Video: Matisse Documentary by Alastair Sooke

click to view Matisse Documentary by Alastair Sooke   Part 1
This 60 minute video is quite good, very informative with a lot of new material and well worth your time.  I'm archiving it for future inspiration.

Here is Part 2 the Matisse video documentary, A Visit to Chapelle du Rosaire, Vence (near Nice), France.  When I saw photos of the Chapelle in books, I was a bit underwhelmed.  Seeing his stained glass backlit by the sun in this simple church quickly changed my mind. Enjoy these six pleasurable minutes of video.

Workshop: Matisse and a technique problem

 Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954) The Piano Lesson. 1916 Oil on canvas. 96 ½ x 83 ¾.  Collection MOMA, NYC

Here's more from my recent visit to NY.  

Matisse had been under some pretty intense criticism with the critics of the day and it had been going on for years. This oil was done after his trip to Morocco and it continues Matisse's exploration into more geometrical shapes and a very new visual presentation. The palette is more reserved for Matisse but the large amounts of grey heighten all the colors, even the off-white tones at the upper right. Black is a color too and it is used for outlines, shadows and dark areas.  This is a large work done in the studio and Matisse has made a number of painterly and intellectual decisions to produce a challenging and thoughtful work of art.

Here is a detail of the green vertical panel, left side. It appears that Matisse overpainted this area preferring the green shown here. This is a great color selection and it is one of the many components that make this work sing. Note that Matisse didn't get the black scroll work right on the first try, nor  was he concerned about how evenly the black lines were put down. You can see where he corrected some of the line work but he allowed the earlier marks to show through. This approach, coupled with the irregular line work, made for a more complex visual effect. It's one of the subtle hallmarks of Matisse's work and it creates more visual sophistication and appeal.  The rule is fat over lean: thinned paint under paint out of the tube or with medium added.

Also... don't paint thinned-out oil paint on top of thicker (fatter) paint. Even the master got a little too thin with the green overpainting and it cracked. Well, it does make another interesting surface effect but I'll bet it gave the museum restorers extra work.

I'll be teaching my oil and pastel workshop on the Strategies for Making Fine Art in Denver, Sat-Sun, July 21-22  Complete info

Workshop: Art materials, don't let them get in the way

Paul Gauguin  Washerwomen 1888  Museum of Modern Art, NY

For Gauguin, funds were tight and sometimes he used burlap rather than finer canvases.  He did a very nice job of adapting to either canvas and made paintings of a lasting impact.  The quality of the art materials didn't interfere with his vision.  The point here is not that you should use inferior materials, just use what you can and get your vision out to the world by any means possible.

Detail showing the oil applied to the burlap

Jasper Johns Flag 1954  Encaustic, oil and collage on fabric mounted on plywood, 42 1/4 x 60 5/8 inches

Museum of Modern Art, NY

John's woke up one morning after dreaming about doing a large American flag. Note the 48 stars of 1954.  He went out an bought the materials that day.  It's not an extravagant surface to work from.  Note that the canvas doesn't even cover the edges in some places and it is tacked rather than stapled to wrap it over the plywood.  He got the work done and down the road, this work became the most expensive American artwork ever purchased at auction.  It's now an icon of contemporary American painting.

detail showing the encaustic and newsprint underneath

I'll be commenting on some other works from my recent trip to NY.  The Modern and MOMA now have new photo policies allowing photography as long as you don't use a flash.  I've got some great photos and close up to share.

I'll be teaching my oil and pastel workshop on the Strategies for Making Fine Art in Denver, Sat-Sun, July 21-22  Complete info