A Portion of One Steak's Journey

Today i picked out another fine piece of beef for photo references. 

And set up a space, the hallway was the darkest place in my house in the afternoon ( working around model's schedule & timing for starting the piece)

(above) one candidate for the next painting. still have to go through the photos again to find which works best.

 man & meat... after the shoot back to the kitchen

My brother was eager to begin preparing  the meat for it's final decent into our stomachs...I'll let you know how it was.
No meat has been wasted during the production of this series.

Relating Well (assignment 2 cont.)

I found myself being able to relate my practice as an artist  in some way to all of the artists  that were suggested for me to look into. however, the two that i found myself relating to the most at this time are Rembrandt and Alice Neel.

One of the things i enjoy about Rembrandt's portrait above, is that its painted in a classical way but if ind the expression to be more expressive and less rigid as portraits of his time tended to be.

"Also notable are his dramatic and lively  presentation of the subjects devoid of the rigid formality that his contemporaries often displayed, and deeply felt compassion for mankind, irrespective of wealth and age."-unkown 

I feel like my work relates to Rembrandt's through the use of his imagery. like Rembrandt,  i have an interest in painting the figure in a representational fashion. i find the human form and experience deeply interesting and i feel like that interest can be seen  in his work as well. Furthermore, my interest in lighting that creates deep shadows and highlights can be seen in his work as well. Rembrandt's use of Chiaroscuro gives his paintings a kind of drama that i feel i am interested in as well (the portrait of the girl above exemplifies this).  In terms of how i feel i can learn from this Old Master, i think it goes back to paint application. i've probably mentioned this previously in other blogs but i really admire how you can see the texture and brushwork  of his paintings. this is evident in the portrait of himself at the top; the texture and movement created in the hair is beautiful, you can feel it fluffing about in the air. i feel like i should try to push those things in my work.

The second artist i feel i should mention is Alice Neel.

"Like Chekhov, I am a collector of souls... if I hadn't been an artist, I could have been a psychiatrist."

-Neel

 i can relate to Neel's vivacious interest in people. After watching her documentary i realized that Neel loved studying people just as i do and that interest in people fuels my own interest in painting the figure.  From what i understand she worked from life with her portraits, studying the individual and capturing what she saw. even though  i don't have the opportunity presently to paint from life all the time, one of the things i enjoy most as  a painter is studying the people in my photo references. Furthermore, the people that i paint are people that i have interacted with in my life; they are the people i get to observe on a frequent basis. Visually, i can relate my work to hers through her  lively color use as well, which can been seen in the her works above and below.

One thing that i feel like i should consider after researching Alice Neel is  how much do i want to capture  of the actual individual that i am painting. i guess it is making me consider the idea of trying to say something on a more individual level, something about their personality or situation in life through my expression as a  painter. i'm still thinking it out. its also interesting what the people you surround yourself with say about you, as an observer of them.

"Whether I'm painting  or not, I have  this overweening interest in humanity. Even if I'm  not working, I'm still analyzing people."- Alice Neel 

Artists to Fuel Cognition-assignment#2

Cecily Brown

Brown uses her process in her work by applying thick gestural layers of paint to address the combination of representation and abstraction of the figure(s); as well as the environment around them. this also adds to the sexual nature of her paintings because  the movement in her brush work  imitates the movement of the sexual activity she is portraying.

Soutine

Similarly to Brown, Soutine uses the medium to address his subject and bring it to life. here he uses the heaviness of the paint to convey the weight and fleshiness, or texture of the meat.

Rembrandt

After doing some research, i found that Soutine was inspired by Rembrandt's meat paintings.

 I Love this close up of his portrait. it allows you to see the texture Rembrandt used to create his portraits and demonstrates that the artist used a good amount of paint, left brushstrokes in tact, all the while creating figurative piece with an attention to detail. Rembrandt also made use of Chiaroscuro in his works. the theatrical lighting gives his paintings a more dramatic mood  and also brings more focus to the subject.

Jenny Dubnau

Dubnau's work is interesting because she chooses to take photographs of her subjects first and then  paints their portrait. this demonstrates that conceptually she is interested in photography, painting and their relationship  with eachother through portraiture.  this is indicated through her painting practice, in that she creates works that are highly photorealistic. 

"[...] the literalness of the photograph lends itself to a Realist approach; that is, an art that seeks to show, even if harshly, what is truly there, and to have that "truthiness"[...] provide the emotional springboard for the art."~Jenny Dubnau, a portion of her artist statement

http://www.jennydubnau.com/pages.php?content=statement.php&navGallID=Statement 

Alex Kanevsky

Kanevsky uses the subject of the nude figure to evoke an unsettling mood. he succeeds in doing so through his painterly approach with the medium; where by he gives the impression that his figures are fading away in their eerie existence. the layers  of the painting overlap; they can be seen through each other and even feel as if they run into each other, which also helps to push the mood and image of the figure merging with the surrounding painting.

 Alice Neel

Neel's interest in humanity and more specifically the individual person's humanity is reflected in the the way she paints her figures. her work is very psychological and from my understanding the degree to which she distorts the person's features, is used  to say something about how she perceives that person. her work is greatly expressionistic.

"I do not pose my sitters. I do not deliberate and then concoct... Before painting, when I talk to the person, they unconsciously assume their most characteristic pose, which in a way involves all their character and social standing – what the world has done to them and their retaliation."-Alice Neel