Monday, March 08, 2010
Animals, the Intersection of Art and Science
In 1965 the Boston Museum of Science created a permanent wing for animal sculptor Katharine Lane Weems’ small works after she donated them to the Museum in hopes of bridging a gap between science and art. Weems was a Boston area sculptor, born in 1899, who went on to have a 70+ year career. She was mentored by John Singer Sargent, elected to the National Academy of Arts and Letters and created many exterior works in and around Boston including an iconic frieze on the exterior of Harvard’s Biology Lab. Weems faced much criticism and hostility because of her gender. However, as the Museum of Science confirms, she “broke away from the twentieth century social standards for women to become one of the most recognized animal sculptors of her time.” For more info on Weems’ exhibit in Boston, including a narrated slide show, click the Museum’s website here. (photo source: wikipedia)
Friday, February 26, 2010
Utilizing New Technology for Art Education
Pretty soon we’ll be launching our updated digital version of our classic Famous Artist course. We’re excited to tap into a new generation of students who are used to having the world at their online fingertips. Utilizing technology for education has enormous possibility for all of us. More and more organizations are providing free audio and video podcasts. Most recently I discovered the National Gallery of Art’s podcast page which is a great resource for videos about artists, including a beautifully shot short film about Arshile Gorky and this excerpt from a movie about Edward Hopper, narrated by Steve Martin. Another great resource is NPR’s podcast directory which archives weekly art-related radio stories and chats. They can also be subscribed to weekly and downloaded right to your computer. The Information Age may be overwhelming at times, but when you can pinpoint your focus and use these new media tools to expand your knowledge base and keep you inspired you’re on the right track.
Friday, February 19, 2010
What Would Bruegel Think?
First the artist was born. Shortly thereafter - the art forger. Methods of uncovering fraudulent works of art have advanced along with technology. Most recently Math Professor Daniel Rockmore of Dartmouth College designed a software program, originally for Bruegel drawings, which analyzed the artist’s pen strokes. By scanning and digitizing the drawings Rockmore’s program could characterize which strokes were typical of Bruegel’s method of application and which were not. The inadvertent benefit to artists as Rockmore relays in a recent NPR article is that the software becomes a ” tool to deconstruct art — a way of describing what it means to be Picasso-like or Bruegel-like.” The idea of knowing how a master artist laid down their strokes is surely appealing to many who study the craft, but what would Bruegel make of his artwork reproduced, pixelated and broken down on a small glowing screen? Perhaps a surrealist might understand better.
Friday, February 05, 2010
A new look at Van Gogh
The popular view of Vincent Van Gogh, which probably most of us share, is of a wild-eyed mad genius, creating paintings full of colorful outbursts and eventually committing suicide while in the throes of mental illness. In their broad outlines, these facts are true, but there is so much more to know about this seminal artist. And once we know him better we can admire him even more for what he accomplished in spite of poverty and struggles with illness—and his early death becomes even more poignant.
The current exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, The Real Van Gogh, provides a very complete and full impression of Van Gogh the man, providing 35 of his original letters alongside 65 paintings and 30 drawings. For perhaps the first time, art lovers will have a glimpse into the life of this driven and conflicted great talent.
Van Gogh’s artistic career lasted only ten years. He was largely self taught, and the exhibition traces the development of his talent from early drawings of still life, landscapes, and the peasants who were his neighbors, to the stunning output of his last years, when he was tormented by mental illness but still managed to paint daily. And all the time he was drawing and painting, he was writing letters to his family and friends. Since he was a solitary person by nature, these letters were his way of staying in touch with the world around him. He was very well read, and his letters (in Dutch, French, and English) demonstrate his literary as well as artistic interests.
Van Gogh cared deeply about words. He wrote to a friend, Emile Bernard, in 1888: ‘There are so many people, especially among our pals, who imagine that words are nothing. On the contrary, don’t you think, it’s as interesting and as difficult to say a thing well as to paint a thing.’
An article, “A Beautiful Mind”, in the Royal Academy magazine has more detail on Van Gogh’s letters
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Color: the infinite magician
Of all the elements that go into making a work of art, perhaps the strongest influence of all belongs to color. Colors have a strong effect on our emotions. They can create almost any kind of mood. According to where and how they are used, they can make us feel cheerful or depressed, excited or soothed, filled with longing, or at peace. In addition to subject matter, drawing, or design, color can be used to affect the emotions of the viewer.
Beyond art, color plays the same role in clothing, interior design, architecture—every visual aspect of life. So it’s not surprising to find that, at the Frick Collection in New York City, classic paintings hung against a wall newly painted in soft coral, seem themselves to have been newly restored. In the Frick’s East Gallery, the velvety coral walls sharpen details, brighten colors, clarify compositions and deepen meaning. It’s as if we are seeing these paintings for the first time.
The Frick Collection is a wonderful place for close encounters with some of the best of European painting; and with the recent renovations, the experience is enhanced even further.
Friday, January 08, 2010
Good news!
I’m happy to report that the pirated scans of our Famous Artists Course have been removed from the website that was offering them. Leif Peng, who writes a blog called Today’s Inspiration about illustration art, posted a very apt entry about this situation yesterday. Here’s the link to his post. Thanks to everyone who appreciates the value of the Famous Artists Course materials and supports our efforts to protect their integrity.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
The sincerest form of flattery?
Remember that old saying about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery? Maybe we can take that one step further. We recently learned that various sites and blogs are offering PDF scans of our Famous Artists textbooks—free. The people who scanned them and the people who downloaded them can’t say enough wonderful things about them, raving about how thrilled they are to be able to study and learn from this classic instruction by some of the great American illustrators.
Let’s leave aside for the moment the uncomfortable fact that these materials are copyright protected, and therefore to scan them for public use is theft. What these enthusiasts don’t realize is that our textbooks are just one part of an integrated Course whose central feature is the personal critiques by real artist-instructors—that as good as our textbooks are, the full Course, including the critiques and the one-on-one attention from instructors, is a hundred times better as a learning experience.
And not only that: we are about to launch a revised and updated version of the Famous Artists Course built on the classic material that is so highly regarded, but expanded to include even more color and demonstrations.
We’re delighted that there are so many artists and potential artists out there who love our materials. But let’s be fair. We’re still in business, our books are still in print, and our complete Courses are the most thorough and in-depth method of art instruction ever developed—and the best is yet to come!
Monday, January 04, 2010
A new year—a new Course!
Happy new year to all! Here at FAS, we’re in the final stages of preparing our new Creative Art Course. It will combine all the classic teaching elements of the original Course with an updated and reorganized approach. Best of all, it will be available for download! The same great one-to-one instructor relationship will still be the cornerstone of the learning experience. Watch insideArt and our website for more news!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Art for escapism
Sitting in snowy Connecticut. looking out at a wintry landscape, I wish I could substitute my view for the one a friend just emailed from her beach vacation south of the border. I understand that there’s even more snow in Washington, DC, but at least inside the Corcoran Gallery lucky viewers can escape the weather by visiting the seaside with John Singer Sargent. The exhibition, Sargent and the Sea, will end on January 3, but even browsing the website gives a brief impression of sunshine, warm sand, and salty breezes.
Most of Sargent’s seaside paintings were created when he was still quite young, between the ages of 18 and 23. From a privileged family, he had the oppportunity to study in Paris as well as spend summers in Brittany, Normandy, and Capri. Later paintings become less romantic and more detailed, showing Sargent’s interest in the details of ship rigging and the life of working sailors and those who fish for a living.
Turquoise waters and fluffy clouds in a soft blue sky—I could escape for those!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
More on the amazing Mrs. Delany
Just found an article in an October New York Times that gives even more reason to admire our Mrs. Delany. Take a look and see what she accomplished in the last decade and a half of her long life.
