Fictional Biographies of Artists

Here's the second list of some of my favorite art books, this time of the fictional biography/historical novel variety. Once again, in no particular order are some books I really enjoyed reading and that I think you will as well, especially if you like a little drama with your art.

Lust For Life: A Biographical Novel of Vincent van Gogh by Irving Stone
Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland (Pierre Auguste Renoir)
The Passion of Artemesia by Susan Vreeland (Artemesia Gentileschi)
The Painted Kiss by Elizabeth Hickey (Gustav Klimt)
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (Johannes Vermeer)
The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo by Irving Stone
Johanna: A Novel of the van Gogh Family by Claire Cooperstein
Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham (loosely based on Paul Gauguin)

Monet and the Trains

I just read a story about Monet and the series of paintings he did of the Gare St.-Lazare in 1877. I'm not crazy about a lot of Monet's work, but these paintings really thrill me with their enormous vaulted ceilings and steam from the engines clouding so much of the details at platform level. They're simply fabulous, every one of them.

It was Renoir who told the story of Monet, always self-assured and certain of his destiny as a world-renowned painter even when he was a nobody, who managed to secure permission to paint these amazing canvases. He showed up at the station in his best clothes and asked to meet with the director of the Western Railway, saying that he was Monet, a very important painter. The head man, embarrassed to have it thought he was an idiot for not knowing who Monet was, ushered him in to his office and asked what he could do for him. Monet then proceeded to tell the director that he wanted to paint his station, having at first been unable to decide between St. Lazare and the Gare du Nord, but as his station had far more character, it was the one Monet had chosen. He then said he needed the trains to be held for half an hour while he worked. Amazingly, all was granted and he left the station amid regal bows to him and promises that they would do whatever he needed when he came to paint.

Sure enough, when he arrived at the appointed time, the trains were stopped and extra coal was shoveled into the engines constantly to keep the steam swirling. While he worked, everyone catered to his every need and he left with several canvases of this incredible scene.

Renoir finished the story by saying that he was in awe of Monet as he would never have even had the courage to ask his local grocer if he could paint his storefront from the sidewalk, let alone shut down an entire train station.

I love this story for several reasons. First, because I love these paintings and now I know the incredible chutzpah that went into their creation. I love a compelling backstory when it comes to amazing art. Second, because I too would feel like Renoir did, as I could never be so bold as Monet when painting in a public place (which can be unnerving at times even when you're just quietly doing your thing off in a corner). And third, because it shows the importance of believing in oneself and one's art. Despite what anyone else thinks, we must remain true to ourselves and do what we need to do to fulfill our creative urge, however daunting it might be.

Encaustics IV

Last year I posted a few photos of some encaustics I did for a solo show and this is another one from that series. I don't usually post actual artwork here, only sketches and art journal pages, but occasionally I make an exception to my own rule. Today I felt like breaking the rules.

Pastel Self Portrait (Again)

I've done a little bit more work on this piece since it was last seen here. I actually would have done more in the way of completing it, but when I finally sat down with a fairly sizable block of time to work on it, I realized that I have very few flesh tone pastels as I seldom do portraits in this medium. Since I can't really make my face just pale yellow and a sort-of flesh-toney pink (well, I could actually if I wished to go that route, but I don't), I was forced to stop working after one quick undercoat. I fiddled with the background a bit, but otherwise it's been shelved till I get to the store and pick up a selection of portrait shades of pastels, preferably in my actual flesh tones.

Non-fiction Artist Biographies

Being the list-loving girl I am, I thought it might be interesting to compile a list of my favorite art books. And then I thought, even better still, I'd split it into two lists: one for non-fiction and one for fiction. It was harder than I thought to narrow both lists down to a manageable number of good books, so if I'm so inclined, the continuation of these book lists may appear at a future date. In fact, I could start a third list about what I consider to be the best technical books. Or even my favorite anthologies of artists' works. Maybe eventually I'll cover them all. After all, I could read nothing but art books of one genre or another every day for the rest of my life, so the lists could, in theory, go on forever and ever.

Here, in no particular order, is my winnowed down first list of some great non-fiction, biographical books on a wide range of artists. I highly recommend them all.

Jackson Pollock: An American Saga by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith
Diane Arbus: A Biography by Patricia Bosworth
Leonardo: Discovering the Life of Leonardo da Vinci by Serge Bramly
Renoir, My Father by Jean Renoir
Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography by Gail Levin
The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles by Martin Gayford
Chagall: A Biography by Jackie Wullschlager
Off The Wall: A Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg by Calvin Tomkins
Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X by Deborah Davis
Impressionist Quartet: The Intimate Genius of Manet and Morisot, Degas and Cassatt by Jeffrey Meyers

Little Head Study of Bram

This is a just slightly larger than life-sized sketch of Bram's head. I love the way he posed for the original photograph (I may actually end up with two dogs who will sit beautifully and take direction when I shoot them!), but I must admit that his eyes were a challenge to draw as they reflected absolutely no light whatsoever in the shot. I redid them a hundred times and I'm still not happy with his left one, but it is what it is. Time to move on.

Little Head Study of Bram, graphite on paper, 2009

Calendar Collage: Bears

Every year I ask for a small calendar for my Christmas stocking and every year some nice Family Santa Person (Griffin) gives me one and then it's put to very good use for the next twelve months. I always choose the 8" square size as I'm not a big fan of the serious, stuffy business-y books and the wall size ones are really too big for me to carry around even though I could more than fill up the space in each day's allotted block. Besides, these little ones have themes I'm drawn to: hummingbirds, French Impressionists, Edward Gorey stories etc, and the photos on each page are vividly printed. Being a super anal list maker extraordinaire, I tend to hang on to my calendars even after the year is over as I'm of the belief that I never know when I might need to go back and retrieve a tidbit of information that was jotted in a calendar from a previous year. That and I like to keep the artwork from some of them.

This year's calendar for 2009 is an Edward Gorey calendar complete with a delightfully twisted tale of a little girl who meets a rather grisly end (the typical Gorey story) and while I was recently making note of some appointments and whatnots that needed to be entered on their respective dates, I thought to myself that this size is perfect for quickly executed tiny collages. And, the fact that there's still seven months left to this year means that there's loads of time to fill my current one up with googly art as the year grinds on. Just so long as I keep the collages a month or so back from current time, I can still see what's on- or what was on- the agenda when needed. And I haven't done any collages in ages and ages, which are a nice non-hard work break from the usual workload.

This is the first one I did in my current calendar to kick off this new idea of mine. Fast, fun and an easy way to recycle a book for art purposes, even while it's still being useful in a traditional way.

Pastel Self Portrait

The very early stages of a large pastel self portrait. This one has an incredibly long way to go before it begins to even remotely look like something decent art-wise. I haven't had much free time to devote to it, what with juggling several paintings and another enormous pastel, and so this poor piece sits completely ignored for days and days on end, then I give it some attention for a scant few minutes and then it's cast aside once again for works that are much more interesting to me.

New French Easel

I'm so excited because the french style plein air easel I ordered last week arrived this morning. I desperately needed a new easel and while it was suggested I wait until my birthday as maybe the birthday elves would bring me one, I simply couldn't wait until then. Besides, my birthday is in August and the entire painting-on-site-from-life season will be virtually over by then.

I did a quick set up of it when I first took it out of the box, threw a work in progress on it to see how it felt to have an actual canvas on it, snapped a few quick pics of it, and then transformed it back into its fairly compact shape for easy carrying.

I'm quite pleased with it. The wood is lovely, it's very sturdy, it holds at its most open an enormous canvas for such a small travel easel, the two drawers are all metal lined and waterproof, it comes with a palette that fits nicely inside one of those drawers and most importantly of all, it makes me want to go outdoors right now and paint my ass off.

I can't wait to get out there with it.

8" x 6" Self Portrait

Small Self Portrait with Scarf, graphite on paper, 2009