In Progress 2

James Tissot

The painter James Tissot shows up as a minor character in a book I'm reading (Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders), so I've been checking him out.  Above is his portrait of Colonel Frederick Barnaby.

As a veteran of many life-drawing classes, the first thing I notice in this painting is the anatomical errors.  Barnaby apparently has two elbows in his distant arm, which is also way too long, and the length of the legs is so exaggerated that if the figure stood up, he would look like he was on stilts.

But there are also things I like about this painting.  I like the way the figure divides the page.  I like the handling of the map on the wall.  There's an interesting play-off between the strong, primitive black-white-and-red passages and the pastels around them.

Here's another portrait by Tissot, of the Marquise de Miramon:

This one has anatomical problems too -- the forward shoulder is tense, and the distant arm looks very unnatural.  But the handling of the drapery is superb, and I like the composition.  (I could do without some of the white objects cluttering the place up, though.)

After the death of his mistress, Tissot had a religious conversion and devoted the rest of his life to a cycle of paintings about the life of Christ (in the book I'm reading, Oscar Wilde remarks: "hasn't our Lord suffered enough?")  Here's one:

I like this painting -- I think it really shows Tissot's strengths in composition and graphic design.

More From Damien !#$&@ Hirst

Above, "Anthrafuchsone", by Damien Hirst, sold at Christie's for $562,196.00.

The Hirst Spot paintings are dull, dull, dull, but that's not really the point. It's not about making something interesting to look at, it's a money-laundering scheme. I recommend the documentary by Ben Lewis, The Great Contemporary Art Bubble.

In the NYTimes this morning, Damien Hirst's Spots Return to Fill 11 Galleries.

There were two parts of the article that piqued my interest:

... white cardboard models of all 11 Gagosian galleries were laid out on tables, with miniature reproductions of each canvas hanging on the models’ walls.

... [Hirst's] father, who was a car salesman in Leeds, in northern England, ... painted the door of their house with blue spots.

They should put the door and the cardboard models in one of the galleries. I'd rather look at them than another spot painting any day.

"Play" Show Opening This Week

Play Show at the Main Line Art Center

My paintings will be up from Dec. 16 to Jan. 11. If you're in the area, stop by!

In Progress 1

Here's how my new still life looks so far.

Over the past many years, I've accumulated several dresses printed with lively, interesting patterns (from a fair-trade website.) I bought them because I like the fabric, but the truth is that when I wear them I look like a badly upholstered couch.  I hardly ever wear dresses in any case. So they have found a new life as part of my still life designs.

You'll see that I've developed the fabric pretty well, while sketching in the owl and neglecting other parts of the painting entirely.   This is against the classical advice to develop all parts of the painting simultaneously, beginning with an all-over sketch.  I understand that the point behind this advice is to save time and effort, so you don't realize after finishing an object of the painting to within a millimeter of its life that you should have moved it over a couple of inches, but it's just not the way I think.  I assemble a painting more like a jigsaw puzzle, and if I have to tweak a "finished" passage later, that's life.  There are some legendary painters (Chuck Close?  Stuart Shils?) who start at one corner of the painting, work across to the other corner, and then declare themselves done, but I'm not at that extreme either.

Keep Painting!

My motto, "Keep Painting!", reminds me of this moment from Clarissa Dickson-Wright's memoir, Spilling the Beans:

... I kept going to AA meetings.  I would declare how wonderful sobriety was and people would look at me wryly and say, "Keep coming back."  I didn't see how they could possibly know though I must have reeked of gin.

Lewis Chessmen at the Cloisters

The Lewis Chessmen are visiting the Cloisters! Clearly I need to do the same.

Set-Up for the Next Painting