Intimate Nature

posted in: Blog, Classes, Composition, Painting | 14

Intimacy implies proximity in relationships. A sense of private confidentiality thrives in intimate relationships. Building an intimate relationship with nature can begin by getting close to your subject.  In the 18th and 19th century landscape painters found intimacy with nature … Continued

Bruegel’s Zig Zag

posted in: Blog | 11

The Renaissance art historian Bernard Berenson claimed that  Lorenzo Lotto’s “St. Nicholas in his Glory” contained his favorite Renaissance landscape (example 1). It occupies only about a quarter of the painting. I found it where Berenson remembers it, in a … Continued

Intimate to Infinite

posted in: Blog, Composition, New Lectures, Painting | 14

Over a thousand years ago Chinese painting scholars advised artists to follow some basic principles. They included presenting a landscape with an experience of the near, middle and far distance. Vertical arrangements should consider the earthly or worldly lower domain … Continued

Building Arches and Avenues

posted in: Blog | 4

Artists of the 18th century toyed with the imaginative uses of linear perspective.  From Piranesi to Canaletto to Hogarth, artists built believable architectural spaces testing the limits of linear perspective. For example, Piranesi described domes, cylindrical buildings and complex fantasy … Continued

Reading the Sunlight

posted in: Blog | 5

We find meaning in all sounds, smells, touches and sights through pattern recognition. We anticipate, look for and find patterns. Sunlight has provided our visual system with required illumination. It has been the source for our color perception for most … Continued