Color Painting Art » Oil Paintings

Visiting an Art Gallery is More Relaxing

ColorPaintingArt — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:09:59 +0000

Visiting an art gallery is more relaxing, as compared to listening to music repertoire in a concert hall. Soothing music is not that distracting to our ears, some audience may just fall asleep in the midst of listening. Some prefer to have it noisier and more energetic, such as trance or rock concert.

I play my musical instruments, and that is how sound is produced through this medium. Likewise, an artist uses his painting brushes to produce an artwork on a large canvas filled with vivid oil color. Medieval art, renaissance, baroque, impressionism and expressionism are art movements defined by the Western art; there are analogous with different genres in music.

‘Likings’ is the rudiment for every artist’s hope to achieve in an art exhibit with invited friends and guests. It is a simple gesture and compliments, beside trying hard to understand and breaking the ‘da Vinci’ code from the hanging art frame. Abstract art does not necessary have to translate into words.

Even famous quote from the great painter, Claude Monet, once said:

“People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it’s simply necessary to love.”

Here are a few reasons why visiting an art gallery is more relaxing, as compared to listening to music:

Viewers share and discuss about the oil painting art that is hanging on the wall, without the constraint to sit silently listening music in a concert hall.
Before an audience is able to listen to audio music, one need to take a step further to press the ‘play’ button. Visual art is mainly for the eye only.
Its healthier to keep our body moving and walking around in the art gallery. Listening is merely an exercise of your ears, while siting restlessly in a cushion chair.
There isn’t a need to pay a high entrance fee to view a masterpiece in an art museum; most displaying less than 3 meters from your naked eye. Conversly, one need a bionic eye to see the musician playing in a stage, with at least 15 meters away from the chair you are sitting.
Scan your paintings or take a snapshot with your iPhone, and upload it to Facebook. It is much faster and less tedious than recording music.
Your Mom will love your paintings, even she is busying cooking for your dinner. A glimpse of your mini Picasso’s art is what she have to do. Same support goes to your good friends who is an artist.

A Short Post on the Art Auction for Claude Monet’s Nymphéas

ColorPaintingArt — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:22:12 +0000

Today’s post will be short.

In about less than 2 weeks, one of the best oil paintings by Claude Monet will finalize the auctioned price at Christie’s. The paintings entitled, “Nymphéas” or Water Lilies, painted in 1906.

This set is just one out of the 250 oil paintings in his life time. Every artwork on the water lilies is rendered with rich colors, expressing his most accomplished skill in alla prima technique, aka “direct painting” or “wet on wet”.

Less of describing the paintings, but to learn more about art auction at Christie’s.

Estimated price is ($43,350,000 – $57,800,000). This magnificent artwork will be offered in the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in London on 23 June. What will be the price realized?

Nympheas, Water Lilies, Claude Monet, 1906, Oil Paintings, Auction

Describing Van Gogh’s Bedroom

ColorPaintingArt — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 12:07:34 +0000

In those days, Van Gogh did not expect to earn much as an artist. Besides having proven skill in oil painting of his self-portrait, there were still many viewers whom did not commissioned him to paint. Most of his finished paintings were returned to his brother Theo in Paris. Living apart from his family members, Van Gogh wanted a simple life, without any luxury of owning expensive items. Best examples shown in one of his oil paintings work, Van Gogh’s bedroom. He painted this when he was living in Arlse, a town in Provence in the south of France, October 1888.

At first glance, you can tell its simplicity and straightforwardness of every objects displayed in the bedroom. Not even the simplest technology that exists. No gramophone and no clock, perhaps only a small light bulb on the ceiling that was not included in the painting. Its a small room, where most would not want to live in. Despite being dull for an interior design like this, Van Gogh has painted his bedroom with lots of bright colors and great contrast, yet without subtlety of tones. By examine closer, you will see his thick oil paint and brushstrokes are laid on top of each colored surface. It creates vibrancy, textures, and bold used of colors on simple items. It is also one of his characteristics in all his painting artwork, namely, his impasto technique.

Being poor at that time, he only had the room essentials. The double bed plays an important part of his painting, which is also his main wooden furniture. There is no wardrobe, but a few of his coats and a straw hat hanging at the far-right of the wall. Beside this personnel clothing, he had also hanged a few paintings on the wall near to the bed. A pair of portrait paintings, and underneath another drawings in white frames. On top of the two pillows, hang a landscape painting. Bed sheet is in yellow color, with high contrast against the warm red blanket; most prominent at the center of this painting. On both sides there are two shut doors that create sort of ‘framing’, aligned with the empty forefront wooden floor.

The chairs are in pairs, to provide simple hospitality to someone who visits him. A bedside table, placed with a jug of water and a washing bowl. Above it, a hanging mirror which regards as important item for him who is self-conscience of own appearance. A towel is close by, hanging from a nail next to the mirror. There is a window on the far end that allows most of the day light to shine into the room. The overview of his bedroom is tidy, all the items are in place, creating a sense of being organized and independence living.

All in all, I guess the most important aspect of the painting is the angled perspective drawn in this artwork. The view is quite similar to “The Night Café”, that Van Gogh depicted a situation that is totally opposite. The scale of the bedroom is much smaller and compact. Now, the question for you is, at which eye level did Van Gogh view and painted his bedroom?

To my observation, he could be possibly sitting on a chair, or even on a low stool. If you look closely at his artwork, the bedroom actually painted to include a small portion of the ceiling. That top corner of his bedroom is visibly located above the bed. A straight corner line on the far right, drawn upward that diverge into 2 smaller lines showing sign of the ceiling. It is at this point where the entire view creates a whole different perspective. This can easily prove by just covering the corner or remove it by image editing. The view of the painting changes, just like you are looking at it while standing up. Van Gogh’s painting is exceptionally sensitive and intelligent.

Van Gogh Bedroom, Oil Paining on Canvas, Arles, 1888

Water Lilies Painted by Claude Monet

ColorPaintingArt — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:44:19 +0000

Water lilies painted by Claude Monet made in 1905, is one of a group of water-lily subjects. The beauty of his work tends to be more attractive, as compared to traditional landscape painting. Both kind of paintings have common theme of “nature” and having of their work outdoor.

Traditional landscape compositions usually consist of perspective and the horizon from afar; the dramatic clouds above, and the land with people, housing, mountains, etc. The artwork is easily understood and to appreciate, as within one’s eye-level who tend to see distant objects in a panoramic aspects.

In Monet’s water lilies, he has a different approach to landscaping. In 1895 he began to paint waterscapes, a practice he continued until his death. After the completion of the Japanese Bridge series (1899 – 1901) he enlarged the pond, using it for both the series of water lilies made between 1903 and 1908, and for his later ‘decorations’, on which he devoted the closing years of his life.

His work on water lilies has abandoned any reference to the banks of the pond, concentrating instead on the water and plants. The surfaces of the painting and of the pool merge into one. The top of the composition bulges with lilies, while the water reads as both an illusion of depth and a reflection of nearby trees and distant sky.

The effect is to invert the composition, and in doing so Monet has overturned the tradition expectation of landscape painting, namely the inclusion of the horizon line and perspective. When forty-eight of these works were shown at Durand-Ruel in 1999, guests enjoyed a favorable critical reception, with analogies being drawn between the paintings and music and poetry.