It seems like we should be original in our art. I think today the emphasis is so much on originality and footnotes that we've forgotten that there really is nothing new under the sun. Let's remember that we first heard that from Solomon way back in the Old Testament and he was known as the wisest man on earth!
This class is "Studying Under the Masters " {becoming an apprentice} and you can still sign up! We're just in week two and it will be available for two years, so no excuses that you don't have time! Nine very talented young artists have chosen a famous "master" and have learned their history, studied their work, and apprenticed and now are allowing us to apprentice both under them and the master artist they chose. So far we've met Matisse and Gaudi, through Jeanne Oliver and Junelle Jacobson. Both are artists I knew of, but didn't really know. Learning their history, their techniques. It is week two and Gaudi, but I've only briefly looked at the introduction as there's still just too much to learn about Matisse.
We have learned to look at patterns and recreate them on 4x6 pieces of watercolor paper, just to learn to relax and drop perfection and symmetry. Matisse is known for patterns and they are not perfect! They are beautiful in their imperfection. I have spent the afternoon doing these cards and it has been freeing. Learning to look for patterns all around us and then creating a card to reflect on and possibly use in a future work of our own is all new to me, but here are the ones I have completed.
The last couple of days I pulled up the most wonderful site on the web that shows all of Matisse's work and chose a picture to copy. I chose Blue Eyes from 1934. This first picture is my copy beside the original on my computer screen.
This second picture is a closeup of my completed work. Differences abound, but I'm pleased with my first attempt.
What has amazed me most is how much I have enjoyed not only trying to learn to paint like him ( I use this term very loosely), but learning about him. He had an ongoing friendly competition with Picasso - they were friends but so very competitive. They copied each other all of the time. It's really how to learn different techniques and then find your own style within the practice.
A quote about them I found on the internet: Baldassari points out that Picasso once said, “If I were not making the paintings I make, I would paint like Matisse,” and Matisse said much the same about Picasso. One begins to see, when their paintings are set side by side, that their choices depended as much on their personalities, their temperaments and emotions, as on their skills and styles as painters. They were both figurative, and both abstract.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/matisse-amp-picasso-75440861/#ixzz2rT2mukVV
I've sketched out another of his pantings and will start painting soon. Sure to be one of my next posts!
Week three will go live probably tomorrow, but I'm like a number of the other women taking this class, we're not rushing - I'm gong to hang with Matisse a while longer before I head on to Gaudi and the other remaining seven artists we will study.
For any of you that might think this would be an interesting class and you missed the link above, click on this link: Studying Under the Masters and get started!
