Month: October 2015

Artists’ studios

Most of modern arts journalism is marketing. One infrequently encounters critical journalism these days. A recent article in Canadian journal The Walrus is pretty typical.  The piece, A Portrait of the artist’s Studio, is about the photographer Joseph Hartman’s series of portraits of artists’–Canadian artists–studios. I was not familiar with any of the artists. The photos…

In the studio 10/25/15

After drawing this morning, I worked on Picnic. In addition to the four main figures, there are 27 other figures, or parts of figures, in the background. I’m having fun with all those figures. I went back and forth several times about this painting. The central figure’s back to the viewer has the potential to take the painting in…

The Stendhal Syndrome

I am familiar with the great French author Stendhal’s novels–The Red and the Black, and The Charterhouse of Parma–having read them some years ago, but until I read an article in the online magazine The Point I’d never hear about Stendhal Syndrome. The Stendhal syndrome is a psychic disorder that causes dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when someone is exposed…

In the studio 10/18/15

It took awhile for Parade to get going. The ground is nonabsorbent and I fought it during the first several sessions. I still don’t like it but it’s starting to cook with gas now. Another thing that is challenging is the scale of the figures. They’re at that in-between scale; too small for full treatment,…

God Hates Renoir

I had to laugh when I read this article in the Independent.  The story is about the group calling themselves Renoir Sucks protesting in front of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Renoir Sucks’ main tenant is, well, that Renoir sucks. The group maintains that they are tired of the ‘irredeemable treacle of Pierre-Auguste Renoir diluting the collection.’ They are…