Something to stare at, something to read, something to listen to, something to watch
A Sunday guide to filling yourself up with painting
This is the first of a series of Sunday posts about a few of my favorite paintings to stare at, things to read about painting, podcasts to listen to and bits of painting knowledge or inspiration that are free to watch. All of this is intended to fill you up as a painter.
So make yourself that additional cup of coffee you really don’t need but really want. Kick all of the small people who constantly need snacks out of the room, invite your dog or cat onto your lap, and prepare to fuel yourself creatively.
To stare at:
The Bather, Jean-Francois Millet, 1846-1848
This is a small painting, 7 5/16 x 9 1/2 in., but this tiny piece of wood and oil paint provides painters a lot of inspired choices to consider. Millet was a Romantic turned Realist and in this piece we see those two styles colliding here in an amazing study of value, color and composition.
Here is what I see when I look at “The Bather”:
Millet creates depth through the shift of value from the dark water and grass in the foreground to lighter grass and sky in the background. The amazing composition of the figure, the leg on the left activating that left corner of the canvas as it goes into the water, the bent leg seems to come at the viewer as it emerges off the plane. The energy of the bather leaning back into the dark pocket of green is so lovely. I can feel the weight of her body crushes the grasses.
Millet build a field grass with energetic marks moving up and away towards the horizon, a horizon that is interrupted by a somewhat odd silhouette of a cow that looks like its baying and tells us this is an agricultural world. A beautifully-painted bit of white on the right hints at a discarded dress. The pale of the skin of the torso and the red face, legs and forearms glows out of the dark, cool grass. Is this the first farmer’s tan painted in a classical form? A farmer’s tan would be the kind of painting decision made by an artist committed to showing the labor and life of hard-working peasants.
To Read:
This Guardian piece by Guy Atkins features the artwork of an art group in the Pentonville prison in the UK about prison food called, We Are What We Eat. It was part of a year-long program at The Museum of London to gather work from people across London about food. The work veers from a whimsical scene of a pair of legs poking out of a soft-boiled eggs to this brilliant still life where it looks like a fairly typical contemporary still life at first glance, with beautifully rendered fruit and cans of Coke. But then your eyes focus on the details and you notice the cockroaches hidden in the dark brown of the desk, hinting at life in prison. Other artworks turn hot sauces and kettles, the things that do the heavy lifting of making prison food palatable, into icons.
Food for Thought by MIA
Flavours of HMP by Ahmed G.
You can look at all of the amazing artwork on the Museum of London website.
To listen to:
The David Zwirner gallery knows how to create content. Their books are awesome and I love their podcast, Dialogues. If you have some Sunday cleaning to do you could do a lot worse than to turn on this podcast with Amy Sillman giving us her singular take on painting and writing. If you don’t know Sillman’s work, it is definitely worth looking at her paintings as you listen to her talk. If you like reading about painting, Sillman gets a gold star for her arts writing, especially from younger artists.
Amy Sillman's 2007 oil painting "C."
To Watch:
I suggest watching this moment from the amazing Louisiana Museum’s YouTube channel. While everything on their channel is great, I picked this video where painter Wardell Milan answers the question: “What Would Your Last Painting Be?” I selected it mainly because I love what Milan says, “I would create something that celebrated the life that I live.” What a great idea for a painting. What would be in your painting that celebrates the life you lead?
Lovely Tulip No. 4, 2013 © Wardell Milan
My newsletter usually ends with the question “Who Needs a Muse?” to prompt a painting exercise, and I think this is the prompt for today. Celebrate your life on canvas.