Thursday, July 5, 2007

Maxfield Parrish #2

Although I can't deny Maxfield Parrish's reputation and am duly impressed with his lighting, color technique, and skill, I don't necessarily love his work. The mythical setting...robes, greek columns, lutes, etc. don't reach out and pull me in. So I decided to study him and just change the subject matter.

My final project (I'm hoping) for this month will be a "Norman Rockwell subject meets Maxfield Parrish lighting and color." In light of that, I'll be doing a few copies of Rockwell prints. Above is the start of a copy of a "Summer" print he did in a series on the seasons (they might have been in a calendar).

I was trying to come up with a jazzy title for such a project:
  • Norman Parrish - sounds like a horror movie character
  • Maxfield Rockwell - sounds like I'm explaining a painting of my dog in the country by a large stone and big hole to someone who doesn't get it.
Perhaps just "a synthesis of great American illustrators of the 20th century" will suffice. :-)

I was hoping to find a link to the Rockwell version of the above image, but I can't find one this morning. It was part of a set of a boy, his dad, and his dog doing seasonal things. I found the dog in several other prints. The father was also a popular model for Rockwell.

3 comments:

Making A Mark said...

...and Parrish Max sounds like some magazine......

Loved the names - and the idea sounds good too.

I've had the same problem with Parrish which is why we decided to do our own interests this month and next.

Rose Welty said...

Haha, wish I would have thought of that one! I'm really sort of getting into Rockwell. Maggie and I chatted about applying Parrish techniques to CPs, but it's not all that easy. She is doing it, but I'm not so sure that I can. Also, I was really struck with the almost "over-exposure" of his lighting. In some of his images, parts of it go flat because of the lighting. That may just be because I'm viewing it online, but in any event, it's interesting.

Rose Welty said...

Katherine, I forgot to say...I'm sorry I'm not joining in on your flowers. I'm learning reading from your posts! I just felt like I needed a little time away from the flowers, after O'Keeffe.