On 28 Aug, 2015 With
Renoir’s Palette Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that “Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau.” Renoir’s paintings are notable for their vibrant light and saturated color, most often focusing on people in intimate and candid compositions. The female nude was one of his primary subjects. In characteristic Impressionist style, Renoir suggested the details of a scene through freely brushed touches of color, so that his figures softly fuse with one another and their surroundings. One of the best known Impressionist works is Renoir’s 1876 Dance at Le…
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On 23 Aug, 2015 With
Oil painting techniques:Titian’s Palette Titian, the greatest Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. He was recognized early in his own lifetime as a supremely great painter, and his reputation has in the intervening centuries never suffered a decline. Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of color, would exercise a profound influence not only on painters of the Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Western art. In 1590 the art theorist Giovanni Lomazzo declared him “the sun amidst small stars not only among the Italians but all the painters of the world.” During the course…
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On 8 Aug, 2015 With
Sir John Everett Millais was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Millais’ Christ In The House Of His Parents was highly controversial because of its realistic portrayal of a working class Holy Family labouring in a messy carpentry workshop. All early works were painted with great attention to detail, often concentrating on the beauty and complexity of the natural world. In paintings such as Ophelia Millais created dense and elaborate pictorial surfaces based on the integration of naturalistic elements. This approach has been described as a kind of “pictorial eco-system”. This style was promoted by the critic John Ruskin, who had defended the Pre-Raphaelites against their critics. Millais’ friendship with Ruskin introduced him to Ruskin’s wife Effie. Soon after they met she modelled for…
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On 24 Jul, 2015 With
The Rembrandt Palette Rembrandt created his portraits with a small palette of colours dominated by dark earth tones and golden highlights. Remember the number of pigments available to the 17th century artist were miniscule when compared to those available to the modern artist. Rembrandt was unusual in that he used around hundred, but less than 20 pigments have been detected in Vermeer’s oeuvre. Portraits by Rembrandt have a special quality- the brilliant use of light to illumine faces, jewels and rich fabrics; the effective use of a limited palette, and the rich, dark, transparent backgrounds all set off the subjects of his portraiture in a way never seen before and often imitated afterwards. It has been said that a painter has…
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On 27 Jun, 2015 With
Palettes of Famous Artists. Zorn Palette Swedish painter Anders Zorn (1860-1920) has long been associated with a limited palette of four colors. Rosemary Hoffman, in the book Northern Light: Nordic Art at the Turn of the Century wrote, “Zorn was noted for executing paintings using a sober color scale limited to white, ochre, vermilion, and ivory black.” Hans Henrik Brummer, writing in the 1986 catalog on Zorn, said “basically his register was limited to black, white, earth yellows and vermilion; other pigments could be used if local accents were needed.” Several art teachers, such as Jeff Watts, use the “Zorn palette” (sometimes substituting cadmium red light for vermilion) as a teaching tool because it provides students with a finite range of color choices with a…
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On 31 Jan, 2012 With
REMBRANDT portraits decoded A University of British Columbia researcher has uncovered what makes Rembrandt’s masterful portraits so appealing. In the study, published in the current issue of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s arts and sciences journal Leonardo, UBC researcher Steve DiPaola argues that Rembrandt may have pioneered a technique that guides the viewer’s gaze around a portrait, creating a special narrative and “calmer” viewing experience. Renaissance artists used various techniques to engage viewers, many incorporating new scientific knowledge on lighting, spatial layout and perspectives. To isolate and pinpoint factors that contribute to the “magic” of Rembrandt’s portraits, DiPaola used computer-rendering programs to recreate four of the artist’s most famous portraits from photographs of himself and other models. Replicating Rembrandt’s techniques,…
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On 20 Dec, 2011 With
Oil painting techniques: Rembrandt’s Palette Rembrandt was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. Lead white Ochres Bone black Vermillion Siennas Raw umber Burnt umber Lead-Tin Yellow Cassel earth
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On 18 Dec, 2011 With
The Old Masters: Velázquez’s Palette Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. According to Carmen Garrido, Head of Technical Services at the Prado Museum in Madrid and author of Velázquez: Tecnica y Evolución, Velázquez’s palette consisted of the following colors: WHITE: composed of lead white and calcite YELLOW: yellow iron oxide, lead-tin yellow, and Naples yellow (the latter, sparingly) ORANGE: orange iron oxide and vermilion of mercury RED: red iron oxide, vermilion of mercury, and organic red lake BLUE: azurite, lapis lazuli, and smalt BROWN: brown iron oxide and manganese oxide BLACK: organic black of vegetal or animal origin GREEN: azurite, iron oxide, and lead-tin yellow PURPLE: organic red lake and…
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On 14 Dec, 2011 With
Limited Palette of Anders Zorn Anders Zorn is the most well-known Swedish painter. Palette: Flake white, Yellow Ocher Vermilion Cool black (Ivory + cobalt blue) Warm black (Ivory + burnt Sienna)
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On 11 Dec, 2011 With
Turner’s Palette Joseph Mallord William Turner was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Cobalt blue Emerald green Viridian Orange vermilion Barium chromate (yellow) Chrome yellow Chrome orange Iodine scarlet Burnt umber Carbon black Turner’s yellow Many red lake colors White [titanium? flake?] This doesn’t feel like his complete palette. And his palette did change over time.
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