Plein Air and Poetry

Some great painters, such as John Sargent and Anders Zorn, did their most memorable work when they were face-to-face with their motif. Nature is so rich in her inspiration, it's reasonable to ask: how can anyone improve on a plein-air painting?

Isaac Levitan (1860-1900) painted this perfectly competent study on location. It shows a log bridge at the end of a millpond. It is well observed and executed. But it leaves no impression on the imagination.

Back in the studio he refined the image and transformed it into poetry.

He simplified the background row of trees and added a ragged patch of evening clouds. He eliminated the floating log and developed the row of timbers in the lower left. He brought more attention to the uncertain footpath leading from the foreground plank across the three logs to the thin distant trail.

The image suddenly takes on a new interest, not because it is more finished, but because it is better composed. By sifting his direct impressions through the filter of memory and imagination, his work touches the emotions. We stand at the crossing point between our frail human pathway and the downward journey of the falling water, as the sunset prepares to cast us into darkness.

By the Millpond (1892) is one of Levitan’s most beloved works, and it is one of the touchstones of the Russian landscape tradition.

Call for Entries: Focus on Nature XI

Those of you who create science-based images of nature might be interested in this call for entries.

The New York State Museum hosts a biennial exhibition of natural history artwork called Focus on Nature. Artists all around the world are eligible, and the show has grown to be one of the most prestigious in natural history art.

The upcoming 11th edition will be held April 29- October 31, 2010. The deadline for entries is October 1.

The show includes images of plants, birds, insects, geology, paleontological, and archaeological restorations. All media are considered, and the exhibition is free to enter. Follow this link for the entry form.

Here's my blog report on the last exhibition.
Art above is "Spear Lily" by Mali Moir.

Cronkite in Dinotopia

The legendary newsman Walter Cronkite (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) attended the release party of Dinotopia in 2002. He is seen here holding the animatronic hatchling "26."

Thanks, Stefan.

Cast Shadows, Part 2

As the Apollo astronauts observed 40 years ago today, cast shadows are nearly black on the moon, because the sky above the moon’s surface is nearly black.

I say “nearly” because there’s a little bit of starlight and there’s a little bit of reflected light trickling into moonshadows.

On Earth cast shadows are flooded by various sources.

To understand those sources, try to imagine yourself as a little eyeball mounted on an the back of an ant. As you walk across the shadow, imagine yourself looking around at all the bright patches of light shining down on you, not just the blue sky, but also white clouds, buildings, or other bright objects. Those patches of light determine the brightness and color temperature of your shadow.

Here’s a shadow cast across a rooftop by a dormer. An ant walking across the shingles would look up and see a sky with high clouds. But he would also see a large white wall just off to the right, the illuminated side of the second dormer. That white patch is brighter than the sky, and it pours light into the right half of the shadow.

Beneath the photo are samples of two areas of the shadow. You can see how much the cast shadow changes as the sources of infilling light change in relative intensity.

On Earth, cast shadows tend to be blue only because they’re normally thrown across surfaces that look up to the blue of the sky. But be aware the ant doesn’t always see blue patches. On overcast days, the fill light is white. And sometimes the sky patch is small and other patches are bigger and stronger.

Cast Shadows, Part 1

When a form intercepts a parcel of direct light, it projects or casts a shadow onto whatever lies behind it.

The resulting cast shadow can be a striking design element, as it was for Frank Brangwyn in one of his famous bridge paintings.


Sometimes forms outside the composition cast shadows onto the subject. The movement of the morning sun shifted the shadow fairly quickly over the Flatiron building.

Samuel Prout effectively used the cast shadow in this watercolor of the Palazzo Contarini in Venice.

The edge of the shadow shape follows the bold relief of the building. It also sets up opportunities for tonal design. Some figures are seen in light against shadow shapes, while other figures are in relative darkness against a bright background.

Mazza Summer Conference

Since its inception in 1982, the Mazza Museum of International Art from the Picturebook in Findlay, Ohio has always been devoted to its mission as a teaching museum.

For schoolchildren, artists, teachers, and librarians, it’s a pilgrimage destination. Above: Raul Colon.

Students at the adjoining University of Findlay can earn a degree in children’s book illustration and can work at the museum on an internship.

Over the years, Mazza has invited over 300 children’s book artists and authors to visit and speak. Every summer the museum invites about 15 picturebook artists to a weeklong conference attended by a few hundred librarians and teachers.

I was privileged to take part this year, along with Peter Brown, Raul Colon, and Keith Graves (above), and M. Sarah Klise, Will Moses, Jan Wahl, Bruce Langton, Julie Downing, Stacey Schuett, Brian Pinkney, Grace Lin, and William Low (not pictured).

Peter Brown shared how he was inspired for his recent book The Curious Garden.

Each of us gave a visual presentation and a workshop session to a smaller group. Hey, that's blog commentator Steve Gilzow in on the right! Good to meet you, Steve.

Thanks to all the staff and volunteers at Mazza and the conference attendees for such a memorable time.

Conference information and full list of 2009 attendees, link.
Daily blog from this week describing each of the presentations, link.

Mazza Museum of Picturebook Art

When I was compiling a list of museums of illustration, I overlooked the Mazza Museum of International Art from Picturebooks.

It is located on the campus of the University of Findlay in northwest Ohio.

The five adjoining rooms display hundreds of original children’s book illustrations, drawn from a collection of approximately 3400 works. The collection has grown from just four original works purchased a little over 25 years ago.

Displayed beneath the originals are copies of the books for which the works were created, along with black binders with more information about each of the creators.

When I visited last week, they let me add to the Artist's Wall, right next to C.F. Payne.

The museum is free of charge, but accepts donations.
Wikipedia on Mazza.

Portraits at the Fair

Midday Near Moscow

Russian landscape painter Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898) painted Midday in the Outskirts of Moscow after doing countless plein-air studies in the countryside.

According to Henk Van Os, “In it laborers are seen returning home through the fields of rye at the close of day. In the distance we see houses, a country church and a winding river….The painting is an awesome experience of the liberating effect of space.”

The painting dates from 1869, soon after the group of painters called the Peredvizhniki (Itinerants or Wanderers) declared independence from the constrictions of the academies, and brought their work to the common people by means of traveling exhibitions.

Few in Russia had painted landscape on such a grand scale before—and rarely with such deep feeling. The work had a galvanizing effect on later generations of Russian landscape painters, who realized all at once the potential for landscape to be the vehicle for expressing the deepest stirrings of the human soul.
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160 images by Ivan Shishkin at The Athenaeum.org, link.
Essay by Henk Van Os appeared in in the exhibition catalog Russian Landscape, (2003), edited by David Jackson, link.
Wikipedia on Ivan Shishkin, link.
Illustrated essay, "The Immortal Itinerants," link.

ABC: Dots

The 15th of the month is the day for a group sketch game called "Art by Committee." The way it works is I share an excerpt from a science fiction story and you come up with a picture to go with it.

This month the quote was: “But when the dots did not vanish even after he scrubbed his fists across his eyes three times, he shouted hoarsely…”

You came up with some funny and creative solutions. Dots, it turns out, can be all sorts of things and can create all sorts of problems. You can click on the creators’ web links to see bigger versions of their pictures and to find out about their other work.

Andrew Walker

Mark Oftedal
Image

Mario Zara
Blog

Mark Wummer

Marisa Bryan Flickr Image

Andy Wales
Blog

Mei-Yi Chun
Image

Michael Geissler
Blog
Michael says: “A big shout-out to the freeware fractal program Apophysis, with which I was able to generate the freaky sky (& heaps of other great images)”

Here's my solution.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Now here’s the quote for next month:
Have fun! Please scale your JPG to 400 pixels across and compress it as much as possible. Title it with your name, send it to: jgurneyart(at)yahoo.com, subject line ABC. Please let me know in your email the full URL of the link to a larger image or your blog or website so people can see your image in all its glory and learn more about your other work. Please have your entries in by the 12th of August. I'll post the results August 15.
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Previous Art-By-Committees