Observations on the History of Oil Painting

Historically, I think that the most important artists emerged in Renaissance times, people like Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Titian, Raffaello Sanzio, and Botticelli. Later on, the worlds focus on oil painting spread to France and painters such as Claude Monet, Renoir, van Gogh, and Seurat. With these painters, new styles such as impressionism emerged. After thins point, oil painting focus spread more to across the globe, first to China, Japan and India, then to Africa and the Americas.
When I think about the history of oil painting, the cultures that are missing would be African paintings. This is probably because during the rest of the time when the world was painting, Africa was being colonized and taken over, I would think that the reason that African oil painting is so rare would be because people had more important things to do than paint.
I think that most of the oil painting in the world definitely took place all across Europe.
And most old and famous paintings that I know of are housed in museums across Europe like the Louvre. This is done probably to protect the paintings so that they don't get damaged or stolen because they are so rare and special. This also limits so many peoples access to them, today, to see any of these paintings, you need to go to France to the museum or have the Internet so see them over the computer. Its really sad hat this is so because not everyone can do these things or has access to these things.
Subject matter has also changed over time, back in the Renascence times, the subject was royalty and Gods, then it shifted into nature and landscape, then it shifted again to more modern and abstract ideas. This is most likely because of the worlds culture changes and changes in values among painters.

Why Oil Paint?

Mediterranean, Greek, Roman and Egyptian civilizations used painting mixtures that were made up of pigments and whole egg, animal glue or milk, but then in the 15th century Italian and Greek painters overtook those traditions with mixtures of pigments and olive oil. Over thousands of years, many different people and cultures made changes to the "oil paint" recipe. Until finally we have oil painting like we know it today. Today, oil paints are made with natural oils like linseed, walnut, or poppy, and color pigment. The reason that people started putting oil into paints was so that the artist had time to paint and blend the colors on the painting.

For me, why oil paint, is because I feel like its such a beautiful and important part of the art world. Oil paint is such a beautiful medium because of the richness of its colors, its ability to be blended and its texture which i always think to be very elegant because of its thickness and smoothness. I think that this is the opinion of other artists who still use oil paint, because in our day and age, there are much more exciting and wild ways to express yourself through art, but i think that oil paints beauty, legacy, and versatility/acceptability of styles keep people coming back to it.

What Is A Portrait?

I think that, in its rawest idea, a portrait is an expression, weather it be an expression of a person, or a place, or a time, it is a view into the artists world, it is probably one of the most honest ways that an artist can express themselves because they are opening themselves up to the world for everyone to view. And even if the portrait isn't of the artist himself, its all still the same, the artist is still doing the same thing as if the portrait was of himself.
1 2 3

4 5 6

1.Shiva at Whistle Creek 2.Self Portrait by Jacob Lawrence 3.Georgia O'Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz

4.Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent Van Gogh 5.Madame X by John Singer Sargent 6.Portrait of Gorg Gisz by Hans Holbein The Younger

I didn't know which 3 to pick because I like so many, so I picked 6 : )

1, 3, and 5 are all fairly similar in the composition, the person who the portrait is of takes up most of the picture, or, if there is other stuff, its just there to make the painting seam not totally empty(#5). In these three portraits, the main focus on on the subject herself, not on all the other random stuff around her. They are trying to show some type of emotion of the woman pictured, or maybe just her beauty as the main subject in all three. Numbers 2, 4, and 6, on the other hand, all have background objects and various things. These show the main subject in his life, or even in a single moment in his life. With there being other things to look at in the paintings, I dont think that it takes anything away from the main focus of the men in the paintings, it kind of adds a new level of being able to look at them and understand them.

The clothing that each subject is wearing also sends a different message. #1, the woman is probably naked, this is different from #5 is her elegant black dress, and that's still different from #6 in his elaborate dress.

Pretty much every artist has stuck to the idea that a portrait is some kind of view of the artist himself, or a view of another person. Some are more traditional looking, #6, and some are more modern looking, #1, 2, 3.

A Sence Of Place

These two paintings have very different moods. The mood in the first painting reminds me of a parent struggling to convince their child to do something, like play that cello on the floor, and the child is struggling to resist this lesson, both people in the painting seam a little frustrated with each other by their body language, his elbow on the table thing, and how she is angled towards the window with the cello aimlessly laid on the floor. This painting has an "ughh" mood. While the second painting is very different. The woman in the painting is leaning against the wall with her hand holding her head. She seams to be struggling with something, maybe something bad just happened and she is wondering what she has to do about it? And because the theater is empty, and it is probably after a show because all the lights and things are still on, is she thinking about her life? Does she want to be where she is, singing or acting or whatever shes doing there? This paintings mood is very gloomy and sort of sad.
The thing that the paintings have in common would be that the characters are all seemingly struggling with something.

Where Am I At?

I'm really liking the course and all the painting that were doing, its really nice to be able to paint in the middle of the day: )

For me the most challenging part of the course so far has definitely been with timing and being able to work at a pace that makes it so that I am able to finish my work on time. This has been hard for me to do because I'm so used to working at my own pace that changing is tough, but I'm working on it, so hopefully ill be able to get a little faster.

I feel that I have progressed over all in my actual painting abilities. Ive been painting a lot before this class started, but I feel like since I have been in class, Ive gotten better at it. I'm understanding how to use colors better and all the different tools and techniques which is really great because these skills will stay with me and Ill be a better painter outside of class. I'm really excited about the class, and I hope that Ill continue to progress.

Looking at paintings throughout history affects us as painters today because it shows us all of the different things that the painters before us went through, all of their different experiences, and because of seeing this we learn from the things that they did, we try to improve on the good things that they did, and try not to make the mistakes that they made. It also affects us as painters today because we can see how various styles of painting developed and this helps us understand out medium and even personal style better.

Water Lilies by Claude Monet

Water Lilies by Claude Monet is a painting that changed the way that painting was done and the way that people viewed paintings in terms of realism. Claude Monet was the founder of French impressionist painting. This is a style where the goal is to give an impression of the nature of the object that your painting about, not to do and exact replica. Water Lilies is a painting where the brush strokes are much larger and the paint is much thicker, this all adds to the impression of a pond with water lilies. the main colors in the painting are blues and greens, which reflect the actual way that a pond covered in water lilies would look. The composition of the painting is completely the pond and just the pond. Thought its interesting to see the reflection of the trees above and also how the water lilies get bigger in the foreground and are smaller in the background. this painting is important to the history of painting not only because it represents a newly developed style of painting, but also because it shows how the culture changed along side the style.

Creating Illusions With Surface And Texture

In each of the paintings pictured the artists used different techniques to make their paintings look like they have different textures and surfaces. Many of the artists used shadows and highlights to give objects a 3d look, one artist also used white shine on reflective surfaces to give the objects a bright and reflective look. most of the artists also put a lot of detail into their paintings to give them a more realistic look. Different brush strokes were also used to give each desired effect. Smaller strokes would look like brighter, sharper surfaces, while longer or rougher strokes looked like more fibrous textures(like the straw in Van Gogh's chair). Softer brush strokes look like the peach fuzz on the last paintings peaches. There are many different methods of adding the effect of texture and surface to make a painting look the way you want it to.

Using Composition As A Tool

Still Life With Three Puppies, by Paul Gaughin, 1888 is the painting that is most intersting to me. The composition in this painting, to me, seams more balanced, and yet also very shakey. this is because the puppies are all together in a half circle around the same spot in the painting, this provides stability. The aspects of the piece that make it feel out of balance are lighting, object placement, and proportion. the top half of the painting is much brighter and much more open than the bottom half of the painting which has much darker tones and it much more full. the botton half looks like a table top with a table cloth with some fruit on it, though the top half looks like the puppies are on the floor, the middle of the painting, the area with the cups, adds to the unballanced look also because the cups are at an angle. Though the main action fills up the entire space of the paitning, it still had an unbalanced/uneven look to it.