William Morris January 20, 2007

I thought I would talk about design and some of the designers that have influenced my work and that I love. One is William Morris. Designer, Craftsman, Writer and Socialist – was born at Elm House, Walthamstow, on 24th March 1834. Below is a smaple of his work

Strawberry Thief Chintz

Designed by William Morris (1834-1896) for Morris & Company, 1883.
Pairs of birds feature in a number of Morris’s most popular patterns from the later 1870s onwards. Sometimes they are exotic and Near-Eastern in inspiration, as in some of the carpets or in the Peacock and Dragon woven wool fabric, but often – as here – Morris drew on his own deep knowledge of British birds, observed in the garden or hedgerow. Since Strawberry Thief was Morris’s first chintz to combine indigo-discharge dyeing and block-printing with red and yellow, he closely supervised its initial production at Merton Abbey in May 1883.

Old Master’s Paintings January 20, 2007

I thought I would highlight on paintings of the past. Its great to view art from these wonderful artists of the past and to learn from them. I found this painting from the site Web Gallery of Art. Below is the bio on this artist.
I found this painting to be very unusual. The artist is ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
(b. ca. 1530, Milano, d. 1593, Milano)

Painting
Spring
1573
Oil on canvas,
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Artist’s Bio
Italian painter. In the middle of the sixteenth century Arcimboldo made a normal debut with youthful works including designs for window s and tapestries respectively in Milan and Monza cathedrals and frescos for the cathedral of Como. None of these gave any inkling of the bizarre originality he would soon develop. In 1562 he was summoned to the Imperial court in Prague and almost immediately his original and grotesque fantasy was unleashed. He invented a portrait type consisting of painted animals, flowers, fruit, and objects composed to form a human likeness. Some are satiric portraits of court personages, and others are allegorical personifications.

Arcimboldo’s style has been so often imitated over the centuries that it is sometimes difficult to make exact attributions. He has been seen by some as the forerunner of Surrealism in the 20th century, but, more to the point, he should be seen in his own context at the end of the Renaissance. This was a time when people (collectors and scientists alike) were beginning to pay more attention to nature. Arcimboldo really created the fantastic image of the court in Prague, creating costumes, set designs, and decorations. Emperor Rudolf II set him the task of researching and buying works of art and natural curiosities, as well as giving him countless commissions for paintings. In 1587 Arcimboldo went back to Milan but stayed in contact with the Emperor. Towards the end of his life, he sent the Emperor the idiosyncratic portrait of him in the guise of the Greek god Vertemnus.

Shadows Painting Steps January 19, 2007

Hi, today I thought I would show the steps involved in the Reproduction of the painting by John Waterhouse “Shadows”. This course study was from a Liliedahl’s School of Oil Painting. This was primarily executed with alkyds on a prepared canvas. The size of the painting is 40″x30″. This study was one of two paintings for this course in Old Master’s Flemish/Bistre Method.

Step 1:

Drawing Phase (laid in all composition and major tonal washes)

Step 2:

Underglazes

Step 3
Overpainting (opaque stage)

Step 4 Final Glazes

Hello world! January 18, 2007

Hello! This is my first post in my new blog! I am still getting to know my way around! I am an artist who specializes in decorative and fine art. I will be using this blog not only to display my work but also to display images, people, other artists and anything else that I find inspiring!

The following painting:Reproduction, After the Painting of John Waterhouse