Art Cafe: This Sunday, June 7

Tell Me a Story: Narrative in Art

Sunday, June 7

11am -1pm

$15

At my home studio in Eastlake

Email me to reserve your spot

The desire to hear and to tell stories is fundamentally human, which perhaps accounts for the persistence of narrative art despite periods when it has been unfashionable. What does 'narrative' mean in a visual context? Are 'narrative' and 'abstract' mutually exclusive? Let's look at a range of work from Greek sculpture to tapestries, cartoons to color field, history paintings to contemporary art - and see if we can stretch and redefine what it means to tell a story in a visual medium. I suspect surprises await us. 

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Join me for this informal discussion in my studio with a view. Refreshments provided. You don't need to know a thing about the topic, or about art - just be interested in listening, trying ideas, and eating tasty snacks. Your friends are welcome, too.

Please bring any books, postcards, objects that you feel might relate to our topic. All ideas and contributions are appreciated.

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Image:

A Bigger Splash

David Hockney

1967

Acrylic on canvas

242.5 x 243.9 cm (95 1/2 x 96 in)

Beckmann

Max Beckmann's Germanic view of a Mediterranean landscape is a stage between acts. If we wait a moment longer, gazing toward the sea, will one of his society ladies stalk pensively into the frame from the right? 

If she did she'd disrupt a composition so finely balanced, so cleverly assymetrical, it takes a second to register that the path we are peering down is exactly center. Is it a landscape for composition's sake? Or the uneasy paradise of a worldly skeptic? Those spiky palms, those gigantic buds in the foreground...do I dare sit in that chair and turn my back on those shadows?

I often show my somewhat battered postcard of this picture in my drawing and painting classes. I probably got it on my last visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, but I didn't remember the painting being there. And so on my visit last weekend, when I came around the corner and there it was, I jumped and had to look elsewhere before I could compose myself enough to return to it. 

When I finally turned my full attention to the picture, how marvelous! Up close, the unworried brushstrokes; the sensuous yellow on yellow, canvas showing through, on the path through the trees; the black that simultaneously defines flat shapes and imparts dimension - all the rewards of seeing the real thing, live and in person - of feeling, come to think of it, like the woman about to walk into the picture.

Julia Hensley

iPhone photo

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Painting:

Max Beckmann

Landschaft, Cannes (Landscape, Cannes)

1934

oil on canvas

Rauschenberg

My SFMoMA journal, continued...

Julia Hensley
iPhone photos
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Painting:
Robert Rauschenberg
Collection (formerly Untitled)
1954
Painting | oil, paper, fabric, wood, and metal on canvas

Diebenkorn

Julia Hensley

iPhone photos

Diebenkorn DETAILS

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Painting:

Richard Diebenkorn

Berkeley #57

1955

Painting | oil on canvas

Guston

Julia Hensley

iPhone photos

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Painting:

Philip Guston

For M.

1955

oil on canvas

76 3/8 in. x 72 1/4 in.

Guston and Giacometti

Julia Hensley

iPhone photo

Giacometti & Guston

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Sculpture:

Alberto Giacometti 

Tête (Trois quarts et profil) (Buste de Diego)

(Head [Three-Quarters Profile] [Bust of Diego])
1957

bronze

23 7/8 in. x 9 3/4 in. x 6 3/8 in.

Painting:

Philip Guston

For M.

1955

oil on canvas

76 3/8 in. x 72 1/4 in.

Stella

I had a wonderful visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art last weekend. Here is Frank Stella, reflected in the polished granite stripes in the stairwell of Mario Botta's 1995 building.

Julia Hensley

iPhone photo

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Painting:

Frank Stella

Khurasan Gate(Variation ) I

1969

polymer and fluorescent polymer on canvas

96 1/4 in. x 285 1/2 in. x 3 1/8 in

Speaking of flowers...

Drawing Flowers in Color class starts June. Join me for this exploration of aquarelle pencils and crayons and add a new dimension to your enjoyment of flowers and plants. 

Flowers flowers flowers

Announcing Buds and Blooms , a garden celebration in Federal Way this weekend.

Student Lillian Yeh helps to organize it. 

According to the brochure, there are lush spring gardens in Federal Way, a Farmer's Market, and an urban wetland and wildlife refuge. The event features a grand tour of these, with presentations by gardening celebrities, workshops, live music, art exhibits, food booths and activities for kids.

Bring Mom. Bring the kids. Happy Mother's Day!

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Image:

Pierre August Renoir

Spring Flowers, 1864

Oil on canvas

51 1/8 x 38 5/8 inches

Robert Yoder

Tonight I attended the guest speaker portion of the third in fellow instructor, Doug Parry's excellent Fine Art Symposium series at Pratt. The subject of the Symposium is Narrative in Contemporary Art, and the speaker was Robert Yoder. Yoder made a name for himself with his rigorous abstract road-sign constructions; his recent collages exhibit a simultaneous freedom and precision, with a playful quality that draws you in.

While Yoder's images aren't necessarily directly narrative, it's fun to construct a story based on the title and the picture. We talked about how the subject is influenced in large measure by what the viewer brings to it.

I think Narrative in a broader sense is a splendid idea for our next Art Cafe topic, don't you?

Stay tuned!

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Image:

Robert Yoder

Breaker, 2006

Collage - vinyl, collage on paper

8 x 8 inches

Froelick Gallery

Collages by Becky Brooks

Part of 4Cats Art Cafe is sharing the work of my students and friends. While Becky studies drawing and painting with me, she also has enjoyed many collage classes with Ricky Wolfe. Here is one of Becky's recent pieces that caught my eye.

See more here. 

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Image:
Scarlet Honeymoon
9.5  x 9.5"

Championing art and craft in Issaquah

Here are some images from Becky Brooks's Flying House Art and Craft Sale. By all accounts it was a warm and wonderful event, with wave after wave of people coming in the door and every corner of Becky and husband Jeff's charming 50's modern house ("with the butterfly roof") stuffed with art and crafts of all kinds. Three cheers to Becky for her enterprising drive to grow and support the arts community in Issaquah. Her event provided an intimate venue for sixteen artists and craftspeople to show their work this year.

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Image:

Jeff Youngstrom

Anna Thormahlen Jenkins performing for art sale patrons.