About a year ago, I started using my Facebook page as a “visual diary” of interesting artwork I come across online. The idea was to have a reminder for later research on particular artists or other topics related to art.
What I tagged were mostly paintings, many rooted in the classical traditions but also abstract paintings. One very interesting Facegroup page I follow is “I Require Art” (https://www.facebook.com/IRequireArt?ref=profile). Over the last couple of months, they brought up several less known works by artist like Van Gogh or Picasso, but also pointed me to artists I had never heard of, both from the U.S. and other parts of the world, contemporary, “modern” and traditional.
Anselm Kiefer 1981 Margarete
Recently I tagged the painting “Margarete” (1981) by Anselm Kiefer (German, born 1945), because I wanted to keep track of it for Part 5 of this course, as an inspiration for mixed media approaches. It is an oil painting which includes bundles of straw. The painting’s subject is embedded in Kiefer’s engagement with German History and the Nazi era. Margarete refers to a personnage in Paul Celan’s poem “Death Fugue”. Much symbolism can be read in the intertwining of straw and oil colour. I’m particularly interested in the haptic qualities of that painting and the use of unusual materials. I guess I’m going to do more research on Kiefer.
Sue Hubbard on Anselm Kiefer’s work and the relationship to Paul Celan’s poem: http://suehubbard.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=109&cntnt01returnid=57
Brian Eskill 2014 Road close to home
A second important source of inspiration is the Facebook Group “En Plein Air Paintings”, where contemporary professional and amateur artists post their recent paintings. The group has around 11000 members mostly in the U.S., but also in other contries, with often 20 or more postings per day. The submissions cover a broad range of styles and are very interesting to follow. I haven’t posted there yet because I consider my attempts too weak to present them to a broader audience. But the value of the group for me is in seeing so many different styles and approaches, and I learn from looking at the paintings and how others solved problems I encountered myself.
Today there was a painting I found particularly interesting and very successful. It is by Brian Eskill, his first posting to the group. I think he’s relatively young and completely unknown as an artist, maybe an art student. But the painting impressed me because it is such a successful translation of an apparently uninteresting suburb road into a painting that’s pleasant to look at, with a great composition and harmonious choice of colours.
I appreciate how the artist has simplified the shapes of houses, cars and trees, and how he suggests rather than explicitly painting everything he sees. The painting style reminds me a bit of Edward Hopper but is livelier because it retains the “rough edges” where Hopper smoothed and cleaned. I’m totally impressed and think this is the way I’d like to go as well, apart from suspecting this artist will make his way. The style is not directly transferable to watercolours, but the approach would work for me similarly: Reduction of details, retaining the essentials, and keeping it light and lively.
Brian Eskill 2014 Road before the house
Posted to the Facebook group “En Plein Air” Paintings
https://www.facebook.com/groups/104484319588591/?fref=nf