Motivation for Uber-Nerds

My Constant Companions
copyright Rose Welty
colored pencil on Ingres paper
(note that this was done from life, without my glasses on!)

I think I can finally declare myself an uber-nerd. Tell me what you think after you hear this true story.

The other day I was thinking of shirking the daily exercise routine on the elliptical. (OK, that's making me sound better than I am: I am trying to get into a daily habit of working off the pounds on the elliptical, I'm nowhere near daily yet. Perhaps ten times in the last few weeks.) But then I remembered, the Holbein book.

I've been treating myself to a read of my new book only when I am exercising. So, I quick changed my clothes and happily hopped on and went to sweating. As I got off later, disappointed that I had to stop reading and gawking and start stretching, I realized it. What sort of nerd are you if you motivate yourself to exercise by reading art history? Not even with a musical backdrop, just flat out reading. That, my friends, is an uber-nerd for you.

Even after this revelation and noting the social impacts, I was disappointed to realize that I have finished the Holbein book. Thankfully, I've got a few more of those "can't put it down" art history books waiting for me and the elliptical!

Have a good weekend everyone, whatever your reading pleasure!

Monet's Thoughts on Painting

Reading in House's chapter "Buildup of the Paint Surface" the other night I came across a few of Monet's ideas on painting.

• Sculpting: "Work on the whole picture together, to work all over or not at all." (Monet)
• I came across this same idea in studying Sargent in January.
• It is interesting to think of a drawing as a sculpture that you just slowly chip away at.
• It seems to be a popular way of working in oils. It would work in acrylics or graphite. I'm not so sure that it would work with pen and ink or colored pencils.
• Ebauche: Underpainting (grisaille is an underpainting in grey)
• Monet did a quick underpainting (in multiple colors).
• This practice was "determining at the outset the tonality of the whole." (Monet)

Some interesting ideas here, neither of them innovative, but interesting to find that the masters used techniques that are still recommended today.

Monet, Prints, and Composition

Here's the commission I'm working on. This is just a preliminary, maybe an hour's work. It's not on the final surface yet, I'm just trying to get a feel of what will give me trouble...

I'm sorry that my blog has been so thin on the ground this week. It's just been a busy week around here.

I have been reading some more of House on Monet. I've been reading the chapter on "Pictorial Composition and Choice of Viewpoint." I'd like to tell you something fascinating, but honestly, I don't think I really understood what he was saying. He did talk about Japanese prints and the similarity between many of Monet's works and contemporary Japanese prints. House thinks that Monet was more inspired by nature than the prints. He thinks that Monet looked at a scene and it just made sense to him to do it as it had been done in prints, not that Monet was deliberately trying to do something as it would have been done in a Japanese print of the time. He also thinks that the works of Monet that closely resemble prints are accidental rather than intentional. For instance there are prints that Monet owned that are very similar to paintings he did. House thinks that possibly Monet bought the prints later because they resembled something he had done, rather Monet taking a print, finding something nearby that resembled it and painting it in the same composition.

Hard to say what the truth really is...I don't agree that it would detract from Monet if he had deliberately taken ideas from Japanese prints. He still did his works in his own style. Today to mimic a composition from someone else would be considered a mark of respect. And personally, I don't think respecting the work of others, or learning from them, makes you less of a master. Monet was an excellent artist, even if every idea he used wasn't completely his own.

Friday Funnies

I still haven't given up my idea of doing something with the poplar trees in my backyard. I suppose because they will soon be without leaves and it will all grow a little desolate looking out there! Yesterday I had a quick 15 minutes while supervising children and making dinner, so I did this little sketch through the window. (Sorry about the photo - not my morning for technology! ;-)

Onto the funnies...I read this little story about Monet the other night. In 1889, he began painting a rocky hillside in the valley of the Creuse in winter. These works (here is one, the blurb mentions this story) were all about the forbidding mood of winter. Trouble was, he didn't finish until May. So, being ever authentic, he hired two gardeners to pull the leaves off of the budding oak tree during the spring, while he finished painting the series. His comment: "Isn't it just too much to be finishing a winter landscape at this time of year?" (House, Monet: Nature Into Art, p.25)

I guess Monet was human after all...hey, wait a minute, I could hire a couple of workmen to paste the leaves back on my poplars while I work on this idea through the fall and winter! :D

Monet on Having a Style

Gawler Ranges, Australia, WIP
colored pencil on drafting film, 12 in. x 15 in.
copyright J. Rose Welty

Have you heard that you need to develop an artistic style? Something that you are thereafter known for? Are you trying to find/develop that elusive style? Up and coming artists are often advised to develop something that makes them stand out, something that immediately identifies their work. This often becomes a major hazard for a young artist who struggles to find that defining element. Their work can then stagnate and become troublesome as they search for that "it" factor.

So, I chuckled when I read a quote last night about Monet's view on "style". He had been branching out in subject matter on recent travels in 1863. Paul Durand-Ruel, an art dealer that bought and sold many Monet works, objected to Monet's new experiments. Monet replied, "There's no point in my being the man of the sunlight, as you call it, one mustn't specialise in a single theme." (House, Monet:Nature Into Art, p. 25)

It's doubly funny that Monet saw no point in specialization, because Monet, in today's terms, definitely had that style or "it" factor. His work is some of the most recognizable on the planet. Did he just try to say that he didn't have a style, but he really did? Did he not recognize that he had a style? Did he realize later the value of style? Were his experiments so bad that he ended up deciding style wasn't such a bad thing? Maybe an artist is never the best one to know his style, in other words, he/she is just too close to the thing to see it, until someone else points it out? What do you think?

Above you see more progress on the Gawler Ranges. I do hope to finish it soon and get some different images up for you to see. :-)

Monet on Drawing

Gawler Ranges, Australia, WIP
colored pencil on drafting film, 12 in x 15 in
copyright J. Rose Welty

We threw our book-loving selves at the mercy of the local half-price book store on Saturday. I came up trumps. I found John House's Monet: Nature into Art (hardback) for $8. It has a few short biographical sections in the front and then proceeds into a more detailed examination of his work and working methods.

The first appendix is about his sketchbooks. Katherine made a claim in her post on Monet's sketchbooks that his drawings were mainly to gather compositional ideas. House agrees. He apparently examined Monet's canvases and claims that Monet rarely made any preliminary sketches to begin painting. There are two surviving exceptions to this rule, both being unfinished portraits. House suggests that these were experiments in a different way of working, one Monet quickly abandoned (House, p.230).

For me, I almost can't understand this. I suppose because paint is a new medium for me. But, to create forms with paint? How do you control that? Maybe it helped that he worked in oils and could scrape off whatever wasn't working. I also think it is interesting that Monet got his initial success as an artist with drawing caricatures. I wonder if in his earlier works, the more realist ones, he did do more preliminary sketches and studies.

One time Monet tried to do some drawings for publication (with a book of poems) but eventually said that he couldn't make anything of interest with them and backed out. He did do a few drawings of his paintings for magazine reproduction, but only as absolutely necessary (even sanctioning others to do it for him.) He said that he "didn't like to isolate drawing from colour." (House, p.227-8)

Above you see my progress on the Gawler Ranges.

Advice to a Young Monet, 1859

Gawler Ranges, Australia, WIP
colored pencil on drafting film, 12 in x 15 in
copyright J. Rose Welty

After Monet gained some local notoriety as a caricaturist in Le Havre, he was sent to Paris in 1859 to develop his talents. He eventually meant Constant Troyon, who gave him the following advice:

• learn to draw
• work in the studio with live models
• make copies of originals in the Louvre
• work from nature

Monet was also encouraged by Eugene Boudin to paint en plein air. As Monet explains it, it was a big moment for him as an artist.

I guess advice to budding artists hasn't changed very much over the years!

Monet on Painting

Monet said, "When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have in front of you, a tree, a field. Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here is an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape until it gives you your own naive impression of the scene." (Quote from River of Light, by Douglas Skeggs, p.53)

Do you agree with Monet? There is some truth to what he is saying, certainly focusing on just object shapes, angles and negative shapes revolutionized my drawing. But when I tried it with trees...it definitely didn't work. I had to think about trees and how they are structured. So, I generally agree with Monet, but not specifically. But then, he was a master and I am not, so maybe I should try it again :-).

Above you see the completed "backside" of my next Gawler Ranges piece. I added some more value from yesterday. Then I flipped it over and have begun coloring on the front. Another update tomorrow.

Secrets from the Playbook 9/17/2007

This Week's Tip: Grease the Squeaky Wheel

Do you have a time of day when you are not as productive as other times? Find a way to "grease the track" for yourself during that time. For instance, I am very slow in the morning. I usually don't speak for an hour. My thinking is on "ultra-slow", it just takes me a long time to warm up all the cylinders. So, I try and make it as easy on everyone as it can be. I set up the coffee pot the night before, set the table for breakfast, make the lunches, lay out the clothes etc. It makes the night a little longer, but it enables me to just slide through the morning until I am awake enough to deal with things!

Above you see a painting I did of the Gawler Ranges in Australia at sunrise. The reference photo was taken by Susan Borgas. She has several from a trip to this part of South Australia. Check out her FreeSnapShots blog, it is definitely worth a look.

When I saw Susan's photo, Monet instantly popped into my head. It just seemed to be calling out for a Monet-type painting. I had a fun few hours painting this, it is 9in x 12in on acrylic paper. It was a new experiment in painting for me. I just began, no sketch underneath (although I had done a few value studies.) I started with some middle tone washes to break the area into sky, far distance, and foreground. Then I just went for gradual detailing with middle, light and dark values.

Later in the evening, I was reading a bit about Monet. The author claimed that in the early days, i.e. before Giverny, Monet started with middle values and then added lights and darks. That made me feel good :-). I have read that his methods changed over the years, so I guess it wasn't always this way. But, for me, it was a nice way to work.

I plan to try this next in CPs on drafting film.

Monet and the presence of light

River of Light by Douglas Skeggs is one of my resources for Monet this month. There are several books on Monet, and I doubt that this is one of the highly ranked ones, but it is helping me to understand Monet better.

The picture referenced in the following quote is Terrace at Sainte-Adresse:

"The subject matter of this picture has begun to slip into second place. Monet is no longer interested in what he looks at, only in what he sees: in this sense it makes little difference to him whether he paints his aunt's portrait or her parasol. What is quite evident is that light has now become a physical presence in the painting. " (p.36, River of Light, Skeggs)

Of course, everyone talks about Monet and light. But when I read the above quote, the penny dropped in my mind. Ah, yes, that's it. I guess that I've always seen movement in Monet's work, but never asked myself movement of what - movement of light. Light as a presence, extending itself all over surfaces in a scene - itself being the action of the painting.

The image at top is where I've come to with the poplars. Honestly, this just isn't what I had in mind when I started this piece. I had a large tree, maybe even a forest in mind. In this post, I describe how I came to wanting to draw poplar trees with light in and amongst them. These few leaves just aren't that. So, I'm off to a new piece, with a short reflection:

What I learned here:

• I like using a grisaille technique, it really helps me.
• Colored pencils are magnificent on drafting film and I almost never want to use them on paper again. (To me, they feel like painting should feel!)
• You can back away from drawing trees because you are afraid of their structure, but then you'll find that leaves have structure too.
• Copic markers for my tool of choice for value studies.
  

More on Monet's Tree

Here's the tree from yesterday, colored to a point. I've darkened the darkest darks. I am really happy with the grisaille. I definitely will do that again.

I think I may stop here on this one, it is only an exercise. My drawing wasn't really strong enough to warrant further work on this. But, as for trying the grisaille, it was a success. As for learning how Monet did trees (at least in the early years), it was a partial success.

I learned:
* Monet is more subtle and thoughtful than I initially gave him credit for.
* He was, even at this early stage, entranced by light and it's effects.
* I still don't know how to execute a successful tree!

Off to a busy day, have a good weekend everyone!

Values in Monet

While I am very excited to be learning about Monet this month, and I couldn't wait to get started researching, I could wait to get started on the art. You see, I'm intimidated by Monet. This is probably because our preferred subject matters differ, our mediums differ, and well, he's just so good! So, I decided to start with something less than a full Monet piece.

Above you see a copy of the tree in the Women in the Garden, 1866 piece. It was rejected by the 1867 Salon. I have not included the women for now, I'm just trying to understand how he painted such a great tree.

As I was beginning this, Wendy Prior suggested that I try doing this as a grisaille, to better understand the values. So, I've done a black/white/gray version on the back of my drafting film (the top image). The second image is how that looks on the front of the film where I will put in the colors. The idea here is to get a hold of the values before I get distracted with the colors and forget all about the values.

The eagle-eyed among you are ready to point out that I don't have any dark darks in there. (Hey, at least I recognize it this time! :-) That's only because I am a little afraid of going totally hard-core black on the back, because I am not sure how the colors will go on the front side. Last night I went to bed crushed that I had just gone way too dark all over the place and wasted a bunch of time. This morning, I'm still not entirely sure that I haven't just gone and made a mess, but I'm going to go ahead and try the colors on the front now. I can always flip it over and rework or erase what isn't working. This isn't going to be a finished piece, this is technique practice and exploration.

Finally, Monet:

• the paint might give the impression of being slapped on, but alot of thought went into those slaps.
• Monet was very careful to have darks and lights near each other - to force the tree trunk forward.
• This tree is massed in with values very carefully. He creates the tree, trees behind it, and bushes around it in a consistent space. (Most of which you don't see above.)
• In the original there are four women around the tree. In that respect, I do see a minor flaw with this. The women share space, but I think it is clear that the same woman posed for all four ladies (Camille, his mistress and later wife). The figures don't quite "join up" or look like they are in the same space at the same time. But, it is a great painting of Monet's, in my opinion.
  

Master of the Month: Monet

This month's FineLine Artists' master is Claude Monet. Above are two sketches done from a photo printed in a book. The first I did with pencil. The second, in the spirit of Jo Castillo, I did without a pencil outline. They are in my rapidly filling Moleskine! Not great sketches, but a fun start to what I hope will be a month of learning.

Here are a few starters on Monet:
His palette
Biography - and a search feature for seeing some of his works
Summary
A fun little article on his work and where to discover an unknown Monet

Here's what my local library had on Monet:
The Essential Claude Monet by Catherine Morris
Essential Monet by Vanessa Potts
River of Light: Monet's Impressions of the Seine by Douglas Skeggs

Katherine posted several links to books and sites this morning. She's a Monet expert, so I'll definitely check them out!

I actually know very little about Monet, so it should be a fun month for me! So far, I like that everything I have consulted says that he worked very hard to be successful! That first book is a very quick read, hopefully I'll have a review for you tomorrow.