Thursday, February 27, 2014

Challenge #90, February 28, 2014

Hostess: Cheryl Casker
Title: Hurry, Spring!
Theme: Interpret the gift of life (Spring) that rises from the death (Winter) that came before it
Technique: Impressionism incorporating broken color theory that depicts the subtle play of light and shadow
Due date:  March 8, 2014

Having set a historical record for the most snow in one month in January in the state of Michigan (as well as others), we are more than just a bit winter-weary and anxiously look forward to the exquisite flora and fauna that Spring gifts us with each year. 

Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!
            ~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

Yesterday the twig was brown and bare;
To-day the glint of green is there;
Tomorrow will be leaflets spare;
I know no thing so wondrous fair,
No miracle so strangely rare.
I wonder what will next be there!
            ~L.H. Bailey
  
Color As Light
Impressionism was a new style of painting that emerged in France at the end of the 19th century. The Impressionist artists were interested in trying to capture the changing effects of light on the landscape by using a more exact analysis of tone and color. Their ideas were inspired by Eugene Chevreul's scientific research into color theory.

The Impressionist artists abandoned the old idea that the shadow of an object was made up from the color of the object with some brown or black added. Instead, they enlivened their canvases with the new idea that the shadow of any color could be mixed from pure hues and broken up with its opposite color.  For example, the shadow on a yellow surface could have some strokes of lilac painted into it to increase its vitality.
As the Impressionists had to work quickly to capture the fleeting effects of light, they had to sacrifice some of the traditional qualities of outline and detail. http://www.artyfactory.com/color_theory/color_theory_1.htm

Broken Color

Role of Colour in Impressionism


Characteristics of American Impressionism


Resources:

Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
 “When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field or whatever. Merely think here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives you own naïve impression of the scene before you.”

Snow at Argenteuil, 1875


The Water Lilies (series), 1899-1920

Garten at Giverney, 1902

Garden Path at Giverny, 1902


Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903)
The Garden of the Tuileries on a Spring Morning, 1899


Gelée Blanche (Hoarfrost), 1873:  http://artchive.com/artchive/P/pissarro/frost.jpg.html

Snow Effect at Eragny, 1894: http://www.camille-pissarro.org/Snow-Effect-at-Eragny,-1894.html


L'Hermitage, 1868  (scroll down to #7):  http://camillepisarro.blogspot.com/

Rye Fields at Pontoise, 1868 (3rd painting down): http://camillepisarro.blogspot.com/
  
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French 1841–1919 )
No shadow is black. It always has a color. Nature knows only colors … white and black are not colors.”

Boating on the Seine, 1879

Two Sisters, 1881

And one final note – have fun with this!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.