You can view many of the sketchbooks of Degas on this link (National Library of France): Gallica bnf.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Monday, April 09, 2012
Pretty Baa-Lambs
Sometimes it pays to re-visit websites that I blogged about earlier (Oct 2009) because they are endlessly fascinating and educational.
Saturday, April 07, 2012
Details of Progress (Amy Crehore)
I took these quick detail shots of the new painting with my ipod.
I'm having fun brushing it in very freely at first.
I will have to set this aside for a few days, but I'll get back to it after I finish my taxes.
Friday, April 06, 2012
Process of Painting (Amy Crehore)
Yesterday, I quickly brushed in some color and blocked in some forms on the new painting. I am thinking how cool it looks right now with the large figure not even filled in yet. I'm being careful to leave some of the reddish undercoat showing through my layers of brushwork. The contrast of different colors is exciting. The process of painting itself reveals what direction to take, as if I am being guided along by an invisible force. No real decisions are made ahead of time, except in the preliminary sketch where I worked out a composition. Even that may change as I go along, but at least I have a starting place, a skeleton. My pencil sketch evolved out of the process of erasing and re-drawing and feeling it out.
I use "memories of what life feels like" when I do my art. That is one of my main tools. I take a walk and look at the sky. I feel the sun and smell the flowers. I gaze at the trees.
It feels the same as it did when I was a kid.
I get to exist right in the moment when I paint or draw. Everything else falls away. It is such a joy to escape into art, to focus on the process. Painting itself can be quite a struggle and it's outcome unknown.
It is about continual change, sort of like life itself or the weather. Gotta have faith and confidence that it'll all work out in the end, no matter how long it takes.
I just do my thing and work it out.
Thursday, April 05, 2012
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
What am I up to?
Finished a preliminary drawing for a new painting.
(copyright Amy Crehore 2012)
(copyright Amy Crehore 2012)
Let's hope I can figure this one out. Here's the beginning.
Sunday, April 01, 2012
Woodblock Prints of the Sino-Japanese War 1894-95
These are amazing! Japanese Meiji woodblock prints were churned out by the dozens during the Sino-Japanese War 1894-1895. They were mostly imaginative images based on news reports (done by many different artists). One artist, who produced more than 70 prints, was Kobayashi Kiyochika (a few examples of his excellent work are shown above- from the Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts Boston). There are more images and story to be found on this beautiful site:
(Throwing Off Asia II by John W. Dower, MIT edu)
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