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*For my process, I took reference photos, printed them, ripped them apart, and then rearranged them in a way to make the layout more interesting. I then drew my desired layout, created an underpainting in burnt sienna, and painted over it. 

*Paints used: Burnt sienna, ivory black, titanium white, raw sienna, cad red, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, and cad yellow.

*I feel like I was able to manipulate the body in a way that was successful and helped enhance my concept. 

*To improve, I could work on the third figure of my “Self Love” piece more. It is not as successful as the other two heads. 

*By making this painting, I learned that with a lot of thought and planning, I am able to create a more intriguing layout. With a strong layout and underpainting, I feel more confident with experimenting with my work. 

*Visually, I wanted to focus on what body dismorphia looks and feels like to me. I constantly feel the urge to crawl out of my skin and I always have multiple conflicting thoughts telling me that I deserve to feel confident and happy with myself, but then others telling me that I am unworthy and will never reach true happiness. 

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WORK IN PROGRESS

*For my process, I started with a sketch. Next I did an underpainting in burnt sienna and started laying down colors dark to light. I added a wash to the background and started laying down certain elements to paint over. 

*Paints: titanium white, ivory black, cad red, mars red, cobalt blue, raw sienna, burnt umber

*I think the shading in my legs is the most successful part about this painting so far but I still have a lot to improve and work on.

*To improve, I need to alter the skin tones a bit and definitely just finish the painting overall .

*I learned that painting larger does not have to be scary. It does take time though and I need to learn how to motivate myself to start painting earlier so when things come up, I am not trying to cram all of the painting into a few days. 

*Visually, I wanted to create an ironic and political painting about fake feminism.

*For this painting, I used Francisco Goya’s piece, The Injured Mason for inspiration. 

*My piece was inspired by the theme Piecing Together a Narrative because I used a painting that was made prior to 1900, restaged it, and painted a multi-figure work with modern concepts.

*I re-contextualized the narrative by removing the male figures and putting Kamala Harris and Krysten Sinema in their place. People praise these women for being the first black woman in in congress or the first bisexual member of the US senate and how young girls should look to them for inspiration. However, Harris incarcerated innocents in Syria and Sinema denied citizens a living wage while curtsying. Their feminism is fake because they don’t focus on solidarity, anti-racism, equality, and the working class. 

* For a traditional process, I start with a sketch and then move to an underpainting. For untraditional, I constantly paint, wipe away, add all new colors, wipe away, then come back the next day and maybe blend some of the colors with gamsol and a little bit of paint so the shades have no harsh edges.  

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*For my process, I started with a sketch. Next I mixed different shades of paint and laid them down in the areas where I thought they fit.

*The angle of violet’s head and her expression is probably the most successful part about this painting. 

*This painting is very much so a work in progress. I have many points to improve upon which include fixing the angle of Tate’s head, adding more of the tonal ranges that are part of the still, and adding more to the background. 

*I learned that time management is very important. I drew three different versions for this project but kept having trouble with choosing which one to go with. I struggled with mixing skin tones as well and ran out of time in the end so everything looks less than satisfactory. 

*Visually, I wanted to create a somber moment of Tate trying to save Violet from death.

*Conceptually I wanted to achieve the feeling of despair and distress. 

*My piece was inspired by the theme Painting and the Film Still because I chose moments from one of my favorite seasons of American Horror Story that I really connected with and felt many emotions towards. 

*I altered the original film still by adding a stream of water and changing the skin tones of the characters to the purple hue that was present in the background. 

*Paints: titanium white, ivory black, cad red, alizarin crimson, mars red, cobalt blue, italian terra rosa, burnt umber

*Medium: one half liquin to one half linseed oil

*For my process, I did not use a wash or underpainting, I sketched, and then laid down the desired colors. I started from darks and added highlights and the background and water last. 

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IMAGINATION SQUARED PROJECT

* For my process, I started with a pencil drawing and instead of making an underpainting, I went straight into mixing the different shades of skin tones I saw in the image, and laying them down in their appropriate spots. The background was the last addition to my painting.

* I believe I was more successful in getting different tonal ranges in the skin and not having them look too yellow or muddy.

* I could improve on highlights more and maybe some finer details. 

* By making this painting, I started to learn more about color matching the tones in my image to the paints I mix. I also learned that using a dry brush can help blend harsh edges of the different tones together. 

* Visually I wanted to achieve myself looking distressed. 

* Conceptually, I wanted to focus on the feeling of being overwhelmed by and consumed with depression or anxiety.

* My piece was inspired by the theme “A Creative Response to our Times” because over this past year, not only has the pandemic caused a negative impact on my mental health, but so has other life instances and I wanted to focus on the anguish that I have felt physically and mentally because of it. This idea of anguish is also being used in my senior portfolio project.

* I worked from a photo reference of myself.

* Paints used: Cad red, cad yellow, mars red, alizarin crimson, italian terra rosa, cobalt blue, earth green, burnt umber, raw sienna, titanium white, and ivory black.

* Mediums used: 1/2 liquin to 1/2 linseed oil

* My process involved a quick drawing, medium layers of paint with shadows being painted before the highlights, and adding small details such as the eyelashes and piercings last. 

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Micro Body Assignment 

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Dissect a Technical Approach

1.) I believe that in the painting process of this piece, the artist did an underpainting in terra rosa or burnt umber. Next, the artist started laying down flesh tones. This painting leans more on the warmer side to me so I believe the colors mixed were titanium white, naples yellow, burnt sienna, mars red, and cobalt blue. I think ivory black was added in some parts of the shadow areas on the face and in the hair as well. Lastly, it looks like the top layer of the face and the background were added on at the end since they are the brightest and most highlighted portions.

2.) To make this piece, I think titanium white, burnt umber, mars red, cadmium red light, yellow ochre, naples yellow, cobalt blue, green earth, and ivory black were used.

3.) I believe the paint was applied in thin layers that were built up over time. The artist left some areas such as the neck more unfinished looking and others more detailed or well-rendered such as the face. The brushstrokes on the neck seem to go in every direction while the ones on the face follow the shape of the persons face. The background and parts of the face look very smooth but overall, many of the brushstrokes are visible and the artist did not blend the painting to create very smooth transitions. 

4.) I am most interested in the face in this painting. The face is the most rendered part of the painting and has more of a variety of tones than the other parts. I am specifically drawn to the dead look in the figures eyes and the sheen across the skin.

5.) I am most perplexed by the face in this painting. I can see that a lot of white was used but I wonder how the artist was able to give the skin a glossy look and I also wonder what the substance on the persons face is because it does not look like water. Even though the face is primarily white, I wonder how the artist was able to still pull out many warm and cool tones in the skin. 

6.) For the medium, I think the artist used a traditional one half oil and one half resin. I don’t think any paint thinner was used but it could have been used to create an underpainting that was then covered over later. There are details on the chest that look like underpainting markings but they lay over the skin tone and mimic a sketch. However, I believe that even with this method, the artist did not use paint thinner because it would have most likely wiped away the skin toned paint. 

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My name is Rachel Porter and my preferred pronouns are she/her. My major is fine arts with a concentration in painting, drawing, and printmaking. In this class I would like to learn about mixing and making flesh tones that are accurate and not muddy. I would also like to learn how to paint details such as hair, wrinkles, and bruises realistically. Lastly, I am interested in the proportions of figures and how they can be distorted to imply a certain meaning. I am most interested in psychological, flesh, and the anatomy aspects of figure painting. A few contemporary figure painters that I like include John Brosio, Mercedes Helnwein, and Jenny Seville. The fourth image from the images above really speaks to me because of the distorted figures and distorted perspective. The landscape and colors make me feel nostalgic about my recent trip to North Carolina. The way the figures bodies are elongated with bending limbs that are painted with pale skin but rosy pink hands and feet makes me question the deeper meaning behind this piece if there is one. 

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Painters Painting Documentary

One artist in this documentary that contradicts the writings of Clement Greenberg is Andy Warhol. Greenberg was a believer in formalist painting and divorced art from its emotional and narrative content. Proper modern art to Greenberg which he called avant-garde art, was is inseparable from critical thought or observation. Pop art to him was kitsch or novelty art. Greenberg stated, “the best art of our time makes you a little more uncomfortable at first. Challenges you more.” Greenberg believes pop art such as Warhol’s may be a nice picture but it is too easily digestible.

Based on this documentary, Barnett Newman provided the most inspiration to my work. His paintings are not visually interesting or astonishing to me but his ideas are what inspire me more. Barnett discussed the issue that many painters experience which is “what are you going to paint?” He describes how the subject is crucial and technique, plasticity, look, and surface are not as important. They may find their place in your work though. I admired how Newman described how his work does not have the necessity for American labels. Instead, he hopes that his work could be seen and understood universally. Lastly, Newman made the point that if a system were created that could explain art or aesthetics, it would be of no value because what is aesthetic to one person may not be to another. I admire and strive for the type of openness that Newman created in his work. Toward the end of his life, he reflected on his work and said, “One of its implications is its assertion of freedom... if it were read properly it would mean the end of all state capitalism and totalitarianism”. 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/664492120016333561/

https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/barnett-newman-1905-1970-onement-v-6270001-details.aspx

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/150448443791860092/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/279786195588562858/

https://www.moma.org/artists/4285 

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Joan Mitchell’s contribution to Abstract Painting

Joan Mitchell is known for the compositional rhythms, bold colors, and gestural brushstrokes in her large and often multi-paneled paintings. She was inspired by landscape, nature, and poetry, and her intent for her work was not to create a recognizable image, but to convey emotions. Mitchell had early success with her work in the 1950s which was shocking for a time when few women artists were recognized.

Mitchell leaned towards the action painting tendencies of Abstract Expressionism. With action painting, an unconventional application of paint, usually without a recognizable subject was used. Amorphous shapes in brilliant colors as well as dripping, smearing, slathering, and flinging lots of paint on to the canvas is another aspect of this style of art. Sometimes gestural "writing" is incorporated into the work and is usually in a loosely calligraphic manner. Mitchell used these aspects to balance elements of structured composition with a mood of wild improvisation.

A few more of Joan Mitchell’s accomplishments include her rejection on the emphasis on flatness and the "all-over" approach to composition that many of the leading Abstract Expressionists used. Instead, she used a more traditional sense of figure and ground in her pictures, and she often composed them in ways that evoked impressions of landscape. Mitchell had an abrasive personality as well that was a key factor in interpretations of her painting. Critics often read this as expressions of rage and violence. However, lyricism was seen in her work too. 

https://www.thoughtco.com/abstract-expressionism-art-history-183313 

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-abstract-expressionist-joan-mitchell-complicated-driven-genius

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/mitchell-joan/ 

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Reading #3: “Three American Painters” by Michael Fried

What does Fried mean when he says a ‘formal critic’ is also a ‘moral critic?

A formal critic helps viewers interpret and perceive art while maintaining a sort of objectivity. However, all judgments of value begin and end in experience and ones experiences of works of art are always informed by what one has come to understand about them. A painter who has accepted the basic premises of modernism must pass through a situation and not pass by it. This means that because modernist painting is at least a criticism of itself and therefore, the formal and moral critic not only present the significance of new painting that strikes him as exploratory but they also challenge the attempt to go beyond achievements of prior modernists. 

Once a painter has accepted the basic premises of modernism and becomes aware of a particular problem that has arisen by art of the recent past, his action is no longer uncalled for. He could be mistaken in his interpretation of the situation but since he was confronted with a problem, he can not pass by. He must pass through and the result of this forced passage will be his art according to Fried. 

The image above is titled The Bar at the Folies Bergere by Edouard Manet.  According to the reading, Manet is probably the first painter that one would call a ‘modernist’. However, some of the problems and crises that his paintings constitute a decisive and unexpected response are also present in the work of painters such as David, Gericault, Ingres, Delacroix, and Courbet. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/repolco/15977210184/in/album-72157627309168361/ 

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Reading Assignment #2:

“Avant-Garde and Kitsch” by Clement Greenberg

What is the ‘reflected effect’ Greenberg mentions on page 546?

The reflected effect is what the viewer understands or gains from looking at a piece of artwork by removing themselves from what is visibly there in the painting (plastic values), and then projecting the true values and meaning back into it. 

For example, Greenberg describes how an ignorant Russian peasant such as Macdonald might prefer Repin’s work over Picasso’s. This is because the peasant views the work of Picasso as just an abstract technique and fails in the ability to look past the plastic values of a painting to derive a deeper meaning like a cultivated spectator would. The peasant is more pleased with Repin’s work because the ‘reflected effect’ is already included in the picture. No effort is required on the behalf of the peasant to search for a meaning when the values in the painting are vividly recognizable according to Greenberg. Greenberg states, “ultimately, it can be said that the cultivated spectator derives the same values from Picasso that the peasant gets from Repin, since what the latter enjoys in Repin is somehow art too, on however low a scale, and he is sent to look at pictures by the same instincts that send the cultivated spectator. But the ultimate values that the cultivated spectator derives from Picasso are derived at second remove, as the result of reflection upon immediate impression left by the plastic values”. 

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79051 

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Reading #1 Assignment:

What is “deepening self-consciousness?” 

Self-consciousness is a heightened sense of self-awareness. The act of deepening your self-awareness would be observing your thoughts, emotions, and actions without judgement to better understand what motivates you and connect with your sense of purpose and greater meaning in life. On page 7 of “Painting in the Interrogative Mode”, the reading discusses how the “deepening of self-consciousness is the only form of progress that could have credibly placed abstract painting beyond representation, or Conceptual art beyond abstraction, the distinction may be best imagined as a difference in consciousness.” In other words, “todays painting is not necessarily more conscious than modernist painting, but it is conscious of different things.” 

This painting is by Gerhard Richter and is part of his “Forty Years of Painting” exhibition. According to an article on wordpress.com, “ Richter grew up under the Third Reich’s National Socialism and East German Communism, which left him deeply distrustful of ideologies of all kinds. This seems to condition his artistic production, which is situated and moves between categories of painting and photography.” Because of how he grew up and his life experiences, Richter must have developed a deeper self-consciousness through reflecting on his surroundings. This transfers into his work which is noticeable in this exhibition because “he challenges the basic premise that photography is an objective representation of truth, a maxim he investigates through a wide-ranging project that seems focused on exposing and demystifying concealed historical and cultural meanings of the ambiguously fractured narratives of both photography and painting.”

 https://culturalinterventions.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/gerhard-richter/ 

https://lorifostercoaching.com/3-ways-to-deepen-your-self-awareness/ 

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https://pin.it/2hKkrkJ 

When I first looked at this piece, I saw a young girl standing over a pile of fruit. The vibrancy of the fruits distracted me from the expression of fear that is on the young girl’s face because of how the upper part of her body sinks into the shadows of the background. The last element in this painting that I noticed was the two cows kissing at the bottom. This piece is titled “El Beso” which means kiss so that is fitting for the image but I am unsure of what the meaning for this imagery is. 

I went to Guillermo Lorca’s website and the description of his work was, “He and his creations -children, animal, birds- all presented within a baroque framework that seems at first sight reassuringly familiar, are in fact gleefully disturbing Lords of Misrule." Although I am still unsure of the meaning of this piece, I am intrigued by this type of beautiful yet disturbing art that he creates. To me, using the baroque style in a disturbing manner is notable. 

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https://pin.it/7CMqX0r 

When I look at this piece of work, there is so much going on that I am not sure what to think. However, what stands out to me the most is all of the rabbits that have a gruesome look to them. When I think of a rabbit, I imagine a cute and fluffy little animal. However, the rabbits in this painting have either bulging eyes or empty eye sockets, blood on their faces, and peculiar facial expressions that make me uncomfortable.

I did some research on this painting and the symbolism behind this image is what is most important to me. The painting is based off of a photograph from the war in Iraq and it is touching on the consequences for the women and children of the country. This is an image of innocence made grotesque by the horrors of war. 

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http://www.kaifineart.com/2015/01/hu-jun-di.html 

When I look at this painting, I feel sorrow. The woman is sort of sunk into her bath tub and hugging her legs in close to her body. She looks as if she is staring into the distance and absorbed in deep thought. 

I think this piece is important to share because of the style it was painted in. While portraits that are painted in a very realistic manner are interesting to look at, I think the style of this painting is more intriguing. The woman’s face and chest is depictable in the scene but everything else sort of blends together which gives the viewer a chance to study the painting longer for their eyes to put everything together.