Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Deborah DeWit Marchant

Dreams, pastel, 17 x 25". 2005
The Reader, pastel, 18 x 25". 2004

Here are a few meditative images just for the sake of looking. Enjoy! I will be going to the beach again for the next few weeks but I will return... bye for now.

**Taken from the book, Deborah Dewit Marchant, In the Presence of Books.**

Monday, July 21, 2008

Gouache

Also called body color, is watercolor which is opaque. This opacity is achieved by the addition of white paint or pigment (such as Chinese white). Gouache was used in manuscript illumination and early watercolors (for example by Albrecht Durer). It was also employed by miniature painters in the 17th and 18th centuries. Many of the watercolors of Paul Sandby (1731-1809), generally credited as the founder of the English watercolor school, were in gouache. (Michael Clarke)

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Op Art

Current, Bridget Riley, 1964. Synthetic polymer paint on composition board, 58 x 58". MOMA, New York.

An abbreviation of 'optical art', a form of abstract art which developed in the early 1960s and aimed at stimulation of the eye through a radical use of space and color. This was achieved by the employment of hard-edged, flatly painted shapes in black and white or in complementary colors of full intensity. The term 'Op art' was first used in Time magazine in 1964 and had become a household phrase by the following year when the defining exhibition The Responsive Eye was held at the MOMA, NYC. Two of the most prominent Op artists were Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely. Op art exerted a considerable influence on women's fashion in the mid-1960s. (Michael Clarke)
**sorry about the fuzzy photograph!**

Friday, July 18, 2008

Lindisfarne Gospels

Page from the Lindisfarne Gospels

One of the most richly decorated manuscripts known. It contains the 4 gospels written in large 'Anglo-Saxon Majuscule' on vellum at the end of the 7th century. It has 258 leaves, with 2 columns of 24 lines on each page. A gloss in 'Anglo-Saxon Minuscule' was inserted between the lines in the 10th century. Thought to have been written and illuminated by Bishop Eadfrith, its decoration is characterized by intricate combinations of interlacing knots, geometric patterns and pen-flourished creatures done in bright colors. It is housed in the British Library. (Rose Folsum)

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Cobalt Blue


This is a sample of some Cobalt Blue mixed with black... and then some with white. From an oil painting called 'Dancing in the Living Room' by moi.

Also known as Leyden blue or Thenard's blue, it is a bright, clear blue pigment which is permanent in all techniques including fresco. Discovered by Baron Thenard in 1802, it was introduced to artists about 20 years later and became a standard color, replacing the unsatisfactory smalt. (Michael Clarke)

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Franz Marc Prints

Tigers, 1912
Annunciation, 1912

Horse Drinking, 1912

Franz Marc: 1880-1916. Originally painting as an academic, he altered his style after exposure to van Gogh, the Impressionists, Jugendstil and Jean Boe Niestle, a Swiss animalier who inspired Marc's lifelong fascination with animals. Marc evolved a vocabulary of symbolic shapes and colors that reflected his belief in an underlying, unifying spirit in nature. He was killed at Verdun. (Shane Weller)

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Glyptotheca


Sculpture storage


Glyptotheca: A building used for the display of sculpture. (Michael Clarke)

Photos: Maryhill museum in Goldendale, WA. Just visited there yesterday on our way back from Portland and Cannon Beach... Fabulous museum!

Friday, July 4, 2008

Hatchings



Hatchings: Notations for the tinctures of heraldic designs rendered in black and white, when color is not possible. (Rose Folsum)
Please note: I'll be vacationing for about a week, but will post again on Bastille Day... July 14! Happy 4th of July everyone!!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Charley Harper


Squirrel in a Squall

Box Seat

Cornprone


Birdwatcher

At age 3, Charley Harper fell head-first from the second-story window of the family farmhouse onto a stump, which was unaffected by the crash. He was, too, his parents thought, until a few years later when he announced that he wanted to be an artist. His work has appeared in nature magazines and books, on posters for such organizations as the National Park Service, and on limited edition serigraphs, accompanied by his writing. "There are times," he says, "when a word is worth a thousand pictures."


(The images and blurb from the flap of the book, Beguiled by the Wild: the Art of Charley Harper, Flower Valley Press, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 1994.)

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

White-Vine Work

Example of medieval white-vine work.

White-Vine: Type of ornate medieval decoration in which the background of a vine pattern is drawn in, leaving the white paper or parchment revealed in the form of the vine itself. (Rose Folsum)