INVESTIGATING

Today I planned to learn about some of the great impressionist artists of the 19th century and understand the techniques they used. I am quite excited about this research section as I will be learning about the some of the greatest artists of times, artists who continue to inspire me and who I look up to.

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"Impressionism Movement, Artists and Major Works." The Art Story. The Art Story Foundation, n.d. Web. 01 Aug. 2016.<http://www.theartstory.org/movement-impressionism....>.

The origin of this source is "The Art Story", a non-profit organization founded in 2009. Its purpose is to demystify art throughout history thereby furthering its appreciation. It not only provides readers a complete view of all the major historical events that have occurred along with their timelines but also gives a very good overview of the different artists, art styles and ideas throughout these events. While it remains a respected forum and continues to add valuable information for its readers, there is a lack of author names or titles that could enhance the credibility of the information within the site itself. The site is well structured as on every artist’s page it provides a list of a variety of resources available in either books, websites, videos, audios, or articles form. These genres could either be the materials used in gathering information for site content or could be supplemental to existing information. Being an internet online source, one of the big limitations with this source is that parts of its content could be censored or edited so as to not offend any groups thereby not providing full content to the reader. I also noticed that the site calls for a subscription fee to use it, which implies that it is commercial and not a university or a government source.

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This website proved valuable as it gave me information about the artists, their lives, and the hardships they faced at the hands of the critics and general population. It also gave me a good foundational knowledge that inspired me to think of ideas I would like to apply towards my own approach on impressionism in this project.

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Through my research I have also learned that 19th century impressionistic art works generally depicted famous landmarks or landscapes and modern impressionistic art works commonly have a major subject such as a person.  I do need to keep this in mind before I finalize the topic for my project, the subject I pick should work well for both the eras so it will be easy to see the differences and contrast between the two forms.

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"About Impressionism." What Is Impressionism, History of Impressionism and Impressionists, Start of Impressionism Movement. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Aug. 2016. <http://www.impressionism.org/teachimpress/browse/a...>.

The origin of this source is impressionism.org, a collaboration organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, in conjunction with the Denver Art Museum and the Seattle Art Museum. The purpose of this source is to help teachers understand impressionism art form and the movement including artists, works, and historical aspects. This source proves to be very valuable as it is written and edited by several museums across all of the United States and provides a diverse perspective of the art form, of the artists and of the era itself.  Secondly this site uses several sources, both primary and secondary, which provide me not only details on where the authors received their information from but also where I could go to as well to research further on. But since the site is catered towards teachers of different grade levels, it does have its limitations. Depending on the grade being addressed, it is possible that not all information is provided so as to make the works and information portrayed more consumable by the teacher. The content on the site is also categorized into separate lessons. Although this aspect could also be considered as a value, I think it primarily is a limitation. To conform to a lesson structure and length, information can get moved around, and while adding value to a teacher, it becomes a limitation to other readers like me.

 

This source not only gave me information on impressionism itself but also gave me the insight on the “subjects” of a traditional impressionism art. The traditional art focuses on daily life and ordinary instances and doesn't distinguish between the “subject” and the background which was the norm of art during this time period. Deviating from this norm was a primary reason why artists using the impressionism art form received a hostile response from the public and critics.

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TAKING ACTION

Having completed researching the topic in depth, I now will start to sketch out random ideas I have for the subject of these paintings. I will be painting two different art pieces in acrylic paint medium.  On one piece I will be applying the impressionistic style and techniques of the 19th century and on the other I will be applying the modern impressionistic art form’s style and techniques. Both paintings will however have the exact same subject and the exact same layout and as much as possible the same colors. This approach of having the same subject and layout but different styles and techniques will help the audience easily grasp the differences of the two forms between the two centuries.

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Below are a few generic sketches of ideas I have that will work great for both the time periods I have planned for.  These types of sketches are called thumbnails are are general outlines of what could potentially become an artwork. Having thumbnails helps me to plan out my painting and prevents me from redoing an entire painting if my composition was incorrect or if my idea did not come to fruition.  Over the next few days, I will have to identify the sketches that have shortcomings and don’t meet the criteria I am looking for and identify the one image that I will move forward with.

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Since my painting style has been predominantly realistic so far, my first instinct is to either go with an animal scene or with a landscape scene. Four out of my five ideas, topic #1, 3, 4, and 5, were hence either an animal of a landscape scene. Since I was going to be painting in a new art form and I based on my research, I might have to use new subjects, I attempted to go beyond my usual painting style.  For Topic #2 as seen in the picture, I chose a study room.  Through my research, I found some examples of Dutch still-lives which intrigue me quite a bit and would work well for my project as I can paint it in both the impressionism forms. In Topic #4, I have again attempted to partially break away from my usual style by sketching a scene in Venice.  While it does have the composition and feel of an ordinary landscape, it also represents people in their daily lives; something that was portrayed in traditional impressionistic art pieces.

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