Mermaid's Minoan World

Ride to Atlantis, oil on panel, 1989 

The architecture on the seafloor is Minoan. The idea came from the proposal that a historic volcanic eruption on the island of Thera devastated the Minoan civilization, thereby inspiring Plato's account of Atlantis. 

My wife posed for the mermaid.

How Thomas Lawrence Painted a Portrait

Unfinished portraits by Sir Thomas Lawrence (English, 1769-1830) reveal insights into his painting methods. 

 

"Lawrence always painted standing. ‘His constant practice was to begin by making a drawing of the head full size on canvass; carefully tracing dimensions and expression. This took up one day’ 

[I'm quoting from a webpage of National Portrait Gallery who sources these insights from Lawrence's own writings, those of his sitters, and of his early biographer Allan Cunningham, 1833 pp.194-5."] 

"At the next sitting, Lawrence would begin to paint the head."

"Lawrence often kept his sitters for three hours at a time and generally required eight or nine sittings, according to Cunningham (Cunningham 1833 p.194). But many sessions were shorter."

"In 1803, in the face of mounting debts, Lawrence claimed, ‘I have now four and five sitters in a day and have no choice without absolutely affronting them between receiving them and finishing other pictures’ (Kenneth Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1954, p.10), while his friend, Elizabeth Croft, wrote of him admitting ‘four sitters for two hours each in bright summer days, stating that he painted from sunrise to sunset, except for correcting engravings and for hurried meals (Layard 1906 p.246)." 

"When painting at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, Lawrence noted that the average length of his sittings was two hours and that his sitters, ‘the three greatest monarchs in recent political importance’, had sat to him six or seven times (Williams 1831, vol.2, pp.119-20)."

--

Online resources:

Sir Thomas Lawrence was mostly self-taught and he became president of the Royal Academy.

More about his method at the National Portrait Gallery website.

Previous posts:

Window-Shading

Area by Area Painting

Books:

Sir Thomas Lawrence

Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power & Brilliance

Yablonskaya Visits a Collective Farm

Tatiana Yablonskaya, Bread (or Grain), 1949 Tretyakov Gallery

Tatiana (or Tetyana) Yablonskaya (Ukranian, 1917-2005) produced more than 300 drawings and studies for her composition showing the grain being harvested for the making of bread.

She traveled to a working farm to document the harvest. Her painting expresses the optimism of the early Soviet years. She said: "The vast scope of work performed by the united, happy workers at the collective farm astonished me. Being there made me clearly realize what a big debt our art still owed to our great people, how little it had done to reveal all the greatness and dignity of the Soviet people."

In planning the composition she said that she "did not paint individual people or details of the landscape, I tried to capture whole groups, along with trucks, sacks, and structures, naturally forming a unique composition that one can only find in real life."

 

Yablonskaya "wanted to show the communal energy of work, the joy of collective labour... Happy, always accompanied by song, shared work. Its vigorous pace and joyous cadence left a strong impression on me, and I tried to express it in all my studies, and especially in my sketches and drawings."

But according to a museum publication, conservatives criticized the work because they felt that her expressive paint handling undermined the the realism of the scene, and that it "revealed the harmful influence of Impressionism, and where 'realism was sacrificed to the so-called painterliness.' 

Tatiana Yablonskaya, detail of Bread (or Grain), 1949

Fortunately, critics later exonerated her, and the painting is one of the most cherished images in the Russian collection.

Yablonskaya said, "In order to create truly valuable works of art, the artist has to live with the people and learn about every aspect of their lives. To observe life in its entirety. Only then one may be able to sum it up. This is why I am convinced that I was absolutely right to make so many sketches during my stay at the collective farm."
----

Quotes from the Tretyakov Gallery Magazine 

Book: Tetyana Yablonska

OCT Scans Reveal Painting Layers

OCT scanning is a non-invasive technique used by conservators for analyzing the surface layers of a painting. 

OCT stands for optical coherence tomography, and it reveals a cross section of the top layers so they can distinguish yellowing varnish layers from pigment layers. 

The National Gallery's Kristina Mandy demonstrates the technique in this YouTube video.

Wikipedia on optical coherence tomography

Painting Studios Were Social Places

We tend to think of painting as a solitary activity, especially during this last pandemic. But many art studios in the past were social places. 

Alexander the Great Visiting the Studio of Apelles, painting by Willem van Haecht (Flemish, 1593-1637)

According to Cecil Chard, “The great painters of old led a semi-public life of extraordinary brilliancy, surrounded by hordes of admirers, of faithful pupils, of followers, and disciples. The studio was a kind of unofficial salon, a common meeting ground for the courtiers and the statesmen, the fine ladies and the beaux esprits of the day. It was the place for the doffing of ceremonies, where Royalty became democratic and political intrigue rarely flourished. Pictures were painted in a kind of publicity, in an atmosphere of excitement and of confusion, of appreciation and of criticism, that made them social as well as artistic triumphs.”
---
From Cecil Shard’s article “John S. Sargent, RA, The Work of a Great Portrait-Painter,” Pall Mall Magazine, June, 1907, p. 643

Paper Playset Concept

 

Concept sketches for a paper playset of Dinotopia, drawn in pen and marker.

What Was It Like to Pose for Norman Rockwell?

In this YouTube video from the Norman Rockwell Museum, former models of Norman Rockwell's painting "The Recruit" describe his sense of humor and his approach to directing models.

Outdoor Dining Challenge Results

Thanks to everyone who entered the "Outdoor Painting Challenge" on our Facebook group and Instagram. Entries were posted from all around the world, with both experienced painters and some people who haven't painted outdoors before.

It was a difficult challenge, but you rose to the challenge and tried some bold experiments and braved the elements. It was fun to go through the entries and hard to choose the five finalists. Here they are:

Pritesh Rangole says he did this painting near his college canteen. 

It's oil on canvas, 9x12 inch. Check him out on Instagram. He really gets out there and paints a lot.

Dylan Rabe aka Prosomania posted this on Instagram, saying: "Started on site at @chicagoinrecess with watercolor pencils; rescued in the studio by iridescent inks🦄"

Catherine Cervas Heaton said "Local ice cream crowd at a really far social distancing, more like shy distancing, from my car!"

"Majority of this took 1.25hrs until I couldn’t see color mixtures. Finished at home. Realized I was rushing the telephone wires and I didn’t have to, I could have waited to add those in later. The people are still blobs and need refining but I’m calling it finished."

Zoungy Kligge brought his sketchbook to a July 4 family picnic, and created a montage of observations in the style of classic mid-century American illustrators. He says: "For my #outdoordiningchallenge I wanted to depict the July 4 activities of my family, using a muted red, white, and blue palette. This was the first gathering we all had since prior to the start of the pandemic in early 2020."

Zoungy continues: "I moved the easel wherever the people were, including here on the deck, after the meal. I quickly discovered that it's hard to sketch people in motion, while trying to eat and socialize! I decided to enjoy the time with everyone, and to capture moments before and after the meal with a page of little vignettes. These included: Our grill in the woods, by the Antietam Creek, made from loose bricks and recycled parts of our old chimney. I started sketching my sister at the grill, but replaced her with the daisy bouquet my mother made for the table."

An empty cup and plate, except for the corn cob someone had enjoyed. And, an arrowhead from one of several collections of arrowheads that were shared, dating to many thousands of years ago. My youngest sister found this one in a farmer's field."

"The small, written notations are reminders of things that happened: The remarkable, multi-level rainbow that lasted an hour. The duck food stored in a plastic coffee can, under an upside-down, metal pot. And my father sharing part of the 1832 pension application of Jonathan Vail, my 6th great-grandfather, who in his old age recollected seeing General Washington on July 1, 1776, at Brooklyn."

At Brooklyn, Generals Washington, Putnam, Greene, Sullivan, & Sterling were pointed out to me.

"A note on materials: I used my newly-built 'Gurney easel' and a Pentalic watercolor journal (8 x 5 inches). The sketch was first done in diluted Noodler's gray ink in a water brush, plus line work with an eyedropper pen, same color. Winsor & Newton watercolors in Light Red and Indanthrene Blue, which mix to a nice neutral, and DaVinci white gouache for opacity. Notations written in Noodler's Polar Brown ink."

Bill Wiist says: "A concession stand at R.B. Winter State Park, PA on the 4th of July. Watercolor (with a bit of titanium white acrylic) in my 5.5"x5.5" sketchbook."

Thanks to everyone who took part. I thank each one of you for entering. Each finalist receives a "Department of Art" patch and a free tutorial download. Please email me with your mailing address, and your download preference, and I'll get those to you.

...and just to remind us of how high the bar is for us to try to jump over, feast your eyes on this watercolor and gouache painting of a morning breakfast by the incomparable Anders Zorn (Swedish, 1860-1920).

-------

Facebook Group: Color in Practice.

Gumroad tutorial: TRIADS: Painting with Three Colors

Check out some of our previous challenges: 

Paint a Cell Tower Challenge Results

Storefront Challenge Results
Dead Vehicle Challenge Results

Floating Carousel

A floating carousel, sketched on location in fountain pen and gray markers on smooth paper.

I begin this sketch one afternoon, leaning against a wooden rail of the boardwalk in Coney Island, New York. I finish it months later atop a stack of fish crates in Morro Bay, California.

When I sketch the carousel, I have no idea where or how I would eventually use it. I just have a feeling that if I leave enough blank space around it on the page, I might later find some strange setting to put it into.

From this experience I have learned to take along several half-finished sketches whenever I go to a new location, in case I get an idea to add an unusual context.
--
From The Artist's Guide to Sketching by James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade, Watson-Guptill, 1982.

Article on Brain Science and Art in IA#140

Currently in (#140 / August / Sept) of International Artist Magazine, the first of a two-parter about what artists can learn from neuroscience. 

I explain how new discoveries in neuroscience can help us to see better and paint better. Learn about top-down vs. bottom-up processing and how the eye is different from the camera.

Signed copies available on my website