All you need to know about reverse painting techniques

Current information about portrait from photos is not always the easiest thing to locate. Fortunately, this report includes the latest portrait from photos information available.

Glass painting

The concept of reverse painting typically uses glass as the surface. If you are trying to create portraits from photos, then this most unusual art form will produce splendid effects and contrasts. You could create stunning replicas of real life people around you – except that now they are on glass instead of the traditional fabric!

How does it work?

Typically the portrait artist begins with creating a tracing or outline of the subject to be painted. This is done on the underside or the coarser side of the glass (the non-shiny part). This is done so that when the painting is completed the real side of the painting will be properly visible from the smooth glass surface. Many artists typically use a thicker version of glass that tends to provide more depth and dramatic effect to their works.

From the back to the front

The technique of reverse painting typically uses strokes worked from back to the front. Thus the angle from which you ultimately view the painting will be dramatically opposite to what you view from the regular side. Many famous artists have recreated stunning replicas of portrait from photos using this method.

I trust that what you’ve read so far has been informative. The following section should go a long way toward clearing up any uncertainty that may remain.

Small to big

One of the first tenets of reverse painting suggests that the artist use smaller sizes of glass while starting out. This way one can observe size, proportion and aspect ratios in a much better manner. This is more critical in the case of recreating a portrait from photo. Make sure to start by cleaning the glass surface properly before you start as dust sediments can hamper the look and finish of the portrait from photo.

Outlining technique

It is always best to use a liquid lining paint material which provides the best effect in a portrait from photo. This will ensure the paint sticks to the surface of the glass properly.

So now you know a little bit about portrait from photos. Even if you don’t know everything, you’ve done something worthwhile: you’ve expanded your knowledge.

Top 5 European Art Cities

If you’re looking for a culture and art holiday, Europe is a fine choice. The continent has an impressive array of galleries, museums and exhibitions meaning that you’re likely to find something of interest in almost every major city you visit. Yet with this much choice comes a new problem, how do you pick which European art city to prioritise? Hopefully this top 5 European art cities should help you decide which place to start your art history holiday in…

Berlin

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Germany’s capital has been a thriving European arts centre, mixing the old and the new with great aplomb. For the culture vulture, the first place to investigate is the Museumsinsel (“museum island”), which is a section of five museums: the Alte Nationalgalerie, Altes Museum, Neues Museum, Bodemuseum and Pergamonmuseum. The Alte Nationalgalerie hosts works by German and French Impressionists, as well as German artists including Adolph von Menzel, Max Lieberman and Karl Freidrich Schinkel, while the Altes Museum hosts treasures from Ancient Roma and Greece.

Elsewhere in the city you can take in the Dahlemer Museum which displays art and culture from other continents, the Gemaldegalerie which features the paintings of Botticelli and Rembrandt, and the Neue Nationalgalerie which features more modern works by the likes of Picasso and Munch. Berlin is a great choice to take an art history holiday!

Rome

Rome’s art and architecture spans two millennia, with ancient sculptures sitting comfortably alongside abstract modern pieces in one of the most stunning cities in Europe. Art is all over the city, and even if you wanted to avoid it, you’d be hard pushed to be able to do so! The Vatican Museums are the main highlight – composed of a large collection of renaissance works and antiques line the Vatican buildings, are there are a few modern works of religious themed work from the likes of Gauguin, Chagall and Picasso. Of course, the Sistine Chapel is a must see on your visit to Rome. Its legendary ceiling is one of the best known pieces of art in the world, let alone Europe. Alongside these Catholic collections, there are a number of museums and galleries most certainly worth a look, including the Borghese Gallery, the National Gallery of Ancient Art and the National Etruscan Museum.

Vienna

The Hapsburgs’ empire is responsible for much of Vienna’s impressive collection of artistic pieces on display to this day. The ruling family controlled vast lands between 1282 and 1918, and much of the spoils are on display to this day, making it an excellent choice for those wanting to see high quality art in Europe. The majority of this, and a clear sign of the diverse lands controlled, is visible at the Kunsthistorisches Museum which boasts ancient art by the Greeks and Egyptians, to (slightly) more modern pieces by Pieter Brueghel and Rembrandt. For something a little more modern, visitors to Vienna should head to the MuseumsQuartier Wien which hosts the Leopold Museum and the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien. The former has work by Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, while the latter hosts contemporary pieces from hyperrealism to American pop art. If these three don’t satisfy, Vienna has plenty more artistic merit going for it, including the Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere (medieval and baroque) and the Kunsthalle Wien (contemporary art including Kandinsky, Picasso and Pollock.)

Florence

Florence could well be the cultural capital of Europe – art is so hard to avoid during a stay there! With paintings, sculptures and architecture encompassing everything you see and do it’s easy to become overwhelmed, but as the birthplace of Renaissance art this is no real surprise. Simply there are too many museums and galleries to list, and simply wandering where the mood takes you guarantees an educational and entertaining experience, but make sure you don’t miss out on the most famous cultural buildings: The Galleria dell’ Accademia (the place Michelangelo’s David calls home!), the Galleria degli Uffizi (the first museum for modern art in Europe) and of course the magnificence of the Duomo. If you’re planning an art holiday in Italy, this (along with Rome) should definitely be on your list!

Paris

Paris is such an art city that the greatest pleasure is exploring the smaller galleries dotted around the place, or taking in the wonderful architecture from a street side café. That said, like in Florence, there are certain museums and galleries widely regarded as absolute ‘must sees’. In terms of sheer renown, it’s hard to beat the Louvre (though even harder to beat the crowds around its most famous exhibits – the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo!). A converted royal palace, even the building itself is aesthetically splendid, and a stroll around the building is a real pleasure. The Musee d’Orsay is another treasure – a neo-classical railway station converted into an exhibition space. It hosts an impressive number of 19th and 20th century pieces by artists such as Cézanne, Renoir, Monet, Manet and Van Gogh. Fans of modern art can’t go wrong with the iconic Centre Pompidou, which itself is a monument to modern architecture. As well as this famous trio, you can find several smaller museums devoted to individual artists, including Picasso and Rodin. If you’re looking for a European art holiday close to home, you can’t beat a trip to Paris.

All of these cities offer a great mix of culture, art, and splendid atmosphere to enjoy the rest of your holiday. Whether you want a European art history holiday, or just to supplement the area’s other attractions, you can’t go wrong with any of these cities.

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The Portrait of the Late Colonel Ilan Ramon – the Columbia Tragedy

Abstract painting explained – Part 1

Abstract Painting

Abstract painting can be compared to free verse poetry or progressive jazz because it illustrates a freedom of expression in art. It cannot be confined to a type of technique although each abstract painter develops a particular technique. It expresses the subjective emotional feeling of the painter as does jazz and free verse poetry; and attempts to represent social, political, and lifestyle issues through an artistic expression rather than a written commentary.

Abstract painting thus fits into the modern world of the avant-garde. It is off-beat, far out, weird, different, etc.

When you look at abstract art you may develop your own interpretation of it which may or may not be anything like the artist intended. It may have no impact on you whatever depending on your perspective; or you may give full expression to your feelings as you look at an abstract painting.

Abstract painting began in 1910 with Pablo Picasso, the creator of Cubism. Before this time artists were still into classical art but philosophers were beginning to talk of the worth of classical art. They asked questions – Was classical art worthwhile? Picasso reflected on the philosophies and eventually developed his own art. After Picasso, came the neo-plasticism of Mondrian, which was characterized by squares and rectangles painted in the primary colors.

Picasso shared this developing abstractionism in art with two other artists – Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky.

Wassily Kandinsky wrote the famous book, Point and Line to Plane. In it he explains abstract art. ‘”In this case may be seen one of the differences between “objective” and abstract art. In the former, the sound of the element “in itself” is veiled, thrust back; when abstract, it attains its full, unveiled sound.”‘ (Kandinsky, p. 53) Here he implies the subjective reality of abstract art as opposed to objective art. Abstract art looks inward for artistic expression.

Abstract painting is spontaneous, free, unthinking. It became exclusively non-thinking with the works of Jackson Pollock. His was painting without conscious control.

The main types of abstract painting were cubism, neo-plasticism, expressionism, futurism, fauvism, and abstract expressionism.

Other elements of abstract painting are spiritualism and getting to the inner core of the being rather than concentrating on outward forms such as landscapes.

Vincent Van Gogh was getting close to abstractionistic painting when he did much of his work on the social aspects of life in factories and fields where workers did their work – probably why many people couldn’t understand where he was coming from at the time. Painters never contemplated on the human condition before. The early painters concentrated on portraits and the human figure and then during Van Gogh’s time moved into landscapes. Much of artwork was commissioned by the churches.

Vincent Van Gogh began making it personal.

Picasso’s most famous painting – the Guernica was a highly political, passionate, and emotional painting inspired by the Spanish Civil War but immediately depicting the brutal and horrific destruction of the town of Guernica by the Nazis during World War II.

Abstract painting such as this example borders on surrealism – a hugely distorted and grotesque depiction of reality.

To understand abstract painting you have to try to get into the mind of the artist and discern what he was thinking when he created his painting. It might be easier to do this if you also listen to the jazz of Miles Davis or John Coltrane. I like Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis. Or read some of the works of the beat poets – maybe the Dr. Generosity Poets.

About Steven Claydon’s Paintings and Solo Exhibitions

Steven Claydon was born on 1969 Lives and works in London. Steven Claydon appropriates the styles and figures of history to draw provocative connotations between contemporary social concerns and obsolete ideologies. Primarily interested in the concept of veneration – both in the contexts in which past events are documented through modern museology, and in the physical forms by which they have been represented – Claydon exhumes the ‘veritas’ of artifacts, undermining their value and truth through his witty and complex material juxtapositions.

Claydon’s The Author of Mishap (Them) takes its inspiration from J.G. Frazer’s The Golden Bough, an early 20th century dissertation on magic and ritual that was widely denounced for its questionable methodology – a comparative anthropology by ‘genre’ rather than linear science. Mirroring Frazer’s logic, Claydon’s portrait is a composite of three heroic busts of political figures from this time, each embodying radically opposing beliefs. Through this literal hybrid, Claydon incites the current revivals of genetic engineering and post-modern eclecticism as plausible validation of Frazer’s theories.

Substituting the traditional hallowed material of bronze for cast copper powder and resin, Claydon defiles his subject’s monumentality; the aged patina has been created through urinating on the object, both an act of defamation and a reference to Warhol’s egalitarian pop. Set atop a burlap coated plinth reminiscent of 1950s gallery wall coverings, Claydon reinforces his sculpture’s historical stature while belying its association with outdated fashion. The peacock feather operates primarily as a formal device, adding a surreal and dilettantish air to the impoverished authoritarian relic.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2006

• Galerie Kamm, Berlin
• Rings of Saturn, Tate Modern, London
• Dereconstruction, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, curated by Matthew Higgs
• Statements, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
• Writing the Strobe, Curated by Andrew Hunt, Dicksmith Gallery, London

2005

• Time Lines, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westphalen, Düsseldorf
• Flies Around the Fury Flotsam, Curators Space, London
• Odiseado Tra Tempo, Peter Kilchmann Galerie, Zurich, curated by Charlotte Mailler
• Jack too Jack, live performance, Portikus, Frankfurt
• Paris – Londres: Le Voyage Interieur, Espace Electra, Paris, curated by Alex Farquharson
• Jack too Jack, live performance, Inverleith House, Edinburgh
• Even a Stopped Clock Tells the Right Time Twice a Day, ICA London
• Jack too Jack, live performance, Rio Cinema, London
• Post no Bills, White Columns, New York
• Clouds of Witness, Islington Town Hall, London
• From Earth, film, Light Box, Tate Britain, London
• Remixed Water, live performance, Manchester.

2004

• Shades of Destructors, live performance, Prince Charles Theatre, London.
• Shades of Destructors, live performance, Gavin Brown Enterprise, New York.
• Shades of Destructors, live performance, Humanist society, London.
• Live web-cast of sculpture at Show studio
• The Last Supper, Group show, Hoxton Distillery
• Remixed Water, remix collaboration with Lawrence Wiener and Ned Sublet
• In The Gathering Darkness, contribution with Neil Chapman for ‘The Poster The Show 1,2,3…’, group exhibition Hoxton Distillery London

2003

• R.I.P. photographic contribution with Neil Chapman for the Box of the Uncanny, a multiple produced by Christine Walter, Munich.
• Strange Greeny from The Sum of the Earth, video screening at Kunstwerk, Berlin
• The Sum of the Earth, exhibition of sculpture, installation, video and sound, with Neil Chapman, Hoxton Distillery, London E8

2002

• group exhibition Hoxton Distillery London

2001
• Stepped Series In Response To A Nothing, contribution with Neil Chapman, group exhibition, The
• Poster, The Show, The Hoxton Distillery London
• It Grows Away, collaboration with Neil Chapman, The Hoxton Distillery London
• Loud Like Nature, ADD N TO (X), installation and video, La Box, Borges, France

2000
• Five works in lieu of a particle accelerator, installation with Neil Chapman, Greengrassi, London

1999

• The Opposite of a Good Idea, performance with Neil Chapman, Inventory, Volume 3, issue 2, launch, Guy’s Hospital London
• ADDING N TO (X), installation and performance, February and April, Villa Noailles, Hyeres, France
1998

• ADD N TO (X) Dinner Music for Electronic Quartet, ICA London
• Live performance of group composition to the film, Paper Moon, in collaboration with Barry Adamson, Nick Cave and Pansonic, Royal Festival Hall, London.

1997
• City Of Gold, Mister Chicks, Peripheral Visionary, Group Show, Eindhoven, Curated by Colin and
• Lowe and Roddy Thompson, Holland, May.

Conclusions:
Steven Claydon appropriates the styles and figures of history to draw provocative connotations between contemporary social concerns and obsolete ideologies.

What to Do Next…
If you want any information about Steven Claydon or looking for his paintings please visit us on http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/steven_claydon.htm

A look at famous paintings of George Washington – Part 1

There are three paintings that stand out and are the most popular of George Washington. We all know them and have seen them multiple times either in museums or hanging in the White House. One is even seen every day on the back of our dollar bills. The most famous portraitist for his time is Gilbert Stuart who painted many portraits of George Washington and the next five Presidents of the United States.

The first painting that is probably the best known and also on our dollar bills is the Athenaeum. This is a simple painted of only George Washington’s face. Stuart never officially finished the original but copied it multiple times. He finished the copies and eventually it became known as the Pennington since one of the first owner’s of the painting was named Pennington. The controlled lighting emphasizing and defining Washington’s face and hair made it unique. The face was well centered on the canvas which made it difficult to ignore some of the bold colors and the texture added to the cheeks and nose.

A full length portrait of Washington painted by Stuart is known as the Lansdowne Portrait since it was a gift of the Marquis of Lansdowne. He was an English supporter of the American Independence. This painting was made in 1796 and hangs today in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. It resembles symbolism, artistry, and biographical. The symbolism is the way the objects are interpreted in the portrait. The biography explores the historical events by what was happening in the portrait and the artistry explores the history of the artist and his technique of painting.

Washington Crossing the Delaware was painted in 1851 by Emanuel Leutze. This painting shows a historical happening when Washington crossed the Delaware with several other men willing to fight during the American Revolutionary War. It was a surprise attack in the Battle of Trenton. Today it is displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 2004. Leutze was an American-German.

All of these paintings chronicle events that happened in American history. They are painted with unique styles. They used oils that can be harder to work with at times and they tend to dry quicker which gives evidence of layers of paint especially if a mistake was made. Many times if there is a little mistake it is no big deal but making a big mistake you may have to start all over since covering it up will be hard or nearly impossible. Therefore, particularly Gilbert Stuart was a great painter if he was able to do such detailed portraits and to do so many in a short amount of time. Oil portraits are extremely difficult. These painters deserved the money they earned which was about a $100 a portrait but for that time it was a little more than $4,000 now.

View Kai Althoff Artist Exhibitions and paintings

Kai Althoff was born on 1966 in Cologne, Germany, Currently lives and works in Cologne. Through painting, Kai Althoff engages with the spiritualism of masculine identity as a metaphor for reconciliation with German history. Often articulated with a homoerotic subtext, Althoff portrays the male domain as psychologically complex, where power politics of violence, sensuality, vulnerability and enticement are played out against backdrops of war, religion and pub-land. Borrowing stylistically from art history, Kai Althoff’s work possesses a timeless quality, where narratives are suggested with confessional intimacy. Rendered with exquisite sensitivity, Althoff uses beauty to seduce the viewer, encouraging moral complicity.

Kai Althoff’s paintings of Prussian soldiers flirt with a homoerotic subtext. His decorated brotherhood thinly veils their carnal motives under the guise of authority. He paints his violence with a sensual tenderness, rendered in the creaminess of folk tale fantasy.Kai Althoff’s soldiers are drawn with delicate stylised dandyism. Conveyed with refined nobility, debauchery and humanity become indistinguishable; cruelty is portrayed with an acute tenderness. Flattened to an almost decorative motif, Althoff’s scene reads like theatre. Reminiscent of Georg Grosz’s depictions of Berlin’s WW1 underworld, deplorable action is staged for consensual pleasure, a chic poster glamorising the (un)desirable.

In winter, Kai Althoff uses a variety of media to add an unexpected quality to his graphic composition. Approaching the painting itself as collage, Althoff flaunts difference of style in each separate element to create tension and possible narratives within the unified whole.
Dark dream-like scenes adopt a painterly quality of reverence: a crouching figure is painted over crumpled aluminium foil, creating both a geological texture and reference to gilded religious icons. Sheltered like a grotto by a hard-edged militaristic design, punctuated by photographic images of stylised masculinity, they feed the painting with spirituality. Layers of ephemeral hues and high-gloss varnish create a transcendental illusiveness, perpetually flitting between gravitas and disco chic.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2004
• Kai Althoff: Kai Kein Respekt (Kai No Respect) Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; ICA, Boston
2003
• Vom Monte Scherbelino Sehen Diözesanmuseum, Freising

2002
• Kai Althoff (with Armin Krämer) Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany

2001
• Impulse Anton Kern Gallery, New York; Galerie Neu, Berlin
• Aus Dir Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne

2000
• Stigmata aus Grossmanssucht Galerie Ascan Crone, Hamburg
• Hau ab, Du Scheusal Galerie Neu, Berlin

1999
• Galerie Hoffmann & Senn, Vienna
• Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne

1998
• Reflux Lux Galerie Neu, Berlin
• Bezirk der Widerrede Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne

1997
• Hilfen und Recht der äußeren Wand (an mich) Anton Kern Gallery, New York
• In Search of Eulenkippstadt Robert Prime Gallery, London
• Heetz, Nowak, Rehberger Museum of Contemporary Art, São Paulo

1996
• Hakelhug Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne

1995
• Hast Du Heute Zeit – Ich Aber Nicht Künstlerhaus, Stuttgart
• Modern wird lahmgelegt Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne

Conclusions:
Kai Althoff’s paintings almost appear to be from another time, with references ranging from avant-garde collage to fairytale illustration. His use of modern materials such as resin, tape and tinfoil, lend a distinctive contemporary feel to his work.Kai Althoff’s portrait is rendered with rudimentary simplicity: shape, tone and colour create a totality of exquisite presence.

What to Do Next…
If you want any information about Kai Althoff or looking for his paintings please visit us on http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/kai_althoff.htm

Gustav Klimt Most Expensive Painting

Bitterroot Art Beat: Barbara Warden

Bitterroot Art Beat: Barbara Warden

Quilted textile artist’s work demonstrates tight connections to diverse cultural influences, jolts the power of imagination

By Brian D’Ambrosio

As an artist, Barbara Warden easily expresses the vivacity of her thoughts and opinions. She converses with fluency and cheerfulness and a visible interest upon almost any topic related to art and her own artistic pursuits.

Although her involvement within the art world cuts across many different mediums, presently Warden works in the restorative realm of quilted textile art.

Warden’s textile (or fiber) art encompasses every imaginable human attribute: from memory to language to abstract ideas of beauty, harmony, freedom, and selfhood. Widely ranging in size and color, her blended textile creations greatly appeal to the power of imagination, at once eliciting passion, appreciation, and mysterious obsession.

When studying some of her more abstract pieces, vivid and pleasing sensations form themselves amid constant, necessary, invisible movements in the brain. This metaphorically rich, nerve-based imagery influences with its undaunted firmness and deep conceptions, while providing valuable clues to a lost emotional universe embedded in abstraction.

The great Thomas Jefferson wrote in his memoirs that “the art of life is the art of avoiding pain;” Warden’s abstract textile art expresses itself best and most humanely when the artist acknowledges the systemic source of contradiction and common anxieties.

“I used to be a painter,” says Warden. “Abstract art has always interested me, and it’s where my interests are. I’m madly in love with Rembrandt, just like everybody else is. Painting for me expresses my love of color. Quilting and working with fabric became a way to get back to working with color.”

Warden enjoys combining various colors, textures and shapes in random ways, and uses improvisation as a technique to learn more about creating vivid images that suggested movement and energy.

Indeed, Warden holds dear a special bond with color, particularly red. Extreme and emotional, and resembling the color of blood, red indicates a spectrum of symbolism ranging from radical left politics to a sad state of financial indebtedness.

“Color is powerful and is a significant way of expressing emotion. The color red is fire, warmth, danger, and, at its most basic, the color of blood. Two years ago I read a book entitled The Root of Red Madder. Red madder is a plant which is used as a dye for Asian rugs. At that moment I decided to emphasize red as the dominant color in my quilts.

“I don’t think of color as neutral. I read something recently about red being a neutral color. But, there’s nothing neutral about red. Red stands for passion. Red is one of those certain colors that I respond to more than others.”

Warden’s artwork is impressive, but it is, however, her conversational tone that needs to be remarked upon: polite, indulgent, without affectation, wide-ranging, and captivating without deliberately seeking to be so.

Plus, her artistry captures the essence of a strong connection to diverse cultural influences, namely Native American and Asian.

“I’ve always loved Native American artwork and the natural dyes they use in rug making,” says Warden.

“Right now I’m focused on the Navajo and Hopi, and the fabulous colors of the blue skies and red sandstone of Arizona and New Mexico. Chinese and Japanese fine crafted embroidery has an attention to detail that’s so beautiful. Nothing is too small or insignificant to make it into a piece of Asian artwork.”

Warden discovered, alas only recently, that quilting extends the chance to recalibrate her sense of what happiness, exertion, and self-fulfillment, mean.

“Textile work is interesting because it can be functional or nonfunctional. I’m very interested in the feel of the tapestry and fabric. There’s a great deal of satisfaction that comes along with quilting. For me, art is always a learning experience.”

Boredom, vivacity, mundaneness, and exhilaration, are all hallmarks of an artist’s emotional ebb and flow. Recognizing these poignant and fickle pitfalls is one thing, putting erratic attitude and inactivity into action is another.

“Some days the last thing I want to do is sit down and go to work. Matisse considered himself a blue collar worker. He went to work to paint every day – that was his job. I’m always reminding myself not to give in to a mood.”

For Warden, quilted tapestry, similar to other artistic endeavors, provides if not the escape but the interlude from reality, the breathing space from a world filled with repetitive gestures and overcrowded anxious places.

“Quilting is solitary for me. But for a lot of people it’s a social experience. There are quilting guilds, and some people thrive on the social aspects of quilting as they’re working. I’m much more of a private person.”

After all these years in the fine arts, Warden has learned how to be able to shrug off criticisms, and has nurtured enough confidence throughout the decades to look disapproval in the eye – and even wink at it; she’s at a point in her life when she believes in what she does, and nothing is going to deter her from doing it:

“I don’t mind putting myself out there in a vulnerable way anymore. With quilting, I know that I’m in the right place right now. It’s exciting. Each piece is different. Each day is different.”

Barbara Warden’s textile art will be on the display for the months of September and October at The Frame Shop and Gallery, 325 Main Street, Hamilton, MT. Phone: 363-6684.

For more information, visit www.firetalkquilts.com.

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