Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence was born in 1917. His parents had just moved from the south to the north in a huge African-American migration that was going on at the time. The families who picked up their belongings and journeyed across the U.S. were looking for better lives. It was difficult for African-Americans to find work in the south and Lawrence’s parents hoped it would be different in the north.

The family moved around a lot and finally settled in Harlem, New York. Lawrence’s father left the young family so Lawrence lived in the apartment with his mother, brother, and sister. In Harlem, the family lived in a tall apartment building surrounded by other tall apartment buildings. Their neighbors were all African-Americans.

Lawrence did not do well in school. He was bored and frustrated that he only learned about white heroes. His mother signed him up for an after school program and the things he learned there changed his life.

At the after school program, Lawrence began to draw, color, and paint. By experimenting, Lawrence taught himself to paint. He also learned about some important black heroes, including Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas.

Lawrence’s family never had enough money and Lawrence had to drop out of school to get a job. When he was working he didn’t have time to paint but he longed to create.

When he was 21, Lawrence worked on the Easel Program which paid him to paint. During this time he began painting series. He wanted his paintings to tell a story. He painted a series which told the story of Harriet Tubman. He painted another that told Frederick Douglas’ story. He also painted a series about the African-American migration which his parents took part in. Click here to see some of the panels from the migration series. Lawrence’s series brought him fame. Suddenly painting paid the bills and more.

Lawrence created paintings about everything he saw. He served in the Navy during World War II and painted images of daily life. When he checked himself into a mental institution he painted pictures of other patients.

In his old age, Lawrence moved to Seattle and taught art classes. When he wasn’t teaching he loved to paint pictures of the workers construction buildings. He stayed in Seattle until he died in 2000.

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Adolf Wolfli

Yesterday I told you about art brut. Today, read about one important art brut artist, Adolf Wolfli.
Adolf Wolfli had a rough childhood. He was an orphan and very poor. He was not always treated well by the adults who passed through his life.

When he was 31, in 1895, Wolfli was admitted to the Waldau clinic near Bern, Switzerland. He remained there for the rest of his life.
Wolfli began to draw and soon the activity took up most of his time. He would wear a pencil down to nothing in only a week and he had to collect used packing paper on which to create his drawings. He never had enough materials.

Wolfli created tons of artwork. Between 1908 and 1930 he wrote his life story as he wished it to be. He illustrated it with images that often included music (see below). The 45 books that made up the story totaled 25,000 pages!
As you can see in the pictures shown here, Wolfli’s drawings were very ordered. They often had borders and connecting circles or ovals, and they usually contained geometric shapes and music notes. Wolfli began his drawings at the edge of the paper and worked his way inward. The drawings aren’t symmetrical but upon first glance may appear to be. Notice the faces that appear in all the drawings shown here.
In 1921 Dr. Walter Morganthaler wrote a book about Wolfli and his art. It was the first major book about a mentally ill artist and it increased Wolfli’s growing fame. Visitors began to show up at the hospital to meet the artist. They bought his drawings and some brought him supplies so he could continue drawing.

Wolfli drew steadily until he died in 1930.

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Sandro Botticelli

Born in 1445, Sandro Botticelli was an important painter during the Italian Renaissance. He was first apprenticed to a goldsmith but, when it became clear that Botticelli preferred painting, he became the apprentice of Fra Filippo Lippi. Lippi was a master in his time and he taught Botticelli a lot.

From Lippi, Botticelli learned to paint on wood panel and on fresco. He also learned how to paint perspective (look at the Story of Nastagio degli Onesti) and how to paint flowing clothing. Botticelli even used pale colors similar to those used by Lippi.
By 1470, Botticelli was a master in his own right. People happily paid him to paint masterpieces for them or their churches. He even painted some panels for the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo outshone him there, though, as you’ll remember from an earlier post.

Botticelli is known for the dreamy look of the people (and gods, goddess, and angels) in his paintings. What I really love about Botticelli is the way he painted faces. Each face is different but full of life and beautiful in its own way. Look at Portrait of a Young Woman. The look at Madonna and Child with Angel (below). I can’t stop looking at the Madonna's face.

Botticelli painted a lot of religious figures and scenes. One example is the painting shown above. Also, look at the Adoration of the Magi below. You see Mary presenting the baby Jesus to the Magi (the three wise men). That man in the brown robe on the right hand side is believed to be Botticelli.
He also painted many mythological scenes. Look at the Birth of Venus (below). Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty. She was believed to have been born from the sea. By placing her on a seashell, Botticelli shows this in his painting.
Botticelli did not paint as much in his old age and after he died in 1510 he was mostly forgotten. His paintings were not moved from the churches or homes where they were originally placed until much later. He didn’t become popular again until the end of the 1800s but as soon as his paintings were brought to the attention of the public people couldn’t get enough.

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Winslow Homer

Born in 1836 in Boston, Mass., Winslow Homer became an important American painter. He began his career painting illustrations for magazines such as Harper’s Weekly. During the Civil War, Harper’s Weekly sent Homer to sketch battle scenes and capture artistically the daily lives of soldiers. When we returned to his studio he continued creating war-related scenes.

During the early part of his career as a painter, Homer mainly painted images of rural life. He began working in oil paint and focused on painting things exactly as they appeared: he was a realist. He lived in Paris France for a year among the Impressionists but was not directly influenced.
In 1873 Homer began to use watercolors. He fell in love with watercolor and after this time rarely left home without watercolor paints and paper. His loose style influenced many painters after him including N.C. Wyeth and Edward Hopper. (I’ll post on these artists at a later date.)

When Homer began traveling in 1875, he found that he loved the sea. He spent much of the rest of his life painting seascapes. It is his seascapes that are the most popular and famous of Homer’s works.
Tomorrow I’ll post a book review on a book featuring Winslow Homer.

(The paintings shown from top to bottom are The Adirondack Guide; Long Branch, New Jersey; Waiting for an Answer; The Gulf Stream)

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My NaNoWriMo Word Count:

11450 / 50000 words. 23% done!

Book Recommendation: The Young Artist by Thomas Locker

Thomas Locker’s picture book, The Young Artist, tells the story of Adrian who becomes an artist through apprenticeship. Adrian’s story is different than that of the typical apprentice because he is the artist’s only apprentice. Also, this artist’s main goal is to teach Adrian, not to make money for himself.

Still, Adrian struggles with many of the issues an artist of the past would have had to deal with. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about how an artist would have lived in an age without art schools. Find out how Adrian is able to create the art he wants and still earn enough money to live.

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Sculpture Spotlight: Niki de Saint Phalle

Niki de Saint Phalle, born in Paris in 1930, became famous for her enormous and colorful sculptures. Most of these sculptures are of women, and are called Nanas, but she did sculpt other subjects, as you can see here. These are picture of Stravinsky Fountain in Paris, France.

De Saint Phalle created her first Nana in 1965 out of papier mache. Later, she began using plaster because it was sturdier and allowed her to make sculptures so huge that people could walk through them. The Grotto in Hannover, Germany and the Tarot Garden in Tuscany, Italy are two of these sites.

After building a sculpture, she painted or applied mosaic in wild patterns and bright colors. If you ever get a chance to visit one of de Saint Phalle’s sculpture gardens you will have a great time. They are like playgrounds made out of beautiful sculpture.

You’ll also notice that there are a lot of fountains and metal sculptures in de Saint Phalle’s gardens. These were created by her husband, Jean Tinguely. I like the contrast between the dark, cold, metal sculptures by Tinguely and the rounded, happy, colorful sculptures by de Saint Phalle. What do you think?

For more information about Niki de Saint Phalle, click to visit her official website.

Check back tomorrow to learn how to make your own papier mache sculpture!

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Artist Profile: Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, called Michelangelo, was an artist during the Renaissance. He was born in Italy in 1475. He was brilliant and talented in many ways; he could paint, sculpt, design buildings, and write poetry. He is best known for his sculptures and frescos (paintings on wet plaster).

When Michelangelo was a child, his mother became ill and couldn’t care for him, so he was sent to live with a stonecutter and his wife. Michelangelo joked that this is where he learned to love cutting stone into sculpture.

Michelangelo spent years studying the human body. He even looked at dead bodies so he could learn the way the muscles and bones were attached and how arms and legs moved. He drew sketches of people in various positions, concentrating on getting the muscles just right. Many of these sketches still exist so we can see how Michelangelo prepared to create his masterpieces.

Michelangelo was very religious and many of his masterpieces show religious scenes or people from the bible. One of his most famous sculptures was David, the biblical hero who defeated Goliath. The sculpture was originally meant to stand in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. Today, a copy of Michelangelo’s work stands in this place (shown on the left). David is the statue on the left side of the door. The original (on the right side of the page) is in the Accademia, a Florence museum.

Michelangelo believed that there was a sculpture in every piece of stone. He tried to let the stone speak to him and become what it was meant to be. His job as the artist was to free the sculpture from the stone.

Among his most famous paintings is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in Italy. It is made up of many panels illustrating scenes from the bible which Michelangelo painted directly onto the ceiling. A picture of the ceiling is shown below. I’ll write a post on the Sistine Chapel ceiling later this week and talk about some of the scenes and how Michelangelo painted this masterpiece.

When Michelangelo died in 1564, he had become one of the most known and admired artists of his time. He was even called “Il Divino” which means “the divine one.”

EDITED TO ADD: Check out my post on Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel

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Jackson Pollock and Lavender Mist

Jackson Pollock was an American painter, born in 1912, who became famous for his enormous drip paintings. He painted in a tool shed where he could lay his canvas on the floor, and drip and splatter paint across it without worrying about ruining the walls or floor.

Rather than paint a landscape or a portrait, Pollock wanted to paint action. When you look at one of his drip paintings, your eye wanders across the entire canvas in constant motion. In this way, Pollock achieved his goal; the creation of the painting was active and so is the viewing of the painting.

Lavender Mist, painted in 1950, is one example of Pollock’s drip paintings. Pollock unrolled nearly 10 feet of canvas, chose his colors, and began to drip, splash, and swirl paint onto it. He didn’t buy his oil paint in tubes the way most artists do. Instead, he used gallons of house paint to cover the canvas. In the corner he left his handprints as a signature, just like the cave painters did. What’s really cool about this painting is that Pollock didn’t use any lavender paint. The colors he chose blend together in your eye to make you think that you see lavender.

Click here to look at Lavender Mist at the National Gallery of Art website. Use the red arrows at the top of the page to see close-ups of parts of the painting, including the handprint in the upper right corner. Keep clicking to see pictures of Jackson Pollock painting in his shed.

Then click here make your own drip painting online. Right click to change colors.

Check back tomorrow for a Jackson Pollock project!

EDITED TO ADD: Create Your Own Edible Pollock Painting

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