Artist 6: Leonardo da Vinci

As I mentioned in the last post, Michelangelo has my love for sculpture. However, when it comes to painting, Leonardo takes the cake. In my personal opinion, he has the absolute perfect balance of lights and darks in his pieces which makes them come to live and capture your attention. He isn't one of the most, if not the most, famous artists in the world for no reason. I'm willing to say the number of those reasons ranges from "a whole lot" all the way to "whole bunches." His only talent wasn't simply painting, but he was an inventor as well. The Thomas Edison of his time he made many blueprints of inventions that have inspired things that we use today, such as the airplane!

Ok now is the part where I talk about his paintings and why I do so love them so very very much. Ahem.

His backgrounds are just as interesting as his foregrounds and subjects. In fact, I find myself looking at the backgrounds just as much as the main subjects, if not MORE to see all of the details and try to figure them out. They are very mysterious, and that is one reason why I adore Leonardo, and this is the mystery that I take from his pictures. "The Virgin of the Rocks" pictured above, is an example of some of the interesting backgrounds Leonardo is capable of. Next, I really enjoy the lights and darks that he uses, tsfumato (I hope I spelled that correctly) and the smokey effect of the pictures like there is a slight fog drifting in or something of that nature. More mystery! Also, he is very good with showing where his light source is coming from, using "The Virgin of the Rocks" as an example again, it is quite obvious where the light is shining from, and the illumination of the figures really brings them to life and gives them a sense of form and weight. (Speaking of how his figures always seem that they have form and weight, I love how his babies always look so rollypolly like they still have those baby rolls.) His figures are also very proportioned and detailed. The clothes are always very elegant and seem like real fabric, and my favorite part is his hair. He's known for those beautiful locks of hair on his figures, and it's no surprise as it looks like he paid intense attention to each strand of hair. Finally, the faces that he does are nothing less than beautiful. One of my favorites is the angel in, yes, that's right, "The Virgin of the Rocks." So elegant and graceful, one would expect nothing less from his angels. This painting is not my favorite of his, though it is far far up there, believe that. It is just so fun to talk about and it has so many good examples of techniques he uses in his other works. Also, it's just a beautiful piece so I really couldn't NOT use it.

Now, I'd have to say one of my favorite pieces by him is his "Annunciation" piece. Have you noticed the pattern of "My favorite piece by them is the Annunciation!"? Well, I have. Probably because I'm fascinated by angels and they always look so pretty in these pictures. Compared to "The Virgin of the Rocks," this piece looks much more faded, and probably is, however you can still see the tsfumato he is so good at. The background is simple, yet I want to look at it to see what is there, because of the interesting shape of the trees and small town or city far off in the distance. The folds in the clothes are nothing less than amazing, and as usual, the Virgin's and even Gabriel's hair look golden in the sunlight. These are just two examples of his paintings, of which all of them have a unique charm to them and I could gush on about for hours, which, no matter how much I would love to, I must stop myself here for today!

Artist 5: Michelangelo!

I do enjoy Michelangelo so much. Not only was he a good sculpture but a great painter as well. Although when the question of "Michelangelo or Leonardo?" comes up, which it does a lot with my friends and myself, I see it this way: Leonardo is the better painter, Michelangelo is the king of sculptures. I'll talk about Leonardo in my next post, today is about Michelangelo!

I did my paper on him last semester, or more specifically his "Rebellious Slave" pictured here. I got to choose this one myself out of all of the choices of different artists and their works, lucky lucky me! Unfortunately for this awesome piece of work, it was never finished, as the tomb it was meant for had to be scaled down. Finished or not, this piece gives an example of the incredible detail that Michelangelo would put into his works. All of his figures have intense emotion, such as the famous "David" and also like the "Moses" figure that ended up being apart of the Tomb for the Pope which this piece never made it into.

Even tho one could argue that his sculptures/paintings were a bit too muscular to be realistic, as not everyone in the world is a body builder, they still are realistic...if everyone in the world WAS a body builder. His knowledge of hte human form is obvious and apparently vast and well studied.

Another of my favorites by him, "The Pieta," a sculpture of the Virgin Mary with Christ dead in her lap. This piece just screams details and emotion and I can only imagine what it must be like to actually see it. I mean, look at the folds in the Virgin's clothing. So much clothing, so many folds, it's so pretty. Anyway, the actual figure of the Virgin is larger than that, proportionally, than of Christ. Yes, it's not proportionally correct, but neither are the David's hands or head and that's for a reason. It's so it can get your attention and/or relay a message. This piece would not have looked as good if the Virgin was smaller, it would looked awkward. This piece makes me wanna jump in the tub in a dress and then draw a self portrait!

Artist4 Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt is yet another artist with a very distinctive and of course interesting style. Does it remind you a bit of Eigon Shiele? Well, theres a reason for that. I don't believe I mentioned it in my last post but Shiele was a student of Klimt's. Klimt was very fond of Shiele's art and encouraged him to keep up the good work.

An Austrian painter, like Shiele, or should I say Shiele was like Klimt. Born in 1862, his subject of choice was the female body. I recall a kind of golden sense in many of his paintings, at least that is what I got from them, which wouldn't be surprising if that is what he attempted to do, for his father was a gold engraver. He grew up in a poor household, and recieved a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts. He was trained as an architectual painter, and I agree many of his works have a sort of architectual appearance, even when they are of the human figure.


"The Kiss" I believe one of his more famous paintings. It looks as if he dipped his paintbrush in pure liquid gold and proceeded to use that as his paint. Here it is quite obvious of the influence of his father's work as a gold engraver. In fact he went through a phase that included gold as a huge part of his works. There isn't much...ok there isn't ANY shading in this picture, but the colors he uses and the patterns give this a very interesting feeling. It's obviously 2D and yet the patterns almost give a sense of shadow. The two figures melt together in their passionate embrace, though I'll admit, it looks awkward and I'd be shocked if their necks wouldn't be killing them.

Similar to Shiele, well the other way around again, there is a strong sense of a contour drawing, at least to me. I'd like to add that was the phrase I was thinking of to describe Shiele's work, yet I was brain dead and that word contour would not come into my mind for days. Their styles seem...I think rough is a good word for them, in my eyes, at the very least. But that roughness and gruge feeling is almost refreshing. "The Kiss" for example reminds me of a piece of jewelry, yet not one that you buy at the store but one that is artfully crafted, maybe a little gaudy. Not that that's a bad thing, some people look good in that stuff. Perhaps another way to phrase my idea of this painting in particular is it looks even adorned with jewels, especially on the structure the two figures are resting on. I suppose "gaudy" comes back to me, but also, I'm not a gold person. My favorite part of this painting, gaudy may it be yet still beautiful, is the pattern on the man's cloak. The pattern reminds me of something from the 1960's, not necessarily something that would be seen when this was done, at least I think it wouldn't. Anyway it gives a very "mod" look to something that is, well, not.

Artist3 Egon Shiele

Egon Shiele was an Austrian artist, born 1890. At 15 he went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. In 1912, he was put in jail because of immorality charges (not too surprising, looking at his artwork) and he died from the Spanish flu in 1918. If my pathetic math skills are correct, he was only 28, so young!

Many of his models were young girls, and he also had an incestuous relationship with his little sister, so pretty much, he was a pedophile. Ew, but I still love his art style.

Right. I'm going to concentrate on talking about his art style so I don't get creeped out.

His pieces all look very sketchy, and I mean that in line quality, not content (tho one could argue both!) Many of his drawings, especially the ones that are not incredibly colored/detailed, appear to be a single line, as he uses the outline as a prominant part of his works. Some of his paintings seem not only sketchy, but appear to have some scribble characteristics, as if he took his pen, or pencil, or his tool of drawing, and quickly scribbled some circles or whatnot in the specific place like over an eye, as I believe he did in a self portrait. Also, many of his figures are elongated, and one could say not very pretty. I would describe his pictures to have a "grunge" quality to them, which is something that I am drawn to, as he is not making his figures idealized or pretty.

"Self Portrait"

"Girl in Underclothes" 1917

Concept

This is definitely subject to change, although if it does it won't be TERRIBLY much.
Anyway, my concept so far for my senior sem is going to be something along the lines of...
Portraiture. They are all going to have a rather dark mood, both in colors used (primarily black and white, most likely charcoal, and possibly highlighting very small pieces of the composition with a color, such as eyes to help convey the message of the piece) and in feeling. I want them to be kind of like gothic portraits, like goth-expressionism (I think I just made up a new style?!) tho I intend them to all have a theme, such as expressions, someone gave me the idea of the seven deadly sins and seven...something virtues which I liked as well. If I go with those, I will probably have my figures sporting overly dramatic expressions like anger, etc. As far as how big the portraits are going to be, not too big, I already have the paper so I need to measure that out, and I am not 100% sure on how much of the figures I'll show, either shoulders up or waist up could be good, probably they will be seated. This is my idea so far, I'll probably just make a new post if I decide to change it.

Artist #2: Simone Martini

I heart Simone Martini.


I first learned about him in Italian Renaissance this last semester and I am so happy I was able to learn about him because his work is so very pretty! I'd say my favorite piece of that entire semester was "The Annunciation" (1333)





A bit about Simone Martini, he was a Sienese painter, lived during the Italian Renaissance, and was the pupil of Duccio.





What I love about this fresco, aside from everything, is, for one, his figures. The seemingly elongated figures seem so elegant and fragile, and his use of the "S curve" adds to that effect ten fold. I probably won't be able to use the words "elegant, beautiful, and divine" enough in this post, because "The Annunciation" screams those descriptions so much that it makes blood shoot from my eyes, but that's aside the point. The gold background makes this piece shine like it is a piece directly sent from Heaven as it depicts the Arch Angel Gabriel giving Mary the news that she is to be the mother of the Savior. However, it gives a possibly realistic view of how the Virgin Mary would have reacted to such news, with a bit of fear and hesitation.





Another thing I adore about this piece is the clothing. Each piece of clothing seems so elegant, and I know from class that Gabriel's clothes' pattern is based off of actual cloth from that time period! Aside from the melding of current (current as in 1300's) and traditional clothes from the time of the Annunciation, I believe, is incrediby clever. Also, the folds that he painted, to me at least, seem pretty accurate as how clothing folds, I like his use of lights and darks, just enough to give it a believable quality. Finally for clothing, I love how they fit the Virgin. Her clothes make her look very beautiful, tall, and slim. The dark blue of her cloak against the bright gold of the background really makes her stand out. And the unshiney appearance of the figures against the shiney gold really gives this piece an interesting look.





Finally, the altar piece itself is exquisite!!! All of those beautiful details on the edges and around the figures is one of my favorite things about this piece, it's so detailed.

(Also, for Prof Harris, I made the font bigger, although it doesn't appear to have changed when I view my blog, it might look different on yours for some reason because both posts seem to have decently big font to me, let me know if this one is too small though cuz I changed the font to large instead of normal!)

Marc Chagall

Recently, my mother called me up and told me she found an art book in the library she works at that had an artist she thought would interest me. Well, she was right, good thing too or this would have been a rather short post. Anyway, it turns out she found a book about Marc Chagall. A Jewish artist, born 1887, died 1985, uses a wide variety of styles and mediums (gouche, oils, tempura, even canvas and cardboard.) Some of his pieces look incredibly cubist, so much that it is difficult to see what is being portrayed. However, he has some other pieces that only have small traces of cubism influences, which gives his body of work wide variety in not only what he uses, as mentioned before, but his style. Even having different styles, it is still possible to tell which is his personal style overall. (Some musicians today could take a page out of his book and not have all of their songs sound identical, eh Owl City?)

Anyway~ some pieces of his work that caught my eye and show his varying styles:











"Grey" Lovers. 1917. Oil on canvas. 69 x 49. (Left)

Self-Portrait. 1914. Oil on cardboard. 30 x 26.5. (Right)

Self-Portrait with Muse (Dream). 1917-1918. Oil on canvas. 157 x 140.

Anyway, I love the feel of his paintings, as well as the colors that he uses and, just simply, the way he draws people. I think their faces are very interesting, and the compositions are nice to look at. The concepts of the paintings are also intriguing, going from dreams to religious pictures, once again, he has a wide variety in his art, something for everyone, and something to keep you looking through all of his pieces.

Finally, the setup of this blog makes no damn sense and the pictures and text positioning is driving me bloody freaky nuts. So until I can tame this God forsaken beast of a format, bear with me as it most likely will make absolutely NO SENSE.

This has been another Wasting Time With Kathy, join us again next week for another episode. Will Kathy get her coffee? Will she steal her neighbor's cat? Find out next week.

*Disclaimer: I know I'm not wasting time as this is for the very important Senior Sem. It's just a running joke that I've come to love, and might just rename my blog such as it is rather catchy...