Abstract Paintings and Musings on Art
The Birth of Venus
Sandro Botticelli, c. 1482–1486
tempera on canvas
172.5 cm × 278.5 cm (67.9 in × 109.6 in)
Uffizi, Florence
Look at feet & hands like Raphael or Botticelli:
Mark an X for direction.
With cubism, the grid should be 3D, not 2D.
The School of Athens
Raphael
1509–1510
Fresco
500 × 770 cm
View a gallery of drawings made in this way from this class.
Painting by Cezanne
Mount Saint-Victoire
1902-1904
Look at Cezanne’s Mt. St. Victoire – picture is divided into 3 horizontal bands: dark and warm on bottom, medium, warm & hot in center, light & blue at top.
Sky/mountain area over mid-plane overlapping front plane.
17th C. – paintings divided into 3 horizontal areas – light blue sky on top, mid-tone in center, dark foreground.
Find areas that are static and dynamic to the picture plane.
Hard lines will come closer to you.
(read more about Cezanne’s mountain paintings here.)
View a gallery of drawings made in this way from this class.
Draw from center out. Work from bottom up, never top down.
Like riding a bike uphill.
Crunching up the space, like using your muscles. All this space to work with. Swooping down.
2D & 3D working together.
Books – Henry Moore, National Gallery, Sharaku.
Split planes, like Cezanne’s still lifes.
Modigliani, Picasso.
in & up (compressed); out & down.
Mondrian, eyeball.
Holbein for eyes & mouth.
View a gallery of drawings made in this way from this class.
Mark Tobey drawing diagram of a fly flying around the studio – what’s behind you is as important as the rest. Fly’s eye view.
1. Cezanne drew from inside out
2. Yin/yang – figure/ground.
3. Color – reacts against what’s behind it.
Go back to the back wall – pull planes forward towards you.
View a gallery of drawings made in this way from this class.
Purpose: to create form; to find an equivalent for life.
Check out Frank Stella‘s “Working Spaces.” Exploring another area of cubism.
Cut up something and rearrange it within a grid. Implied floorplane.
Look at Hoffman‘s “Golden Wall” in the museum.
Look at Holbein for eyes, mouth. Look at Giacometti.
Nose and ear are often parallel, curved or straight, whatever.
View a gallery of drawings made in this way from this class.
Look at Paul Klee’s “The Thinking Eye.”
Look at “Point and Line to Plane” – Kandinsky.
When drawing the figure in space, use empathy – project yourself into the picture plane. Move yourself to the center of the picture plane.
Every action demands a reaction: in and concave – out and convex; in and up – out and down.
Implies counter-movement.
Make things bend for the demands of the flat surface.
Like movement in Cezanne’s Madame Cezanne.
In Cezanne’s landscapes, things get bigger as they go back in space – he’s projected himself into the landscape.
Think of Dufy’s scene through a fence.
Check out the view down Michigan Avenue towards the bridge.
Look up Munch again. Look for the catalog with seltzer bottle/bowler hat.
Development of the idea is the most important part – spend most time here. Perceptual or conceptual space?
Look at Odilon Redon in print and drawing room. “The Painter’s Eye.” or Mind. Romare Bearden, Carl Holty.
Wolf Kahn landscapes.
Cimabue – those weird hands!
View a gallery of drawings made in this way from this class.