ART APPRECIATION LESSON 3: European Artist and History
In this art appreciation lesson, you see how an artist draws textures and integrate the idea into your own work of art.
In these two pictures, we see the same view created by the same artist. Oil paint is used in one. Ink is used in the other. Both show texture, but the painting has a physical texture that could be touched. The paint was applied thickly in ribbons and dots of color. If we touched it, we could feel the rough surface. The drawing has a smooth surface, but the artist is able to imply a large variety of textures that describe the special qualities of the vegetation by using different marks.
THE ARTIST Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Dutch Post-Impressionist Painter Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous painters in modern times. At age sixteen, he went to work for his uncle who was an art dealer. In his twenties, Van Gogh preached the gospel in a poor coal-mining district. While there, he began making art. He painted the people of that area. His work as a pastor did not flourish as he’d hoped so he decided to follow his other interest: art. In 1886, he went to Paris. There, he was influenced by the Impressionists. Like them, he began using vivid colors in highly experimental ways. After ten years of intense production, while under medical care for depression, he committed suicide. His is a story of a man who struggled with life rather than one who found rest or success within it. That fact does not lessen his commitment to life. Van Gogh wrote letters to his brother, Theo, which we can still read today. He stated that he felt the presence of God when he painted, as he perceived God in all living things.
THE TIMES Post Impressionists were those who had worked directly with the original artists of Impressionist movement, but each invented new and unique ways of applying the paint to the canvas. They started what became a fast-paced race for new and different ways to make art that would lead to the Abstract movement of the mid-20th century. Artists who followed this explosion of free expression explored the ideas of drawing and painting in any way they wished. The late 19th century painters explored a new world of color with the invention of brighter paints and convenient tubes that allowed pre-mixed paint to be purchased and used out of doors. These artists faced a new and daunting invention, the camera, which seemed to replace the need for painting in realistic ways. To be great, artists needed to show viewers a new world in paint that went beyond what the camera could capture. Artists now looked for new reasons to paint and the idea of personal expression was born. The idea of personal expression is a recent ideal of the artist. Copying or making studies from someone else’s work was considered a necessity during the Renaissance, but today originality is the necessity. This change in thinking began with the Post Impressionists.
26
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker