My artists pick for chapter four

9/21/11 This week’s artists in Chapter Four:

I am fascinated by the techniques of implied light: Modeling Mass in two dimensions.
First, Manuel Alvarez Bravo: The visit (photograph):

Leonardo da Vinci: The Virgin Birth and Saint Anne with Christ Child and John the Baptist (Charcoal, black and white chalk on brown paper):

Being color deficient (not color blind), I have always been intimidated by art and color knowledge /color wheels etc…So when we are talking about dark and light, charcoal or very simple in color design or no colors, I get attracted to them believing that this may be where I need to go with trying my own artwork. The Visit has mystery with the illumination so close the robes, bottom more than top halves. It being a photo does not diminish its appeal or take- away lessons for other artists. With Da Vinci’s The Virgin Birth etc., there are also dark and light areas that highlight and create natural effects. There is the Charles White example of how to use stippling and cross hatching etc. These visual effects give me hope that my color deficiency may well enhance my abilities with these types of applications.

Raphael’s, “The Madonna of the Meadows” intrigues me for the same reasons I just mentioned.

I also work with refractive light theories in my occupation. The differences with how the light refracts off the faces as opposed to the landscape and clothing is a good way to highlight the subjects that the artist wants to stand out.

With Gericault’s, The Raft of the Medusa,

and it’s implied lines effect also have the light / dark contrasting appeal, creating mass and depth while the subjects and content highlight and produce movement and direction. I now see through these examples what art collectors and critics see that contributes to their favoring one artwork over another.

But the one of all of these that I would pick from them if I could would be Bravo’s, The Visit.

The subjects are both human and alien-like, and represent our human nature versus our spiritual nature. The spiritual side is the more illuminated side, and the human nature is in shadows. The light comes from without and above more than within, because we are created beings of a spirit being (in my view of life)...and we are all works in progress being transformed and hopefully becoming more peaceful in our nature which radiates out in appearance. I see waiting posture, possibly waiting for direction and guidance rather than moving and reacting. It is more realistic than the others, not so dramatic, and has a spiritual and quiet appeal. This is something I would put up on my walls at home.