Miro
Philip Guston
JMW Turner
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Your Art Should Feel Like Play–Not Work
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Your Art Should Feel Like Play–Not Work
// Artist's Network
Blue Danube by Nancy Reyner, acrylic painting and gold leaf.
Nancy Reyner Leads an Acrylic Revolution
Sometimes we just need a little revolt. Just a little push or change to make us take nothing for granted. It's that way in art and in life. For life…I'll leave your personal revolts to you, lol. But in painting, you never want the work to feel like anything other than play. I look to Nancy Reyner to see where she leads in this regard. An accomplished acrylic artist, Nancy creates incredibly powerful paintings by playing through techniques that aren't taught in any class I've taken before. Instead, she pushes the medium and experiments with gesture and layers, and the results are kinda wondrous. You can almost feel the joy they are steeped in.
Play with Your Tools
Nancy stress that you can paint with acrylic on so many different surfaces. The same is true about the tools you paint with. Here are a few to try:
Feathers
Toothbrushes
Combs
Straws
Coins
Branches, leaves, or flowers
Hidden Rainbow by Nancy Reyner, acrylic painting.
Playing with Your Surface
Nancy is also a big advocate of playing with your surface. It is your starting point and can yield a lot of inspiration. So consider staining it beforehand. An underpainting allows for subsequent layers of color to really pop. Add texture. If you are using a panel, scuff up the surface. If you are using canvas, abrade it. You can also paint on paper. Or mold that paper to a three-dimensional shape and paint a literal sculpture. Or you could crumple the paper before you start and allow the creases and folds to carry you through.
When Your Painting Is Done — Quick Tip
Acrylic has a two-part drying process. The first part, known as "dry to the touch," means the top layer of the paint skin has dried due to the evaporation of the water in the paint. The second part involves the polymer or acrylic in the paint, which takes several days to several weeks to fully cure. The actual curing time is dependent on the layer's thickness and environmental factors. During this curing time, it is important to not tightly wrap or store the artwork in a closed environment and to avoid exposing it to extreme temperatures.
Ready for the Revolution?
Nancy Reyner is an artist who, I would claim, never worked a day in her life…at least when it comes to painting. The joy and freedom of play and rule-breaking is an essential part of who she is as an artist. Let her show you the way to revolution with the video download of her Acrylic Revolution workshop. Nancy shows you how to take basic exercises like painting skies and trees and turn them into creative powerhouse moments. And right now, we are having a super sale on video downloads, where you get 2 for 1! Double up on your resources now and enjoy!
Courtney
The post Your Art Should Feel Like Play–Not Work appeared first on Artist's Network.
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Meet the Swiss duo behind graphic design agency Cécile + Roger
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Meet the Swiss duo behind graphic design agency Cécile + Roger
// It's Nice That
Cécile + Roger is a graphic design agency run by Cécile Nanjoud and Roger Gaillard. The Geneva-based duo's work moves across brand design, identity, type design, editorial design, illustration, motion and web design. We asked the Swiss designers to tell us more about themselves and their process.
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Eye Candy for Today: Chardin’s The Scullery Maid
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Eye Candy for Today: Chardin's The Scullery Maid
// lines and colors
The Scullery Maid, Jean-Simeon Chardin
In the collection of the National Gallery of Art, DC. Use the Zoom or Download links to the right of the image on their page.
18th century French painter Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin was noted for his wonderful still life paintings (that I think magically hold time still in a way comparable to Vermeer), but he also painted a series of domestic interiors.
Some of these are as much still life as they are a room interior or genre piece. A case in point it this beautiful and deceptively simple scene of a maid washing kitchen utensils. For me, the copper pot — radiant with subtle reflected colors — steals the show, but the pottery piece and barrel are not far behind.
The figure, like those of De Hooch, seems more an object in the room than a person with whom we are meant to connect. As such, she is rendered with the same volumetric and textural presence as the other objects, defining space as well as existing in it.
I love the textural application of paint in her face and cap in particular, and in her clothing in general.
The control of edges throughout, as in all of Chardin's paintings, is remarkable. Look at the softness of the edges of the barrel hoop (images above, second from bottom), and the way the edges of the crock disappear into the floor and background (images above, bottom).
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Illustrator Jill Senft creates fun and whimsy with her cavalcade of pink characters
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Illustrator Jill Senft creates fun and whimsy with her cavalcade of pink characters
// It's Nice That
Berlin-based illustrator Jill Senft enjoys painting "funny faces and absurd situations" with a degree of exaggeration in every brushstroke. "Perspectives aren't always accurate in my work, which also serves as a dimension of abstraction at times," explains Jill. The illustrator's style is simple, colourful and funny and her most recent works have developed out of using acrylics as her medium. "I always wanted to try it but didn't because I was a bit stuck to my marker before, which I loved since I first started illustrating," says Jill. Using paint allows Jill to create wonderful textures within her works, animating her characters even more. "[Using acrylics] I can let colours fade into one another or mix them up as I like but most importantly: painting with acrylics gives me a feeling of freedom and independence as I can play around and overpaint existing parts at any time," she says.
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Bruises Tutorial by Bunsiebox
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Abstract Cakes Topped With Chocolate Brushstrokes
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Abstract Cakes Topped With Chocolate Brushstrokes
// Colossal
Moscow-based bakery Kalabasa takes a more abstract view of cake decorating, mounting its confections with stiff swipes of chocolate that look like painted brushstrokes. The colorful cakes and cupcakes are each decorated with layers of the crisp painterly gestures, and often drizzled with similar colors to tie together the whole production. You can view more of the artistic treats in a variety of shades on the bakery's Instagram. (via Design You Trust)
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Monday, June 26, 2017
Pigalle, Ill-Studio and Nike have redesigned the Paris Duperré basketball court
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Pigalle, Ill-Studio and Nike have redesigned the Paris Duperré basketball court
// It's Nice That
French design and photography agency Ill-Studio and fashion brand Pigalle have redesigned and repainted the Paris Duperré basketball court, with support from Nike. The court is squeezed between buildings in a Parisian suburb on Rue Duperré, and became internationally renowned in its previous guise, painted in graphical blocks of primary colours.
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Cookbook Art Worth Breaking Your Diet For
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Cookbook Art Worth Breaking Your Diet For
// Artist's Network
Cookbook art is the perfect blend of our two favorite things: food and art. What better way to kick off the start of summer than indulging our eyes and our taste buds all at the same time? Let's dig in!
365 Days of Delicious Foods — David Meldrum
Collage, acrylic, watercolor, pen and ink on paper, 11 7/10 x 16 1/2) by David Meldrum
We're all too familiar with the dreaded food resolution. Don't eat fun things: cake, butter, choose-your-weakness—David Meldrum's resolution was of a different nature. "One evening whilst waiting for a bowl of noodles to cool," he says, "I started drawing them. I thought, perhaps, a day's food intake would be interesting, then perhaps a month's before deciding that a year's would be really interesting and challenging!"
That's how the Food Illustrator Project was born; and at the end of it, he would land a gallery show to display each of his 365 finished works. His favorites are less associated with the food and more with the memories of the day. That being said, look out for frogs. Meldrum ate 122 Cadbury Freddo Milk Chocolates over the course of the year.
Acrylic, pen and ink on a paper menu, 8 1/4 x 11 7/10) by David Meldrum
A Little Still Life with Your Entree — Mollie Katzen
Broccoli on Chinese Silk from Still Life with Menu (pastel on paper, 9×13) by Mollie Katzen
Among the ranks of classic cookbooks, Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook is the cherry on top of a literary sundae that gives little room to vegetarians. It's been more than four decades since the book was self-published by Katzen, and still, the book reigns supreme, selling 20,000 to 30,000 copies each year, complete with her charming black-and-white illustrations and hand-lettered text to accompany the recipes.
Although her original success in Moosewood is going strong, she finds success, too, in art. "After making two black-and-white books with decorative illustrations and hand lettering in pen and ink," she says, "I wanted to expand to color and full compositions, so I could bring my love of painting into the process." What resulted was Still Life with Menu Cookbook, in which pastel vignettes, more fully formed and with bright color, accompany the menus laid out by Katzen.
Vegetable Heaven (pastel on paper, 18×24) by Mollie Ketzen
Olive John Burgoyne's Food Drawings (get it?)
Ollives, Cook's Illustrated (pen, ink and watercolor on paper, 19 1/2 x 16 1/4) by John Burgoyne
Scientific and classical, the food drawings that John Burgoyne creates highlight the ingredient itself as pure, unadulterated–the pinnacle of man's cultivation. You might recognize Borgoyne's work from the back page of Cook's Illustrated, a page he's been creatively executing for nearly two decades.
The page is typically of a single food item in its many iterations: varieties of heirloom tomatoes, types of French cheeses, even more playful food groups like hard candies. "In 1998, Amy Klee redesigned Cook's Illustrated," says Burgoyne. "Part of the redesign was to illustrate the back covers, and they brought me on board. Cook's has been so passionate about the magazine and its artistic personality." That passion has translated into 108 back covers for Borgoyne in his signature bold, academic style, and he says collectors are starting to take notice.
Cherry Tomatoes, Cook's Illustrated (pen, ink and watercolor on paper, 13 1/2 x 11) by John Burgoyne
We think art + food = delightful. Do you? Let us know your favorite food-inspired art in the comments below! And, be sure to watch the preview below of Capturing Light & Form: Still Life in Pastel with Alain Picard to learn how light and shadow create the form of an object, and apply those lessons to a still life of three apples on a table.
If you enjoyed this preview, head to ArtistsNetwork.tv to stream the full-length video workshop.
The post Cookbook Art Worth Breaking Your Diet For appeared first on Artist's Network.
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The Color Series | 20 Artworks That Cloak Their Compositions in Blue
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The Color Series | 20 Artworks That Cloak Their Compositions in Blue
// Brown Paper Bag
You can't understate the importance of color—especially in art. It wields its power in all sorts of ways, from setting the mood to giving us important visual clues. Over the next several weeks, I'll share a selection of illustration, paper craft, and embroidery that overwhelmingly uses one hue in its composition. Called The Color Series, first up are blue illustrations.
Blue is one of the most popular colors to use in an artwork—and it's no surprise. Conceptually, it has a lot to offer; environments are created using the hue and make it ripe with story-telling possibilities. Water, sky, and the darkness of shadows are all the product of this cool color. And, you'll see that in a lot of the work featured here. Some of it speaks to blue's melancholy side, while other pieces focus on the tranquility and calm of which it's also associated.
The color blue can be tranquil… or sad.. or even go bump in the night. Check out how 20 blue illustrations use the cool hue to create compelling visual works.
Ana Frois
Kirsten Sims (on Brown Paper Bag)
Nastia Sleptsova
Gala Pont
Sonia Alins (On Brown Paper Bag)
Maggie Chiang (on Brown Paper Bag)
Slow Stitch Sophie (on Brown Paper Bag)
Elizabeth Pawle (on Brown Paper Bag)
Anne Laval
Marc Martin (on Brown Paper Bag)
Celan Bouillet (on Brown Paper Bag)
Lily Padula
Irene Rinaldi (on Brown Paper Bag)
Mouni Feddag
Julia Iredale
Cheryl Teo (on Brown Paper Bag)
Lara Hawthrone
Raya Sader Bujana
José Antonio Roda (on Brown Paper Bag)
The post The Color Series | 20 Artworks That Cloak Their Compositions in Blue appeared first on Brown Paper Bag.
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Sunday, June 25, 2017
andreii-tarkovsky: By Blue Rose Print Lab
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Paris-based Studio Jimbo creates "impact and power" with punchy poster designs
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Paris-based Studio Jimbo creates "impact and power" with punchy poster designs
// It's Nice That
Jimbo Barbu works under the moniker Studio Jimbo, as an independent designer and art director in Paris on various editorial, branding and identity projects. "My style is communicative, using typography to create impact and power," explains Jimbo. "Science fiction, art, photography, fashion music are all inspirations and anything can make something click in my head and give me an idea."
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