Showing posts with label Fine Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fine Art. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Revisiting "FINE" Art..

Time is ticking away - Christmas vacation is slipping away.  But, I'm enjoying looking at the New Year, trying to plan how I can fit everything in that I want to do - especially art.  As it stands, I will be the featured artist at the Town Center Gallery in October and I've got to get busy producing new work.  Although it's a smaller-town member gallery, I'm excited about having a goal to work for.  And, I'm really delighted to be taking steps back into the more "fine art" world - it can only enhance my illustration.  I'm inspired by new ideas that I look forward to pursuing - I'll get more into that later.


Today, I carved out an hour OUTSIDE of the house, no less, to do a little sketching.  I'm wanting to do some small still life paintings to get into the swing of things and play around with my new and improved understanding of acrylics (thanks to the mural).


OK Santa Maria locals - can you guess where I went by these items?


Anyway, during my break I've been addicted to watching previous seasons of the PBS series Art 21 on Netflix Instant Watch.   It has reawakened my interest in fine art and all of the discussion that goes with it that I miss from college (although I can't say that I took proper advantage of the opportunities for such discussion back then).  I'm going to dust off my many sketchbooks from back then and see how my ideas have changed since then. Maybe I'll post more on those thoughts soon.


Sunday, August 29, 2010

Putting the "Fine" Back in Fine Art

Studied this period in college - LOVED IT!
These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of planning, ordering supplies, phone calls, emails...but it looks I will have full classes, or near full, for the first installments of my art class series for kids.  I've putting A LOT of time and thought into it, in spite of the fact that the decision to go forward was only made a few weeks ago.  I hope people are as happy with the classes as I am.

"Twittering Machine" - Paul Klee
Just Lovely
I've been on a search for reasonably priced reproductions to add to the few I've saved over the years - not an easy task.  But, I think I've found some options.  In the process of all this, however, I found myself back in the midst of some college art school feelings and memories.  It seems so long ago...but then again, it doesn't.  I can still smell the linseed oil and turpentine in the studio classrooms. 

Anyway, that's when I was thoroughly drenched in the world of "fine art."  I started to think about how I used to be able to frequent galleries and museums around L.A. - I'm especially missing the museums - there's nothing like seeing good work in real life.  Books and prints can never seem to capture the whole impact of an artist's work.  It's just not the same.

Kandinsky
It's been fun browsing through all of the images available to view online (though not necessarily purchase or copy).  It's made me remember how much I enjoy looking at GOOD art.  For me, that mainly means representational work (not always, though - everything shown in this post are images I like). I do enjoy some abstract work, but it's hard for me to get excited about a giant gray square or drippy paint splatters, even when seeing them in real life.  I don't like having to read an explanation in order to get anything out of the piece.  But, that's just me - I like to see a story being told.  I guess that's why I've gravitated toward illustration. And, that can be done with surprisingly little information sometimes.

Morandi - Master of the "peaceful" still life
I'll be the first to say that I was never a very good artist in college (several reasons for that probably) - I'd like to say that I've improved over the years...in some areas, at least.  But there is soooooooooo much art out there that just isn't very good.  It seems that a lot of people are "successful" - mainly because they can talk a good game and "sell it" - skilled or not.  Excuse me, my disillusionment with the "fine art" world is showing.

Romare Bearden
Well, that was a long time ago.  Now, I'm enjoying my search for reproductions to use - I just can wait to share some of them with the kids.