Sunday, May 31, 2009

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)

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

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
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 
(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
1955
oil on canvas
76 3/8 in. x 72 1/4 in.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

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

Thursday, May 7, 2009

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

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"

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

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.