Almond Blossoms

This painting was illustrated by Vincent Van Gogh. The medium utilized was Oil on Canvas it was conducted February 1890 . This painting currently resides at Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. This painting was created when Vincent Van Gogh got word from his brother that his nephew had been born and his name is Vincent Willem. Van Gogh made this painting to be placed above his brother and his brothers wife bed to symbolize new life. He chose an almond tree that blooms early in southern region which announces the coming of spring.  I like this painting because I love the way trees look and I really would love to be able to draw a tree so detailed. The story behind this drawing makes me love it even more. I like the usage of color and I like the shades of blue that were utilized.

Joan Miro

This is a drawing by Joan Miro called The Vegetable Garden with Donkey and it was created around 1918. Miro uses oil on canvas to create this work of art. Miro uses cubism here but I also thought it was interesting because it tied in with landscape sketches we just did. I liked how everything drawn into this is in its own cubes. I thought it was a real interesting piece of work.

"Venice Twilight" by monet

   

"Venice Twilight" -1908, oil on canvas


Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movemetns of philosophy of expressing ones perceptions before nature. He was Born in 1840 and died in 1926.This painting was focus on the cathedral and bell tower located on the cost of the island, the beauty of the island at sunset. This was one of Monets greatest series.

Dogs Playing Poker

This painting is called "Dogs Playing Poker" done by C.M. Coolidge. This was actually part of a series of 16 different painting that featured dogs playing cards and billiards. The series was done in 1903 to advertise cigars. I liked this painting because I've always found it funny, and after I did the research on it, I learned things I never would've guessed about it, which I think is pretty cool.

Georges Seurat

This drawing is called "Place de la Concorde, Winter." It was drawn in the late 1800's.  This drawing really emphasizes dark to light and light to dark.  It looks like it just snowed and he captured the picture the day after.  It is a very simple drawing but covers a lot of elements of art.

Richard Parkes Bonington

Richard Parkes Bonington was one of the great English landscape painters at the height of the grand era of landscape painting in the 1800′s, and a notable figure in the English watercolor movement. I find this painting interesting because it shows the landscape and ships sailing towards it like they are traveling to new lands.

Elaine De Kooning

Sunday Afternoon (1957)

This oil on masonite is meant to be a depiction of a bullfight in Mexico. On a trip there she was captivated by the movements. I love the way that the bull looks like it's standing still and everything around him is moving. The red of the cape and the heat from the ground. Possibly blood from the bull itself.

Op Art

This abstract piece was created by Victor Vasarely. This type of art is referred to as Op art, or optical art. Using simple geometric shapes, like squares and trapezoids, Vasarely is able to create a 2 dimensional design that appears 3 dimensional. In this piece, the square in the middle appears to be jumping off the page. The middle square is the subject of the piece, the part that draws your attention, while the smaller background squares help the piece to appear 3 dimensional. I like how Vasarely uses simple geometric shapes, but combines them in a way that they make a complex and beautiful design. I also like how Vasarely uses simple colors, with each square being outlined and filled in with a different color. For the colors, each one is associated with only one other. The most prominent examples of this are yellow-orange and lite blue-lite green.

Escher Eye

This Piece of art was constructed by M.C. Escher, and can be found today in the National Gallery of Art in Washington.  Eye is an excellent example of the technique referred to as globular reflection. This means that when Escher drew this sketch he drew it from looking at it in a reflection. In this case the eye, his own as a matter of fact was drawn from its reflection in a concave shaving glass. He says that he tried to “copy it as faithfully as possible.” Escher felt it was “necessary and logical to convey somebody, an observer reflected in the convex mirror of the eye” and so he decided to draw a skull because again in his own words, “we are all confronted with death whether we like it or not”.

Apocalyptic Landscape

This is Ludwig Meidner's (Germany, Bernstadt, 1884 - 1966) Apocalyptic Landscape, 1913. This painting is oil on canvas. Meidner intended this painting to depict the eve of World War I, predicting the violence, destruction, and devastation that was going to hit Europe at that time. This painting is part of a series of apocalyptic paintings that Ludwig produced. I chose this painting because it is an interesting take on landscape drawing that we are currently learning about in class. The colors and sharp edges of the figures demonstrate chaos and destruction. This powerful painting is definitely making a statement about how Ludwig feels about war, like it is an apocalypses.

Study of a Standing Male Nude

Gaetano Gandolfi was an Italian artist, a painter, etcher and a sculptor  He was born in August 31st 1734 and died in June, 1802. He was a student of the academy of Accademia Clementina near Bologna city in Italy. He was a successful artist, whose oeuvre includes about 220 paintings, sculptures, etchings, and a huge number of drawings. 
 I like this painting of Gaetano, because the body of the men looks so real. Gaetano applied the right colors for the skin color. Every muscle is well emphasized, it is even possible to the veins. I also like how he applied the light and the shadows on the body exactly where they should be, this therefore know that the men was under a bright light.

Rooms

Title: Rooms

Artist: Toba Khedoori

Medium: Oil and Wax on paper

In order to create this work Toba lays a rag paper on the floor and covers it with thin layers of wax, she then pins it to the wall and etches her images into the wax. This piece reminds me of a vanishing point work. I love how the doors seemingly never end, they just continue on and on. 

Italian Village Forge

This is a painting done by Heinrich Burkel, and it is called Italian Village Forge, which he created in 1832.  Burkel was a very successful landscape artist and he spent two years in Italy, where he created this painting.  What I like about this painting is the vivid color and the depth.  The background is decorated with mountains, while there is so much detail outside and inside the house.

Chuck Close- Mary Ann Raftery

Chuck Close is a revered American artist who is widely collected by major museums. In the late 1960s, Chuck Close’s realistic and heroically scaled portraits of his family and friends sent shockwaves throughout the art world that are still being felt to this day. Chuck Close's approach to the canvas was inspired by the non-hierarchical, all- over surface of American painting epitomized for him by the work of Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock.  After taking a picture of his subject, Close makes photographic prints that he uses to transfer the images to canvas. Utilizing a technique devised by Renasissance masters and adapted by contemporary billboard paints, Close overlays a working print with a numbered and lettered grid, and then reproduces the image block by block. 

Rooftops in the snow

French artist Gustave Caillebotte painted fascinating scenes of everyday Parisian life in a style melding Realism and Impressionism. This painting is called rooftops in the snow and was created in 1878.  I thought this would be appropriate because winter is coming and it has recently been snowing.  It is also similar to our project of the villa because of the detail and preciseness of the roofing, windows and chimneys.  I also liked that the snow on the rooftops is the most prominent in this painting.

Artist: MC Escher

Style: Surrealism

I chose this drawing by M C Escher because I feel his art surpasses the rules of physics. When he draws he seems to be able to make his subjects bend, twist, and act opposite of what the mind can comprehend. For example, in this one, he somehow gets the dragon to bite its own tail after it comes through its body and the head goes under and over its own wings! And what is really nice about this drawing is how he makes the background black with some soft white touches to make the dragon this main focal point of the drawing, which really marks the impact of the drawing. 

One of van Gogh's most popular and widely known series are his Cypresses. During the Summer of 1889, at sister Wil's request, he made several smaller versions of Wheat Field with Cypresses.^[168] These works are characterised by swirls and densely painted impasto, and produced one of his best-known paintings, The Starry Night. Other works from the series include Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background (1889) Cypresses (1889), Cypresses with Two Figures (1889–1890), Wheat Field with Cypresses (1889), (van Gogh made several versions of this painting that year), Road with Cypress and Star (1890), and Starry Night Over the Rhone (1888). They have become synonymous with van Gogh's work through their stylistic uniqueness.

Andrea del Castagno did a beautiful mural of the Last Super way frhich resides in Florence, Italy. He experimented with linear perspective. There are 6 panels above the men which are unusual. Judas and Jesus are the focal point and Judas' face almost seems devil like as he is seated away from the other disciples showing his eventual betrayal. This painting takes up an entire wall and I was actually able to see this painting in person.

Theodore Gericault

This is a drawing by Theodore Gericault and it is called The Black Standard Bearer. The man in the picture was drawn from exemplary acts of courage during the Napoleonic Wars. The drawing was made with pencil, black chalk, and gray wash heightened with white on buff wove paper. I thought the drawing was interesting because of the contrast, a black soldier holding a white flag over a white horse. Also the foreground is completely developed while the background is hazy and undefined

twelve sunflowers

Vase with 12 sunflowers, 1888, oil on canvas

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born in March 1853 and died in  July 1890) was a dutchpost impressionist  painter whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, he died aged 37 from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted (although no gun was ever found). His work was then known to only a handful of people and appreciated by fewer still. I picked this drawing because I love sunflowers. The colors are very warm. 

This drawing is done by M C Escher. The reason I chose this photo is because it resembles the art studios we are doing. The reason i also like this drawing is because it makes the hallway look like it ends in a black hole almost. I also like it because of the items of the wall and how it looks like some of them are going out of the hallway and into the obis.

The Sacrament of the Last Supper

The Sacrament of the Last Supper is a painting by Salvador Dali. This was done in 1955 and the medium is oil on canvas. This painting takes the classic religious theme and ties surrealist themes. Dali used the golden ratio in this painting. Artists use this mathematical ratio to proportion objects at an ascetically pleasing proportions. I chose this painting because I like the twist on classical religious art. I also like how the main figure is pointing up to the body in the sky, it is very symbol of Jesus and God. Dali also uses perspective in this photo making the main figures head and body much smaller that the foreground figures.

Palestrina Pieta

This sculpture, "Palestrina Pieta", was done by Michelangelo in 1555. It shows three bodies in the image, one of which being Jesus Christ. This is a controversial creation because, although Michelangelo got the credit for it, it has later been discovered that it may have been done by somebody else. It gives the idea that artists can receive glory for things that are not even theirs. There is a saying in art that fits this cliche perfectly: "Good artists cheat, but great artists steal." Besides that it is a powerful structure that shows pain and agony for Christians to come and admire the greatness of a savior.

Paris A Rainy Day

This work is a large 1877 oil painting by the French artist Gustave Calillebotte. The piece depicts the Place de Dublin, an intersection near the Gare Saint Lazare, a railroad station in north Paris. One of Caillebotte's best known works, it debuted at the Third Impressionist Exhibition of 1877 and is currently owned by the Art Institute of Chicago.  Caillebotte's interest in photography is evident from the painting. The figures in the foreground appear slightly out of focus, those in the mid-distance have sharp edges, while the features in the background becomes progressively indistinct. 

Asheville

Title: Asheville

Artist: William de Kooning

Medium: Oil and Enamel on Cardboard

I choose this de Kooning piece because I have really been into abstract art lately. I already know I love a lot of William de Kooning's abstract pieces but I stumbled across this one and loved it. The colors appeal to me as well as the fact that he incorporates black and white. It is interesting to see that he does have some negative space, yet this is part of the piece. 

Jazz

This piece, entitled Jazz, was created by Elizabeth Murray in 2001. This piece is a 3-dimensional lithograph. I chose this piece because I like Murray's use of shapes and bright colors. Although all Murray's pieces contain this, I especially enjoyed this piece because of its interesting alignment. I also like Murray's use of cross hatching in the background of the piece. This cross hatching in pink stands out nicely against the rest of the blue background. I also like Murray's use of mostly yellow, pink, and blue.

Adoration of the Magi

Leonardo da Vinci was a biologist, he was born in 1452 and he died in 1519. He was and still remains a great artist, he was not only that but he had the best scientific mind of his time. He did a lot of scientific research. He was very talented and was a master at every subject he turned his attention to.
I like this picture because of the techniques used from drawing the lines to the vanishing point to the application of dark and light, and the gestures. I also like the details of the painting and how the images intertwined with each other .This is a drawing he has done but also reproduced it in painting.

Three Worlds

This is called "Three Worlds" by MC Escher.  It is titled Three Worlds because you can focus on either the fish, the leaves, or the trees as the main image of the drawing.  Escher also did a great job on the perception of the drawing as you can see down the pond for a while.  I also like the shadows of the trees as you would see them if you were looking at that angle.

Architectual Study for the Backround of the Adoration of the Magi

This is a sketch by Leonardo da Vinci called  Architectural Study for the Background of the Adoration of  the Magi (1481).  This is an example of the perspective gird being applied to a sketch.  I chose this sketch because its a sketch that uses a specific perspective,   I struggle with any kind of perspective when drawing. I think it is interesting that da Vinci used disappearing figures as well as a vanishing point.

What Will Come (has already come)

             This painting was illustrated by William Kentridge in 2007. The medium utilized was steel, cylindrical steel mirror, 35nm animated film that was transferred to video; which was 8:40 minutes long. This art piece is currently residing in Norton Museum of Art. William Kentridge studied at the Johannesburg Art Foundation and the Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. He was one of the founding members of the Free Filmmakers Co-operation in 1998. Kentridge opened up a number of art museums around the world; The Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels in1998,  The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, in 2001. He has been a recipient of numerous prizes including; he Kaiserring Prize (2003), the Carnegie Prize, the Carnegie International (2000), Standard Bank Young Artist Award (1987), and the Red Ribbon Award for Short Fiction (1982). I found this piece interesting because the the fly on the floor is smaller when it is refelcted into the steel mirror. Also when I was also intrigued when  I found out that this piece was not a painting or a drawing originally but a film put together by William Kentridge.

Chair and Pipe

This is painting by Vincetn Van Gogh is located in London's National Gallery.  The name of this painting is Chair and Pipe.  His chair is used with light colors, suggesting daylight.  i chose this painting because it is simple, yet very detailed.  I also picked it because of our class drawing of the chair and cello, and how we used very similar colors to compliment each other.

van gogh depth

This is art by Vincent Van Gogh. It is interesting to me because of the way he does the depth perception. One doorway and further back is another doorway and it goes further and further back making it seem as if the painting is going back.

Anytown, USA

This is a drawing done by Steinberg, it was done in pencils and ink. I like it because I have no idea what the hell is going on in it. There's a giant pineapple, reminds me of spongebob, next to a pyramid with a guy jousting on a horse down below. It's just a combination of a bunch of different things almost as if he drew whatever random thought came to his mind.

Kathe Kollwitz War and Poor

This is a drawing by Kathe Kollwitz. She was one of teh most influential painters during times of war. She depicted people who were poor and affected by war and I like this because she depicts the mood of the war and poor so well in the drawings she did.

Still Life and Street

This is a  drawing by M.C. Escher and its called Still Life and Street. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist known for mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, mezzotints. His works feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture, and tesselations.  I thought this was a very interesting drawing because it seems that Escher combined his work table with a street. The books, his pipe, and the cards all seem to be laying at the end of this street.

Albrecht Durer

This engraving by Albrecht Durer is so fantastic. I love the amount of detail involved. What's interesting are the little details involved like the date "1514" engraved on the magic square. Also the fact that the title Melancolia I has nothing to do with a series of engravings, but with first of the three types of melancholia defined by the German humanist writer Cornelius Agrippa.

Creek

This piece entitled Creek was created by Robert Rauschenberg. Creek was created in 1964 and is silk screen on canvas. I chose this piece because I like Rauschenberg’s use of colors, namely his use of only primary colors (red, yellow, and blue), black, and white. At first glance it would appear that this picture is a collection of shapes, however when you look closer you can see that each shape contains an image. These images are taken from daily life, for example the statue of liberty can clearly be seen. 

dark night incantations or burning night incantation

Dark night incantations or burning night incantation, is a digital painting by Tim Odom. I chose this painting because it looks really cool. I love how the colors are contrasting from one another. I also think that its really cool how the artist created a face out of the smoke.

Vincent Van Gogh, Almond Branches in Bloom (1890)Van Gogh loved to paint flowers, and his Almond Branches in Bloom (above) has always been a favorite of mine.  I love the design simplicity and cool color palette.  This is in contrast to the very warm palette Van Gogh used in his famousTwelve Sunflowers.

Artist: Vincent Van Gogh

"The Night Cafe"

Painting

1888

This painting was done in 1888, and it was originally in color. I chose this due to this week's theme being on one point perspective. What i like about this one, is that the focus point is not in dead center of the picture, it is to the left of the center. What is also nice is that in this edited version, it is in grayscale vs. the original color that Van Gogh painted it in. This painting was supposed to resemble the human emotions of despair and desolation, however I did not get that from the colored version. This grayscale for me really captured those emotions. 

"Paris Street; Rainy Day" by Gustave Caillebotte

This painting is entitled Paris Street; Rainy Day by  French artist Gustave Caillebotte. The medium used is oil on canvas. Caillebotte's interest in photography is evident from the painting. The figures in the foreground appear out of focus, those in the mid-distance have sharp edges, while the features in the background becomes progressively unnoticeable. I chose this painting because this idea of space related to our discussion of the Villa drawing. Where objects in the foreground are larger and get progressively smaller moving towards the background. This also related to the discussion on perspective. This painting is an example of two point perspective. The two vanishing points are the disappearing edges of the building in the background.

Hand With Reflecting Sphere

This lithograph printing by M.C. Escher, entitled Hand With Reflecting Sphere was created in 1935.  Here we can see that the hand holding the sphere is actually M.C. Escher's hand, which we can see in the reflection on the sphere.  In the sphere we can see one point perspective is used to depict himself and the rest of the room.  The reflection of the room is curved just as it would be due to the sphere.  This lithograph can also be considered as on of Escher's self portraits.

Yoram Raanan: Bamidbar Collection

Artist:Yoram Raanan

Title: From the Bamidbar Collection

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Yoram studied and graduated at the University of Philadelphia after which he traveled and continued to study throughout the world. he finally settled in Israel and opened his first studio. Many of his paintings are modern expression of Jewish collective conscious. One can tell just by looking that many of his paintings are religious, but what drew me to his paintings were his use of light and color. It is also a very serene looking scene, something he strives for as he not only paints but landscapes aquatic area's. I also loved the use of warm inviting colors. 

Vanishing Point

This is a vanishing point drawing.  This is now my favorite type of drawing after learning how to do it and seeing a lot of them. I think it's amazing how an artist can draw something like this.  This particular drawing reminds me of the gallery that we are working on in class.

Portrait de Pierre Loeb

This work was illustrated by Alberto Giacometti. The medium utilized was graphite on paper. This drawing was illustrated in 1950. It is currently in a private collection. I like this painting because of its depth perception. You can see a person behind furniture in the room as well as art on the walls. This drawing is something similar to that in which we are doing in class right now. Alberto was a sculptor, painter and draughtsman at the school of Paris. He is the son of post- impressionist painter Giovanni Giacometti. At an early age Giacometti illustrated painting, sculptors and drawings. He studied at various art schools. He went through a restless period in which he experimented with polychrome sculpture, cages, erotic kinetic objects, near-abstraction and other styles. He obtained awards for his works;  First Prize for a Sculpture at the Pittsburgh International in 1961,  main prize for a sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1962, and the Guggenheim International Award for a Painting in1964.

The Blue Duck

This is a painting of a blue duck. The creator of the painting is unknown. It is an acrylic painting done on cardboard. I picked this painting because I have never seen a blue duck before. I wanted to see a blue duck. I like the use of the color wheel to contrast the background of the image to the central feature of the duck. I believe this painting shows charisma, and a certain level of unique creativity to create such a bold image.

Untitled (rooms)

This drawing was created by Toba Khedoori in 2001, it is called Untitled  (Rooms).  Khedoori used oil and wax on paper to create this image.  I really like how this drawing creates alot of interior space in perspective, this is something I struggled with in the Linear perspective drawing.  The thing that caught my attention was the vanishing point in this drawing.

Sleeping Beauty?

acrylic on canvas

                                                                    84 x 144.25 inches

Robert H. Colescott, was an American painter, he was born in August 26, 1925, Oakland, California and he died in June 4, 2009.  He is known for satirical genre and crowd subjects, often conveying his exuberant, comical, or bitter reflections on being African-American. His painting evoke contemplation, and powerful emotions. He went to Paris at the Atelier Fernand Leger to improve his art skills.I like this abstract painting first of all because of the array of colors used in it. I also like the fact that you almost never finish contemplating the painting because each time you look at it, you see something in it you didn't see before. There are so many thing to look at, for example I see several faces throughout the painting. I like the white color he applied in his painting it seems as if your going inside something or inside a room. In that white space you also remark a women standing in the pathway that leads to that space or room maybe she's the one he refers to as sleeping beauty.