by Sandy | Nov 5, 2023 | Art, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums
The Whitney Museum, NYC, presents: “Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945”.
“Mexico underwent a radical cultural transformation at the end of its Revolution in 1920. A new relationship between art and the public was established, giving rise to art that spoke directly to the people about social justice and national life… It galvanized artists in the United States who were seeking to break free of European aesthetic domination to create publicly significant and accessible native art.”
The exhibition contains about 200 works by 60 Mexican and American artists, including José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945
Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street, NYC
(Image: David Alfaro Siqueiros, Echo of a Scream, 1937)
~~~ *** ~~~
by Sandy | Oct 21, 2023 | Art, Blogroll, Museums
Closed for 2 years, the “National Museum of Women in the Arts“, or NMWA, has reopened.
It is one of many museums in the DC area, but this one is special because it “is the only major museum in the world solely dedicated to recognizing women’s creative contributions.”
Created in 1987,with more “than 4,000 works, NMWA’s wide-ranging collection provides a comprehensive survey of art by women from the 16th century to the present, with new acquisitions added regularly”.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
New York Avenue and 13th Street, NW, DC
(“Cuatro Pescaditos”, Graciela Iturbide – Oaxaca, Mexico, 1986)
***
by Sandy | Oct 11, 2023 | Art, Blogroll, Culture
“Experience the beauty and complexity of Blackness in Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo’s debut solo museum exhibition Soul of Black Folks.”
Love his portraits. Love how he does skin.
“When I’m making paintings,
I want the characters to be strong,
I want them to be free,
I want them to be independent,
I want them to be unapologetic.”
— Amoako Boafo
Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks
SEATTLE ART MUSEUM
Simonyi Special Exhibition Galleries
by Sandy | Sep 2, 2023 | Artist, Blogroll
Ok! It’s that time of year again. Noticed all the college Instagram posts and all the college football on TV. Twitter was full of clips of HBCU marching groups, with their fancy Drum Majors, big bands and cheerful Cheer leaders. All the best to them!
Watching reminds me of the image above. Can’t you just hear his whistle, the brass section, the drums? Strut on.
I Love it!
A former football player turned artist, Mr Barnes’s work, filled with sports figures and images of everyday people, is known for his use of bright color and elongated figures.
Ernie Barnes’, 1939 – 2009, “Drum Major”.
~~~***~~~
[ad#review-2a]
by Sandy | Aug 21, 2023 | Art, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums
“This exhibition is the first major survey of Joan Brown (American, 1938–1990) in over 20 years, and offers a compelling look at the prolific career of a painter known for her large-scale, high-key portraits of family, animals, and herself.”
Joan Brown
Carnegie Museum of Art
Heinz Galleries until Sept. 24, 2023
by Bob Martin | Aug 6, 2023 | Art, Drawing
Sketching in general entails 4 distinct steps: line, tone, texture, and shape. In the special case of pencil portrait drawing we can refine the list of steps to six: shape, proportion, anatomy, texture, tone, and planes.
Sketching in general entails 4 distinct steps: line, tone, texture, and shape. In the special case of pencil portrait drawing we can refine the list of steps to six: shape, proportion, anatomy, texture, tone, and planes.
In this article we will give a detailed description of each of those pencil portrait drawing steps.
(1) Form Shape or Shape – The illusion of three-dimensionality in sketching and art in general has been central to Western art for centuries. The carving out of shape using line, structure, and tone was vital to almost all Renaissance art.
On the other hand, oriental and much contemporary art stress flatness of shape although this era in contemporary art is drawing to a close.
All shape in sketching can be reduced to 4 basic 3-dimensional solids: bricks, cones, cylinders, and spheres. The correct use of these shapes together with perspective and tone leads to the illusion of 3-dimensionality even though the drawing is, in reality, located on a two-dimensional sheet of sketching paper.
In portrait sketching, the arabesque of the skull, the square structure of the skull, and all elements within the skull (nose, eyes, etc.) are all two- and 3-dimensional shapes that contribute to the overall illusion of 3-dimensionality
(2) Proportion – encompasses all sizing and placements of shape. Proportion refers to the concept of relative length and angle size.
Proportion gives answers to these two questions:
1. Given a defined unit of length, how many units is a particular length?
2. How large is this particular angle?
Answering these 2 questions consistently accurately will yield a drawing with the right proportions and placements of all shapes.
(3) Anatomy – refers essentially to the underlying structures of bone and muscle of the skull.
It is essential to study as much as you can about anatomy. There are a lot of studies available on anatomy for artists. For a portrait artist it is particularly significant to understand the anatomy of the skull, neck, and shoulders.
Anatomy studies unfortunately include many Latin terms which makes it somewhat complicated to grasp. The idea is to study slowly and a little bit at a time because it can be quite frustrating.
(4) Texture – in portrait sketching expresses the degree of roughness or smoothness of the shapes. The texture of a concrete walk way, for instance, is quite different from that of a cloud.
There are quite a few techniques and tricks to assist you with the creation of the correct textures. Creating textures gives you the chance to be very creative and to use each possible type of mark you can make with a pencil. In portrait sketching textures occur in spots such as hair, clothing, and skin.
(5) Tone – refers to the degrees in light or dark of the pencil marks and cross-hatchings. Powerful portrait sketches employ the full range of contrasting lights and darks. Beginning artists many times fail to achieve this full “stretch” of tone, resulting in retiring, washed-out drawings.
(6) Planes – create the sculptural sensibility of a portrait. The skull has many planes each with a unique direction and therefore with a different tone.
The idea is to think of the surface of the skull as a collection of distinct planes with a certain direction relative to the light source. You should try to identify each of the planes and draw its correct form and tone.
The correct handling of planes contributes a lot to the likeness of your model as well as the illusion of 3-dimensionality.
(Originally posted Jan 2, 2021)
Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait drawing? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing course here: portrait drawing tutorial.
Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and expert drawing teacher. See his work at pencil portraits by Remi.
P.S. For the fancy art of the 21st century and video games – visit buy PlayStation 3 info blog.
[ad#reviewpost]
~ / ~
by Bob Martin | Jul 9, 2023 | Art, Artist, Creativity
I’m asked “Why did you give a certain name to a painting” and I don’t know. Sometimes it just shows up in my head. Nothing deep or heavy, it just sounds right.
This painting was done this morning, mostly with a pallet knife and some glazes. The edges reminded me of glass. That is about as close as I can get to “why” this name.
Originally posted July 18, 2008
Chipped Glass (c) B. Martin ’08
********
by Sandy | Jul 3, 2023 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, CDs, music
Ms Streisand was all over PBS a few years ago with her show “Barbra Streisand: One Night Only At the Village Vanguard”. She can still touch people with her voice and it was fun to listen and watch her wrap her tiny audience (the NYC club only seats about 150) around her finger – or vocal chords in this case. She is still amazing.
I wanted to hear more, so dug I out an old Barbra Streisand record “The Broadway Album” (yes, “album” – like I said “old”, but now on CD) and again was in awe of her renditions of some great songs from past musicals. I have a weakness for Broadway show tunes, especially those songs from Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gershwin – music from Porgy & Bess, Carousel, West Side Story, The King & I, etc. This music appeals to me because it usually has a story to tell, an emotion to crystallize, a longing to express.
Over the years, these little song poems, have become “standards” – they haven’t gone away, they are being sung someplace, somewhere every day. Whether in person or on CD, Ms Streisand’s versions are beautiful, soaring, romantic, funny & perfect.
Barbra Streisand – a treasure!
(Originally posted May 2020)
~~*~~
by Sandy | Jun 17, 2023 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums, Photograhy
Ansel Adams in Our Time: The Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, CA presents a group of more than 100 pieces of his work.
“Laid out in seven sections tracing Adams’s artistic development, the exhibition features some of his most-loved photographs, including images of Yosemite, San Francisco, and the American Southwest.”
Ansel Adams in Our Time
Until July 23, 2023
Image : Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite ~ Ansel Adams, 1902 – 1984
by Cybel Martin | Jun 11, 2023 | Art, Film, Movies
BY CYBEL MARTIN for Shadow and Act/Indiwire
“It’s always good to make up for a lack of (financial) means with an increase in imagination.”
— Wim Wenders
*Originally posted – Dec. 6, 2013*
Friends who know me, know I really dislike talking about limitations. I prefer to dream big and be optimistic. I’m a “let’s put on a show! ” type optimist.
However, I will need to dip my toe into the murky pool of limitations for a second. Stay with me.
There are a lot of indie films being made with fascinating stories. Yet too many have mediocre to painful to look at visuals and poor production value. We can adjust our approach to storytelling and raise the bar of expectations regardless of budget.
I’m sure that I speak for many DPs. I’ve no delusions of shooting the next Bond film but hoped for more, given my experience, education & resources, than interviewing to shoot on a 5D in the director’s apartment. I “should” be shooting features with $3-10m budgets but US film production has lost it’s middle class. Or as DP Ryan Walters says in his post “Three Reasons Why It’s Bad Business to be a Cinematographer”, there is an “evaporation of the middle market”.
I love our Indie Film producers, even though they speak with limitations. Many are of the “we don’t have. You can’t have” variety. A film crew’s natural instinct is to problem solve & figure a way to make your film better. However, many producers hear our requests as saying they are incompetent or that crew wants to cheat them out of more money. Make too many suggestions & we can be labelled difficult and replaced. So we keep quiet. And you get what you get.
In 2012, 2% of films were shot by female DPs. When I am offered a gig, the last thing I want to do is lose it to someone who “looks more like a DP” because my inquiries and suggestions deem me “hard to work with”.
In the same way I gave advice that 1st time doc filmmakers are unlikely to hear, here are some creative suggestions I wish low budget directors would entertain and their producers be open to.
If you do nothing else, seriously consider your approach to camera movement and scene coverage.
1 Shoot High End & Rearrange the Budget. I’m prepping a low budget feature to hopefully shoot in 2014. I told my director (Don’t worry, she’s on the hunt to attach the right producer) that if we shot on 35mm or the Alexa, I guarantee we would not rent Grip/Electric equipment. The only exception would be if she wanted a dolly or car rig. I’m very comfortable with both the Alexa and Kodak stocks. I know the combination of latitude, how I can manipulate available light and decisions made with the Production Designer, will create the director’s desired look. I’d commit to not changing the total amount budgeted for cinematography, just how we allocated funds.
Shooting 35mm for a low budget feature film is nothing new. “George Washington”, “Duck Season”, “Napoleon Dynamite”, “Pariah” and “Chop Shop” were all impressively shot on 35mm for budgets under $1 million.
For inspiration on how to shoot with an Alexa and mostly available light, read about DP Yves Belanger’s work on “Dallas Buyers Club”.
2 Hire a Professional Production Designer as a Consultant. A PD’s ability to elevate a story via color, space and furnishings is it’s own form of wizardry yet frequently an afterthought in low budget films. Before putting your best friend’s unemployed roommate in charge, see if you can consult with a pro. Pay them well for three days work (instead of 2 months) to offer suggestions on the overall look of your film, advice on which resources and locations are budget friendly and to recommend crew who can do the “day to day” and operate successfully within your limitations. Ask how they’d like to be credited.
3 Color. I’ve already discussed at length the importance of color. Also see “Blue Caprice” for white wall interiors handled beautifully and “The Loneliest Planet” for subtle yet stylized use of color in nature.
4 Radical Story = Radical Visuals. Don’t play it safe visually if your film is crafting a new “reality”. Consider: “28 Days Later”, “Eraserhead”, “Pi”, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. A new reality means you and your creative team can experiment and redefine what NYC looks and feels like at 120 degrees (in December) or how someone’s vision changes when they’re “one of the infected”. Have fun, be bold and let your restrictions work in your favor.
5 Go International. Adding footage from a different country can have immense visual impact on your story and in explaining the inner lives of your protagonists. Hire a filmmaker friend in another country to shoot b-roll. In a similar vein, shoot visually captivating insert shots that don’t require actors nor much crew. I was extremely moved by the time lapse in “Boys Don’t Cry”.
6 One Hyper Realistic Scene. If your budget, resources and narrative dictate simple visuals, see if one scene can be stylized to play against that. I don’t want to spoil it but there is a perfect example in “Dallas Buyers Club”. Low budget horror films will do the same: save their money for one big scare or special FX. Budget for a lean crew and hire “day players” when needed.
7 Shoot B/W. It gives the lowest budgeted film a certain panache. Even subjects that you think “should be shot in color” can be more effective in black/white.
8 Sound Affects Cinematography. Poor location audio can ruin the most gorgeous of images. Innovative sound design can make them more powerful. I can’t imagine my beloved “There Will Be Blood” without “the work of Christopher Scarabosio and Matthew Wood. Instead of spending money on music rights, collaborate with your Sound Dept. Tap into their creativity the same way you would with your DP.
Access is key. What do you have free access to that you take for granted?
9 Access to a Vehicle (motorcycle, car, bus, boat, hoveround). I recently saw “Bellflower” ($17k budget). It benefits from a unique twisted premise, an extremely crafty DP and a road trip. It’s amazing how a change in terrain makes me feel like they’ve spent a lot of money. Think “Easy Rider”, “Y Tu Mama Tambien”, “Thelma and Louise”, “Little Miss Sunshine”.
10 Access to a Visually Unique Location. Before you set a scene in your dorm room or parents’ suburban home, ask yourself where else do you have access? Production value increases even more if you can show the “behind the scenes” of a location. Access to your aunt’s jewelry shop? Also film in the back where she does repairs.
11 Access to a Major Public Event. Protests, holiday fireworks, parades, carnivals etc. This is my favorite. Examples are “Get On the Bus”, “Medium Cool”, “La Haine”, “Blow Out”, “The Official Story”. Take advantage of someone else’s big budget or event planning. The b/w photo above (Actress Susan Heyward with my 2nd unit camera op) was taken while filming a narrative during the 2009 Inauguration in DC.
12 Access to a Niche Culture. A glimpse into another community offers immeasurable production value. It can provide not often seen locations, costumes or people. Your Capoeira club. Your Dad’s union meetings. When you have access, creatively exploit it: b-roll, using real people as extras, consider how it reflects on your protag and their journey (see the Housing Rights Committee scene in “Medicine for Melancholy”).
13 Access to Under-represented Weather. Does every exterior scene take place on a partly sunny day? That may be easiest to film but snow, during or after the rain (see “wet down“) or fog could be more dramatic. The short film, “A Story of Water”, co-directed by Truffaut & Godard wonderfully takes advantage of the flooding of Villeneuve Saint George.
14 Access to Other Arts/Artists. Are you also a visual artists? Use photography (opening scene of “My Brother the Devil” and of course “La Jetee”) or animation. Almodovar is brilliant at incorporating known performers into his films. Buika, in the “The Skin I Live In”, was more than a beautiful singer, she epitomized “enchantment”. The same could be said of his use of Caetano Veloso and Piña in “Talk to Her”. Cooking is also an art. Think of all the films with beautiful cooking sequences.
15 Access to Your Old Films. You can use footage from your previous shorts, docs, or film tests for atmosphere, for flashbacks (see “The Limey”), for dream sequences etc. Unfortunately we all have films we are extremely proud of but couldn’t finish. Can you recycle that footage?
Finishing a film of any genre, length or budget is a huge accomplishment. More people talk about it, critique it than can actually pull it off. I hope I acknowledged our limitations but left you armed with new creative tools to make a good film great.
***
