Posts tagged ‘Nicholas_de_Stael’
Even though I’m not that into painting flowers
Even though I’m not that into painting flowers, somehow I managed to create three paintings all about flowers at the end of the summer.
It started when I saw a picture of a Nicholas de Stael painting of flowers in a vase. I was looking at a bunch of vases and a lot of flowers in the still life set-up at the Art Students League and, well, why not try to make my painting look a little like de Stael’s? After a few fixes, here it is.
Flowers a la de Stael 11×15 $750
Emboldened by my first attempt, I decided to try again two days later…
Flowers a la de Stael II 18 x 24 $1,400
Not to be outdone, I gave it another try two days after that with a different vase and flowers. Somehow they seem to be getting less and less abstract.
Flowers III 18 x 24 $1,400
I don’t know which I like more.
Evolution of a painting – how it ended
On July 31, I posted “Evolution of a painting” and wrote about how my painting based on the still life set-up at the Art Students League and a B&W image of a de Stael painting evolved. This blog is about how it ended.
The previous blog stopped with this almost final version of the painting:
Next iteration
And then I lightened the purple bar at the top, washed out and then enlarged the top of the vase so it moves under the purple bar, and added the golden yellow (mostly cad yellow) box at the right to continue the movement of the yellow from the left.
So this is Jade Vase (a la de Stael).
Jade Vase 18 x 24 $1400
Evolution of a painting
Sometimes paintings just spring from your forehead (so to speak) like in mythology. On the other hand, most of the time you have to work at it. This blog outlines the evolution of a painting: how it starts, what you do next, and then after that, and after that…
This example is interesting because it combines picking and choosing from the complex still life set up at the League, my interest in a Nicholas de Stael painting (which I only could see in black and white), and the demands of the painting I was creating.
First the set up (or at least the part of the set up I decided to focus on):
ASL Set Up
Then, my first stab at a painting:
My first stab at the painting
And then, the de Stael painting (B&W version only) that I decided to use as inspiration:
N. de Stael painting (B&W version)
So I eliminated the fabric and by also eliminating perspective flattened and raised up the table top. I added legs for the table, a bar on the top right and expanded on the colors to come down from the left corner and move over the table. The purple vase was too strong so I washed it out.
Next iteration
I darkened the space under the table and used my dirty water (created by cleaning my brushes after painting all the colors so far) to darken the surface on the left.
Next iteration
Well, I’m not sure where I go with this next. Frank (bless him) says my version is already better that de Stael’s and (of course) who am I to argue.
Yet another “to be continued…”
Ruth Hurd | BLOG 