List the readings, video, podcast, art lecture. Painting today introduction and chapter 9 landscape, and What is painting? Introduction and chapter 1, Stanley Whitney Podcast and video, and the artist lecture was Christopher Paul Jordan.
What did you learn from these texts? The Painting today talks more about artist work and comparing between different artist, where as the What is Painting? talks more about paint as a medium and technique artist used to get certain brush strokes and why they wouldn’t want brush strokes. The Stanley Whitney podcast and video both mostly talk about his style, why he paints the way he does, and why he didn’t want to participate in political art. He talks about the relationship between things and colors.
List what we covered in practice this week. What did we do in studio workshop, what was the assignment? In practice we used charcoal and white and black acrylic to paint still life and worked on painting and drawing what we see with the three levels of value. We also set up our studio space and worked on talking about art with a set vocabulary and learning that vocabulary.
What did you learn from practice? I learned the consistency I like to work with acrylic in, a little watered down but not a wet wash, and how to frame still life so that everything you see fits in the frame.
Give a couple of examples of how they inform each other? So, the practice with value and how shades of black and white relate to each other directly related to what the author was talking about in What is Painting? and how paint is visceral and how you represent an object in still life or landscape was more talked about in Painting today. I took from What is Painting? a new found look at how oil paint works, because I have never worked with it, so now I can go into painting knowing a little more about how the paint itself works.
List and define in your own words, 5 important terms/concepts you learned this week.
Gesture- the movement of the artist hand showed through the work, usually ends up suggesting movement.
Process-the process a artist uses to make work is their process, like when a artist likes the room to be completely silent, or music playing, to get in the right head space to make their work. It could also be the way they treat a canvas or medium during the time they make a piece.
Stylized- so some artist don’t have a style, or the way their art looks different from others, like big eyes and Tim Burton, but to stylize or for something to be stylized means it can be made to look a certain way or replicate a style of art. Like painting something with the style of Disney.
Ego- The Ego is one of the main drives for humans. Its a persons self- esteem or self- confidence, or even self- worth. Ego in a painting can mean the artist put their personality into a painting so much it says something about them.
Movement- the way a brush moves on a surface with so much gesture it creates a sense that the subject is alive and moving.
List 5 skills you learned this week. Acrylic medium use, like how to mix paint, how to apply paint, how to blend and work with acrylic. How to discuss and find similarities and differences across different art, artist, and writings. How to take notes while others are discussing and still pay attention. Time management, and food prep, I pack my lunch ahead of time so I’m not running late.
What was new and exciting? I had never worked with acrylics in a still life setting and found it much like how you use charcoal but without the sounds and feeling of charcoal. I don’t like to use charcoal, so I enjoyed getting the same effect but without the discomfort of using a medium I don’t care for. I’ve never painting something with acrylic that looks as good as the sketch we did on Monday.
Where did you put your best effort? What did you do that you feel good about? It could be a drawing or time management or participated in class discussion, etc. I really tried to use the charcoal and get everything correctly proportioned in the frame, and then I just blindly went for it with the acrylic. I feel good about the results.
What do you need to work of for next week? Where do you need to focus your efforts? It could be getting reading done ahead of time, allowing for more time for studio homework, arriving to class on time, etc. I really need to get in the studio and use oils. As of Saturday, this week, I haven’t and I’m looking forward to blindly stepping into the old master’s shoes. I think I’m doing good on the other homework and getting it done early.
What you want to get out of next week? I want to paint more. I want to learn more about oil paints and how to use them and what to use them on.