Thomas Jones
Andrew Wyeth
Andrew Wyeth
Thomas Moran
Thomas Moran
Turner
Fairfield Porter
William Trost Richards
Monday, April 23, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
SPACE- Color and Clarity
While attempting to depict space, especially landscape space, artists turn to what they have carefully observed in nature. Beyond the obvious relationship of scale, observations of atmospheric color and perceived clarity relating to distance proved to fundamental. Alterations in these to concepts as it relates to the three grounds- foreground, middle ground, and background allowed the artist to perceptually push the surface back extremely deep. The general practice of neutral color and cooler hues in the background approximate for the far off distance of mountains as seen through the moisture and reflection of the atmosphere. Hence the term atmospheric perspective. Intensity or purity of hue plays a role here. Our eyes see intensity as closer, less obscured. This also holds true with clarity. Clear focus, crisp edges, sharp contrast again simulates nearness for our perception. By contrast, blurred edges, less contrast simulate great distance.
Composition also plays a part to this. A composition that is cropped and filled implies that we are surrounded or in the midst of. A composition that is not cropped and dwarfed within the rectangle implies a distance. It is possible to convey massive space within a small rectangle. Vantage point should also be consider. Think bird's eye view or worms eye view. From down low all things seem monumental, from up high all seems tiny and distant.
In our examples below consider the composition as it relates to these topics. Think about how the set up the three grounds and apply color and clarity to them. Think about scale and placement when looking at these.
Kim Keever
Kim Keever
Gerhardt Richter
Bierstadt
Kensett
Thibeau
Toral
Toral
Monday, April 9, 2012
SPACE
The essential challenge of all artists working in 2 dimensions is the usage of space. It can be a challenge quickly addressed by acknowledging the flatness of the surface as modern painters did or delve into a myriad of choices of how space can be crafted. Such choices presented in art history include (but not limited to) realism/ illusionism, Byzantine, Pre- Renaissance, Renaissance, Cubism. All unavoidably deal with the issue of space selection, meaning and represent the thinking of that era.
John Singer Sargent
To understand this issue we first must look at the subjective nature of engaging space visually as humans. At best we can see just under 180 degrees ( an admittedly incomplete perception of the space that surrounds us.) Below are two examples from John Montagues's Basic Drawing Perspective.
Again remember our brain is comprehending information, in multiple ways, from an image projected upside down within our eye. From this information the brain uses conditioned responses to particular appearances of shapes and colors to process quickly. In this manner vision and it's subject are perceived. The very nature of the term perception, is the ability of the mind to grasp what is seen. The challenge in space depiction is the utilization of depth perception as it relates to:
COLOR (temperature, intensity, value)
CLARITY (focus vs blur)
SCALE ( relative size of objects)
SEQUENCING ( overlapping and placement of objects)
SHAPE DEFORMATION (the regularized shape in perspective and how the mind grasps these shapes as the vacillate between flatness and form)
Space and it's depiction is a loaded choice as it highlights and consciously omits/ edits certain information as it's expression needs. We all generally grow up being amazed by the simulacra of illusionistic space, yet have unintentionally disregarded the multiple possibilities that space offers. It is the artists decision to make use of what best suits their "message" and equally important, enhances their perception of space, a skill necessary in engaging with all forms of 2 dimensional work whether it is advertising, fine art, design, illustration, photography. Below are examples highlighting some artists approach to handling space within these terms.
Thomas Moran
George Inness
Richard Parkes Bonington
The previous examples showcase an extreme depiction of spatial recession in the landscape format, foreground, middle ground and background. Atmospheric perspective is employed as we see colors of a more neutral hue in the background as well as cooler color and less contrasting values. Scale changes are evident as well as overlapping objects.
Richard Deibenkorn
In this example of Deibenforn we can see a tension between the flatness of the space and three dimensionality. It is a heavy "shape" composition which leans toward flatness, yet he employed a knowledge of color and values in spacial recession. Notice the shadows on the pavement.
Lucian Freud
Joan Semmel
Philip Pearlstein
The above examples display an approach to the figure in space through more traditional techniques. We see clear usage of sequencing particularly in Pearlstein (notice the mannequin behind, the in front of the model.) In the Semmel example she plays with the mirror (and extends the space) using color and scale. Notice the taper of the legs and the overlap. In the Freud example, we see clear overlaping of the body, foreshortening, color and scale (thigh/ knee to head ratio.)
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