Diego Velazquez's most famous painting...

"Las Meninas", one of the most famous of Velazquez's paintings, was comissioned as a portrait of the Spanish Royal family. Instead, it is the artist's statement about the personalities, relationships and ironies of that family.

Notice how the king and queen are actually placed far in the back, reflected in a mirror..... in fact, the painting is meant  to place  YOU as the king and queen.

The doll-like girl in the middle is their daughter, with her "ladies in wait" on either side. 

The artist himself is shown in the painting, wearing the red seal of his rank proudly on his chest.

Notice how the background shapes line up on diagonals, aimed at the daughter? See how the artist leads you into and through the painting-

Margaret Bowland

A good example of a painter "telling a story", Bowland uses references to historic painter's work (like Velasquez) using modern subjects....
She has impressive skill at drawing and painting realistically, but that is greatly ENHANCED by her strong IDEAS..

See more about her here.....

Yuqui Wang's painting build on the past...

Wang describes his influences from the Pre-Raphaelites

Jacob Fossum's Nairrative paintings

Look how this talented painting major is using images (things you can name) in his paintings to tell a story..... His blog mentions that he likes the "Peter Pan" stories and combined them with Michelangelo's "Pieta" sculpture in his work.
Here is a photo of the "Pieta" and then one of Jacob's paintings....

Michelangelo's "Pieta"

INside OUTside Painting

Here's the info on our new painting project!!!!

David Parks- massive figures

As part of the "Bay Area Figurative School" of artists, Parks broke out of the abstract styles around him and began to explore figurative paintings. When you see his work, notice the large size and large brush marks of his work. Those are thick paintings!!!
Even without detail, or because of the lack of detail, his work has a massiveness to it- almost like the primitive sculptures of Africa or Easter Island.

See more of his work at this link...

* also notice his wonderful use of color to make depth and the illusion of light.

Titian and El Greco's use of active compositions

Look at how these two masters organized their HUGE canvases with figures, objects and landscape to create a sense of life and energy.
Look how many diagonals there are in the paintings....
Do you see a "grid" or structure that the painting uses as a foundation?

Artists responding to artists...

Look how Kerry James Marshall  has used the compositions and techniques of past master artists (Titian) as a "guide" in organizing his own work. Marchall's work is also a way for him to tell stories about his own history.

Van Gogh's Expressive Paintings

Look how much emotion and energy Van Gogh is able to pack into his paintings. Many of these pieces were created in intense bursts of work..... not developed over months, but created in days!

Click on the images to see much closer the use of thick paint and clear, planned brush marks.

See more of his work here....

The Thickest Painting I know...

In an effort to break out of the "tight" painting tendancies, we are going to push the loose, thick painting as far as possible...

Here's the handout-

Be sure to see the frank Auerbach site listed in the previous posting...

Frank Auerbach's THICK paintings

By layering up thick paint, several times, Auerbach's images show a history and connection to the subject. He often paints the same model, or familiar scenes close to his studio.
Looking close at the work it's easy to see just how THICK the paint surface has become.... almost turning into sculpture.

What do you notice his thick paint technique does to details?
How does he show form, structure and light/shadow?
What colors do you see him use in these paintings?

See more here.... and here...

HOCKNEY'S strong sense of color...

David Hockney (born 1937) a British artist who uses bright colors to create a sense of light and depth. He has explored different media including photography, drawing, printing and recently ipad paintings.

As you view the work, look at his use of hot and cold colors, color complements and color temperature.

See more about Hockney here...

Self Portrait Gallery

Here are samples of the painting Class' Self portraits. Look how they used colors, values and even textures to describe form, anatomy and textures....

Amazing work!

new COLOR grid-

Break out the new tubes and lets get into COLOR!

COLOR PORTRAIT GRADE SHEET

Here's the grade sheet for the color self portraits-

Look for postings of the kid's paintings coming soon!

DUANE KEISER- practice makes amazing!

Just found Keiser's bogs and noticed he produced a painting EVERY day for a year!!! The result of all that work is his increadible control of: color, brush marks and lighting effects.

Look how he used simple colors (ochres, browns, ultra blue, white) to produce these LUMINOUS paintings!

See more of his work here...

See his work in progress here...

And his painting blog here...