Category: Book Notes
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Book Note of the Day: Preservation of Breadth
John Burnet’s Practical Hints on Light and Shade in Painting, published in 1880, opens with the following quote: The highest finishing is labor in vain, unless at the same time there be preserved a breadth of light and shadow. From Reynold’s notes on Du Fresnoy
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Book Note of the Day: Alberti on Beauty
‘Beauty’, he says, ‘is that reasoned harmony of the parts within a body, so that nothing may be added, taken away, or altered but for the worse.’ —from The Chameleon’s Eye, by Caspar Pearson.
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Book Note of the Day: The Royal Road in Art
There is no royal road in art. In this department of life, as in every other, the student must serve before he can govern. He must learn to construct, to draw, to paint, to observe, and select. —From the preface of Alfred East’s, “Landscape Painting in Oil Colour,” Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1908 This […]
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Book Note of the Day: the Importance of Instinct
Velazquez, like every great artist, tempered his method with doses of instinct. —From Jonathan Brown and Carmen Garrido’s “Technique of Genius”, Yale University Press, 1998.
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“Sinking In” – When Oil Paint Dries Dull and Matte on the Canvas and Why
“Sinking in” is the term used to describe what happens when a layer of paint loses its saturation. If you, like me, often use an earth palette, then this effect can easily be seen when a layer of Raw Umber or Burnt Umber has dried.
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A Poem from 1762
—The diſtinguish’d part of Men With Compaſs, Pencil, sword, or Pen, Shou’d in Life’s viſit leave their Name In Characters, which may proclaim, That they with Ardour ſtrove to raiſe At once their Art’s and Country’s Praiſe. Prior. —from Anecdotes of Painting in England by Mr. Horace Walpole
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“The Four Techniques for Illusion and Volume”
For those out there like myself interested in technical art history, you can download an excellent free document in PDF presented by the Getty Conservation Institute called Historical Painting Techniques, Materials and Studio Practice. This was called to my attention by Prof. Celeste Brusati at the University of Michigan, and I thank her again for doing […]
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The Anthropologically Possible
500 pages in 3 days is possible (when on vacation). To me, an absolute revelation. A must read before the movie comes out.
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Notes on The Practice of Oil Painting by Solomon J. Solomon
Annotation Summary for: Practice of Oil painting by Solomon J. Solomon Page 11: Title Page 13: Preface Page 15: TOC Page 41: “spaces left” = negative space Page 41: The trickyness of foreshortening. Page 42: Drawing a means ro a definite end… Painting! Knowledge and accuracy! Page 45: Study the skull. Skin is of of […]
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Notes on R.A.M. Stevenson’s Velázquez
Annotation Summary for: velasquez-RAM-stevenson Page 11: Cover Page 15: TOC Page 17: List of illustrations Page 21: Bibliography Page 25: Introduction Page 26: The true effect of art is slow. Page 26: The energy and eloquence of a Ruskin and the sympathetic comprehension of a whistler or Carolus-Duran are needed for Madrid. Page 27: Delacroix; […]
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My Notes on “Notes on the Science of Picture Making”
Annotation Summary for: Notes on the Science of Picture Making by C. J. Holmes published in 1920.
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Sedulous Indulgence and Instruction from Carolus-Duran
Book notes on A Manual of Oil Painting by the Hon. John Collier published in 1887
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The Secret of the Old Masters
This life work was more or less an injury and loss to me in many ways. —Albert Abendschein, author of The Secret of the Old Masters, published in 1909 As such, I wouldn’t dare be the one to spoil Mr. Abendshein’s efforts by readily revealing the “secret.” It’s actually a fascinating read: the author spends […]
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A Dose of Speed Does the Body Good
The business of the artist is to see to it that his talent be so developed that he may prove a fit instrument for the expression of whatever it may be given him to express. Great things are only done in art when the creative instinct of the artist has a well-organized executive faculty at […]
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Notes on “The Ghosts of Cannae”
P8 – “Verisimilitude is not truth, just the appearance of truth.” P12 – “Mark Twain seemed to have gotten it about right when he concluded that although history doesn’t repeat itself, it does sometimes rhyme.” Twain may have said that… but Twain also has the “Periodic Law of Repetition. See Letters from the Earth. P42 […]
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“No Explanation, Nor Apology”
Anyone can learn to paint and to analyze physical truths as facts, but few have the power of self-analysis. The artist must first be a dreamer, and then a sane analyzer of those dreams. Again, “There can be no expression without previous impression.” Learn to discern the exact boundary between synthetic re-creation, suggestion, and mere […]
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pLog Pith VI
It is this deep sincerity, this deep appreciation of the significance of things that makes one picture great among a thousand lesser ones, and causes us to feel, when we behold it, that we have thought and felt that way all our lives. – John F. Carlson, from Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting, circa 1929.
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“A Superior Order of Beings” – Public Taste & the Arts
The present generation appears to be composed of a new, and, at least with respect to the arts, a superior order of beings. Generally speaking, their thoughts, their feelings, and language on these subjects, differ entirely from what they were sixty years ago. No just opinions were at that time entertained on the merits of […]