Tagged: canvas painting

July 23, 2013

Top 7 Art Destinations Around the World

Artists can get inspiration from everywhere. But, if you want to see magnificent artworks from celebrated artists to inspire you in your next art on canvas, here is a list of art destinations that you can include in your bucket list.

Goreme Open Air Museum, Turkey. The Goreme Open Air Museum can be compared to a compound of monasteries. Visitors will be amazed at the chapels and churches carved into the rock formations with beautiful wall paintings (frescoes). Since 1984, the Goreme Open Air Museum has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as the “Met,” is the largest museum in the United States. Established in 1870 in New York City, the Met houses over 2 million objects, and only tens of thousands are available for public viewing. Its permanent collection includes artworks from Ancient Egypt; pieces from almost all of the European masters such as Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, and Johannes Vermeer; and collections from American artists.

Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid. Museo Reina Sofia is Spain’s national museum dedicated to 20th century art. The museum houses an immense collection of artworks from Spain’s greatest masters, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. The most famous masterpiece in the museum is Picasso’s “Guernica,” a painting created in response to the bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country village, in 1937.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum which exhibits art works from The Netherlands. Its collections consist of 1 million objects, 8,000 of which are displayed for the public. Visitors can see paintings done during the Dutch Golden Age, from famous painters which include Frans Hals, Johannes Vermeer, and Rembrandt.

Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. Santa Maria delle Grazie is a church and a Dominacan convent that also houses priceless masterpieces, including Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” During World War II, aerial attacks hit the church which destroyed almost all of the walls containing precious artworks. Fortunately, The Last Supper was spared and protected.

The Louvre, Paris. The Louvre is home to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” It is one of the world’s largest museums, occupying an area of more than 60,000 sq.m. It exhibits an extensive collection of about 35,000 artifact and artworks from prehistory until the 21st century. More than 8 million people visit the Louvre each year, making it the world’s most visited museum.

Vatican Museums, Vatican City. The Vatican Museums showcase art pieces from the extensive collection of the Roman Catholic Church. Most of its artworks are from the Renaissance period, including Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, Leonardo da Vinci’s “St. Jerome in the Wilderness,” and Raphael’s “The School of Athens.”

To get the whole list of these art destinations, you can read here.

Image source: www.travelchannel.com

July 21, 2013

Best Restaurants for Art Lovers

Dining establishments are now incorporating art in their décor to showcase their collections and to also entice customers. Aside from offering delicious food, these restaurants and cafés also serve as art galleries, displaying paintings on canvas, sculptures, and other artworks. If you’re an artist, or an art lover, check out these restaurants:

Casa Lever, New York. Casa Lever is a fine dining restaurant in Manhattan which displays modern art. Several portraits of celebrities created by Andy Warhol grace the walls of this restaurant. The portraits include Sylvester Stallone, Aretha Franklin, and Giorgio Armani.

Four Seasons Restaurant, New York. Four Seasons Restaurant displays changing galleries of Modern Art, including artworks from Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, and Helen Frankenthaler. There’s an interesting story about American artist Mark Rothko. Rothko was commissioned to create a series paintings for the dining rooms. He created the paintings with “malicious intentions” but then decided to return the advance payment and kept his paintings for himself.

The Leopard at des Artistes, New York. The Leopard is an Italian fine dining restaurant in New York. The dining area displays the six panels of wood nypmhs and paintings by American artist Howard Chandler Christy which includes The Parrot Girl, The Swing Girl, and Fountain of Youth.

Tru, Chicago. The interiors of Tru looks like an art gallery, with its high ceilings, pin-spot lights, and white walls. It displays pieces from some of the best 20th century artists such as the King of the Pop Artists Andy Warhol, American geometric painter Peter Halley, and German abstract painter Gerhard Richter.

L’Escargot, London. Opened in 1927, L’Escargot houses an extensive collection of original artworks by some of the famous artists in the 20th century such as French painter Henri Matisse, English painter David Hockney, Spanish painter & sculptor Joan Miró, and Russian artist Marc Chagall.

Maxim’s, Paris. Maxim’s is famous for its Art Nouveau interior decor. It displays an extensive collection of illustrious masterpieces from the Belle Epoch. Maxim’s display more than 500 original, signed pieces from all over the world.

La Colombe d’Or, St. Paul de Vence, France. La Colombe d’Or is a hotel and restaurant located in an old medieval town in France. Paul Roux started it as a café bar in 1920 and then later opened an inn which attracted artists from neighbor towns. Many paintings now grace the walls of the restaurant since artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse who were frequent customers exchanged their works as payment for meals or their stay.

Image source: www.casalever.com

July 20, 2013

Stuck in a Rut? 5 Ways to Get Inspired to Paint

There are times in an artist’s life when he feels uninspired, unmotivated, and uncreative. It’s like there’s a creative lull, especially after finishing a major artwork. You feel like you’ll never be able to create another beautiful painting again, you’re tired of picking up your paintbrush and starting your first stroke on the canvas, you have no inspiration to work on. If you are in this phase, here are some ways which can help you get out of the creative block you’re experiencing.

1. Look around you to get inspiration. Get out of your studio and take a walk. Be conscious of your surroundings. Notice the things around you. Look with a fresh new perspective of your environment. Sometimes, because an object, a person, or an event is ordinary to you, you may not take notice of it. You’ll be surprised how simple, ordinary things around you can give you inspiration on your next painting. You’ll be able to express yourself more accurately if your subject is something which you can relate to, or something that you are familiar with.

2. Work on more than one painting at a time. This technique seems absurd. You are uncreative yet I’m suggesting you to work on two paintings. A painting, especially if it’s big-scale, can drain your creative juices in the long run. Working on the same project everyday can be a bit tiresome and tedious. To sort of “spice up” your painting sessions, try doing two paintings. If you’re finished with an area or element in the first painting and you’re feeling tired, you can then switch to the second painting. This allows you to rest your mind from the first painting and when you come back to it, you will see areas which you can improve and enhance.

3. Experiment with a different painting technique or medium. Humans are creatures of habit. We want to do the same things in the same way. If you’re feeling uninspired, try to create a new habit in painting. Learn a new painting style and start using it. This may be a trial and error exercise for you but as you go along, you’ll improve and hopefully, master this new painting style. It can even be your new signature style in your paintings. If you’re always working with oil paints, try using watercolors or pastels. Different media require different treatments, brush strokes, and handling. You may have to learn more about a new medium that you want to work on and studying about it may give you the motivation to start painting again.

4. Look at the artworks of other painters. Art galleries, museums, and art exhibitions showcase numerous paintings and other artworks. Seeing the creativity of other artists can also inspire you to do your own masterpiece. Look at the Internet for paintings done by famous artists and see if you can learn a thing or two about how use the same painting technique or materials in your own project. Check out art magazines to see what subjects are popular nowadays, who are the upcoming artists, or where you can get art lessons.

5. Meet with other artists. Get together with your art friends. If all of you are busy, schedule an appointment that all of you will keep. This is when you can share your ideas, frustrations, tips, problems, etc. Discussing with your art buddies can help you get fresh ideas, be motivated and refreshed. After a lunch or coffee with friends, you may find yourself filled with enthusiasm and eagerness to create another beautiful artwork.

Image source: www.thecreativecomplex.com

July 19, 2013

5 Tips in Buying an Artist’s Easel

In a previous blog post, I explained the different types of easels available to painters. With a wide range of easels out there, how do you choose the easel for you? Here are tips to help you in selecting the perfect easel:

Tip #1. Ask these questions to yourself:

What kind of painting do I always do?
What medium am I using?
What is my budget for an easel?
Where will I place and store the easel? Do I have adequate space?
Where do I usually do my paintings? Inside a studio or outdoors?

Your answers to these questions will help you decide on which easel is best for you. A tabletop easel is best if you like to paint small-scale paintings or you have very limited space in your room. Different medium require different easels. For example, if you paint with oils, use an A-frame or H-frame easel, or whatever easel that will provide you with a vertical working surface. If you use several medium such as oils and watercolors, a convertible easel is best. Aside from these factors, the budget and space should also be considered.

Tip #2. Check the sturdiness of the easel. The easel should be sturdy enough to hold your canvas, support the painting process, and will not easily topple. The larger the canvas you’re working on, the sturdier the easel should be. You wouldn’t want to work on a shaky surface wherein each brush strokes vibrate because the easel cannot give ample support. Make sure that you’re not buying a display easel which is lightweight and spindly. It is designed for showcasing paintings, and not for working on paintings.

Tip #3. Choose an easel that offers adjustability. Buy an easel which provides the greatest degree of adjustability. When painting, you may want to paint standing up or sitting down, you need to work on top of the canvas as well as at the bottom. You need to have an easel that can be adjusted to give you the right tilt so you can paint on different areas of the canvas.

Tip #4. Look for an easy-to-use easel. This tip is related to Tip #3. Check if you can easily use the screw and bolt mechanism of the easel. See if it tightens properly according to the height and angle you preferred.

Tip #5. Save money for a quality easel. Keep in mind that an easel is one of your biggest expense in painting. You may have to wait for some time and keep saving for a high quality easel rather than buying cheap easels. You will be using an easel for a long time so it’s better to buy an easel that would last.

July 18, 2013

Beautiful Paintings Using Painting Knives

Tired of using paintbrushes? Want to experiment on using other tools in painting? You can try using a painting knife. People confuse a painting knife with a palette knife, the terms are used interchangeably, but when applying paint on a canvas, painting knife is used. Palette knife is used to mix and blend paint colors.

Using a painting knife produces thick, textured art work which is great for creating impasto. Impasto is a painting technique, using a thick application of paint that makes no attempt to look smooth. Most of the times, oil paint is the medium used in knife painting because of its think consistency but acrylics can also be used.

Knife painting can be a liberating technique. It lets you play with paint using the knife to create different depth and texture to the canvas. You need to load more paint that you normally need to the painting knife. You can then rub, squish, scrape, whip, slice, dab, mix the paint and let it sit there on the canvas. Many abstract and impressionist painters use painting knives in painting such as Vincent van Gogh, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann, and contemporary artists Frank Auerbach and Leonid Afremov. Most common subjects in knife painting include architectural structures, landscapes, and man-made objects.

If you’re looking at a painting and you’re not sure whether the impasto technique was used, look at the painting from the side. If you see lumps of paint on the canvas, you’ll be sure that impasto was used.

Here are some beautiful paintings which used painting knives:

Wheat Field with Cypresses_Van_Gogh — Wheat Field with Cypresses by Vincent van Gogh, 1889.

Vincent van Gogh created several paintings in his Wheat Fields series. In the painting above, notice the movements of the clouds, trees, and the wheat field. Van Gogh used the impasto technique in this painting, and all the paintings in the series. He used bright, vivid paint colors to convey energy and movement.

Farewell_to_Anger_Afremov — Farewell to Anger by Leonid Afremov

Leonid Afremov is a Russian-Israeli modern impressionistic artist known for his use of painting knives in his artworks. He is also known as a self-promoting artist, using the Internet to promote and sell his paintings and not much relying on art galleries and exhibitions. In his paintings, you will see how he effectively used the knife in applying, mixing, and creating images. He was able to develop a painting style distinctly his own.

Image sources:
www.metmuseum.org
www.afremov.com

July 17, 2013

Painting Knife vs. Palette Knife: What’s the Difference?

Many people are confused between a painting knife and a palette knife. They look similar and are used in painting on canvas. So, what’s the difference between these two painting tools?

Knife-Painting-shapes2 — Different shapes of painting knives

Painting Knife
About.com defines a painting knife as “a springy, shaped, metal spatula used for painting instead of a brush.” A painting knife is a tool used to apply paint which is made of metal with a wooden handle. It has a crank or a bend on the handle, similar to the shape of a trowel, that helps keep your knuckles from touching the paint you’re applying. Eventhough it’s called a knife, a painting knife has blunt edges and is not used for cutting or slicing. Painting knives are available in different sizes and angular shapes: triangular, pear-shaped, rectangular, or diamond-like.

How to buy a painting knife
When buying a painting knife, choose the one with a flexible blade, one which has a good spring to it. The handle should be smooth, has a nice grip, and comfortable to hold. Make sure that the handle and the blade are firmly attached to avoid wasting paint or accidents.

How to use a painting knife
Using a painting knife is easy, just like spreading butter on sliced bread. Get some paint from your palette and spread the paint on the canvas. You can use both sides of the painting knife.

How to clean a painting knife
After using a painting knife, use a clean cloth to wipe off the paint. Use another cloth to completely clean the tool. If the paint has already dried, scrape off the paint using a blunt knife and a damp cloth. A painting knife with a stainless steel blade is more forgiving if you forgot to clean it immediately after painting. However, if the blade is made of steel, it is prone to rust if neglected.

Palette Knife
A palette knife is a blunt tool shaped like a spatula which is used in mixing paint colors, mediums, additives, etc. and scraping paint off the palette. It has a longer, straight blade with a rounded tip, unlike a painting knife which has angular shapes. A palette knife is made of metal, plastic, or wood.

How to buy a palette knife
Choose a palette knife with a metal blade and wood handle. As much as possible, avoid a plastic palette knife since it breaks easily. It may be inexpensive than a professional palette knife, but if you are planning to use this tool for a long time, go with the metal one which is sturdier and can effectively do the work.

How to use a palette knife
Put the paint colors or pigments on your palette. With a palette knife, get a little paint from the colors that you want to blend. Dab, flatten, and mix the colors together. If you are adding another color to the blended paints, clean the palette knife first using a cloth before getting the third paint color.

How to clean a palette knife
Cleaning a palette knife is similar to a painting knife. Use a damp cloth to remove the paint from the palette knife.

Image sources:
www.about.com
www.wikipedia.org

July 16, 2013

Tips in Painting on Large Canvases

Spolarium_Luna — The Spoliarium by Juan Luna, 1884. It measures 4.22 meters x 7.675 meters.

Many artists dream of painting on a bigger canvas. If you have an idea or inspiration that cannot be captured on standard size canvases, going big is your way to go. However, if you’ve never painted on a large canvas, you can be intimidated and overwhelmed with the thought of creating big-scale art. Here are some tips that can help you overcome your fears on painting big.

Tip #1. Gradually paint on bigger canvases. Help your mind, eyes, and hands to adjust painting on a large canvas. Every couple of weeks or so, try to paint on a canvas which is bigger than the previous one you used. This practice will help you get comfortable and get used to painting big. With a small canvas, you’re working on a limited space so the details are smaller, lines are finer, and you finish quicker than painting on large-scale canvases so, you may have to practice your brush strokes little by little until you reach your desired canvas size. Learn from your mistakes and correct them along the way. Don’t be in a rush to work on a large canvas.

Tip #2. Know the scale of the painting. Are you using a big canvas to fill it with small details of a complex subject (e.g. historical event) or are you painting a big-scale of a small subject (e.g. portrait, nature). Find the balance among the subject, the size of the canvas, and your painting style. Remember, just because the painting is bigger, doesn’t mean it’s better than ordinary size painting. Some subjects are perfect for larger canvases while some are best with small canvases.

Tip #3. Use bigger brushes. Bigger brushes will help you finish the painting faster. You can cover larger areas of the canvas and you can loosen up a bit when painting, like a child painting freely on the wall. Stand back from the canvas and see if you’re on the right track. You can still use small brushes, though, if you’re more comfortable with them and if the style of your painting requires them.

Tip #4. Divide the canvas into sections. Working on a big painting can be overwhelming. Using your sketch as guide, try to divide the canvas into sections and do one section at a time until you finish the whole painting. You can also try breaking down the elements of the painting and before you know it, you’re on your last brush strokes in this painting.

Tip #5. Be patient. Since you’re painting on a large canvas, naturally, it will take more time to finish and to dry, so be patient. If you’re an artist who get bored easily or can’t delay gratification, then creating large-scale paintings is not for you.

Image source: www.wikipedia.org

July 15, 2013

Dutch Master Rembrandt and His Most Famous Works

Today is Rembrandt’s 407th birthday!

Born Rembrant Harmenszoon van Rijn in 1606, he is the most celebrated Dutch artist and is considered as one of the greatest painters in European art history. Most of his masterpieces are self-portraits, portraits of other artists, and depictions of religious and historical themes. Art experts claim that Rembrandt was able to create more than 600 paintings, 400 etchings, and 2,000 drawings, but these figures are not certain.

Here are some of Rembrandt’s most famous works:

The Return of the Prodigal Son. This is an oil on canvas painting finished circa 1669. It is one of Rembrandt’s final works. The Return of the Prodigal Son depicts a parable from the Bible about a prodigal son returning to his father after wasting his inheritance. In the painting, you’ll notice the ragged state of the son’s clothing, kneeling and repentant in front of his father who was garbed in rich clothing. The expressive lighting and coloring in the painting effectively evoke repentance, compassion, and forgiveness.

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. Rembrandt was commissioned to paint this group portrait, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. The painting portrays a group of surgeons, surrounding a table while studying a corpse. Specialists have commended Rembrandt for the accuracy of the muscles and tendons of the corpse’ dissected arm. Rembrandt was 26 when he created this painting. The painting is displayed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt, c. 1669.

Danaë. Rembrandt portrayed Danaë, the mother of Perseus in Greek mythology. The 1636 painting shows his interpretation of the myth where Danaë waits for Zeus who impregnated her. It is a life-size painting, measuring 185 cm × 203 cm. Danaë is housed in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Jacob de Gheyn III. Jacob de Gheyn III is a portrait of one of Rembrandt’s contemporaries who was a Dutch Golden engraver. The painting measures 29.9 x 24.9 centimeters and because of its small size, it has been stolen four times since 1966. It is called “takeaway Rembrandt” due to the numerous theft incidents, the most recorded of any painting.

Belshazzar’s Feast. Belshazzar’s Feast is a 1635 painting portraying the Biblical story of Belshazzar and the writing on the wall. The setting is at a banquet wherein the characters show alarm, surprise, and amazement as they look at the handwriting on the wall. Rembrandt effectively used the technique called Chiaroscuro, wherein he manipulated light and shadow to give contrast and create volume and give a three-dimensional effect on objects.

The Night Watch. The Night Watch is the best known painting housed in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The painting was commissioned by Captain Frans Banning Cocq who was one of the main characters in the artwork. It is widely known for its size (11.91 ft × 14.34 ft), effective use of Chiaroscuro, and perception of motion.

Image source: www.wikipedia.org

July 14, 2013

Buy Fine Art From Amazon…Soon

Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is discussing plans with about 100 art galleries in the US of selling fine art online. The e-tail giant plans to create another part in its site where it will offer unique paintings, prints, and other fine art pieces. Amazon has already organized cocktail receptions in Seattle, and other big art cities including New York and San Francisco, inviting galleries to join the plan.

According to WSJ, Amazon will charge the art galleries a monthly membership fee of $100 and will get a commission of 5-20%, depending on the sold artwork. Higher-prices pieces would be subject to lower commission rates. The membership fee would be waived for art houses which would partner with Amazon in selling high-end art until 2015. Amazon will be using a retail model, which means each artwork has a fixed price, unlike art auction houses where the highest bidder gets the art.

Online selling of fine art is a double-edged sword. Amazon’s plan is a great way for art galleries to reach more people. Art lovers outside the city such as New York would be able to buy great art without traveling to the city. At the comfort of their homes or offices, people can easily buy art, even without visiting the actual art gallery. However, a drawback of this plan is that people may be hesitant to buying expensive paintings without seeing the actual painting. Most likely, art buyers won’t pay six- or even seven-figures for something that they only see online. Unlike buying a book or a gadget online, serious art collectors would naturally want to see the artworks personally.

High-end online auctioneers such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s said there is a growing market for expensive art over the Internet. Sotheby’s BidNow program was able to sell a 16th century portrait of Giovanni Gaddi for $2 million in 2012. Christie’s have been accepting online bids since 2007. It revealed that 27% of its auction sales ($6.2 billion) last year came from online bidding and regular auctions. Christie’s was able to sell Edward Hopper’s oil on canvas painting entitled “October on the Cape” to an online bidder for $9.6 million.

As of now we’re not sure if Amazon’s plan to sell high-end art will come to fruition. In 1999, Amazon forged a partnership with Sotheby’s to sell fine art but it lasted for 16 months only because the jointly operated auction site, Sothebys.Amazon.com, failed to gain traction. Also, there are many online art galleries offering a wide range of art from numerous artists that already have established markets and loyal clientele.

Image source: www.gizmodo.com

July 13, 2013

How Stretcher Bars Are Made

A stretcher bar is a wooden frame that is used as wooden framework support (usually made from pine) on which an artist fastens a piece of canvas. It provides a steady tension to the canvas and gets the canvas artwork very flat and taut on the frame base, and thus makes it ready to be placed in a picture frame or to simply hang it as is. A stretcher can be bought ready-made as four parts that you just fit together, or you can just buy a pre-stretched canvas at canvaslot.com or you can just do it yourself. Here’s how.

Materials:
• 1×2 inches (2.5-by-5.1 cm) wood (4 pieces)
• Hand saw or power tools
• Miter block
• Staple gun
• quarter-round trim (4 pieces)
• Pencil
• Hammer
• Headless nails (not longer than the width of your quarter-round and 1×2 inch wood combined)

Step 1– Choose the type of wood you want to use. The sides should measure 1 by 2 inches (2.5 by 5.1 cm). Measure the wood according to the desired dimensions then cut with a forty-five degree angle at each end. You can use a miter box to make good, equal, 45 degree cuts at each end so that the wood fits together properly at the corners.

Step 2– Bring together the edges of the cut wood on a flat surface and use powered staple gun to secure the corners by placing 3 staples over the line where the corners come together. Staple the rest of the corners and do this on both front and back of the joints to make the entire frame become very strong and rigid.

Step 3– Cut the trim pieces with whatever tool you used on the other pieces of wood. Place one flat side of the quarter-round against the stretcher bars, and the other flat side facing outward. The curved edge of the quarter-rounds should be facing inward toward the center of the frame. The purpose of the quarter-round pieces is to raise the canvas off of the stretcher bars. To secure the trims to the frame, nail them with headless nails. Do this by spacing the nails at 4-inch (10.2-cm) intervals to keep it solidly in place.

When the entire frame is finished, it’s time to start stretching the canvas. By stretching your own canvas, you can not only save money, but get something you’re willing to experiment on. You also get a canvas that’s exactly the size you’re after.

Image source: www.younghouselove.com