrealists, then led by former Dadaist André Breton. Other surrealist artists of note were Marcel Duchamp, and René Magritte. The group lived their art, and sought to provoke the conservative artistic elite of the day with a series of manifestos, performances, and parodies of classical paintings such as LHOOQ, a bearded Mona Lisa painted by Duchamp.

One of Dali's earliest works in the genre, and perhaps one of his most famous, is The Persistence of Memory. Dali soon came to be regarded as the leader of the surrealist movement, but once again, the maverick genius refused to find comfort within a niche, and he would often disagree with his contemporaries, particularly with their strong political views, so he was tried, and expelled from the group in 1934, as the Second World War burgeoned across Europe.

Dali work during the early 1940s showed the artists preoccupation with religion, and science, perhaps, he found much inspiration within it's conflicting views. This came to be known as his "classic" period.

As the war progressed, Dali and Gala had to leave their Europe, and move to America; by then, he had gained international recognition through a series of successful exhibits around the world, so he was welcomed with open arms by Hollywood, where he provided concepts and artwork for a dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock's "Spellbound".

Pablo Picasso The Pioner of Cubism

2008-07-09T07:08:00.000-07:00

Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish painter and sculptor. He was one of the most recognized figures in 20th century art, he is best known as the co-founder, along with Georges Braque, of Cubism.

Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga,

Spain

, as the first child of José Ruiz y Blasco and María Picasso y López. Picasso's father was a painter whose specialty was the naturalistic depiction of birds. His training under his father began before 1890. He was formally trained in figure drawing and painting in oil. Although Picasso attended art schools throughout his childhood, he never finished his college-level course of study at the Academy of Arts in Madrid, leaving after less than a year.

His progress can be traced in the collection of early works now held by the Museu Picasso in Barcelona. By 1894 his career as a painter can be said to have begun. The academic realism is well displayed in "The First Communion" and "Portrait of Aunt Pepa", in 1896, at the age of 14.

In 1897 his realism became tinged with Symbolist influence, in a series of landscape paintings rendered in non naturalistic violet and green tones. What some call his Modernist period (1899-1900) followed under influence of the work of Rossetti, Steinlen, Toulouse-Lautrec and Edvard Munch.

Picasso's work is often categorized into periods. The most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period, the Rose Period, the African-influenced Period, Analytic Cubism, and Synthetic Cubism. Picasso's Blue Period (1901-1904) consists of somber paintings rendered in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colors. The same mood pervades the well-known etching "The Frugal Repast" (1904). Blindness is a recurrent theme in Picasso's works of this period, also represented in "The Blindman's Meal" (1903) and in the portrait of "Celestina" (1903). Other frequent subjects are artists, acrobats and harlequins, which became a personal symbol for Picasso.

The Rose Period (1905-1907) is characterized by a more cheery style with orange and pink colors, with many harlequins. He met Fernande Olivier, a model for sculptors and artists, in Paris in 1904, and many of these paintings are influenced by his warm relationship with her.

Picasso's African-influenced Period (1907-1909) begins with the two figures on the right in his painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which were inspired by African artifacts. Formal ideas developed during this period lead directly into the Cubist period that follows.

Analytic Cubism (1909-1912) is a style of painting Picasso developed along with Braque using monochrome brownish colors. Both artists took apart objects and "analyzed" them in terms of their shapes. Picasso and Braque's paintings at this time are very similar to each other.

Synthetic Cubism (1912-1919) is a further development of Cubism in which cut paper fragments, often wallpaper or portions of newspaper pages, are pasted into compositions, marking the first use of collage in fine art.

In the period following the upheaval of World War I Picasso produced work in a neoclassical style. His paintings and drawings from this period frequently recall the work of Ingres. During the 1930s, the Minotaur replaced the harlequin as a motif. It came partly from his contact with the Surrealists, who often used same symbol. It appears in Picasso's "Guernica" which was Picasso's most famous. This large canvas embodies for many the inhumanity, brutality and hopelessness of war. Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973 in Mougins,

France

, while he and his wife Jacqueline entertained friends for dinner.(http://www.huntfor.com)

Leonardo da Vinci

2008-07-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

Leonardo was born in Vinci, Italy on April 15th, 1452, the illegitimate son of a young notary. Leonardo grew up in an environment rich with scholarly texts and art, provided by his father, who himself taught Leonardo how to paint, and by his father's family. When he was in his late teens, Leonardo was sent to Florence to be an apprentice in the studio of famous renaissance sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio, where he met with other Renaissance artists Botticelli and Ghirlandaio, and continued honing his skills, which were proving to be greater than his teacher's...

Leonardo's first moment in the sun came when Verroccio asked him to help paint an angel in his "Baptism of Christ" piece. Leonardo so impressed his master that Verrochio himself decided he would never paint again. Leonardo continued working with Verrochio for a few years, and then the two parted ways.

Leonardo went on to be in the service of the Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan, where he remained for 16 years. Leonardo didn't only paint for the Duke, but he also designed machinery, weapons, and a fair bit of architecture.

Duke Sforza died shortly after the completion of one of Leonardo's most famous work, The Last Supper; Leonardo who had now lost his patron, and decided to leave Milan. He eventually returned to Florence after having traveled, lived, and worked for various patrons throughout Italy.

Shortly after his return to Florence, he and Michelangelo were commissioned to paint frescos on the walls of the new city hall. While he was working on his mural depicting the battle of Anghiari, which had been commissioned in part by Niccolo Machiavelli, Leonardo also painted his most famous work, the Mona Lisa.

A short while later, Leonardo's father passed away, leaving his family to fight over the distribution of his assets, of which none went to Leonardo. It was only later and following the death of his uncle that Leonardo would inherit land and money.

Leonardo later went to Rome, and was given living quarters in the Vatican by Pope Leo X, so that he could further explore the arts while working on commissioned pieces for the Church. Leonardo did not create many new paintings during this period, concentrating on his drawings instead; it was quite difficult for Leonardo to pursue his studies of scientific subjects and anatomy while in the employ of the Pope, as the Church frowned upon the dissection of human cadavers.

But Leonardo who had had many patrons ranging from Duke Sforza, to the evil Cesare Borgia, was one who had no trouble adapting to his surroundings, and he did create several drawings including The Deluge, in which he portrayed the cataclysmic biblical event.

For the incoronation of King Francis kings Leonardo had designed a mechanical lion automaton that actually walked. Soon thereafter, Leonardo would become "first painter and engineer, and architect of the king." for his final employer, Francis the 1st. in France. He was given his own private residence and studio, in which he taught, and continued work on his studies, drawings, and sketches. At this point, Leonardo was quite aged, and even though he was left-handed, paralysis of his right hand made it very difficult for him to work.

On the 2nd day of May, 1519, at the age of 67, Leonardo da Vinci died, with King Francis at his side.

Painter, sculptor, draughtsman, architect, engineer, anatomist, physicist, astronomer, observer of life in all its forms, and most of all, great thinker. Leonardo is one of our history's most admired geniuses, centuries ahead of his time, one of the first artists to seamlessly merge science and art. Although he only completed 6 major paintings in his entire career, they include some of the most important images ever known.

"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death."

Leonardo da Vinci

( from : http://www.famouspainter.com )

Cubisme

2008-07-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Cubism was a 20th century art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture and inspired related movements in music and literature. The first branch of cubism , known as Analytic Cubism, was both radical and influential as a short but highly significant art movement between 1908 and 1911 in

France

Cubism was one of the most influential visual art styles of the early twentieth century. It was created by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) and Georges Braque (French, 1882–1963) in Paris between 1907 and 1914. The French art critic Louis Vauxcelles coined the term Cubism after seeing the landscapes Braque had painted in 1908 at L'Estaque in emulation of Cézanne. Vauxcelles called the geometric forms in the highly abstracted works "cubes." Other influences on early Cubism have been linked to Primitivism and non-Western sources. The stylization and distortion of Picasso's ground-breaking Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (Museum of Modern Art, New York), painted in 1907, came from African art. Picasso had first seen African art when, in May or June 1907, he visited the ethnographic museum in the Palais du Trocadéro in Paris.

Dance By : Pablo Picasso

The Cubist painters rejected the inherited concept that art should copy nature, or that they should adopt the traditional techniques of perspective, modeling, and foreshortening. They wanted instead to emphasize the two-dimensionality of the canvas. So they reduced and fractured objects into geometric forms, and then realigned these within a shallow, relieflike space. They also used multiple or contrasting vantage points. (from : wikipedia)

Fauvism

2008-07-04T23:32:00.000-07:00

Les Fauves (French for The Wild Beasts) were a short-lived and loose grouping of early 20th century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational values retained by Impressionism. While Fauvism as a style began around 1900 and continued beyond 1910, the movement as such lasted only three years, 1905–1907, and had three exhibitions. The leaders of the movement were Henri Matisse and André Derain. The paintings of the Fauves were characterised by seemingly wild brush work and strident colours, while their subject matter had a high degree of simplification and abstraction.

Fauvism can be classified as an extreme development of Van Gogh's Post-Impressionism fused with the pointillism of Seuratand other Neo-Impressionist painters, in particular Paul Signac. Other key influences were Paul Cezanne and Paul Gauguin who in 1888 had said to Paul Sérusier

2008-07-03T05:36:00.000-07:00

Gallery of Surrealism Painting

Natur Morte By: Albert Gleizes

Aviator By : Lyamkin Alexander

Balerina By: Marie Loh

Other Surrealism Painting Art

Surrealism Painting the Subconscious Expression

2008-07-03T05:19:00.000-07:00

Surrealists believed in releasing the creative power of the subconscious mind and were interested in Freud’s theories on dreams। There were nearly as many ideas on how this was best expressed as there were artists involved in the movement। One of the techniques that the artists of the Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist movements developed was ‘automatism’. Using automatism the artist produced spontaneous paintings or drawings by suppressing conscious control over the movements of the hand and allowing the subconscious mind to take over. Once an interesting image or form had been achieved by chance it was then developed by consciousness. To paint or draw using critical paranoia you might stare at the patterns in a rock until you imagine a figure or scene emerge from the designs. Then draw or paint that scene while you consciously set aside your understanding that the scene is really a rock.The art created using the techniques of automatism or critical paranoia often depict the unreal dream space or even hallucinations of the subconscious mind. (Sharon Himes)

Bust of Voltare (by Salvador Dali)

The Bust of Voltaire image is a detail from a Surrealistic painting by Salvador Dali। The detail shows the double image effect that Dali created using his Critical Paranoia method. The figures in the slave market form the features of the bust of Voltaire while the negative space of an arch in the background creates Voltaire’s head.To practice automatism, sit with a pencil and paper and close your eyes. Let a pencil wander over a page without thinking about it. Then, opening your eyes, see what the lines or forms suggest to you. Go back with the pencil and bring out the figure or shapes that you see there that your subconscious mind has recognized.

Reality Realism

2008-06-12T05:53:00.000-07:00

Realism in the visual arts and literature is the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation.. Realism often refers to the artistic movement, sometimes called naturalism, which began in France in the 1850s.

Realists positioned themselves against romanticism, a genre dominating French literature and artwork in the late 18th and early 19th century. Undistorted by personal bias, Realism believed in the ideology of objective reality and revolted against exaggerated emotionalism

The Expression of Impressionism

2008-06-11T07:46:00.001-07:00

The impressionism type of paintings is probably the most painted as it is also one of the only ones in which you try and copy the thing you're drawing as best as you can. Here is a very good example of a realistic painting, as you can see it looks exactly like a picture, but it isn't.

Amazing Expressionism

2008-06-11T07:41:00.000-07:00

Expressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an emotional effect; it is a subjective art form. The term often implies emotional angst. In a general sense, painters such as Matthias Grünewald and El Greco can be called expressionist, though in practice, the term is applied mainly to 20th century works.

The Pioner

Vincent van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland. Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. He remained in

Belgium

to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty. The works of his early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is "The Potato Eaters" (1885). In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints.. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. Vincent van Gogh painted a lot of self-portraits, experimenting with various techniques and approaches (and saving money on a model!). Van Gogh's style of self-portrait (the poses, the intense brushwork, the introspective expression) influenced the portraits created by Expressionist painters such as Emil Nolde, Erich Heckel, and Lovis Corinth.

Paul Jackson Pollock

(January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionist movement. . Benton's rural American subject matter shaped Pollock's work only fleetingly, but his rhythmic use of paint and his fierce independence were more lasting influences. From 1935 to 1943, Pollock worked for the WPA Federal Art Project.Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936, at an experimental workshop operated in New York City by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. He later used paint pouring as one of several techniques in canvases of the early 1940s, such as "Male and Female" and "Composition with Pouring I." After his move to Springs, he began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor, and developed what was later called his "drip" technique. The drip technique required paint with a fluid viscosity so Pollock turned to then new synthetic resin-based paints, called alkyd enamels. Pollock described this use of household paints, instead of artist’s paints, as "a natural growth out of a need". He used hardened brushes, sticks and even basting syringes as paint applicators. Pollock's technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term action painting. With this technique, Pollock was able to achieve a more immediate means of creating art, the paint now literally flowing from his chosen tool onto the canvas. In 1956 Time magazine dubbed Pollock "Jack the Dripper" as a result of his unique painting style.

Vincent Van Gogh Galleries

"Starry Night"

"Shoes"

Jackson Pollock Galleries

"Autumn Rhythm"

"Lavender Mist"

"Shewolf"