Artist Study: Pierre Bonnard

Pierre Bonnard was born on 0October 3 1867 in France. His father was an official in the French ministry of War. He pressured Bonnard to study Law which he did for a short period of time. He also took art classes and in 1891 showed his first works. he was also a print maker. His paintings have a lot of detail and use brilliant colors.Many pastels and bright colors were used in the majority of his painting giving them a light and optimistic flair. even his darker and more mysterious paintings used great color and light creating a unique style and mood in the paintings.He continued to paint and show his work until his death in 1947. His work is still recognized today world wide.

Progress on painting

This past week i have been i have been continuing to build up the painting. I have realized that this painting is going to improve with the more details that I add. When I added the yellow bow on the box the painting started to look more finished and polished. I have also started to add flowers in to my fabric. I have also learned by experimenting that I will have to make the flowers individually to make it look like it is on fabric. Hopefully I will finish this piece this week !

Balthus

An artist that relates to teh work that i have been doing is Balthus. he is famous for doing portraits. He is a french painter that was born in 1901. most of his work constists of paintings of people in differnt angles. this is intersting to me because the positions that the people are in are difficlut to paint. these images are also bold. he also uses color in a way that really enchances the work. alot of the art doesnt have bold colors but there is alot of warmth in the paint that draws your eye to the people in the portrait and not the surroundings. Balthus died in Feburary 2001 at the age of 92.

New Day New Painting

This week i have started a painting of a still life. In the still life their are bottles of different shape and color and a dark blue box. There is also a printed fabric surrounding everything. I have started by painting bold shapes in the colors that the objects are. I have also started putting highlights and shadows in the bottles and fabric. The Fabric is going to challenging because there are so many folds and many different colors. At this point i am feeling good about this new painting.

What I Have Been Doing

This semester i have been working on a portrait on my sister and myself. This is the first portrait that i have ever done and there is not just 1 but 2 faces!! I started the process by painting the major bold shapes in basic colors to make sure that i work from general to specific. the placement of the parts of the face was difficult to execute. I had to move the eyes about three times until they were at the right distance from the nose and at the right angle. I also learned a lot about color. Skin color is hard to do because you have to now what hue to use in order to make the features of a person. I have never looked at a picture of myself so closely. I learned that my sister has red undertones when mine are more orange. At times i got very frustrated with the painting. making the nose and eyelids are difficult because they are small things that are difficult to make the right color and give the correct placement. They also make the picture look so much better. Small changes can be a big deal in art. I have yet to tackle the mouth and the teeth which is going to be challenging. Now i am at a stopping point where you can tell that the painting is of my sister and I. The entire canvas is covered in paint and I'm sure that i will be able to go back to it in a few weeks with a fresh eye and be able to complete a beautiful piece of art.

Mid Term Reflection

This year my large painting of two faces has been most challenging. this is the first time that i am painting an entire face, let alone two. faces in general are hard to paint and these ones are really big and at an awkward angle.I am progressing in my color mixing this shows in the noses of the people. I also have to spend time observing areas on my face in a mirror and in a picture. this is helping me improve on my observation skills. This improvement is shown in the proportions of The people and their body positions.
Today we can use techniques that were discovered and used my earlier artist and build upon them. In my painting i had to look at Renaissance looking paintings to figure out how to create a nose. it is important to appreciate the work that they did.

Famous Paintings

The painting that I found to be most interesting was water lilies by Claude Monet who is from France.. In terms of texture there is a blurry feel to the painting. There are no defined lines and all of the water lilies have a soft and smooth texture. There are also many highlights and shadows in the picture that add texture to the water and show that shadows from the trees and everything from the surroundings. The composition of the painting is also interesting because there is nothing in the middle of the painting and all of the sides are filled with objects. To me the painting is showing a calm place. This piece of art is important to the world of art and to me because the style is so different. And art is all about being original and showing a new point of view.