Friday, July 13, 2007

July 12 and 13 - Twofer! Lesson Painting Revised.



Two for One! The night slipped away from me and I missed a post, so today you have two images in one to play catch up. The painting is an acrylic, 20 x 20 inches on 2" gallery wrap bars (no frame) and what you see on the left is the original that I painted on location some time ago. It has always lacked that "spark" that catches a viewer's eye, and so tonight I decided to work it over and bring a newer, more contrasted image to you.

One of the most powerful strengths of the Renaissance art world was the use of value as a design element--taking the range of values through their paces in works such as Nicolas Poussin's "Holy Family on the Steps". By taking the balance of value from a master work like this and applying it to one of my own works, I end up with the changes below:


I only changed the painting by the addition of a few layers of glazes, using acrylics' incredible versatility to accomplish the value changes necessary to help this painting come to life.

Although I did not follow Proussin's "diagonal of light/dark", I was brought to the thinking point of making these changes because of viewing his work.

Tomorrow, I head to San Diego and Balboa Park to lead a field trip with my Art Appreciation summer students! A day in museums! Wowza!

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1 comment:

Granny said...

I would give anything to be endowed with the talent you have. I dabbled in painting in high school and a little after graduating, but just did not have what it takes to be a good artist.