Lesson 18
1. Thought
"It was ... a surprise to read in Thomas Eakins: His Life
and Art that during his lifetime he was only moderately successful.
In fact, some of his paintings were rejected by those who commissioned
them. ... Eakins's father had accumulated some money and could
afford to subsidize the artist for much of his life. In a way,
Eakins's situation reminded me of Cezanne's. Both artists were
supported by their fathers and both did experimental work not
easily understood by their contemporaries. Cezanne, however, became
a recluse and didn't openly confront the art establishment. Whereas
Eakins believed his work was as good or superior to that of well-known
artists of his day, and he constantly tried to prove it."
- Book Review of Thomas Eakins: His Life and Art, Homer. Review
written by Walter Garver for The Artist's Magazine, June 93
2. Word for the week:
Broken Color: In the "Broken Color" approach, form
is modeled with different colors rather than with variations of
one main color. In this case, [the] orange [from the last example]
might include a distinct purple for the shadows and an unmixed
yellow for the highlight. ... Unlike local color, which is blended
to achieve the illusion of volume, broken color gives its best
performance when applied to the canvas in direct, unblended brushstrokes.
Painted in close proximity, strokes form an "optical mixture"
that creates the three-dimensional illusion of form. from Answers
by John Kevin Flynn, The Artist's Mag May 1993
3. Practice: "Learning bears fruit when it is applied."
Broken color approaches to painting resemble the approach
that some of the impressionists (such as Seurat) adopted to painting.
Paint was not thoroughly blended on the canvas. The viewer was
to do the final mixing with the eye. Try some exercises in which
you identify the colors contained in a simple form (such as an
orange, a pear or an apple) and then apply the colors in short
overlapping but unblended strokes.
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