Auction previews in London - November

 

Christie's South Kensington: Maritime Art

Auction viewings

8 Nov 2014 11:00 - 17:00 
9 Nov 2014 11:00 - 17:00 
 10 Nov 2014 09:00 - 19:30 
11 Nov 2014 09:00 - 17:00

 

 Christie's South Kensington: Vintage Posters

Auction viewings

8 Nov 2014 11:00 - 17:00 
9 Nov 2014 11:00 - 17:00 
 10 Nov 2014 09:00 - 19:30 
11 Nov 2014 09:00 - 17:00

12 Nov 2014 09:00 - 17:00

  Bonhams Knightsbridge: Modern British, Irish and East Anglian Art
 Auction viewings

16 Nov 2014 11:00 - 15:00

17 Nov 2014 09:00 - 16:30

18 Nov 2014 09:00 - 11:00

 Sothebys: Important Russian Art & Russian Paintings

Auction viewings

21 Nov 2014 09:00 - 16:30 
22 Nov 2014 12:00 - 17:00 
  23 Nov 2014 12:00 - 17:00 
24 Nov 2014 09:00 - 15:00
 

 Christie's King Street: Important Russian Art

Auction viewings

21 Nov 2014 09:00 - 16:30 
22 Nov 2014 12:00 - 17:00 
 23 Nov 2014 12:00 - 17:00
 

  Christie's South Kensington: Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art
 Auction viewings
22 Nov 2014 11:00 - 17:00 
23 Nov 2014 11:00 - 17:00 
 24 Nov 2014 09:00 - 19:30 
25 Nov 2014 09:00 - 17:00

 Bonhams Knightsbridge: European, Victorian and British Impressionist Art
 Auction viewings

23 Nov 2014 11:00 - 15:00

24 Nov 2014 09:00 - 16:30

25 Nov 2014 09:00 - 11:00 

 Christie's King Street: 19th Century European & Orientalist Art

 Auction viewings

5 Dec 2014 09:00 - 16:30 
6 Dec 2014 12:00 - 17:00 
 7 Dec 2014 12:00 - 17:00 
8 Dec 2014 09:00 - 16:30
9 Dec 2014 09:00 - 12:00 

 

 Christie's King Street: Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art

Auction viewings

6 Dec 2014 12:00 - 17:00 

 7 Dec 2014 12:00 - 17:00 

8 Dec 2014 09:00 - 16:30

9 Dec 2014 09:00 - 16:30

10 Dec 2014 12:00 - 16:30

 11 Dec 2014 12:00 - 12:00 

 

 Sothebys: British & Irish Art
Auction viewings
5 Dec 2014 12:00 - 16:30 
7 Dec 2014 12:00 - 17:00 
8 Dec 2014 09:00 - 16:30
9 Dec 2014 09:00 - 16:30
 

 Sothebys: 19th Century European Paintings 

 Auction viewings
5 Dec 2014 12:00 - 16:30 
7 Dec 2014 12:00 - 17:00 
8 Dec 2014 09:00 - 16:30
9 Dec 2014 09:00 - 16:30

  

 Sothebys: 19th and 20th Century Sculpture

Auction viewings
5 Dec 2014 09:00 - 16:30 
7 Dec 2014 12:00 - 17:00 
8 Dec 2014 09:00 - 16:30
9 Dec 2014 09:00 - 16:30

10 Dec 2014 09:00 - 16:30

Process and thoughts (tutorial)

 

A pencil sketch is often the way i start, and this one was the choice i went with. At this point i know the qualities that i want to capture from the subject. 

Studied Llyado Torrents, Thomas Lawrence and Rembrandt's work for inspiration and research. For shape composition i took it from Llyado Torrents, with his somewhat unusual square canvas, with the face dead center. Which i thought to be very striking and effective, to add some variation to this, the hair had to be somewhat asymmetrical and the shoulders a little tilted. I looked at Thomas Lawrence for his sense of flesh (modeling and colors), and Rembrandt for similar reasons and also effect of light and luminosity. Such studies often demands copying, sketching and/or painting, taking notes as i come across certain realizations/problems/solutions etc...

I start with a Transparent red oxide wash, i wanted to show at later stages of the painting particularity in the dark and textured areas(hair, cast shadows, parts of background) some of its color

Alternating between tissue/rag(rubbing off) and brush i draw the face, at this point im only concerned about the major value shapes (one for the lights and one for the darks), and checking if the composition still holds. I stick to the original pencil sketch, but one needs to be flexible, sometimes i find later as i paint that the initial composition could've been improved, sometimes even changed! Which requires to be a different painting all together. In this case i was checking if the size of the face should be bigger or not given the canvas size. 

 I now introduce paint on the canvas, i like the way the colors blend wet on wet, by having a layer of somewhat thicker paint on for the skin, it allows me to model without going to far out the range of its value(because the colors blend on the canvas), applying the biggest planes first moving slowing to smaller places. Something to beware at this stage is that drawing is not done separately, that one has to draw with the brush at all times.

 Once the face and likeness starts to take shape i remind myself not to drift too far off from the initial idea for this painting, the pencil sketch, so i darken the background. Also i start to implement some impasto, there's is two different effects that i went for, impasto as a relief(in reverse) effect, so whatever is closer to the viewer(in form) is thicker, some i got from studying Rembrandts work). And thick brush marks for high lights, as the lights sits on the paint, it gives a brighter effect. If one knows that the painting is going to be lit from, lets say a spot light from above, the horizontal thick brush marks will caught more of the light.

 After refining the edges on the face i start slowly introducing the background and the edge of the hair. Checking the value of the face against the background for the overall balance, keeping it fairly dark and soft, both in value and color. The background is a great tool to complement the portrait but have to be careful not to over do it. Once i think such balance has been achieve i stop. I realize next day that the overall temperature might have been a bit too warm on the face, so i let it dry (is oils so is going to be a while!) as i see the only "easy" solution at this point is to glaze.

  After the painting is dry i glaze/scumble a cooler tone over for the skin and give final touches using the same technique on the whole painting. This is a very safe to work because at any given point i can always go back to the dry paint.

On the easel

a recent portrait commission work
Oil on canvas

On the screen, on the flesh

Recently did a quick trip to Liverpool to visit their museums, if you ever go, i highly recommend Lady Lever Art Gallery and Walker Art Gallery.
 

 So much of my "art education" was done while looking at the screen of a computer and prints. Studying composition, values, colors etc... But if there is something that a screen(digital) or any other reproduction does not give is, a sense of scale, and to a certain extent, humanity. The brush marks, the impasto, the effect of the light over the glazing, all of it, results and making of the artist.
 (Re)Discovering pictures that i love and study in flesh is a very different, most of the times better, experience.

Exhibitions/Auction previews in London

Bonhams Knights Bridge: The First World War Centenary Sale

Auction viewings

28 Sep 2014 11:00 - 15:00
29 Sep 2014 09:00 - 16:30
30 Sep 2014 09:00 - 16:30
01 Oct 2014 09:00 - 11:00

 

Tate Britain: The EY Exhibition: Late Turner - Painting Set Free 

10 September 2014 - 25 January 2015

 

Victoria and Albert museum: Constable: The Making of a Master

20 September 2014 - 11 January 2015

National Gallery: Rembrandt: The Late Works

15 October 2014 - 18 January 2015

 

 The Courtauld Gallery: EGON SCHIELE: THE RADICAL NUDE

23 October 2014 - 18 January 2015

 

Leighton House Museum: A Victorian Obsession, The Pérez Simóncollection

14 November 2014 - 29 March 2015

End of Summer

Apples are falling, and school term is about to start. Back to work(teaching)! Goodbye summer, see you again(hopefully) next year ;)

Harold Speed third book, 'What is the good of Art?'

  Harold Speed, painter and author of  'The practice & science of drawing' first publish in 1917 and 'Oil painting techniques and materials' first publish in 1925 ('The Science & Practice of Oil Painting' was its original title then), had another book, 'WHAT IS THE GOOD OF ART?' published in 1936, almost 20 years after his first book.

  This book is more about his view on Art and its importance. Putting Art side by side to science and philosophy to support or dispute views on reality, beauty, perception and... beyond.  

In my opinion this book should be read along with his previous ones as a complementary. I enjoyed a lot, as it felt more personal and no less educational. Do recommend. thanks Olly!

Unfortunately is out of print (I might scan and upload it as a pdf), used books can be bought online here and there. ;)

Studying the Masters #2

 The image above is a study at the British Museum of a Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema's original watercolor and by its side an etching of the same by Paul Rajon.
Studying from a original work rather a print or photo has several advantages. Specially if one practices traditional mediums, even though i believe it helps digital painting as well.
 First of all, the fact is the original. How many times have i been surprised, looking at the original and think, how much better it is than any reproductions. Some cases i thought of the photo or print to be a improvement on the original in the sense the values being stronger and simpler. Also, the scale of the work being much bigger or much too small than i thought to be(like in this case),  affecting perception of detail, color, modeling etc...
 Photo and prints cannot(yet) capture color and values the same way the eye can. The eye is far more capable of perceiving values and more subtle color variations. Studying color from works of Georges Seurat would be far more effective when done from life. Or Ivan Shishkin's landscape paintings where one can see texture left from initial brush marks, and its effectiveness of each brush mark, the scale of his work forces one to step back just enough were all of it works together.
 One more is laying and texture. From original works, it is possible to see(to some extent) how the artist worked. Which brush marks went on first and which ones on top of that, and break down the sequence in which the artist proceeded. The direction of brush marks and how they blend. Textures like Francis Bacon work can only be 'felt' when seen in life.The brilliancy of the paints and layers of glazing under the light should also be mentioned here, on works of masters such as Van Dyke and Rembrandt.
 So, when work from original art works over reproductions? If you have the means, i would say, always! But much depends on what's your purpose for the study.

Bellow are composition studies that i did from reproductions of Edward Seago's work. Looking only at basic values and make it readable in a small scale. And some works done from life were i try to apply the lessons from such studies.

Value composition studies after Edward Seago

Cityscape, from life

 sketch of man painting, from life

Studying the masters

 Why copy from Masters. My thoughts on it c:

I love copying from masters and been doing since forever, even as a small kid i was copying Akira Toriyama, robocop, ironman, x-men, ren and stimpy, all the cartoons that i used watch as a kid. Obviously this was not done with thought other than showing my love for the characters and trying to make my own spin off stories. Then, my understanding of anatomy, form, proportions, light, composition etc.. was none! But did not matter, i was applying(very poorly) all of it unconsciously into my drawings. We all done it at some point. The repetition and hours get into our unconsciousness and muscle memory, very very slowly, but in regardless. But then, as a child, the point was not be technically good, but to tell my own stories, in my on imaginative world.

  Now when i make studies i always have a specific technical thing that i want to learn from it, a conscious decision and awareness when doing these kind of exercise. From composition, design, line flow, brush marks, modeling, edges... whatever might be, could also be any combination of these. Depending on what i am studying the medium does not matter. I always try to have a goal for why and what am i doing this for.

 The very advantage of copying is that we learn to achieve the same result in our own way, regardless of using a different technique from the masters. That "same" result can be achieved by taking different routes, as they all meet at the end.
Obviously if we want to learn specific process(imprimatura, direct drawing or transfer, layering, coloring, texture, brush mark effect etc...) used by the masters, studying unfinished work or/and sketches is the route i would take. One could always find evidence of, in which order the marks where made, but there's only so much than one can see on the surface(unless they wrote books, or notes about their own process). We don't see how they problem solved, and so, we are left with some educated guesses and the beautiful result for which we can only work from. We have to problem solve on our own, which also is part of the benefit of studying from the masters in my opinion.
To understand how they saw the world, some paintings that i studied, i either arranged a similar set up or visit similar places and see what to or what not paint.
So studying value simplicity from Zorn, composition from Repin, and edges from Velazquez. Possibilities are endless. One responses to different artists for different reasons, and that is a very personal thing. But all these are only 'ingredients for a chef to cook with'.

Knowing what to paint or what for, helps tremendously to focus on problem solving, and apply how such studies.
Now is to go back to being a child again and make my own pictures, my own reality, and paint my own surroundings. Traveling back and forth, between painting, and studying for more and better 'ingredients'.



In these studies i try to learn more about simplification of the value shapes, and subduing detail as part of the whole.

After Philip De Laszlo's painting

After John S. Sargent's painting

After John S. Sargent's painting

After John S. Sargent's painting

Simplification based on the previous studies. Drawing from a black and white photo

After a photo of Mr De Laszlo himself

Thoughts about learning and teaching

I now have been teaching at an Atelier for 2 years full-time, and a year + as part-time assistant before that. And some private tutoring on the side as well. During which i learned so much. The very thing that i learned, been constantly reminded of, and now i find myself repeating at all times everyday is, the importance of fundamentals and simplicity. But teaching is without any doubt the period where i learned the most(and continuously so).

As a teacher i get asked questions all the time, some easier to answer than others. From 'how can i make this look rounder?', 'I can't go any brighter even if i use the eraser', 'how can i capture her personality?', 'my painting doesn't seem to have enough life'. Questions that force me to read, experiment and study more.
Also to be able to 'correct' and 'push' the students work, to achieve a certain goal regardless their initial mistakes or starting point. Problem solving along side them.
How rewarding teaching can be!! Pushes me artistically, helps improve my english, and learn more about people. Truly love it c:

Will write down more thoughts and personal opinions on teaching and art for now on, some more in depth, some just me mumbling about it.
These thoughts and opinions are personal and reflect only what i think now, can change as it did so many times before

Demos that i did during class. Always draw along side the student and give demos everyday.