Is artistic skill natural or learned?

There are many misconceptions surrounding the modern art world. One of which is the insinuation that only naturally talented illustrators can become great artists. This myth can be easily defused when one studies the history of modern art.

Since the development of the camera(camera obscura)and its wide spread popularity in the mid 1800s, the art world began to look for new outlets for inspiration. The days of the renaissance had brought forward the skills necessary to paint and sculpt to the degree of realistic proportions needed to keep tangible records of people and places. The majority of artist before the nineteenth century would rely on portrait painting and commission work from wealthy aristocratic families. The camera change everything.

Once the need for realistic artwork for record keeping had been virtually abolished, art began to take on new meaning. Artist became less concerned with realistic work and art evolved into other forms such as impressionism,symbolism,cubism and surrealism. These art forms in many cases do not require the traditional skills,or natural drawing ability one might expect critical to achieve great works.

Art in todays world is so vast and integrated with new ideas, it is hard to pin point what classifies as artistic skill. It could be argued that artistic skill is the embodiment of an idea. Art is not what the creator envisions but the feeling and emotion of the observer who interacts with it.

It would be wrong to say that natural drawing or sculpting skills will not help an artist excel in their studies. However, mostly all great artist in the past or contemporary, have studied under great teachers.

Art history: Understanding impressionism – Part 1

Introspective Look into Post-Impressionism

The era in art known as Post-Impressionism was contrived in direct reaction to the Impressionist era, which came just before. This new era, which emerged in 1886, strove toward recapturing the essence of Impressionism. They believed in the basic concepts of Impressionism but thought that in recent years these concepts had been overblown and traditional concepts had been discarded. The artists of Post-Impressionism accused their Impressionistic contemporaries of putting too much emphasis on the movement of color and light, instead of focusing in on the meaning and subject of the artwork. The idea of patroning art, in fact, is too amuse and entertain the viewers, and it is not an opportunity for the artist to show off his skills.

The impressionist movement, at its basic core, was a study on light and color. After a while the images became blurred out and unviewable. Inspired by Claude Monet, the artists of this era consisted of Edward Monet, Auguiste Renoir, Whistler, and Edgar Degas. The characteristics of this movement include painting in open air, meaning on the spot, capturing the shimmer and light of the open air, the use of high key and warm colors of pure tints, the use of propped images, dematerialization, and capturing the timelessness of the forms.

The Post-Impressionist movement was a reaction to and willingness to change of the Impressionist movement. It was a return to core Impressionist values. The major artists of the time included Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin. The characteristics of this movement include a shift towards painting more with more solidity and tradition, an appeal to intellect, the use of profound images, a return to classical style, and, “projects an inner idea without using narrative of literal symbols,” according to Janson in the book, History of Art: The Western Tradition.

Clear comparisons and contrasts, between the two movements, can be seen when looking at a work of art from each period of art. Two good examples are Claude Monet’s, Water Lilies, from Impressionism, and Paul Cezanne’s, Mont Ste-Victoire Seen from Bibemus Quarry, from Post-Impressionism. Monet’s work used the theme of water lilies but there was no true meaning or thought put into it. It is simply a study of light and patches of color. Cezanne’s work used the theme of a certain mountain view, and was supposed to be a familiar scene for the viewers. The composition of Monet’s work is static and upfront to the picture frame, much like Cezanne’s work, which lacks any sort of depth; instead it is a merger of the foreground with the middle ground. Monet used the visual effect of light and atmosphere while Cezanne’s still life paid little attention to light and instead focused on the seriousness and essence of the image. Monet’s painting allowed the viewer to see the image from any direction and regarded the actual lilies as unimportant. It is part of a technical process and the ideas of brushstroke and light particles take over. Cezanne’s painting, which is enclosed in a triangular form, is an appeal to the viewer’s intellect. It allows the spectator the feeling of being able to reach into the work. Finally the images, are a complex layout of line, shape, time, color, and texture.

Choosing a Pet Portrait or Dog Portrait as a Gift

Understanding abstract art – Part 17

Understanding abstract art can be a difficult thing. Two people can look at one image and get two different meanings out of it. To truly understand what the artist meant to say through his / her art can only be told by that artist. It’s almost like you need to be inside the mind of that artist to understands it.

Looking a piece of abstract art can bring happy memories back or it could make you feel sad for the artist, but sometimes these feelings it gives you could be the opposite of what was intentional.

For example: if an artist paints a picture with warm bright colors such as reds and oranges, the artist could mean for it to be cheerful and happy. While someone else looking at it could see anger or fire. It really all depends on how you choose to see what is in front of you.

If an artist paints a scene with boxes in different shades of blues and blacks an everyday observer could see repetition, someone who lives the same day everyday. The artist on the other hand could be thinking that they are trapped or isolated. Stick in a box without any idea of how to get out of it.

Honestly in my opinion there is no true way to understand the real meanings behind abstract art. This style of art will make you see what you want to see. To understand the true meanings behind this art you must get inside the artists mind and sometimes that isn’t possible anymore.

Just understand that abstract art is a wonderful form of art that everyone should get to experience. Whether you are right and wrong in what you think the image could mean you are right to yourself, and that’s all that matters.

Wholesale Paintings Incomparable Art

Today, oil paint reproduction on canvas is synonymous of warranty. Many painters, professional and beginners prefer to exhibit paintings of this type for diverse reasons. First, oil paintings materials are easy to find and prices are not expensive, so, you wont have any problem to find specific products such as palette, colors, easel, brushes, frames, etc. Wholesale paintings offers the most realistic artworks, remember it.

Second, oil paintings have the most realistic results in all styles. There are numerous painting styles like abstract art. For example, abstract art is divided according to the theme. Abstract people, abstract landscape, abstract animal, abstract flower and abstract still life are the most popular themes that you can find. Obviously, you can develop another idea but with the same characteristics. Wholesale paintings develop different styles according to customers tastes.

One of the most recognized abstract painters in the entire globe was Pablo Picasso. To this day, Picassos works are an icon of the abstract paints. Lets investigate something about his life and legacy. Pablo Picasso (1881 Malaga, Spain 1973 Mougins, France) began making drawings when he was 8 years old. He had a special talent that was refined over the years. Simple geometric forms are characteristics in his works. Picassos father, Don Jos had a big influence on him because his father was an art teacher.

Picassos work was dividing in the following stages: Blue Period (1901 – 1904), Rose Period (1904 – 1906), Black Period (1906 – 1907) and Cubism (1907 – 1915). Les Demoiselles dAvignon (1907), Guernica (1937), The Weeping Woman (1937), Igor Stravinsky (1920), Dora Maar au Chat (1941), Massacre in Korea (1951), Three Musicians (1921), Femme aux Bras Croiss (1902), Nude Woman with a Necklace (1968) and Gertrude Stein (1906) are part of his immense collection. Wholesale paintings have works of Picasso.

Ecotourism in Peru is another kind of tourism but most amazing. You should try another kind of vacations, the experience would be different. Dont forget to carry a camera to take pictures. Obviously, there are some places with more attractions to visit. Cuzco is the department with more visits in Peru.

Landscape Painting For Kids

Is Art Abstract Or Representational?

Rembrandt van Rijn began his career painting very realistic and polished portraits and landscapes. By the end of his career, having satisfied his need to show the world his masterly technique and draftsmanship, he began to paint what was in his heart. His last works are quite literally splashes and daubs of paint. While they still maintain a representational quality, they are abstract in nature.

What we carry in our hearts, love for example, is beyond any kind of description that any of our five senses can understand or comprehend. Consider the progression of Michelangelo’s “David” created in the beginning of his career to the “Rondanini Pieta” sculpted at the end of his career. The “Rondanini Pieta” is said to be unfinished but the proportions of the figures along with their gestures and harmonious attitudes display a gentle depth of feeling that his earlier works lack.

Consider some of the many 20th century examples such as Matisse and Picasso who began painting polished representational images early in their careers but then made a gradually increasing transition into the realm of abstract imagery.

Matisse and Picasso studied human anatomy as did Rembrandt and Michelangelo. All four studied perspective. All four studied traditional drafting and painting techniques. All four utilized abstract compositional themes. Rembrandt ended his career as he excelled in the use of heavy texture; Michelangelo excelled in complimentary color contrasts in the Sistine ceiling and in abstract form in the Rondanini Pieta; Matisse was unsurpassed in the use of patterns; Picasso was a genius of many design elements and principles as were all of the truly great masters.

Personally I can enjoy a polished representational work of art if it combines a solid use of abstract design elements and principles which, when applied together make an aesthetically sound composition. However, an abstract image that is devoid of composition is as dry and lifeless as open space.

A few design principles are balance, harmony, divergence, unity, movement, rhythm, pattern, contrast, proportion and emphasis. Many artists have spent their entire lives concentrating on the combination of only one design element and one design principle.

Good design depends upon how one orders the basic design elements. I was taught that there are five design elements; line, shape, color, value and texture. When working on a flat surface, shape and value work together to create form. On an abstract level, form is the result of the combination and order of one or more of the design elements within the parameters of specific design principles. With the addition of color, the form evokes a stronger “feeling”. It is given more substance.

How one orders these design elements within a structured symmetrical or asymmetrical design is dependent upon the personality of the individual artist. Adherence to the development of balance is a traditional, very classical goal. However, for the purpose of evoking certain psychological themes, a strong imbalance can be very effective. You can easily see how an artist could spend an entire lifetime on one design element and one design principle.

Regardless of whether your personal inclination is to paint or draw in a realistic manner or in any one of the many stylized or abstract styles, the simple fact is that all of the great masters recognized the absolute necessity of developing an ever deepening grasp of both naturalistic form along with abstract design elements and principles.

A discussion of color and how it relates aesthetic with scientific considerations will follow shortly.

A brief history of abstract art

A brief history of abstract art would have to begin with Pablo Picasso. Picasso was the world’ greatest innovator and his work spanned the first half of the twentieth century. His work began with representational work and as his life progressed he became more interested in colors and forms and less on the images.

Picasso began abstraction by fragmenting his images according to how he felt about them. His pictures would evolve as his thoughts changed, giving a more primitive result. This led to the movement of cubism. Picasso’s pictures became more geometric in their emphasis on angle and fragmented two dimensional space. Palettes became more monochromatic, as well. He derived this from Cezanne, who emphasized relying on the cylinder, the cube and the sphere to make paintings.

Another painter in Picasso’s company was Georges Braque. The two worked together a great deal, even spending one summer painting together. They took cubism further by adding numbers and letters to the pictorial space. These remained “flat” paintings with the emphasis on the shallow surface of the painting, leaving perspective behind as a concern. The creation of cubism progressed very quickly and painters from other countries began using this new vision also, among them Fernand Leger, and Juan Gris.

Leger was a frenchman and he was very intelligent and produced not only paintings but written feelings about the new work. He likened abstract painting to freedom that is enjoyed by saints and heroes. Juan Gris was a Spaniard and he came to Paris, penniless in 1906. He worked as a cartoonist to purchase the bare minimums of life. He worked with planes and textures and his paintings had great visual interest.

Taking his own vision of the cubist movement was Marcel Duchamp. He became a group of painters that became known as futurists. They were interested in industrialization, the new military might being wielded in the world. There is a lot of movement in the futurists’ work and the colors tend to be metal-like and monochromatic. Another futurist who had a great deal of interest in movement in his work was Umberto Boccioni. His sculptures were human-like but also had abstracted forms moving about the basic form. His sculpture: Unique Forms of Continuity in Space is considered the height of futurism.

About this time, art began knowing no borders, and Paris was no longer the only center for work. Other European countries began their own artists cultures, including Russia,

Biography: Salvador Dali – Part 3

“The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad.” so said Salvador Dali,

one of the most important artists of our time.

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dal i Domnech, was born on May 11, 1904, in Catalonia, Spain. Dal’s older brother, also named Salvador, had died nine months earlier. When he was five, Dal was taken to his brother’s grave and told that he was his brother’s reincarnation.This greatly influenced Dali for the rest of his life as he believed it to be true. Though Salvador’s father was strict,his mother encouraged the boy’s creative efforts.

Dal attended drawing school and had his first public exhibition at the Municipal Theater in Figueres in 1919.His mother was his greatest advocate and supporter. When she died of cancer in 1921,he was devastated.Being only 16 years old, he said her death was the greatest blow he had ever experienced.He and his younger sister,Ana Maria, were not resentful however,when their father married their mother’s sister.

In 1922, Dal moved into the Residencia de Estudiantes (Students’ Residence) in Madrid[7] and there studied at the Academia de San Fernando (School of Fine Arts).He began to experiment with Cubism,a new movement of that time. His flambouyant personal style had already earned him the most attention of all his fellow students.

Dal was expelled from the Academia in 1926 because he said he was so much better than his teachers that they could not judge his work.Undaunted,Dali made his first trip to Paris where he met with Pablo Picasso. Having great admiration for Picasso,Dali painted several pieces in that style as he developed his own unique way of working.

1929 brought the most important event of Salvador Dali’s life.He met the love of his life and his muse… Gala, born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, a Russian immigrant eleven years his senior who was then married to the surrealist poet Paul luard.

Gala and Paul Eulard promised to visit Dali in Cadaqus during the next summer, a meeting arrangement that also included other artists and their wives.

Dali’s love for Gala, became obsessive then . He tried everything to get her attention such as waxing his armpit and dying it blue, applying goat excrements upon himself and wearing a red geranium on his head. His emotion was such, that every time he tried to talk to her, he suffered uncontrollable laughing attacks.

Once Dali fell on his knees laughing, he declared his love for her, and Gala said “… my boy, let us never

Art history: Understanding impressionism – Part 3

Impressionism was a significant art movement which began in 19th century Paris. Characterized most visibly by conspicuous brush stokes, impressionism’s focus was on the overall feeling of a scene with emphasis on light, mood, and color.

It began with the invention of tubed paints in the mid to late 1800’s. With this convenience, artists were beginning to paint outside. Before that, even landscapes had generally been painted indoors. Impressionism made full use of the advantages of outdoor painting, expressing the feeling of the scenes portrayed in the paintings, the changing effects of light, and the vivid coloring of nature.

In the 1860’s, a group of Paris based artists began exhibiting works of this nature, and from them, the movement was born. It was named after a painting entitled ‘Impression, sunrise’, by Claude Monet, one of the most well known and loved impressionist painters. It was Monet who painted the scenes of water-lilies we all remember and love. Sadly, some of his later works remained unfinished as he slowly lost his eyesight as he grew older, but unlike some of the other impressionists, he did achieve financial success during his lifetime.

Deviants in their time, the impressionists faced scorn and heavy criticism, especially at first. Monet and Cezanne fared worse, even being mocked in newspapers. However, as the movement continued and grew, it became more accepted, and was appreciated by the public to some extent.

Some of the most notable Impressionist painters include Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne, Pierre-August Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. Not all of these artists actually considered themselves impressionists, Degas strongly disliked the term, but in history’s eyes, they are definitely considered to be impressionist painters.

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