A Little Art History

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)

In the late 1800's the style of art shifted toward Impressionism, as human form and landscapes became popular subject matter. This, along with the increasing demand for portrait work, helped make John Singer Sargent one of the most prolific painters of the time.

His body of work includes over eight hundred portraits, most in oil, and at least eighteen hundred pictures of landscapes, buildings, and the like (some in watercolor). Add to this the hundreds of sketches from his childhood and his later mural studies, and he stands as an artist who quantitatively surpassed any of his contemporaries.

John Singer Sargent was born on January 12, 1856, in Florence, while his parents were traveling in Italy. As the son of a prosperous American doctor, he gained exposure to international culture and art as his family traveled extensively throughout Europe during his younger years.

Sargent displayed intrinsic drawing ability from an early age. This talent ran in the family--his father illustrated the medical textbooks that he had written himself; and his mother, an amateur watercolorist, often took young John traveling on sketching excursions.

At age 12, Sargent went to Rome to receive art lessons. With this instruction, he created many landscapes and learned how to draw perspectives, complete studies in outlines and light values, and differentiate textural surfaces. When he was 14, he made his first portrait study of his father sitting and writing a letter.

Sargent sketched constantly and filled sketchbooks with pencil drawings of the people, artworks, and landscapes that he observed in his travels. These drawings would later serve as visual notations for the many paintings that he would later create.

His real professional training began in 1873 when he enrolled at the Academia di Belle Arti in Florence. Here he met and studied with the artists who would become his contemporary peers. The following year he returned to Paris to prepare for a show at the cole des Beaux-Arts (a school he would later matriculate to).

The drawings and paintings that Sargent produced while at this school gained him considerable attention in the art world. As his reputation grew, he began getting commission offers for portrait work from some of the most renowned people in Europe and America.

Sargent's focus on the detail and the characteristics of human form and expression prepared him well for the many commissioned portraits that he created during his career. He had a unique gift for capturing the essence of the person he was illustrating as well as the dress, decor, and atmosphere in which they were set.

The hundreds that posed for his portraits ranged from titled members of European aristocracy to common people. In America, he painted a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt in the White House in 1903. In 1917, he painted President Wilson's portrait for Red Cross charity and later painted an elderly John D. Rockefeller.

Sargent was very involved in the art world and knew just about all of the players. He made many of these relationships as a founding member of the prestigious New English Art Club and as an elected member of the National Academy of Arts and Letters (New York), among significant others. His works were shown the world over, and he was honored with many accolades during his life.

In 1884, Sargent presented his painting "Madame X" (a full-sized oil on canvas of Madame Pierre Gautreau standing in a solitary pose) at the Paris Salon--to mixed reviews. This reception was to be a turning point for the artist, as he shifted his base to London and did not publicly show the piece again until 1905, even though he felt it was his best work ever.

Sargent traveled extensively and often stayed with the families who employed his talents. Other times, he stayed with friends, lived in hotels, or stayed at various houses that either he or his family owned. Sargent's life was rich and diverse: he knew Whistler, befriended and painted with Monet, socialized with literary giants such as Henry James, and sailed the seas with American admirals.

Questions remain whether some of Sargent's works were formally Impressionist. Even though the artist experimented in the late 1800's with the dabs, dots, and swirls of Impressionism, his paintings often remained an amalgam of this style combined with areas of tight clarity and focus, usually centered around facial features. Still, some of his portrait and landscape works from this period are distinctly impressionistic.

Sargent started creating mural works in the early 1890's. He began these large-scale works by planning and painting a series of religiously historic murals for the Boston Public Library in the years 1893 through 1915 (such as "Frieze of the Prophets," "Pagan Deities," and "The Dogma of Redemption"--all oils on canvas). These works led him to paint a mural in the State Capitol rotunda in Harrisburg, PA, (1912) and later paint huge staircase panels for the Widner Memorial Library at Harvard in Boston (1921).

Eventually, time, travel, and heavy workloads started taking a toll on Sargent. Ever in demand, he reluctantly accepted commissioned work to paint a large group of portraits of American war officers in WWI.

Sargent worked and traveled right up to the time of his death. He was on his way to another job when he died in his sleep on April 15, 1925, at age sixty-nine. Most of his portrait works remain as treasured family heirlooms, and the rest are still shown in galleries throughout the world.

"Masters of Color and Light: Homer, Sargent, and the American Watercolor Movement" is at the Brooklyn Museum of Art through August 23. One hundred fifty seldom-seen masterpieces from the museum's collection, dating from 1777, may be viewed. (718) 638-5000.

Art Marketplace

New Book on Mat Design

Alto's EZ Mat has simplified creating your own beautiful mat designs by incorporating step-by-step directions in their new book Creative Mat Designs--Design Collection I. As a result of customer enthusiasm, Alto's culled these designs--revised and clarified where necessary--from the first 13 issues of Cut-by-Cut, their bi-monthly newsletter. Your success with these thirteen creative mat designs will encourage you to branch out and create your own unique designs. 55pp. See your retailer.

New Templates Announced

Just when you thought it was safe to use a freehand shield again, the Skull Master Series from Artool appears! The Skull Master, designed by renowned auto graphics artist Craig Fraser, can add a "ghoulish" dimension to your art.

This is for the post-apocalyptic artist in everyone; be the first one on your block to be able to spray perfectly anatomically correct (well, sort of) skulls with one deft stroke. Fun for all ages, the Skull Master is made of solvent-proof polymer, is available in three designs, and is targeted for auto graphics/T-shirt airbrush artists and designers. See your retailer.

New Airbrushes Introduced

Medea Airbrush Products has announced the release of its new line of Eclipse Series Airbrushes. Newly expanded, the series features Iwata quality, maximum versatility and competitive pricing. These multi-purpose, high paint flow/high detail airbrushes cover a wide range of uses. In addition to fine artists and illustrators, sign painters, auto graphics artists, T-shirt artists, hobbyists, and casual airbrush users alike find that the Eclipse Series Airbrushes are both easy to maintain and highly durable. Commonly used to spray premixed or heavier paints, the Eclipse line is well-suited for uses demanding precise control of spray when applying moderate to large amounts of paint to a variety of surfaces and to various-sized areas.

The new Eclipse Series Airbrushes are available in four styles: 

1. The Eclipse Bottom Feed airbrush, with its 0.5mm needle and nozzle combination, continues to set the industry standard for high performing, general purpose, high paint flow airbrushes.
2. The Eclipse SB is a side-feed brush that is ideal for custom automotive graphics and murals, as well as for fine arts work that requires custom color mixing and thicker paints.
3. The Eclipse C gravity feed also comes with a .35 mm needle and nozzle combination, as well as a generous 1/3 oz. sized cup with new funnel design which makes cleanup easier and also means that less paint is wasted.
4. The new Eclipse SA, Iwata's first single-action airbrush, features a .5 mm nozzle, bottom-feed and internal mix spray pattern that will raise the standards of the single action airbrush to new heights.

The Eclipse Series Airbrushes are available now at your local Medea supplier. For a complete listing of the MEDEA-IWATA catalog on the Web, go to http://www.arttalk.com/iwata/index.htm.

In the Spotlight: Mag-Eyes Magnifier

The Mag-Eyes Magnifier is a unique feather-lite, optical-quality lens that offers hands-free magnification and is ideal for doing close, precise work. The slip-on cushioned headband fits all sizes, has snap-out interchangeable lenses, and includes the following features:

• Adjustable magnifier-visor swings up and down or can be locked in place.
• Instantly enlarges images and objects.
• Distortion-free viewing.
• Double lens for 3D viewing.
• Wide field of vision.
• Adjustable lens angle.
• Modern open design assures unimpaired vision.

Mag-Eyes brings work closer into focus than regular magnifying glasses and can be worn with or without eyeglasses or contact lenses. It is ideal for hobby and crafts work or finely detailed painting. See your retailer.

Printmaking

Intaglio Techniques

Creating artwork from intaglio plates can reproduce images that are just as fine and detailed as any illustrated by hand. And, depending upon the colors used and the style of printing, many diverse images can be created from a single intaglio plate.

Intaglio techniques are generally defined as lines and textures that are incised into a smooth plate by various methods. Later, ink is spread across the plate's surface and then wiped clean, leaving pigment within the incised lines and textures. It is the ink within these lines that is printed as imagery on paper (when assisted by a roller or an etching press). This is the basic principle behind all intaglio techniques, including drypoint, engraving, mezzotint, etching, aquatint, and photogravure.

Some intaglio techniques use acid to incise imagery into the plate; others use tools. Many intaglio plates are made with a combination of techniques. Tones are typically produced by etched lines, crosshatching, or stippling (dots). But intaglio is not limited to lines, since aquatint and photogravure can be used to create subtle shades.

The drypoint technique requires a sharp needle-like tool, called a scribe, to scratch a design directly into the plate surface (either Plexiglas, copper, or zinc). This tool is held like a pen and is pulled along the plate surface to incise lines. The depth and character of the line depends upon the angle at which the scribe is held and the amount of pressure applied.

Drypoint typically leaves small burrs on one (or both) sides of the scratched line. These can be used as a design element of the final print plate or they can be removed with a scraper.

Engraving is a similar intaglio technique that is performed by pushing a sharp metal tool, either a burin or gouge, into a flat metal or Plexiglas plate surface to produce a series of cut lines. These tools come in different tip shapes and sizes to create lines of various styles and characters. For textural areas, lines can be crosshatched to depict shades of color. Tiny stippled dots can also be gouged into the plate surface for similar effects.

Like most other intaglio techniques, the engraving image is first drawn on tracing paper and then transferred to the plate surface. Then an etching needle is used to follow the outline and scribe in the preliminary drypoint lines. These lines are later used as a guide for the etching tool.

A mezzotint print is created from many tiny depressions on a metal plate surface. This finely pitted surface retains ink, while smoother surfaces hold less, thus producing varying shades of transferred pigment on the print surface.

A traditional mezzotint ground is created by using a tool called a rocker. This hand-held metal tool has a curved, serrated edge that creates small ink-holding pits in the plate's surface when rocked back and forth. Afterward, a burnisher or muller (grinding tool) can be used to refine the surface.

Etching generally consists of coating a clean, flat metal plate with an acid-resist material and then skillfully removing selected resist material with an etching needle. Variations include painting a negative mirror-image on the plate with resist ground or using photosensitive materials to transfer an image.

When the metal plate is immersed in an acid bath, the corrosive fluid will "bite" or etch away the metal where no acid resist is present. When this is done, an incised image will remain that can later be filled with pigment and then transferred to make a print.

The aquatint technique is different in that its acid-bitten tone is achieved by strategically placing droplets of resist on the plate surface. This process is best suited for creating tones rather than lines and is often used in conjunction with other intaglio techniques.

The aquatint resist material is usually sprayed on the plate surface to act as a mask. The depth of tone is controlled by the thickness of the resist and by the length of time the plate is exposed to acid.

Photo etching is an intaglio technique where an image is transferred to an etching plate photochemically. This process involves superimposing a black line drawing (on a clear mylar sheet) over a photosensitive plate and then exposing both to special lighting. Afterward, the plate is immersed in acid to etch away only those areas where the opaque lines were located, leaving the rest of the plate unaffected.

Photogravure is a variation of the photo etching technique. It involves overlaying a transparency image over a gravure emulsion tissue and then photosensitizing the tissue with a chemical solution until it becomes gelatinous.

The degree of light striking the chemicals will cause the gelatin to harden in various thicknesses, becoming a varied acid-resist ground. The lightest areas in the transparency will produce the thickest ground that results in the lightest tones in the finished print.

The etching and printing processes for these intaglio methods is too detailed to cover here, and more information should be gathered before attempting to work with this medium.

With intaglio, a wide variation of images can be created either individually or by combining techniques. Additional diversity can be achieved by using an array of colors during the print process. From rich detail to soft gradients of tone, if you like working with prints you should try these techniques; almost any type of image can be created and repeatedly reproduced with intaglio print plates.

Painting

Trompe L'oeil

Sometimes in art, as in life, things are not always what they appear to be. This is quite literally the case when it comes to the trompe l'oeil style of ultra-realistic painting. With these types of works, reality is either concealed or mirrored while reason surrenders, and the eye accepts what it is apparently seeing.

Trompe l'oeil is a French term that means "to fool the eye," such as a painting rendered so realistically that the viewer is temporarily tricked into perceiving that the viewed objects are real. In a convincing trompe l'oeil, some of the objects seem to project themselves into the space between the flat plane of the picture and the eye of the viewer.

The trompe l'oeil style of painting dates back to an artist in ancient Greece named Zeuxis. Legend has it that he once painted a bunch of grapes so exactly that birds swooped down to eat them. As the birds were deceived, the humans became impressed and a new style of rendering exact images has had its place in the world of art ever since.

There are monumental examples of trompe l'oeil paintings that still exist from the Renaissance period. During this period, Veronese, among others, painted entire walls of rooms with solid-looking ornamentation, false pillars, doorways, and windows. The visual effect is a beautifully detailed edifice where only a flat wall once existed.

Although trompe l'oeil is always a still life by definition, a still life is not always trompe l'oeil. In order to be considered a good trompe l'oeil, the painting must appear to have a depth of no more than a few inches.

The eye is fooled when a shallow depth is represented in the painting. Normally, when the human eye perceives a three-dimensional object in space, the eye muscles make the necessary adjustments to focus on it. But when the eye sees a painted object, those muscles need not make a depth-of-field adjustment, since the picture plane is two-dimensional. Here, the illusion of depth is provided by perspective and shadowing.

Since the muscle adjustments are not as complicated as they are when viewing a three-dimensional scene, the depth of the painting is never really convincing. On the other hand, if the depth of the painting is extremely shallow, thereby minimizing the eye muscle activity, the illusion of reality is enhanced.

A trompe l'oeil painting can take many forms, from a simple still life, to an accurate perspective drawing, to a wall-sized mural. These types of realistic painting techniques have also been employed by masters such as Rembrandt and in the surrealist works of Salvador Dali.

In order to faithfully render an image, there are fundamental disciplines that should first be studied and mastered. Most basic of these are the sketching techniques and line drawing methods that are necessary to represent a range of compositional images from simple forms with shading to complex images such as a sheet of crumpled paper or folded cloth. More advanced sketches include the study of symmetrical and elliptical forms.

Works that require accurate reproductions in perspective require knowledge of drafting precise perspective lines to one or multiple vanishing points. This holds for all the objects in a composition and is especially true for city scenes and rural landscapes where prominent objects fade from the viewer's point of view.

These kinds of detailed drawings must, of course, be translated into painting techniques to produce faithful colors and rich shadows. In addition, areas of fine textural reproduction will benefit from those painting techniques that are used to faithfully represent textures such as stone, wood, forest foliage, etc. These techniques include the stippling of paint with sponges and rags, swirling marbleized patterns, and spattering pigment to create grain appearances.

A fundamental area of consideration for a realistic illustration is the support substrate. For detailed works, a masonite panel that is primed with acrylic gesso will supply a solid, smooth surface to work on. For areas of extreme detail, the gesso may be first sanded with a fine-grit sandpaper to ensure a completely flat surface. Areas of visual grain or texture may inversely have their gesso textures built up with a coarse brush to help provide realistic relief to the illustration.

One effective trick when creating a trompe l'oeil work is to draw the objects to be illustrated in one-to-one scale (actual size). Doing so will automatically assure the eye that is seeing an object in the scale to which it is accustomed. For example, a still life of photographs and newspaper clippings pinned to a wall will benefit from being the exact size as the originals, right down to the fine-printed (and readable) font of the newspaper article--not an easy feat. Illustrations of glossy photographs will appear more realistic if they have a few coats of clear wash to help reproduce a translucent, glossy sheen.

To help draft these images, a good assortment of drawing materials, such as drafting and charcoal pencils, a compass, architect's rule, and triangles will help produce fine lines that are accurate and detailed. A spray fixative will help keep lines stationary and prevent smearing. For accurate image transfer, tracing or projecting will help reproduce exact images.

Choice of medium is up to the artist, but a few special items should be considered for this type of work. Since the detailed images of a standard-sized trompe l'oeil painting must be sharp, an array of flat, round, and filbert brushes that range from the extremely small (for minute details) to standard sizes is required.

With this type of illustration, you truly paint what you see - which is much easier in concept than execution. Trompe l'oeil is an important painting method because it demands that proper drawing and drafting techniques and the strictest painting styles are followed.

New Book

In Trompe L'oeil, Creating Decorative Illusions with Paint, Roberta Gordon-Smith demonstrates how surprisingly easy it is for anyone to create these fantastic decorative effects. After learning the techniques of colorwashing, shading, simple free-hand painting and perspective drawing, artists will learn to capture the realistic, three-dimensional features of stonework, pediments, pillars, skies, flowers, fabric, and more. Eight trompe l'oeil projects with traceable motifs and complete instructions, as well as a gallery of work, are featured. North Light Books, 144pp.

  Airbrush

Inks, Dyes, and Liquefied Watercolors

Before the development of airbrush-specific colors in the 1980's, the airbrush artist would rely upon a group of pre-reduced colors--inks, dyes, and liquefied watercolors--for his airbrush media. Although this general category includes several different types of media, they are grouped together because of the ways in which they are used and the similarity of the end results.

There are three characteristics that they have in common:

• All come in a sprayable consistency. There is no need for further reduction, although you can do so to achieve certain effects.
• The colors are transparent except for black and white.
• The colorfastness of each is not as strong as pigmented paints.

 Inks, dyes and liquefied watercolors can be airbrushed on several different surfaces: paper, illustration board, clay-coated surfaces, and gesso, with paper and illustration board the most commonly used. A neutral pH paper or illustration board are highly recommended because they retain their whiteness over time and because inks, dyes and liquefied watercolors are worked in a transparent manner. In addition, the white of the paper is utilized for highlights and value changes.

There can be a difference between inks and liquefied watercolors and dyes, in that some inks are pigmented (such as India ink), while colored inks, liquefied watercolors, and dyes are non-pigment-based. These mediums can be affected by ultraviolet rays and, when exposed to direct sunlight, could fade dramatically over a short period of time. Illustrators use these materials because they are quick to work with, the colors reproduce very well, and longevity is not a consideration.

In airbrush technique, the softness of the spray is extremely important, and the artist can achieve no softer spray than with inks, dyes, and liquefied watercolors. Since pigment (which can clog the airbrush) is not a factor, the atomized spray of these mediums when used with an internal mix airbrush can only be described as delicate.

On paper surfaces, these materials hold up particularly well during frisketing procedures, will adhere to acetates and mylar, and are highly recommended for animation and photo-retouching. To correct mistakes and achieve special effects, they work well with bleaching techniques.

So, despite the proliferation of airbrush paints, don't forget to consider inks, dyes, and liquefied watercolors.

House Airbrushed

Your house can be your canvas as well as your castle (as the saying goes). Michael Haury of St. Ann, Missouri, was recognized by Home magazine as their April Reader of the Month for creating a faux log cabin out of his white aluminum-sided house. Haury began by rolling on acrylic paint and then created the illusion of wood grain and knotholes with an airbrush--and it only took him two weeks. (Haury is experienced; he runs an airbrush paint business!)

ArtPourri

Members Inducted--Fourteen new members have been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Among the artists are Lois Dodd, Cleve Gray, Richard Hunt, Brice Marden, Louisa Matthiasdottir, and Joel Shapiro. A gold medal was awarded to artist Frank Stella; and an award for Distinguished Service to the Arts went to Agnes Gund, President of the Museum of Modern Art.

Memorial Gets Green Light--The Commission of Fine Arts has approved a scaled-back version for a WWII memorial at the central crossroads of the Washington Mall. After design refinements, work will commence.

Gifts Presented--A trustee of the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan has presented nine paintings to the museum. Works by Willem deKooning, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Philip Guston and James Rosenquist may be viewed for a short time in the third floor galleries of contemporary painting and sculpture.

Masterpieces Stolen--Italy was shaken recently by the theft of its only two van Goghs and a Cezanne. Considered priceless, it is theorized that the paintings were stolen for some type of "ransom," based on a telephone call to an Italian news agency.

High Tech Exhibit Scheduled--Forty participating artists will be featured in a keynote invitational exhibit at the Santa Clara County Fair in San Jose, CA, from July 31 to August 9. Curated by Barbara Allie, "The Art of Digital Technology 1998" will reflect a 21st century vision of how technology is influencing the fields of art and education. Demos will be available by artists. (408) 494-3134.

Festival Scheduled--This year marks the 10th anniversary of the National Black Arts Festival to be held in Atlanta, GA, from July 10-19. It will showcase the work of more than 1,500 artists in various disciplines including visual arts and folk art with the theme "Art Beyond Borders." More than 450 programs will be staged at over 20 venues. Call (888) TEN-NBAF.

Boston Exhibits--The Museum of Fine Arts will show "New Paintings by David Hockney" through July 31. Included are six British landscapes and two studies of the Grand Canyon.

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Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 8 No. 9 -- July 1998