Wednesday 10 April 2013

Gold Mountains


Mixed media, 5″x7″
I wanted to experiment more with my Golden fiber paste, so this time I mixed it with gold acrylic paint (also from Golden) on a palette before applying it in two smooth coats on a canvas with a palette knife. I then painted on top of it with Blockx cerulean grey watercolor.
The fiber paste by itself produces a water absorbant ground that can have watercolor used on it to some extent, but the acrylic paint mixed in with seems to have reduced the absorbency to be very low and the watercolor mostly stayed on top. The gold areas aren’t quite as iridescent as they would be if it has just been the gold acrylic alone, but as the light shifts it still produces a golden sheen.
still produces a golden sheen.

Christopher Murphy: New American Paintings 2012 Reader’s Choice!


Congratulations to Christopher Murphy (NAP #103)! He has been selected by our blog readers as the winner of the 2012 New American Paintings Reader’s Choice Prize. Out of the twelve exceptional “Noteworthy” artists that appeared in New American Paintings over the past year, Murphy was your clear favorite. In addition to bragging rights, Blick Art Materials will provide Christopher with a $500 Gift Card for supplies.

Murphy is still in the running to receive our Annual Prize as well. In the next few weeks we will be putting together a panel of jurors to decide who will receive that honor.  The winner will receive $1,000 from New American Paintings and a $500 Gift Card from Blick Art Materials. Last year this honor went to William Betts. Keep checking the blog for details.
After the jump, learn more about Christopher Murphy, and see some of his amazing work.
Christopher Murphy was born April 19, 1977, and grew up in Irvine, California.  He has been absorbed by art for as long as he can remember, and decided to attend Art Center College of Design where he earned his B.F.A. in 2002, graduating with the highest honor of distinction.  While earning his degree, he also studied independently with F. Scott Hess, Aaron Smith, and Alex Gross.  After graduating, Murphy had his first solo exhibition as a painter at Hunsaker/Schlesinger Gallery in 2003, and has also exhibited at Cal State Los Angeles and Creative Artists Agency’s (CAA) galleries, among others. His earliest and most lasting influences have been the painters Egon Schiele, Lucian Freud, and Antonio López García . He is currently represented by Lora Schlesinger Gallery.
When asked about his work, Murphy Notes:
Imagination playfully cavorts with authenticity to fabricate the essence of memory. It is at this intersection, between the poles of fiction and truth, that my current paintings and drawings are situated.  Issues of contrast, specifically of finding harmony between dissonant elements, have been a constant theme in my work.  I see my paintings as opportunities to explore the conceptual contrasts of reality versus illusory and permanence versus ephemeral as applied to memory.
I choose old family photographs (largely culled from my own family’s albums, but supplemented with a selection of found photos from estate sales and thrift stores) to serve as the basis for my work, because of their unique qualities of semi-permanence, staged semblance, and ostensible candidness.  In these photos, skies fade to pale yellows, skin tones sink, and details blur and grow fainter with time.  Sometimes, dated technology necessitated blank stares or static poses, caused colors to skew, or impacted the framing of an image. By either exaggerating or minimizing these characteristics, along with re-contextualizing figures and objects or dramatically re-staging the action of a photo, the divisions are obscured between the reality that existed at the moment of the photograph, the memories of that moment, and the possibilities of reality that are presented in my work.  The oil paintings further complicate these divisions through their slow and laborious attempt to address a transitory moment that was initially captured with an equally instantaneous (in its execution) technology.  What becomes of the snapshot if it requires months to take it? Additionally, there is interplay of tonal contrasts in these works, as humor flits around anger; solemnity is nudged by frivolity; absurdity pokes at earnestness.  This is akin to the gauzy, inchoate, often chaotic nature of memory.
Salvador Dalí likened memories to jewels, saying that it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.  This begs the question: which ones do we value the most?  Or, is there even such a thing as “false” memory? With these paintings I endeavor to understand these questions.
3.
Mixed media, 5x7
I wanted to experiment more with my Golden fiber paste, so this time I mixed it with gold acrylic paint (also from Golden) on a palette before applying it in two smooth coats on a canvas with a palette knife. I then painted on top of it with Blockx cerulean grey watercolor.
The fiber paste by itself produces a water absorbant ground that can have watercolor used on it to some extent, but the acrylic paint mixed in with seems to have reduced the absorbency to be very low and the watercolor mostly stayed on top. The gold areas aren’t quite as iridescent as they would be if it has just been the gold acrylic alone, but as the light shifts it still produces a golden sheen.

Colorful Splatter Paintings

Splatter painting is a fun way to relieve stress, but also create amazing art. There are so many different images you can create with paint splats, and now, there are tools that will even allow you to create splatter paintings .only by using your computer










































Create Awesome Paint Splatter Images with these Photoshop Tutorials using Products from Creative Market (found below):


Tuesday 9 April 2013

The Nefertiti Bust


The Nefertiti Bust is a 3,300-year-old painted limestone bust of Nefertiti, the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten and one of the most copied works of ancient Egypt. Owing to the work, Nefertiti has become one of the most famous women of the ancient world, and an icon of feminine beauty. The work is believed to have been crafted in 1345 BC by the sculptor Thutmose.
A German archaeological team led by Ludwig Borchardt discovered the Nefertiti bust in 1912 in Thutmose's workshop in Amarna, Egypt. It has been kept at several locations in Germany since its discovery, including a salt mine in Merkers-Kieselbach, the Dahlem museum (then in West Berlin), the Egyptian Museum in Charlottenburg and the Altes Museum. It is currently on display at the restored and recently re-opened Neues Museumin Berlin, where it was displayed before World War II.
The Nefertiti bust has become a cultural symbol of Berlin, Germany, as well as of ancient Egypt. It has also been the subject of an intense argument between Egypt and Germany over Egyptian demands for its repatriation. It was dragged into controversies over the Body of Nerfertiti art exhibition and also by allegations regarding its authenticity.

Locations in German
The Nefertiti bust has been in Germany since 1913, when it was shipped to Berlin and presented to James Simon, a wholesale merchant and the sponsor of the Amarna excavation. It was displayed at Simon's residence until 1913, when Simon loaned the bust and other artifacts from the Amarna dig to the Berlin Museum.[16] Although the rest of the Amarna collection was displayed in 1913–14, Nefertiti was kept secret at Borchardt's request.[13] In 1918, the Museum discussed the public display of the bust, but again kept it secret on the request of Borchardt.[16] It was permanently donated to the Berlin Museum in 1920. Finally, in 1923, the bust was first unveiled to the public in Borchardt's writing and later in 1924, displayed to the public as part of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin.[13][16] The bust created a sensation, swiftly becoming a world-renowned icon of feminine beauty. The Nefertiti bust was displayed in Berlin’s Neues Museum on Museum Island until the museum was closed in 1939; with the onset ofWorld War II, the Berlin museums were emptied and the artifacts moved to secure shelters for safekeeping.[8] Nefertiti was initially stored in the cellar of the Prussian Governmental Bank and then, in the autumn of 1941, moved to the tower of a flak bunker in Berlin.[16] The Neues Museum suffered bombings in 1943 by the Royal Air Force.[17] On 6 March 1945, the bust was moved to a German salt mine at Merkers-Kieselbach in Thuringia.[8]
In March 1945, the bust was found by the American Army and given over to its Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives branch. It was moved to the Reichsbank in Frankfurt and then, in August, shipped to the U.S. Central Collecting Point in Wiesbaden where it was displayed to the public in 1946.[8][16] In 1956, the bust was returned to West Berlin.[8] There it was displayed at the Dahlem Museum. As early as 1946, East Germany (German Democratic Republic) insisted on the return of Nefertiti to Museum Island in East Berlin, where the bust had been displayed before the war.[8][16] In 1967, Nefertiti was moved in the Egyptian Museum in Charlottenburg and remained there until 2005, when it was moved to the Altes Museum.[16] The bust returned to the Neues Museum as its centerpiece when the museum reopened in October 2009.
Description and examinations
The bust of Nefertiti is 47 centimetres (19 in) tall and weighs about 20 kilograms (44 lb). It is made of a limestone core covered with painted stucco layers. The face is completely symmetrical and almost intact, but the left eye lacks the inlay present in the right.[27][28] The pupil of the right eye is of inserted quartz with black paint and is fixed with beeswax. The background of the eye-socket is unadorned limestone. Nefertiti wears her characteristic blue crown known as "Nefertiti cap crown" with a golden diadem band, that is looped around like horizontal ribbons and joining at the back, and an Uraeus (cobra) over her brow – which is now broken. She also wears a broad collar with a floral pattern on it.[29] The ears also have suffered some damage.[28] Gardner's Art Through the Ages suggests that "With this elegant bust, Thutmose may have been alluding to a heavy flower on its slender sleek stalk by exaggerating the weight of the crowned head and the length of the almost serpentine neck."[30]
According to David Silverman, the Nefertiti bust reflects the classical Egyptian artstyle, deviating from the "eccentricities" of the Amarna art style, which was developed in Akhenaten's reign. The exact function of the bust is unknown, though it is theorized that the bust may be a sculptor's model.
Colors
Ludwig Borchardt commissioned a chemical analysis of the colored pigments of the head. The result of the examination was published in the book Portrait of Queen Nofretete in 1923:[32]
·         Blue: powdered frit, colored with copper oxide
·         Skin color (light red): fine powdered lime spar colored with red chalk (iron oxide)
·         Yellow: orpiment (arsenic sulfide)
·         Green: powdered frit, colored with copper and iron oxide
·         Black: coal with wax as a binding medium
·         White: chalk (calcium carbonate)
Cultural Significance
The bust of Nefertiti has become "one of the most admired, and most copied, images from ancient Egypt", and the star exhibit used to market Berlin's museums.[23] It is seen as an "icon of international beauty".[11][24][36] "Showing a woman with a long neck, elegantly arched brows, high cheekbones, a slender nose and an enigmatic smile played about red lips, the bust has established Nefertiti as one of the most beautiful faces of antiquity."[36] It is described as the most famous bust of ancient art, comparable only to the mask ofTutankhamun.[29]
Nefertiti has become an icon of Berlin's culture.[7] Some 500,000 visitors see Nefertiti every year.[10] The bust is described as "the best-known work of art from ancient Egypt, arguably from all antiquity".[45] Her face is on postcards of Berlin and 1989 German postage stamps.[24][46]
In 1930, the German press described the Nefertiti bust as their new monarch, personifying it as a queen. As the "'most precious ... stone in the setting of the diadem' from the art treasures of 'Prussia Germany'", Nefertiti would re-establish the imperial German national identity after 1918.[47] Hitler described the bust as "a unique masterpiece, an ornament, a true treasure", and pledged to build a museum to house it.[9] By the 1970s, the bust had become an issue of national identity to both the German states – East Germany and West Germany – which were created after World War II.[47] In 1999, Nefertiti appeared on an election poster for the green political party Bündis 90/Die Grünen as a promise for cosmopolitan and multi-cultural environment with the slogan "Strong Women for Berlin!"[46] According to Claudia Breger, another reason that the Nefertiti bust became associated with a German national identity was its place as a rival to the Tutankhamun find by the British, who then ruled Egypt.[46]
The bust became an influence on popular culture with Jack Pierce's make-up work on Elsa Lanchester's iconic hair style in the film Bride of Frankenstein being inspired by it.[48] In the Italian film Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile (1961) Nefertiti is in love with the young sculptor Tumos (Thutmose), played by Edmund Purdom, who is a friend of prince Amenophis (Akhenaten). Tumos loses Nefeterti to Akhenaten, but preserves his love for her in the famous sculpture.



The Bronze Horseman


 The Bronze Horseman (Russian: Медный всадник) is an equestrian statue of Peter the Great in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Commissioned by Catherine the Great, it was created by the French sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet. It is also the name of a narrative poem written by Aleksander Pushkin about the statue in 1833, widely considered to be one of the most significant works of Russian literature. The statue came to be known as the Bronze Horseman because of the poem's great influence and success. The statue is now one of the symbols of Saint Petersburg, in much the same way that the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of New York City. Both of them were designed and built by French artists.
The statue's pedestal is the enormous Thunder Stone, claimed to be the largest stone ever moved by man (1,250 t).[1] In its original state the stone weighed about 1500 tonnes. It was carved during transportation to its current site.


Statue
The equestrian statue of Peter the Great is situated in the Senate Square(formerly the Decembrists Square), in Saint Petersburg. Catherine the Great, a German princess who married into the Romanov line, was anxious to connect herself to Peter the Great to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people.[2] She ordered its construction, and had it inscribed with the phrase Petro Primo Catharina Secunda MDCCLXXXII in Latin and Петру перьвому Екатерина вторая, лѣта 1782 in Russian, both meaning 'Catherine the Second to Peter the First, 1782', an expression of her admiration for her predecessor and her view of her own place in the line of great Russian rulers. Having gained her position through a palace coup, Catherine had no legal claim to the throne and wanted to represent herself as Peter's rightful heir.
In 1775 the casting of the statue began, supervised by caster Emelyan Khailov. At one point during the casting, the mould broke, releasing molten bronze that started several fires. All the workers ran except Khailov, who risked his life to salvage the casting.[3] After being remelted and recast, the statue was later finished. It took 12 years, from 1770 to 1782, to create the Bronze Horseman, including pedestal, horse and rider.
On 7 August 1782, fourteen years after excavation of the pedestal began, the finished statue was unveiled in a ceremony with thousands in attendance. Conspicuously absent was Falconet, as a misunderstanding between him and the empress turned into a serious conflict. As a result he was forced to leave Russia four years before the project was completed. Catherine largely forgot about him afterwards, and came to see the Bronze Horseman as her own oeuvre.[3]
The statue portrays Peter the Great sitting heroically on his horse, his outstretched arm pointing towards the River Neva in the west. The sculptor wished to capture the exact moment of his horse rearing at the edge of a dramatic cliff. His horse can be seen trampling aserpent, variously interpreted to represent treachery, evil or the enemies of Peter and his reforms.[4] The statue itself is about 6 m (20 feet) tall, while the pedestal is another 7 m (25 feet) tall, for a total of approximately 13 m (45 feet).
Siege of Leningrad
A 19th-century legend states that while the Bronze Horseman stands in the middle of Saint Petersburg, enemy forces would not be able to conquer the city. During the 900-day Siege of Leningrad by the invading Germans during the Second World War (Leningrad being the city's name from 1924–1991), the statue was not taken down, but covered with sandbags and a wooden shelter. The protection served so well that the Bronze Horseman survived the 900 days of bombing and artillery virtually untouched.[4]True to the legend, Leningrad was never taken.
Poem
The Bronze Horseman is the title of a poem written by Aleksandr Pushkin in 1833, widely considered to be one of the most significant works of Russian literature. Due to the popularity of his work, the statue came to be called the "Bronze Horseman". A major theme of the poem is conflict between the needs of the state and the needs of ordinary citizens.
In the poem, Pushkin describes the fates of the poor man Evgenii and his beloved Parasha during a severe flood of the Neva. Evgenii curses the statue, furious at Peter the Great for founding a city in such an unsuitable location and indirectly causing the death of his beloved. Coming to life, the horseman chases Evgenii through the city. The poem closes with the discovery of the young man's corpse in a ruined hut floating at the edge of the river.
In 1903 the artist Alexandre Benois published an edition of the poem with his illustrations, creating what was considered a masterwork of Art Nouveau.
The poem has inspired works in other genres: Reinhold Glière choreographed a ballet based on it, and Nikolai Myaskovsky's 10th Symphony (1926–7) was inspired by the poem.



Introduction to Renaissance Art


Hi, it's me, Jessica, your history instructor for the day. Today we'll be discussing Renaissance art, from painting to sculptures to architecture. Our goal for this lesson will be to grasp how the intellectual philosophy of humanism, or the belief in the independence and value of man, shaped the famous artwork of the Renaissance. In order to do this, I've made a scrapbook for us to look at together, filled with some of my favorite Renaissance pieces.
However, before we get to the scrapbook, let's quickly review the definition of the Renaissance - it was a period beginning in the late 14th century. During this period, people began taking an interest in the learning of earlier times, especially the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. As the French word implies, it was a rebirth of the appreciation and study of classical times.

The Earthly Experience in Art

Now on to my scrapbook. On our first page, we have the famous Madonna and Child in Glory, painted by Cione somewhere around the year 1360 AD. Notice how Mary is very large in the picture and has an ornate halo of gold. It's like the artist wanted to emphasize that she and the child are supernatural beings, not of this world, and above common man.
Now take a look at the painting on the left. This one is Bugiardini's Madonna and Child with St. John, painted about 150 years later in the year 1510 AD. In this painting, Mary and the child look very human. Mary has no halo, and the halos of Jesus and John are very small, almost translucent. Even more interesting - notice how the background of the two paintings differ. In the earlier painting, the background seemed ethereal, or almost mystical, while the latter painting has a natural, Earthly landscape. This is a great example of one of the main effects humanism had on Renaissance art - works became centered around the human individual and the Earthly experience rather than the heavenly realms.
Let's continue. On the next page, we have Raphael's famous Deliverance of St. Peter next to Bellis' Liberation of St. Peter. Raphael's was painted in 1514, while Bellis painted his somewhere around 1665. Notice again how the earlier painting of Raphael's emphasizes the angel with a heavenly glow as the backdrop, while Peter was also given a solid halo. Now contrast this with the very realistic backdrop of Bellis' work, in which the angel looks very human, and Peter sports no halo at all.
This concept can also be seen in the Creation of Adam by Michelangelo. This famous piece of artwork found its place on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel somewhere around 1512. Notice, again, how Michelangelo placed Adam in a natural landscape, with natural man as the emphasis of his painting. In fact, God himself is depicted as human, in human form, he's no larger than Adam, and he's surrounded by very human-looking angels.
This is also mirrored in Da Vinci's The Last Supper, painted in the late 1490s. This painting shows Jesus as a man with no heavenly features at all.
The idea that humans were worth painting in their natural form was also heralded by Leonardo da Vinci in his well-known, uber-famous Mona Lisa. When Da Vinci created this famous lady, somewhere between the years 1503-1519, he opted to focus solely on humanity without any religious themes. This trend is also seen in Carracci's The Bean Eater, painted somewhere around 1582, and Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, painted somewhere in the year 1665.
This move toward humans standing alone as a valid theme in art is also seen in the sculptures of the day. Again, take a look at Michelangelo's famous David of 1504. In this one, you can definitely see the humanistic influence in Michelangelo's work - how he strove to capture the human essence of David through sculpture.
This is also seen in his earlier work, The Pieta, sculpted in 1499, and his latter work, Moses, crafted around 1515. Again, these two works show Biblical characters in their humanity with no halos or supernatural trappings.

Art Includes Earlier Cultures

A second effect of humanism on Renaissance art was the imitation, or the rebirth, as the word 'Renaissance' implies, of the ancient Greek and Roman cultures. During the medieval period of history, most art produced was centered on the Church. However, as humanism took hold, the Greek and Roman ideals of human beauty were also reborn. Take a look at Botticelli's 1486 rendering of The Birth of Venus and Raphael's 1509 fresco The School of Athens. These two works focus on Greek history and mythology with no 'head nod' to the church.
Bandinelli also gave kudos to the Roman culture with his sculpting of Hercules and Cacus during the years 1525-1534.
This move toward ancient Greek and Roman cultures also heralded the return of logic and accuracy to art, a concept earlier works had generally abandoned. Compare the 12th century work of Mary Magdalen Announcing the Resurrection to the Apostles to the realistic accuracy of Pierro della Francesca's 15th century The Flagellation of Christ. Notice how the latter work of Francesca uses perspective - the art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface, so as to give the right impression of their height, width, and depth.
Da Vinci also gave us an excellent example of this realistic accuracy in his 1490 work The Vitruvian Man.
The desire to revive and emulate the styles of ancient Greece and Rome is also seen in Renaissance architecture. In fact, a journey to Rome was considered a prerequisite for any architect's training. Columns, arches, and domes are only a few of the elements Renaissance builders borrowed from the antiquities.
One of the best, and in my opinion, most beautiful examples of this is the Dome of St. Peter's Basilica. Here's another picture taken in St. Peter's Square. Notice all of the columns giving homage to ancient Rome. Or take a look at this one, the Cathedral of Florence, whose dome was engineered by one of the most famous Renaissance architects, Filippo Brunelleschi. He was also fond of the Roman arch, as we can see in his work at the Basilica of St. Lawrence. In all of these feats of architecture, we can see the classical Greek and Roman influences of symmetry, proportion, and geometric design.

 

 

 


Modifications and innovations to technology artifacts


What happens to a technology artifact after it is adopted? It has to evolve within its particular context to be effective; otherwise, it will become part of the detritus of change, like the many genes without a discernible function in a living organism. In this paper, we report on a study of post-adoptive behavior that examined how users modified and innovated with technology artifacts. We uncovered three types of modifications made to technology artifacts: personalization, customization, and inventions. Personalization attempts are modifications involving changes to technology parameters to meet the specificities of the user; customization attempts adapt the technology parameters to meet the specificities of the user's environment; and inventions are exaptations conducted to the technology artifact. This paper presents a grounded theoretic analysis of the post-adoptive behavior based on in-depth interviews with 20 software engineers in one multi-national organization. We identify a life-cycle model that connects the various types of modifications conducted to technology artifacts. The life-cycle model elaborates on how individual and organizational dynamics are linked to the diffusion of innovations. While our research is exploratory, it contributes to a deeper understanding of post-adoptive behavior and the dynamic relationship between user innovations and organizational innovations.

Keywords

  • Innovation;
  • Post-adoptive behavior;
  • Technology artifacts;
  • Software engineers