Ramon Casas i Carbo: 1866-1932

Ramon Casas i Carbo was an artist from Barcelona. He was an incredible draftsman drawing portraiture of the rich and famous. The last image of the bunch is a self-portrait. He stares at the viewer delicately, with a pipe in his lips. Every figure shares this sense of confidence without overpowering the viewer. His technique is soft and subtle within features of the figure, and every line is laid upon the drawing surface in confidence. He is a master of depiction, using just enough white to highlight the most important reflective elements of the body, allowing the portraits to exist beyond the two-dimensional surface. However, the most impressive quality of his drawings is the energy and quickness many of the lines depict. They dance around the drawing surface circling the busts of the figures. 

David Jon Kassan: A Modern Master

David Jon Kassan has the incredible ability to capture not only the physical likeness of an individual, but the energy and emotion emitting from within them. Through careful observation and knowledge of the physical body, Kassan is able to share a story with the figures he creates, allowing them to physically breath on his painting surface. His figures are often placed against more abstract backgrounds that mimic degrading street signs and walls of the bustling city. However, his paintings depict a slowness in time, of careful and meaningful observation, and questions of identity and thought. Kassan is a true master of our time and is someone I personally seek after in further understanding how to view the figure and interpret their subtleties. He currently released a portrait painting instructional DVD called, "Painting a Life", and although I have only had the chance of watching a fraction of the seven hours of content, it is wonderfully educational and informative. It is a chance to peer into the thought process of the layering of his portrait to develop a living and breathing character. 

http://paintdvd.davidkassan.com/

http://www.davidkassan.com/

Julia Margaret Cameron: 1815-1879

Julia Margaret Cameron began her photography career late in her life at the age of 48 when she was given a camera as a gift from her daughter. After this, she became engulfed in this labour intensive practice of capturing the world around her for all its beauty. Her love was the portrait; the soft focus and closely framed face became something she was noted for. The relationships that her subjects take with the viewer is quite strong and striking. They interact with those who peer into their eyes, penetrating the photographic surface and being able to see into the actual person. Her portraits appear sculptural, the figures frozen in time, with the cool surface and colours of the wet plate. Harsh shadows create dramatic both harsh and soft features. In the photograph at the bottom of the list, the gentleman (Sir Henry Taylor) grasps his neck with his hand. His hand almost disappears within his beard and hair allowing the first focus to be upon his gaze, and then followed by the eye traveling down his nose, mouth until you reach his hand. His hand does not appear constricting nor does it feel comfortable and relaxed. It exists in this uncomfortable grasp, not quite a hand of "the thinker" with a chin gently resting upon it. 

Her work was at first an excellent tool to use to practice the drawing of portraiture for my own work. After more skills were obtained her work became a source of inspiration for the energy and softness her work depicts. 

Stepan Fedorovich Kolesnikov: 1879-1955

Stepan Fedorovich Kolesnikov was an Ukrainian artist studying under Ilya Repin. Many of his works depict the desolate landscape, free from human interaction or animal life. These landscapes however, are full of life, movement, emotion and energy. The trunks and branches of trees twist and sway, conveying a sense of emotional responses to the viewer. Even without their leaves, when life is lost to the cold, the trees live and stand tall, confident and full of individuality. When human and animal life are introduced within the composition, a relationship is formed and a narrative established. The landscape itself does not take on a secondary roll, nor do the individuals added. He gives them both a sense of equality and respect in his attempts to depict them in paint. The figures live in unison within the landscape and are humbled at its immensity and subtleties. The most incredible aspect of his works in my opinion (particularly the snow scenes) is how he captures shadows. The life and energy of the tree branches and trunks is projected onto the snow covered ground. The cool blues decorate the still snow as a delicate lace, extending the viewers eye into the distance as the mesh of blue veins combine into a whole. Finally, the brush strokes he uses are confident and purposeful but loose and broad. The interplay of colour creates incredible atmospheric affect. The most notable would be the lady in red with a basket against a wall. Here, the warm red tones of her clothing, ground and wall and subjected to a cool evening sky while the last light flickers in and dances upon the wall. 

James Abbott McNeill Whistler: 1834-1903

Many of Whistler's paintings were titled with the names of "Harmony", "Arrangements", and "Nocturnes" linking his artistic practice to the ideals of music. Particularly, what I enjoy about a title such as "Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1" (the portrait of Whistler's mother) is its call to the two dimensionality of the medium itself. The title calls into attention the illusion that the black and grey arranged in such a manner create the portrait of his mother. The title seems to abstract the painting into colour shapes placed in a harmonious composition. His choice of titles lends to his philosophy of "art for art's sake". The colours and interplay of line work within his etchings creates a sense of harmony and uniformity amongst his pieces. My eye feels at ease to dance around his image, from colour shape to colour shape, line to line, never offended or caught off guard at a jarring colour that interrupts his creations. The softness of his atmospheric elements are soothing. In his painting "Symphony in White, No 1." (the white girl), the dress and background get lost within each other. Her hair frames her face as the focal point, allowing your eye to then travel down vast whiteness towards the wolf skin rug she stands upon and the wolf face and dropped flowers that capture your attention in the bottom of the composition. The model herself was Whistler's mistress and with that comes associations of innocence lost with the flowers dropped upon the floor and the masculinity of the wolf's skin she stands upon. The symphony in white series continued in other pieces Whistler created. Overall, it is the atmospheric muted tones Whistler establishes that pleases my eye and allows me to travel around the pieces locating lost and found edges. 

Anders Zorn (1860-1920) : A Master of Flesh

Anders Zorn depicts such beautiful fleshy figures in both his etchings and oil paintings. His etchings, in comparison to his paintings, add a great sense of dramatic lighting with the use of darks and a wonderful understanding of line in establishing forms. Particularly, the etching of the nude figure entering the water displays his vast understanding of line and light. The figure appears soft, under the lighting of the sun without harsh shadows in comparison to the dark water with light dancing off of it in the ripples she creates. In his paintings, Zorn is able to establish such wonderfully believable figures. The muscle and fat beneath their skins takes such a presence. Through his limited palette (Titanium white, ivory black, vermillion (cadmium red), and yellow ochre), the colours appear very balanced playing between warm and cool. In some paintings there is the introduction of blues and greens much more vibrant than those that can be produced in his limited palette. In this case he often introduced cerulean blue and viridian. His understanding of form and light is impeccable as well as his interplay between soft and hard edges. He is truly a master of his craft and an artist often sought after in learning technique and application of paint. I have recently ventured into attempting his limited palette and was quite pleased with the outcome. I'd suggest making a colour chart if anyone else would like to dabble into Zorn's genius. I found that the limited colours pushed towards a more unified palette and a greater understanding of the cool vs. warm colours within the painting. The ivory black is a quite cool colour and the cadmium red is very warm. The earthy yellow ochre is a wonderful addition to draw the warmth out of the red or add to the black in order to produce dark shades of green. (The link I used to create my colour chart  as well as get the palette information for the blog post is this... http://michaellynnadams.com/zorn-palette/) 

Happy painting if you choose to explore!