At first glance, a casual observer might assume that Norman Lundin's recent paintings are about things. That would be a mistake. Instead, silence and space form a void that is shaped and manipulated by the things that displace it and defined by the light and atmosphere captured in its gravitational field. This void is the true subject of Lundin's paintings. Lundin's fascination with still life, landscape, and compositional integrity reaches its peak in a series of paintings depicting objects arranged along a shelf, in front of mullioned windows that allow glimpses of a landscape beyond. This volume includes an interview with the artist and illustrates works ranging from 1973 to 2006.
Published in conjunction with a traveling exhibit organized by the Long Beach (California) Museum of Art. Contains 35 fine reproductions of still lifes by Lundin (art, U. of Washington), an introduction by Robert Flynn Johnson of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and an interview of the artist. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
The practice of drawing…distilled to its essential elements. Embedded with videos, beautifully filmed in Florence, Italy, that provide real-time drawing lessons so that any gaps in the learning process are filled in with live instruction. In this elegant and inspiring primer, master contemporary artist and author Juliette Aristides breaks down the drawing process into small, manageable lessons; introduces time-tested principles and techniques that are easily accessible; and shares the language and context necessary to understand the artistic process and create superior, well-crafted drawings.
The Davidsons assembled an extraordinary collection of American drawings dating from 1960 to the present, showcasing the continuing currency of realism and humanism. Featuring such artists as William Bailey, Jack Beal, William Beckman, Rackstraw Downes, Janet Fish, Alex Katz, Alfred Leslie, Michael Mazur, Alice Neel, and Philip Pearlstein, the collection has been given to the Art Institute of Chicago, which is exhibiting 125 of its finest examples. This beautiful volume includes biographies of the artists and an important critical essay by Ruth E. Fine. 126 colour illustrations
This book celebrates noted Seattle sculptor Phillip Levine?s fifty-year anniversary as the creator of works inspired by the worlds of dance, song, sport, and social commentary. It includes a valuable autobiographical essay by the sculptor. Contributions by fellow sculptor Tom Jay and Norman Lundin, painter and professor of art at the University of Washington, offer an intimate perspective on the artist's enduring creative endeavor and accomplishment. Levine has lived, taught, and maintained a studio in Seattle since he arrived in the city in 1959. His sculpture Dancer With Flat Hat has greeted generations of students at the University of Washington. All those who have found beauty and delight in Levine's vision will enjoy the comprehensive portfolio of illustrations at the heart of the book, which covers the full span of his career. This fresh look into the artist's life work reveals his deep interest in the figure in movement, and the unexpected way the use of bronze, with its density and strength, opened the door to an artistic world of timeless lightness and grace.
To draw is to understand what we see. In The Undressed Art, writer-naturalist Peter Steinhart investigates the rituals, struggles, and joys of drawing. Reflecting on what is known about the brain’s role in the drawing process, Steinhart explores the visual learning curve: how children begin to draw, how most of them stop, and what brings adults back to this deeply human art form later in life. He considers why the face and figure are such commanding subjects and describes the delicate collaboration of the artist and model. Here is a powerful reminder that no revolution in art or technology can undermine our vital need to draw.
Seattle art collectors Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis were frequent visitors to New York City in the 1970s and early 1980s when they collaboratively built their collection, filling their home with singular works of art. Their shared legacy and passion for engaging thoughtfully, deeply, and personally with art--and the frisson of excitement that arises with such a connection--are celebrated and echoed in this special exhibition catalogue. Spanning 1945 through 1976, the paintings, drawings, and sculptures in Frisson serve as significant examples of mature works and pivotal moments of artistic development from some of the most influential American and European artists of the postwar period, including Francis Bacon, Lee Krasner, Clyfford Still, Philip Guston, Joan Mitchell, David Smith, and others. Together they represent an inimitable archive of innovation and a cross-pollination of leading artistic positions in the postwar years. With twenty new scholarly essays written by leading experts, Frisson provides the first opportunity for in-depth research into and new insights about nineteen noteworthy artworks recently acquired by the Seattle Art Museum.
My life, from my birthday to the last decade of 1900s, is a spectrum of events both good and bad as I follow T. S. Elliot’s lines, “We shall not cease from exploration, And the end of all our exploring, Will be to arrive where we started, And know the place for the first time.” Growing up on my father’s farm, there was plenty of exploration, but I never went back to the farm. Far from it! My explorations took me where no teacher in my main field, which is printmaking, had gone because I was hired at 24 by a major research university where its campus services gave me a head start exploring electronic arts and computers, I could blend with teaching printmaking. Ironically, while these brought opportunities, there were hidden limitations. In the 1980s I gambled our home to take us on a vast sabbatical research project for the university. We returned to find the school corrupt, and so it ended my career. Fortunately, I married well. My high school sweetheart, Lynda, stayed with me even on my wayward ventures. In addition she brought two fine daughters to our lives. And had it not been for her ability to restore our property, my exploring would have ended forever. Because, when the art school closed its door, others opened. Everything I learned in nineteen years at the UW prepared me to continue privately. By 1990, I was on cloud nine and the Internet was within my grasp. These are the words from one of two volumes I illustrated with a thousand pictures. What autobiography of a teaching artist’s life would be complete without pictures? Not only my art, but my students’, and from collaborations with diverse artists, crafts people, designers, and writers. Plus QR codes! It is for anyone who loves a good read about teaching art as I was known for in Seattle, but also about an old professor’s family, friends, art patrons, and former students who made it possible. It continues in Volume 2. Volume 1 takes this farmboy to the approach of the information superhighway.
A landscape painting guide for oil painters that breaks landscapes down into component elements from nature, and showcases tools and techniques used by classic and modern oil painters for bringing these scenes to life. Landscape painting is one of the most popular subjects for painters working in the medium of oils--from classic masters to contemporary artists. In The Elements of Landscape Oil Painting, established Watson-Guptill author and noted instructor/painter Suzanne Brooker presents the fundamentals necessary for mastering landscape oil painting, breaking landscapes down into component parts: sky, terrain, trees, and water. Each featured element builds off the previous, with additional lessons on the latest brushes, paints, and other tools used by artists. Key methods like observation, rendering, and color mixing are supported by demonstration paintings and samples from a variety of the best landscape oil painters of all time. With The Elements of Landscape Oil Painting, oil painters looking to break into landscape painting or enhance their work will find all the necessary ingredients for success.
