Still Life Painting

Different art movements and styles go in and out of fashion. Art critics do not consider Still Life painting trendy at the present time but it is recognized as an influential form of art. It’s still popular with the public and many amateur artists find this sort of art to be useful in teaching composition and perspective. Artists have always struggled to get models or to have enough light to paint landscapes. Setting up inanimate objects is convenient by comparison.

Common subjects to be painted are dishes of fruit, vases of flowers or a bottle of wine and a platter of cheese or meats. Still Life painting may have a hunting or fishing theme. It was popular in western art from the 17th century, especially in France, Italy and Holland. Dutch artists were especially proficient in this art form, being banned from painting religious iconography.

The 19th century was a golden age for artists who wanted to experiment with Still Life painting. Traditionalists may have been horrified at the time but the artists who pushed the boundaries with color and form were to inspire future generations. It seems tame to modern gallery visitors today, but the work of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists shocked both the public and critics when they were first exhibited.

Vincent Van Gogh used bold color and broad brushwork in paintings such as Sunflowers, probably the most famous Still Life painting in history. Sadly, he didn’t see success in his lifetime but the painting set new records when it was sold at auction and is now considered to be a masterpiece. Paul Cézanne was another artist who had a very individual style and is often referred to as the godfather of modern art. His still life’s were experiments in perspective and the artist distorted perspective to suit his artistic vision.

These earlier artists laid the foundations for what would be known as Cubism. Invented by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, this way of looking at the world through geometry often used Still Life painting as a means of expression. Juan Gris was another exponent of the form. Again, purists threw their arms up in disbelief as the style was given a make over.

The Pop Artists of the 1960s also took to the form, resulting in cultural landmarks such as Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans. Artists painted Coca Cola bottles and other everyday items, arguing that it was no different from an Old Master depicting a bottle of wine.

You Must Be An Artist

“…Meet this solemn question with a strong, simple ‘I must,’ then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse.” – Rilke

We are, all of us, meant to create. We are creat-ures, thus it is evident in the world around us that as a spider spins a web, a bird builds a nest, humans are possessed of a spiritual and biological mandate to spin and build a world of beauty and function. The human distinction is the ability to make symbols. Symbolism is the art of investing the world around us with meaning by expressing the invisible or intangible through visible or sensuous representation. This is the simplest, the least unsettling definition of art and creativity. From this definition, we have come to believe and to thoroughly accept without question that art belongs to those who paint the paintings, write the words, and mold the clay, into those representations of the intangible and the invisible. Art has therefore been divided into those who do and those who don’t.

The reinstatement of art into every one of our lives, both in our ability to receive and to recreate it, is to return to living with meaning. Creativity is, like evolution, like all growth and change, an irrepressible force in nature. Thus far, only humans have attempted to turn away from this call, and a case can be made that it is this turning away that is the cause of so much of our pain, suffering, and longing. This suffering, however, is the result of confusion and misdirection, not hapless circumstance.

Art, like science, philosophy, and civility, is our best defense against the insupportable weight of all that we don’t know. If we could disperse the weight among us citizen artists, come up with a more inclusive outlook, we could lighten the formidable load of ignorance. In the broadest sense, art is a response in whatever form it takes–an expression of the love and beauty and terror as it is given to us through the visible bounty of Nature—that pulls us further out of the mire. Creativity is anything that fosters that indwelling spirit, any creation or activity that advances the progression of the unimpedable energy of growth that is life. The replication of that love and beauty, the balm that soothes the terror, or the release provided by the recognition of that terror, is our task, is the way of art and creativity, a whole-some response to existence.

Whether you are a fireman, a pathologist, a babysitter, or a banker, you must be an artist. Must be means, first of all, the recognition of this as your identity, as in, “Oh, you must be an artist…” Secondly, must be makes it imperative. You must respond to the dignity evolving out of creaturehood toward a greater man, toward God, and remain fearless as well as awe-struck by the vast implications. In the meeting of this challenge, you will be recognized by a light in the eye of those you encounter, as extraordinary.

The commitment to creativity, like any other commitment, will become an integral, necessary, part of our life once we realize that not only does our art spring from and define the core of, yes, our own identities, but more importantly, that it is an expression of that which is greater than ourselves. Thus who we are becomes linked with the world, and it is given meaning and purpose by what we do with this link. Creativity is the purveyor of meaning.

We begin with a sense that there is something within us that must act and express. We begin by going beyond the sadness we have experienced at having this something repressed, discouraged, buried. We begin with the thin person with the fat body, the sober, healthy being underneath the addict’s skin, the lover inside our neglected hearts. We begin with the hope and the longing of the creative force within ourselves.

Buying Impressionist Cityscapes

I have been looking for impressionist cityscapes in various mediums to decorate my home. I prefer to hang art that was created in the last fifteen years. There are so many great artists to choose from.

I have decided that I want to have three impressionist cityscapes painted in acrylic. I will be buying one called Stormy Desert that was painted by an artist named JoanAnn. The piece is painted on a 40” X 30” canvas and has flowering cactus plants in the foreground.

The next impressionist cityscape painting I plan to buy is called Tuscan Waterfall. The piece is a triptych and is on three gallery wrapped canvases. The artist lives in Tennessee and supports herself with her art.

The last acrylic impressionist cityscape that I plan to buy is called Autumn Dream. Autumn is my favorite time of year and the painting captures every color of autumn. The artist painted the sides, so there is no need to have it framed. I can’t wait to see this hanging in my home.

I have found only two impressionist cityscapes that I liked in the Gouache medium. The first was from an artist named Joe Wojdakowski and the subject is an area located in Wells, Maine. I’m not sure why I am so drawn to this particular impressionist cityscape, but I am and plan to buy it.

The other Gouache impressionist cityscape that I plan to buy features Big Ben in London. The artist is an Englishman named Alasdair Rennie. The scene is rainy and I like it a lot. It reminds me of my time in London when I was a child.

The first oil impressionist cityscape painting I bought was called Koi Pond Reflections. I’ve seen this artist’s work before and I always really like it. The painting was completed using brush and knife. The painting has not arrived, yet, because the paint is very thick and needs to complete the drying process undisturbed. I cannot wait to get it!

I really like having various styles of impressionist cityscape paintings. I don’t just like variety in the mediums; I like variety in styles and influences. I really fell in love with an oil impressionist cityscape painting called En Sendero that was originally purchased in Oaxaca, Mexico. I purchased the painting for just over three thousand dollars.

The oil impressionist cityscape painting of Paris that I want was painted by a well recognized painter Radik Atoyan. He is Armenian and signed the painting in his Armenian language. He has a unique way of using color that just makes his painting look special.

I have also been interested in watercolor impressionist cityscape paintings. There is an original painting that depicts an urban rainy night that I think would be perfect for me. The painting just makes me feel good to look into.

I made a purchase not long ago that was painted by an Israeli artist named Yosef Kosssonogi. The use of color in this watercolor impressionist cityscape is so vivid. I could not wait to hang it on my wall. After the shipment arrived with the painting, my brother came right over with a level to hang it.

I found a painting that reminded me of a vacation I took to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The impressionist cityscape painting was created by Adam Maeroff and I think that it is the perfect painting to complete my collection.

Airbrush Art Expert-Pamela Shanteau

Pamela Shanteau is a renowned airbrush artists who’s airbrush talent streams over multiple styles and surfaces. She is recognized among her peers and airbrush enthusiasts for your custom airbrush art. Her surfaces choices for her airbrush art include automotive and motorcycles and the body. It is her airbrush art on the motorcycles that has placed her in the ranks with other famous custom airbrush artists.

Her airbrush art has been featured in the 2006 Iwata, the RM 2006 and the 2007 Paint calendars. The 2006 and also the 2007 Signature Harley Davidson calendars have featured Shanteau’s airbrush art. While these calendars show off a great deal of her talent they are by far not the only place where you can see this expert airbrush artist.

Magazines such as Hot Rod, Airbrush Action, AutoGraphics, Easy Rider, Mini-Truckin have featured Shanteau’s airbrush art in their publications. These of course are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to publications that have featured her work.

Shanteau does not just create brilliant airbrush art, she also teaches others how to create the same high quality airbrush art that she herself creates. In February of 2002 she released the book, The Ultimate Airbrush Handbook. In this book she teaches the basics of airbrush art, airbrush types and how to set up an airbrush shop. The book covers such styles of airbrushing such as fingernails, automotive, t-shirts and even leather. In July of 2007 Shanteau released another book to help other artists learn the art of airbrushing. Her book titled, Custom Automotive & Motorcycle Airbrushing teaches never before seen techniques.

These techniques are her own exclusive techniques she created and she is sharing them with you.
Shanteau offers visual DVD and vhs tapes to help other learn how to create airbrush art on automotives and motorcycles. These videos show you step by step exactly how to do certain techniques to create specific looks. Her series teaches about airbrushing flames, murals and masking techniques and motorcycle gas taking airbrushing. Her videos will give you a more visual learning aid than you would get from the detailed directions in her books, so if you learn better from watching then the videos are your best bet when learning from Shanteau.

Pamela Shanteau also teaches workshops around the United States that offer a hands on learning experience for airbrush artists. Her workshops allow for students to learn her techniques and gain more knowledge while under her supervision. She is there to show you how to do airbrush art, help you quickly spot your mistakes and learn how to advance in your techniques.

Shanteau is truly a gifted airbrush artists and the chance to learn from her will greatly benefit any artist from beginner to advanced. Her styles and techniques are unique to her and she is openly offering to show them to others who truly want to learn airbrush art. She has given artists three great mediums in which to learn from her distinctive personal style. It is this distinctive style that has her ranked high in the airbrush art industry.

Photography as an art

Photography as an art

Photography is one of the beautiful definitions of an art that expresses the picture portrayed. The three components linked with Photography are artist, medium and the art work. The three components are inter-related to each other.

Many people found photography to be a mere reproductive medium and hence the reason photography really struggled for one and half centuries.

Photography is definitely art work, it needs a lot of talent and imagination to portray and expression through a simple portrait. It is an art of recognizing the minutest effects on reaching the heart of the picture. It is not only clicking the photographs, but it is about giving them a sequence a background a picture, liveliness and a medium. A Photograph artist brings the Pictures to live once they are clicked. It is a beautiful art of recognizing the most behavior of nature, person or a situation.

There have been many artistic photographic giants in the past like Henri Cartier Bresson, Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange who proved themselves in the field of photography. Today there are many photographic artists like those of by the expressionofwendy.com who make their work known to the world through their finest art of photography by portraying it on the website.

Photography as an art has taken its place and fame in the market today. There are many people around the world who are crazy about Photography. There are people who want to choose these professions because of their artistic interventions. Photography has not diminished rather it has found a way to win hearts of many people.

Photography being an art is also a challenge; it is depicting the true self out of a non-living thing. For example, it brings life the picture that can be so dead. When we think of the simple image of nature, photography can bring those simple image of nature alive by adding colors and definitions to it to make it alive in the eyes of the viewers.

Photography is the best thing, it is the imagination of head and it is the imagination of thoughts. One can get easily engrossed in the line of photography. There are many photographers who spend hours throughout the day, in defining the simple clicks and making them alive.

Adding colors, adding a sense, adding a life to something that is non-living is an art. Photographs of various natural instincts bring to our imagination of photography being a defined art. Many at times Photographs depict a lot about a person, that person themselves are not aware of.

Photography as an art has just been recognized in the recent years, over the year people have accepted the secrets of photography and what it can portray. Photography depicts the known from the unknown; it is an art of going to the depths of understanding the vitality and the nature of any picture.
Photography also is a beautiful art of imagination, it is an art of dream and it is an art of bringing the dream to reality. The major sequence of photography can be seen through various examples given by the photographers of the past.

Why Airbrush Art Fits For Everyone

The thing with airbrush art is that it can be done for just about anything imaginable. Artists have been airbrushing a variety of surfaces for years now. The images they create are just a vast as the surfaces that they are airbrushing them on. This is why airbrush art fits for just about everyone around.

Classic paintings can be airbrushed onto canvas to give for great wall art. With airbrushing the paint goes on to the canvas more evenly than if it had been hand painted. Also the time frames are shortened when the paintings are airbrushed versus hand painted. Family portraits can be airbrushed over hand painted as well to give for a more realistic painting.

The interior of your home is also a place for airbrush art. You can go with a nice mural on your wall to give a room in your home an artsy feeling. Or you can scale it down and just airbrush a border at the tops of the walls. Airbrushed borders look more decorative than glued on paper borders on your walls. Thus the interior of your home can be your canvas for your airbrush art. Whether you want bold or subtle the choice is yours when you airbrush. You do not have to be limited with just your walls inside your home. Everything in your home can prove to be an area to show off your creative side. Airbrush art can go on your cabinets, doors, toilet seats and so much more. Remember though that this does not have to be anything bold.

It can just be some simple flowers or ivy trim but the choice is yours. Clothing is open to airbrush art as a way to create unique one of a kind clothing and accessories. Airbrush art can just be wording that you have added to your shirts or other clothing or it can be creative pictures of things that interest you. Either way you are guaranteed to have clothing no one else does if you add your own airbrush art to them.

Automobiles and motorcycles are another areas where airbrush artists can get creative and create masterpieces. Many artist are making a name for themselves with custom airbrushing art onto automobiles and motorcycles. The cost for this art is expensive and you can cut your costs down by learning how to do it yourself. Also by doing it yourself you have more of a say in how it will turn out.

As you can see airbrush art can fit for anyone’s tastes and needs. With airbrush art you can go extreme with fantasy art or murals of realistic scenery. You can go with bold colors schemes or subtle colors. The possibilities with airbrush art are unlimited and only limited to the artist imagination. Any scene, any surface and everything in between can be airbrushed. Airbrushing looks realistic and saves time over hand painting. If you want airbrush done on any surface or for any reason and do not want to learn then there are many airbrush artists out there that you can hire for any of your airbrush art needs.

Getting Fine Art Appraised

Preparing for the Appraiser’s Exam

• Locate all items in advance of the appraiser’s arrival and make them accessible.

• Share pertinent records about when and where items were purchased, including their receipts. Receipts often have a painting’s title, which may or may not appear on the back of the frame or on an attached plaque. Art works without a title may be determined if the artist is still living. Unfortunately, some artist’s do not remember titles or record them in a permanent ledger. Not all art bears the date or dates it was completed. The date of the receipt could assist in dating the artwork. The goal is to create as complete a record about the artwork as possible. Don’t slow the process down or create an opportunity for the document to be less complete by holding back information.

• Allocate enough time for the appraiser to carry out the inspection and the photography. Appraiser’s typically need about 15 minutes an item for both activities. While the appraiser often enjoys visiting with clients, he or she must focus on the task at hand in order to not take additional time or overlook pertinent information.

Discussing Value With a Prospective Appraiser

Identify what you need to have appraised by providing the following information:

• Artist’s first and last name
• Medium such as bronze, painting, or print
• Condition, especially if you are not sure if the item has enough value to warrant an appraisal.

State why you need the appraisal.

The same item can have a different value depending on the purpose of the valuation. Appraisers ask why you need an appraisal document because they want to investigate value for the appropriate market. Imagine that you are buying this item instead of having it appraised. Would you expect to pay the same price for the item at a flea market or at an estate sale as you would in a high-end antique shop or art gallery? Different purposes mandate different markets, which translates to correspondingly different value levels.

Identify the timeframe needed for the appraisal document’s completion.

Is this a rush job? If there are 200 items and your moving van will arrive in less than 60 days, this is a rush job. Also, the appraiser may have too many active assignments to meet your desired timeframe. If this is the case, the appraiser may redirect you to someone else who can fit your appraisal into his or her schedule.

Identify if there are special conditions for examining your artworks.

For example, does the appraiser need to bring a ladder? Will the appraiser need to wade into a pool to examine a sculpture? Will the appraiser need to wear washable clothing? While unforeseen events do happen at most appraisal inspections, pre-planning keeps them to a minimum.

Animation Art – 5 of the Most Common Mediums Purchased by Collectors

Animation Cels – A cel (short for celluloid) is a blank clear plastic sheet used by the studio artist to paint an animated character or object based on the animator’s original pencil drawing. The cels are then placed over a background and photographed in sequence to produce an illusion of life in the completed film or cartoon short. Every cel is different but this does not mean that every cel is unique. Often multiple copies of a cel were created by the Inkers as color models in order to advance their technique and skills in Animation Art.
Limited Edition Cels – A non production hand painted cel created for sale to the collectors market. It is produced in fixed limited quantities and are easily identified by a fraction (150/500) in the lower right hand corner. They were not used in films or cartoon shorts, and the original intent was to recreate the original production cels. Nowadays many studios release new images not based on production Animation Art.
Sericels – A non production cel created by means of a printing process similar to silk screening. No work is done by hand, therefore no painting or inking is involved. They are often produced in limited quantities of 5000, and they are marketed as a low cost alternative to production and limited edition cels.
Animation Drawings – A drawing on paper in pencil, sometimes colored which is created by a studio artist of an animated character or object for which the cels are later created.
Giclee – The French term “Giclée”, literally meaning “spray of ink,” is used to describe these prints. Four precision nozzles spray up to a million microscopic droplets per second on to fine art paper. Then, each piece of paper is individually hand-mounted. Displaying a full color spectrum, the prints are lush and velvety, capturing the subtle nuances of the original artwork

What Is A Monoprint? What Is Foxing

What is a Monoprint?

A monoprint is

frequently interchanged with the word “monotype”. “Monoprint” tends to be used by academics versus those selling art to the design community who prefer the word “monotype”.

An artist starts by “painting” or “drawing” with ink on a surface such as a printmaking plate made of aluminum or zinc. Some use a large pane of Plexiglas to paint on. The resulting image is transferred to a piece of paper by placing a sheet of paper on top of the inked plate, running it through a press. One monoprint is yielded looking like what the artist drew with ink. Some residue of ink remains on the printmaking plate. That faint residue of ink becomes the platform from which the artist builds his/her next composition. The secondary composition can employ different colors as well as compositional changes. An advantage of making monoprints is the creation of a rhythm of working, saving time by creating subsequent compositions using the “ghost image” as a starting point for the next work of art.

What is Foxing?

Foxing is

is a condition flaw on a work on paper.
Foxing yields a freckled appearance typically of red brown spots. Currently it is believed these are iron oxides and hydroxides produced by the chemical reaction between the organic acids discharged by mold and the colorless iron salts and impurities embedded in the paper.

Dampness encourages mold. Some types of sizing in the paper also attract fungus growth. Acidic contact materials such as cardboard and animals glues can aggravate the foxing.

Only a professional paper conservator can minimize the appearance of foxing safely.

To read more on this topic, I suggest The Care of Prints and Drawings by Margaret Holben Ellis as well as Prints and The Print Market by Theodore B. Donson.

The Art Of Travel And The Art Of Writing

In Alain de Botton’s engaging book, The Art of Travel, he distinguishes between the anticipation and recollection of travel versus the reality of actually traveling.

When we anticipate, we study travel brochures and create in our imagination all sorts of exotic adventures, lying ahead of us. Once really there, we photograph the Eiffel Tower with our friends or family, their arms slung over one another’s shoulders and grinning into the camera. That forms the recollection, the moments we choose to remember.

Magically gone from memory are the delayed flight, the lousy food and the hotel room overlooking the alley, where the garbage collectors banged tins at 5am. But, if we otherwise enjoy ourselves, we select those ‘good moments’ and photograph them to construct a different reality from the real reality.

De Botton’s next idea is fascinating. He says that’s exactly what the artist does. Whether writing a novel, painting a picture or scoring a symphony, the artist imagines the outline of the work [anticipates the delights of the trip] then selects that which is felt to have artistic value [forgets the garbage men and includes friends at the Eiffel Tower]. Just as the traveler now has a fine and satisfying memory of the trip, the artist has a wonderful novel, painting or musical score. The artist has created art through imagination, selection, rejection and combination of artistic elements resulting in something new. The happy traveler has created a wonderful trip.

Then he tells of a man who had a very peculiar experience. After feasting his eyes upon paintings by Jan Steen and Rembrandt, this traveler anticipated beauty, joviality and simplicity in Holland. Many paintings of laughing, carousing cavaliers had fixed this image in his mind, along with quaint houses and canals. But on a trip to Amsterdam and Haarlem, he was strangely disappointed.

No, according to De Botton, the paintings had not lied. Certainly, there were a number of jovial people and pretty maids pouring milk, but the images of them were diluted in this traveler’s mind, by all the other ordinary, boring things he saw. Such commonplace items simply did not fit his mental picture. Thus, reality did not compare to an afternoon of viewing the works of Rembrandt in a gallery. And why not? Because Rembrandt and Steen had, by selecting and combining elements, captured the essence of the beauty of Holland, thereby intensifying it.

This is exactly what a writer or any artist tries to do and as a traveler, you may do much the same thing

When writing about a day in your protagonist’s life, you don’t start with what he had for breakfast or that his car wouldn’t start unless it’s germane to the plot or his character. You compress. You select and embellish. You toss out. All the details of your story must combine to intensify real life in order to create something interesting and of artistic merit. When I started writing the first novel in the Osgoode Trilogy, Conduct in Question, I had to learn it wasn’t necessary to build the whole city with lengthy descriptions of setting and character, before Harry Jenkins [the protagonist lawyer] could do anything. But many nineteenth century novelists did write numerous pages with glowing descriptions of the Scottish moors or a county hamlet. And that was necessary because, with the difficulty of travel, a reader might well need help in picturing the setting. But today, with the ease of travel, the surfeit of film, web and television images, no reader needs more than the briefest description. Just write walking down Fifth Avenue and the reader immediately gets the picture.

In a novel, usually only the most meaningful, coherent thoughts are included, unless you are James Joyce, the brilliant stream of consciousness writer. And so, you as the writer can order your protagonists thoughts so as to make complete and utter sense apparently the first time. In the Osgoode Trilogy, the protagonist, Harry Jenkins, does lots of thinking and analyzing [the novels are mysteries, after all]. But his coherence of thought is only produced after much editing and revising. Not much like real life, you say?

Same for dialogue. Interesting characters in books speak better and much more on point than people really do, partly because the writer is able to take back words. In real life, we often wish in retrospect, if only I had said this or that to set him straight. No problem for the writer. Hit the delete button and let him say something truly sharp and incisive.

And so, after comparing what the traveler and the writer do, what can we conclude? I quote De Botton in the Art of Travel.

The anticipatory and artistic imaginations omit and compress, they cut away the periods of boredom and direct our attention to critical moments and, without either lying or embellishing, thus lend to life vividness and a coherence that it may lack in the distracting woolliness of the present.

And so therein lies the difference between Art and Life! And so, the similarity between the traveler and writer.