12 February, 2007

Influence of Van Gogh

VG's influence on my art is already pretty much present. Color, gesture, impasto. Feeling.
In my van Gogh project, to add to my studies, I am choosing his subjects as well. And, his methods of working from life.
It looks like I may have found the painting I'll be working on, based on a photo I took in Italy last year. It's the hardest one I could do, with receding perspective (looking acutely downhill, then continuing up in the background), too much foliage, and other challenges. But, it has the passion! I actually had tears drawing the study.
The Cottage Garden drawing that Katherine Tyrrell posted is a good VG drawing for me to key on, then the opportunity will be to select some good VG colors.
According to one of my sources (Gayford), he would often execute a painting at lightning speed. Brush strokes, intention, gestural movements of brush on canvas. But, he was organized of thought while producing these "fast" works. His sense of composition was pre-ordained by days of thought about what each painting should be.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Casey! Wonderful work! I do hope you post that painting when you are through with it. I think that Van Gogh probably didn't have to think to long before knowing what to paint. Painting was his Therapy, it helped him. I think and this is just my oppinion that he had many ideas using bright colors helped him to speak what he felt through his work. If that makes sense?

Casey Klahn said...

I think you are close to right. He had this vision to paint for an audience who, a century hence, would be able to feel the feelings of the subject that he painted.
if you stop and think about it, that is us, as we are about a century out from his time, plus a handful of years.
Color was very well thought out; I think that he imagined or visualized his color compositions ahead of time. That is evident in his letters, where he writes endlessly about the colors he did paint, or will paint. And he does this in detail.

Robyn Sinclair said...

I'm looking forward to your painting too, Casey. It's always exciting to see Italy through someone else's eyes.
I loved the point about yellow and blue - I've written it in my diary. Sometimes you can 'know' something without really knowing it.

Casey Klahn said...

I think it's telling that new art and new passion, can be generated by new artists, in a landscape that has been represented for centuries gone by by leagues of artists.
Is painting dead? Hardly. If you follow my blog, you'll even think that van Gogh himself isn't dead!

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