Layered and Mixed Media

Beginning in 15th century the Yuan Dynasty stretched for a hundred years. Yuan artists like Huang Gongwang  painted vertically exaggerated landscapes of mountains, crags and valleys. Exaggerations like his were subsumed into American painting in the 20th century in artists like Diebenkorn and Theibaud. Artists, like actors and musicians favor simplification and exaggeration as devices to emotionally empower their art.

Example 1 offers a landscape of Gongwang’s.  Example 2 presents a landscape of vertical exaggeration and simplification by contemporary artist Wayne Thiebaud. Observe the shared qualities.

example 1. Yuan Dynasty landscape.

example 2.Wayne Thiebaud cityscape.

Before Theibaud, Claude Monet tried luminous exaggerations with a vertical architectural motif. He painted at least 27 different versions of this Rouen Cathedral. The architecture dissolves into the eroding effects of sunlight (example 3). Following upon the work of Cezanne, Georges Braque simplifies and exaggerates architectural and organic forms in 1910 (example 4) as he presages cubism.

example 3. Monet’s Rouen Cathedral.

example 4.Georges Braque painting

I follow their lead but, I begin by digitally manipulating a photograph (example 5) which will serve as the substrate to two different images.  One of these is a landscape, an autumnal stream. The other is a cityscape. The photograph is the result of manipulating an image shot within New York’s Grand Central Station.

example 5. NY GCS photograph.

example 5a. after vertical rotation.

I printed two 13×13 versions of the photo. I heavily coated both versions with a polymer gloss varnish. After rotating it vertically (example 5a), I found the image to be a  substrate capable of contributing to the creation of other overlaying images. I first over-painted the photo with an autumnal stream.  Example 6 shows step one of an autumnal stream image. Look for traces of the original image as it contributes to the texture and appearance of the overlaying landscape. Example 7 presents step two  in the development of the landscape over-painting. Observe how the textures of the trees borrow qualities from the floor the of the original photo. Notice how the original images dark figurative forms are subsumed into the dark water as  dark vertical forms.

example 6. step one of the autumnal stream.

example 7. step two of the autumnal stream.

To demonstrate the versatility of the original photo as  an influential substrate I over-painted it with  a cityscape. Step one of this process can be seen in example 8.  Step two can be seen in example 8. Both colors and textures of the original photo help contribute to the vertical variety and character of the image seen in example 9.  Months earlier I painted another version of the same subject, a 24×24 oil on anodized aluminum which you see in example 10.  Example 10 is straightforward painting, not an overlay on a photograph.

example 8. step one of the cityscape.

example 9. step two of the cityscape

example 10. original painting of the cityscape without a photo substrate.