Influences

Okay! While I drink my morning coffee here (slow morning) I’d like to write a bit about some recent artistic influences. Talking about influences is a funny thing to me because so many of them are more subconscious and organic than conscious and rigid. It’s not like I conceive of a subject and then look at how my favorite artists did it and make a viewbook. It’s more that I will have an idea, probably vaguely shaped by another painting I once saw, and then I’ll start working it out and other things will come up, and I’ll search for something or discover something new, and eventually it will all coalesce into a composition. To capture that, I’m not going to talk only about my sources, but also the chronological process of remembering, discovering, and incorporating them. I will specifically focus on the most recent drawing I did for the center panel.

Source 1. My own recent work and experiences

One of my most exciting artistic developments of late is just simple continuity– I have some ideas that I have been exploring over a period of time. A couple weeks ago I did a large pencil drawing which is a self portrait in my kitchen.

This drawing had me thinking about using a familiar space to evoke emotion, and using my own figure as a prop. I am very interested in the human figure and love life drawing. I model for a figure group as well (yeah- live nude girl). Through modelling for the group I began to be able to see my own self as a form and not always a self. I saw many talented artists drawing me and learned from the ways they manipulated my body to capture my spirit, but also their own. I started working from my own self in this way. At first I thought it was narcissistic to draw myself two much but I realized two things: one, I am a little vain, so I might as well be honest about it, and two, it might be worse to pretend I can draw something I don’t know. It is honest to work within my sphere of emotional knowledge, which is yet small.

So, while I originally had a different composition planned, I decided it might be more evocative and honest to work within the confines of this gloriously familiar space– my own figure and my own kitchen.

 

Source 2. John Pack’s photography and lessons

Recently Ed commented that my drawings had a film sensibility. I know very little about film but I can guess where this is coming from. While I was abroad I took a digital photo class with John Pack which is retrospect had a HUGE impact on my developing aesthetic.

Using curves to manipulate the tonality of my photos allowed me to realize what I was drawn to much more quickly than I would have figured this out drawing. My photos at the time had a painterly sensibility that my drawings and paintings did not yet have, because I did not know that they needed it.

This photo by John is especially special to me:

Kambos, Paros, John Pack. Go to http://www.greaterjourney.org/Greater_Journey/the_journey.html to see more.

And here is one of my photos from the class:

This is not the best but the rest are Tiffs so this will have to do. In the photo class I developed a strong interest in mid-tones and a desire to make my greys sing!

 

Source 3. Andrew Wyeth and the Olsen House

I’m an Andrew Wyeth devotee. He was an incredible draftsperson. He was also much more radical than most people give him credit for. Recently we went to the Olsen House in Cushing and saw how he formed his compositions. This gave me a lot of license in my own formations. In working up this kitchen desk piece I had this watercolor in mind:

This is Christina in that crazy kitchen. One thing he does that really works– despite maintaining an overall appearance of detail and realism, most of the passages are simply tonal. The shadow areas are completely abstracted and the lightest areas in the windows are just brightness. Wyeth shows how to create better than reality. I kept this in mind for my own shadowy passages and windows.

 

Source 3. Robert Vickrey.

Vickrey is one of the first egg tempera artists I discovered. He wrote a great book on the subject. What I really look to him for is glancing light and shadow compositions. He almost always uses either a shadow or a flat pattern as a major part of his composition. I am also drawn to shadows, and a strong shadow fits well into the symbolism of my work right now. When I do the actual painting I will look to his figures, which have beautifully bleached-out highlights.

 

Source 4. Merode Triptych.

This was a symbolic influence as well as a visual one. Here, I was looking at both the figure of Mary and the way the rooms are so nicely contained by the borders. It was important to me that my room also fit within the borders. Mary’s reading also inspired me, and I twisted it so that my central figure was writing. Mary is demure and passive and waiting to be filled. A writing figure is a different story.

 

Source 5. Simone Martini’s Annunciation

The use of pattern and treatment of textiles in this piece has stuck with me since I saw it in Florence this fall. The textiles are not so beautiful in this image but in real life the Angel’s plaid cloak and the hem of the Virgin’s robe just sing. It is not obvious in my drawing but the dress I am wearing has a distinct floral pattern. I plan to emphasize that decorative element and contrast it with the pattern in the floor and the squares of the window. I also included the same pattern in those decorative triangle bits between the center painting and the sky. I think this will create a pleasing play between the frame and the interior, the decorative and the real.

 

Source 6. Vermeer.

Midway through this drawing I started thinking of Vermeer. I love the Northern Europeans and Vermeer holds a special place in my heart. Once I thought of him I could really see some connections between what I am aiming for and his work. A connection I had not thought of was the green and white checkered floor! Seriously, this floor is so important to me right now. It is my beloved.

Looking at the Vermeer’s really helped cement the direction of my composition. His genre paintings of people sitting and working at tables by the light of the window– perfect. I aimed for a similar feeling of quiet and homely grace.

 

After all that, here it is again, my final composition:

I hope this helps illuminate some of my thought process in the visual development of the thing. The symbolic and conceptual development is a different story for a different day.