Quatre poires, my tribute to Matisse's style. 5x7, colored pencil on paper
I am reading a wonderful book on Henri Matisse, one of my favorite painters because he is so fun! Studying his work is giving me more permission to play and have a little more fun with the art. Between impressionism and expressionism there was a four year period called the fauvist movement. He was, arguably, the top leader of this movement.
Fauvism is characterized by a slightly abstracted subject and an emphasis on bright fields of color. He took his work to one of his painting heroes, Renoir, and asked for his opinion. Remember, these are the French about 100 years ago...
Renoir told him he did not like his work, that he was almost tempted to say he was a bad artist and a bad painter, but the perspective lines were all correct and so he couldn't say that... then he marveled at Henri's use of black.
Renoir had abolished black from his palette because he didn't want to create a void in his painting. He was impressed at Matisse's effective use of black lines.
Well, I'm torn between these two artists, as they are both in my top 5 favorites, but I think Matisse's work is the most fun and I love how unselfconscious it is.
These four pears were just plain fun, and it shows.
2 comments:
These are really cute, and awesome! I hadn't seen your blog for a little and wow, these are looking great!
I think I did read a tiny bit about Fauvism. I need to go look at Matisse's work. I don't think I've seen it.
It was a short lived period, but a true break from the formal styles that preceded it. They played with some abstraction, haphazard stroke, some expressionism. but, then that movement moved on to cubism, expressionism, etc.
There's a deceptively child like quality in his work... but it is definitely not child's play. Try it and you'll see. I think I will always paint like him a little...
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