Up close - really close - at the Prado

In January, the Prado Museum in Milan introduced a feature on Google Earth that allows you to click on one of a selection of paintings that have been photographed in super high resolution ("14,000 million pixels, 1,400 times more detailed than the image a 10 megapixel digital camera would take") and view them close up. Not that anything is a substitute for standing in front of the actual painting, but oh my! Seeing the details of Durer's self portrait down to the individual hairs that make up each curl is thrilling. And it is quite fun to get a virtual sense of the museum itself. Gets that travel bug itching.

Below is a short video of the making of the images and how the feature looks in Google Earth (for a larger image, watch it here). 

To find out how to visit the Prado in Google Earth click here. 

Sunday studio

This Sunday, four painters arrived at my studio to paint what I am dubbing 'the Eastlake Riviera' (float planes and all) from my windows. 

Our subject: Interior with Landscape View. As we discovered, that simple and common human experience of looking outside from inside presents challenges and endlessly surprising compositional possibilities - which is probably why it has drawn the attention of artists from Vermeer to Bonnard, Matisse to Diebenkorn.

And now, us.

Our time-frame: five hours, with one of those, importantly, devoted to lunch. This was a deliciously successful potluck involving fresh greens and vegetable stew, corn chips with guacamole (which I made from five avocados hand-smuggled by my parents last weekend from the garden of friends in Carpenteria, California), goat cheeses and bread, and last but not least, chocolate-dipped strawberries and fresh cream sauce. 

Post-lunch, a room full of strong drawings developed into painterly paintings that impressively incorporated lessons from some of the artists I mentioned, whose paintings we had looked at earlier. The resulting work was quite beautiful.

Thanks to all who came and especially to Diane for her impromptu suggestion to get together that started it all. 

I think we have a new tradition. Look for upcoming sessions with a bit more lead time, open to anyone wishing to draw or paint, on my Julia's Studio blog. There is room for five people per session. Bring your painting bikini.

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Image:

Diane Schebel at work on her painting

Julia iPhone photo

Public art

Sometimes a joyful antic is in order. This video was made in Antwerp, Belgium's Central Station on March 23, 2009.

At 8:00am, with no warning to the passengers passing through the station, a recording of Julie Andrews singing 'Do, Re, Mi' begins to play on the public address system. As the surprised travelers look on, some 200 dancers begin to appear from the crowd and station entrances. They created the performance with just two rehearsals.

Michael Matisse for Team Seattle

Michael Matisse is a superb photographer. Currently he is in France supporting Don Kitch's Team Seattle as they venture to Le Mans. Team Seattle's goal is not just to race Ferraris in the most famous car race in Europe, but to raise money for Seattle Children's Hospital. 

From their site: "Thanks to corporate sponsors, including Global Diving, Guggenheim Partners, and Microsoft, among others, the team is moving closer to raising $1,000,000 for infant cardiac care at Children's Hospital". 

Good people racing beautifully designed cars for an excellent cause, documented by beautiful photography. The excitement that comes through in the posts is infectious. News flash: the team just qualified! Go, Team Seattle! 

Image:

Michael Matisse 

Don Kitch/Le Mans Day 2*

2009 

All rights reserved

* I just emailed MM to ask permission to use this shot, and to ask what I should title it. I will honor his response here, somewhat truncated : TEAM SEATTLE IN LE MANS WAITING PEACEFULLY IN THE CHURCH CARETAKER'S BACK YARD BEFORE FOR THE PRE-RACE PARADE THAT WILL BE A [MEDIA STORM] LIKE NOTHING ANYONE IN LE MANS HAS EVEER SEEN BEFORE.

Solo show downtown through June

Urban Perspective: City Views

13 pieces by artist Julia Hensley

Curated by Becky Brooks

Presented by

Sightline Institute

1402 Third Ave 

Fifth Floor, Suite 500

Seattle

206-447-1880 ext. 100

Through the month of June

Visit on weekdays between 10am and 3pm

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All 13 pieces are available for purchase. You may Contact me for availability. Affordably priced.

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The work is a collection of my abstract urban landscapes in oil, acrylics, and gouache-on-pater collage. Most of the images are Seattle-area scenes, with a few of Boston, New York, and Las Vegas. 

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Sightline Institute, Cascadia's sustainability think tank, is an important organization to the Northwest region and beyond as they research and communicate trends that are crucial to the region's future: health, economy, population, energy, sprawl, wildlife, and pollution. They provide the research and tools needed to make progress on a range of solutions to these issues. The now familiar term 'green-collar jobs' was coined at Sightline.

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After viewing the art, you are invited to respond to the question, “What thoughts about sustainability are inspired by Julia's art - or by art in general?” 

A notebook to share your response is available near the artwork, or you can add your comment in the specially created Wordpress blog, Art and Sustainability. We invite you to stop by and just look, or write a few words. All thoughts are appreciated.

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Image:
Julia Hensley

Miller Paint; Oil on Panel; 16" x 20"; 2006 

Photo: Michael Matisse

Book review: Art, chess and murder

A 500-year old murder, that is, with a young art restorer bent on solving the mystery she uncovers while working on a 15th-century Flemish painting. Here's a blog review of The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte. 

I came across the review on Wordpress - the other Blogger - which apparently recommended the book to me since my name is the same as the heroine's. It's a slim recommendation, I realize, but the story sounds exciting. Let me know what you think if you read it. Might be good arty summer reading.

Here is Van Eyck's famously symbol-laden painting of the same era:

Image:

Arnolfini Portrait

Jan van Eyck

1434

Oil on oak panel, 3 vertical boards

32.4 x 23.6 inches

National Gallery, London

Surprises

On Sunday, Sue Danielson, Joan Cox, Peter and Jillian Hensley and I sat around my long table spread with books and postcards that related, obviously or obliquely, to narrative in art, drinking coffee and munching carrot cake. From the get-go, the ideas just flew.

One of my favorite moments was when Jillian wondered aloud how the all-white painting she once saw in a museum many years ago could possibly contain a story. She found the piece annoying in its blankness, so carefully and evenly painted, and couldn't see how it amounted to anything. 

After some discussion she surprised herself by musing that for one thing, perhaps the reason she saw only white was because she had zoomed in so far the subject couldn't be made out, and that if she could only draw back a bit it would begin to reappear...this imagining, she suprised herself further by realizing, created in effect a kind of content, and a story.

The eyes of the artists in the room glistened at the recognition of a potentially mineable idea. You could almost hear the little gray cells expanding, along with our definition of narrative. 

But before we got much further down that road, Peter began to express his experience of abstract art - a Mondrian grid painting, for example - as "arresting" his eye and further, his thoughts, because it presents no imagery that can be immediately interpreted. Thus for him, a purely abstract painting effectively interrupts the mind's search for a narrative. Aha. A view, then, in support of abstract art as non-narrative? Joni for one found this idea particularly compelling as a sort of Buddhist approach that enabled her to see the contrast between story and, at least initially, no story.

More expansion. More coffee.

We continued, engrossed, nibbling spanokopita and mushroom turnovers. I held up Mondrian and Velazquez, Asterix and Jacob Lawrence, and we followed our thoughts out loud, ultimately deciding, after three hours, that we had barely scratched the surface. A most satisfying Cafe. Thanks to all who were there.

Wish you had been? Look for Part Two of this topic, I have a feeling it will be back. Comments, thoughts? Post here or Email me.

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Image:

Suprematist Composition: White on White

Kazimir Malevich (Russian, born Ukraine. 1878-1935)

1918 Oil on Canvas, 31 1'4 x 31 1/4" 

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. 

Kissing (George) in the park

Now playing in Seattle at the 5th Avenue Theater: Sunday in the Park with George (music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine), the musical inspired by George Seurat's great painting, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte".

Sunday in the Park with George
April 21-June 10
5th Avenue Theatre
Seattle

Student and friend, Diane Schebel, passed the word:
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"Mike heard about an upcoming musical called Sunday in the Park with George as a colleague has a small role. He says it is the best production he's ever been involved with.

The show will be at the 5th Ave Theater beginning April 21st for about 3 weeks. If anyone puts the word Facebook in the discount code section when checking out, you'll get $25.00 off each ticket! We managed to get great seats for the first night and the discount code made it very reasonable.

Here is the link...
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Back from her night at the 5th Avenue, Diane raved about the show, particularly the visuals involving computer graphics.

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(Leonard Bernstein called his friend Sondheim's show "brilliant, deeply conceived, canny, magisterial, and by far the most personal statement I've heard from you thus far. Bravo.").*

Photo:
Hugh Panera as Georges Seurat with Billie Wildrick as Dot