SUMI INK PROJECT

What is SUMI INK? Sumi is black ink made from a mixture of plant soot and glue solidified into sticks or cakes the ends of which are scraped or ground into water on an ink slab, much used by calligraphers and painters (Sumi).

Here is a great link to learn more about sumi ink, brushes and materials:
http://www.sumiesociety.org/whatissumie.php (Jaranson).

Our Project Poster and Invitation:

Our Sumi project was an assignment for our Drawing II (advanced) class. I think it was a success. I got quite a bit of feedback from our event as many of the participants were friends, and coworkers. As every project, some comments were positive and some not as positive but I know everyone enjoyed the project. Daily Messenger reporter Denise met with us in the Wood Library and wrote an awesome article about our upcoming project:

Here is what I found out. All participants enjoyed the projects. Some thought it was a great way to get away everyday busy times, some just wanted to be part of this piece and become timeless artists. Others, and there are quite a few, truly enjoyed the projects so much, they dusted of their old drawing and painting gear and picked up painting again! Some participants really felt the connection with others by adding a mark of their own.

There were a few people that wished to have more time to think and practice, rather than being handed a brush and paint. Several people were not comfortable with thick brush, but they were simple handed a brush and paint and they kind of felt lost. I remember we agreed on handing brushes dipped in the ink, but people ended up holding the cups and causing runny drips, which covered other people's artwork. I feel we should have more control over it. Many of these people have never painted with an ink, and it would be helpful to just hand them the brushes. All in all, I think the project went well.

We rotated the canvas. It was a great idea! Some painters had a hard time painting that way, once they saw other pieces painted (just and observation). As far as drawing over other people's work.... I feel this got a little out of hands at the end. There were drawings that got completely covered, or changed into something completely different. Yes, adding on to complement is fine, but taking what was there and repainting over it and covering the entire drawing of someone else's was just not nice. Some people came back and their mark was gone and someone completely painted over it. Again, it's all about controlling the project and enforcing the rules, if there should be any.

I cannot thank enough to our community and their generosity. I knew Canandaigua is awesome and very generous. I am beyond thankful to the Wood library for hosting out event, Mary from Michaels for reaching in her pocket and covering the cost of our canvas, Walmart for providing us with a gift card to purchase, ink, and cleaning materials, Canandaigua carpets for giving us a nice piece of carpet rather than using a drop cloth, and a friend for purchasing brushes for our event. Reaching out to the local news paper was a great idea as well. I am still being approached by people, talking about this project, saying what a great asset this was for the local community. I am truly grateful.

At the end, I feel this was a very important project and I learned so much from it! Some of us never even heard of a sumi ink projects and creating a public event with something we are not familiar with and succeeding is a HUGE SUCCESS on it's own. We all made mistakes, and learned! Even our collaboration... I feel it's great we didn't agree on all terms.... it shows all of us have different opinions, different style, different standards and the obstacles are make us think more and work harder. On the other hand, being and artist and collaborator is extremely hard and I learned that about myself for sure! I have a long way to go and many things to learn!

Here is our final project!

Denise, our reporter published another article after the event:

References:

"Sumi." Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/sum. Accessed Aug 8, 2018.

Jaranson, Carla. www.sumiesociety.org/whatissumie. Accessed Aug 8, 2018.

Vincent van Gogh

Photo Of Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30th, 1853 in Zundert Netherlands. When he was 16, he got a job with a company that was selling paintings. He wasn't very good as a businessman but he loved art. He also worked as a teacher and a preacher, but his heart was set for art. At the age of 27, he decided to become an artist. He learned by copying other artists' work.

Vincent wasn't very close to his father, but had a great bond with his younger brother Theo, who was an art dealer, and always supported Vincent's passion for art and encouraged him to keep painting. He was always there for Vincent. In 1886 Vincent moved to Paris, France but because of his sharp tongue and bad temper, other artists were not too fond of him. He eventually settled down and made some friends (Zaczek 7).

He truly wanted to found a colony of artists and asked Paul Gauguin to join him. Later, they stopped getting along and Vincent threatened him with a razor and cut part of his own ear off. This is when his mental illness started. He spent a couple of weeks in the hospital recovering. Image 1 is a self-portrait of Vincent with bandages on after he cut his ear off:

Image 1. Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear

Vincent painted over 40 portraits of himself. In the above Image 1, he is wearing a hat and a coat indoors which shows, he was still not doing too well healthwise. This portrait was painted in one of the worse times of his life. The Japanese painting behind him was a reminder of his dream to start an artist colony along with Paul Gauguin (Zaczek 8).

Vincent van Gogh's style had several different looks. First was called IMPASTO and second one was called SWIRLY LINES.

Image 2. Van Gogh's painting styles

Vincent's work was influenced by Impressionist artists, and he prefer painting from real life rather than his imagination (Zaczek 11).

Vincent painted lots of pictures with Sunflowers. He rented a house in Arles, and when he expected the arrival of his friend, painter Paul Gauguin, he planned on decorating his bedroom with many paintings of sunflowers (Zaczek 14). Sunflowers are used by artists as symbols of happiness and friendship. Sunflowers are  my favorite flowers too!

Image 3. Sunflowers

Another great piece of Vincent van Gogh is the Artist's Bedroom in Arles. As mentioned before, he loved painting images from life, not imagination.

Image 4. The Artist's Bedroom in Arles

The artist used very bright colors and unlike others, he uses solid outlines for most objects. The walls were in a strange angle and if you look closer, you can see the thickly applied paint, which was his style. I picked this images because I thought it is very neat to see the artist actual bedroom.

Last image I selected is the Starry Night. I have seen this painting before and it is a very famous piece. Vincent painted this picture in the hospital in 1889, when he was very sick and was having crazy, dark thoughts. He used dashes and long wavy lines to give impression of the glow of the moonlight (Zaczek 23).

Image 5. Starry Night

Vincent was very sick with mental illness and spent 12 months in the hospital. He shot himself on July 27, 1890 and died 2 days later in the age of 37, on July 29th, 1890 with his brother by his side.

Even though he was an artist for 10 years only, he painted nearly 900 paintings!

I love his style. I like the texture in his paintings, and like the color palettes he used for his paintings. Sometimes he used a few colors only and made different shades of that color and other times he used bigger variety. I am really happy I got to research this artist. I have known his name, but studying his life story and his painting styles was just a great experience!

References:

Zaczek, Iain. Great Artists - Vincent van Gogh. Gareth Stevens Publishing, 2015.

Image 1. Self-portrait with a bandaged ear (Zaczek 25). 

Image 2. Van Gogh's painting style (Zaczek 11).

Image 3. Sunflowers (Zaczek 15).

Image 4. The Artist's Bedroom in Arles (Zaczek 18-19).

Image 5. Starry Night (Zaczek 22-23).

Mary Cassatt

Photo of Mary Cassatt (Wood 4)

Mary Cassatt was born on May 22nd, 1844in Pennsylvania. She had six siblings, but two died in their early years. Her family was wealthy and her parents considered traveling as an important part of their children's education. They traveled many European countries and cities. Mary could speak fluent German and French (Wood 4).

At the age of sixteen, she attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, but left the institution  after four years as she felt the slow pace of teaching was not productive and also, female were not allowed to draw life models (Wood 5). 

Image 1. Reading Le Figaro (1878) A portrait of Mary Cassatt's Mother.

In 1866 she moved to Paris to continue studying art. She had a very strong bond with her mom, that came along with her as a chaperone. Since women were not allowed to attend famous Paris Art school, she studied privately with some of the teachers, Jean-Leon Gerome and Thomas Couture. She also learned a lot from copying paintings from the Louvre Museum (Wood 6).

In 1808, her painting "A Mandoline Player" was exhibited in one of the famous Paris salons. She was one of the first American Artists to be displayed there. 

 Image 2. A Mandoline Player (1868)

She Returned back to the United States in 1870 after a war started between Prussia and France. Her father refused to encourage and fund her artistic education so she attempted to sell her paintings. Unfortunately, no one was buying them. In 1871 she had an exhibition of her art in Chicago, but lost all of her pieces in the Great Chicago Fire (Wood 8). 

Cassatt received an offer from archbishop of Pittsburgh to copy two famous religious paintings from Parma, Italy (Wood 9). This opened a new opportunity to make money and return to Europe. 

She was known especially for painting mothers with children and their special bond. She specifically handpicked her models without being related. This way she got exactly what she wanted to paint. She painted children the way they were naturally, without making them to look overly cute. She loved painting their clumsy movements and odd expressions.

Image 3. Child in a Straw Hat (1886)

Mary Cassatt died in Paris on June 14th, 1926 in the age of 82. She influenced people's opinion about art and women artists. 

Image 4. The Child's Bath (1886)

I really enjoyed studying Mary Cassatt. Her subject style is very much like mine. I love photographing children, their bond among each other and their moms. I too prefer capturing children with their natural expressions. Her paintings are very expressive, colorful and beautiful. I truly lover her style and her subjects.

References:

Wood, Alix. Artists Through the Ages - Mary Cassatt. Windmill Books, 2016.

Image 1: Reading Le Figaro - A portrait of Mary Cassatt's Mother (1878) (Wood 11).

Image 2: A Mandoline Player (1886) Wood 7).

Image 3: Child in a Straw Hat (1886) (Wood 21).
Image 4: The Child's Bath (1898) (Wood19).

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Photo of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

De Toulouse-Lautrec was born on November 24, 1864 in Albi, France. 
“He pursued painting as a youth and went on to create innovations in lithograph drawing” (Haynes). He was born with a rare bone disease condition, similar to today’s dwarfism, where his body was an average size, but his legs significantly shortly. At the age of 14, he fell and broke one of his legs, and later broke the other leg. Due to his health conditions, he never really fully recovered and he had a hard time walking. During his convalescence he kept busy by drawing and painting a lot. He died on September 9, 1901 at the age of 36, due to heavy drinking, and various illnesses (Haynes).  

Image 1. Self Portrait in Front of Mirror (1882) 

Self-portrait of Henri is a beautiful piece of art. After studying this painting closely, I noticed, he included the mirror used for his self-portrait. I really like this piece.

Henri attended several schools in Paris, Bonnats’ Studio and Cormon’s studio among others, where he learned different techniques (Gruitrooy 6). He was mainly a portrait and poster painter. He painted variety of subjects, closeups, full length, he painted them in still sitting or in motion (Gruitrooy 69). His paintings were full of life, describing the people’s personality, feelings, or lifestyle. 

Image 2. Moulin Rouge: La Goulue (1891) 

This poster of the Moulin Rouge advertisement, was one of Lautrec’s pieces that made him famous for life (Gruitrooy 31). His ability to portray the uplifting spirit and fun in the Moulin Rouge, the famous dance hall in the center of Montmartre was priceless. I have seen his posters as a framed art in the past, but I never knew it was Lautrec’s art. I am glad to learn the artists behind these phenomenal paintings.

Image 3. Study for Woman Putting on Her Stocking (1894)

Unlike Picasso, a painter I studied previously, Lautrec’s paintings mostly seemed very realistic. When I saw his art for the first time, I noticed the brown background on many of his paintings. I learned he used cardboard quite a bit for his art. This added an interesting touch to his art. It almost seems like the picture is already half way painted before he started, as the brown base gave him opportunity to focus on what is was going to paint. 

Image 4. The Young Routy (1883)

I really liked this artist. As I mentioned before, I have seen his art around, I just didn’t know who the artist was. I am excited learning about these talented painters. I love his style, and I really enjoy his portraits. They are very realistic, and the mood and spirit are so well portrayed! I also love his ability to use one color and use so many other shades of that color in his paintings! Amazing. He had several different styles, but his theme of painting people was always present.

References:

Gruitrooy, Gerhard. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. New Line Books Limited, 2006.
Haynes, Clarence. "Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec. "Biography.com, A&E Networks Television,  15 Nov. 2017.

          www.biography.com/people/henri-de-toulouse-lautrec-9509115. Accessed May 27, 2018. 

Image 1: Self Portrait in Front of Mirror (1882) (Gruitrooy 5).
Image 2: Moulin Rouge: La Goulue (1891) (Gruitrooy 29).
Image 3: Study for Woman Putting on Her Stocking (1894) (Gruitrooy 114).
Image 4: The Young Routy (1883) (Gruitrooy 10).
Photo of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: https://discovertarn.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/henriatwork.jpg

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain and died on April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France. He was a Spanish writer, painter, poet, and sculptor who spent most of his life in France.

Photo of Pablo Picasso

I must admit, after seeing his first pieces, before I researched this artist, I was a bit puzzled by his style. At first glance, his art seemed dark, twisted and hard to recognize what goes where. After reading a few books, researching online and watching him paint on a DVD movie “The Mystery of Picasso”, I felt a little more comfortable with his art (Clouzot).

Image 1. Woman in an armchair, 1929 by Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso didn’t have only one style. He had many of them. Looking through his paintings, there are some that have strong “Picasso” features: he often painted large eyes; L shaped noses, and used a lot of straight lines. At times, I feel like some of his paintings looked like a kid painted it. He used a lot of circles and X shapes in his pieces. This can be seen in his movie “the Mystery of Picasso” (Clouzot). Watching him paint, I noticed he never spent too much time on one part of his painting. He would make a small mark in one place and moved on to a completely different section of his painting. The amazing part of his art was, that he could start painting one idea, and as he continued painting , his original idea was completely changed into a completely different subject, for example: he started painting flowers, and a few moments later, the flowers were a part of a fish, and that fish suddenly became a hen! This was the best part of watching the movie. On the other hand, some of his pieces were different. I invited my children to watch this artist with me. All of us starred at the TV with our mouths open, trying to guess what his painting will end up being, which was fun, along with spending a little extra time with the kiddos.

Some of Picasso’s art pieces were painted using the Cubism style, which was developed between 1908-1912. “Analytic cubists "analyzed" natural forms and reduced the forms into basic geometric parts on the two-dimensional picture plane” (Pablo Picasso). His paintings could be recognized as he combines some of his other styles along with cubism. Those art pieces looked like someone cut pieces of paper and glued them together creating a picture.

Image 2. Three Musicians, 1921 by Pablo Picasso

All in all, did I like Picasso’s style? I am not sure. His art is definitely interesting, but is twisted in some ways. Many of his pieces make you look twice, or study them closer to actually figure out what he was trying to say in those paintings. On the other hand, I learned some fun facts about him: Picasso’s full name has 23 words! He was baptized Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. Also, his first word was “Pencil” (Pablo Picasso). Wasn’t that fun to learn?!

References:

Clouzot, Henri-Georges, director. The Mystery of Picasso (Le mystère Picasso). Film Sonor, MK2, 1956.
Image 1: Woman in an armchair, 1929 by Pablo Picasso (https://www.pablopicasso.org/woman-in-an- armchair.jsp)
Image 2: Three Musicians, 1921 by Pablo Picasso (https://www.pablopicasso.org/three-musicians.jsp)
“Pablo Picasso and His Paintings.” Pablo Picasso: 150 Famous Paintings, Biography & Quotes by Picasso,
www.pablopicasso.org/, accessed May 14, 2018.
Photo of Picasso: https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/monografia/picasso/