The Rise Of Landscape Painting

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

As Turner altered his style of oil painting, so also he revolutionized his practice in water color. Originally, in common with the older members of the Early English Water Color School, Turner began a drawing by laying in the gradations of light and shade with grey or some other neutral tint, and afterwards represented te hue of each object by tinting it with color; but this he found resulted in a certain heaviness of aspect. Accordingly, in his later water colors he proceeded to treat the whole surface of his drawing as color, using at one the pigments by which the scene might most properly be represented. By delicate hatchings he achieved wonderful qualities of broken hues, air tints, and atmosphere, so that the view when finished glowed and sparkled with the brilliance of Nature’s own colors. This method of putting on the color direct, without any under-painting of the subject in light and shade, has been to a great extent the foundation of modern painting.

Determined to outshine his fellows, Turner had a habit, dreaded by other artists, of coming to the Academy on Varnishing Day armed with his paint box, and putting a brilliant touch or two on his own canvas when necessary to heighten its effect if its brilliance happened to be in any way challenged by that of a neighboring picture. The brightness of the yellows and reds in his ‘Fighting Temeraire being Towed to her Last Berth’ is said to be due to after-touches put on to ‘kill’ a highly colored painting by Geddes which hung near it in the Academy of 1839. Towards another landscape painter Turner was merciless, but he had respect and kindly feeling for Sir Thomas Lawrence, and on one occasion he darkened a landscape of his with lamp-black because it injured the effect of pictures by Lawrence on either side.

As he grew older, and particularly after his visit to Venice in 1832, Turner became more and more ambitious of realizing to the uttermost the fugitive radiances of dawn and sunset. Light, or rather the color of light, became the objective of his painting, to the exclusion of almost everything else, and few of his contemporaries could follow him as he devoted his brush more and more to depicting the pageant of the heavens. His work when exhibited was severely criticised and held up to ridicule and mirth by Thackeray and other wits; he was regarded as a madman and accused, as other artists after him have been, of ‘flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.’ Even ‘The Fighting Temeraire,’ which seems to us so poetic today in its contrast of moonlight with sunlight, to match the contrast between the sailing ship that was passing away and the steamer that heralded the future, even this work was deemed to be exaggerated and extravagant, and to most of the admirers of his earlier pictures paintings like ‘The Approach to Venice’ were utterly incomprehensible.

Fortunately, Turner was now independent of patrons and could paint as he liked. During the earlier part of his career he had amassed a considerable fortune, a great part of which was derived from the engravings of his works, for he was a good business man, able to retain an interest in his works. He had commenced in 1808 the series of etchings known as the ‘Liber Studiorum,’ and the excellence of these plates—now of great rarity and value—had led to his employment as an illustrator, and his fame was greatly increased and extended by the beautiful work he did for books like Roger’s Italy and Poems, The Rivers of France, Southern Coast Scenery, etc. He had a fine studio at what is now 23 Queen Anne Street, and he also owned a house at Twickenham, where he lived with his father, who had retired from business and made his home with his son from about 1807 till his death in 1829. Here, with his father and an old housekeeper, Turner led a retired life; but though habitually taciturn and reserved, he could be jovial at a convival gathering of artists which he now and then attended.

The Rise Of Landscape Painting (continue)

Heard On The Street

As long as the world keeps changing, there is risk.

Colored Stone Update

It's hard to believe that suppliers of Andesine were ignorant about treatment (s), but now colored stone industry sources are saying that Andesine starts out as near colorless feldspar, and is then heat treated + the red-orange and green andesine we've been seeing over the past few years is the result of heat treatment (shocking!) + if in doubt always consult a reputed gem testing laboratory.

Useful links:
www.jewelrytelevision.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKBb_6VUEag

The Manga Bible

I found the Bible rooted in manga, the Japanese form of graphic novel, The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation by Ajinbayo Akinsiku interesting because it focuses on action and epic + it opens up new ways of understanding Scripture + I liked it.

Useful link:
www.themangabible.com

Valentine's Day Trend

As Valentine's Day approaches, a new trend is rippling through the flower, chocolate and diamond industry: consumers want items they purchase that are not harmful to the Earth and its inhabitants + more and more people are starting to ask questions about where products are coming from + demand a more socially and environmentally friendly product.

Useful links:
Flower
www.amystewart.com
www.lewisriver.com
www.esmeraldafarms.com
www.scscertified.com

Chocolate
www.wholefoodsmarket.com
www.equalexchange.com
www.seedsofchange.com
www.dagobachocolate.com
www.uncommongoods.com

Diamond
www.brilliantearth.com

The Geography Of Bliss

The Geography Of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner is an interesting book, with a mixture of travel + psychology + science + humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is + I liked it.

Useful link:
www.ericweinerbooks.com

Oil Industry Art Show

An art exhibition (Pier Arts Centre in Stromness) documenting life in the North Sea oil and gas industry by Sutherland-based artist Sue Jane Taylor is being held in Orkney + it features paintings, drawings and etchings, a visual record of the impact the North Sea oil industry has had on communities over 20 years.

Useful links:
www.suejanetaylor.co.uk
www.pierartscentre.com

Jewelers Of Renaissance

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

7. Enseignes

The little leaden saints or ‘tokens’ so extensively worn during the Middle Ages introduced a fashion that persisted through many years of the Renaissance. These emblems, not originally intended for ornament, were often pinned or sewed to the hat, from which conspicuous vantage point they indicated that the wearer had made pilgrimage to the shrine of some saint.

As times changed, the emblems as a whole took on secular, rather than purely religious, significance and the onetime token frankly developed into an adornment known as an enseigne or ‘medallion’. Almost everyone who had a hat saw to it that his headgear bore some kind of emblem. If a man were poor his hat ornament was made of one of the baser metals, copper or bronze. These could be turned out by the dozen, because instead of being handmade they were cast or stamped with a die.

Far different was the enseigne of the rich, termed te bijou par excellence. The goldsmith gave to this hat jewel his highest level of workmanship, his greatest ingenuity of design and his richest materials.

Now beyond a certain point, description of visual appearances is all too prone to leave the same impression as a frame without a picture. The ‘picture’ in this case was the meaning of the device. The typical enseigne of the period, apart from its character as an ornament, illustrates a certain phase of mental attitude.

The Renaissance was a riddle-loving age, an age of quip and quirk and antic disposition. Set conspicuously on the hat for all to see, these ‘toys of the imagination’ embodied this characteristic. They expressed some fancy, notion or idea peculiar to the wearer, but they expressed it indirectly, half revealing, half concealing the meaning. It was like trimming your hat with a rebus which gave the observer an opportunity to exercise his wits on solving the bejeweled puzzle. Rather a welcome pastime in dull company.

Jewelers Of Renaissance (continued)